The GFC (Global Financial Crisis) continues to make headlines. Financial systems worldwide have all but imploded. In many countires real estate prices have plummeted. On Wall Street, some of the world's most vulnerable investment banks have gone belly up. In the US once-thriving cities are littered with foreclosed homes on every block and abandoned pets roam the streets.
When Jordan Belfort wrote his first book, "The Wolf of Wall Street" the economic events of the past 18 months had not unraveled. It was to serve as a cautionary tale to anyone who was living a life of unbridled hedonism, to anyone who thought there was something glamorous about being known as a Wolf of Wall Street. This sequel is very prescient given the recent revelations surrounding the conviction of Bernie Madoff! It is also a fabulous read.
This book was written after Belfort had served almost two years in prison for securities fraud. It tells the true story of his meteoric rise on Wall Street, where he built one of the largest brokerage firms by age 27 and his subsequent imprisonment for stock fraud. Belfort's discussions with his captors actually provide more details and insights than did his first book, as he describes his drive for success and his propensity for scheming; from selling Italian ice on Jones' Beach, to selling frozen meat and seafood door to door in affluent Long island communities to peddling low priced stocks.
He reflects upon his remarkable journey, explaining his core skill of training salesmen, especially stupid or naive young people and showing them how they could become rich. This is the story of a scam artist who enjoyed a lifestyle of parties, hookers, and drug dealing until the FBI took him away in handcuffs at age 36. It tells of his cooperation with the government and his life as an informant. In recounting what he acknowledges was his dysfunctional life, his apparent devotion to his children is a bright light.
The book is very anecdotal and the secret of its success is probably Belfort's style, which suggests a one on one conversation with the reader. The details of his drug addiction, sex life and the characters that inhabited his world are funny and cleverly woven into the fabric of his "memoir". Many of the incidents he describes are hilarious. This sordid saga will either become popular as a cautionary tale of greed and treachery or it will become romanticized as glamorous excess and celebrity. That notwithstanding whether you like or dislike Jordan Belfort, this is a book you will find hard to put down.
