February 2, 2008
And Then He Woke Up
Inner Life of Jerome Kerviel, Accidental Rogue, by Michael Lewis
“Jerome once thought of himself as having a way with the ladies but sex is the furthest thing from his mind. He’s ceasing to be French. He’s becoming American.
Now come these weird, false, fleeting sensations of total freedom. His ordinary mind cannot fully accept the reality of his situation and so it works overtime to generate fantasies. He fantasizes about dying before anyone finds out. He fantasizes that terrorists blow up Societe Generale before anyone finds out.
He walks home one night and there is something about the durability and grandeur of Paris. It gets him thinking. He is long $60 BILLION in equities. That’s more than the market value of the entire freaking bank. And no one knows! Maybe no one will ever know! Maybe he can just keep losing billions, in private.”
I can tell by certain word choices and phrasing that Michael Lewis reads my site regularly, but unlike me, he writes well and gets paid for it. :)
February 2nd, 2008 at 12:18 pm
dream on chairman.
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
donald: And then the Chairman woke up, right? :) (This was the joke embedded in the title, but once again my sense of humor proves strangely elusive.)
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:24 pm
CM said:
“I can tell by certain word choices and phrasing that Michael Lewis reads my site regularly …”
I wonder if he is one of the original 12 ?
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Todd: Not one of the original twelve, but he found me for sure.
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 am
I have a feeling one of these days we are going to get a TGIF post with a blurry picture of Michael Lewis instead of a blurry picture of a local coed.
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:06 am
Dan: I’m chuckling (and thanks for the GCCP reminder). Lewis is too blonde for my taste.