Andrew Carnegie: Insider Trading Pioneer / The Wolf of Wall Street

First, I must say that this is one of the best business biographies I have ever read, if any historical figure fully captures the duality of man it must be Andrew Carnegie. What makes it so interesting is that much of what he did seems so counterintuitive. In his David Nasaw book, “ANDREW CARNEGIE”, this Jekyll and Hyde nature of the mogul is explored in depth. Obviously, Nasaw is a bit in awe of his subject, as am I after reading this book. Nasaw manages to show the man’s greatness without backing down from his utter cruelty. From a start stuck in Scottish poverty (the most depressing kind), using insider information on railroad stocks (the social media stocks of the day) to get your first pile of cash to break strikes without breaking a sweat, guided by the Spencer’s theories of social Darwanism. All the way (fully explored in the book) Carnegie was a ruthless gamer. Carnegie was not only a trendsetter when it came to insider trading and union busting, but he was the first billionaire to redeem himself through philanthrophy, setting the stage for later holiness in search of rich dudes like Buffet and Gates. In the end, it all turns to custard for Carnegie, but the journey is fascinating and I couldn’t put the book down.

DO I HATE BANKERS? Soon You Will: The Wolf of Wall Street and the Capture of the Wolf of Wall Street

If you are the type of person who hates bankers (almost everyone except bankers), then you really will hate Jordan Belfort. That said, considering that The Wolf of Wall Street was a bestseller, I’d say that at least most people have a love-hate relationship with this type of figure. I probably hate to have your money stolen, but I would love, as the propaganda says, to party like a rock star, live like a king. And Belfort certainly did that. I, for my part, admire a man who embraces his own nature and runs with it, damn the apologies, he is also a good example of how difficult it is to suppress these types of people for a long time without extermination / life imprisonment, from ruining companies to running away from business success. Belfort keeps making money. Even federal charges haven’t held him for long, after ratting out all of his friends and associates, he went on to make another fortune refinancing home loans helping (covered in Catching the Wolf of Wall Street: More Incredible True Stories of Fortunes, Schemes, Parties and prison) so people could buy that second 50-inch flat screen. Now he has remade himself, of course, as a PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT GURU! Belfort seems to have a knack for finding and thriving in the most maligned industry of the day. This is probably also because that’s where the money is.

Which brings us to Central Tale of The Wolf of Wall Street, the company that Stratton Oakmont founded. Basically, Stratton Oakmont was a pump-and-discharge boiler room. Which is where you own a big block of stock in a company that’s worthless, you hire a bunch of guys to sell their brands, raise the price, sell, and then watch the company go under. As Belfort describes it, his particular genius was to discover that the rich have much more money than the poor, and therefore it made more sense to steal their money. Boiler rooms have traditionally been fairly inexpensive operations (the name comes from the fact that boiler rooms are often exhausted). Belfort rebranded his business, went fancy, and made lots of dosh. He then reinvested his ill-gotten gains in Cocaine, Quaaludes, high-end prostitutes, and helicopters. The last of which turned out to be the most dangerous. And indeed, at the end of the day, and I think Belfort would agree that the real moral of this story of deception and decadence is that you never fly a helicopter when you are in Quaaludes.