Book Review: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer

The public was ready for someone to cover the holes they believed had been left wide open by the Securities Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and executive boards nationwide. And Spitzer was more than eager to fill this role.

Masters makes Spitzer's feats understandable to those without Wall Street expertise. She breaks down the anatomy of the scandals that put Spitzer on front pages around the country, providing an intelligent examination of the years leading up to and following the dot-com bubble.

Masters is also evenhanded in her explanation. For instance, she sheds light on the world of bid rigging and takes space to include industry arguments that the practice did little to affect corporate insurance premiums.

Of interest, and perhaps relief, to Wall Street is the fact that Masters writes about the recent financial past, marked by failure and greed, without vilifying all of corporate America. Indeed, the world she recounts was also full of men and women who believed in the power of corporations, finance and the stock market to help retail investors build prosperity. These are the people who fed tips to Spitzer's office, allowing him to seize on cases of corporate malfeasance and bring them to light.

In fact, Masters' pictures of Spitzer and of Big Business share many similarities. Both are extremely powerful. Both are adept at waging wars in the press. Both are used to getting their way. And both have tried, with varying degrees of success, to bully, cajole and mow down federal regulators.