BloggingStocks http://www.bloggingstocks.com BloggingStocks http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/media/feedlogo.gif BloggingStocks http://www.bloggingstocks.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Book Review: Jordan Belfort's The Wolf of Wall Street]]>http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/10/04/book-review-jordan-belforts-the-wolf-of-wall-street/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/10/04/book-review-jordan-belforts-the-wolf-of-wall-street/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/10/04/book-review-jordan-belforts-the-wolf-of-wall-street/#commentsJordan Belfort was the king of pump-and-dumps during the 1990's, presiding over Stratton Oakmont, a real life version of Boiler Room's J.T. Marlin. He was earning millions of dollars each month, doing enormous quantities of cocaine and a drug called Quaaludes, and sleeping with dozens of prostitutes, in spite of his marriage to a beautiful and wonderful lady he calls the Duchess of Bay Ridge.

Eventually the Feds caught up with him, and Belfort was indicted on charges including securities fraud and money laundering. He managed to serve just 22 months in a federal prison camp after serving as a government witness. Now out of jail, Belfort has written a book about his reign at the top: The Wolf of Wall Street: Stock Market Multimillionaire at 26, Federal Convict at 36, I Partied Like a Rock Star, Lived like a King, and Barely Survived My Rise and Fall as an American Entrepreneurial Icon.

And what a reign it was. Belfort's 519-page memoir contains a seemingly infinite series of tales about drug abuse, trips to Switzerland to launder money, lurid scenes with prostitutes, and other narcotics-fueled debauchery. We get all the vivid details, including Belfort's references to his large penis -- The value The Wolf of Wall Street does have may actually be more pornographic than anything.

But students of white collar crime will be sorely disappointed by what Belfort doesn't provide: after a very brief prologue, the book begins at the top of his career, so we miss out on the story of how he built Stratton Oakmont into such a powerhouse. We don't really get the details of the stock manipulation schemes, with the exception of the interesting sub-plot involving Steve Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SHOO), whose founder ended up serving some time in prison for his dealings with Stratton Oakmont. But there just isn't that much detail about the crimes here: too much of the book is devoted to Belfort's decadent lifestyle, and it gets repetitive and boring.

But wait! Belfort, who owes $110.4 million in restitution, is currently at work on a sequel which, hopefully, will provide more detail. There's also a move in the works, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Book Review: Jordan Belfort's The Wolf of Wall Street originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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