Michael Lewis Casts Short-Sellers as Slump’s Heroes

Twenty years ago, when I worked at Salomon Brothers, every person on Wall Street had read two books: Frank J. Fabozzi’s “Fixed Income Analysis” and Michael Lewis’s “Liars’ Poker.”

The latter was Lewis’s debut, a devastating account of his four-year career as a bond trader at Salomon, which culminated in the crash of 1987. He has gone on to write best sellers on politics (“Trail Fever”), Silicon Valley (“The New New Thing”), sports (“Moneyball,” “The Blind Side”) and fatherhood (“Home Game”). The man, as they say, has range.