Book Review : Liar's Poker

Liar's Poker an autobiography written by Mr. Michael Lewis. It elaborates the journey of the author in Salomon Brothers', an Investment Banking Co. in the 1980s, which was a dominating force in the Bond Markets. Beginning from his recruitment at the firm while pursuing Masters of Economics at the London School of Economics, he is invited to the Queen's birthday celebration by a distant relative who has married royalty. As fate would have it, he shared his table with the wife of a Salomon Brothers' partner. The partner's wife getting impressed with the author presents him with an offer to join the firm and he gladly accepts.

Within a few days the partner calls him for a chat to his office but doesn't say anything about a job and again a few days later he has breakfast with Salomon Brothers HR head, and even he doesn't drop any hints regarding his job. Perplexed the author consults his friend and he tells him that it is below Salomon Brothers' to offer anyone a job, instead one needs to go out of the way and take it from them, as they only give hints and make no concrete offers. After staking his claim he goes off to New York to join the new recruits for the induction programme.

The induction programme consists of about 100 recruits and from here begins his journey into one of the Biggest and Meanest Investment Bank in the country. The heart of the organisation is the 41st floor of the building and here sit the Bond Traders - divided in to Government, Municipal, Corporate and Mortgage. The rule of the floor is "caveat emptor - buyer beware", as the traders are only interested in making profits for themselves. While the induction is going on, the recruits are informed that they will be assigned to different groups as per their calibre, from here onwards the recruits start looking for managers who they can please/flatter so that they are assigned to them. The ranking were as follows 1) Bond Trader 2) Bond Salesman and 3) Equity at Dallas. Equities were for the dumb and low people, a metaphor for people with low incomes, the reasons are elaborated in the book itself.

So our author opts for a position of Bond Salesman and to his respite he is sent to London, six months after working in New York. This book basically provides an insight into how traders behaved and functioned in Salomon Brothers, the politics between the Managers and their short-sightedness which eventually led to the bank's downfall. It's a humorous book, I suppose our own Indian version is 'The Dork' by Sidin Vadukut. The book also provides information about how a Bond Market functions and its various products. It makes for good reading in the end. I would rate it 8 on 10.      

Red Political Theory

Was never fascinated about any political theories and Communism was no different. Having come across this political thought in school, various newspapers and news channels, had a vague idea about the same. One day while through roaming about Landmark I came across " The Rise and Fall of Communism by Archie Brown" and in my quest for reading up on new subjects, I gladly picked it up. It was after nearly a year that I started reading it and have been captivated by the way in which a political theory which was going to emancipate the proletariat was contorted by a few individuals for their own benefit.

Firstly when Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels purported the theory, their intention was to create a system in which power was in the hands of the proletariat and this power was to be exercised democratically. Economic means were to be owned and controlled by the society. The concepts were Utopian but some of them could be implemented for sectors which are of national importance.

The term Communist was coined in USSR by Vladimir Lenin and his idea of socialism was somewhat different than its proponents, it was more draconian and autocratic. Post Lenin who used to defeat his detractors by using his oratory skills and his hold over his ideas, Josif Stalin who followed him used fear to put his point across. Instead of getting into the the pros and cons of their actions, we need to better understand the original thought process and its efficacy in the 21st century.

Post reading this book I will have to get into Karl Marx's theory in much detail. Hopefully I will be able to make a better case for socialism a few months down the line.