SHORT-LISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR

The term Libor is obscure, but it determines a good deal of our financial lives-the interest rate on our credit card; our student loans; our mortgages; our car payments. How did a math genius, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system conspire to pickpocket you? They were in your wallet to already.

In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world’s largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor–the London interbank offered rate, which determines interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide–was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries.

Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a shadowy team that used hook and crook to take over the process and set rates that made them a fortune, no matter the cost to others. Among the motley crew was a French trader nicknamed Gollum ; the broker Abbo, who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a Kazakh chicken farmer turned something short of financial whiz kid; an executive called Clumpy because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed Big Nose. Eventually known as the Spider Network, Hayes’s circle generated untold riches –until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.

Praised as reading like a fast-paced John le Carre thriller (New York Times), compelling (Washington Post) and jaw-dropping (Financial Times), The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but a provocative examination of a financial system that was warped and shady throughout.