Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis

Liar’s Poker is an extended autobiographical essay of a misplaced investment banker. A BA in art history and masters in economics from London School of Econmics speak volumes about the utter confusion of what kind of a career he wanted to pursue. It’s a battle everyone can relate with it.
The book traces the journey of Michael Lewis from him joining Salomon Brothers as a trainee to his exit after establishing himself as a “Big Swinging Dick”. And along with his own journey, the author provides insights into the chaotic world within Salomon Brothers. Right from the rise of the company along with the mortgage bond market in the early 80s, and it’s opportunity loss during the junk bond bubble during late 80s. Even if as a reader you’re not financially savvy, you do not need to feel intimidated by the book, because Liar’s Poker does a brilliant job of keeping things simple.
The book is essentially about the people in the whole crazy financial world. It talks about the things that the people go through, right through the value chain. It talks about the graduation of a worthless trainee to a gawky geek to a mature man, eventually to the ultimate coveted title – “Big Swinging Dick”. The author does a brilliant job of showing the human side to the those ridiculously rich investment bankers. Well, a lot of them do not have a human side, as it turns out. Their greediness is as innate to them as the stereotype of a investment banker makes it out to be. But then, there are some, who do not start out the journey that way. Especially the kind of people who have art degrees. Sure they get corrupted with so much money flowing around, and so many money hungry people telling them the things they should be doing. ‘One-bad-apple’ phenomena. But these humans amidst the vultures is what makes Liar’s Poker a great story.
You will love this book if you have anything to do with the world of finance. May be you can identify with one of the guys in it. If you are one of the greedy folks, well, that doesn’t make you a bad guy. You probably still have a lot of people who look up to you. So don’t take anything written in this book about traders and bond salesmen and equities brokers and others too personally. Read it for what it is. A series of facts and one man’s opinion on them.
And even if you do not have anything do with the world of finance, but are enamored with the houses that the investment bankers live in and the cars they drive, you definitely should read this book, to get a glimpse into what they really are like.
Lastly, Salomon Brothers went through a lot more turbulent phase after the publication of the book. That’s just to give you some perspective. If you thought Salomon Brothers trading floor was a hell hole… it got worse. So stop cribbing about your job… unless you are one of them.

The Debt Threat - Noreena Hertz

Economics has always appealed to not only my intellectual side but my artistic senses as well. Well, I am not a PhD intellectual or anything, and neither is my artistic side heightened to the levels of Picasso. But I still enjoy any book or article or discourse which might have leanings on either the brainy side, or the aesthetic side. And economics for me spreads on both sides of the spectrum. Debt is one among the many financial and economic creations of mankind, which by its very nature is a piece of art really, and requires a mammoth intelligence to understand fully its ramifications.

And Noreena Hertz explores the threatening implications that international debt has in her book. Even if one is not aware of the global economics, you don’t even have to be a whiz to guess what the term “debt threat” might imply. It is very easy to dismiss the book as one more alarmist piece of literature… like global warming or something else.

But I would beg to differ. For one, the author is aware that she might be regarded as a pessimist and an alarmist when she lists the evilness of debts. Secondly the book is not just about how debt is killing a horde of people in poor countries. It is a complete piece of research on how the whole cycle of debt became vicious in nature, how are the countries suffering because of that, what are the outcomes, and the remedies as well. It is a complicated issue, one does realize. And as Bono (yeah, the U2 rockstar) succinctly puts it, the author does do a commendable job on cutting out the acronyms and making this whole issue a lot more understandable for the non-economists but at the same time are concerned about the well being of the world.

The examples in this book seem to be very repetitive. It is one country after another, suffering under the weight of debt their governments has taken. Some dictatorships have taken debts just to lead a comfortable life for themselves, some governments have taken debts to make weapons, some to destroy forests in an attempt to save the economy, and some simply to service older debts. And these examples take the book perilously close to that dreaded “alarmist” tag. But those examples are just to strengthen the point that the author is trying to make. And while perhaps slightly overused, they are not out of place and definitely not unneeded.

The high point of the book is that the author gives a practical way out. Now, as I said, I am no PhD to really say whether her ways are practical. But as a normal civilian, I find the thought process and the logic sound. And as the author herself says, what she has given in the book is a blueprint, a suggestion at a high-level which needs to be refined and chiseled at to come out with policies to thwart the debt threat.
Having said that, though the book speaks about a topic which everyone should know of which itself would go a long way to mobilize public opinion, the book might be a bit heavy for absolutely everyone to read. Maybe if there could be a series of articles in the newspaper… or some other marketing ploy which would increase the target audience manifold would help. While not everyone might have an appetite for books, a newspaper article might be up for grabs. And the more the people are aware of this issue, the better