John Snow October 31st, 2013 Business in Society Liar’s Poker Analysis
The book Liar’s Poker begins with Michael Lewis, the author saying "Wall Street,” reads the sinister old gag, "is a street with a river at one end and a graveyard at the other.” This quote, symbolizing competitiveness, refers to the river as growth and prosperity and the graveyard as death in a company proves to be the fundamental principle that led Michael Lewis to write this book. The book portrays Michael Lewis’ time with Salomon Brothers (SB), the largest bond dealer in the 1980s. It outlines the business model that SB used to maximize capital in the mortgage bond market. By the mid- 1980’s SB had become the most influential bond dealer in the market. With his perseverance he was able to land a job in SB. From there he was trained on the 41st floor of SB. He would soon find out that the 41st floor as like a jungle where he had to abide by the guide to remain safe. (keep his job). The law of the jungle represents the competiveness of business today. It shows how you have to be innovative and driven in order to work your way up to becoming a “guide” in the jungle which is Wall Street. At first, Lewis was intimidated by the speakers who had come to visit his recruitment class such as the human piranha. However, as he became more accustomed to the “jungle” and fought for his position to be in the company he soon began to realize and understand the ways of people like the human piranha and Bob Dall. John Gutfreund- CEO of Salamon Brothers. Considered the king of wall street in the book. Michael Lewis looked up to him and wanted to be as successful as him at one point. John Meriwether- Considered to be the king of Liars Poker. Liars Poker is a game of strategy and wit where players have to guess how many of each number appear on all the serial numbers of the dollar bills of everyone playing ex.4 3’s, next person says 4 4’s next person says 5 2’s and so on. Game ends when someone says I doubt it which indicates they think the other person is bluffing Then they show the dollar bill and whoever wins wins the bet. Similar to bond trading in that you set the price and go as high
