Nothing Personal by Mike Offit

Warren Hament should be on top of the world.  After graduating with his masters degree from Columbia, he joins the world of high finance, working as a bond trader on Wall Street.  The salary is great and the commissions and bonuses are better.  There are lunches and dinners at top-notch restaurants and plenty of client boondoggle vacations to take.  He has a gorgeous apartment, makes more than anyone else he knew at school, and has an amazing girlfriend to boot.  Why then, is he uneasy?

Warren becomes more and more uneasy as he realizes that the world of high finance is not only dog eat dog, but that the level of corruption is astonishing.  Many of his peers aren't even that bright; they make their money by cheating the clients.  Upper management takes the lion's share of the money while those at the bottom do the majority of the work.  Warren can't even get excited about his quick promotion in the company since it occurred as the result of the sudden death of his supervisor.  Can he find a way to reconcile the lack of ethics in his workplace with his own ethical standards, or will he need to find another way to survive?

Mike Offit knows the world of high finance from the inside out.  Like Warren, he came to Wall Street after his college graduation where he found success.  He was a senior trader at Goldman Sachs and also worked at First Boston, Prudential and Deutsche Bank, where he built and ran the Street's leading commercial real estate finance business.  This is the world of the wealthy and of those who would do anything to join their ranks.  It is the Street before the scandals and the collapse of the real estate market that ruined so many investors and businessmen.  Readers will enjoy learning more about the inner workings of the world of finance, which is a closed environment to most individuals, who can only trust that those working there are doing the right things.  This book is recommended not only for mystery fans, but for those readers interested in business.