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Title: Witty Expose of Wall Street Culture
Review: This a very funny and well-written account of Lewis' brief career as a Wall Street bond saleman in the mid to late 1980s. The culture at Salomon Brothers is, in essence, to set 250 junk-yard-dog trainees into the backyard over the winter and see who remains alive next spring. It's an ultra-competitive environment that encourages risk-taking, often at the expense of the customer. It also creates a weird kind of loyalty to the firm that chews you up, albeit one that pays ridiculous amounts of bonus money to twenty-somethings.Lewis captures the brutal politics and humor of this culture. To his surprise, he succeeds as bond salesman only to walk away from the rat-fight to become a journalist.Although dated, the book does capture some essential truths about Wall Street culture. The 2008 collapse does not seem surprising in light of this culture.
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