"Wonderful tales of conscientious consumption"
-- The Times



   Meet William Stern, the property magnate who became the world's largest personal bankrupt; Jim Slater, who coined the phrase "minus millionaire"; the disagreeable Frenchman who bragged "I will never make a serious financial mistake" - and did; the eccentric Schlumpf brothers, whose £60 million collection of antique automobiles became the object of a government plot; Eli Pinkas, the ever aloof Swiss businessman who defrauded eighteen banks of $300-$800 million; and "Champagne" Norah Docker, who spent her way through three husbands, three fortunes, yachts, jewels, furs and even a gold-plated Daimler.

    An extraordinary cast of flamboyant wheeler-dealers and eccentrics whose stories are a fascinating kaleidoscope of generosity and greed, fraud and failure, determined blindness and blind determination.



"The great crashes, both corporate and personal, are all documented here."

-- The Independent



"A cocktail of images... a real-life 'Dallas' or 'Falcon Crest'"
-- Irish Times