Hari Puttar
I protest.
As one who has followed diligently the adventures of Hari Puttar on screen and in torchlight, this post is in protest of the leak of the book-"Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows". Down with those pirates, racketters and filibusters who plan to make an easy buck and ruin the pleasure of browsing through a good book.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Kitabi Keeda: Liar's Poker
For any self respecting bookworm who is employed as an underpaid albeit overworked kaarpirate (corporate –for the uninitiated) finding time to read is a challenge. Like Malvolio I too had “greatness” (read chickenpox) being dumped on me (thanks to all the sisterly affection showered on me by my younger sibling)….Yes Yes Yes…very much in line with the usual good fortune or lack of it that comes the way of gud ole montax like any reliable heat seeking missile. It is noteworthy while one may suffer a great deal Chickenpox is actually a good time to catch up on your reading…. Anyways a dear pal of mine pitched in with manna from her not-so-small book collection.
That’s how I got to read Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis. The book was first published in 1989. The name is taken from “Liar’s Poker” a gambling game popular with the bond traders in the book and played for high stakes. The book is semi-autobiographical and deals with the ups and downs in Saloman Brothers - a mortgage trading firm on Wall Street witnessed by the author who joins it to make money despite being an art history student. The firm single handedly created a market in the US for mortgage bonds, became wealthy only to be outdone by a canny trader and his junk bonds.
Before you folks switch off let me tell you it a wonderful insight into the world of mortgage trading, Govt Bonds and junk bonds, salesmen, Arabs and Wall Street (pre & post regularization) without the necessary drudgery associated with books even closely associated with F-I-N-A-N-C-E. (This part I can vouch for coz I slept thru all the lectures on finance during my MBA).
The protagonist relays his experiences over a three- four year period in a style which is lucid and captivating with the cryptic inputs from Sun Tzu’s – The Art of War. The stories are sprinkled with dry wit and splashed with characters that epitomize slapstick, leave you incredulous with their sheer bravado, customers who get “blown up” and some who suffer perennially from the Foot-in-the-mouth disease.
In some ways it’s a rather unflattering description of the workings in a trading pit and the Wall Street in general. You are introduced to the “Human Piranha”, the eagerly infantile Geek (freshly hatched from an ivy league B School), square young men and the “Big Swinging Dick”. You learn how to watch out for and avoid “equities in Dallas” –a rather undesirable job within the finance firm. Of course you naturally empathise and completely buy the theory postulated by any self respecting trader that any unexplained swings in the capital market get credited to the workings of their Arabian counterparts.
Be prepared to be bowled over with the kind of changes in mortage bond history that have believe it or not actually helped in drafting the US trading laws & subsequent regularisation. They have also led to setting up of some of the best known trading firms in the Fortune 500 list. You may get befuddled by the kinds of bonds (minus the suave James...sigh) and loans that get thrown at you. Your faith in your current bond salesman (sigh…..yes they are all birds of the same feather no matter which firm they are part of) however may get hit by a rather strong Tsunami but what the heck, the wave was worth riding!!!
For any self respecting bookworm who is employed as an underpaid albeit overworked kaarpirate (corporate –for the uninitiated) finding time to read is a challenge. Like Malvolio I too had “greatness” (read chickenpox) being dumped on me (thanks to all the sisterly affection showered on me by my younger sibling)….Yes Yes Yes…very much in line with the usual good fortune or lack of it that comes the way of gud ole montax like any reliable heat seeking missile. It is noteworthy while one may suffer a great deal Chickenpox is actually a good time to catch up on your reading…. Anyways a dear pal of mine pitched in with manna from her not-so-small book collection.
That’s how I got to read Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis. The book was first published in 1989. The name is taken from “Liar’s Poker” a gambling game popular with the bond traders in the book and played for high stakes. The book is semi-autobiographical and deals with the ups and downs in Saloman Brothers - a mortgage trading firm on Wall Street witnessed by the author who joins it to make money despite being an art history student. The firm single handedly created a market in the US for mortgage bonds, became wealthy only to be outdone by a canny trader and his junk bonds.
Before you folks switch off let me tell you it a wonderful insight into the world of mortgage trading, Govt Bonds and junk bonds, salesmen, Arabs and Wall Street (pre & post regularization) without the necessary drudgery associated with books even closely associated with F-I-N-A-N-C-E. (This part I can vouch for coz I slept thru all the lectures on finance during my MBA).
The protagonist relays his experiences over a three- four year period in a style which is lucid and captivating with the cryptic inputs from Sun Tzu’s – The Art of War. The stories are sprinkled with dry wit and splashed with characters that epitomize slapstick, leave you incredulous with their sheer bravado, customers who get “blown up” and some who suffer perennially from the Foot-in-the-mouth disease.
In some ways it’s a rather unflattering description of the workings in a trading pit and the Wall Street in general. You are introduced to the “Human Piranha”, the eagerly infantile Geek (freshly hatched from an ivy league B School), square young men and the “Big Swinging Dick”. You learn how to watch out for and avoid “equities in Dallas” –a rather undesirable job within the finance firm. Of course you naturally empathise and completely buy the theory postulated by any self respecting trader that any unexplained swings in the capital market get credited to the workings of their Arabian counterparts.
Be prepared to be bowled over with the kind of changes in mortage bond history that have believe it or not actually helped in drafting the US trading laws & subsequent regularisation. They have also led to setting up of some of the best known trading firms in the Fortune 500 list. You may get befuddled by the kinds of bonds (minus the suave James...sigh) and loans that get thrown at you. Your faith in your current bond salesman (sigh…..yes they are all birds of the same feather no matter which firm they are part of) however may get hit by a rather strong Tsunami but what the heck, the wave was worth riding!!!
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