We think of the world of finance as dark suits and stuffy attitudes, but it has a few wild characters. One of them is Bill Gross, the so-called Bond King and eccentric founder of an investment management firm called Pimco.
Mary Childs, the host of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, went deep into the self-obsessed, male-dominated bond market to profile the founder of that quirky operation. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, far from the financial hub of New York City, Pimco’s West Coast location was a selling point to potential employees. But it was also an isolating environment that created an atmosphere of intense obsession and competition.
It wasn’t great for the employees, but it makes for an interesting story! Years of research and hundreds of interviews went into Childs’s bestseller about Gross’s rise and fall. Check out our Instaread on The Bond King.
