Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile. Geraint Anderson

by Geraint Anderson

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0755346181
• ISBN13: 9780755346189
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Headline
• Length: 422 Pages
• Weight: 5.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Cityboy

It's a scary revelation of how the financial system works. Once you've read this you'll be convinced that the bankers and financial types are not worth their inflated bonuses. Tinged with humor and well worth the read.

Unbelievably believable

Especially in the current financial crisis this book, full of its "Hard to believe" anecdotes, is actually very believable. ANYONE who is investing money in any way should read it and understand it is not far from the truth especially in the area of professional investment banking and trading (and not only in London). For me personally it was refreshing to know that someone else - who was qualified to do so - saw it the same way in general: that this madness is not sustainable. Thoroughly entertaining, you can pick it up and have a good read anytime, and the idioms are priceless! Worth every grain of coke it took to write it.

A fun and insightful read

Before reading Cityboy, I knew nothing of the world Anderson writes about. I heard him on The Interview on BBC; he was well spoken and his story sounded fascinating. The book was not a disappointment. I laughed out loud several times, usually at the colloquialisms (for which he gives full credit to his former coworkers). He is not afraid to write about moments that must have been truly humiliating, lending a substantial degree of honesty to a book that has likely been at leat slightly exaggerated here and there for comedic effect. To avoid lawsuits, it is written as fiction, but it does not come off that way. This book could have easily have been merely a string of amusing anecdotes, but Anderson creates momentum by writing about his all-consuming rivalry with another broker and, I think, by making the reader wonder at what exact point did it finally occur to him that he's had about all he can take of life in the square mile. Finally, although Anderson explains some of the details of the world of finance and stockbroking, etc., he writes as though he's talking to you over a few pints, making it all quite palatable. Executive Summary: I paid $12 for this book and it was worth every penny, and more.

Priceless insight into the dubious temple of finance

Book gets it right. A bit overwrought at times, but basically funny and honest, and with a lot of insight. Not for the timid. I've known the same issues to a lesser degree in my own industry experience in a different field. His take on things is absolutely right on. The fact that you make cash now on deals which you know will blow up under any reasonable set of assumptions, creates a particular kind of insanity, which has nothing to do with good business or high finance, although it passes for it. In Africa they call that graft, and corruption, but in the City and on Wall Street they call it investment banking, and it has nothing to do with banking, and very predictably these kinds of abuses would destabilize our economy. It's more like highway robbery: give me the cash now, and good luck with the future. It creates a conflict of interest that is the opposite of good investment, like the old-fashioned banker, who actually did mortgage lending and lived off the proceeds, so he had a vested interest in only doing deals that worked.