Skip to Content

William D. Cohan


William D. Cohan is a Writer at Large for AIR MAIL and the best-selling author of several books about Wall Street, including The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co.and Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World. Cohan, who lives in New York, worked on Wall Street for 17 years as a mergers and acquisitions banker before becoming a financial journalist.

24 results

The Fall and Fall of America’s Department Store

Eddie Lampert was a Wall Street wunderkind until he got his hands on Sears and, later, Kmart. He would become the scourge of one of the U.S.’s favorite retail franchises

Magnate for Trouble

The Power and the Glory

In 1985, G.E. purchased RCA for $6.3 billion in cash, then the largest M&A deal of all time. That G.E. was actually buying back a business it had started 65 years earlier was largely forgotten

Billion-Dollar Babies

When a plush-toy tycoon with a real-estate fetish bumps up against Bill Gates, hospitality goes out the window

The View from Here

One of our Writers at Large explains how to avoid heartbreak, of the existential variety

Poor Little Rich Boy

What do you do if you make only $40 million a year? If you’re the founder of a Greenwich, Connecticut, hedge fund, you allegedly steal from your partners and shortchange investors

Michel David-Weill

For 25 years, the French-born investment banker directed Wall Street’s most prestigious firm with the touch of an enlightened monarch

Charlie Rose Tries to Bloom

A #MeToo culprit, he’s trying to return to polite society, posting new interviews with Warren Buffett and others, and looking to sell his backlog of shows

Gen Z Finds Its Wise Man

How did Ryan Holiday, a former marketing executive in rural Texas, become the go-to philosopher for these times?

Two Turntables and the Goldman Sachs Revolt

While their C.E.O. is D.J.-ing at Lollapalooza, Gen Z bankers are rebelling against a return-to-office order

The Face (and Maybe the Brains) of Wall Street

Peter Tuchman has spent 35 years on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange—but doesn’t own one share of stock

Madoff, the Sequel!

Meet Zach Horwitz, the part-time actor and millennial Madoff of Hollywood, who soaked suckers for $227 million

Trust Busters

When Goldman Sachs partners want a divorce, they turn to this little-known and highly aggressive firm

Prophet of the Golden Bull

How did a Bible-reading, Trump-supporting 65-year-old woman become Wall Street’s hottest stock picker?

The Adulterer in the Room

In 2001, Eric Schmidt was brought to Google to be “the adult in the room.” He became a billionaire—but raised eyebrows with his very open marriage

Class War

At Dalton, one of New York’s toniest private schools, a bruising battle rages between the woke and the trads

Towering Inferno

666 Fifth Avenue was supposed to put the Kushners on the New York map. It’s been a devil of a headache

Mayor Mike 2.0?

Is Raymond McGuire—Wall Street player and political novice—the man to replace de Blasio? The big-bucks elite think so

Vice Gets Squeezed

Shane Smith convinced Rupert Murdoch and Disney that his company was, as the kids say, the sh!t. Until it wasn’t. How did Vice blow it—and trash billions in valuation?

Barbarians at the School Gate

Part II: Illicit affairs? Kids out of wedlock? Will smear-mongering parents trash one of New York’s most elite schools?

“Old Boys” vs. New Tricks

At St. Bernard’s School, new-money barbarians are at war with upper-class traditionalists

The New King of All Media

Scott Galloway, one half of the must-listen podcast Pivot, is everywhere these days, railing against big tech and spreading big ideas

“Old Boys” vs. New Tricks

At St. Bernard’s School, new-money barbarians are at war with upper-class traditionalists

Meet Jesse Cohn, the Gordon Gekko for Millennial Brahs

Attention C.E.O.’s of America: Do not ignore him