Epicurus.com - Damn, it Feels Good to Be a Banker: And Other Baller Things You Only Get to Say If You Work On Wall Street

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Manufacturer: Hyperion

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 817
EAN: 9781401309688
ISBN: 1401309682
Label: Hyperion
Manufacturer: Hyperion
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 2008-08-05
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: 2008-08-05
Studio: Hyperion

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Editorial Reviews:

In one word: egregious.

Damn It Feels Good To Be A Banker is a Wall Street epic, a war cry for the masses of young professionals behind desks at Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity shops around the world. With chapters like "No. We do not have any `hot stock tips' for you," "Mergers are a girl's best friend," and "Georgetown? I wouldn't let my maids' kids go there," the book captures the true essence of being in high finance.

DIFGTBAB thematically walks through Wall Street culture, pointing out its intricacies: the bushleagueness of a Men's Warehouse suit or squared-toe shoes, the power of 80s pop, and the importance of Microsoft Excel shortcut keys as related to ever being able to have any significant global impact.

The book features various, vivid illustrations of Bankers in their natural state (ballin'), and, in true Book 2.0 fashion, numerous, insightful comments from actual readers of the widely popular website LeveragedSellOut.com.

Thorough and well-executed, it's lens into the heart of an often misunderstood, unfairly stereotyped subset of our society. The view--breathtaking.

Reader Responses

"After reading this clueless propaganda, I strongly believe that you are a racist, misogynist jerk. FYI, Size 6 is not fat." --Banker Chick

"Strong to very strong." --John Carney, Editor-In-Chief, Dealbreaker.com

"I used to feel pretty good about making $200K/year." --Poor person

Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Decent, but there are better banker books out there.
Comment: This book has some good selected moments, however, I would recommend Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle instead. It is consistently funnier and more accurate, painting a truer version of what it's really like to be a junior banker.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Government Cheese for Wall St.
Comment: The US economy is in disarray. The dollar is depreciating. The Europeans are laughing at us. Wall Street's elitists are taking government handouts. Investment banking is dead. Capitalism is dead. Private equity IRRs are down owing to defunct credit markets. Lehman and Bear bankers are all jobless. Merrill evaporated to pixie dust. No longer is there any appeal to banking or private equity. How can one tout a profession that is all out of a job where bonuses are cut to zero? We are in a very sad state. It used to feel good to be a banker. Now being a banker means being on welfare. Government cheese. What a bunch of losers.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A working definition of Schadenfreude...
Comment: 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

Customer Rating:

Summary: Awesome!
Comment: 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..

Customer Rating:

Summary: Absolutely hilarious
Comment: 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.

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