Liar's Poker

rising through the wreckage on Wall Street

by

256 pages

English language

Published Nov. 14, 1990 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:
978-0-14-014345-4
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OCLC Number:
971598723
Goodreads:
1171

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(2 reviews)

Liar's Poker is a non-fiction, semi-autobiographical book by Michael Lewis describing the author's experiences as a bond salesman on Wall Street during the late 1980s. First published in 1989, it is considered one of the books that defined Wall Street during the 1980s, along with Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, and the fictional The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. The book captures an important period in the history of Wall Street. Two important figures in that history feature prominently in the text, the head of Salomon Brothers' mortgage department Lewis Ranieri and the firm's CEO John Gutfreund. The book's name is taken from liar's poker, a gambling game popular with the bond traders in the book.

4 editions

reviewed Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis

Worth the effort

I had tried to read this book before, but couldn't get over the (very long) training part. After listening to Michael Lewis' podcast, where he makes fun of how long this chapter was and how inexperienced he was when writing this book, I decided to give it another try.

It was worth it - it was a very good book. I have been in megacorps for a long time and in Finance for some time. Michael does a great job of representing the egos and the senseless interests that affect thousands and sometimes millions of lives.

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Subjects

  • Lewis, Michael
  • Salomon Brothers.
  • Brokers -- United States -- Biography.
  • Bonds -- United States.