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Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions |
 Enlarge | Author: Ben Mezrich
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Customer Rating:  85 Reviews
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| Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Ugly Americans documents the "Wild East" of the mid-1990s, where young, brilliant, and hypercompetitive traders became "hedge fund cowboys," manipulating loopholes in an outdated and inefficient Asian financial system to rake in millions. Using a concept called arbitrage, they made their fortunes mainly on minute shifts in stocks being sold on the Nikkei, the Japanese stock market, collapsing banks and nearly bankrupting the Japanese economy in the process. Other schemes were also concocted, most of which were technically legal, though certainly unethical. This true story revolves around "John Malcolm," who, in exchange for anonymity, agreed to give Ben Mezrich all the access and information he needed to write this book. As a recent Princeton graduate in the mid-1990s, Malcolm accepted an undefined job offer from an American expatriate in Japan to work in the investments field. Though he had no prior experience, he facilitated 25 million dollars worth of trades on his first day on the job, and it just got more exciting from there. He soon joined a small group of expatriates, all in their twenties and mostly Ivy League graduates, who lived like rock stars, thriving on the stress and excitement of their jobs to create their own steroid versions of the American Dream half a world away. Mezrich tells this riveting story well, incorporating elements of the culture into his narrative, including the infamous and pervasive Japanese "Water Trade," or sex business, romantic intrigue, and even run-ins with the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Though there is little real analysis of their financial dealings and how they ultimately changed the rules of finance in Asia, this entertaining page turner does offer a glimpse into a world little explored in print until now. --Shawn Carkonen
Product Description
Ben Mezrich, author of the New York Times bestseller Bringing Down the House, returns with an astonishing story of Ivy League hedge-fund cowboys, high stakes, and the Asian underworld. John Malcolm was the ultimate gunslinger in the Wild East, prepared to take on any level of risk in making mind-boggling sums of money. He and his friends were hedge-fund cowboys, living life on the adrenaline-, sex-, and drugs-fueled edge—kids running billion-dollar portfolios, trading information in the back rooms of high-class brothels and at VIP tables in nightclubs across the Far East. Malcolm and his Ivy League-schooled twenty-something colleagues, with their warped sense of morality, created their own economic theory that would culminate in a single deal the likes of which had never been seen before—or since. Ugly Americans is a story of extremes, charged with wealth, nerve, excess, and glamour. A real-life mixture of Liar's Poker and Wall Street, brimming with intense action, romance, underground sex, vivid locales, and exotic characters, Ugly Americans is the untold true story that rocked the financial community.
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| Customer Reviews Read 80 more reviews...
Very interesting book on the industry in Japan. June 25, 2008
B. Baratz (New York, NY)
This was a quick read that gave an inside look into the industry in Asia. I found the book well-written and informative, as well as entertaining. I highly recommend.
A Great Read April 23, 2008
A Reader (Connecticut)
Just finished this book and found it very entertaining. It is definitely not a book on how to trade. It is a very interesting story that I suspect is somewhat dramatized. Reads like a novel.
I wouldn't worry about suspected minor innaccuracies. Maybe most people can't rent a car in Bermuda, but if you have $50 million I'll bet there is a way around it. As far as Ivy league schools not giving athletic scholarships that is not exactly true. It is a matter of semantics. Most people familiar with education in the Northeast understand that prep schools and Ivy league universities don't give "athletic" scholarships, but they do give "financial aid" that just happens to fall substantially upon good athletes even if their families are well off.
Ugly Americans aptly titled February 16, 2008
J. Shelton (ILLINOIS)
This book is like Ben's others, a good read that keeps you wanting more. It is clear that the author enjoys digging deep into what these intelligent, elite Ivy Leaguers do with their connections and smarts. The book follows a Princeton grad on his deep dive into the Asian world and shows how the natives view the over-bearing visitors and how the visitors could care less about how they are perceived.
Expensive motorcycles, ubiquitous sex, high dollar deals and a daily dose of living on the brink of the next big deal, keep you interested and amazed at what these young hot shots are exposed to and how they handle it.
True story? BS! November 23, 2007
Barrier Options (London School of Economics)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
i heard from industry people that actually knew the person mentioned here, so the person does indeed exist, but the story isnt true. Lots of BS and conspirary that the author just puts in to entertain the reader...
Worth the time October 20, 2007
Mark J. Bugge (Caledonia, MI)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Get's a little lost at times but a very fast read. Would make an interesting movie.
| Product Specifications
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0060575018
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.645
EAN: 9780060575014
Publication Date: May 1, 2005
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Keywords Suggestion : Ugly Americans The True |
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