Liar’s Poker

Author Michael Lewis tells the story as he witnesses it. Though he often finds his compatriots at Salomon funny, eccentric, and sometimes venal, he also finds these traits in himself. He proves an excellent bond salesman but, in the process, fights a daunting battle with his conscience. Money, and the greed it inspires, finally loses its meaning, and he walks away.

Rotund, loud, unkempt, and brilliant, Ranieri gets drafted as the first trader in Salomon’s mortgage department and helps them develop the market for mortgage-backed securities. At first skeptical of these new financial instruments, Ranieri becomes an enthusiast. Before long, he runs the department, the most profitable and meanest tempered at Salomon, while encouraging practical joking, overeating, and cigar smoking. He claims in 1984 that “his mortgage trading department made more money that year than the rest of Wall Street combined in all their businesses” (113). He is considered emblematic of all things Salomon.

The Salomon Brothers chairman’s name is “pronounced Good friend” (13), but a sudden visit from him at their trading desks could strike terror into the hearts of his employees. Portly and grayhaired, he “was so intensely calm and deliberate that he made you nervous” (73).