Michael Lewis vs Wall Street’s new predators

‘The US stock market is rigged.’ That’s the j’accuse headline that screams out from Flash Boys, the new book by Michael Lewis. It’s a very big claim, made by America’s foremost financial writer. It’s also a claim that, after years of accumulating evidence, warrants extremely close and sustained official scrutiny.

Lewis produced Liar’s Poker, his first bestseller, in 1989 — after a four-year stint as a fresh-from-the-Ivy-League bond dealer at the now defunct firm Salomon Brothers. The book, an insider’s account, brilliantly lampooned the macho, aggressive behaviour of the ‘big swinging dicks’ who paced the carpet-tiled trading floors. Liar’s Poker defined popular understanding of Wall Street in the go-go, testosterone-fuelled 1980s.

Another Lewis hit was Moneyball, published in 2003. This explained how major league baseball coaches were increasingly picking teams on the strength of highly detailed performance data generated by obsessive statisticians, eschewing traditional attributes such as physique, athleticism and character. More fascinating ‘gee whizz’ reportage than finger-pointing exposé, Moneyball showed how poorer teams could beat the big boys by buying cheaper, yet more effective players.