Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Banker: And Other Baller Things You Only Get to Say If You Work on Wall Street

"It is no such thing. It's actually a riot - imagine a young Hunter Thompson or Tom Wolfe writing with verve about modern day Wall Street but not as an outsider or an ingenue, but fully steeped in the technical and cultural world of a 24 year-old master of the universe." I don't think I can put it any more succinctly. This book breathes authenticity and insider culture and its writer has an unprecedentedly fine comic voice. Unlike all the meathead humor books stuck in between the Garfield and Far Side collections at Barnes & Noble, this one is worthy of notice. The Onion kids wish they could write like this. P.J. O'Rourke wishes he could write like this. Al Franken cried himself to sleep because this book made him feel like a no-talent loser. I bought this and read it on a two day trip. My wife kept asking me what's so funny, but she'll never understand the bliss of this comprehensive send-up of banker culture. Buy it, read it, live it.

I pity poor old "Leveraged Sellout", which would be the most wounding thing one could do to him ("one" being a person not blessed enough to work in front office advisory M & A at a bulge bracket investment bank), but only for his timing. After the events of September 2008 it's going to be a while before anyone preens about working in a Bulge Bracket investment bank on Wall Street. At this point (still in September 2008) there are only two left, one (Morgan Stanley) looking likely to go the way of all flesh in coming days (horror of all horrors courtesy of *Wachovia*!), and the last man standing, Messrs. Goldman, Sachs & Co, facing a very uncertain road ahead as an independent investment bank no matter how excellent its risk management, deal execution and intellectual capital may be. So I pity the anonymous "Leveraged Sellout" simply because, as a result of his timing, this excellent and brutally funny little book will either disappear into the same gaping void that claimed Bear Stears, Merrill Lynch, AIG and Lehman Brothers or, worse, be held up by moronic lefties as a poster child for everything that was wrong with Wall Street. It is no such thing. It's actually a riot - imagine a young Hunter Thompson or Tom Wolfe writing with verve about modern day Wall Street but not as an outsider or an ingenue, but fully steeped in the technical and cultural world of a 24 year-old master of the universe. I have no doubt that whoever wrote this was a genuine insider - the observations and devastatingly funny sending up of the minutiae (such as the distinction between IBD and FICC and importance of never using your mouse when manipulating a spreadsheet) would never be apparent to an outsider who hadn't done a significant stretch. I spent 7 years at a bulge bracket bank myself (as a lowly inhouse lawyer, resolutely in unglamorous back office), and but for the inevitable comic hyperbole, Damn It Feels Good To Be A Banker rings very true. I loved every moment. So it's kind of a historical document, even though it is pure satire. It captures the zeitgeist, circa August 2008, and if you've had any interaction with the IB fraternity in their prime - that is, before the Sub-Prime got them, you'll find this hysterically funny. Olly Buxton

Having been a massive fan of the website the book was always going to be great fun! The guy who wrote it clearly got bullied at school..

Probably the funniest book I've ever read, even better than the blog. I read it cover-to-cover in one sitting. Twice as funny if you work in finance and know a lot about the industry, but nonetheless hilarious for anyone who isn't easily offended or can take a joke.

I'm still trying to discern what the funniest aspect of this book is. Is it the blatant elitism/classicsm? Perhaps. Is it Wall Street's misogyny and generalizations of foreigners? There's definitely something there. Perhaps its LSO's ability to apply banker-speak and concepts to everyday life? That plays a role no doubt. Or maybe it's simply everything about the LSO including the aforementioned plus utter disregard for anything below investment bankers (just about everything), complete with a hilariously satirical glorification of their larger-than-life existences. Bingo. This really is the most prestigious book ever written.