Customer Reviews

Inside Out: An Insider's Account of Wall Street

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I read this book before reading "Den of Thieves". I would really love to know what has happened to the author since publication. I found the book very interesting even though I found the author unrepentant and heavily biased in his interpretation of actual events (read "Den of Thieves"). Seems as though Levine wrote the book to mainly make amends to his wife and to convince readers of his own importance. However, I do tend to believe Levine's descriptions of the behind-the-scenes investment world.

Mr. Levine casts himself as a somewhat honorable person in this book. When forced by the SEC to implicate others in insider trading he states he was emotionally devastated but grudgingly complied. He claims his attorney, in 30 years of practice, never witnessed a defendant become so emotional with betraying his work associates.

Hold the presses.

On page 311 of "Den of Thieves" another perspective emerges: "Despite his claims to Wilkis that he'd never cooperate, Levine seemed eager to ensare his fellow conspirators."

This is just one example of Levine's revisionist history. Instead of reading this book, read "Den of Thieves."

What happens when someone with the ego the size of New York gets a book contract? Read this book and find out. This guy is amassing, the book details out his make and break it life in Wall Street and is more of an additional way for him to continue pumping up his ego. There are promises of his wheeling and dealing details and how he was one of the majors in the Junk Bond and M & A scene of he 80's, but once you read the book it seams more like he was always looking in the window at the real players. Sure he was a crook, but not the top level, more of an upper middle management kind of guy. Overall the book does not really give you much new info, it really is just a description of this arrogant fat cat that wanted the world to treat him like a king. I would suggest you not be an enabler to his egomania and move past this book. If you are interested in this topic then I would suggest you also read "Den of Thieves" and "Predator's Ball", both of which cover the 80's M&A and Junk Bond world. To get a better understanding of KKR, I would suggest "Masters of Debit". They are much better books then this one.

Greetings

I have found the book to be a very thorough and deeply personal account by a person who made a mistake during the 1980's go go era. The subsequant Dot Coom boom and the boom and bust cycles gives an interesting perspective to insiders to some of the forces that the leveraged buy out pioneers were exposed to. Dennis Levine sums it up with "there for the Grace of God go I.." You had to have been there to understand.

The insiders account is well written, reads well and is full of detail. It is a blistering good read and is a reflection of the journey.

What stands out is that it is a very slippery slope, and that decent people gets swept up in the atmosphere of such a greedy era.

The single great regret of Mr Levines life is that he will forever be remembered for a mistake and a small portion of his life. He is much more than that, and most people miss that. It would seem that industry insiders fear being associated with him, should any of the tarnish and bad rep reflect on him. My personal feeling is that he learned a thing or two about life, intellectual and other types of integrity. Charcater comes from suffering, and that comes to us all. We all have our cross to bear.

The key question for me, is whether we are willing to help others from what our own choices and journey gave and taught us. In this context, Dannis Levine is a honourable man, and shares with an open hand. He may be a pariah in he investment banking community, but he is more than that for the rest of us mortal beings. The question is what do you do with the choices you have. There is a lot to be learned from the man. It has taken me a few years to move from "quick to judge" to "slow to understand". This book was a useful tool on this journey. I recommend it highly. It is not a life wasted an dit will not be time wasted. I fyou have been there, you will understand. For some independant thinkers the basic humanity is heart warming.

Respectfully

JM
South Africa