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Liar's Poker (1989)

by Michael Lewis(Favorite Author)

4.12 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

039333869X (ISBN13: 9780393338690)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

review 1: I'm not sure how it's possible to read this book and not get really angry and frustrated with the state of the financial system. I realize this was written over 25 years ago, but the parallels and attitudes shown in this book bear an uncanny resemblance to things we read and still read about the most recent financial crisis. Lewis does an effective job of both explaining (what are the bond traders doing, how did mortgage bonds come about, how did they popularize junk bonds) and storytelling. While it's possible to claim too much of one and not enough of the other, I thought it was a good balance to keep it both informative and engaging. It was a fast read. As a part-autobiographical book written not too much after the story occurred, I was surprised at the rather negative ... moredescriptions about many well-known individuals in the firm. There is an original "wolf of wall street" element in it that is depressing--a firm, part of an industry, that is so brainwashed and self-important that scamming customers to make millions of dollars is a normal occurrence. He paints the frat-like hazing culture of the firm clearly, and details the backwards logic that drives the rise and collapse of Solomon Brothers. I did some other research and found Michael Bloomberg (mayor) worked at Salomon Brothers. I don't know exactly what conclusion to draw there but there's something interesting about that. It's a good book, and stuff like that probably shouldn't be allowed to happen. I do recommend it.
review 2: This book follows The Salomon Brother's firm and tells the true story of how Michael Lewis was sucked into the brutal world of trading. This gave me lots of background of where Lewis - I didn't realize he was in finance before becoming an author, but it explains how he knows so much about the market (see The Big Short).These wasn't my favorite book of all time of course. It was really the history of the downfall of The Salomon Brothers and what a trading life was like. Interesting, but a bit longwinded at points. If you're a finance person or really want to learn about Lewis' background then this book is for you. less

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