Sting in the tale
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I enjoyed Wall Street Meat for two reasons.
Firstly, because it is a well written account of a period I experienced, featuring people I knew and firms I'd worked for etc. Its publication means I won't have to explain to friends and family what I did for a living; now I can get them to read this book. It made me laugh out loud many times, not just out of remembrance, but also because its just plain funny. If you had anything to do with equity research in the 1990s, this is a book about you and you'll enjoy reading it.
The second and more important reason for enjoying this book is because it bravely exposes both the truth about equity research then, and identifies the problems it still faces now. It articulates thoughts and concerns that I ruminated about for a decade but which I hardly dared speak. Kessler's simple but devastating conclusion is that the model is flawed. Eliot Spitzer hasn't fixed anything. Unbundling may help, but investors are often too stupid to identify who makes them money as oppose to who they like.
If you work in equity research, read equity research, or sell equity research then you really should read this book. It'll make you laugh, but there's a real sting in the tale.
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review from the inside
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For those of us in the industry who missed the party (i.e. started post 2000) this is a fascinating insight into the role of a research analyst during the TMT bubble. I would highly recommend this to anybody interested in any aspect of Wall St, but would point out that post-Spitzer it really is a historical account rather than an insight into how things work today. I really enjoyed this book and the insight into the personalities of the era. It seems the obvious thing to say, but it's true...... this book is the Liars Poker of our generation. However, it is not such a good read and goes in to slightly less detail than Lewis did.
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