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Title: Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis ISBN: 0-14-014345-9 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.44 (133 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Bullies in the Playground
Comment: When you were young, your parents probably instilled you with a respect for adults. Michael Lewis performs a public service by showing that adults don't always deserve this respect, and sometimes even behave worse than children. Indeed, as Michael puts it, Wall Street is a vast playground where corporate executives can be bullies and rob people of their lunch money.
The truth is that young people accepting their first job on Wallstreet probably have no idea what they're getting into. After four years in the meritocrasy that is academia, most college students are unprepared for the brutal darwinian slugfest that awaits. College professors do not offer instruction on how to deal with abusive managers, back-stabbing coworkers, and double-talking executives. New hires (i.e. geeks) are beaten and kicked until they either learn how to fight or perish. Life is cheap on Wallstreet.
This book is a definitve recount of the madness which typified the 1980s. Michael lets us rid shotgun with him on his journey through the capital markets. Along the way, we meet strange indigenous animals like the Human Piranha, Sangfroid, and Dash Riprock. We learn the native language (i.e. f---speak) and observe a tribe of bond traders engaged in ritualistic gluttony. Michael does not try to shield our eyes. Rather, he provides the reader with an uncensored look at Salomon Brothers and life in the trenches.
Michael's sketch of John Gutfruend, Salomon's then CEO, is both droll and insightful. In so many words, Gutfruend was a king without clothes. He smoked cigars and affected a british accent to convey the image of an English gentleman. He worked very hard to give the impression that money was secondary to the "contributions" that Salomon made to the business community. Yet, the minute that Gutfruend ascended to the throne he initiated an IPO that would both line his own pockets and enrage the founders. Gutfruend was also responsible for a number of disasterous mistakes, like trying to open an office in London in an effort to become an international bank. By the end of the book, there is no doubt that Gutfruend is naked.
If there is a message to Liar's Poker, it's that finance is a zero-sum game. What this implies is that your broker is not necessarily looking out for your best interests; he may be looking out for his own. As the E*trade commercial so aptly put it, "if you're broker is so smart, why does he work for a living?"
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent biography
Comment: First, this book is a biography of a chapter in Michael Lewis' life. It is NOT a book about increasing your personal wealth or about Wall Street high finance.
That being said, this book is wonderfully well written, full of surprises, and the reference to the game of Liar's Poker carries well as a vehicle throughout the book. It was scary and comical to see what brokers and traders are actually doing with my money once I hand it over to them.
I am glad that Michael Lewis survived his time on in the stock market and lived to tell us all about it. I will undoubtedly reread this book some time.
Rating: 1
Summary: Waste of time
Comment: Probably, I misunderstood that I would learn something from this book about finance or markets in general and would be able to use these ideas to add to the bottom line - make more MONEY. But it seemed like my goal behind reading this (or any other) book was too clearly defined and this book did not help at all. If you have too much time, nothing to do, and are looking for something to pass time then read this. But if you want to achieve something such as gaining insight into trading, selecting, analyzing stocks or securities etc then do not waste your time. This book has no direction, no substance, and not much to learn from it which can be used to produce results.
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Title: Monkey Business by Peter John/Troob Rolfe ISBN: 0446676950 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: When Genius Failed : The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein ISBN: 0375758259 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis ISBN: 0393057658 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 10 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Barbarians at the Gate : The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough, John Helyar ISBN: 0060536357 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: DEN OF THIEVES by James B. Stewart ISBN: 067179227X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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