Two Crises, Lasting Impact: How 1929 and 2008 Still Shape Finance With Andrew Ross Sorkin

Quick Overview

Andrew Ross Sorkin details his rigorous early morning television schedule, his unplanned journey into journalism fueled by an early entrepreneurial spirit and fascination with finance, and the extensive archival research required to write his book on the 1929 crash, revealing that key aspects of the Glass-Steagall Act originated from bankers trying to undermine competitors like J.P. Morgan.

Key Points: Andrew Ross Sorkin wakes around 4:25 or 4:30 AM for his 6 AM East Coast TV show and aims to be asleep by 9 or 9:30 PM, sometimes using melatonin to adjust his sleep schedule. Sorkin started his career covering the internet in 1995 after an editor at the New York Times mistook him for a college graduate; he was initially interested in business and entrepreneurship, having started a sports magazine at age 15. He founded DealBook by going straight to the inboxes of financial professionals because he felt the Times' coverage was being overlooked, growing the list from an estimated 30,000 target audience to over a million readers daily. Sorkin wrote "Too Big to Fail" after his wife told him the events of the 2008 financial crisis weekend, particularly Lehman's bankruptcy, felt "like a book," not just a movie. Research for his 1929 book involved finding granular details across dozens of archives, culminating in obtaining the previously unreleased New York Federal Reserve Board minutes, which acted as a "treasure map" for further investigation. John Raskob, the contemporary equivalent of Elon Musk, pioneered customer financing at GM in 1919, fundamentally changing American culture around credit, and also advocated for a five-day work week to boost consumerism. Carter Glass, often compared to Elizabeth Warren in his time, sponsored the Glass-Steagall bill, but Sorkin discovered that the specific separation of commercial and investment banking was physically written by a banker aiming to undermine J.P. Morgan, with Roosevelt's explicit help.

Context: The interview features John Harley hosting Andrew Ross Sorkin, co-host of CNBC's Squawk Box and founder of the New York Times' DealBook, on the Capitalism and Freedom podcast. The conversation centers on Sorkin's demanding professional schedule, his path into financial journalism, and the deep historical context and character-driven narratives he uncovered while writing books about the 1929 stock market collapse and the 2008 financial crisis, drawing parallels between the two eras.