In the 1980s Salomon Brothers was the epitome of modern Wall Street. Traders became bankers, wielding the trader's weapons of guts, merit and luck, and broke through all the traditional barriers and built a financial giant. In the summer of 1991, Salomon was a world power with $170 billion in assets, a force in London and Tokyo as well as New York, and by far the largest dealer in US government securities. But Salomon had also become the self-indulgent corporate bully skewered in "Bonfire of the Vanities" and "Liar's Poker", hated for its arrogance and feared for its clout. Its top executives began to think they could write their own rules. When the firm manipulated the government bond market in a $10 billion scandal, they destroyed not only careers but the reputation of their house in a business where reputation is everything. This book looks at Salomon Brothers' influence and power.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In painstaking detail, bestselling business author Mayer ( The Bankers ) traces the spectacular rise of Wall Street's most powerful investment house and its ignominious fall in the 1991 scandal involving a $10 billion manipulation of the U.S. Treasury note and bond market. Mayer finds that Reagan-era deregulation, combined with second-generation greed and cynicism at Salomon Brothers, encouraged the development of various "bells and whistles"--investment embellishments which tended to mislead clients, disguise illegalities and obscure "terrific markups." Among those involved in this "conspiracy against the tax-paying citizenry" are such colorful characters as "Billy" Salomon and John Gutfreund. But Mayer also recounts the larger story of the evolution of finance "from a context of relationships to a context of transactions" designed for pure profit. Though some of the market complexities can occasionally make it heavy going for the general reader, this is a landmark treatment of the money world, pegged to one particularly dramatic and alarming case history.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Founded in 1910, the investment firm of Salomon Brothers almost collapsed after irregularities in its bond trading department were discovered in 1991. Mayer ( The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery , LJ 10/1/90; The Bankers , LJ 2/1/75) details the role of the firm's executives in the scandal. In doing so, he demonstrates the complex interrelationships among financial institutions and leaves the reader to contemplate what might have happened if Warren Buffet had not stepped in to save the firm by replacing top management. While Mayer shows that federal officials were not blameless for failing to provide better supervision of the bond auctions, he raises an important question about the adequacy of corporate governance in the industry. A worthwhile buy for business libraries.
- Joseph Barth, U. S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Joseph Barth, U. S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Little dry,
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This review is from: Nightmare on Wall Street: Salomon Brothers and the Corruption of the Marketplace (Hardcover)
This does offer some good insight into Salomon Brothers but unfortunately the author does not have the same gift with words that Michael Lewis does. This would be an amazing book had it been written by Michael Lewis. I found it a struggle to read more than 10-15 pages at a time.
4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Book in History!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Nightmare on Wall Street: Salomon Brothers and the Corruption of the Marketplace (Hardcover)
Wow! It is hard for me to describe how much I loved this book! It is so gripping, I was on the edge of my seat in fear. It kept me up for many nights because it is so scary, and when I could fall asleep I had nightmares about it! Freddy Kreuger, look out. The Salomon Brothers are coming to town!
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very Dry and Dull,
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This review is from: Nightmare on Wall Street: Salomon Brothers and the Corruption of the Marketplace (Hardcover)
I would term this book a nightmare. This book is about as dry as three day old non-buttered toast. The authors premises is that the activity on Wall Street during the 80's - the junk bond M & A items will kill corporations due to the debit levels thus decimate the equities markets. Not that this is that unique of a thought and the book only gets duller from that point. I picked this book up because I wanted to learn something, but the wooden writing turned me off so much I finally had to close the book after the longest 100 pages in my life. Unless you are a relative or friend of the author I would suggest continuing to look for other titles.
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