12.06.2012

The Lesson Of Buffett

“The lesson of Buffett was: To succeed in a spectacular fashion you had to be spectacularly unusual.” ― Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Related: SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY)

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

12.05.2012

Video: Success Is Always Rationalized



After providing some thought-provoking words to the graduates of Princeton's Class of 2012, author Michael Lewis speaks with Jeffrey Brown on the merits of success, the relationship between luck and good fortune, and the responsibility luck warrants.

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

12.03.2012

TVO Video: "The New New Thing"


Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

11.27.2012

The Legacy Of 'Liar's Poker'


Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

11.26.2012

Video: CEOs Would Make Disastrous Presidents


Related: Wall Street, banks, CEOs;

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

11.23.2012

Video: Explaining The Late 1990s Tech Boom & Bust



 Michael thinks the first bubble has been misunderstood. (in Big Think)

Related: Google (GOOG), Nasdaq Composite Index, Technology SPDR ETF (XLK)

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

11.21.2012

Video: What Is Moneyball About?



Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

11.16.2012

Video: A Smarter Way To Think About Capital


Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

11.15.2012

What Lessons Should We Learn From The Crash Of 1987?


Related: SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY), SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA)

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

11.12.2012

Video: Obama`s Way

Author Michael Lewis and Linda Schacht Gage meet at the Berkeley Public Library to discuss Lewis' recent Vanity Fair Article, "Obama's Way."

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

10.25.2012

Video: Princeton Baccalaureate 2012



Michael Lewis, a member of Princeton's Class of 1982 and author of such books as "Liar's Poker" and "Moneyball," speaks at the 2012 Baccalaureate in a speech called "Don't Eat Fortune's Cookie."

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

10.24.2012

Authors@Google - Michael Lewis (Video)


Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

10.18.2012

BOOKD: The Big Short



This episode of BOOKD brings together Steve Kroft, Peter Schiff, Steve Wilkos, Felix Salmon, and Carol Roth to discuss and debate Michael Lewis' bestselling book THE BIG SHORT. Steve Kroft is a correspondent at "60 Minutes". Peter Schiff is a CEO of Euro Pacific as well as a bestselling author. Steve Wilkos is a daytime talk show host. Felix Salmon is a finance blogger at Reuters. Carol Roth is a bestselling author and business strategist.

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

9.24.2012

A Boomerang Review

A follow-up to The Big Short, in which Michael Lewis examined the men who made fortunes out of subprime mortgages, Boomerang addresses the scarier phase of the financial meltdown: the debt crisis in Europe and America. - in The Guardian

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

A Gift For Storytelling

If it's hard for you to imagine laughing out loud while reading a book on the subprime mortgage crisis, you're probably not alone. But Michael Lewis has a gift for storytelling and in The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine he manages to make the mess understandable, readable, and yes, even enjoyable. Lewis follows the key players who predicted the housing crash, explaining how they saw what nearly all of Wall Street did not. In clear terms, he explains the process of how bad loans got repackaged into bonds and sold off to unsuspecting investors. - excerpt from A Crash Course on the World Financial Crisis, Courtesy of Michael Lewis, Everyday Ebook

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

9.19.2012

Video: Michael Lewis on President Obama


Latest video interview with Charlie Rose.

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

9.18.2012

The Power Of A Story

He was especially alive to the power of a story to influence the American public. He believed he had been elected chiefly because he had told a story; he thought he had had problems in office because he had, without quite realizing it, ceased to tell it. - in LA Times Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

When He Got Out Of School, The First Thing He Started To Do Is Write Short Stories

If he had time, he'd likely be writing them, too. That's the interesting thing to me. I think that he's as literary a president as we ever had, and more literary than probably anybody since Lincoln anyway.

The written word means a lot to him ... This isn't in the [Vanity Fair] piece, but I can remember talking to him about this a bit. He was an indifferent student in high school up til the end, and he had a very late awakening in his mind. And I kind of identify with this, because I was a very late bloomer in high school, and I had the same sort of experience with books.

He was passing by a church yard sale in Hawaii when he was a junior in high school and he saw all these novels. And they were available for a nickel apiece. It was "Moby Dick," it was Dostoyevsky, it was Saul Bellow. He thought, a nickel? You know, I'll get these books. And he took them, and he started reading them and just in a kind of innocent way he got very absorbed. ... He just kind of blended with the books. And when he got out of school, the first thing he started to do is write short stories. And I don't know if anybody knows that. I didn't put this in the piece, but he tried to submit short stories to literary magazines, and they're very literary short stories. So it's an unusual trait in politics, in someone who ends up being a political person. - in Global Public Square

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

9.17.2012

Reuters Video: Eurozone Crisis, Barack Obama, Breaking Up Banks & Goldman's Role In EU Crisis


Michael Lewis on his exclusive with President Barack Obama in Vanity Fair. Lewis tells Impact Players host Robert Wolf what makes Obama tick and how Goldman Sachs played a role in Europe's financial crisis. The author of "Moneyball" and "Boomerang" also says the thought of a CEO being president would be disastrous. (September 14, 2012)

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

9.13.2012

The Reason That His Team Had Won

And he had kind of orchestrated himself to - he had worked very hard to get to the point where he could take the shot and get a good shot. He also screams at you if you - if you're on his team and you take bad shots, he doesn't put up with it. He was hollering at me.

In fact, he hollered at me so much - he hollered at me - he was so - I was so embarrassed by being outclassed and feeling like he was going to be pissed off at me if we lost, that I, at some point, I kind of snuck out of the game and went and sat with the scorekeeper. But the first time I jacked up a shot that he thought I shouldn't take, he started screaming at me.

And at that the - when the game was over and it was clear his team had won four of the six games, you could see that the reason that his team had won was that the players on his team didn't take stupid shots because they were afraid the president was going to scream at them if they did. - in Yahoo Sports

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

Weird Disjuncture Between His Powers And His Powerlessness

The office of the presidency has these god-like powers especially with regard to our foreign affairs. The president can be so powerful in some ways and in other ways, particularly with regard to domestic affairs, he's hamstrung, so this weird disjuncture between his powers and his powerlessness is really striking. - in NPR.org

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

9.12.2012

Video: Obama a 'Natural' Guy in an Unnatural Job




Obama a 'Natural' Guy in an Unnatural Job:  Michael Lewis joins CNBC's "Power Lunch" after having unprecedented access to President Obama. He tells Tyler Mathisen the President's greatest desire is to be "normal," to do things like drive his own car when he leaves the White House. It upsets him, Lewis says, that he'll never be able to go back to a "normal" life.

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

Obama`s Basketball: Is Tactical And Sees Ahead A Few Steps

I would call it "a long game." Obama is tactical and sees ahead a few steps and tries to look down the horizon and not take "stupid shots" - his team tends to win because they are less risky. He is almost "sniper-like" in his decisions on the court and very, very, very competitive. Wow. He's 51, and he's not young, but he has got game and desire to "win." - in Yahoo Finance

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

9.11.2012

Obama's Big Short Moneyball



Video Summary: It's a special edition of the "Power Rundown" with author Michael Lewis. CNBC's Sue Herera & Tyler Mathisen weigh in.

Obama: The Personality Of A Sniper

He plays a game that seems very risk-averse but then all of a sudden, when there’s a risk to take, it’s 'boom. He’s got the personality of a sniper. - in Today On The Trail

Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic, Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and Boomerang.

9.10.2012

A Week Into It You’re On The Job

In next month’s issue of the magazine, President Obama talks with Vanity Fair‘s Michael Lewis about his occupation in the White House. “There is such an element of randomness in who gets this job,” he says. “What am I here for? Why am I walking around the Lincoln Bedroom? That doesn’t last long. A week into it you’re on the job.” - in The Blaze

8.22.2012

Luck & Success

"People really don't like to hear success explained away as luck, especially successful people." - Michael Lewis

7.30.2012

Gamblers Delude Themselves

"Above the roulette tables, screens listed the results of the most recent 20 spins of the wheel. Gamblers would see that it had come up black the past eight spins, marvel at the improbability, and feel in their bones that the tiny silver ball was now more likely to land on red. That was the reason the casino bothered to list the wheel's most recent spin: to help gamblers to delude themselves." - in Liar`s Poker, excerpt from the "The Hangover: How Las Vegas Explains the Past and Future of the Economy"

7.24.2012

The Relationship Between The People And Their Money In California

The relationship between the people and their money in California is such that you can pluck almost any city at random and enter a crisis.

San Jose has the highest per capita income of any city in the United States, after New York. It has the highest credit rating of any city in California with a population over 250,000. It is one of the few cities in America with a triple-A rating from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, but only because its bondholders have the power to compel the city to levy a tax on property owners to pay off the bonds. The city itself is not all that far from being bankrupt.

― Michael Lewis, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

7.23.2012

Those Who Know, Don`t Tell

“Those who know don't tell and those who tell don't know.” ― Michael Lewis, Liar's Poker

Book Review: “Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World”

“Lewis gives the reader a guided tour through some of the disparate places hardest hit by the fiscal crisis, such as Greece, Iceland and Ireland; tracing how very different people for very different reasons gorged on the cheap credit available in the prelude to the disaster.” — G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean, Robert H. Smith School of Business in Washington Post

Boomerang: Book Review

Perhaps you have heard of some of his books: “Liar’s Poker,” “Moneyball,” “The Blind Side,” “The Big Short” and “The Money Culture.” All are very engaging books because each one discusses a subject that arouses our curiosity and uncovers ideas about which we rarely think.

“Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World” continues Michael Lewis’ extension of our curiosities with stories about the current global economic crisis that are both funny and educational at the same time. - in Daily News

7.19.2012

Long-Term Interests & Short-Term Rewards

“Everywhere you turn you see Americans sacrifice their long-term interests for a short-term reward.”

 - Michael Lewis, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

Life`s Outcomes & Luck

"Life's outcomes, while not entirely random, have a huge amount of luck baked into them"

- Michael Lewis at Princeton

A Good Quote From The Big Short

“In Bakersfield, California, a Mexican strawberry picker with an income of $14,000 and no English was lent every penny he needed to buy a house for $724,000.”

― Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

7.18.2012

America's Meltdown

"The foundations of America's meltdown started in 1999"

- Michael Lewis author of 'The Big Short'

6.11.2012

Video: Princeton Baccalaureate 2012



Michael Lewis, a member of Princeton's Class of 1982 and author of such books as "Liar's Poker" and "Moneyball," speaks at the 2012 Baccalaureate in a speech called "Don't Eat Fortune's Cookie."

5.04.2012

Video: Culture Of Wall Street


CNBC video interview, May 2012 - 'Liar's Poker' Author on Culture of Wall Street

4.11.2012

Baseball: It Is The Only Sport That Is Transmitted From Fathers To Sons

"The sentimentality of baseball is very deeply rooted in the American baseball fan. It is the only sport that is transmitted from fathers to sons." - in San Jose Mercury News

2.16.2012

The Key Dilemma Around Moneyball

The key dilemma around Moneyball, the book by Michael Lewis and the movie based on it (I recommend both), is pretty simple.

The New York Yankees had a payroll of $126 million in 2002. The Oakland A’s had a payroll of only $40 million. How does an underfunded, outgunned outfit like the A’s compete with the Yankees? As A’s General Manager Billy Beane puts it in the movie: “There are rich teams, and there are poor teams. Then there’s 50 feet of crap. And then there’s us.” - in Daily Reckoning

2.15.2012

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

"In his book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Lewis profiles the Oakland Athletics’ general manager Billy Beane, as he stole unseen stars from wealthier teams by exploiting baseball’s prejudices; unlike the rest of baseball, Beane wasn’t interested in good looking athletic players who either hit homeruns or struck out nobly, but in smart players who got on base. In The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Lewis uses the inspiring rags-to-riches story of a poor homeless African-American high school player to explain how football strategy and tactics have evolved over the years." - in CNN Blog

1.19.2012

The Big Interview: Is the United States a Third World Nation?


Michael Lewis, author of the new book "Boomerang," says the United States and many European nations suffered a moral failure that led to economic collapse. Lewis insists that the U.S. economic situation will get much worse before it gets better.

1.03.2012

Quote Of The Day

´You can tell a lot about a country by observing how much better they treat themselves than foreigners at the point of entry.` - Michael Lewis

1.02.2012

"With the possible exception of Bank of America, there is no such thing as a leaderless organization" - in Twitter