Liar's Poker
Michael Lewis’s *Liar’s Poker* pulls back the curtain on the raucous, cutthroat world of 1980s Wall Street through his wild journey as an unlikely Solomon Brothers trader. Starting as an art history grad laughed out of investment bank interviews, Lewis lands a spot at Solomon’s legendary training program, where he witnesses the firm’s brutal, profit-obsessed culture firsthand. He dives into the rise of the mortgage-backed securities division, led by the larger-than-life Lewis Ranieri, who turned a neglected corner of finance into a cash cow—only to see it collapse amid internal backstabbing, talent poaching, and market shifts. Along the way, Lewis exposes the absurdities: million-dollar poker bets between executives, ruthless office politics, and a system where greed trumps ethics. By the end, he walks away from seven-figure paychecks, disillusioned by a world where success hinges on deception and self-preservation over real value.