Mayer, Martin 1928- (Martin Prager Mayer)

PERSONAL:

Born January 14, 1928, in New York, NY; son of Henry (a lawyer) and Ruby (a lawyer) Mayer; married Ellen Moers (a scholar-writer), June 23, 1949 (died, August, 1979); married Karin Lissakers, October 25, 1980; children: (first marriage) Thomas, James, (second marriage) Fredrica, Henry. Education: Harvard College, A.B., 1947. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Golf, tennis, swimming.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—Curtis Brown Ltd., 575 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, editor. Reporter for New York Journal of Commerce, associate editor of Labor and Nation, editor of Real Detective Magazine, and Hillman Books, at various times, 1947-51; Esquire, New York, NY, associate editor, 1951-54, editor, 1955-75; Opera Magazine, critic, 1985-2004; American Banker, columnist, 1987-89. Brookings Institute, guest scholar. Consultant to American Council of Learned Societies and Carnegie Corp., 1961-62; member, President's Panel on Educational Research and Development, 1961-65; chair, New York City local school board, District 2, beginning 1962.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Honorary doctorates from Wake Forest University and Adelphi University.

WRITINGS:

The Experts (novel), Harper (New York, NY), 1955, published in England as The Candidate, Secker & Warburg (London, England), 1955.

Wall Street: Men and Money, Harper (New York, NY), 1955, revised edition, Collier (New York, NY), 1962.

Hi-Fi, Random (New York, NY), 1956, revised edition, 1958.

Madison Avenue, Harper (New York, NY), 1958.

A Voice That Fills the House (novel), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1959.

The Schools, Harper (New York, NY), 1961.

Where, When, and Why, Harper (New York, NY), 1963, published as Social Studies in American Schools, Harper (New York, NY), 1964.

The Lawyers, Harper (New York, NY), 1967.

Diploma, Twentieth Century Fund (New York, NY), 1968.

Emory Buckner, Harper (New York, NY), 1968.

All You Know Is Facts, Harper (New York, NY), 1969.

The Teacher's Strike: New York, 1968, Harper (New York, NY), 1969.

Bricks, Mortar, and the Performing Arts; Report, Twentieth Century Fund (New York, NY), 1970.

About Television, Harper (New York, NY), 1972.

Give Yourself Credit: The Art of Borrowing, illustrated by Roy Doty, Dreyfus Publications (New York, NY), 1972.

My Legal Program: A Personal Analysis and Guide, Dreyfus Publications (New York, NY), 1973.

How to Think of Lawyers and the Law, illustrated by Richard Erdoes, Dreyfus Publications (New York, NY), 1973.

The Bankers, Weybright and Talley (New York, NY), 1974.

Conflicts of Interest: Broker-Dealer Firms: Report to the Twentieth Century Fund Steering Committee on Conflicts of Interest in the Securities Markets, Twentieth Century Fund (New York, NY), 1975.

Today and Tomorrow in America, Harper (New York, NY), 1976.

The Builders: Houses, People, Neighborhoods, Governments, Money, Norton (New York, NY), 1978.

Trigger Points, Harper (New York, NY), 1979.

The Fate of the Dollar, Times Books (New York, NY), 1980.

The Diplomats, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1983.

The Met: One Hundred Years of Grand Opera, Simon & Schuster/Metropolitan Opera Guild (New York, NY), 1983.

The Money Bazaars: Understanding the Banking Revolution around Us, Dutton (New York, NY), 1984.

Grandissimo Pavarotti, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1986.

Making News, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1987, revised and updated edition, Harvard Business School Press, (Boston, MA), 1993.

Markets: Who Plays, Who Risks, Who Gains, Who Loses, Norton (New York, NY), 1988.

(Photographs by David Finn) Children of the World: Learning Together at the United Nations International School, Madison Books (Lanham, MD), 1990.

The Greatest-ever Bank Robbery: The Collapse of the Savings and Loan Industry, Scribner's (New York, NY), 1990.

Whatever Happened to Madison Avenue? Advertising in the '90s, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1991.

Madison Avenue U.S.A., NTC Business Books (Lincolnwood, IL), 1992.

Stealing the Market: How the Giant Brokerage Firms, with Help from the SEC, Stole the Stock Market from Investors, Basic Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Gay, Lesbian, and Heterosexual Teachers: An Investigation of Acceptance of Self, Acceptance of Others, Affectional and Lifestyle Orientation; Their Rightful Place, Mellen Research University Press (San Francisco, CA), 1993.

Nightmare on Wall Street: Salomon Brothers and the Corruption of the Marketplace, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Sol M. Linowitz) The Betrayed Profession: Lawyering at the End of the Twentieth Century, Scribner's (New York, NY), 1994, Johns Hopkins Press (Baltimore, MD), 1996.

(With Elizabeth Luessenhop) Risky Business: An Insider's Account of the Disaster at Lloyd's of London, Scribner (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Christopher Ouellette) New York: Metropolis of the American Dream, Towery Pub. (Memphis, TN), 1995.

The Bankers: The Next Generation, Truman Talley Books (New York, NY), 1997.

The Fed: The Inside Story of How the World's Most Powerful Financial Institution Drives the Markets, Free Press (New York, NY), 2001.

The Judges: A Penetrating Exploration of American Courts and of the New Decisions—Hard Decisions—They Must Make for a New Millennium, Truman Talley Books/St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Also author of The New Breed on Wall Street. Author of monthly column of music criticism for Esquire, 1954—. Contributor of stories to Esquire and Vogue; and of articles to Esquire, Harper's, Reporter, Better Homes and Gardens, Life, Holiday, Seventeen, Horizon, New York Times Magazine; Saturday Evening Post, Wall Street Journal, and other periodicals. OnMoney.com, columnist.

SIDELIGHTS:

Martin Mayer is a veteran financial writer who has published over forty books since his debut work in 1955. Though Mayer started his career with a novel, he quickly moved on to works dealing with finance, banking, and the judicial system. Writing in the Credit Union Journal, Frank J. Diekmann called Mayer a "renowned observer and student of numerous business disciplines, including law, journalism and finance." Diana B. Henriques, writing in the New York Times Book Review, felt that Mayer's penchant for writ- ing about fiscal horrors earned him a solid position on the "Doomsday Team" of journalists: "He almost invariably brings something fresh and provocative to the conventional wisdom about those various apocalyptic events…. [And] he has perfect pitch for such events—an eye for the weird majesty of destruction, a vocabulary well stocked with superlatives, a tone exactly balanced between horror and grandeur."

One of Mayer's most popular early books was the 1974 title, The Bankers, "one of the best primers ever written on the banking industry," according to S.C. Gwynne, writing in the Washington Monthly. Mayer returned to the same topic in his 1997 The Bankers: The Next Generation, which updated his former title with new information on computerized banking. Writing in the American Banker, Jennifer Kingson Bloom described the sequel as the "first popular hardcover book to examine what it means to be a banker in the age of electronics and mergers." With this work, Mayer "helps demystify banking," David Rouse noted in a Booklist review. Higher praise came from New York Times Book Review contributor Peter Passell, who advised: "Follow [Mayer's] usually delightful ramble though the board rooms and byways of high finance, and you'll learn more about banking than you ever thought you wanted to know."

Mayer also examines Wall Street in other titles. His Nightmare on Wall Street: Salomon Brothers and the Corruption of the Marketplace describes the meteoric rise and fall of the brokerage firm of Salomon Brothers and the ensuing scandal of that firm's manipulation of the bond market. A Publishers Weekly reviewer termed the book a "landmark treatment of the money world, pegged to one particularly dramatic and alarming case history." Stealing the Market: How the Giant Brokerage Firms, with Help from the SEC, Stole the Stock Market from Investors is a further examination of Wall Street maneuvering. A Publishers Weekly critic called this a "searing expose" of how the individual is locked out of the real activities of the Stock Market in an age of electronic transfers. A further examination of monetary debacles was presented in The Greatest-ever Bank Robbery: The Collapse of the Savings and Loan Industry, a giant financial failure that ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars to repay insured savings. A reviewer for Entertainment Weekly felt Mayer's book "sheds more light on the S&L disaster than any of the other half-dozen books written about the scandal." Similarly, Publishers Weekly critic Genevieve Stuttaford called the work a "roaring indictment of grand thievery in the deregulated savings and loan industry."

Risky Business: An Insider's Account of the Disaster at Lloyd's of London focuses on another major financial disaster: the billions lost by Lloyd's in the early 1990s. David Rouse, writing in Booklist, praised Mayer's "tenacious research, and skillful interviewing" in this title. Similarly, a Publishers Weekly contributor commended the "engrossing prose" of this "accessible book." In The Fed: The Inside Story of How the World's Most Powerful Financial Institution Drives the Markets Mayer takes on the complexities of the Federal Reserve System. Part history and part examination of the growth of modern finance, Mayer's book shows that the Fed has lost much of its power to influence the market. Richard Drezen, writing in Library Journal, called The Fed a "well-written account [that] helps to further demystify the Fed and makes us understand how important its role is in our lives." A Publishers Weekly contributor found that "Mayer livens things up with irreverent character sketches, flamboyant prose (considering the subject matter) and canny storytelling."

Mayer has also dealt with the legal system in America. His 1994 book, cowritten with attorney Sol M. Linowitz, The Betrayed Profession: Lawyering at the End of the Twentieth Century, is a plea against the big money that controls corporate law firms. According to the authors, the notion of practicing law as a business first and foremost threatens the health and protection of constitutional guarantees. With the 2007 title, The Judges: A Penetrating Exploration of American Courts and of the New Decisions—Hard Decisions—They Must Make for a New Millennium, Mayer focuses his investigative eye on the state of the judiciary and the courts, finding the system grievously wanting. According to Mayer, most criminal defendants manage to avoid stiff sentences by pleading guilty to lesser offenses. Additionally, judges are often appointed through connections, and their training may even be inadequate. Among the solutions Mayer offers are special training to better understand the types of cases judges will hear, and also the creation of different courts that focus more on rehabilitation than pure punishment. Harry Charles, writing in the Library Journal, found The Judges to be "pointed and eyeopening," in addition to being "well written." Further praise came from a Kirkus Reviews critic: "Mayer's industry, his obvious good will and humor persuade even those opposed to his politics or leery of his proposed solutions that he just might be right."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Banker, February 18, 1992, Jeffrey Kutler, review of The Greatest-ever Bank Robbery: TheCollapse of the Savings and Loan Industry, p. 5; November 4, 1992, "No ‘December Surprise,’ but a January Mess," p. 4; May 22, 1996, "The On-line Revolution and the Future of Money," p. 12; November 18, 1996, "Where Have All the Lenders Gone? Looking Back at ‘The Bankers’ 22 Years Later," p. 4; March 17, 1997, "The Art of Survival, Leadership and Paranoia in an Electronic Age," p. 12; April 10, 1997, "New Version of ‘The Bankers’ Not New Enough, Readers Say," p. 8; December 27, 1999, "Best-selling Critic: Post-Reform Era Is a Minefield," p. 1.

American Economist, fall, 1993, Marcia M. Vinci, review of Stealing the Market: How the Giant Brokerage Firms, with Help from the SEC, Stole the Stock Market from Investors.

American Spectator, November 1, 1994, Jerome M. Marcus, review of The Betrayed Profession: Lawyering at the End of the Twentieth Century, p. 72.

Booklist, December 15, 1995, David Rouse, review of Risky Business: An Insider's Account of the Disaster at Lloyd's of London, p. 675; December 1, 1996, David Rouse, review of The Bankers: The Next Generation, p. 628; May 1, 2001, Mary Carroll, review of The Fed: The Inside Story of How the World's Most Powerful Financial Institution Drives the Market, p. 1646.

Business Insurance, September 9, 1996, Kevin M. Quinley, review of Risky Business, p. 21.

Business Week, July 23, 2001, "Is the Fed Mostly Smoke and Mirrors?," p. 25.

Chain Store Age, February 1, 2001, "People," p. 191.

Chief Executive, August 1, 2001, "In Fed We Trust?," p. 111.

Credit Union Journal, September 5, 2005, Frank J. Diekmann, "Author: Bankruptcy Reform Support Odd, but CU Role Is Not," p. 14.

Economist, November 10, 1990, review of The Greatest-ever Bank Robbery, p. 108.

Entertainment Weekly, February 21, 1992, review of The Greatest-ever Bank Robbery, p. 49.

Finance & Development, December 1, 2001, Michael Taylor, review of The Fed, p. 65.

Foreign Affairs, May 1, 1996, Richard N. Cooper, review of Risky Business, p. 136.

Fortune, November 19, 1990, Robert E. Norton, review of The Greatest-ever Bank Robbery, p. 207; July 26, 1993, Anne B. Fisher, review of Nightmare on Wall Street: Salomon Brothers and the Corruption of the Marketplace, p. 142.

Historian, winter, 2002, Robert M. Collins, review of The Fed.

Journal of Economic Issues, March 1, 2003, Eric Tymoigne, review of The Fed, p. 217.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2006, review of The Judges: A Major Exploration of America's Court System and the Many Changes It Must Make, p. 1059.

Library Journal, June 1, 2001, Richard Drezen, review of The Fed, p. 180; November 15, 2006, Harry Charles, review of The Judges, p. 81.

Money, February 1, 2000, "Martin Mayer: Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution and Author of The Bankers: The Next Generation," p. 152.

New York Times Book Review, January 12, 1997, Peter Passell, "Where the Money Is"; June 17, 2001, Diana B. Henriques, "Pitiful, Helpless Giant: Martin Mayer Says the Federal Reserve Is in for a Lot of Trouble," p. 20.

Publishers Weekly, September 28, 1990, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of The Greatest-ever Bank Robbery, p. 90; April 19, 1991, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Whatever Happened to Madison Avenue? Advertising in the '90s, p. 52; January 20, 1992, review of Stealing the Market, p. 53; May 10, 1993, review of Nightmare on Wall Street, p. 66; April 4, 1994, review of The Betrayed Profession, p. 65; November 13, 1995, review of Risky Business, p. 56; October 28, 1996, review of The Bankers, p. 64; May 21, 2001, review of The Fed, p. 90; October 30, 2006, review of The Judges, p. 49.

Savings Institutions, December 1, 1990, Dennis Jacobe, review of The Greatest-ever Bank Robbery, p. 19.

School Library Journal, March 1, 2007, Joanne Ligamari, review of The Judges, p. 246.

Society, May 1, 1997, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, review of The Betrayed Profession, p. 88.

Trial, September 1, 1994, Robert C. Strodel, review of The Betrayed Profession, p. 95.

US Banker, March 1, 1997, "Writing the Book on Banking," p. 26.

Washington Monthly, November 1, 1995, S.C. Gwynne, review of Risky Business, p. 55.

Ziff Davis Smart Business for the New Economy, July 1, 2001, Renuka Rayasam, review of The Fed, p. 99.

ONLINE

Brookings Institute Web site,http://www.brookings.edu/ (July 14, 2007), "Martin Mayer: Nonresident Guest Scholar, Economic Studies."

Globalist,http://www.theglobalist.com/ (July 14, 2007), "Martin Mayer."