In May, I read A Short History of Financial Euphoria, which described famous financial bubbles from the 1600s’ tulip mania to the 1980s’ junk-bond frenzy and savings-and-loan crisis. One of the companies mentioned was Investors Overseas Services (IOS), a multibillion-dollar fund of funds built in the 1960s by Bernie Cornfeld. I’ve read about IOS and Cornfeld in other books and was always curious, so I read a biography about Cornfeld, The Bernie Cornfeld Story, written by an early IOS employee.

The biography provides an insider’s perspective on Cornfeld’s life, his personality, and how he built IOS. It details what allowed Cornfeld to rise from social worker in the United States to international financier in Switzerland, as well as his battles with the SEC and how his empire crumbled after IOS’s IPO in 1969.

Cornfeld’s story was pretty wild. It’s interesting to learn how he and IOS rode the bull market of the 1950s and 1960s to insane heights but then were crushed when the market began to reverse in the early 1970s.

I still want to learn more about Cornfeld and will look for more books on him and his associates.