I read this after enjoying Stewart's later book, Disney War. This one was more thrilling as it involved real crime but still written very well as if the author was in the room. The characters include bad guys, good guys that gave in to the dark side and a few good guys that felt strong about following the law. It was the beginning of dishing out real punishment for white collar crime although one can argue they were let off easy compared to today's convictions.

James Stewart has done an excellent job of gathering information about the insider-trading scandal of the 1980s, so if you're looking for all the details of these events, you'll find them in this book, which is clearly-written and well-organized. What you won't find, though, is great storytelling. Stewart is content to recount one fact after another, rarely putting them in context or using them to build narrative suspense or to reveal character. As a result--and despite the inherent drama of the events it lists--the book is a rather dull read, especially for readers who have no familiarity with the world of high finance. If you want to read a masterpiece of writing about business, try David Halberstam's "The Reckoning."

'Den of Thieves' was sewn together by James Stewart from numerous Wall Street Journal articles he wrote on the M&A scandals during he 80s -- and it shows. The story is very difficult to follow, not only because the fraud was so complex, but also there were numerous players; Stewart doesn't do himself any favors by jumping around a lot. Still, it was very interesting and the second half of the book, marked by Boesky's surrender to federal agents in September 1986, is nothing short of riveting! If you enjoy Kurt Eichenwald ('Conspiracy of Fools') or Bethany McLean ('Smartest Guys in the Room') you will like 'Den of Thieves' -- although probably not as much.

Next release I suggest Stewart lay out all the Drexel, Peabody, and Boesky deals in chronological order at the beginning. The cast of players at the front was helpful, but not enough for me to keep up with some of it. Enjoy!

This is my favorite book of all time. It shows how highly intelligent, creative and hard working people can lose their ethical way. This was one of the first books that I read when I got out of college and I was absolutely riveted. The idea of the millions of dollars that many of these people made made me think of how I could get my hands on such wealth. It also taught me that there's no amount of money in the world that's worth damaging my reputation as a trust-worthy, ethical individual. This should be a must read for all kids out of college along with "The Smartest Guys in the Room."

My title for this review "Will History Repeat Itself?" is a simple reminder that while the junk bond scandals and S&L scandals are over, new corporate scandals occurred with Enron and now with the sub-prime melt-down, we are sure to unveil another corporate scandal. Will history repeat itself? Of course it will.

Good overview of Wall Street and the big scandals. Gives you an understanding of why they did the things they did

Mark Twain's saying "truth is stranger than fiction" is absolutely true of this well researched account of the scandals in the 80's. Stewart takes us through some of the most famous people involved in white collar crime at that time. The story gets the most into the lives of Boesky, Milken, Siegal, Levine, Wilkis, and Mulhuren. Stewart gives us also a little background on these individuals such as their up bringing and education. I wish there was more background, but the paucity does not take anything away from the story and our understanding of these people. Book is marketed like a trashy bestseller fiction, but it is far from that. Don't judge it by its cover.

At times it can get a bit confusing following all the characters. Stewart had to include all the individuals since they were all inter-connected. In the beginning of the book there is a list of major characters and their jobs. I wish there was a short paragraph on each of them also. One could always find earlier references to the individuals by looking in the complete index.

If you are interested in human nature, greed, history of financial markets or the 80's stock market boom, I highly recommend this book. Well researched and written!

This book was very insightful about the misgivings of some powerful financial magnates. However, the writing is poor and the author rushes through parts of the story that leaves the reader with more questions than answers. It is written by a professional journalist and not a novelist, so it reads like a newspaper article, which can be highly condensed for space. I would recommend the predator's ball. It is a much better account. And if you are interested in what Micheal Milken is up to these days check out The Milken Institute. The guy is still a billionaire.

The book takes you deep into the investment banking world . If you dont know your Morgan Stanley from your Goldman Sachs then this book will make little sense to you. There is a laundry list of investment banking firms and bankers mentioned hastily throughout the book. They all just blended into one thing since I did not have any deep understanding of what these firms actually do and how they are different from each other . So I would not recommend this for the layman.

This book is a useful source of what happened in certain corners of Wall Street in the 80s, whith an emphasis of only the bad and ignoring some of the positive effects that the same characters had in and out of the business community and while committing - and occasionally allegedly committing - crimes.

Unfortunately, there are simply too many instances where motives or instances assumed to have occured in a certain fashion are explained as fact.

I recommend that people interested in this topic read Predators' Ball first.

The book takes you deep into the investment banking world . If you dont know your Morgan Stanley from your Goldman Sachs then this book will make little sense to you. There is a laundry list of investment banking firms and bankers mentioned hastily throughout the book. They all just blended into one thing since I did not have any deep understanding of what these firms actually do and how they are different from each other . So I would not recommend this for the layman.

This book comes almost straight out of the courtroom and newspapers. The author mixed it with imagination and good writing into something that looks more like a good movie script than a story about corruption. James is a Wall Street Journal reporter and he knows his work very well; everything in the book is fact based and documented from public sources. Den of Thieves is an extensive collection of stories that follow individual destinies coming together in one of the most extraordinary decade in Wall Street history. When you read the book you feel more like you sit in front of a TV and someone is playing in front of you pieces of recordings made skilfully over a period of several years. In fact, you get into an intriguing action from the very beginning and the suspense keeps you awake for quite a while. There is so much detail that you will be amazed at of how James managed to put all together so well.

The book is divided in two parts: Above the Law and The Chase. You get to see both sides of the story, both of them full of drama. I did not realise that the prosecutors had such a hard time until I read this book. It is not only a matter of legal technicality that explains some of the difficulties the law enforcements officers experienced in putting their case together (so they act "legally"), but it is also a matter of political interests that played such an important role in obstructing the application of the law. There are names more or less popular, some of them bordering celebrity status that come together and clash in a fight driven by conflicting interests. You read about people like Michael Milken, the guru of junk bonds, Ivan Boesky, the mysterious arbitrageur, Rudolph Giuliani, the famous mayor of NY, Martin Siegel, the investment banker that perfected the "poison pill" and many others. The law prevailed in the end but with such a great effort and pain, that one could not really imagine winners getting any joy out of this, maybe just a sense of relief that was all over.

Overall this is a good book, it is easy to read, fast paced, and not technical at all. I wish it had more clarity in marking the dates. Sometimes is difficult to understand the succession of events and see clearly what caused what. You will need occasionally to go back a few pages just to get the sequence straight. Although the story is about people and James made an effort to build characters by putting thoughts into their heads as the events unfold, I had the impression that some sections where very much taken from court archived notes. Overall, Den of Thieves is a good book that you can use to travel back in time and understand what happened during 80's, the decade of greed.

I totally got the whole feel of the era, the industry and the crime that happened. My only complaint is its too long. Could have dropped a good 100 pages.

The story of Michael Milken is one that should inspire awe throughout the ages. His deeds pail in comparison to any corporate scandal today. This book is a masterful retelling of how Milken and his partners defrauded billions of dollars around the world. It tracks how these rings started and how the FBI, SEC, Interpol and others worked to close them. The arrogance of these men was amazing and their ability to defraud is unmatched. This story is one that has to be read and retold. Highly recommend.

The story of Michael Milken is one that should inspire awe throughout the ages. His deeds pail in comparison to any corporate scandal today. This book is a masterful retelling of how Milken and his partners defrauded billions of dollars around the world. It tracks how these rings started and how the FBI, SEC, Interpol and others worked to close them. The arrogance of these men was amazing and their ability to defraud is unmatched. This story is one that has to be read and retold. Highly recommend.

The reviews here give a pretty accurate description of this book. Stewart is a very engaging writer and rarely gets bogged down in irrelevant details or pointless digressions. He is a writer any journalist would want to emulate.

However, the big drawback is that he is too negative and seems and makes it seem that Wall Street serves no function other than to make the richer richer. In fact, junk bonds and hostile takeovers can have significant benefits for the economy. Furthermore, Milken had some serious issues with confronting reality, but he was nonetheless correct in his general belief that a diversified portfolio of junk can make sense. The author tend to pain junk bonds too negatively, they have problems, but they also have very significant benefits, just like everything else. I wish the author would have described the benefits a little more thoroughly. Finally, I don't think the author ever got into the nitty gritty details of why "insider trading" is wrong, this would have been helpful instead of just relying on the implicit assumption that insider trading is evil. Unfortunately, there is actually a very fine line between breaking the law and merely engaging in "arbitrage." The public would have been better served if this thin line was explored a bit more.

As a returning-college-student studying finance, this book provides an interesting basis for understanding some fundamental legal changes over the past 30 years. I highly recommend this book if you have an interest in stocks or are an investor.

Vivid account about the corporate take-over wave in the 80s and the boom and crash of the junk-bond industry. Sometimes, a bit lenghty, but very absorbing anyway. Only read it if you are really interested, otherwwise I would suggest "Predator's Ball".

Whence Stewart's Pulitzer, I wonder? Presumably because he got the scoop on other reporters, and dug up interesting facts and connections. As a series of newspaper articles, this doubtless made for riveting stuff. As a book, it does not. Stewart hews closely to the facts, detailing trade after trade, insider exchange after insider exchange. In short course, every trade begins to look like every other trade, every incremental corruption like every other, every trader, arbitrageur, I-banker, etc., like every other. Unless you're very familiar with Wall street, and fairly steeped in the terminology and business of modern finance, you -- as I did -- may tire of the repetition. Stewart rarely steps back from the minutiae to consider broader contextual themes (political, social, cultural, etc.). Some deeper historical perspective would have enlivened DoT greatly. So, too, would a bit more analysis. Stewart reserves almost all judgment for the opening and closing chapters of DoT. The result is a 500 page book that reads like a recitation of details. To boot, Stewart's prose is pedestrian in the extreme. Overall, a disappointing read.

These are no small thieves. They steal billions. What is more, they ruin investors' confidence. This is a great book to real all about these thieves. But in the US, these corrupt people are individuals, not the SYSTEM itself. When corrupt men and political power go tegether hand in hand, disasters could be one million times bigger. Do you believe it? Well, another great book tells how a corrupt government ruins China's people and economy: China's global reach: markets, multinationals, and globalization.

Anyone that knows anything about Milken knows that the guy created millions of jobs, and contributed much more to society than people like James Stewart, who often act like parasites at the expense of others.

And what about Milken's life after this whole affair? I wonder what Stewart will write about in the sequel, since Milken has taken on a life of philanthropy basically unrivaled, and certainly contributes more to this country than most. Milken's creation of a liquid market for junk bonds allowed credit risk to be redistributed throughout the capital markets, effectively creating more capital, more jobs, and more wealth creation.

Anyone up and coming in IB, or looking to inform themselves of the 80's capital movement, please at least check out some other perspectives on the era.

Note: These comments don't apply to Boesky or the arbs who were doing nothing but breaking the law. I would argue a strong distinction between Milken and most of the other characters in this book.

The great writing skills of James B Stewart can be enjoyed in all of his books and certainly also in this one. He book reads almost like a thriller, but it is always clear that Stewarts has his facts right and well documented and got the criminals dead to rights.
The book is structured as the first part being seen from the side of Boesky, Milken etc and the second part from the law enforcement, which is another feature that makes it very exiting to read.

James B. Stewart pieces together a complex and harrowing story of the 1980s insider trading scandal that rocked Wall Street. Already a Pulitzer Prize winner as a writer for the Wall Street Journal, Stewart masterfully develops the true story of how a handful of white collar criminals nearly destroyed investor confidence in the capital markets.

The book dives deep into the fascinating and complicated characters at the center of the story and explores the ugly sides of human nature that drove these men to engage in a ring of insider trading, stock manipulation and securities fraud -- and how they got caught.

At the core of the story is Michael Milken, the junk bond "king" and de facto head of the once-mighty Drexel Burnham Lambert; his client and conspirator Ivan Boesky, and investment bankers Dennis Levine and Martin Siegel. Their endless greed and cavalier attitudes made them some of the richest and most powerful figures of their time, and eventually drove them to indictment, humiliation, prison and financial ruin.

The only improvement I could think of would be to add a diagram of who's who in the book as many characters come and go in the story, including the tens of lawyers, witnesses and bankers. The book mentions a diagram created by prosecutor Bruce Baird, perhaps the author could have helped guide his readers using a similar chart himself.

Overall this is a fantastic read as an insightful and thought-provoking study of human behavior. Whether you are involved in the financial industry or not, this compelling part of history will thrill you to the last page.

This is an incredible account of how greediness ruled the days of the unregulated eighties. I just can't imagine how the American justice system can be so lenient to greedy men who systematically stole billions upon billions of the investors' money and only went to prison for less than 2 years. Michael Milken after his prison term of 22 months raked in millions more for advising companies on takeovers and mergers. Boesky still get chauffeured in limousines wherever he goes. I think the American justice was fooled by these evil financial geniuses.
That's is why we see Andrew Fastow of Enron in court today. This is history repeating itself. Look at Jeff Skilling and Kenneth Lay! in a few years, they'll laugh at this justice system.

This classic account of insider trading during the greed decade remains as riveting today as the day it was published. Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart manages to turn an account of the arcane market manipulation that led to the 1987 crash into a page-turner with all the suspense of a detective novel. And while the main villains here - Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky - have faded off the public radar, their philosophical descendants at Enron, Tyco and Adelphia remind investors that greed and market manipulation will never go out of style. Stewart's richly detailed book is must reading for those who trust their careers or their savings to the markets. We recommend this withering account of over-the-top greed to anyone who works or invests on Wall Street.

Great book. Paints a clear picture of the "decade of greed" with its characters. Seems relatively unbiased. Although it depicts Dennis Levine as an idiot. The major problem with the book is the number characters involved. Its hard to keep track of all the players (lawyers, bankers, etc) and their actions. Still a great read.

I started this book knowing very little about the main characters. I never heard of Michael Milken or Ivan Boesky until I read this. It was interesting and entertaining to understand what they achieved and what they threw away. This is greed at its best. Some of the most intelligent and successful people in wall street who couldn't handle the success they already attained. I also enjoyed how the author made some of these people look like complete fools. The ones who couldn't succeed on their own so they had to cheat the system to look powerful. Then the ones who could succeed on their own but let their self-indulgence get the best of them. Once you finish this book you will realize these people were the biggest players in the market throughout the 80's.

If you are planning on going to B-School, this is a must read. It is a fast paced account of the insider trading scandal that hit Wall Street in the mid-1980s. The manner in which Stewart develops the characters (Siegel, Boesky, Milken, Levine, et al.) and events is gripping. Contrary to my initial perception, this is a fast paced book. If you are a student of finance, then this book has some great lessons in the working of the bond market, takeover tactics, takeover defenses, risk arbitrage, junk bonds, the role & powers of the SEC and the Attorney General, Swiss banking and much much more.

What a fabulously appropriate title for an amazing book that brings to life the insider trading scandals of the late 80's. You do not need to be into the financial trade to understand and fully enjoy this book.

As usual reality is more interesting than fiction. Stewart does a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life. The reader is allowed to see that the perpertrators were very complex people and that for some, this was not just solely about greed. Although, at the end it WAS about the money.

This is a wonderful read that I recommend highly!

Den of Thieves is a snapshot of human nature showing its seemy side. Stewart's book has a cast of characters you couldn't believe if it were a work of fiction. The most brilliant thing about "Den of Thieves" is the range of villians in the book; no two come to their law-breaking in the same manner or embrace it to the same degree. All of them find temptation (usually in the form of large heaps of easy money) too hard to resist.

Stewart avoids the temptation to paint all of his law-breakers with the same brush and just focus in on the nuts and bolts of the story's timeline. Instead, he allows you to meet each individual and see how they became embroiled in Wall Street's worst scandal since the 1930s. You see some of the simple unrepentant scumbags you'd expect (Levine most closely fits the bill), but mostly you see more complex people. Milken comes off as a truly broken person who was never completely connected to reality in the same way most of us are. Most of the players come off as ordinary people who, on their own, would have cruised through their careers in uneventful fashion if not presented with a tempting, lawless option by a more proactive criminal. Each of the perpetrators has their own level of comfort with their involvement in the insider trading scheme. Some are so uncomfortable that they get out of the scheme on their own, some cry over the money they can't bring themselves to stop taking, and of course some just think they are God's gift to the financial world.

You also get to see how law enforcement can work in a situation like this - sometimes it isn't very pretty. You come to realize that regulators and public prosecutors are imperfect people in imperfect situations, subject to their own set of desires, temptations and problems. Rudy Guliani's office prosecutes this case in the public eye while he positions himself to run for Mayor of NYC. The SEC unwittingly committs a huge insider trade of its own by allowing Ivan Boesky to unload his portfolio before the public announcement of his arrest and cooperation with authorities - so he can pay them his $100 million fine. (It seems temptation's not quite as far away as the authorities think).

Great story. Great character development. Great lessons. Highly recommended.

Just plain boring writing. Did not have anything related to title or just put me right to sleep. Save your money if you want my honest advice.

I assume readers who read this book would typically read more than the pre-school picture books. But I think for this book, in particular, it could be more useful if the author added more pictures/photographs of the various characters introduced. Main characters (Milken, Siegel, Boesky, etc) were there. The book, however, introduces a new character almost every 2 pages; this makes it somewhat difficult to identify who's who after a while. More pictures would be nice.

Overall, this is an excellent book with great details to how high finance and insider trading worked back in the 1980s. A definite must read for undergrad students who want to make it in the finacial industry -- the books that you read tell something about your character.

Okay so I do not read a lot of books other than business books. The is the best book I have read period. The picture scenes of the character are still vivid in my mind. The trail of the conspiracy was excellent.

P

I liked the first 100 pages or so of this book because it had a very engaging style when describing the circumstances and characters of the biggest insider trading scandal. However, as the book progressed, I found it more and more tedious and full of small details and names which were repeated over and over again. Apart from a few interesting and particular passages, this book is like a treatesie on the events as it develop a mammoth compendium of dates and other historical trivia. Ultimately, the book will be enjoyable for those who have a bent for long stories rather than for those who are looking for a good non-fiction story.

overly detailed account of the rise of the junk bond world. if you want an exhaustive account of the events, this is your book.