I just finished Andy Kessler's Running money and Wall Street Meat. Andy's storytelling is very conversational but I did not like it as much as Micheal Lewis' style. However I must say that I enjoyed a lot reading both of the books.
Running money illustrated the tech investing era and Andy was right in the middle of the action. He talks from an investor point of view and especially from one who has his feet on the ground despite the hot market. Kessler is very low-key and direct with his writing. In addition to describing how to run a hedge fun and what does it really mean he explains as well very nicely the semiconductor business model. As macro-level he tries to put together how the US IP economy is working. I'm not buying his theory of profit margin surplus but definitely his quest for the driving force and new underlying growth factor of innovation sector puts one considering where the new opportunities could be identified.
Wall Street Meat overlaps with Running Money and this is very disturbing at least for me since I read the Running Money first. There are some 10 pages or so same stories and some of them even 100% 1:1 with the other book. Sounds like a rush to get things published... Anyhow, if you want to know what happened behind the scenes and how actually the investment banking business was run in the 80's and 90's Andy's book is a must. He spreads wide open the business model and way the Street banking was conducted. Liar's Poker was great but Andy walks the reader through the crazy days of the 90's and tells the story from an insider's point of view. Mary Meeker, Jack Grubman, Frank Quattrone and others are nicely illustrated and positioned from a co-worker's point of view. I was very pleased to find some analysing of the dot bomb boom from the liquidity angle. Kessler brings into limelight the institutional funds (momos etc.) that played a crucial role in making the bubble to happen.
If you like the financial world and are looking for some answers why some companies got funded and made huge IPOs. Those days it was really not about how solid your business was put how right your timing was (and who you knew).
Posted at October 18, 2004 06:34 PM | TrackBack