The Real Story of Billion-Dollar Deals and Unconventional Behaviour: Straight to Hell

A Curious Tongue: It’s an easy, entertaining read that doesn’t quite live up to its title or its hype and ends rather abruptly.

United States on Jun 11, 2023

mrprs: This book is nothing for feminists, idealists or socialist people. It's full of egoism, alcohol, drugs, sadism and lack of responsibility.

John LeFevre clearly was living in a bubble that you wouldn't think was real. But due to his clear, transparent and colloquial language he described the situations so obviously that there was no way these scenes never happened.

Reflecting on the book's content, I feel that he must be an intelligent man without any feel for constraints, barriers or compliance. He does his job perfectly well and shines in his role. But the side effects of the jobs kinda force you to go out drinking, get completely wasted and seize the power of money to make use of girls (sexually). Otherwise you are an outsider and can't make business. But I also feel that he needs to reflect some more on the consequences of his and his colleagues' behavior. They were "pranking" others so badly that this mustn't be the future. Also for him as a bully.

After some stories the content seems to "repeat" as they mostly cover the same surrounding - alcohol, dining, girls, sadism, consequences of being wasted. But it's worth a read just to get to know a bankers'...

Germany on Dec 29, 2022

MKO: Not groundbreaking like Kitchen Confidential to the gastronomy business but a collection of genuine and highly entertaining anecdotes from the later Wild West period of banking.

United Kingdom on Sep 27, 2022

Admiralu: This book was exactly what the title stated. Deviance, debauchery and billion dollar deals are described. Heavy on the debauchery and deviance. Spoiled bankers living it up in Asia. This book is a snapshot of a bygone era. Much of this behavior would get people fired nowadays. The author's stories vary from funny, to sad, heartbreaking and downright crass. Ken Fisher of Fisher Investments is learning this lesson now, speaking like a member of the old boys has consequences. He's losing money as a result. Varied outcomes awaited many coworkers, some were promoted, some changes firms and others were fired or retired. It's an insight to a culture I would not wish to be a part of. I read this book using immersion reading. The audiobook version was a perfect companion to the book. Expertly narrated by the brilliant Scott Aiello, who brought the perfect blend of snark to match the text. I did more listening than reading and it was enjoyable. Definitely get the audio version.

United States on Oct 18, 2019

tallmanbaby: This is another book about what it is like to work on Wall Street, though in this case the author went to London and Hong Kong. Overall it is well written, lively and easy to read.

The initial sample was about the brutally dehumanising induction process, but after that it fairly quickly settles down into a slightly repetitive tale of bad behaviour, and more bad behaviour. There are some good yarns here, the tweets are good, he writes sharply and is amusingly opinionated, but for a whole book the appeal does wane.

While the author is not shy of confessing to some abysmal conduct, the stronger passages were where he showed concern at the poor treatment of others.

On the strength of this book you have the hope that the Chinese do not consider this sort of behaviour typical of Western attitudes.

United Kingdom on Aug 28, 2016

Erich Wallner: Das Buch ist weitgehend eine Anektdoten-Sammlung - seien sie nun selber erlebt oder nicht. Ab dem 6. Kapitel ("I'll Call You on Your Cell") wird es gelegentlich mühsam, wenn Feinheiten des Finanzwesens beschrieben werden, die Laien nichts sagen.

Besonders gelungen fand ich, dass nach jedem der 22 Kapitel eine Seite mit - sagen wir mal "Aphorismen" - eingeschoben wird. Wer Spaß an Ironie und Zynismus hat, wird das ganze Buch genießen, wer nicht, sollte die Finger davon lassen. Als Test drei Stück:
* Why trust a justice system where all the smart people get out of jury duty?"
* Each comma in your bank account adds an inch to your dick.
* My first wife was vehemently pro-life until my girlfriend got pregnant.

Germany on Jun 12, 2016

BrooklynBond: A superficial read may lead one to dismiss this book. One reads about a bunch of trader antics, which probably are highly offensive to certain readers (but hilarious if you have the right sense of humor). But buried within the book is a fascinating insight into how the bond market works in Asia. LeFevre's position as a senior member of the bond syndicate desk gave him an excellent vantage point to observe the sales/trading and investment banking divisions along with client behavior.

While some of professional actions that LeFevre describes are unethical and illegal in any normal jurisdiction, he does make excellent points about the tension between sell side and buy side: there are many shades of gray in the global bond market. Some issues that LeFevre brings up:

1) What should you do to help a fundamentally good company when the bond market is in the process of shutting down? Is it OK to wilfully mislead potential bond buyers about general investor sentiment to try to get the deal done?
2) Is it OK to take advantage of a lazy, supposedly sophisticated institutional investor who doesn't really understand what he's buying?
3) Is it reasonable not to get the...

United States on Aug 28, 2015

Blue Icebreaker: 4 1/2 stars. This book is great entertainment. It provides you with a rare opportunity to see the world of elite-level banking. The stories of deviance and debauchery are interesting. The persons involved are depicted in a very realistic and above all funny way. But this can be considered mere fun and trivia. As the author said in an interview, the real outrage comes from seeing how the bankers do business: they are all utterly corrupt.

I have recently read Ice-T's autobiography. There is a revealing quote in it:

"One thing I've learned from straddling two worlds: Hollywood is way more gangster than the streets. It comes down to this. The higher you go up the mountain, the colder it gets. I’ve been around some of the most ruthless gangsters in the streets of South Central L.A., but I’ve never seen anything like Hollywood’s gangsterism. When cats are dealing with billions of dollars, anybody—I mean, anybody—is expendable."

Now imagine that multiplied by a billion. The world of banking is corrupt to the bone. The difference is that the 'collateral damage' are whole states, millions of people who aren't even aware why the system works the way it does...

United States on Aug 19, 2015

jg: For better or worse, this book was spot on as far as many of the men who have been, as well as a few who are, in my life.

Having been exposed to the market long before I could comprehend it (or so much as support my own head) the world of high finance, money & debauchery were nothing new.

Simply put, Straight To Hell is unapologetic in the way it exposes certain aspects of the culture that is high finance. While this cannot be looked upon as any sort of bible or even a look at every aspect of the industry, the recklessness, risk-taking & sadly, the screwing over of clients is not unique to Citi, nor can it be overlooked that much of the attitude still exists today. (See crash of 2008, etc...)

That being said, I took the book for what it is—one account of many... And on that level, it's pretty damn entertaining.

My biggest criticism was the way it ended... It just well... Stopped. No real exit strategy, it's like 'hey, I'm kinda tired of writing. Okay. I'm coming up on a deadline. The end.' WTF was that about?

Ending aside, if you've lived in this world in any capacity... Especially during the 80s heyday of Wall Street, I believe you'll...

United States on Aug 09, 2015

oscar: I'm sure some of the outrageous stories are a little overdone but in essence beleivable, It seems like an elaborate game in which the banks are the winners with little thought for their clients ( no surprise there then) It just confirms our worst suspicions it is just a game one in which there is only one winner the banks themselves. I am like the rest of the public amazed that not one of the bankers have ever been locked up,.
It is just an elaborate game and a wonderful gravy train.
If the stories are half true one needed an a strong constitution to take the punishment.

United Kingdom on Jul 31, 2015