HATE BANKERS? You soon will - The Wolf of Wall Street & Catching the Wolf of Wall Street

If you are the kind of person who hates bankers (pretty much everyone, except bankers) then you are really going to hate Jordan Belfort. That said considering that The Wolf of Wall Street was a bestseller I would say at least most people have a love hate relationship with this kind of figure. Probably along the lines hate them nicking your money but would love to, as the blurb says, party like a rock star, live like a king. And Belfort certainly did that. I for one admire a man who embraces his own nature and runs with it, damn the apologies He's also a good example of how short of extermination / life imprisonment its difficult to hold these types down for long, From ruining companies to run away business success Belfort just keeps making money. Even Federal Charges haven't held him down for long, after ratting all his friends and associates, he segued into making another fortune refinancing home loans helping (covered in Catching the Wolf of Wall Street: More Incredible True Stories of Fortunes, Schemes, Parties, and Prison) so that people could buy that 2nd 50inch flat screen. He has now remade himself of course as a SELF IMPROVEMENT GURU! Belfort seems to have particular skill for finding the most reviled industry of the time, and thriving in them. This is probably also because that's where the money is. Which brings us to Central Tale of The Wolf of Wall Street the company he set up Stratton Oakmont Basically Stratton Oakmont was a pump and dump boiler room. Which is where you own a large block of shares in a company which is worthless, you hire a bunch of chaps to give the hard sell to your marks, ramp up the price, sell out , and then watch the company crater



As Belfort describes it his particular genius was working out that the rich have a lot more money the poor people, and thus it made more sense to steal their money. Boiler rooms have traditionally been pretty downmarket operations (the name comes from the fact that are often run out of boiler rooms). Belfort re branded his business, went upmarket and made piles of dosh. He then reinvested his ill gotten gains in Cocaine, Quaaludes, High End prostitutes and Helicopters. The last of which proved to be most dangerous. And in fact at the end of the day, and I think Belfort would agree the true moral of this tale of deceit and decadence, is never fly a helicopter when you are on Quaaludes.






If you enjoyed THE WOLF OF WALL STREET then I'm guessing you will also enjoy Born to Steal: When the Mafia Hit Wall Street Which has a similar protaganist, who whilst like Belfort, lacked even his small scruples, in fact he positively revels in stealing people cash, he also gets wrapped up with the MAFIA, so good if you like that genre