If you a dying to work in the industry or imagine the stock market to be a big mystery this book might be more engaging.

Personaly I found it a little boring and hard to get through. I am not impressed by the stories at all, and found it like listening to a sales person in a bar.

I was impressed about how fast this item was shipped to and actually received in Peru.

In today's economic climate this book remains a pertinent cautionary tale. We don't seem to learn much from our political approaches and faliures in monetary matters, perhaps because of greed and narrowness of view, and this book brings these historical matters to mind in relation to current problems. Perhaps this should be required reading for all in politics who can affect monetary, banking, and investing policy. The author manages to keep the readers interest, and despite the known and obvious conclusions to the tale, he makes it almost like a mystery raging to a bad end. Excellent read, pertinent today, and unfortunately likely tomorrow.

Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker is a revealing account of his days as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers, a bulge-bracket investment house. In the 1980's, bonds were in their heyday, and consequently, investment houses dedicated a big part of their operations to the almighty bond. Enter Michael Lewis. Fresh out of the London School of Economics, he relies on -- at least partly, anyways -- some chance connections to land a job back on Wall Street. Lewis has a knack for fully developing the characters that made Salomon Brothers and it is both enlightening and entertaining to revisit his life in the frenzied 1980s on Wall Street. As hilarious as Liar's Poker is, it also, in some respects, is a bit of a sobering read, knowing now how much Wall Street has disintegrated since Lewis' time at Salomon Brothers. bought this book for 1 cent (plus $3.99 shipping, of course) and it remains one of my all-time favorite books. A must read for anyone who has any interest in business/finance or anyone who wants a closer look at what life was really like as a bond salesman in the 1980s.

A decent read about the happenings inside Salomon Brothers during the 1980s. The author's writing style makes the book very readable and is quite comical at times. It covers the birth of Mortgage backed securities and the junk bond market. A good intro into what the training class at Salomon was like back in the day and tales of various practical jokes/pranks that were apparently commonplace.

A good weekend read if you are in the mood.

The testament to this book's greatness (and it's most ironic quality) is that traders for the past 25 years have likened themselves to the guys portrayed in this book.

Instead of re-hashing why this book is awesome, I'd emphasize here that it's a great book for the economic layman to read today because it recounts the creation of the collateralized securities market in an entertaining and accurate way. If you want to know the origins of the current economic debacle (and why Lou Ranieri is oft mentioned as a culprit), this book is an ideal choice.

When it was written people thought it was devastatingly funny. In December 2009 it is not funny. If you want to understand how Wall Street has driven the world over the edge read this book. The history of mortgaged backed securities is here is here is a nut shell. The greed that runs Wall Street is here along with the mind set that drives it. I suggest you read this book as background before you get the next part in March 2010- The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.


The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Liar's Poker is a great story about the inside, behind-the-scenes culture of Wall Street. Couldn't put this down as "page turner" is an understatement. Learned a little about trading and a lot about the pervasive culture that exists in the financial circles on Wall Street. Not a surprise that the folks there have their priorities focused directly on WIFM (What's in It For Me) in terms of their own financial progress. And no surprise that they learn this from the "top down". Even though it's a bit of a rhetorical "duh?" conclusion, the story IS STILL FASCINATING.

While it has been some time since I read Liars Poker it still brings a smile to my face by bringing back fond memories. What has renewed my interest and motivated me to write more of a validation than a review of Liars Poker was my current reading of one of Michaels other books - The money Culture. Having spent 42 years in municipal finance with, 23 of those years as a municipal bond analyst/portfolio manager/investment director, at a major institution I can speak with some semblance of authority. You would have to say that at various points in my career I experienced some of what he talks about. He does a nice job of pointing out the nature of characters, some of who, use to prey on unsuspecting porfolio managers. While most of his referrences are related to the corporate fixed income side, Munis had their share of thugs, thieves, but mostly honest people that were there to help you in various ways. Among the thugs and thieves are firms that are, in some cases, no longer in business. Who ever reads this book should keep in mind that the author, in citing what occured during the '80's, was in fact laying the foundation for what was and is ocurring in the capital markets during these turbulant times. Whether he knew it or not is not of material importance.

Nutshell review - This is a very funny book. Lewis writes a great story but, more than this, it gives you a fantastic behind the scenes look at how some fund managers operate in the wild, wild west of financial markets. This a rough and tumble world where all too often the small investors get punished for the benefit of the big guns. Very funny, eye-opening and offers a glimpse into the ivory towers.

I found this book very good to read especially during the current financial crisis. Even though the author wrote it in the 80s, it shows the culture and business of investing. The author used to be a bond salesman in the New York and London offices of Salomon Brothers.

The description of the S&L crisis is in a way similar to the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. The greed and obsession with money made both crises possible. After reading this book, I realized that no matter how much regulation we have, we will experience similar events. Yesterday, it was the S&L crisis, today it is the subprime mortgage crisis, and tomorrow the greedy minds of Wall Street will create something even more interesting that will have more devastating effects.

For those who are not familiar with the business of high finance, this book will be an eye-opener. It shows what traders, salesmen, and executives of Wall Street firms do every day to make money by taking huge risks with the hope of a payoff. I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

This book is very entertaining and an easy, enjoyable read. The author shares his personal experiences in a very accessible way, providing a glimpse into the workings and atmosphere of the financial services industry of the 1980's. The author also has a good sense of humor and his descriptions of the some of the characters at Salomon are priceless. Finally, the book is quite well written, which is much appreciated. Highly recommended. Paul Gehrman, Author, Kaleidoscope

This book was written in 1989 by Michael Lewis after two years as a bond trader at Salomon Brothers. The book ranges over a numer of topics: his recruitment and training, Salomon's earlier rise to prominence in bond trading, and in particular its early dominance of mortgage bonds, the author's experience as a Big Swinging Dick in London, the rise of Drexel Burnham and junk bonds, the stock crash of 1987, and the author's subsequent departure from the bank.

Of particular interest today, two decades later, is the description of how Salomon created the first mortgage securities department on Wall Street, with Bob Dall and Lewie Ranieri selling Ginnie Maes. In 1979 a policy change by the Federal Reserve to fluctuate interest rates was accompanied by an explosion of debt and rapid growth in bond markets - and established players such as Salomons. Ironically, at first the mortgage market was hit badly by rising interest rates, but then two years later Congress passed a tax break for savings and loans that incented them en masse to securitize and sell their loans: the resulting flood into the market enabled a handful of Salomon mortgage traders to make $800 million in four years. The traders, however, were not individually compensated in line with their extraordinary profits, allowing them to be poached by Merril Lynch, First Boston, Shearson Lehman, Morgan Stanley, Prudential Bache and Drexel Burnham. The resulting competition reduced the bank's profits, but so also did the spread of collateralized mortgage obligations (CMO) that blended pools of mortgage bonds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, creating instruments that were more predicatable and better priced. CMOs were then tweaked in various ways to sidestep regulation, and in particular to allow thrifts to carry them "off-balance sheet". Eventually Ranieri was promoted away from mortgage securities and pushed out of the bank.

The remainder of the book is more biographical, with numerous anecdotes and comments on the culture at Salomon's that I found entertaining but perhaps not as insightful.

This book is your primer to what happened to the US economy long after it was penned.

As a financier who worked amongst all of the moving parts herein defined, I can spell it out to you in simple terms: If loan becomes more valuable than its collateral, it's worthless.

Liar's Poker is now a period piece which unintentionally disected the groundwork for the disasterous bogus inflation of mortgage values, which pushed up home values, in the buildup to the 2008 crash.

The author seems to have been intent on just getting inside as an employee long enough to write the book, but he did manage to pull off more of an expose than I believe even he himself thought at the time.

The history of the notorious invention of "traunching" mortgage risk, by Solomon Bros in the 1980's, was later unleashed to its full capacity for destruction by the elimnation of related regulation and anit-monopoly rules in the 2000's. In hindsight, it's rediculously obvious.

On a dive boat with one of the employees of the the primary character in 1998, he told me they were 'knocking it out of the park' by making mortgages to 125% of value. That's when I got out of that business.

A great read, written with great humor, this book is an educational classic I recommend all the time.

This book is your primer to what happened to the US economy long after it was penned.

As a financier who worked amongst all of the moving parts herein defined, I can spell it out to you in simple terms: If loan becomes more valuable than its collateral, it's worthless.

Liar's Poker is now a period piece which unintentionally disected the groundwork for the disasterous bogus inflation of mortgage values, which pushed up home values, in the buildup to the 2008 crash.

The author seems to have been intent on just getting inside as an employee long enough to write the book, but he did manage to pull off more of an expose than I believe he even thought himself.

The history of the notorious invention of "traunching" mortgage risk, by Solomon Bros in the 1980's, was later unleashed to its full capacity for destruction by the elimnation of related regulation and monopoly regulations in the 2000's. In hindsight, it's rediculously obvious.

On a dive boat with one of the employees of the the primary character in 1998, he told me they were 'knocking it out of the park' by making mortgages to 125% of value. That's when I got out.

A great read, written with great humor, this book is an educational classic I recommend all the time.

Liar's Poker is a fantastic chronicle of the rise and fall of Saloman Brothers during the 1980's. It cannot be possible to write a book about bond trading that is both so entertaining and informative. If you want to understand the cultural shift regarding debt in America over the past 30 years, I think you'll find this story to be alarmingly relevant.

I also believe it is worth mentioning that writing this book required some serious bravery, especially since it was published in 1989 (he left his job in 1988). I for one am thankful Lewis decided to "tell the story rather than go on living the story", as I never knew Wall Street could be so humorous.

Liar's Poker is a fantastic chronicle of the rise and fall of Saloman Brothers during the 1980's. It cannot be possible to write a book about bond trading that is both so entertaining and informative. If you want to understand the cultural shift regarding debt in America over the past 30 years, I think you'll find this story to be alarmingly relevant.

I also believe it is worth mentioning that writing this book took a lot of guts, especially since it was published in 1989 (he left his job in 1988). I for one am thankful Lewis decided to "tell the story rather than go on living the story".

Paid for a newer edition, recieved the older one. Could have ordered the older edition for less from someone else.

This book helped me to actually understand wall street better than any experience in the past. (And that's saying a lot since I used to work for a firm which audited some of those firms, have had many friends on WS, etc.). Notice I didn't say this book helped me to understand stocks, bonds, markets, or investing though - just wall street and it's culture.

From the outlandish behavior, over the top pranks, abuse of newcomers, and obsession with money, Michael Lewis describes the culture of Wall Street in a way that will feel oddly familiar because you understand the archetype, even if you've never been there.

One of the best parts of the book is the history it gives. Lewis described the creation of thinks like mortgage backed securities and America's infatuation with junk bonds. He chronicles how the market crashes in the 80s affected Salomon brothers, and the forces that led to it. What he couldn't have known at the time of course was the havoc that mortgage backed securities would lead to decades later, but he explains how they came to exist, sets the stage, and leaves you with a better appreciation for the origins of our current economic troubles. Even though this book doesn't talk directly about our current economic problems (because it was published in 1989), it gives a better understanding of the root causes (the culture, the incentives, the short term thinking, etc.) than many other books I've read. It also has the advantage of not suffering from revisionism due to hindsight - for example many of the benefits of mortgage backed securities are mentioned. In my opinion, this is a much fairer and better look at wall street than almost anything else I've seen.

Liar's Poker is a bluffing game played by the stock and bond traders at Salomon Brothers. There is series of arbitrary numbers -- the serial numbers on dollar bills -- that the associates make bids on. No one has any idea what the other players are holding, so the actual numbers are less important than the traders' abilities to bluff each other. The game is how they learn and practice putting one over on each other.

The game is also the title and central metaphor for Michael Lewis' 1989 memoir about becoming a bond trader at Salomon Brothers. His book pops up on a lot of best-of-business writing lists. It may seem odd to be reading it twenty years on, but if you really want to understand how the seeds of our current economic crisis were sown, you should read it.

Salomon Brothers basically invented the "mortgage backed security" that are one of the major causes of our economic problems.

What is revealing and relevant about Lewis' book is the dissection of the structure of the brokerage house and the attitudes that dominate it. The company, trader, and salesman's best interest are often at odds with those of their customers. The basic principle of trading is this: bluff the customer into placing big bets on stocks and bonds and take a commission on the sale. If the bet "blows up" the customer, well, "Hey, it's the market. It is unpredictable. Who knew?" (But the company and trader got their piece of the action.) If the bet produces a big return for the customer, then the customer has more money to use to make bigger bets with the now "proven" financial adviser.

In the lexicon of Salomon Brothers, "blowing up a customer" is when the customer loses their entire investment. It is commonly known in the industry that associates fresh from the training program will "blow up" most of their customers for about six months. Salomon Brothers only allows these green traders or "geeks" access to small investors to prevent damage to their big institutional investors, the organizations that will make bets in the tens of millions to billion of dollars.

The working class and middle class salary men who have bought into the common wisdom that the market always goes up over time and will beat inflation get fed to the "geeks" who are the most likely to blow them up. The trader/salesman gets his percentage. The company books the business. The investor takes all the risk and loss.

Lewis' own description of the practice: "In need of a euphemism for what we did with other people's money, we called it arbitrage, which was just plain obfuscation. Arbitrage means 'trading risklessly for profit.' Our investors always took risk; high-wire act would have been more accurate than arbitrage. In spite of the responsibility implied by my job, I was ignorant and malleable when I advised my first customers. I was an amateur pharmacologist, prescribing drugs without a license. The people who suffered as a result were, of course, my customers."

Lewis extends the metaphor. The brokerage house is basically a casino. The traders and salesmen are dealers. The markets, like the odds of winning a game of chance, are vaguely knowable, but entirely unpredictable. The investors are gamblers.

The difference, though, between Vegas and Wall Street is that people who go to Vegas know that they are gambling. People who take their money to Wall Street have been told that they are investing.

Lewis, to his credit, quits his job.

If you find yourself a little flummoxed by all of the financial reporting about our current economic meltdown, read Liar's Poker. It will help you make sense of it all.

After reading the reviews on Amazon, I was excited when this book finally arrived. However, after reading 3/4 of the book, I felt the reviews were highly misleading. Lewis is by no means a highly gifted writer. This book is sloppy and disorganized. He throws around dates and names in random pages, which leads the reader out of the loop. Most of the names could have been left out and weren't important to the story. A brief synopsis of the story goes like this "Yah, we made a lot of money in the 1980s at Salomon Brothers". And for the a whole synopsis, reiterate that 100 times in a 100 different ways. I'm so disappointed with this book.

Michael Lewis' story of investment banking in the 1980s deserves it classic status.

He writes about the investment bank Salomon Brothers from 1980 to 1987. The first years of Lewis' (nonfictional) story the bank does tremendously well, growing to the largest investment bank on Wall Street.

This fantastic growth is due mostly to the bond trading department. The new monetary policy paradigm, introduced by Fed chairman Paul Volcker, means interest rates vary wildly. That opens the door to trading opportunities.

In 1979 Lew Ranieri is made head of the mortgage operations of Salomon. He hardly makes any money before the Congress gives tax incentives to the savings and loans, if they sell their mortgages, in 1981. The development of the mortgage securities market is vividly described, and very interesting to read today.

From 1985, Salomon gets into trouble. The cunning Michael Milken makes junk bonds the new fad, and steals customers and traders away from Salomon.

Michael Lewis, the author, quits in 1988, and that ends the book. Salomon goes on until it is acquired by Travelers and then Citigroup in 1998.

Liar's Poker is easy and fun to read, despite being accurate and rather specific on many issues of bond trading. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the development of modern finance. It made me understand the crisis of 2009 better.

I am only half the way through the book and I have learned more about trading than the past 20 years. Like everyone I believed in the orderliness of the market. This book gives you great insight into the large trading companies like Salomon Brothers and the practices of the mortgage market. You will walk away with your head shaking. Incredible book.

Marty Lenow

Great read and good inside look at Wall Street in the 1980s. Haivng just finished Barbarians at the Gate (which I also highly recommend), I was searching for a similar read. An attorney for the RJR Special Committee recommended Liar's Poker as a great view inside. He was dead on.

Liar's Poker goes down in history as the first-ever "high financial thriller" of the non-fiction variety. The first fiction thrillers were Zero Coupon (1993) by Paul Erdman and my own Lost Trust: The Great Credit Crisis (see 25-Feb-09 PR: http://www.mmdnewswire.com/book-lost-trust-author-lang-gibson-4662.html). When just a kid in college, I remember my godfather giving Liar's Poker to me for Christmas, and it was the book that first got me excited to work in the institutional bond side of the business (1990-2008). Despite Michael's brilliant marketing abilities and warnings about Wall Street greed (as well as my own efforts to warn the relevant parties about subprime CDOs), we are now sadly witnessing the quick evaporation of Lewis's bond business (along with the economy). Some forces are too powerful to override.

While Liar's Poker does not explain brilliant things about Wall Street that you cannot learn from reading the news, it teaches the material in a far friendlier fashion. Lewis is able to translate his fantastic sense of humor onto paper better than most (why he was a good salesman for his short stint at Solly). As for the relevance of the book's material to the present day, there is a huge difference that many customer reviewers are missing. Lewis wrote about the creation of mortgage-backed securities (MBS), which slice and dice interest-rate-sensitive prepayment-risk. By contrast, subprime ABS tranche out credit risk, a far less forecastable and riskier event, especially with no economic data on national home price declines. Even more, the subprime ABS were packaged into my product, subprime ABS CDOs. That extra leverage from the extra layer of securitization (and the higher risk from subprime defaults vis-a-vis prepayment risk) was the medicine it took - along with absent regulation, where the Govt feigned the opposite - to blow it all up.

This is a prophetic story. Michael Lewis is a gifted writer. The ethos of our "credit society" is revealed, in no uncertain terms. A must read for all.

Liar's Poker is a game involving deceit, skill, and luck. "Liar's Poker," the book, is a much more interesting topic. Lewis was a Soloman Brothers bond salesman working mostly in London. The book's intent is to describe and explain events and attitudes of the 1986-era.

Wall Street was the "in thing" in the mid-1980s. Forty-percent of Yale's 1986 graduating class (1,300) applied to just a single bank - First Boston. Lewis graduated a few years earlier from Princeton (art history) and had just finished graduate studies at the London School of Economics when he was selected out of 6,000 applicants for one of 127 trainee positions at $48,000; fellow classmates included ten Harvard MBAs, 70 other MBAs, and 15 PhDs. Lewis' account of his training offers no lessons.

Soloman had a near monopoly on bond trading at the time, and by 1980 the mortgage market exceeded the U.S stock market. Soloman's mortgage bond trading made more in 1985 than the rest of Wall Street. The resulting giddy profits allowed employees to get away with incredible rowdy, boorish behavior.

An early major problem with mortgage bond trading was pension funds and foreign buyers' reluctance to get involved with instruments that could be paid off at any time. CMOs and tranches, introduced in 1983, resolved this problem - allowing buyers to select both the maturity period and risk desired. Eg. a first tranche contained maturities of 5 or less years, 2nd 7-15 years, 3rd 15-30 years.

After training, Lewis was sent to London and assigned to cold calling. Some Soloman traders would take advantage of customers and unload dogs that the firm was holding and couldn't get rid of; sometimes this bankrupted the customer or got the individual buyer fired. Lewis quickly learned better approaches - arbitrage, contrarian thinking, and exploiting secondary impacts (eg. buy oil after Chernobyl).

Another ethics problem Lewis encountered was a manager that claimed credit for one of Lewis' innovative sales. The "good news" was learning how Lewis cleverly obtained revenge.

Expense accounts for Lewis and his associates were unbelievable - $400/night for a hotel (almost 20-years later I was limited to $50). Lewis himself earned $90,000 his second year - half bonus.

Eventually Soloman's low ethics, free-spending, high charges, and the hundreds of alternative firms almost led to the London unit's demise. (The market was much more of an oligarchy in the U.S.) Regardless, the firm's bad decisions (eg. temporarily getting out of mortgages) and penny-pinching bonuses led to a serious brain drain.

The most interesting portion of the book is Lewis' knowledge of Michael Milken. Milken saw bonds from blue-chip companies as risky - little upside, lots of downside. (This was the era when American manufacturing was collapsing.) Small new companies and large old companies with problems could not persuade risk-averse commercial bankers and money managers to lend to them. Milken, however, analyzed the data and realized these risk premiums were excessive.

Soloman tried to get into the junk bond market, but was undercut by a top managers of its resuscitated mortgage bond unit who followed the junk-bond presenters around and undermined them. (Lack of top leadership?) The number of new junk bonds rose from nearly 0 in the 1970s to $839 million in 1981, and $12 billion in 1987 - 25% of the corporate bond market. The market further expanded by using junk bonds to finance raids on undervalued corporations, then for LBOs and M&A. Drexel Burnham (Milken's firm) netter fees of $100+ million for single takeovers. Soloman, however, misses out.

Lewis left, and shortly afterwards Buffett rescued the firm via a $700 million convertible preferred investment. A 1991 scandal involving government bonds led to Buffett taking over as CEO for ten months, and in 1997 the firm was sold to Citigroup.

This is an incredibly poignant book now that the market has collapsed and many of Michael's "characters" have come to justice or some other demise. The story is well written and, for me, an incredible job considering that I'm not a financial person. Once I picked it up, I could hardly put it down; and, that is saying a lot for a book on finance and Wall Street. Now that we find ourselves in the midst of the desolation created by a handful of incompetent, but clever, swindlers, this book clearly shows the reader how this happened. It is entertaining and scary at the same time. Lewis' writing is captivating and I plan to read his other works. Highly recommended.

Great book, definitely worth a read, especially if you're in the finance industry. Amazing that the mortgage bomb has finally exploded.

Brilliant! I recommend this book for anyone who wants to work on Wall Street. It's a brilliant account of what many on the street are like. Though it was written years ago...nothing has changed.

Michael Lewis does a brilliant job of bringing the reader onto the floor with the traders and playing poker with that dollar.

Michael Lewis does an excellent job describing the internal history of Salomon Brothers in the 1980s. He writes an easy-to-read narrative that is not only a pleasure to read, but is also a sarcastic and detailed examination of how business is done on Wall Street. While Lewis writes specifically about Salomon Brothers, it is not difficult to apply his various criticisms toward other firms.

I felt the book was split implicitly into three parts. First, Lewis describes his first impressions of Salomon Brothers, the training program, and his initial experiences getting the job. Second, he steps back from his autobiographical narrative and explains the bigger picture. He tells the reader of the people who ran and built the firm in New York, the crazy things that happened on the trading floor, and how the mortgage trading department grew from a one-man team to a behemoth that would dominate Wall Street. Finally, he returns to his autobiography and talks of his experiences as a bond salesman in the London office. He outlines the fateful events of late 1987 and finally describes his last day at Salomon in 1988.

In the third part, Lewis also gives a brief history of Michael Milken and his rise to power at Drexel Burnham. Lewis gives the reader a lesson on how junk bonds became popular (Milken essentially made the market for junk bonds, just as Lewie Ranieri did the same for mortgage bonds). He describes how the demand for junk bonds greatly exceeded the supply until a new use for junk bonds was found - financing leveraged buy-outs by corporate raiders.

This book is a very enjoyable read. It is not as vengeful as Monkey Business (also a great read, but very different), but more descriptive and historical in nature. I was a bit reminded of Barbarians at the Gate when reading it. I felt that I got a great overview of Salomon Brothers in the 80s and of the people who made the firm great, especially Lewie Ranieri. Lewis also does an excellent job describing various finance concepts that he discusses throughout the book. He keeps things simple but he doesn't leave out details that would leave me hanging. That was very thoughtful of him, in my opinion.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the corporate culture on Wall Street in the 1980s. It's a quick, easy, and enjoyable read.

Pros:
+ great historical overview of Salomon Brothers in the 80s
+ sharp, insightful, and satirical - an excellent look at Wall Street corporate culture
+ lots of interesting detail on people who built markets in the 80s
+ good definitions and descriptions of several financial concepts
+ fun to read!

Cons:
- a relatively small window into the history of the firm
- ends in 1988; would be great to see another edition wrapping up Salomon's story

Michael Lewis details his short career on Wall Street working with Salmon Brokers as a trader (working both in the US and Europe). Lewis provides a description of the rise and fall of the mortgage bond market at Salomon Brothers as well his experience with other derivative markets. Included in the book are several outlandish incidents that went on behind the scenes at Salomon brothers. Many of the undertakings by the high net worth investment professionals will leave you taken aback as their actions show an often significant lack of any real viable market knowledge.

Beyond some revelations revealing the sophomoric attitudes of the investment professionals and a peripheral description of the financial markets, Liar's Poker offers little insight that one would not acquire by working as a temp at any major brokerage firm. Expecting to find a perceptive analysis on the financial markets, I was disappointed only to find a marginal account of the industry and some commentary on the author's personal experiences. Lewis is not a bad writer, as he proved to be witty at times, but the material becomes monotonous rather quickly.

Good book, just not the cult classic I heard about. If you're not into stocks, bonds, the market, etc it's not for you. I think the author was very humble abous his own success, but in the end I think the book itself is overrated.

I am an experienced,well educated, retired, 63 year old entrpreuneur that is making a 20% return in this down market. I read a lot, but I have learned to read the 5 star and the 1 star reviews before wasting my most valuable asset, my precious time, and then buying a book like this. Look at the reviews if you are like me you will find that Michael(they'll never call him Mike) Lewis thinks this is a game not his future. After graduating from Princeton as an Art Major, ourl ittle micheal spent 2 years at Saloom Brother's as a flunky. Never mind, I too was a flunky for a small investment banker at his age while attending Univ. of Washington but then again I couldn't draw so I studied Samualson in Economics 101 and know why oil went from $147 to $42 in the last 6 months. Hint it has something to do with how prices are set at the margin. The lower reviewers called this author's opinion drival and a waste of time and these reviewers seem older, like me. But the book got the highest star rating I have seen, so now I feel out numbered by the young naive, economic ignoramuses who are a few years out of a liberal collage, who will miss the opportunity to see oil go back up soon and are head for a life of financial mediocracy and jealousy.
If describes you buy this book.

Meanwhile I am still looking for a worthwhile,rigorous read about the challenges for the Obama nation because in this market you can monatize real knowledge a sthe ignorant herds fear to double downat life's poker table.
I have two beautiful daughters who are also young and naive, but I hope they never date little michael. I have supported them for 25 year's and while they are working hard making it on there own, no one needs an anchor. Of course again maybe Michael will be the next Rembrandt.

First half = interesting. Second half = kinda boring. Lewis has inspired me to write a better insider's account of Wall Street.

This was a pretty good book because it tells you things that make you want to keep listening, it holds your attention. You will learn some things from this book. The only bad thing about this book that i didnt like was how the author occasionally went off on unusual/complicated tangents when describing things. The kind of sentences you have to read atleast 3 times.....but i still recommend it. FIASCO was also very good.

sayanora

Anyone looking for an idea of what its like to work at an investment bank MUST read this book.

This book was so inspirational and superb it may have changed my life. It changed my perspective on things and it was so funny and enlightening it in a way contributed to helping me go from a Junior Manager in a Fortune 500 company to Head of Division with responsibility over 15 countries in an International Fortune 500 Company...a must read for any MBA or graduate diving into the corporate rat race and wanting to know - is anything possible? the answer is yes. Depends how you do it...A great read. Thanks!

Michael Lewis describes his corner of wall street pretty well. The 1980s bond market. He continually contrasts the practice and culture of trading bonds with the dogma of Economics.

Over the course of the book it becomes easy to draw parallels between Wall Street and Feudal Europe. The Economists are like the Catholic Church in Feudal Europe. The Traders are like the Nobles and Royalty in Medieval Europe. The Job of the Nobles is to fight other Nobles over the right to control land, rent, and protection fees. The Job of the Church is to teach people who aren't Nobles that they should do what the Nobles tell them to. In exchange, the Church will occasionally ask the Nobles to behave a little better.

This book should be required reading for all wanna be I-bankers. The author very convincingly describes the inner workings of a major financial institution. From the outside, the public only sees the expensive suits and tall glass buildings and are suitably impressed by the knowledge and skills of those who works inside. But the author takes us behind the doors to show frighteningly how the lifeblood of the world is controlled by a bunch of 25 year olds who have little idea of the magnitude of their actions.

Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker is a must read for anyone trying to understand the 2008 crisis in mortgage lending and home ownership. In fact, a new edition of the book should be published with a forward by Ben Bernake or Hank Paulson. The autobiography describes a mid-1980's newbie to Wall Street and his induction into the fraternity of mortgage traders at Salomon Brothers and junk bond traders at Drexel. This book rises above a rite of passage story because of the financial chaos which happened during the next three decades.

The 41st trading floor of Salomon Brothers is where millions of dollars exchange hands in minutes. There is a blue collar culture of practical jokes, profanity, Mexican food and pizza. The characters might have come right out of Damon Runyon or Animal House. The main difference between the interns, the traders and the clerks is neither their demeanor nor education but their wealth. In contrast to other books which tell us about the best and the brightest, this book describes ordinary people with excess body fat, perspiration, greed and wealth.

As more homeowners face foreclosure and the US dollar loses value, it is not clear what message to derive from this book. Were it not for these failures of economic policy the book would join other interesting stories about the rich and privileged of Wall Street. But because of this failure of oversight, the book takes us from humor to cynicism and from a sense of national pride to a feeling of national shame.

Is there a ratio of capitalistic reward to risk which is unconscionable in a democratic society? Can this behavior be limited or controlled by financial transparency, tax code, money supply and credit leverage? How do we avoid these consequences of the creation and destruction of capital without moving down the path of socialism? Can we ever put to rest the saying that behind every great fortune is a great crime?

Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker is a must read for anyone trying to understand the 2008 crisis in mortgage lending and home ownership. In fact, a new edition of the book should be published with a forward by Ben Bernake or Hank Paulson. Although an autobiography about a mid-1980's newbie to Wall Street and his induction into the fraternity of mortgage traders at Salomon Brothers, this book rises above a rite of passage story because of the financial chaos which is happening three decades later.

The 41st trading floor of Salomon Brothers is where millions of dollars exchange hands in minutes. There is a blue collar culture of practical jokes, profanity, Mexican food and pizza. The characters might have come right out of Damon Runyon or Animal House. The main difference between the interns, the traders and the clerks is neither their demeanor nor education but their wealth. In contrast to other books which tell us about the best and the brightest, this book describes ordinary people with excess body fat, perspiration, greed and wealth.

As more homeowners face foreclosure and the US dollar loses value, it is not clear what message to derive from this book. Were it not for these failures of economic policy the book would join other interesting stories about the rich and privileged of Wall Street. But because of this failure of oversight, the book takes us from humor to cynicism and from a sense of national pride to a feeling of national shame.

Is there a ratio of capitalistic reward to risk which is unconscionable in a democratic society? Can this behavior be limited or controlled by financial transparency, tax code, money supply and credit leverage? How do we avoid these consequences of the creation and destruction of capital without moving down the path of socialism? Can we ever put to rest the saying that behind every great fortune is a great crime?

Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker is a must read for anyone trying to understand the 2008 crisis in mortgage lending and home ownership. In fact, a new edition of the book should be published with a forward by Ben Bernake or Hank Paulson. Although an autobiography about a mid-1980's newbie to Wall Street and his induction into the fraternity of mortgage traders at Solomon Brothers, this book rises above a rite of passage story because of what has happened in the subsequent three decades since its publication.

The 41st trading floor of Solomon Brothers is where millions of dollars exchange hands in minutes. There is a blue collar culture of practical jokes, profanity, Mexican food and pizza. The characters might have come right out of Damon Runyon or Animal House. The main difference between the interns, the traders and the clerks is neither their demeanor nor education but their wealth. In contrast to the books which tell us about the best and the brightest, this book describes ordinary people with excess body fat, perspiration, greed and wealth.

As more homeowners face foreclosure and the US dollar loses value, it is not clear what message to derive from this book. Were it not for these failures of economic policy the book would join many other interesting stories about the rich and privileged of Wall Street. But because of these events, the book takes us from humor to cynicism and from a sense of national pride to a feeling of national guilt.

Is there a level of capitalistic reward to risk which is unconscionable in a democratic society? Can this behavior be limited or controlled by tax code, money supply and credit leverage? How do we avoid these consequences of the creation and destruction of capital without moving down the path of socialism? Can we ever put to rest the saying that behind every great fortune is a great crime?

An entertaining look into the life of a Salomon Brothers bond trader in the 1980s. The book offers a cursive overview of the financial innovations during that period, but the real contribution is in examination of the culture and the personalities of the Wall Street traders. Not without some embellishment, Michael Lewis does a great job of communicating the eccentricities and absurdities of the traders - 'the big swinging dicks'. At the very least, 'Liar's Poker' is an entertaining read, at best, an insightful look at what (and who) turns the wheels of our financial institutions.

this book is a must read if you are getting into the financial industry along with "when genius failed" and others.

OUTSTANDING!! This is the single best book I've ever read for learning the basics of life in a Wall St. investment bank. Very accessible and humorous, yet informative as well.

This is a great book. I mean, everyone else says so, so they can't be wrong. Yes, I want a job on wall street.

I thought this would be more interesting. I still haven't finished the book and I bought it over 6 months ago. It's just dry. If you've ever worked on the floor of an actual exchange this is like kissing your sister. I have a totally different view of trading in the 80's and institutional trading isn't it

Much of what Lewis' writes about is true. Particularly as a trainee investment banker you are thrown in and expected to know how financial markets work. I have been a banker for 20 years and can only now confidently say I know half of what I am talking about. Mind you most clients I talk to really don't have a clue - another anecdote that Lewis brings to life. This is a great read for those with insight or interest in the Wall Street set, fast paced and so funny because its true. On top of it all, it offers great insight into an interesting part of financial history, much of which has parallels to the 2007 Credit Crisis - happy reading

When I bought the book, I expected it to be a funny narration of the wall street life in 80s. And the first 70-80 pages kept me quite entertained. Well written and funny ! Its the second half of the book which becomes more rhetorical with a dull narration of the events and developments on the Wall street. Perhaps my expectations from the book were unrealistic. I would recommend Monkey Business if someone wants to have a real laugh at the wall street world.