Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis was born in New Orleans to a corporate attorney and a community activist. After getting an MA in economics from the London School of Economics in 1985, he worked briefly as a trader at Salomon Brothers, which was at the time the most profitable firm on Wall Street, run by the “King of Wall Street” himself, John Gutfreund. It was there that he discovered journalism, though industry publications like The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. Though Lewis found elements of Wall Street fascinating, his first book, Liar’s Poker, was ultimately critical of the risky, cutthroat culture he observed at Salomon Brothers. Liar’s Poker launched Lewis’s career as a writer, and in the years since, he has continued to write best-selling books about finance, statistics, and sports, including The Blind Side, Moneyball, The Big Short, and the Fifth Risk.