Liar's Poker

By Michael Lewis

Wall Street has always been known as a high-pressure, cutthroat environment. But until Michael Lewis came along, no one ever revealed so many tantalising secrets and stories about the nature of Wall Street in so entertaining a manner. The book focuses primarily on Salomon brothers, one of the biggest investment banks on Wall Street in the 1980s, where Michael Lewis worked. Essentially the book comprises of two halves; Following the first few chapters which details how the author came to associated with Salomon Brothers, the first half tells the story of the development of the mortgage securities market, spearheaded by the inimitable trader Lewie Ranieri. The second half of the book details the author's own exploits with Salomon Brothers in the European market where he was based, and has a much more personal feel to it, although he never loses track of the overall big picture of the firm as a whole.

With his trademark wit and eloquence, Michael Lewis succeeds in writing a book that is highly entertaining and readable even to people who have never studied finance or its related fields before. Quite a feat, considering that quite a few times he does go into detail regarding the issues he discusses such as the development/creation of the mortgage bond market. The larger than life characters are all excellently portrayed, with humorous monikers given to some, such as one person referred to simply as 'The Human Piranha', the master of 'fuckspeak', a term unique to this book.

It is not for nothing that this book propelled Michael Lewis into the limelight as a writer. Do not miss it.