Comments on: Random Thoughts – A New ‘Wall Street’ Trilogy?

By: Rahul

Rahul — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 03:47:00 +0000

Amit :
One very good book is Bad Money by Kevin Philips. It covers a lot of aspects of what’s wrong today & how the US got here. A good comparison with former empires / world powers provides a context – Hapsburg Spain–Dutch–Britsh–US.
The edition I read was easy to follow along however pie charts and such artifacts would have eased understanding of the topic(s) for both US & for former powers. I heard he is going to do a fresh edition next year & this may be there.

By: Mohan

Mohan — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:23:37 +0000

Nicely put.. three decades in three paragraphs.. re reading material I think the best books are Den of Thieves for the 80s, Liars Poker for the 90s and well, the 00 isnt done yet..

By: Amit Paranjape

Amit Paranjape — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 09:37:30 +0000

Ashok,

Thanks for your detailed comments and pointers. I will check out the ‘Rouge Trader’ for sure. Have heard about that book.

Amit

By: Amit Paranjape

Amit Paranjape — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 09:35:09 +0000

Unmesh, Sameer: Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, the dotcom era corporate ’spending’ on entertainment was literally through the roof! Thanks for reminding me about those lavish parties..also don’t forget those private concerts!

Amit

By: Amit Paranjape

Amit Paranjape — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 09:33:28 +0000

Shashank,

Thanks for book pointers.

Amit

By: Ashok Vasan

Ashok Vasan — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:18:20 +0000

a few disconnected comments, but on the topic you’ve written about:

1. Wall Street 2 has already been made into a movie..called “Fun with Dick and Jane” starring Jim Carrey, Tea Leoni and Alec Baldwin. Not a great movie. Interestingly, the film makers have thanked Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling in the credits .
2. A good movie that I recommend is “Rouge Trader” starring Ewan McGregor as Nick Leeson who brought down Barings Bank in the 90s. I found the movie to be rivetting.
3. Am currently reading “Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists” – talks about regulation and continues to defend free markets.
4. Financial markets…I understand the need for financing, I understand debt and public/private ownership of companies. What I fail to understand is valuations and how freely someone’s (analysts, traders, brokers, medias) opinion can so freely be used to drive share and bond prices up or down. As a friend of mine recently said “there is no such thing as ‘fundamentals’ anymore”.

One thing is definitely clear in my mind…Greed is not Good.
Anyway, good article. I’ll pass it along to a friend of mine at Sony Pictures

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:41:10 +0000

The current state of affairs is really like a “great depression” all over again.
Even Detroit is in trouble (all 3 major auto makers begging for money). GM said yesterday that their cash won’t last beyond this december !! You rightly described it as an “Utter disbelief”. This surely has potential for making a great hollywood movie (assuming hollywood itself doesn’t go bust).

By: Unmesh Mayekar

Unmesh Mayekar — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:16:31 +0000

There is enough material on the wild-over-the-top parties that were thrown during the highs of the dot-com months to make a good bollywood flick. The pizzaz/glamour at these parties could rival the most ostentatious bollywood sets ever put on celluloid.

By: Shashank Jogi

Shashank Jogi — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:16:15 +0000

Yes, it would be interesting to watch movies made on these, though I wonder how CDOs and leverage would be explained on screen.

Two books on investing/financial journalism that you may want to read are: ‘Bull!’ by Maggie Mahar and ‘When Genius Failed’ by Roger Lowenstein. Nice reads, you might have read them though.

George Soros has recently written a book on the financial mess titled ‘The New Paradigm for Financial Markets’. Badly written though decent content.