I picked up Liar’s Poker from a colleague’s desk drawn
to its WallStreet setting but also a bit skeptical about its 1980s timeline and
also its old edition.
However, it turned out to be a different kind of
reading experience as it was laced with witty humor and traced the author’s
journey into the job world out from college. Unlike him I never started in an
Investment bank but I could recognize the feelings he had while undergoing training.
The book provided me with a much needed insight into
one of the key financial crisis preceding my arrival on Earth. I’ve to admit I
had never heard of Salomon Brothers before and here I was reading about their
rise and eventual fall. Although I have watched critically acclaimed
documentaries on subprime mortgage crisis like The Inside Job, Too Big To Fail
and also put my hands on Fault Lines – this was different as I had no clue
about financial disasters in the 1980s.
The book reminded me that behind every financial
disaster lies lack of due diligence on the parts of key players, greed and every
big firm eventually fails when it becomes too big to manage.
Also, I really liked that I got introduced to a lot
of new words during the course of reading it – many words which I simply don’t
find so freely used these days.
It’s a very well written book. Even though you don’t
know much about finance it shouldn’t stop you from reading it. Michael Lewis
has done his best in breaking down the jargons in simple terms. To top it all,
you will end up learning a thing or two about bonds as well on finishing the
book.
P.S - Only on finishing it I realized that Michael
Lewis is the same man who has also written Moneyball – remember Brad Pitt’s
Oscar winning movie with the same name.
Great choice!
