Rating: 
Summary: Reality Check for every decade.
Review: I would like to begin by saying that it is amazing what kind of copious and exhaustive research has gone into the writing of this book. James Stewart weaves a story of greed, lies, betrayals, and human frailty. The books accounts for the most significant events on Wall Street thoughout the 19080s, detailing various schemes of insider trading and more devious manipulations of the market that can be hardly understood by people not in the invenstment field. Even today the ramifications of the acts of then household names such as Boesky, Siegel, and Milken cannot be fully realized. It is a book that would make people weep who lost everything in the wake of of "high yield" bond depreciation, and to caution others to take most things told to them by investment bankers, arbs, and other financial figures with a grain of salt. Many who read this book feel that Milken was unfairly treated and got the short end of the stick at sentencing time. However, I would argue that no one in the schemes outlined got anywhere near the punishment that they deserved. All of the criminals in this book, and criminals they were of greatest magnitude who stole from investors, their employees, and the American people untold sums, came out wealthy and little shaken by the experience. It is interesting to note that the book treats everyone kindly on some level other than Dennis Levine who is nothing but villiefied throughout the book as stupid, ineffectual, overweight and crass. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, but especially those who are thinking about going into the field of investment, businessmen, and people who want to know more about Wall Street in the 1980's, ...
Rating:
Summary: Thorough, great read on the subject.
Review: If you can get through some of the technical stuff presented in this book about how certain processes take place, ones you know only if that is your job, this book is fascinating. It really goes into depth about how these deals would take place. How one person would work for another. The book is very thorough with events that is goes into such depth, sometimes too much depth. Very interesting especially to someone who is interested in this field, especially insider trading.
Rating:
Summary: KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN AND YOUR POCKED CLOSED
Review: If you like mysteries, cover-ups, intricate plots, good and bad guys and soap opera, this book is for you. What makes it so frightening is that it is real. The question I kept asking myself is how do we know that this won't happen again, or isn't going on right now. And yet, we know that in the investment and banking worlds given the situations in Asia and Latin America, there are more shoes to drop. I believe that this industry has been infiltrated by more bad habits - power, greed and hunger - than most. The culture has encouraged it. A new book I read describes these problems well and then offers a way out. THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION talks about 'stalls' that keep us from changing. In investment banking, The Communications Stall means that some people get messages before others, creating an unfair advantage. The Disbelief Stall makes them think that they aren't doing anything wrong and won't get caught. The Tradition Stall says that business has always been done that way, so it's okay. The Bureaucratic Stall would make them think that if there is enough red tape, no one will figure out what is going on. The Misconception Stall says that they were operating under poor assumptions, because they did get caught. The Unattractiveness Stall means that if something looks unpleasant, just cover it up. What is needed is a new way to do business and a new system of checks and balances, a 2,000 percent solution.
Rating:
Summary: "Den" of Inequity
Review: In Den of Thieves, James Stewart gives us a gripping account of the insider trading ring that almost brought down Wall Street.As a student studying finance, I was told to read this book by my cousin who worked in the financial world. After I finished, I had a more realistic view of the intensity of Wall Street. This intense competition and desire for money drove some people over the edge. Such was the case for Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Terry Mulheren, and their cohorts. To a certain extent, these men were driven to cheat and steal by insatiable greed. You do not have to know much about the financial world to enjoy this fast paced thriller. The joy in this book is in the hunt. Once the SEC became aware of Milken's activities, they had to find a way to prove it and then had to take Milken down. Once Milken was taken out of his office in handcuffs and Rudy Guliani began to build his case, Milken's "associates" began to sing like canaries in the hope of cutting a deal with the government. I love reading books about criminals who get what is coming to them. Michael Milken and friends deserved every bit of jail time they got. This definitely a book about criminals getting what they deserved. James Stewart draws you in within the first 20 pages, from there I hope you have some spare time because you will not be able to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended - Easy for the Layman to Understand
Review: James Stewart has a knack for storytelling. Even something that could be potentially dry as all get out he explains clearly and without a lot of hoopla. It is, what it is and that's the truth. Some people think his work is biased but I was knee deep in all of this when it was happening. I saw the after affects of all the mergers and buyouts. I worked in a large financial institution that provided some of the funding for these deals and I was able to see the deals up close and personal. Stewart doesn't exaggerate a thing so all you guys out there crying he's biased you need a reality check. What he documents is how corporate America lost its soul. How the average worker was further displaced, how corporate america quietly lost (and couldn't figure it out later) the loyalty of its work force. The affects of downsizing (reduction in force) are exacting a terrible price today. Ever wonder where customer service went. It went out the window when workers realized that 30 years with a company meant nothing and that a CEO could get paid 5 million for just being there and he didn't have to be competent. Read it and think about it especially now that some time has passed since it was first written and tell me you don't get a chill down your spine.
Rating:
Summary: A Superbly good read
Review: James Stewart resounts the intricately tangled web of insider trading on Wall Street in the 1980s with vivid detail. Infamous personalities include M. Milken, M. Siegel, I. Bowsky, and D. Levine. Each character of the vast cast is introduced and interweaved with the rest of the plot seamlessly, making the pages turn by themselves once started. The game begins with a young investment banker at CSFB. Levine's inexorable desire to achieve extraordinary wealth soon drove him beyond the legal limits of ibanking, rounding up insiders at various other banks, law firm, and even one graduating HBS student. Through the ring of informants, the insiders exploited their access to proprietory information to great length, engaging in numerous insider trading transactions, which eventually yielded in the millions across a span of just a few years. Yet, compared to the big boys, Levine's ring can only be considered toying. Legendary financier Boskey, junk bond king Milken and others take insider trading to a whole new level, arranging numerous "parking" transactions, inflated invoiced, tax evation schemes, feeding each others accounts while manipulating the stock prices of various publicly traded companies. The story takes the readers through a who is who on Wall Street and even travels off south to Bermuda and Cayman Islands for a couple of times. Through an occasional suspicious transaction at two of Merill's brokers, New York DA Giuliani and his team were able to slowly sort through a vast web of insider trading activity, and implicate more and more Wall Street types as the investigation went on. After all the twists and turns, the bankers are sent to jail one by one, and finally, Milken was indicted, putting an end to the jonk bond king and the corporate raid bonanza. Put aside a couple of afternoons and treat yourself to this piece of great storytelling.
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Summary: Read an Objective Account Instead
Review: James Stewart should have known better than to rely entirely upon hearsay, and then feed the rumors to assist the unsavory, and many times unconstitutional, practices of New York prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani. It reads like a gripping tale of fiction, since most of the facts are invented, especially of Michael Milken. Stewart's naive understanding of high-yield debt financing and the very concept of leverage renders this book a mere gripe session for the author. His mathematics are innacurate and the emotionalism is copious. Although currently out of print, I suggest Daniel Fischel's "Payback: The Conspiracy to Destroy Michael Milken and his Financial Revolution."
Rating: 
Summary: Greed in a Banker's Clothing
Review: James Stewart's Den of Thieves is an absolute for students and Old Hands in the chameleon like world of proprietary trading. It's a mirror image of the fictionalized tale "The Bombadiers", which came out a few years ago. It also reminds me of a joke that used to go around the circuit - it went something like, Whats the difference between Tasmania and Goldman, Sachs? The answer, One is a country that earns $2.0 billion a year and shares it with 25 million people. Goldman, Sachs is a New York investment bank that earns $2.5 billion a year and shares it with 200 people. A must read for students of "the game".
Rating:
Summary: Greed ain't so good
Review: James Stewart's expose on the Wall Streets scandals of the go-go 80's reads like the Oliver Stone film come to life. The stories of such high flying white collar crooks as Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken and how they met their downfall is nothing short of fascinating. These were guys whose genius made them wealthy beyond most people's wildest imaginations, but for whom enough was never enough. Stewart is a first rate journalist and having worked for the Wall Street Journal, he came to be intimately familiar with the particular villians and the heroic agents and prosecutors who caught them. Anyone with an interest in criminology or a few bucks invested in a high risk stock ought to read this.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone who has ever invested in the market
Review: James Stewart's terrific book clearly shows that greed ruled the '80s. For the likes of Boesky, Levine, and Milken, no amount of money was ever enough
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