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Liar's Poker

Liar's Poker
Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis, W. W. Norton, Oct 1989.jpg
Original 1989 hardcover jacket
Author Michael Lewis
Country United States
Language English
Genre Economics
Publisher W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date
October 17, 1989
Media type Hardcover
Pages 256
ISBN
OCLC 19321697
Followed by The Money Culture

Liar's Poker is a non-fiction, semi-autobiographical book by Michael Lewis describing the author's experiences as a bond salesman on Wall Street during the late 1980s. First published in 1989, it is considered one of the books that defined Wall Street during the 1980s, along with Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, and the fictional The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. The book captures an important period in the history of Wall Street. Two important figures in that history feature prominently in the text, the head of Salomon Brothers' mortgage department Lewis Ranieri and the firm's CEO John Gutfreund.

The book's name is taken from liar's poker, a high-stakes gambling game popular with the bond traders in the book.

Liar's Poker follows two different story threads, though not necessarily in chronological order.

The first thread is autobiographical, and follows Lewis through his college education and his hiring by Salomon Brothers (now a subsidiary of Citigroup) in 1984. This part of the book gives a first-person account of how bond traders and salesmen truly work, their personalities, and their culture. The book captures well an important period in the history of Wall Street. Important figures in that history feature prominently in the text: John Meriwether, mortgage department head Lewis Ranieri, and firm CEO John Gutfreund.


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