Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street (25th Anniversary Edition)

Read this. Read The Big Short. Read Predator's Ball. Read A Random Walk Down Wall Street. Then go take all your IRA funds and transfer them to Vanguard and manage your own money. Or better yet, buy real estate.

My daughter graduated from Princeton in 1999. She knew many of the young men who graduated with finance degrees and headed off to New York City and the promise of Wall Street and all the fast talking and fast living young men and women who left to seek their fortunes. A few decades earlier, a firm as Soloman recruited heavily from the Ivy's. They promised these young graduates untold riches in exchange for three years of their lives non-stop hawking the Soloman product to the unsuspecting investment public. Once on "the floor" they all participated in a game known as Liar's Poker. It was a game of gross deception and bluffing. Greed, gluttony were the operative words and the sales representatives were encouraged to say anything short of breaking the rather soft and unenforceable laws governing financial investment brokers. I can tell you that real estate agents were held to a higher code than these sharks of Wall Street. And once they had pushed the product beyond its limits, failures that were experienced in the 1980's and once again in 2008 come home to roost.

Lewis worked the phones initially in the 1980's and became very successful at his trade at Saloman. He finally left the den of thieves, moved to London and began his investment career away from the canyons of Wall Street. But as you know, all the financial markets are interrelated and they take the financial "whales" for all they are worth regardless of the location of their license.

I can't blame the graduates for simply trying to be the best that they could be in defrauding the investment public of billions of dollars. That's how they were taught and that's how they were trained. Anything less than full compliance to the company code and they were out the door. And the rewards were greater than they had ever imagined. And there was enough to go around for everyone if they followed the company's line and were successful. When you play with someone else's money, you can afford to be generous. And then as we discovered in the 2008 debacle, all the 401's and retirement funds took a hit for pennies , real estate tanked and the can't fail industrials tanked as well. And these Wall Street "maggots" played the game of Liar's Poker to the maximum. They bluffed their way to off shore accounts worth billions and assumed liability for "screwing" the investment public to the wall for lack of legal enforcement on either a state or federal level. They committed grand larceny and few went to prison.

Michael Lewis is to be commended for literally blowing the whistle and letting us all in on investment schemes. It was a little too late to be much of value. But at least we could spend our nights reading how we lost our fortunes instead of counting our money. Sad isn't it? But when it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. But greed takes over on both sides of the equation. The folks who must win to keep the scam afloat walk away with a boat load of money while the rest of us are left in a sinking ship.

Beware of any commissioned salesperson. Beware of stock brokers. They get their cut on the way in as well as on the way out regardless of whether you profit or not. Don't let the fox in the hen house. Get smart and be cautious because the money you lose may be your own.

The subject matter of this book is somewhat dated... the bond market in the 1980s... yet, having read it 10 yrs ago, I just gave it as a Christmas present. Anyone familiar with Michael Lewis knows what a utterly entertaining writer he is. In this, his first book, Mr. Lewis treats a serious subject with his wonderful style of humor.

I enjoy reading most of Michael Lewis's work, this is definitely one of his best books. It's a really interesting perspective of how it all works, seeing that he started from the dirt and build himself up, and totally fascinating to see how someone progresses in the finance game. Definitely makes finance seem exciting and fun. I found it very interesting when he started talking about Michael Milken and the impact he had, and then even mentioned Buffet.

Just finished this book and couldn't put it down. Michael Lewis weaves a story of what makes our financial system the greatest and the worst in the world. Salomon Brothers training system and cut throat ways are something out of a Hollywood story and Michael ties it all together to show you the absurdity of the investment world and how the sucker in the room is the one who doesn't know the answers before the question is asked.

I first read Michael Lewis's Flashboys and in addition to content, I liked his writing style. It turned out that Liar's Poker is even more entertaining. I'm glad he gave up selling bonds and got into writing. The book us entertaining, educational, humorous, and timely with the collapse of Salomon Brothers and the recent Great Recession. P

Michael Lewis writes so well, and knows this topic in depth from experience........when you finish the last page all you can think is that Wall Street is a sociopathic society feeding on the carcass of the American public.

A fascinating look into 1980s Wall Street with detailed and funny anecdotes. But you can get lost in the details of the financial industry at the time, and it can seem like the author is holding back at times.

After reading other reviews I decided to purchase this book but I was greatly disappointed when I received it. I started reading it and put it down about half way through and haven't picked it up since. This was a boring rendition of what day in day out work was like in the author's experience. I was thinking it would be more of the exciting, once or twice a month days when something wild would happen in the markets or when the day got so boring that everyone played pranks, gambled, and where mischievous all around.

I purchased this book after reading the follow-up book "The Big Short." This book is good although not quite as compelling as "The Big Short." It gives an interesting insider perspective to the financial industry. Thankfully the author does not drag politics into the book - rather it is an honest account of his experience as a trainee at Solomon Brothers and covers the first years of his career there.

This is an incredibly interesting and factual account of the author's life in 'high finance' and his world travels including the office fights which he was involved in. I'm sure that there are many people who have been included in the book who wish that they hadn't been. Well worth reading.

Back in 2008 I was wondering how the financial sector could fail so big, and after reading Liar's Poker I finally have the answer.
So many too young people without the necessary education fueled by greed playing with more money than "normal" can imagine, is a recipe for disaster .
It is fun to read about, and the story are well written. Absolutely a good read, and I feel more prepared for the future, because I am pretty sure that it will go wrong again, as long the financial sector doesn't get any wiser or the political system sets some borders.

As a current Mortgage bond trader, this was an essential reading to get familiar with the history of the market. It is written well, it goes into the sales and trading model that is essential to understand for every new person getting into Wall St. Much of the technical aspects of MBS trading and securitization is redundant now as the advancement in computers have made complex cash flow modeling easier. So much of the arbitrage depicted in the book does not happen now. But it is essential to understand the trader mentality of those days. Now most of the traders are Quants and this culture does not exist. But Solomon brothers like LTCM was one of the defining firms on Wall st and no one could have told the story better than Michael Lewis.

I enjoyed the book because I had interviewed with Salomon in the mid 70s but was rejected; someone told me they were not hiring women at the time in the corporate finance dept. This book gives a very good insight into the trading floors of the investment banks and written from a first person viewpoint, it makes the story more interesting.

I'm curious as to Salomon's reaction to Lewis' book written only a year or two after he left the company it seems.

A great read, filling in so many details of which I was only aware of some but not all. He did a great job fleshing out the stock market debacle, doing so in a way that was readily readable and entertaining!

This book gives an insider view of the workings of Wall Street. If everyone would read the book, there probably wouldn't be too many investors believing much of what Wall Street salesmen tell them anymore. If you not an insider, you probably should minimize your transactions with these hucksters.

Lewis is always entertaining. That he wrote this at such a young age is still impressive. It's hard to convey cleverness in black and white, especially when the subject material is so vividly tied to our image of Wall Street, but Lewis does so throughout.

Good breezy read - lots of interesting characters and events that make for a good tale. Wall Street products and concepts were generally well-explained, some of the more convoluted ones glossed over. Overall a fast casual read. But in hindsight I would rather not have purchased this - more of a book to read once, not to be owned and flicked through over and over again.

Michael Lewis has a gift for condensing vast complexity into easily understood prose, and then making it, in turn, funny, sad, outrageous, and poignant. Now a celebrity writer, he will never again be as innocent and humble as he was when writing this, the first of his mega-hit books.

This is the true standard. If you are interested in Wall Street, or just want a good read, this book is the one to read. Things have changed drastically over the past few decades but it is the one book to read above all others for one mans view of Wall Street during the '80s. I'd recommend this, then follow with When Genius Failed.

For anyone that invests or contemplating investing in the bond market this is a real eye opener. I always thought they were crooks and now I know they are. The author's first job out of college was with a Wall Street firm and this is his story, but more than that it is a well researched analysis of the 80's bond market and the first phase of the sub prime mortgage crisis.
To see out it all turns out, read "The Big Short" by the same author. Even scarier.
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This book is an interesting, readable, easy to follow and informative book. It throws light on aspects of how the wall street works, this is very revealing for people like me who are not familiar with the inner functioning of that system, specially as concerned with human relationships.

so basically knowing nothing to very little about wall street, michael lewis gives an insightful and funny look at the craziness that seems to be wall street. I enjoyed lewis' style in moneyball, and in what seems to be his debut novel, his style is already in play. Some of the money terms whizzed by me, but the story of salomon brothers 'demise' was well-told and I actually picked up some money knowledge. Well-told and enjoyable.

This books lays the groundwork for the near financial collapse of 2008. The personalities, attitudes and world views of the jerks that nearly destroyed our economy are starkly portrayed from the perspective of an insider. Lewis is an engaging writer that brings humor and human nature into all his work. The amazing thing is that the characteristics of the jerks has become the norm and the acolytes of greed have risen to new heights of political power and influence along with their vulgarity and lack of values. Wall Street is a zero sum game--with a lot more losers than winners. Hard to put down once started.

If you are interested in share trading or investing then this an interesting book on what goes on behind the scenes and how the markets are biased against you. His other book the Big Short is also fascinating

If you are interested in share trading or investing then this an interesting book on what goes on behind the scenes and how the markets are biased against you. His other book the Big Short is also fascinating

Having read a number of Michael Lewis books decided to go back in time to read Liars Poker. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I am trying to figure out exactly why I enjoy his writing so much...it is easy to read, informative, at times funny, and the subjects are invariably very interesting.

Anyway...a great read cannot recommend it highly enough.

A great book and an instant classic. Anyone interested in wall street should check out this book. It's a quick and easy read and provides a great birds eye view of the players and the firms of the era. Extraordinarily entertaining to boot.

So my take away is that the financial industry was populated with a mixture of vial semi-sociopaths who compete on the field of "not on my watch" to lure and pressure suckers into a game that even few in the industry understand.
But since it was written way back in 1989, I am sure that they have cleaned up their act before anything really bad could happen . . . right?

Intriguing. This book provides a sharp "insider" view of the Saloman brother's structure. (apparently very authentic for an outsider such as me) Even without a high level of details, which this book has, it is still a brilliant story. I will recommend this book.

Read this book before reading Lewis' other book "The Big Short". Eye opening. Screw ethics, how the hell do you unload junk to the uninformed investor could be an alternate title. Would make a great Scorsese movie.

If you've been following the events on Wall Street for the past 3 years or so, you'd think you'd heard it all. Well, if you'd purchased Liar's Poker when it was published, you'd have heard it all then. Michael Lewis was there in the waning hours of Salomon Brothers and he captured the psyche of traders and investment firms in this revealing and hilarious expose'. Liar's Poker should be required reading for anyone involved in financial services.

For me, this book gave me a fascinating insight into what happened during some very turbulent years at Salomon Brothers and also an insight into the thinking inside of an investment banking operation. As Lewis tells the story from a personal perspective, this book offers both an opportunity to understand how the financial world worked back then, but also follow a well told story. I would definitely recommend you to read this book.

Michael Lewis has a fantastic ability to explain the work that goes on in a large financial institution in a very easy to understand and relatable way. He mixes this in with hilarious anecdotes and characters from his personal experiences to make a book bond trading into a captivating story.

Recently went back and read this again. So rather than reading some of the current...so-called-best sellers, a great option would be to purchase this book and read it. Michael Lewis is an author, who cares enough about his readers, not to create blathering billousing paragraphs that are irrelevant to the topic but fill up some more pages so the author can move on to their "next" book.

Of course, in this day and age, when anything without endless nudity and sentences whose demarcation begins and ends with curse words, this book has not sold as many copies as Fifty Shades of Filth, but it should. It's certainly much better and the author (Michael Lewis) is a treasure, with actual intelligence. And writing ability. (Unlike, say, the "author" of Fifty Shades of Filth.