Posted: 26 month(s) and 23 days(s) ago   |   2 Comment(s)   |   Rating: 0 0
Posted by: JabberwockySuperfly

Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian market for Millions by Ben Mezrich by JabberwockySuperfly

Ben Mezreck is a fantastic writer, and I enjoyed 'Bringing Down the House' immensely, so I was excited to pick up 'Ugly Americans' a few days ago. This is a non-fiction book about a green Princeton grad who gets wrapped up in the world of Asian finance in the early 1990's. Theoretically, a book about trading derivatives on the Nikkei would fall into the dull catergory, yet through sheer force of his narrative, Mezrich manages to turn this into a pot boiler. The  Italian racing bikes, endless hookers and Yukuza don't hurt, of course.

John Malcolm (a pseudonym for hedge fund legend Michael Lerch),  a football star, cum clueless Princeteon grad finds himself trading derivatives on the Nikkei, and soaking up the expat lifestyle in Japan. Malcolm, who is employed by Kidder/Peabody, and works for Dean Carney (another pseudonym) who becomes his financial guru, showing  him the ropes and teaching him 'The 8 Laws of Carney'. The '8 Laws' are a bizarre set of rules that seem related to both financial transactions, as well as the living of life in general.  One of the highlights of the book however, is Carney's concise explanation of futures and derivatives trading. It's clear and easy to understand, much more so than what you get in an Econ 101 textbook ,and makes it simple to follow the action in the Asian markets that this book centers on.

After a short time, Malcolm loses his job at KP after the infamous Joe Jett blowup in 1997, and jumps to Barings, fullfilling a similiar role.  After a few months of playing rugby with English bankers, Malcolm again finds himself  in the center of another meltdown, this time after Nick Leeson bankrupts Barings, taking unheard of risks in the Asian futures markets. The book's description of these two world class finance disasters manages to be amusing and frightening simultaneously.

At this point, it feels like you're reading a novel, and not a true story that happened in the last decade. That's what makes Mezrich such an oustanding writer. His choice of subject, and his ability to get the inside story from the big players. Probably due to his math heavy writing in the past, he is able to tie in the personalties of the people making the events happen, and to the financial climate as a whole in a meaningful way.

Soon John Malcolm is moving to Tokyo to re-join Dean Carney at his newly formed hedge fund, and the game is afoot once more. The second half of the book runs from cowboy hedge fund culture, to Ducati racing bikes, to the 'Water Trade' trade and the Yakuza's involvment in Japanese high finance.  As an added bonus, we get a light interracial love story as well.  Towards the end of the book, we get the details of one of the largest, and shadiest, financial deals in the history of modern money.

Ugly Americans is an oustanding read for anyone with even a vague interest in the financial world.  Mezrich does a brilliant job of explaining and tying together various complicated financial and market concepts, and how they work whil ekeeping the book wonderfully readable. In some small way, this book could be a first steps primer into the world of international derivatives, futures and tracker funds. Even the completely uninitiated will not be lost. It could also be a page turning thriller. It's both .  More than anything, this is a crazy, crazy story on the scale of 'Den of Thieves' that hasn't been told before, and a must read for anyone with money on their mind.

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