Analysis Of Michael Lewis's ' Liar ' Poker '

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense was one of many books to be published in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis of 2007. After seeing the global economy stall in the face of massive losses in word financial markets, many Americans sought to better understand the crisis and its causes. This book, written from the perspective of a financial market insider, provides a glimpse into the world of global finance and also seeks to explain how the players in this world were involved in the crisis. In the words of the author Lawrence McDonald, “My objective in writing A Colossal Failure of Common Sense was twofold. First, to provide … a close-up, inside view of how markets really work…..And, second, to give… as crystal clear an explanation as possible about the real reasons why the legendary Lehman Brothers met with such a swift end”1. By writing about his personal experience at Lehman Brothers and recounting stories from within the famous investment banking firm, Mr. McDonald largely succeeds at his first goal. However, the elements of personal biography and the chronological order of the book make it difficult for the reader to fully appreciate all of the varied causes of the financial crash. I believe that the main value of reading this book is in understanding these causes, with Lehman Brothers acting as a microcosm of the greater financial universe. As such, in this review I have isolated elements from Mr. McDonald’s book which highlight how the crisis

In 2008 America’s financial system was brought to a stand still as decades of negligence and financial decisions caused our economy to sink into the worst recession since the great depression. Cultivating a problem worse than America has seen in roughly a century points one finger not at a particular cause, but a string of events that finally gave way. Now, eight years later our economy is still recovering, and time has allowed us to look back at decades of mistakes to try and connect the dots of the perfect storm that collapsed our financial market in 2008. In 2009 Brookings Institution, one of Washington’s oldest think tanks, concluded there were three causes that resulted in the crisis. Economists Martin Baily and Douglas Elliot stated that the results of government intervention in the housing market, the influences Wall Street had on Washington, and global economic forces were the three main causes of the economic collapse. They believed that a housing bubble inflated when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-sponsored enterprises, intervened in the housing market. The banking industry was called out to be blamed for years of manipulation of our political and financial systems. Lastly, Baily and Elliot cite the global economy and the existence of a credit boom throughout European and Asian nations. Low inflation and consistent growth throughout the world economy spiked investors’ interest in acquiring riskier investments, which encouraged

Michael Lewis, The Big Short, film strategically provided three separate but parallel stories of the U.S mortgage housing of 2008. The movie demonstrated how Wall Street, in a desperate search for profits, lunched “bonds” products with riskier mortgages. As a result, lenders were no longer interested in if a borrower could pay them back. In disbelieved, I noticed deceitful tactics that lenders used, throughout the movie, to convince Americans to take out mortgages they could not afford. Chronologically, Americans’ saving levels dropped while countries ' savings tripled. Once the Recession was in full effect, the US government rescued Wall Street, passing an unimaginably large bill, the bill we are still paying off. To most Americans’ surprise, nearly all of the rescue money went into Wall Street executives’ pockets.

Michael Lewis exposes the truth about the American real estate problem. Millions of American have bought homes they cannot pay for it. Banks have lent out mortgages that people cannot pay it. Propagandists have promised that real estate value will always rise. Some days it seems that partial of the nation is financially under water. Michael Lewis wrote this article to acknowledge the consequence of the horrific real estate crash, and the financial consequences that will get to the middle classes of people.

Where do you begin with covering one of the greatest economic crash of our time, and the worst recession since the Great Depression? Michael Lewis takes us to the very beginning, covering the story of how cynical mortgage brokers and CDO managers were playing fraudulent roulette. A rigged system that was doomed from the beginning but that very well needed every piece to be in place for 2008 to happen. Credit rating agencies S&P and Moody’s had to be completely oblivious in properly rating the CDO tranche system, mortgage lenders had to be eager to write down sub-prime loans, and . Yet, through all the dust came a story of the underdogs; Steve Eisman, Michael Burry, Greg Lippmann & his Chinese side kick Eugene Xu, and Cornhole Capital

Born and raised in Queens, New York, he was a lifelong resident of the Big Apple. Following a happy childhood, he studied at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers, a sprawling global bank, in September 2008 almost brought down the world’s financial system. Considered by many economists to have been the worst financial crisis since the Great depression of the 1930s. Economist Peter Morici coined the term the “The Great Recession” to describe the period. While the causes are still being debated, many ramifications are clear and include the failure of major corporations, large declines in asset values (some estimates put the drop in the trillions of dollars range), substantial government intervention across the globe, and a significant decline in economic activity. Both regulatory and market based solutions have been proposed or executed to attempt to combat the causes and effects of the crisis.

The 2008 housing market meltdown in America created a ripple effect that had a negative impact on multiple real estate and stock markets throughout the world. Also, many people who were investors in the America market have never recovered from this financial disaster. So, one must contemplate how this event could have transpired in a country with such a strong economy with governmental regulations designed to protect the average investor. Nevertheless, it is simple, it took brokers, real estate appraisers, realtors, Wall Street, and mortgage companies combined unethical behavior to allow greed to be his or her guidance in pursuing wealth form unsuspecting new home purchasers who could afford his and her recent purchase, a new house.

From the beginning of his book Cassidy comes to the conclusion that the financial collapse of 2008 was not an inescapable fate. Rather, it was the result of the general ignorance of warning signs from leading economists and Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve for the United States, which resulted in the collapse due to their

The years 2008 shined a light on a group of people who were considered high society. When the stock market crashed in September 2008, the world shines a spotlight on the financial corporation. Words such as hedge fund manager and financial instrument such as credit default swaps are not words not known to everyday citizens. The economic downturn forced society to ask question not normally asked.

The book begins with a prologue, which gives some background information about Michael Lewis. It lets the reader know that he worked in the finance industry as an investment advisor for Salomon Brothers in 1985 (Lewis 1). His book Liar’s Poker talks more about his early life and time with Salomon Brothers and the greediness of the finance industry. He also introduces Meredith Whitney, an obscure analyst, who made a bold prediction that Citigroup would need to slash its dividend or go bust. Two weeks later Citigroup slashed its dividend (Lewis XVI). She also states that investments in the subprime mortgage bond market will lead to huge consequences. This was an accurate prediction and another person named John Paulson made close to $25 billion

Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin is a book documenting the events of the financial crisis of 2008, from the perspective of various Wall Street executives and government officials. The 550-page novel is the product of hundreds of hours of research and interviews with people familiar with the situation. It attempts to be an authoritative as well as extremely detailed account of the events making up the financial crisis. The novel begins in the aftermath of the collapse of the investment firm Bear Stearns, and its subsequent sale to JP Morgan Chase for an astonishingly low price. This low price was subsidized by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in order to make it more palatable for the Bear Stearns board. It asserts that the deal was

The ‘sub-prime’ crisis triggered by the meltdown of the US mortgage backed-securities market in 2007 was a precursor to the global financial crisis. It would drastically change the competitive landscape for all firms in the financial services sector, including Campbell and Bailyn (C&B), one of the world’s five largest investment banks.

At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, Mr. Lawrence G. McDonald wrote a book on the fall of Lehman Brothers, entitled "A Colossal Failure of Common Sense." This book is a risk manager 's guide to the right and wrong moves on Wall St., and explains why investors must stay ahead of policies coming out

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis is a non-fiction New York Times #1 bestseller. This text is published by W.W. Norton & Company and contains 320 pages. This is a book that focuses in on the 2008 financial crisis and the build up of the housing and credit bubble during the 2000’s. The author channels in on the persons who saw the crisis coming that wanted to protect their investments or did not want to speak of the issue.