The little money I have invested in Wall Street is in a company 401k. recently I've looked into ways of investing without the craziness that surrounds much of the market; the speculation is insane at times. I was looking into vanilla index funds and equity-linked funds. In the research process I saw this book and decided to get a quick primer on what the street is about.
That's what you get here, a crash course in the economic history of the United States. It was interesting and suprising to learn that "bubbles" have occurred over the last 200 years. And it's always the same jumping on the bandwagon of new technologies or financial instruments that drives them.
And then there is the inside info that's behind the major wealth of the street. Wall Street, and the book shows this, is really one big clubhouse, if your not in the club don't count on getting cheese on your crackers.. as a matter of fact you won't get crackers at all, you'll get the 5-7% crumb at the end of the year and think your in the big time.
No complaints. I see this as how the game is played. The thing is to know the rules and realize what your getting into, know the risk involved and how the engine operates.
Without pointing fingers at conspiracy theories and laboring that point, it shows you how the system has worked in the past and continues to this day.
It's a good read, especially if you have money in the market.