Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read
Review: LIAR'S POKER is a good read. This book offers a clever, even funny, first-hand analysis of what wrong with American business during the end of the 1980's. Author Michael Lewis provides a fascinating explanation, from an insider's point of view, of how those involved in the highest levels of the financial community made their obscene amounts of money--and how they destroyed the nation's economy in the process. His report is revelatory indeed. Anybody with an interest in the history of American business, or a curiosity about the high life in New York during an overheated decade, will find that LIAR'S POKER offers a great amount of detail.
Rating: 
Summary: An amusing memoir, no more
Review: While Lewis does a fine job as he writes a personal memoir of his time at Solomon Brothers in the mid-1980's, he soon loses focus of his main storyline. Lewis wanders off for three chapters to describe the creation of a home mortgage market and the personalities involved. It is as if Lewis or his editor suddenly decided that the amusing anecdotes of life on Wall Street were fine pulp, but needed to be framed in the context of historical substence in order for the book to be seen as respectable. (Ironically, Lewis's account of the rise to power of Michael Milken is more gripping, perhaps because Lewis was more directly affected by Milken's ambitions.) The evolution of equities as an investment is ignored almost completely, leaving the reader to wonder how, in the span of two years or so, the equities department of Solomon Brothers could go from "powerless" to surviving the layoffs started days before the crash of '87 to being the reason Solomon Brothers had its worst year in history. The author is inconsistent in his granting of pseudonyms or anonymity, naming a great many employees by name while protecting a chosen few. All in all, Liar's Poker is a quick, sometimes amusing account of Lewis's time at Solomon Brothers, but little more.
Rating:
Summary: Aspirational?
Review: I read liar's poker on the sunday i reached my b-school campus, monday was to be my first day towards an mba. I can still recall myself laughing away in the night hoping that neighbours dont find me crazy.Liar's poker is witty, makes sense either has you aspire to be on the street or makes you nod your head saying "I knew they are all rotten a lot". There are some who cant read beyond page 50, seriously disgusted at the mockery made of a serious bond deal. What is great about liars poker is the queerness of the characters and the fact that the author in principle hates what he is doing yet in life loves veery moment of it, or at least aspires to. The Human Pirhana is my personel favourite..a Harvard grad and the master of ... speak...its definitely well written. The book is not about its story, or the philosopical interpretations one may make about it..its simply a adrenalin driven story of a breed of people who thrive on risk, who leave their morals on their bed when they wake up, whose business is to play with money, whose religion is to make money on the seventh decimal place of the value of a bond...who havge guts of steel to be able to have a coffee after suffering a milion dollar loss, and ac as if nothing happenned after they make a milion..of course the do shout it on the hoot and the holler!!! This is not a finance book, its a book about a breed of people, their life, their world, their religion, where all that maktters is how strong you are inside, how worthy a man (yes) are you, what kind of life do you want it to be... Read it wheher you are into finance of not, it would be an enjoyable experience.
Rating:
Summary: A well written and extremely funny book
Review: I could not put the book down once I started reading it. The books is extremely funny and very well written. If you like this book, you might like Mokey Business by John Rolfe and Peter Troob. Looking into the state of market and the scandals that have wrecked investor confidence, I would have to believe in what the author has written.
Rating:
Summary: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street
Review: As described by Lewis, liar's poker is a game played in idle moments by workers on Wall Street, the objective of which is to reward trickery and deceit. With this as a metaphor, Lewis describes his four years with the Wall Street firm Salomon Brothers, from his bizarre hiring through the training program to his years as a successful bond trader. Lewis illustrates how economic decisions made at the national level changed securities markets and made bonds the most lucrative game on the Street. His description of the firm's personalities and of the events from 1984 through the crash of October 1987 are vivid and memorable. Readers of Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities ( LJ 11/15/87) are likely to enjoy this personal memoir. BOMC and Fortune Book Club selection.
Rating:
Summary: One of the top financial books of all time
Review: Michael should never have wasted his time - and sullied his reputation - by writing his paean to Jim Clark, the elder statesman of the 'dot bomb' generation ("The Next Next Thing") By doing so, he missed out on the real story of the age. But hey, no one's perfect. "Liar's Poker" about the Wall Street of the 1980s and is one of THE finest books about the realities of that perenially shaddy business. Anyone who read it, and took its message to heart, would have seen the 'dot bomb' coming from a mile away. Too bad publishers weren't buying THAT story. Lewis is a thoroughly entertaining writer. "Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street" is a newly minted subtitle of which I thoroughly disapprove. There has been no 'rising' since 1980. It's been fraud piled upon fraud as Michael knows better than most. I worked on "The Street" in the 1980s and his account is 100% accurate - which should have scared the heck out of any investor with a brain.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular!
Review: This was a really funny book that also gave me quite an education in investment banking and the world of finance. "Liar's Poker" is very well-written, and keeps things moving. While the subject matter may be complicated, Lewis keeps it comprehensible to those of us who don't have an MBA. It's fascinating to see how the big players work the markets - and in some cases, manipulate them outright. Indeed, "Liar's Poker" gives us a front-row seat to the creation of the mortgage-backed debt obligations that are commonly traded today, and that allowed the current real estate bubble to inflate as large as it has. Lewis' analysis of Salomon and its problems applies in many respects to professional service firms in general. Having worked in a law firm during the recent boom years, I can say that rapid growth and an abundance of cash can lead to hubris, disorganization, and a loss of core values. Lawyers, accountants, and anyone else who works at a professional service firm will particularly enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Read This Book!
Review: Great read. Insightful and funny. Strongly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Ignore Uninformed reviews
Review: This book has received several one-star reviews from persons who apparently either believe it concerns poker card strategies or think that they have hit upon a clever way to promote someone else's books. They are wrong on both accounts. This is an important document from the last financial slump of the late '80s and early '90s describing how stock brokers are given incentives to dump losing stocks on small clients as a way to prop up the returns for their employers' own in-house accounts. Hence, the ability to claim that X bank has been able to achieve a phenomenal return on its own investments--just think what X bank can do for you! Well, thanks to this book, now we know: X bank can unload all of its junk on you and laugh maniacally as your account evaporates. Timely reading for the current financial scandals.
Rating:
Summary: an insightful look at Wall Street from the inside
Review: A well-written book that exposes the "Money-is-God" attitude of Wall Street. From the profane, fat, slovenly, polyester-wearing traders that stuff their mouths all day long, to the frat-boy Ivy League trainees who heave paper-wads at the Salomon directors speaking in the training classes, one gets a highly accurate picture of the inside of a Wall Street investment banking firm. I was particularly amused by two anecdotes; the author had his first encounter with Salomon Brothers when he was seated next to the wife of a Salomon director at a St. James Palace dinner hosted by the Queen Mother. Of course, as close as she would get to the guests would be to stroll out of the room followed by her trained Corgi dogs who genuflect every 15 seconds. Perhaps insulted by the Queen Mother's indifference at her presence, the director's wife shouted out, "Hey Queen, nice dogs you have there!" after she passed. The second amusing anecdote occurs when the author is interviewed several times but not offered a job. Eventually a friend tells him that Salomon does not actually offer someone a job. Consequently, the author calls up the firm and says, "I accept the position", upon which he is welcomed as a new member of Salomon Brothers. The book also exposes the dirty little secret that Wall Street makes its money by entering into adversarial relationships with their clients. The author refers to this as "taking the other side of the fool". Specifically, Wall Street attempts to keep spreads on securities artificially wide in order to pocket that spread, for which they were ultimately busted by the SEC and heavily fined. They also hype stocks that they know are garbage because they have investment banking relationships with those companies (Merrill Lynch was just busted for this by the state of New York and heavily fined). Also, the investment banking fees they charge their clients to raise capital are grossly excessive, but their clients are too naive to understand this, or perhaps more accurately do not even care. Ultimately, the decline of the company that is chronicled in the book provides the following insight; even though Salomon always tried to hire the best and the brightest, this "talent" was eventually negated by the incompetence that arises from any hierarchical organization. That is to say, the brilliance of the few is always neutralized by the incompetence of the many inherent in the corporate structure.
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