Liar's Poker By Michael Lewis

LIar's poker by Michael Lewis is a non-fictional semi-autobiographical book on the Wall Street firm Salomon Brothers. The beginning of the book follows a young Michael Lewis, fresh out of school and looking for a job. By chance, he meets scouts from Salomon Brothers at a fancy dinner at St. James’s Palace. Where he is offered a spot in their training program, which he accepts. In the training program he leans about how to trade and sell bonds as well as about the firm's culture. After describing his early experiences at Salomon Brothers Lewis dives into detail about the history of the firm from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. Within that history the reader is introduced to one of the most important figures at Salomon Brothers in the 80s, Lewis Ranieri. Ranieri was instrumental in growing the mortgage bond trading department at Salomon Brothers. …show more content…
He had no financial support from his parents and had a sick wife in the hospital, for which he needed ten thousand dollars. One of the most important moments in his career came as a result of this. Because of his debt he was forced to ask to borrow money from one of the partners at the firm, Ranieri was sure he would get fired for this. Instead the partner replied, “it will be taken care of” and his hospital bills were paid. This kind action made Ranieri particularly loyal to the firm. this quote from the book sums it up perfectly, “The act moved Reniery deeply. When he speaks of loyalty… It is that single act of generosity he remembers.(page 91 chapter 4)” Slowly, after this he raised up the ranks to supervisor and eventually out of the back office and onto the trading