Liar's Poker

One line: Michael Lewis's account of his own time on the Salomon Brothers bond trading desk — meant as a cautionary tale about Wall Street excess, it accidentally became an inspirational beacon for a generation of young people heading into finance.

Overview

In 1986, a recent Princeton graduate and aspiring writer named Michael Lewis joined Salomon Brothers' bond sales and trading desk, and later turned the experience into a book. In the episode, David reads a passage describing the culture of the firm's 41st floor — home to the most ambitious people at the firm, governed by no rules beyond the unbridled pursuit of profit and glory, everyone working "with one eye cast over their shoulders." That's the same floor Gutfreund walked Buffett and Munger through on the day in 1987 they signed Berkshire's preferred-stock investment in Salomon itself.

Why it's worth reading

David admits he read the book himself while graduating from Princeton and heading to Wall Street, and compares it to The Social Network two decades early:

"I remember reading the book when I was graduating from Princeton and about to go work on Wall Street myself. It's like the Social Network 20 years later. This was meant to be, at best, a show all sides of a complicated situation and, at worst a cautionary tale. And instead, a whole generation of young people just look at it and they say, I want me some of that."

Ben's endorsement is even more direct:

"I love Michael Lewis. I can make every single one of his books a carve-out at some point."

David then reads a longer passage from the book describing the 41st floor, closing on its most quoted line: "Here it was capitalism at its most raw, and it was self-destructive."

Where it comes from

[acquired-berkshire-2-en]: in the "41st-floor balcony" section, David quotes and reads at length from Michael Lewis's description of that floor; in "Liar's Poker's unintended effect," David and Ben discuss how the book flipped from cautionary tale to spiritual touchstone for Wall Street recruits, with David recounting his own experience reading it.