It was apropos that the newly renovated Waldorf Astoria New York was the scene where a roomful of power brokers toasted Andrew Ross Sorkin’s new book “1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History – and How It Shattered a Nation” this week.
The Astor family sold the hotel (then in a different location) in 1929 to the developers of the Empire State Building, and financing was set up for the new Park Avenue address before the stock market infamously tanked.
The “Too Big to Fail” author hosted an A-list cocktail party to mark the launch of his latest tome about the crash.
Guests mixing included JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Martha Stewart, Barry Diller, Julianna Margulies, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gayle King, former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, hedge fund titan Bill Ackman, new Vogue editor Chloe Malle, author Ron Chernow and restaurateur Danny Meyer.
Sorkin’s new book hit shelves this week.
The author told the crowd: “I’m hoping we never have another crash. I wrote ‘1929’ as the prequel to ‘Too Big to Fail’ — in hopes I never have to write the sequel.”
Both Sorkin and Dimon have been warning investors this week about market jitters — “proving history may not repeat, but it sure rhymes,” an attendee said.
Sorkin told CBS News of any similarities between today and the roaring 1920s: “I just can’t tell you when, and I can’t tell you how deep… But I can assure you, unfortunately, I wish I wasn’t saying this, we will have a crash.”
He added in a “60 Minutes” report of the current market: “I’m anxious that we are at prices that may not feel sustainable. And what I don’t know is we are either living through some kind of remarkable boom and part of that’s artificial intelligence and technology, and all of that, or everything’s overpriced.”
“I think it’s hard to say we’re not in a bubble of some sort,” Sorkin said. “The question is always when is the bubble going to pop?” Sorkin said.
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