Michael Lewis’s “Big Short” series pulls back the curtain on Wall Street’s mortgage bubble and its collapse. “The Big Short” follows a handful of outsiders who spotted systemic risk early and bet against the market. “Liar’s Poker” is a gritty insider chronicle of Salomon Brothers, greed, and the high-risk culture of the 1980s. Together, the books deliver a riveting portrait of finance, failure, and the few who read the signals.
From mere trainee, to triumphal Big Swinging Dick: that was Michael Lewis' pell-mell progress through the dealing rooms of Salomon Brothers in New York and London during the heady mid-1980s when they were probably the world's most powerful and profitable merchant bank. This is a tale of greed and ambition set in an obsessed, enclosed world.
In this visceral tour to the heart of the financial system, Michael Lewis takes us around the globe and back decades to trace the origins of the current crisis. He meets the people who saw it coming, the people who were asleep at the wheel and the people who were actively driving us all of cliff.