Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street

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  I have no interest in financial markets and the market boom of the 80s only interests me in relation to Patrick Bateman of American Psycho fame. You might say, then, that reading Liar's Poker was a mistake on my part; I would agree. Believing I was reading a novel packed with information and the tremendous authorial voice of Moneyball, instead I found a book that wandered and lost my attention frequently. Early on, we get a humorous memoir of Lewis' beginnings at the firm, with the comical tr... (show more)

  I have no interest in financial markets and the market boom of the 80s only interests me in relation to Patrick Bateman of American Psycho fame. You might say, then, that reading Liar's Poker was a mistake on my part; I would agree. Believing I was reading a novel packed with information and the tremendous authorial voice of Moneyball, instead I found a book that wandered and lost my attention frequently. Early on, we get a humorous memoir of Lewis' beginnings at the firm, with the comical trainee culture and the rat race to escape the less-prestigious departments (like equities). Then, for almost 1/3 of the book, he takes two chapters to tell the tale of mortgages and mortgage bond traders at Salomon Brothers...which was boring, third-person, encyclopedia-dry writing. Then, in the last 1/3 of the book, he returns to his memoir, talking about his time in the London branch swindling customers for large profits and feeling guilty about it. The first and last third of the novel are readable; the middle destroyed the book for someone reading from an outsider point of view. While stories about Hatteberg's defense and Brown's girth made the overarching story of Moneyball work, by personalizing the topic, the story of mortgages could not be saved by the superfluous uses of "Lewie" to refer to a Salomon executive. A disappointment of a book, whether I should have expected so much or not, and I'll think twice before considering any other Lewis work that doesn't focus on professional sports. If you're unsure whether the money world of the mid 80s is of interest to you...go to the library and read it there. (show less)

   

  by Facebook User on Jun 24, 2009 at 07:19PM

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  A fantastic eye witness account into the City of London in the 1980s, the games that are played, the mindset of employees there and why they shouldn't be paid so much. Favourite phrase "more than six thousand people had applied for the one hundred and twenty-seven places on the programme. Paycheques at Salomon Brothers spiralled higher in spite of willingness of others who would, no doubt, do the same for less. There was something fishy about the way that supply met demand in an investme... (show more)

  A fantastic eye witness account into the City of London in the 1980s, the games that are played, the mindset of employees there and why they shouldn't be paid so much. Favourite phrase "more than six thousand people had applied for the one hundred and twenty-seven places on the programme. Paycheques at Salomon Brothers spiralled higher in spite of willingness of others who would, no doubt, do the same for less. There was something fishy about the way that supply met demand in an investment bank".

  Very salient for the current debates on exec pay, see for example the whining in the FT last weekend saying that measures to claw back bonuses were 'anti-American', even 'McArthyite'! (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook User on Mar 26, 2009 at 07:57PM

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