Good Guys and Bad Guys: Behind the Scenes with the Saints and Scoundrels of American Business (and Everything in Between) »

Joe Nocera is a business columnist for The New York Times, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, and a regular commentator on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. He spent ten years at Fortune as a writer, editor, and editorial director. He has won two Gerald Loeb awards and three John Hancock awards for excellence in business journalism and was a Pulitzer finalist in commentary. He is the author of A Piece of the Action.

A fascinating collection of profiles by one of America's leading business journalists

For three decades, in major publications such as Texas Monthly, Esquire, Fortune, and now The New York Times, Joe Nocera has reported on the people who dominate the business world, for better or worse. Everyone from Warren Buffett to T. Boone Pickens to George Steinbrenner to Ken Lay has fallen under his microscope.

Now, in this collection of his best work, he explores how we define good guys and bad guys in business and concludes that things are often not what they seem.

It turns out that there are surprisingly good qualities in classic villains like junk bond king Michael Milken and notorious stock analyst Henry Blodget. And some business celebrities who are widely admired, such as Steve Jobs, are not quite the good guys they appear to be on the surface.

Good Guys and Bad Guys also offers a fresh perspective on some of today's biggest controversies, such as global warming, Apple's iPhone, CEO compensation, the tobacco industry, short sellers, and much more.

Slate - Jack Shafer

Nocera demystifies the world of business with original thinking, brainy reporting, and the ability to see around corners. . . . Nocera knows that persuasion isn't about haranguing, that it's better to lead the reader toward your conclusion and depart gracefully rather than hammer him over the head with it.

Introduction 1

1 It's Time to Make a Deal: Texas Monthly, October 1982 7

2 Jobs Agonistes (Steve, That Is) 46

The Second Coming of Steve Jobs: Esquire, December 1986 49

Good Luck with That Broken iPod: The New York Times, February 4, 2006 65

Weighing Jobs' Role in a Scandal: The New York Times, April 28, 2007 68

3 The Ga-Ga Years: Esquire, February 1988 73

4 Michael Milken, Mitigated (Well, a Bit): GQ, December 1992 98

5 Charlie Merrill and His Stock: GQ, October 1994 107

6 Lawyers from Hell 125

Fatal Litigation: Fortune, October 16 and 30, 1995 127

The Lawyer Companies Love to Hate: The New York Times, July 2, 2006 157

7 How the Bancrofts Blew It 161

Disgruntled Heiress Leads Revolt at Dow Jones: Fortune, February 3, 1997 163

A Family's Benign Neglect at Dow Jones: The New York Times, August 4, 2007 175

8 Saint Warren of Omaha: Money, July 1998 179

9 The Rise and Fall of Henry Blodget 187

The Cheerleader: Money, June 1999 188

Led into Temptation? Who Wasn't?: The New York Times, September 3, 2005 191

10 The Smartest Guys in the Room 195

A Revenge Fantasy, Except It's Reality: The New York Times, January 28, 2006 196

Mr. Skilling, for the Defense: The New York Times, April 15, 2006 200

Fastow's Long Walk to Less Time: The New York Times, September 30, 2006 203

11 The Quantitative, Data-Based, Risk-Massaging Road to Riches: The New York Times Magazine, June 5, 2005 207

12 If It's Good for Philip Morris, Can It Also Be Good for Public Health?: The New York Times Magazine, June 18, 2006 224

13 The Cufflinks That Went to China 243

The Board Wore Chicken Suits:The New York Times, May 27, 2006 244

Overstock's Campaign of Menace: The New York Times, February 15, 2006 248

After Five Years, His Voice Can Still Crack: The New York Times, September 9, 2006 252

Give Me a Double Shot of Starbucks Nostalgia: The New York Times, March 3, 2007 255

Our Love-Hate Relationship with Wal-Mart: The New York Times, November 5, 2005 259

The Cufflinks That Went to China: The New York Times, January 21, 2006 262

14 Return of the Raider: Fortune, May 27, 2002 267

Acknowledgments 283

Index 287