Thank Jeebus and Gutfreund this early book was successful because it is hard to imagine experiencing this last bear market without the funny, clear narrative genius that is Michael Lewis.

A fascinating fun read of the life and times of Salomon Brothers. The first part of the book, which covered Lewis' hiring and orientation, had a feel of Scott Turow's "1L", and was the most entertaining. The rest was interesting, although this reader was left with the lingering ickiness of the 1980s financial excesses.

There are some books about finance and economics that are so well written and fundamental in their arguments that they withstand the weight of time, becoming atemporal sources of market wisdom. Michael Lewis’ Liars Poker, unfortunately, is not one of those books.

Reading it almost 4 decades later makes it hard to buy into the importance of the events being portrayed. The descriptions of traders and salesmen moving millions through phone lines or the mentions of old Wall Street heroes long forgotten are so removed to the point of being useless for any modern student of capital markets.

As a depiction of the Wall Street toxic money-chasing macho culture the book is excellent. But years later several books and movies - some by Michael Lewis himself - would come out as much better portraits of that culture.

The book does contain, to my pleasant surprise, one of the best primers on the creation of the mortgage bond market. It describes with good detail the events and financial rationale that led Lewi Ranieri and his team at Salomon to create a market for mortgage bonds. Said market would eventually grow and mutate into the cacophony of fraud and greed that underpinned the 2008 financial crisis. But, in many ways, the first symptoms of what would later become a systemic problem can be seen in the book (the poor risk-rating process, the financial shenanigans to cater to many investors, etc).

The book is mildly funny, but often Lewis’ personal dialogue and self evaluation during his salesman days become a little annoying. The social dynamics of his training class at Salomon is also a little overplayed. Lewis’ writing style gets much lighter and funnier in some of his later books such a as The Big Short or Flashboys.

The book was a great success after its publication in 89. It was one of the first books tailored to the general public that portrayed with great detail the culture of Wall Street, the market evolution of the 80s, and the shenanigans of some of the biggest names in finance at the time. But today it feels like a relic; made of names long gone, their interactions on a finance stage that now looks very different, and a culture that, in many ways, remains, but is better portrayed in other mediums.

Witty. Hilarious. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. An interesting peek into the world of trading in the 1980’s. The book is the author’s account of his stint at Salomon Brothers and the ruthless corporate games that ensued around then (included as a part, is also the story behind inception of mortgage and junk bonds, and the brains behind them). Now I haven’t read many corporate stories , but I’m sure what unfolds here is among the best.

The book also ends with a small note from the author on why he quit the bank after two successful years and a refreshing perspective on the money belief( refreshing not because it is something very new but cause it makes sense and needs to be reminded every so often to the humankind).