Ugly Americans is the true story of ex-patriots heading over to the Asian rim to engage in financial speculation. Set in the mid-90's, these gaijin cowboys gamed the system, traded on rumor and innuendo to exploit minute shifts in the Nikkei and ended up making billions. The book follows the exploits of an ex-football player from Princeton who heads over to Osaka with little more than an invitation from a Princeton alum cum trader. He quickly finds himself immersed in trading millions of dollars on a daily basis, as well as the seedier side of gaijin life in Japan.
It's a good and riveting read. The financial details are well explained and never dragging, while there is enough of a story about the activities of the traders to hold a reader's interest through some of the more dragging parts. And, whenever the author gets into trouble, he drags out some unseemly details about the sex trade in Japan (while no doubt true, and I know full well that bonding over beers in a sex club happens everywhere, I felt that it was an attempt to spice up the story). In any case, there's something for everyone.
Written by Ben Mezrich, who also wrote the book on the MIT grads who took some casinos in Vegas for quite a bundle. I haven't read his other book, but I'll probably make some time for it fairly soon.
Article comments
1 - jadester
sweet! think i'm gonna have to get both of these books...