Brett Cole is a correspondent for The Economist.  In an earlier role, from 2003 to 2007, he covered Wall Street for Bloomberg News. His new book is the story of the “fourth wave” of mergers-and-acquisitions activity in U.S. financial history, an era that in his view “created and shaped what people recognize as a merger industry on Wall Street,” as well as the expectations that the relevant portion of the legal profession brings to the table.