The Zeroes
My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane
By: Randall Lane
Published: June 29, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
ISBN: 9781591843290
Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin
"No one had yet developed a name for this era, this decade with the once-in-a-millennium calendar quirk of two zeros perched in the middle. As I gazed across the room in front of me, "the Zeroes" seemed fairly spot-on", writes journalist, entrepreneur, and editor-at-large of The Daily Beast, Randall Lane, in his fascinating and entertaining book The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane. The author captures the spirit of the Zeroes decade through the eyes of a struggling publisher of magazines devoted to chronicling the leading denizens of Wall Street.
Randall Lane had a ringside seat, literally, to the over the top greed and excess of the Zeroes decade. As the host of the Wall Street boxing extravaganza that opens the book, Lane's now defunct Trader Monthly magazine peaked in 2007 with the stock market. The boxing matches provide a powerful metaphor for the excessive risk taking of that now bygone era. The time when Wall Street traders were hailed as rock stars, in the pages of the author's luxury market magazines, came to an end with the collapse of financial titans like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. The crash on Wall Street also spelled the end of Randall Lane's magazine empire. From start-up to influential Wall Street kingmaker, the story of Randall Lane and Trader Monthly magazine parallel the rise and fall of the trader culture.
Randall Lane (photo left) and his flagship Trader Monthly and Dealmaker magazines may have glamorized the life of Wall Street traders and private equity tycoons, but in the end Randall Lane never internalized the entire Wall Street ethos. Perpetually under-capitalized and always one step away from financial disaster, Randall Lane and his partners in Doubledown Media risked their own money and reputation. While the star traders and deal makers featured in the magazines utilized other people's money to finance their personal fortunes, the author never learned or practiced that Wall Street secret to success. While the traders, wearing their garish watches and driving their expensive cars, were living the high life at Trader Monthly parties, Randall Lane the scribe of their fortunes, forever had his nose pressed against the window pane of wealth.
For me, the power of the book, is how Randall Lane evokes the zeitgeist of the decade he labeled The Zeroes. The spirit of that age of bloated bonuses, valuations, and imaginary net worth is captured in the author's highly readable prose. Adding to the enthralling descriptions of wheeling and dealing, are the author's well rounded depictions of some of the decades' more illustrious and infamous characters. As the fortunes of Wall street and its traders rose in fame and wealth, so too did the Doubledown Media magazine empire. As both the scorekeeper and celebrity creator, Randall Lane's own reputation rose, peaked, and fell with the stock market. The story of The Zeroes is one of surrealistic parties, unlimited risk taking, and wealth created out of thin air and then returned again to the ether. This book recreates a feeling of living in that almost impossible to believe time and place.
I highly recommend the page turning account of traders and hedge fund managers, deal makers and entrepreneurs, and charlatans and rogues, The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane by Randall Lane, to anyone seeking an inside peek into the world of high powered Wall Street traders, the hucksters who joined the party, and the magazines that recorded it all. The book recreates the mood and atmosphere that can only be found in fin de siecle decadence.
Read the hard to put down book The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane by Randall Lane. You won't see the likes of The Zeroes again; at least until the memories of that time of private jets, private label vodka, and unfathomable financial instruments fade, and the cycle begins all over again.
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