My Books
I write books that delve into the lives of influential business leaders. Each biography brings unique insights and narratives.
The President and the Oligarch
Roosevelt, Mellon and the Triumph of Big Government
By any measure, Franklin D. Roosevelt is one our most admired presidents. But behind the beaming smile and folksy fireside chats was a ruthless politician willing to use the massive powers of the federal government to crush his enemies. In this thrilling exposé, Greg Steinmetz recounts how FDR targeted America’s third-richest man to prove his progressive credentials and rally support for his sweeping social agenda. He found his scapegoat in former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Mellon’s name dripped riches. More than any other, it symbolized the Roaring Twenties economic boom and the crack up that followed. FDR publicly blamed Mellon for the Great Depression, using him as a convenient diversion from the New Deal’s failure to bring jobs back to a devastated economy. Roosevelt tortured the aging, frail and reclusive Mellon, cooking up a fake criminal charge in a bid to put him behind bars. When that fizzled, Roosevelt kept up the fight by making Mellon miserable in tax court. Mellon died before the verdict but not until, one final, jaw dropping twist occurred in this strange clash of titans. This shocking book reveals the secret sinister side of Roosevelt—and explains how big government won out of over the libertarian economic order that had reigned since the birth of the republic.
American Rascal
How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune
Jay Gould, the son of a poor farmer, entered Wall Street at twenty-four and quickly became one of its most notorious figures—nearly toppling President Grant with the Black Friday gold market collapse of 1869 and eventually controlling one of every six miles of the country's railroad tracks. Praised by Rockefeller and Vanderbilt for his brilliance yet condemned by Mark Twain for corrupting American business values, Gould led a colorful life that included trading jokes with Thomas Edison, paying Boss Tweed's bail, and commuting by 200-foot yacht. Thriving in an era when insider trading and stock manipulation were widely tolerated, he pushed these practices to such dangerous extremes that he inadvertently sparked the first public demands for financial reform—a call that still resonates today.
Wall Street Journal: Best Books of 2025
Book of the Week, The Week Magazine
“Terrific. Everyone should read it.” - Jim Cramer, CNBC
"Absolutely fantastic. This story is insane.” – David Senra, Founders Podcast
“A captivating reexamination of Jay Gould, one of history’s most important and infamous financial speculators, and a wildly entertaining look at Wall Street’s wild west era.” – Gregory Zuckerman, special writer at the Wall Street Journal and
author of The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons launched the Quant Revolution
"Steinmetz has written a rollicking biography that brings back to life one of the most fascinating and colorful characters of nineteenth century American capitalism. Before George Soros, Carl Icahn and Ken Griffin, there was Jay Gould – and his tactics would have made them all blush." - John Carreyrou, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley start-up.
The Richest Man Who Ever Lived
The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger
In the days when Columbus sailed the ocean and Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, a German banker named Jacob Fugger became the richest man in history.
Fugger lived in Germany at the turn of the sixteenth century, the grandson of a peasant. By the time he died, his fortune amounted to nearly two percent of European GDP. In an era when kings had unlimited power, Fugger dared to stare down heads of state and ask them to pay back their loans—with interest. It was this coolness and self-assurance, along with his inexhaustible ambition, that made him not only the richest man ever, but a force of history as well. Before Fugger came along it was illegal under church law to charge interest on loans, but he got the Pope to change that. He also helped trigger the Reformation and likely funded Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe. His creation of a news service gave him an information edge over his rivals and customers and earned Fugger a footnote in the history of journalism. And he took Austria’s Habsburg family from being second-tier sovereigns to rulers of the first empire where the sun never set.
“Enjoyable…readable and fast-paced” - The Wall Street Journal
“The tale of Fugger’s aspiration, ruthlessness, and greed is riveting” - The Economist
“Greg Steinmetz has unearthed the improbably yet true story of the world’s first modern capitalist.” – Roger Lowenstein, author of Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist and When Genius Failed
International best seller. Eight months on Manager Magazine best seller in
Germany. Translated into ten languages.
Best Books of the Summer – Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times
"Steinmetz’s fast-moving tale – of money making, religious tumult, political chicanery, and violent clashes between the disciples of capitalism and
communism – is one for all time but especially our time” – James Grant author of
The Forgotten Depression, 1921, the Crash that Cured Itself