The Suicide of Wall Street

I have to admit, I am ordinary: My  favorite author is bestseller writer Michael Lewis with his two books "Liar's Poker" and "The Big Short". For those who did not read them let me give you a brief introduction:

• "Liar's Poker" is about the life inside investment banks at Wall Street in the eighties. It shocks reader with their surreal culture of greed. However, the stories told in the book are very funny and entertaining.
• "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine" tells the story of a few outsiders of Wall Street betting against the system and winning big. The greed of Wall Street managed to increase dramatically: bond traders complain even when they earn a USD 47 million bonus today.

In a Bloomberg TV on YouTube Michael Lewis states that Wall Street business model might cease to exist once the anger of the electorate finds its way into politics. Let us pray!

Today investment banks act as intermediary for their clients, but in the same time they try to make a quick profit by trading against their clients, which creates big conflicts of interests. Maybe in the future business is divided into brokers like Charles Schwab and hedge funds doing the trading.

By the way, another funny, shocking, and entertaining movie is "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" , although it is to celebrating its fifth anniversary. See the trailer:




For readers who are interested in manias, bubbles and the like I can recommend "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds". You get roughly 400 years of financial madness.