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

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Summary: Th book that many try to copy
Review: This is one of the most informative and witty books about Wall Street. If you read this, The Predators Ball, and Money Culture, you can call yourself an informed investor. This book shows us the personal side of Wall Street, not just charts and numbers (although some personalities are based on these numbers). A Great read, well worth the money and time.

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Summary: one man's struggle with enormous wealth....
Review: excellent account of the excess wealth generated by traders in the 1980s. Tells of below-average intelligence generating billions of dollars, and the resulting downfall of Salomon Brothers due to the management myopia. a must read.

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Summary: Have you read Candide? Read Liar's Poker
Review: Liar's Poker reminded me of Voltaire's Candide and gave me comparable laughs. When a trader tells the young trainee Lewis that he is lower than "whale shit on the ocean floor", he recoils to a corner at the trading room "feeling the warmth of the whale shit". This is one of the funniest books I've read. Cynical, with the perfect timing of comedy, full of insights into the machinery of greed, it portrays Wall Street as the ship of fools. And at the last chapter, if you read between the lines, you will agree that he, too, concludes that the best choice is still to care for you own garden... Read it and enjoy! Believe me, I never lie.

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Summary: It made me laugh, it made me cry......
Review: **** I read this book in my last undergraduate year of college. At that time, Lewis provided me with an eye-opening, first-hand glance of life in the high-flying world of finance (1980's) and the personalities that drove that period forward. It was relevant reading material since I was intending to pursue a career in the financial services industry, and here was a book written by a former bond salesman in the New York and London offices of Salomon Brothers. **** Nevertheless, this book is not limited to only those interested or involved in the world of business. This book is for anybody who is curious how the S&L crisis emerged; how the Reagan administration's deregulations affected the salaries of a select few in the US financial industry; how much the tax burden of the average American citizen grew as a result. This book is perfect for those who dislike the dry writing found in historical textbooks. **** Lewis's anecdotes will leave you in stitches! I am now working in the financial services industry. Most of the people I run into seem to have read this book at an earlier age and most enjoyed it as much as I did. **NOTE** Other "financial history" books that could be compared to "Liar's Poker", but written with very different writing styles: "Merchants of Debt" by George Anders; "Barbarians at the Gate".

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Summary: A poignant memoir
Review: After reading Liar's Poker, you'll feel as I do that you have lived through the '80s on Wall Street with Lewis.

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Summary: An insider's view of Solly
Review: 'Liar's Poker' is worth a read if you want an insider's account of life on Wall Street. The book doesn't pretend to glorify the easy money that Lewis and his ilk made during the bond schlepping go-go days of the 1980s. Rather, Lewis is disillusioned by the greedy culture and hypocritical short-sightedness at Salomon Brothers, but not enough that he doesn't enjoy the ride for a few oh-so-profitable years. Like his other books, 'Liar's Poker' is fun to read. His anecdotes about the training program and the trading floor, albeit surely embellished, read like a day at the amusement park. The key shortcoming is an oozy 20-something self-righteousness that pervades many of the book's chapters, and reaches a crescendo in the final pages. But hey, arrogance begets credibility. And when it comes to describing Wall Street in the 80s, Lewis is as credible a spokesman as anyone.

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Summary: the good old days
Review: read this book, you'll know if wall street is for you. there hasn't been a better book since.

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Summary: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street
Review: I picked up a copy of this book after reading Moneyball - Michael Lewis's book on the business of baseball (an excellent book that I have now read several times). Although Wall Street does not hold the interest to me that baseball does, this is an entertaining and informative book on big money trading in the 80's. I was engaged from start to finish with the personalities of the folks at Salomon Brothers (the firm which Lewis trained and worked for). Although I am not familiar with the details of bond trading, this was a facinating journey and well told. Fun to read about Milken, Perelman, Icahn from the days when they were only known by readers of the Wall Street Journal and not household names. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys finding out about corporate culture and how the personalities of the individual can shape and effect the whole. Then pick-up Moneyball and see how a maverick personality has started to effect change in baseball.



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Summary: Go "Long" on this One!
Review: I had long heard nothing but great things about "Liar's Poker" but it was not until I found myself in an airport bookstore before a cross-country "red eye" that I decided to read it. It was no disappointment--the book reads like a novel, and Mr. Lewis blends a perfect mixture of sardonic irreverence with a traders' "greed" to land the bull's eye. As someone familiar with bond trading, "Liar's Poker" was still informative and an enjoyable read; and quick too--the entire book was finished by the time my flight landed in LA!

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Summary: A Wall Street Classic
Review: Sell your soul and buy this book with the change! I read this book -several times- a good few years ago and having just picked up a new copy and finished it in one go, it is still a classic read after all these years. Michael Lewis's behind the scenes peek at Wall Street's 'Greed is Good' mentality of Salomon's bond dealers in the 1980's, is a book that gets a hook in you from the very start. People still talk about this book after a decade, it's that good. Read it and believe it.