by Michael Lewis, 1989, W.W. Norton & Company, New York

This is an interesting read, but, unlike most everybody who has reviewed this book, I didn’t find it that funny.  On the cover of the book is a quote by Tom Wolfe: “The funniest book on Wall Street I’ve ever read.”   Either there aren’t very many funny books about Wall Street out there or Tom Wolfe’s sense of humor must be pretty constrained.  I would maybe recommend that he read some Evanovich.

Anyway, it was somewhat interesting to see the world of bond trading in the 1980’s.  But it doesn’t appear that Michael Lewis had a clue where all this was headed.  He left Salomon Brothers in 1988 for personal reasons thinking that he was leaving behind the potential for a great career.  Prior to leaving, however, he bought shares in Salomon Brothers thinking that, despite the poor management he chronicled in his book, the company would always do well.  He also spent a chapter praising Michael Milken at Drexel for the work he was doing with junk bonds at Drexel.  By May of 1991, Salomon Brothers had been fined $290 million for securities infractions.  It was then absorbed by Travelers and Citigroup, the Salomon name eventually being discarded.  By 1990, Milken had been indicted and convicted of fraud and sentenced to ten years in prison.  I feel that some of the so-called humor in the book seems to dissipate in light of subsequent events.

I think I liked The Big Short more as it seemed to provide a better portrait of the players involved.