Playing for high stakes, Michael Lewis tossed aside a chest beating bond sales position at the "Law of the Jungle" cultured Salomon Bros. for the wilds of financial journalism. He hit the jackpot with his semi-autobiographical novel, Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage of Wall Street, arriving on bookstore shelves this week on October 1, 1989.

Known for its eagle eye takes on the maneuvering "Human Piranha," trading floor pressures and "feeding frenzy" gorgethons, Lewis' coming-of-age book chronicles his journey on Wall Street, beginning with the competitive Salmon training program. Additionally, the author deftly recounts the company’s swaggering dominance of the fixed income world in an age of deregulation-until complacency saw the firm lose its crown to Drexel's Michael Milken, of junk bonds' (gory) glory.

Liar's Poker instantly became a #1 international bestseller in both the hard cover and paperback versions. Presciently, the book foretold the doomed scenarios awaiting some less-than-savvy Savings and Loans Banks in search of higher yields...and the fate of financial companies more than willing to 'innovatively' package debt to quench an unyielding thirst.

This Week in Wall Street History

9/25/08