The Wall Street Fiasco in Layman's Terms

15 December 08

I should perhaps be embarassed to say I’ve never been interested in the affairs of Wall Street. I find it hard to take much interest in my own savings account, let alone stocks, bonds and loans. So it’s no small thing for me to say I’ve just read The End, a 9-page article by Michael Lewis about Wall Street greed, the inevitable collapse we are now all sorely aware of, and the reason for it. The article is a must read; especially if you don’t give a crap about Wall Street.

I find the article astounding in two ways, but before I get to that, let me just say I don’t find Wall Street astounding, nor anything having to do with it. The stories of greed, deceit and the result of such are not surprising to me at all. I’m just glad I never jumped on the investment portfolio bandwagon of the last 8 years, which was advertised to the point of nausea. I’m sure you remember those commercials (US folks anyway) where the young, hot chick is dumping the young, hot guy because his portfolio is weak. Phocking stupid! I can only imagine how many morons lost money because of portfolio envy. Television, that’s another evil. Iggy Pop says it best about television: “Bad T.V. that insults me freely.” Ain’t that right. Marketing at it’s best; feeding on the fears of weak-minded (or innocently blind) citizens. But I digress. Back to my raves for Michael Lewis.

The main reason I like this article is because it’s a great piece of writing. Fantastic prose! I never knew of Michael Lewis or the book he wrote 20 years ago — Liar’s Poker (based on his time as a bonds trader), but man, this guy takes a subject that normally puts me to sleep in record time and instead keeps me up late at night with it (taking precedence to the other things actually keeping me up late). I would never dream of reading a book about Wall Street goings-on, let alone one so dated, but I think I’ll read Liar’s Poker, because in this case it’s the way the story is told, not the story itself.

That brings me to my second reason for liking this article. It made sense! Good lord, I could read this article and actually understand what the hell he was talking about, and it was interesting! I really look forward to reading more from Michael Lewis — he’s like for investment banking what John Grisham is for law.

A closing note to say I only came across this article by perusing Benlog, the weblog site of Ben Adida, one of the semantic web experts I try and keep up with. If Ben had Twitter, I’d follow him, as he would likely make it worth while (unlike most people who abuse that service with fevered devotion).

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