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Liar's Poker (25th Anniversary Edition): Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street Hardcover – October 27, 2014

by Michael Lewis (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 948 ratings
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The time was the 1980s. The place was Wall Street. The game was called Liar’s Poker.

Before there was Flash Boys and The Big Short, there was Liar's Poker. A knowing and unnervingly talented debut, this insider’s account of 1980s Wall Street excess transformed Michael Lewis from a disillusioned bond salesman to the best-selling literary icon he is today. Together, the three books cover thirty years of endemic global corruption―perhaps the defining problem of our age―which has never been so hilariously skewered as in Liar's Poker, now in a twenty-fifth-anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author.

It was wonderful to be young and working on Wall Street in the 1980s: never before had so many twenty-four-year-olds made so much money in so little time. After you learned the trick of it, all you had to do was pick up the phone and the money poured in your lap.

This wickedly funny book endures as the best record we have of those heady, frenzied years. In it Lewis describes his own rake’s progress through a powerful investment bank. From an unlikely beginning (art history at Princeton?) he rose in two short years from Salomon Brothers trainee to Geek (the lowest form of life on the trading floor) to Big Swinging Dick, the most dangerous beast in the jungle, a bond salesman who could turn over millions of dollars' worth of doubtful bonds with just one call.

As he has continued to do for a quarter century, Michael Lewis here shows us how things really worked on Wall Street. In the Salomon training program a roomful of aspirants is stunned speechless by the vitriolic profanity of the Human Piranha; out on the trading floor, bond traders throw telephones at the heads of underlings and Salomon chairmen Gutfreund challenges his chief trader to a hand of liar’s poker for one million dollars.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    October 27, 2014
  5. Dimensions
    6.4 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0393246108
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0393246100
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Liar's Poker is the funniest book on Wall Street I've ever read."
― Tom Wolfe

"Often profane, always hilarious, right on the mark."
― People

"So memorable and alive…one of those rare works that encapsulate and define an era."
― Fortune

"Makes the bond-trading business look like a cross between Animal House and Greed Incorporated…Lewis recounts incidents that should make customers stuff their money in mattresses."
― Washington Post

"Roars along like a maniac comic novel."
― Los Angeles Times

"Lewis provides a view so vivid you can almost see the sweat dripping from the traders' brows. From inside, mighty Salomon Brothers looks like Animal House…Liar's Poker does indeed rank with Bonfire of the Vanities as a contribution to the history of a wild and colorful era when the markets ran amok."
― BusinessWeek

"When the stories of our times are told, there will be no more seminal documents than the books of Michael Lewis."
― Tim Adams, Observer

About the Author

Michael Lewis is the best-selling author of Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short, The Undoing Project, and The Fifth Risk. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his family.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; 25th Anniversary edition (October 27, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393246108
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393246100
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 948 ratings

About the author

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Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis

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Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of The Undoing Project, Liar's Poker, Flash Boys, Moneyball, The Blind Side, Home Game and The Big Short, among other works, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Tabitha Soren, and their three children.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
948 global ratings
A page turner on a decade of financial history
5 Stars
A page turner on a decade of financial history
This is the first Michael Lewis book I read and I can see why many consider it a classic. It's a very entertaining account on the world of Finance gone rogue in the 80s. The author narrates the craze and excesses, mostly through his own experiences, at the center of the industry without being moralistic and in a fun, engaging way that can glue anyone to the story. What a fantastic set of real characters!I'm very glad someone so talented decided to write about Salomon Brothers at the height of the bonds mania of the roaring 80s and now, 30 years later, we can see how much Finance has changed and at the same time hasn't.
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Top reviews from the United States

Doug
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Read
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2023
Verified Purchase
Friend told me about this, and I loved the read. Interesting that the author used to hold the position in the book, and then turned to writing. Interensting story.
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jmcneill
4.0 out of 5 stars The Mindset of Investment Banking
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015
Verified Purchase
I read this book 25 years too late. When I saw the 25th Year Edition, I decided to give it a go. Amazingly, it changed my perception of investment banking, even though I've worked with these people from the outside for over 30 years. Lewis validates my view, however, that a typical investment banker has the morals of a long-eared jack rabbit in mating season. He enlightened me that many of these immoral individuals really were not particularly well educated. I've always assumed they were, though now they are all B school grads or lawyers. The bottom line is that their sales prowess is far more valued than any technical skills they possess.

This was Lewis's first in many books written on a range of subjects. It gives the reader a very clear picture of those on the inside in the 80s as only an insider like Lewis can convey. I love his use of euphemisms and metaphors which is obviously a trait he carries from his Louisiana upbringing. Though his first work, I believe it is almost as polished as his later works.

Anyone with an interest in Wall Street and how it works from the inside should find this interesting and entertaining. I would also recommend this to anyone interested in pursuing prostitution (a.k.a. Investment banking) as a trade.
3 people found this helpful
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Rodrigo Alves Vieira
5.0 out of 5 stars A page turner on a decade of financial history
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2019
Verified Purchase
This is the first Michael Lewis book I read and I can see why many consider it a classic. It's a very entertaining account on the world of Finance gone rogue in the 80s. The author narrates the craze and excesses, mostly through his own experiences, at the center of the industry without being moralistic and in a fun, engaging way that can glue anyone to the story. What a fantastic set of real characters!

I'm very glad someone so talented decided to write about Salomon Brothers at the height of the bonds mania of the roaring 80s and now, 30 years later, we can see how much Finance has changed and at the same time hasn't.
Customer image
Rodrigo Alves Vieira
5.0 out of 5 stars A page turner on a decade of financial history
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2019
This is the first Michael Lewis book I read and I can see why many consider it a classic. It's a very entertaining account on the world of Finance gone rogue in the 80s. The author narrates the craze and excesses, mostly through his own experiences, at the center of the industry without being moralistic and in a fun, engaging way that can glue anyone to the story. What a fantastic set of real characters!

I'm very glad someone so talented decided to write about Salomon Brothers at the height of the bonds mania of the roaring 80s and now, 30 years later, we can see how much Finance has changed and at the same time hasn't.
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6 people found this helpful
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Mebs
5.0 out of 5 stars ... take a subject----any subject----even one as typically "mundane" and boring as the financial world
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2014
Verified Purchase
Michael Lewis has an uncanny ability to take a subject----any subject----even one as typically "mundane" and boring as the financial world, and somehow bringing it to life in such a way that the reader is riveted from start to finish. I first read this book when it was new and was utterly astounded by his humor and ability to explain even the most convoluted economic concepts and turn them into "page turning" reading. I have since read/purchased all of his books, as well as having read his articles in Vanity Fair, and have yet to be disappointed. Whether he is entering the world of Silicon Valley's techie boom, NFL football, or the economic crisis in the Euro Zone he never fails to deliver a brilliantly written, absorbing, and somehow humorous take on his subject. I am certain that there is no topic which he cannot investigate and write about in the most entertaining yet informative way. This is a replacement copy of my original book which has been lost in our library's cosmos, but it is one that I simply must own. Long before Leo's "Wolf of Wall Street" or Michael Douglas's "Greed is Good" portrayal, there was Michael Lewis' spot-on depiction of the crazy 80's Wall Street boom and its excess. I really can't speak highly enough of Mr. Lewis' talent and writing ability.
28 people found this helpful
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larry wall
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2023
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The goings-on inside Salomon could not have happened, but they did. Nine more words required. Now five. Now only three.
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Pacman
4.0 out of 5 stars These older books about finance are not a waste of time
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2016
Verified Purchase
These older books about finance are not a waste of time. Michael Lewis writes in a way that even a layman can get the picture of what is going on. Loved this book. Interesting that the COD of mortgages was born at Solomon Brothers. Ya know the thing that caused the last market crash. There were the so called experts that blamed the crash on Congress,for pushing mortgages for the low income, when all you really needed was a heartbeat to get a mortgage. There was a high demand for mortgage assets once they were put into the marketable
COD form, rated triple A, and marketed to the rest of the world as a replacement for Treasuries that no one wanted because Greenspan lowered interest rates driving down the return US Treasuries. I digress. The book is mainly about Solomon and the culture there while Mr. Lewis was there.
Easy read and very informative while it entertains.
One person found this helpful
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Robert
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2018
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didn't fihish the book, but it's an OK book
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A Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars An Eye Opener- Well worth your time
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2016
Verified Purchase
An insider's account that is a real eye opener. Lewis recounts his days as a 'newbie' at Solomon in the '80's, which is when they started packaging home loans and trading them (the genesis of the recent economic collapse). His story is laced with all the discouragement, frustration and excitement he felt as he worked his way through the ranks in an environment rank with lies, greed and backstabbing. He quickly discovered there was only one way to succeed at his job-jump on the bandwagon and lie. To avoid burning bridges, he learned to couch the lies in something he felt he could live with, and when that wasn't enough to relieve his guilt, he came clean and wrote this 'tell all' book-a fast paced, entertaining read.
5 people found this helpful
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JayPee
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Well worth the price.
Reviewed in Canada on November 8, 2019
Verified Purchase
I read this book when it first came out 25+ years ago. I loved it. I gave away my copy for others to read. Then I bought and read it again... and again gave away the book for others to read. Then I bought myself an electronic version (for me!) This most recent purchase was a gift for another friend. However, I had it shipped directly to them, remove me as the middle man. Needless to say, Michael Lewis authored a book which was and is relevant, ... to all. Further, it is timeless. I've loved it every time I've read it. I've also read his other books as well. Also fantastic.
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NinjaReader
3.0 out of 5 stars Gostei até cerca de 80% do livro
Reviewed in Brazil on May 22, 2018
Verified Purchase
Achei que, chegando para a fração final, o livro parece ter urgência para ser terminado. Na minha visão, perdeu-se a qualidade. Mas é preciso ser justo e afirmar que o livro é legal. É divertido. É interessante ver como as pessoas - nós, as pessoas - podemos ser obsessivas e loucas. O comportamento dos trainees é ridículo, infantil. Nada tem de adulto ou maduro. A excessiva especulação mostra que se trata de um jogo "soma zero". Considerei especialmente marcante o ambiente de profunda desonestidade dos norte-americanos, que chegam a zombar da honestidade de seus pares alemães. Penso que o leitor gostará mais de ler sobre os desaforos do mercado financeiro por meio de "O Lobo de Wall Street". Porém, é importante não glorificar essas pessoas. Trata-se de um estilo de vida (vida?) que não deve ser imitado.
One person found this helpful
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Jean Gandar
5.0 out of 5 stars Grees abd Deception in Wall Strret
Reviewed in Germany on February 4, 2018
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Well documented and good insight in Wall Street short termistic view. Rising through the ranks at an investment bank is not what you may have been lead to believe
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Sophie Cave
5.0 out of 5 stars Good sturdy hardback
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2016
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Gift for my boyfriend, going to hide tickets inside it for Christmas! Prefect book for what I wanted it for!
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JAM
5.0 out of 5 stars Me ha atrapado desde el principio hasta el final
Reviewed in Spain on February 10, 2015
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He trabajado en el sector financiero durante más de doce años y no me parece que haya cambiado mucho la industria desde los años 80. La narración de los hechos es impecable.
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