The Big Idea
The 1980s bond market transformed Wall Street from a conservative banking sector into a high-stakes casino fueled by deregulation, greed, and financial innovation. Salomon Brothers capitalized on this chaos by helping pioneer mortgage-backed securities, creating a zero-sum culture where traders routinely exploited clients and each other. This environment detached financial compensation from societal value, rewarding relentless aggression, deception, and extreme risk-taking over ethical business practices.
