Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, a Long Short (And Now Complete) Story, Updated With New David Einhorn (best classic books of all time .TXT) 📖

made the speech, did you anticipate that your position on Allied would become so public, or was it your thought that you would give this speech, say what you thought about the company, and then that would sort of be it, and what would happen to the stock would happen to the stock?”

David Einhorn: “If what you’re asking is did I feel that the reaction was much, much greater than I would have anticipated? The answer is yes.”

Open and consistent accounting starts with an attitude of zero tolerance for improprieties. People need to see that people are rewarded for candor in reporting and punished for slipshod practices. The CEO really has to set the moral tone. Without that, nothing happens.

There’s enormous pressure on public companies to maintain quarterly earnings momentum, and it’s probably growing worse. The bigger thing that firms get punished for are surprises, particularly negative ones. It’s better to face up to bad facts and reporting the business as it is, rather than trying to hide things and make it far worse later on.

If you develop a reputation for candor with securities analysts and investors, that’s about the best you can do. At the end of the day, investors understand that building a business is not an uninterrupted, smooth road. First, you have to determine whether it’s a systematic problem or a people problem. If there’s a dishonest person involved, you get rid of the person.

—Bill Walton, CEO of Allied Capital, 1999

Allied Capital Stock Price 2002-2005

 

Allied Capital Stock Price 2006-2010

 

Who’s Who

GREENLIGHT & ADVISERS

Steve Bruce Outside PR adviser for Greenlight

Jock Ferguson An investigator with Kroll

Bruce Gutkin Greenlight head trader

Bruce Hiler Outside lawyer for Greenlight

Alexandra Jennings Greenlight analyst

Jeff Keswin Greenlight co-founder

James Lin Greenlight analyst

Daniel Roitman Greenlight COO

Ed Rowley Outside PR adviser for Greenlight

Richard Zabel Outside lawyer for Greenlight

ALLIED & ADVISERS

Steve Auerbach Former BLX workout specialist

Allison Beane Member of Allied’s Investor Relations department

Lanny Davis Outside PR adviser for Allied

Seth Faison Outside PR adviser for Allied at Sitrick and Co.

David Gladstone CEO of Gladstone Capital and former CEO of Allied

Patrick Harrington Former executive vice president of Allied and BLX

Robert D. Long Allied managing director

Dale Lynch Head of Allied’s Investor Relations department

Matthew McGee Head of the Richmond, Virginia, office of BLX

Bill McLucas Former SEC Enforcement Chief and Allied lawyer

Penni Roll Allied CFO

Marc Racicot Director of Allied, former governor of Montana and head of Republican National Committee

Deryl Schuster BLX executive

Suzanne Sparrow Former head of Allied’s Investor Relations department

Joan Sweeney Allied COO

Robert Tannenhauser BLX CEO

William Walton Allied CEO

George C. Williams Allied Capital founder and chairman emeritus

Tim Williams Former BLX workout specialist

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS & REGULATORS

Jonathan Barr Federal prosecutor

Amy Berne Department of Justice lawyer

Laura Bonander Department of Justice lawyer

Rene Booker Department of Justice lawyer

Mark Braswell SEC lawyer, Allied lobbyist

Kathleen L. Casey SEC Commissioner

Christopher Cox chairman of the SEC

William Donaldson Former chairman of the SEC

Gene A. Gohlke SEC Associate Director in the Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations

David R. Gray Counsel to OIG of the SBA and later to the OIG of the USDA

Glenn Harris SBA Office of Inspector General lawyer

Keith Hohimer Investigator, SBA’s Office of Inspector General

Senator John Kerry Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepeneurship

Kelly Kilroy SEC lawyer

Kevin Kupperbusch Investigator, SBA Office of Inspector General

Tedd Lindsey FBI agent

Steven Preston SBA administrator

Gerald Sachs Department of Justice lawyer

Doug Scheidt Associate director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management

Senator Olympia Snowe Ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepeneurship

Eliot Spitzer New York attorney general

Janet Tasker SBA associate administrator for Lender Oversight

Eric Thorson SBA inspector general

Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez Chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee

WALL STREET ANALYSTS

Mark Alpert Deutsche Bank analyst

Ken Bruce Merrill Lynch analyst

Henry Coffey Ferris Baker Watts analyst

Meghan Crowe Fitch analyst who covers BLX

Don Destino Bank of America and later JMP Securities analyst

Robert Dodd Morgan Keegan analyst

Faye Elliot Merrill Lynch analyst

Charles Gunther Farmhouse Securities analyst

Joel Houck Wachovia analyst

Michael Hughes Merrill Lynch analyst

Robert Lacoursiere Bank of America analyst

Greg Mason Stifel Nicolaus analyst

Robert Napoli Piper Jaffray analyst

John Stilmar Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst

David Trone Fox-Pitt, Kelton analyst, Lehman Brothers

JOURNALISTS

Jenny Anderson Reporter for The New York Times

David Armstrong Reporter for The Wall Street Journal

Julie Creswell Reporter for The New York Times

Kurt Eichenwald Reporter for The New York Times and author of Conspiracy of Fools

Jesse Eisinger Reporter for The Wall Street Journal

Herb Greenberg Columnist for TheStreet.com and CBS Marketwatch.com

Holman W. Jenkins Jr. Columnist for The Wall Street Journal

Jerry Knight Columnist for the Washington Post

Floyd Norris Columnist for The New York Times

Terrence O’Hara Reporter for the Washington Post

Steven Pearlstein Columnist for the Washington Post

Carol Remond Reporter for Dow Jones Newswire

Louise Story Reporter for the New York Times

Thor Valdmanis Reporter for USA Today

PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS

Bill Ackman Manager of Gotham Partners

David Berkowitz Manager of Gotham Partners

Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway CEO

Jim Carruthers Partner at Eastbourne Capital Management

Peter Collery Manager of Siegler, Collery

Dan Loeb Manager of Third Point Partners

Bill Miller Chief investment officer at Legg Mason Funds

Mark Roberts Founder of Off Wall Street

Larry Robbins Manager of Glenview Capital Management

Gary Siegler Manager of Siegler, Collery

Dr. Sam Stewart Founder of Wasatch Advisors

Whitney Tilson Manager of Tilson Capital Partners

ALLIED & BLX CUSTOMERS

Abdulla Al-Jufairi Loan broker on defaulted BLX SBA loans

Hussein Charour Defaulted on SBA loans made through BLX

Amer Farran Defaulted on SBA loans made through BLX

Mangu Patel Defaulted on SBA loans made through BLX

Holly Hawley Defaulted on SBA loans made through BLX

Todd Wichmann Former Redox Brands CEO

NONE OF THE ABOVE

Jim Brickman Retired real-estate developer

Patrick ByrneOverstock.com CEO

Erin Callan Lehman Brothers CFO

André Perold Professor at Harvard Business School

Introduction to This Edition

The publication of the hardcover edition of Fooling Some of the People All of the Time occurred even as the story was still developing. In the two years since, this “Long Short Story” is now also largely complete. Rather than modify the original material to adjust for subsequent developments, I have chosen to leave it in its original form, except for correcting a few typographical errors. Instead, I have added an “Epilogue” section, which is really the completion of the story. For readers