Rating: 
Summary: Enter the rogue's gallery
Review: "Den of Thieves" reads like a thriller, recounting in spellbinding detail the rise and eventual fall of Wall Street's iconic villains, Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, and Dennis Levine.
For those who believe Milken's philanthropic activities in recent years are confirmation that he has fully atoned for his sins, this book will make you think twice. He is depicted here as pompous and tyrannical, contemptuous of the investing public, and brazen in his belief that he was above the law.
Students of securities law would also have much to learn from this book, with its textured descriptions of insider trading laws, the plea bargaining process, the inner workings of the SEC, and the legal maneuverings of prosecutors and defense attorneys in cases of securities violations. As it happens, Harvey Pitt, Martin Lipton, and other renowned corporate lawyers figure prominently in the storyline.
One niggling complaint: James Stewart's prose is too pedestrian. Sometimes this gets irksome - for instance, the word "appalled" is used repeatedly to the point of exasperation. For a former editor of the Wall Street Journal, I was expecting prose with a bit more panache.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful and biased
Review: "Den of Thieves" is an angry get-back at Michael Milken a man who redesigned business financing and got rid of a system on Wall Sreet that was ineffective and poorly thought out. We should never accept a book written by the lover of an anti-Milken Wall Street Journal reporter as objective--it can't be. This book is a disgrace.
Rating:
Summary: The second tape's B-Side jumps some lines...
Review: A quite good adaptation of the book. The narrator is a good reader so that non-English speakers understand him. The only drawback is that the transition from Sida-A to Side-B on the second tape is wrong. I do not know how many lines or pages we miss, but ... it's a mess!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: A superlative tale, all the more so because it is true. The background look at the four main players (Levine, Boesky, Milkin, and Siegel) is what makes this book a standout.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: All I have to say is WOW! A great book. If you are intrigued by Wall Street or like investing, corporate finance, or investment banking, you will love this book. Buy it now. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: James B. Stewart, great journalist, suberb story teller!
Review: An absolutely outstanding look at the '80s Wall Street culture and the inside operations of Michael R. Milken, Dennis B. Levine, Ivan F. Boesky, Martin Siegel... and many, many other players on Wall Street, including U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani & the SEC investigations. Wall Street--Economic History worthy of reading. Other great, outstanding books on the subject: "A Licence to Steal: The untold story of Michael Milken and the conspiracy to bilk the nation." by Benjamin J. Stein; and also: "Ther Predators's Ball" by Connie Bruck. And because James B. Stewart is such an outstanding writer, I also read, which was a great book as well, written in story book fashion again: "Blood Sport: The President and his Adversaries" by James B. Stewart, a #1 New York Times Bestseller.
Rating: 
Summary: i got bored and confused
Review: and i never made it past page three hundred. i like the pictures.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read For MBAs
Review: As an MBA coming out of the 80's era of hype and junk bonds, this book has been by my bedside since December 1990. I'm still in awe how complete and masterly this book is with all the vivid character descriptions and associated schemes and plots! Think of it as a great reference for those who wish to conform to the straight & narrow. Excellent work & a must read!!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read For MBAs
Review: As an MBA coming out of the 80's era of hype and junk bonds, this book has been by my beside since December 1990. I'm still in awe how complete and masterly this book is with all the vivid character descriptions and associated schemes and plots! Think of it as a great reference for those who wish to conform to the straight & narrow. Excellent work & a must read!!
Rating:
Summary: Not much in common with Wall Street today, I Hope!
Review: Criticisms of this book center around the details of bond trading, specifically the authors miscalculation of commissions. Also, perhaps, some hearsay is included as facts. The author states that no anonymous sources are quoted, but there were un-named and 'not-for quote' sources used. You either believe that the main characters (Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, Dennis Levine)said what they said in the book or not. It's relevant because if true,Levine was a bigoted racist as well as a common thief. Not only did he rummage in associates desk drawers and files looking for inside information but he is quoted as saying that he could not understand a banker friend (who was interested in international lending to Third World countries)because all he wanted to do was "help the niggers and the spics." How's that for your respectable Investment Banker?! The point of the quote is this - Levine was not representative or typical of the 'new' banker but his comment shows that motives such as self interest and personal greed would certainly have found fertile ground to flourish in. The book accurately portrays the characters (including the seedy ones),their backgrounds and the environment they found themselves in. Wall Street of the late 1970's and early 80's was changing.The Wall Street establishment of old money investment houses (Goldman-Sachs,Morgan Stanley,Kidder Peabody, Merrill Lynch, etc)and stately (maybe even stale)banks such as Citibank and First Boston were being forced to make room for investment brokers and arbitrageurs (Drexel, Burnham & Boesky & Co. etc). New products, new people, new methods were being introduced. The new bankers were not your starched white shirt, conservative, Ivy League trained, WASP corporate types. They were first of all, younger and from different class, educational and ethnic backgrounds. Many of them were from immigrant or Jewish working or middle class families and felt themselves to be ostracised and generally outside of Wall Street. They were not all motivated by greed and certainly were not all Dennis Levines, but for a few, given the opportunity,the positions of power and the money, and now that they were 'In' they were going to change things around. Sales techniques and hustle was now more important than where you graduated from. Presentations to corporate boards were out, replaced with speadsheet analysis of cash flows and trades over the phones. The movement was towards allowing some who were previously spurned by Wall Street to get in on the action. They were going to shake up the system and as Milken himself said "tee up GM, Ford and IBM and make them cringe". I don't find the book villifying Milken as the Devil himself but then again it doesn't portray him in a positive light either. I don't have any problem with that because I am of the view that he was a crook. A brilliant, driven, powerful and extremely wealthy and well connected financial innovator but... still a crook. Overall the book is written with a bias towards the SEC investigation and uncovering of the insider trading scandal and the subsequent arrests of Levine, Boesky and Milken. From the perspective of 10 years on, the book is of more historical interest. All of the principals have served their time and most of the companies are gone (merged or metamorphosed). There are some interesting vignettes of people who since then have gone on to bigger and better things. You can read about Robert Rubin when he was still at Goldman Sachs, Rudy Giuliani when still US Attorney and Chuck Schumer when still only a Congressman who was critical of the SEC. There are also 8 pages of photos of the major players.
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