What Goes Up: The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street as Told by the Bankers, Brokers, CEOs, and Scoundrels Who Made It Happen

Weiner (W) has done an excellent job of demonstrating ,through a series of oral interviews with a number of Wall Street veterans, that the basic goal of Wall Street is speculation and not entrepreneurship.It is unfortunate that the one mention of Adam Smith(see the Pete Petersen interview on pp.253-254)links him to the University of Chicago economics department.Nothing could be further from the truth.Adam Smith was well aware of the difference between enterprise-entreprenuership and speculation.Smith recognized that speculation wastes and destroys the aggregate savings of a nation(see The Wealth of Nations,1776,pp.339-340,Modern Library(Cannan)edition).This has happened repeatedly since Paul Volcker became Federal Reserve Board Chairman in late 1979. One minor flaw in the book appears to be the attempt to rewrite the history books on Michael Milkin and his junk bond fraud.The evidence is so completely overwhelmingly against Milkin that Jude Wanniski's claim that Milkin was innocent means that Wanniski never figured out the difference between enterprise and speculation in his lifetime.

Eric Weiner uses the words of the titans of Wall Street to describe the ups and downs of Wall Street's long march. Chapters are organized around rough themes (the early tycoons, junk bonds, the emergence of conglomerates, etc.) with alternating paragraphs written by the leaders of the great Wall Street firms. The primary sources provide direct insight to what happened in a very easy to read format. As a survey, the book provides a readers digest version of much of the popular banking literature. (The chapter on leveraged buyouts has just enough detail to allow one to skip Barbarians at the Gate.) Very efficient background material for anyone entering the field. There are two limitations with the style and direction of the book. By it's nature, the book focuses primarily on New York banking, and misses much of the story of globalization. The other is that by using people's own words, one has to read between the lines to find the real story. Both limitations are unavoidable given the intention and form of the book.

There have been other histories of Wall Street before: so what makes What Goes Up: The Uncensored History Of Modern Wall Street As Told By The Bankers, Brokers, CEOs And Scoundrels Who Made It Happen so special from the others? The title says it all: this is not just a third-party analysis of history but a set of insider's observations by those who made Wall Street the center of the financial world. Financial journalist Weiner provides insights based on not just a few, but hundreds of interviews with all levels of Wall Street insider from Warren Buffett to Alan Greenspan: the result is an excellent overview other coverages barely touch.

This is the single best book on Wall St. I've ever read. I've read at least 100 of them. This one is succinct, interesting and comprehensive. It covers at least briefly all the major events and players through the modern era of Wall St. It is very engaging, because of the style, which is written from interviews, so the whole book is in the voice of real people. Highly recommended.

This book is a must read! It's everything you've always wanted to know about Wall Street. The author, Eric J. Weiner, has you captivated. Get it now, before the Holiday rush!!!