Kind of interesting but at the end of the day I didn't want to read about a bunch of overgrown white frat boys.

I was recommended this book in 2018 by a friend who was writing code for financial derivatives in Tokyo in the 1980s. I looked around for an audio edition at the time, but came up empty-handed. I just checked again, and it has just been re-issued by the author! Apparently the original copyright had expired, and the author saw the opportunity for a re-issue.

If you respect Lewis' later work, such as "The Big Short," and "Moneyball," you'll love this early look into his start on Wall Street in the 1980s! Unlike his later works, this is technically a "memoir," as it is a first-hand account of Solomon Brothers while Lewis was employed there.

You should look for the companion podcast if you read the book, "Other People's Money," although I was only able to find it on YouTube (for some reason it seem to have been blocked from podcast apps).

In the podcast, Lewis mentions that he had written the book as an indictment of Wall Street, when many of his readers have taken the opposite interpretation, iconizing the era. You might call this the naïve of "critical thought." When we give something attention, we implicitly center it. It is like the thought experiment, "don't think of the pink elephant," which, inevitably brings such a creature to mind. Ultimately, there is no way to both name something, and decenter it (this is part of the magic and power of language and attention). So a book about Wall Street—even if it illustrates what some might call juvenile tendencies—has the effect of valorizing Wall Street.

Lewis also discusses in the retrospective: Wall Street today is both nothing like and everything like what is described in the book. There is something about myth here. Lewis was able to capture something about the essence of Wall Street in this book. Even if the people and the landscape look totally different now, you can still see a living lineage in evolution. In one discussion, a female financier posits that Wall Street was more inclusive in the 1980s than today, and suggests that this might be because "diversity and inclusion" has now been siloed off. I think there is something to this: diversity and inclusion need to be addressed at the core of a business operation, not as an add-on (you could say the same about sustainability).

If you haven't heard already, this book is also a prescient view into the origin story of the subprime debt crisis, in that Solomon Brothers (specifically Lou Ranieri) invented the securitization of mortgages (with the prompting from the Federal Reserve).

I will say—one thing that bothers me about Lewis' tone in the book: he speaks as though he doesn't "have a horse in the race," as though he was an innocent bystander. Yes, he was young, but no, you can't say that he was powerless. Sometimes (I see this a lot in Silicon Valley), the more power someone has, the less they feel like they have the ability (or the responsibility) to affect the trajectory of their industry. You could say that Lewis ultimately did step up, not as a fiduciary, but as a journalist. But, as I point out above in the critical thought paradox, this doesn't actually have the ability to change anything. ( )

Druhou ze tří Lewisovek, kterou jsem přečetl během svého "Lewisova měsíce", je Američanův knižní debut Lhářův poker. Prvním překvapením bylo, že se Lewisův styl během pětadvaceti let mezi Lhářovým pokerem a Jako blesk takřka vůbec nezměnil. Stejná lehkost pera doprovázená poněkud slabším humorem panuje v obou autorových knihách a já si říkám, jak je možné, aby někdo autorsky zůstal po čtvrt století stále na stejném místě.

Ne, že by byl Lhářův poker špatnou knihou, čte se velice dobře a ve své době asi Lewis umožnil čtenářům nahlédnout tam, kam se veřejnost za normálních okolností nepodívá. Na rozdíl od Jako blesk navíc Lewis čerpá z vlastních zkušeností a tak má příležitost postavy vykreslit o něco barvitěji, jenže to je občas až na škodu knihy, neboť mnozí její hrdinové (vlastně padouši) působí spíše jako komiksové postavičky a já si opakovaně při čtení říkal: takhle se nikdo ve skutečnosti nechová!

Lhářův poker popisuje autorovu cestu mezi prodejce nechvalně proslulé banky Salomon Brothers. Pokud byste si mysleli, že jde o cestu obyčejnou pro každou korporaci, tedy že přes pohovor projdete do výcvikového programu, který vás vykopne jako nováčka přímo do víru dění, pak máte pravdu a bohužel vám značná část knihy moc nedá, zejména když Lewis vyprávění a školícím programu prokládá dlouhými odbočkami k vysvětlení toho či onoho pojmu. Zajímavý tak Lhářův poker začne být ve své druhé části, v níž autor popisuje život na obchodním parketu banky. Právě zde se nacházejí mnohé zajímavé až neuvěřitelné postavy.

Nejsilnější stránkou knihy pak pro mě není samotný popis dění na finančních trzích a chování jednotlivců, jež se na něm snaží vydělat, nýbrž krize Salomon Brothers. Lewis zde dobře zachytil korporaci v jejím rozkladu, kterak křečovitě drží stejný kurz zatímco její nejlepší lidé odcházejí. Tato zkušenost má obecnou platnost a rozhodně by měla být poučením mnohým generálním ředitelům, kteří se snaze ušetřit na lidech a investicích prodají vlastní budoucnost.

Popis světa financí Lewis zvládá dobře, ovšem s téměř třicetiletým odstupem již asi málokoho šokuje. Kdyby byl Lhářův poker o polovinu kratší, díval bych se na něj asi o něco pozitivněji, takto musím říct - za ten čas to stálo, ale jen tak tak. ( )

Repetitive. Not nearly as entertaining as his other books. ( )

A good book about the late 20th century bond market. I drifted off a lot near the end, but for the most part, it's a good read. ( )

Sometimes I think that Michael Lewis's books have turned more people into socialists that Mao's Little Red Book ever did. "Liar's Poker" paints a picture of corporate misbehavior so complete that it makes it difficult to believe that anything touched by a stock or bond salesman could ever be called efficient or fair. We hear about a training course that resembles a weeks-long pep rally, extremely naive twenty-five-year-old traders vaporizing the investments of all but the most important Solomon Brothers clients, and a herd mentality so unquestioning that would embarrass a Holstein. I'm not the kind of guy who's liable to subscribe to the Daily Worker, but there were scenes in this one that made me wonder whether Wall Street shouldn't just be shut down and turned into parkland and condominiums.

But while "Liar's Poker" is, in many ways, a time capsule of a certain time and place -- the ultimate eighties-era Wall Street souvenir -- it also functions as a kind of awful oracle. Lewis does a very good job of explaining the basics of junk bonds and collateralized mortgage obligations, both of which would go on to blow up the entire US economy at a later date. This is particularly impressive since the author's audience was unlikely to be at all familiar with these concepts when the book was published, which pressages, in its own way, his continued success with books like "Moneyball" and "The Big Short." For a first book, this one is exceptionally lean, fun, and well-written. Lewis was a fairly successful bond salesman, but "Liar's Poker makes it pretty clear that he's always been a very good writer.

Lastly, you could also argue that "Liar's Poker" is a story about a thoroughly dysfunctional culture served with a side of revenge. John Gutfreund serves as the villain here, and his decision to irrevocably alter Solomon Brothers's culture by turning it into a corporation is just the first in a long list of what the author sees as short-sighted, self-interested, greed-driven decisions. He also seems to relish relating how different departments of the firm essentially went to war with each other as the profits stopped flowing sometime in the mid-eighties. Of course, Lewis's perspective is that of an employee, and Gutfreund never really gets the chance to defend himself. And while the author's tone is lively and humorous throughout, he wrote this one so soon after leaving the company that it's difficult to imagine that he wasn't out to settle some scores. Gutfreund is said to have told Lewis that the book destroyed his career, and you can certainly see why. At the same time, Lewis presents evidence here that would be difficult to refute. We've even got Billy Solomon, a son of one of the firm's founders, saying that he found Gutfreund's materialism "disgusting."

As for the culture he oversaw at Solomon Brothers, we hear about bond traders insulting new hires, throwing phones at them, playing juvenile pranks on each other, and, in almost every case, prioritizing their short-term trading instincts over any real understanding of the bond market. The way that people in this one flat-out lie to their clients in order to move bonds they know are losers is frankly incredible. It's hard to read "Liar's Poker" and wonder if it really has to be this way: there are plenty of high-earning, high-stress occupations where basic professional standards and decorum make the behavior we read about here impossible to imagine. Solomon Brothers was, at the time, an relatively small, insular institution with an extremely high opinion of itself, but its culture seems, in many ways, to have been rotten to the very core. My father actually spent much of his professional career working for one of the companies mentioned here, though never on the trading side of things. He has no doubt that, while the business has gotten a lot more technical, not a lot about it has changed. That's a real shame. This one is highly recommended. ( )

Good book from Lewis. About his experiences on Wall Street. One of thee better finance books I've read. Cool to see him develop and read about his experiences. ( )

In Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis chronicles his time as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers in the 1980s. It starts off with how he ended up in the investment banking industry, and then continues by describing the training program at Salomon Brothers. In the middle, there is a fairly lengthy description of the mortgage trading department at Salomon and its main players. The last part is about Michael Lewis brief career as a bond salesman in London.

Lewis is a very gifted writer, and the book is quite funny, especially the first part about the training program. I laughed out aloud several times when reading it. The middle part drags on a bit, but was nevertheless interesting. The best part was reading about the sales tactics and the lack of scruples when selling bonds. I also learned quite a bit about bond trading, and the development that occurred in the 1980s, both with mortgage bonds and junk bonds. It also describes the scheming and back-stabbing at the firm really well.

In all, an easy read – well-written, funny and informative about the world of bonds and investment banking in the 1980s. ( )

Liars' Poker is the quintessential business novel. Everyone businessman I know has either read it or heard of it. So, I decided that I should check it out.

This book is an account of Michael Lewis' time at Salomon Smith Barney in the mid 80s, at the height of the junk bond craze. He perfectly describes the atmosphere of competitiveness and the vast rewards everyone was reaping as a result of the boom.

What came as a surprise to me is that Lewis describes the mortgage bond market, an obtuse and vague instrument, very clearly and in a way most non-business people could also understand. This explanation also serves to show why these junk bonds ultimately collapsed.

Then, of course, are his hilarious descriptions of his orientation, his bosses and coworkers. To read about these outlandish characters is worth the price of the book alone.

So, to close, this book is a classic for a reason. It is informative and well written, but manages to be hilarious at the same time, a feat few authors can achieve. Read this book at all costs. ( )

Entertaining and well written. The middle section (the formation of the mortgage bond department) the best part - indeed, could stand alone. Final couple of chapters a disappointment: A synthesis of someone else's book about another major figure in 1980s finance, and a rush at the end for Lewis to leave Salomans. An early book from Lewis's portolio, and he has got better as his work evolved. But "Liar's Poker" is worth a read for more than would-be completists. ( )

A joy to read ordinarily, my delight in finally reading this classic was multiplied for also being a finance professional and thus finding the stories highly relatable; and for also having left the industry, unpredictably, simply because I felt it was a time for a change. Michael Lewis isn't sure if he made the right decision, and niether am I - but at least I am in his good company. ( )

I feel like I should like Michael Lewis more than I actually do. ( )

Un nuevo libro sobre la serie de cataclismos financieros que tuvieron lugar en Wall Street a finales de los 80. El autor, Michael Lewis, era vendedor de bonos en la poderosa Salomon Brothers. La historia cuenta los comienzos de una época dorada para esta firma, que acaban con su decadencia y el auge de otra, el banco de inversión Drexel Burnham, que había creado un imperio de bonos basura (junk bonds), o bonos de alto riesgo. El libro está muy bien escrito. De nuevo, como me pasa siempre, siento una especial simpatía por el protagonista. A pesar de que era un tipo que ganó 90.000 dólares en su primer año y 225.000 en el segundo, le da a uno una especie de penita el ver cómo sufre los vaivenes que ocasionan las luchas intestinas de poder que toda empresa importante sufre.
El autor comienza contando el increíble proceso de casualidades que le llevaron a él, un licenciado en Historia del Arte, a entrar en los cursos de formación del banco Salomon Brothers, poseedor de un cuasimonopolio en el mercado de bonos norteamericano por aquellas fechas. Tras los avatares del curso de formación, nuestro protagonista es lanzado al mundo. Nos narra entonces cómo Salomon Brothers había llegado a ser lo que era, creando negocio donde no lo había. Especialmente interesante es la compleja historia de cómo un sólo hombre, Louie Ranieri, consiguió fabricar un bono sobre hipotecas que permitió transacciones de billones de dólares en varios años. Impresionante ejemplo de ingeniería financiera.
La parte final del libro narra los ocho días del crash financiero del 1987, y cómo afectaron a un banco que en aquél momento poseía el 31% de las acciones de British Petroleum, que se desplomó en bolsa. Cuenta también como Salomon Brothers dejó paso a Drexel Burnham, que había creado una rama de negocio llamada junk bonds, o bonos de alto riesgo, que era lo que estaba dando mucho dienero en aquel momento. Así, Salomon Brothers dejó su puesto a la cabeza de los bancos de inversión de Wall Street. Nuestro protagonista y narrador abandona la empresa en esos días, no porque le despidieran (hubo más de mil despidos sobre una fuerza laboral de 3500 personas) sino porque consideró que ya había visto lo suficiente.
Mi nota: Muy entretenido e interesante. ( )

A classic of financial history, and a minor classic of humour. Lewis in part tells a history of the bond market in the 1970s and 1980s, and in part, a personal history of his time selling bonds in London for Salomon Brothers, one of the leading bond firms of its era. Lewis is quite sharp in showing how Salomon, through mistakes in management and culture, lost its leading position in the bond markets (more or less, blowing through its intellectual capital). There's also a great deal of hilarity in the caveman culture of Salomon of the era (well, it'll be hilarious to you if you're not a Bernie Bro). Lewis' style is very engaging, and he doesn't spare himself in a few just areas. The title is inspired, in that you can read it literally, in the game that Lewis describes, or in general, as to the way Salomon operated. Definitely recommended for students of financial history, and in general recommended. ( )

Very satisfying view of I-banking world (ofcourse for a consultant) :D.. read during teh exchange term ( )

Probably Lewis's best book. ( )

An entertaining and informative memoir about a 1980s Wall Street investment firm. In a few years, this book will be thirty, and it already feels a bit dated - for example, Saloman Brothers is now part of Citigroup. ( )

What he said: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/258328382?book_show_action=true&from_r... ( )

Only read bits, but author has plenty of interesting books (non fiction)

Michael Lewis is an excellent writer. He completely draws you into the scene with detail and description and leads you along well paced journey to understanding the world of wall street with it's characters and events. A true insider's tale. Parts of the book are funny and doesn't lose you with the mechanical aspects of the markets and how big corporates function. Some regard this as required reading if you work in the industry. I wouldn't disagree. ( )

Creepy, scary good ( )

The more things change, the more things stay the same. So much of what I thought was novel or curious about Wall Street in the 1990s and 2000s was right there in the early 1980s, same as ever.

Also, Michael Lewis is unequaled at the art of turning numbers into human drama. ( )

Finished this on the plane to Rio. Definitely know more about mortgage bonds, bond trading, and Wall Street in the 80s than I did before. I felt three stars represented how much enjoyment I got out of the book, but considering that the subject matter is of about 1 star of interest to me, I cannot really imagine enjoying any book on this topic more, so maybe it deserves more stars. ( )

Wow! If you don't already hate Wall Street bankers (or investment bankers where-ever they may be based), read this book to revive your sense of revulsion. Indicative of zero sum game our society has descended to. ( )

A very good read, and despite being 20 years old (or so) quite illuminating as to our current financial crisis. ( )