What do you think?
Rate this book
What Goes Up: The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street as Told by the Bankers, Brokers, CEOs, and Scoundrels Who Made It Happen
The ups and downs, the schemes and scams, the IPOs and hostile takeovers, the egos, the brilliance, the greed and the glory-this is the story of Wall Street, told by the men and women who made it happen. Once upon a time, Wall Street was just a footpath near the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Today it is the center of the financial world, the pivot point on which economies turn, companies rise and fall, and daring men and women go from rags to unbelievable riches, and sometimes back again. Along the way, Wall Street also has transformed itself and society, growing from an exclusive gentlemen's club to the place that millions of people now trust with their financial futures. Never has it been more important to understand how modern Wall Street truly works. And never before has the story of modern Wall Street been told by those who were there, personally, in their own words, uncensored, unfiltered, unbound. Now, in What Goes Up, acclaimed financial journalist Eric J. Weiner gives us the unvarnished, first-person truth in a riveting story based on hundreds of interviews with Wall Street insiders that captures the booms and busts of the past half century in America's financial capital in gripping detail. From Warren Buffett to Michael Milken, Sandy Weill to Henry Kravis, Peter Lynch to Alan Greenspan, from the birth of the mutual fund to the Internet bubble, from trading scandals to global meltdowns, from the rise of tycoons to the fall of giants. What Goes Up is a remarkable weaving together of larger-than-life characters and insider accounts. Eric J. Weiner has spoken to just about everybody-from CEOs to the barber in the basement of the stock exchange. For anyone who wants to understand how Wall Street became what it is, who wants to know how the biggest deals really happened, who wishes they had been a fly on the wall when it all went down, this is the book.
623 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2005
19 people are currently reading
221 people want to read
About the author
Eric J. Weiner
4 books3 followersFor the poet and author of works on Education, see: Dr. Eric J. Weiner.
Eric J. Weiner has covered business and economics issues for fifteen years as a writer and editor. His critically acclaimed first book, WHAT GOES UP: The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street as told by the Bankers, Brokers, CEOs, and Scoundrels Who Made It Happen, was published in September 2005 by Little, Brown and Company, and was selected as one of the year’s best books by Barron’s magazine and one of the year’s “Most Enriching Reads” by Kiplinger’s. He is a former columnist and reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, and he has written for The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Village Voice, and countless other major publications. He also is a contributor to the news and opinion website The Huffington Post. He lives in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, with his wife, Paige and their son, Jake.
BECOME A FAN
Eric J. Weiner has covered business and economics issues for fifteen years as a writer and editor. His critically acclaimed first book, WHAT GOES UP: The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street as told by the Bankers, Brokers, CEOs, and Scoundrels Who Made It Happen, was published in September 2005 by Little, Brown and Company, and was selected as one of the year’s best books by Barron’s magazine and one of the year’s “Most Enriching Reads” by Kiplinger’s. He is a former columnist and reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, and he has written for The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Village Voice, and countless other major publications. He also is a contributor to the news and opinion website The Huffington Post. He lives in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, with his wife, Paige and their son, Jake.
BECOME A FAN
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 2, 2017
Are you kidding me? It's a 500-page book consisting of history. Now, most of the time, I find that authors manage to twist the history they attempt to profile into something of their own design. Facts are conveniently left out, others emphasized more heavily; we get a sanitized version of what the real history is. Eric Weiner flips this paradigm on its head. Instead of writing a history that he spins into his own yarn, Weiner goes directly to the source of the history itself: Wall Street.
From Financiers, to Billionaires, to Barbers, Eric Weiner has a quote, if not more, from just about every person to leave their mark on Wall Street. Buffet; Swarzmann (before Blackstone became the powerhouse it is today; he's still listed as a former partner at Lehman Brothers); Greenspan; Lehman (Bobby, the founder of Lehman Brothers); Tsai; Bogle; and the list goes on. All of the financial vehicles we see as mainstream today, their original founders, with a very limited few, are quoted, directly for the book.
Weiner manages to take this raw soup of information and form it into a compelling storyline. Carter calls out Weill; the next quote is Weill covering his ass. Weiner manages to make the story seem like a readable documentary.
The one downside I'd put out there is that a few times during the book I couldn't quite follow what investment instruments the financiers were referencing. It would've been nice to have short sections detailing them before each chapter, specifically for the section on leveraged buy-outs and junk bonds. Other than that though, I'd look at this book exactly as it is for any indication of its craft: It's a comprehensive, historical, non-modified history of an interesting place, from its start, to its finish... And recovery.
From Financiers, to Billionaires, to Barbers, Eric Weiner has a quote, if not more, from just about every person to leave their mark on Wall Street. Buffet; Swarzmann (before Blackstone became the powerhouse it is today; he's still listed as a former partner at Lehman Brothers); Greenspan; Lehman (Bobby, the founder of Lehman Brothers); Tsai; Bogle; and the list goes on. All of the financial vehicles we see as mainstream today, their original founders, with a very limited few, are quoted, directly for the book.
Weiner manages to take this raw soup of information and form it into a compelling storyline. Carter calls out Weill; the next quote is Weill covering his ass. Weiner manages to make the story seem like a readable documentary.
The one downside I'd put out there is that a few times during the book I couldn't quite follow what investment instruments the financiers were referencing. It would've been nice to have short sections detailing them before each chapter, specifically for the section on leveraged buy-outs and junk bonds. Other than that though, I'd look at this book exactly as it is for any indication of its craft: It's a comprehensive, historical, non-modified history of an interesting place, from its start, to its finish... And recovery.
May 18, 2019
This book reads like an oral history. It's little paragraphs of the wall-streeters themselves commenting on the (relatively) recent history of the business. So it is very easy to read and much more fun than a textbook history.
The books does seem a little dated, as it was published in 2005, meaning there is no mention of 2008's 'great recession'.
Some parts were very interesting to me and I learned new things. But since I've done a lot of reading about Wall Street and business, some of it was old news. It often covered problems/issues/controversy, etc. so it is not a feel-good book. And reading the chapter about the events of September 2001 caused me to feel some sadness.
Overall, interesting to let the people themselves talk and be heard. It's a thick book, but reads quickly because of how conversational it is. Mostly well-organized with lots of good stories contained within its pages.
The books does seem a little dated, as it was published in 2005, meaning there is no mention of 2008's 'great recession'.
Some parts were very interesting to me and I learned new things. But since I've done a lot of reading about Wall Street and business, some of it was old news. It often covered problems/issues/controversy, etc. so it is not a feel-good book. And reading the chapter about the events of September 2001 caused me to feel some sadness.
Overall, interesting to let the people themselves talk and be heard. It's a thick book, but reads quickly because of how conversational it is. Mostly well-organized with lots of good stories contained within its pages.
May 22, 2022
A history of Wall Street being told by those involved in it's development.
I would of loved a history by a historian with commentary as this was a little too
shallow for me as it did not have much detail, but it did give some insight by those mostly involved
with it's development.
I would of loved a history by a historian with commentary as this was a little too
shallow for me as it did not have much detail, but it did give some insight by those mostly involved
with it's development.
April 16, 2014
This is a great informational book; After I read it I had learned so much. However, the downside to many informationals is they get to be long and repetitive, a real "put-you-to-sleep" type thing. This book, like many others in its field, fell victim to this flaw, but not so much so that there was ever any consideration of napping.
The great part about this book is how much it tells you. I now know the names of many famous Wall Street tycoons, have learned a number of strategies for investment, as well as why they came about, and I have the overwhelming message of Wall Street plastered into my mind... Anyone can succeed.
The benefits outweigh the bad in my opinion, but the bad still remains. It is a long time period in which the author writes of, more than fifty years, and he tells the entire story in less than 500 pages. This is a incredible feat, but you still have to read 500 pages in order to learn the abundance of knowledge this book has to offer.
I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn a little more about Wall Street, albeit someone who is willing to stagger through this massive book to get it. This is well worth reading if you think you can finish.
The great part about this book is how much it tells you. I now know the names of many famous Wall Street tycoons, have learned a number of strategies for investment, as well as why they came about, and I have the overwhelming message of Wall Street plastered into my mind... Anyone can succeed.
The benefits outweigh the bad in my opinion, but the bad still remains. It is a long time period in which the author writes of, more than fifty years, and he tells the entire story in less than 500 pages. This is a incredible feat, but you still have to read 500 pages in order to learn the abundance of knowledge this book has to offer.
I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn a little more about Wall Street, albeit someone who is willing to stagger through this massive book to get it. This is well worth reading if you think you can finish.
August 3, 2013
Unabashed, straightforward, and overall enjoyable.
Macro economists will explain that our ever-rising stock market is marked by inflation, economic growth, and "increased efficiency of the financial system". But "What Goes Up" enriches the last part of that definition by filling in the details with an insider historical context that only financial journalists can deliver. The book is an excellent transcript that reminds financial market enthusiasts that the rise of the Dow from under 1,000 to over 10,000 was marked by: Merrill Lynch's success in luring the working-class into the then-exclusive stock markets, Fidelity's extravagant growth in the mutual fund business, and the strange fellow bedding between competing financial firms that would eventually give rise to too-big-to fail banks.
Nothing is off-limits in these transcripts. In the course of the conversations, the Wall Street titans interviewed in this book shared gossip among one another. Females in Wall St. were discussed. And even the myth of Jewish lineages in Wall St. was dispelled.
Macro economists will explain that our ever-rising stock market is marked by inflation, economic growth, and "increased efficiency of the financial system". But "What Goes Up" enriches the last part of that definition by filling in the details with an insider historical context that only financial journalists can deliver. The book is an excellent transcript that reminds financial market enthusiasts that the rise of the Dow from under 1,000 to over 10,000 was marked by: Merrill Lynch's success in luring the working-class into the then-exclusive stock markets, Fidelity's extravagant growth in the mutual fund business, and the strange fellow bedding between competing financial firms that would eventually give rise to too-big-to fail banks.
Nothing is off-limits in these transcripts. In the course of the conversations, the Wall Street titans interviewed in this book shared gossip among one another. Females in Wall St. were discussed. And even the myth of Jewish lineages in Wall St. was dispelled.
December 16, 2008
I found this book at random at the library. Because of my forgetfulness, laziness, and profligacy I wound up buying it for my Kindle.
This is a long book of 30 chapters covering Wall Street from the aftermath of the Depression through shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Each chapter covers a particular topic through a series of interviews with people who were there or descended from people who were there. This peculiar mixture of office gossip and high finance makes the book particularly interesting and easy to read. No prior financial knowledge is necessary to enjoy the book because things like derivatives and leveraged takeovers are explained very simply and clearly as they come up.
Most of the chapters end rather abruptly with no conclusion or moral to the story, which might bother some people. The only real complaint that I had about this book is that at times different interviewers say the same thing or repeat the same point.
Highly recommended.
This is a long book of 30 chapters covering Wall Street from the aftermath of the Depression through shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Each chapter covers a particular topic through a series of interviews with people who were there or descended from people who were there. This peculiar mixture of office gossip and high finance makes the book particularly interesting and easy to read. No prior financial knowledge is necessary to enjoy the book because things like derivatives and leveraged takeovers are explained very simply and clearly as they come up.
Most of the chapters end rather abruptly with no conclusion or moral to the story, which might bother some people. The only real complaint that I had about this book is that at times different interviewers say the same thing or repeat the same point.
Highly recommended.
April 3, 2012
This is an OK book for its historical references and commentary on the evolution of Wall Street. The author even interviews some very important people too. For example, Bernard Madoff is prominently featured in this book as an "expert" by explaining all of the intriguing details of Wall Street's shift from floor brokering to electronic trading systems. Enough said.
March 13, 2009
A great story about the history of major players who were engaged in the development of Wall Street. Whether your a hardened investor or new to investing this book may give your alot of knowledge into how the financial system became what it is today.
March 18, 2013
Very readable history of significant events in modern financial market. Very unique in that the book is composed of 1st person account of the events. It was very interesting to actually read about the primary actors thought of the events.
April 30, 2008
Fantastic overview - author approaches the book with a sense of humor and an ability to keep the reader interested. My favorite book on Wall Street, hands down.
Currently reading
April 20, 2009About to start
February 13, 2012
Good history and overview of Wall Street from lots of insiders. Recommend if you are interested in the financial world.
Currently reading
August 17, 2007very nice "interview-style"
Read
January 20, 2011Wall Street in snippets...some great (9/11 chapter), others not so much.
May 10, 2012
Great format - in their own words. Interesting and fun read.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews