One book leads to another

Books are sometimes like hyperlinks. Reading one leads to another and so on............

I became very interested in the story behind the greed in Wall Street in the 80's . It was the age of LBO's , Junk Bond Craze and M&A's. It all started with Liar's Poker.

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis : A fascinating and entertaining book about the life of a trader at Saloman Brothers. Very well written and takes you behind the high stakes world of traders on the Wall street . A must read if you are looking for a career in Wall street .This book also got me hooked to the LBO's and my prof suggested that I should read the " Barbarians at the Gate".

Barbarians at the Gate by Burroughs and Helyar : Corporate Jets,greedy CEO's ,bloated egos -- its the story of US$ 25 Billion Leveraged Buyout (LBO) of RJR Nabisco . An amazing tale which would leave you wondering about the limits to greed . This book led me to read another fascinating book -- Den of Thieves.

Den of Thieves by James Stewart : Its the best of the lot. Takes you behind the Junk Bond craze of the 80's and into the world of Investment banks,traders,arbitrageurs,SEC,Attorney's office and investors. The main players in this tale are Michael Milken , Ivan Boesky,Martin Siegel & Dennis Levine. An unbelievable story of greed , charisma and risk & punishment. This book is a must read !

Chainsaw - The notorious career of Al Dunlap in the era of profit at any price by John Byrne :
The only way this CEO (Al Dunlap) knows, how to cut costs, is by laying off people. Al mercilessly laid off people in his career to turnaround firms and the book talks about how law finally caught up with him when he was implicated in an Accounting scandal in the 90's. There is more to Strategy than cutting costs by laying off people .

Another interesting book in this series is the Predator's Ball. This book supposedly gives a much more balanced view of Milken & Co. I am searching for that book now !