Liar's Poker: Rising Through
the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
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- Paperback: 249 pages ; Dimensions
(in inches): 0.69 x 7.69 x 5.02
- Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper);
(October 1990)
- ISBN: 0140143459
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I have read a lot of 'insider'
accounts of high finance and I am amazed by how much they all seem
to owe Michael Lewis for writing "Liar's Poker." From "Monkey
Business" to works of fiction like "All I Could Get" to even
movies such as "Boiler Room," all of them seem to have borrowed
heavily from Lairs Poker.
In this book Lewis tells the story of Solomon
Brothers from its ascendancy from a small bond trading house, to
the world's most profitable corporation to it's decline and
eventual reorganization.
Lewis narrates his story from the perspective he
had as a Solomon bond salesman in the mid 1980's. This book shows
off two of Michael Lewis best talents:
1.) The ability to covey the feeling of how it was
while he was there.
2) The ability to write about events/activities in the past (or
halfway around the world) AS IF HE WERE THERE.
In this book, Lewis is a witness, a critic and a
historian all at the same time and in comes together well. Reading
this book, I kept think that Michael Lewis is too observant,
insightful, and people-oriented to stay on Wall St. Maybe deciding
to write this book, getting himself out of Solomon while getting
back at his superiors, was just another smart trade.
Maybe someday I'll read another 'insider' account
book that will blow me way, but for now "Liar's Poker" is the gold
standard for the genre.
-oezekoye from
Pittsburgh, PA United States
Lewis is articulate, insightful, cynical, and hilarious in his
analysis on the rise and fall of Investment Banking at Solomon
Brothers during the 1980s. Liar's Poker is a brilliant portrayal of
Wall Street during an era of unprecedented greed and arrogance.
Until the early 1980s, equity traders were the most revered people
in the industry.
However, unforeseen circumstances, largely spurred by the highly
leveraged Savings & Loan industry, led to the innovation of new
types of financial derivatives. Essentially overnight, a new market
for bonds was created for speculators and commercial banks. Volume
and profits soared on the bond trading floor, and from that point on
the bond traders were the "big swinging ...." of investment banking.
So, against the backdrop of billion-dollar deals and
million-dollar salaries enters Michael Lewis, Princeton Art History
major and unlikely protagonist. His depiction of the Fraternity-like
culture of investment banking is laugh-out-loud, I wish I had
thought of that, funny. Lewis reaches rare form in describing the
Solomon mortgage traders, a group of fat, mean Italian men with
street smarts and a dislike for Ivy League MBAs and every other
group within the firm.
Nonetheless, Liar's poker is more than just funny-it's
insightful. Lewis combines personal narrative and investigative
journalism to present a fresh perspective on the collapse of Solomon
Brothers. He argues that Solomon's superiority complex resulted in a
failure to react to the changing trends in the industry and the
retention of key personal. This book is a quick read and a lot of
fun. I wouldn't list it as a reference in an academic publication
but it's a great addition to the bookshelf. -Jason from Seattle,
WA United States
In short, reading Michael Lewis' account of his tumultuous
two-year stint at Salomon Brothers in the mid-1980s delivers all the
pleasure and enjoyment of reading good pulp fiction. Lewis is --
much to my surprise, I must admit -- an extremely talented writer
with a gift for metaphor and the art of character description and
analysis.
One of the endearing things about this book, I think, is that it
is laced with a certain self-deprecating tone. Lewis' basic thesis
(although I don't think he really believes it) is that the the most
glaring sign of Salomon's impending demise was that it started
hiring people such as himself. Despite many self-effacing comments,
however, Lewis points out repeatedly that he was the highest paid --
and thus best producing -- young bond salesman at Salomon during his
tenure and seeks to assure the reader that he isn't some scorned
ex-employee who couldn't hack the perils of life on the trading
floor.
Lewis dedicates a few chapters to explaining the rise of the
mortgage trading desk at Salomon and the junk bond market under
Michael Milken at Drexel Burnham, although neither have much to do
with Lewis' career as a government bond salesman in Salomon's London
Office. Did the author think this gave proper perspective and
background to the telling of his personal story or was it an effort
to pad out an already short piece of work? Probably a bit of both,
is my guess.
In sum, if you approach this book (as I did) as a roman a clef,
with all the exaggerations and artistic license associated with
fiction, rather than a legitimate memoir, you'll probably get a lot
more enjoyment out of it. It is funny, fast-paced, often incredible
-- and will quickly expunge any thoughts you once had of being an
investment banker, no matter how high the salaries might be. -tgraczewski
from Burlingame, CA United States
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