RESCHEDULED: Centennial Speaker Series: Mary Childs on The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All

Join us for a lunchtime talk with the host of NPR’s Planet Money as she uncovers the deeply investigated story of how one visionary, dogged investor changed American finance forever. Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Las Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. Countless casino bans and $10,000 later, he was hooked: So he enrolled in business school.

The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino. Over the course of decades, Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today’s most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession—to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers and enemies along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing.

To understand the winners and losers of today’s money game, journalist Mary Childs argues, is to understand the bond market—and to understand the bond market is to understand the Bond King.

Agenda
12 p.m.: Welcome Remarks: Sris Chatterjee, chair, Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis

12:03 p.m.: Speaker Introductions: David Cowen, president and CEO, Museum of American Finance

12:08: p.m.: Presentation: Mary Childs

12:45 p.m.: Audience Q&A

1 p.m.: Closing Remarks: David Cowen

About the Speaker
Mary Childs is a co-host and correspondent for NPR’s Planet Money podcast. Previously, she was a reporter at Barron’s magazine, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg News. She graduated from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, with a degree in business journalism.

Copies of The Bond King will be raffled off to attendees.

This event is co-sponsored with the CFA Society New York, the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis, and the Museum of American Finance.