Review of
Instaread
Summary of Liar’s Poker Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street,
by Michael Lewis
First and
foremost, I have witnessed people very good at the game called liar’s poker
playing it. Each person pulls out a dollar bill, looks at the serial numbers
and then makes claims regarding the digits. Pairs, three of a kind and so
forth. The best ones are able to bluff their way to a victory many times,
always acting like they have the hand to back up their claims. It is an
excellent analogy to use in describing the investment firm of Salomon Brothers,
a once massive form that was the largest investment banking firm in the United
States in the 1980s. It no longer exists as their overreach over investments
led to the downfall.
The book is a
revelatory expose of the bad boy, teenager behavior of the people that were
managing accounts worth millions. While there is always some value in pranks
and other silliness in relieving tension, the descriptions at times are
incredible. Investment bankers are commonly depicted as neat dressers,
thoughful people that understand the financial world and only make decisions
based on sound analysis. “Like a rock” hardly describes how these guys behaved.
Many people
will believe that it makes little sense to relive the 1980s regarding the
modern financial world, arguing that too much has changed. Yet, as is pointed
out in this summary, the seeds of the financial collapse of 2008 were sown in
the deregulatory furor of the 1980s.
The summary of the behavior of Salomon Brothers in
general and the particular employees described will disturb people that want
their money to be safe and sound, not a toy for little boys inhabiting big boy
bodies. It does what all such books should do, it gives you enough information
in order to make a decision whether to read the entire book. I was appalled by
the small amount of information contained in this summary, “Wall Street greed”
is a common complaint, from this summary you can add a few other negative
phrases to create an accurate description.
This book was made available for free for review purposes
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