Liar's Poker - Rising Through The Wreckage On Wall Street  (English, Paperback, Lewis Michael)

Liar’s Poker: The Book That Revealed The Truth About London And Wall Street is a tale of insane greed and ambition that lay at the heart of Wall Street in the 1980s.

Summary Of The Book

Liar’s Poker: The Book That Revealed The Truth About London And Wall Street is Michael Lewis’ story, one that revolves around greed and ambition that plagued Wall Street during the mid-1980s. The story captures this period along two lines, one being Michael’s autobiography and the other being about Salomon Brothers and Wall Street.

The autobiographical thread takes its readers through Michael’s college education, and then into a major event in Michael’s life, his hiring by Salomon Brothers in 1984. What follows is a detailed account of the lives of bond salesmen and traders, covering everything from their personalities to the work culture.

An important period in Wall Street’s history has been captured in this thread. This was the time many in Wall Street lot took advantage of others’ ignorance, so that they could grow wealthier. Some of the renowned Wall Street personalities of the time, such as Lewis Ranieri, John Meriwether, and John Gutfreund, have found mention in this book.

The second thread along which the book progresses doesn’t exclusive cover Michael’s life. Here he talks about the history of Salomon Brothers and how Wall Street was building its culture. He even informs the readers on how Wall Street created a market for mortgage bonds to make the firm richer and how Michael Milken and his junk bonds later outdid Wall Street. Along this chain of events, the readers will find several quotes that Michael says have been sourced from interviews he conducted of prominent personalities.

The story doesn’t move chronologically, nor do these two threads come one after another. Through Liar’s Poker: The Book That Revealed The Truth About London And Wall Street, Michael reveals the inside story. He highlights the crass behavior of traders on Wall Street, who weren’t much skilled at advanced finance, but were rather adept at exploiting others’ weaknesses. His fellow trainees spat at one another, insulted and yelled at financial experts who spoke to them.

Lewis makes a powerful remark when he says anyone could make millions in the 80s provided they were in the right place at the right time, just like Lewis Ranieri.

About Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis a financial journalist and non-fiction author.

He is the author of The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World, Panic!: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity, and The Money Culture.

Michael was born to corporate lawyer and community activist parents in New Orleans. He received a BA in Art History from Princeton University. After working with Daniel Wildenstein, an art dealer in New York, he attended London School of Economics and graduated with an MA in Economics. Hired by Salomon Brothers, he joined a training program at New York. After working as a bond salesman at their London office, he decided to share his experiences through the written word. He has worked with media houses such as The New York Times Magazine, The Spectator, The New Republic, and Bloomberg.