Anti-social Media with Judd Bagley Exposing User-Generated Discontent

Instead, this is a story about ten authors and five Amazon.com reviewers, and how Gary Weiss unites them all.

We'll start with writer Daniel Strachman.

The most recent (11/2006) review of the book was submitted in April, 2005 by someone who merely self-identifies as George (Needham, MA).

Here's what George wrote about Getting Started in Hedge Funds:

A worthy companion to Strachman's horrid biography of Julian Robertson, which it resembles. Tepid, tedious and superficial, utterly devoid of any redeeming value, this is the kind of book that makes you wonder if Wiley is actually a publisher. The correct term appears to be "printer," with no consideration given to the merits of the book. (George)

It's not immediately clear why someone would give the author of a "horrid biography" a second chance, but we'll assume George has his reasons. To better understand what those reasons are, we could read George's review of the Robertson book.

Unfortunately, despite having read it, George opted not to review the Robertson biography, although we do find another review, submitted by Rich Golden (New York, NY), that comes unusually close to what we imagine George might write.

A horrid little book that reads like the kind of "vanity" tome that CEOs privately print for their friends and relatives. You know, books with titles like, "Forty Years at the Helm of Acme Industries." It's that bad.

Strachman glosses over Robertson's mistakes -- little things like his fund going OUT OF BUSINESS -- and is filled with errors and inconsistencies. Shame on Wiley for publishing such pap. (Rich Golden)

Note how both George and Rich Golden employ the term "horrid," and both single out the publisher Wiley & Sons for criticism -- keeping in mind that most readers are rarely even aware of a book's publisher, much less prone to assign blame or credit for a book they've read.

Another notable exception to that rule is reviewer Jim O'Reilly (New York, NY), who hated the Robertson bio and also blames the book's publisher.

This book reads as if you had programmed a computer to produce the worst possible book about Julian Robertson. It is awkwardly written, hagiographic in the most egregious way possible, and omits so much that you really have to question the motives of the author in writing this book...

Really dreadful, and I am surprised that a major publisher would produce swill such as this. (Jim O'Reilly)

Apart from their shared dislike for the work of Daniel Strachman and disappointment in the editorial judgment of Wiley & Sons, what else do George, Rich Golden and Jim O'Reilly have in common?

To learn, let's look at their reviews of other authors.

Pathetic. You got to hand it to this Saggio guy--the scams never end. Now comes his latest scam, which is this book, which he obviously just made up completely. Anyone could have written this book using stuff that appeared in the media...Pretty miserable and pathetic stuff. (George)

Interestingly, we find that Jim O'Reilly also read and reviewed Born to the Mob.

Total garbage--don't be conned by shills.

I have only myself to blame for buying this piece of crap, on the basis of eighteen reviews -- most from "A reader" and all sounding alike.

Additional information

A psychologist might classify this review as a good example of Freudian Projection.

And I didn't bother to check that practically all the "reviewers" who could be checked had reviewed only this book. Gee, what a coinkidink that a book that is barely selling and is put out by a doggie-do publisher should get so many "raves." See if you can guess who probably wrote all those reviews...A total crib job, a real fraud from a read fraudster. (Jim O'Reilly)

Two weeks after Jim O'Reilly weighs in, reviewer Marty Ross (Houston, TX) expresses his disappointment with Saggio's effort.

I've read pretty much all the books on [organized crime] that have come out in recent years, and this one is one of the absolute worst...When you think about how many great books there are on the Mob, particularly Wise Guys by Nick Pileggi and the Jerry Capeci books, or more recently the great book by George Anastasia, you have got to have your head examined to read a book like this. (Marty Ross)

To learn more about Marty Ross, let's read his reviews of other authors.

A tedious book, poorly written, boring, superficial, and lacks credibility.

The author has changed some names and left others alone, which makes me wonder which names are true and which are phony. Or I would wonder, if I cared--which I don't.

It covers much the same ground as a much better book called Born to Steal, as I only discovered after buying the book and reading a short way into it. Even writes about some of the same gangsters and stock promoters, such as Roy Ageloff and Frank Coppa, but what was vivid and fascinating in Born to Steal is limp and uninteresting here. A shame, as this is a subject that definitely warrants another book. (Marty Ross)

Mr. Ross's criticism of Lauria is echoed by reviewer Ted Dichtler (Monroe, NY).

Self-serving, poorly written, uninformative.

The "readers" who gave favorable reviews to this book are obviously pals of the author, if he has any left, as no one else would find anything even the slightest bit worthwhile about this book. This patently dishonest tripe is simply not worth buying. Take it out of the library if you want to read some boring garbage some evening you have insomnia and need to sleep. (Ted Dichtler)

To learn more about Ted Dichtler, let's read his reviews of other authors.

I bought this book in the hope that this would be a kind of mob version of the Encyclopedia of New York City -- a kind of comprehensive treasure trove of lore, as promised.

Unfortunately, the book fell short of my expectations. It is far too unfocussed and poorly written, as even the obligatory Times review noted today, and also it provides only very slim information on recent developments in the Mob.

Mob books are a glut on the market, so every new one must pass a higher and higher bar. This one might have been a real winner ten years ago but today it is not. (Ted Dichtler)

Mr. Dichtler's review, posted September 11, 2005, came just one day after a review of the same book by Rich Golden.

...I read it through quickly, skimming through all the old stuff, all the rehash that I had read before, which was pretty much everything.

...It is boring, pedantic, and not at all well-written...One problem with this book is that it is based on public records, and thus has a kind of second-hand feel. Also it has very little on the latest doings in the mob -- just a few paragraphs on stock fraud schemes for example, even though they are the mainstay of the mob lately.

The title of the book says that there has been a "resurgence" of the Five Families. But there is nothing in the book that talks about that, except for a few pages toward the very end, so he simply does not support his thesis...This book fails in contrast with the superb reporting of Robert Lacey in his book on Meyer Lansky-- Little Man -- or the fascinating recent book on Mafia pump and dump schemes, Born to Steal. (Rich Golden)

Two weeks later, on September 28, 2005, Jim O'Reilly reviews the same book.

Also it does a limp job of describing the most recent Mafia scams, and lays an egg by promising a "resurgence" in the title but failing to deliver. No new analysis, no new facts. Bah

This book falls flat on its keister -- as fresh as last year's newspaper and as riveting as the Brooklyn telephone directory. What Raab has done is to take a lot of Mafia lore from the public record and pour it like molasses into these pages. (Jim O'Reilly)

George, Rich Golden, Jim O'Reilly, and Ted Dichtler all seem to have a lot in common. At the very least, we see that they hate the work of the same writers. Can the trend continue? Let's find out by looking at another author.

The problem with this book is that it posits one strawman after another--particularly liberal economists like Krugman. But the basic flaw in his argument is that there really aren't a lot of people out there who are "against progress and innovation," no matter how many rationalizations he may use to present that thesis.

So what we have here is an author trying to drum up a "controversy" that doesn't exist, which doesn't work on an intellectual level and apparently isn't selling many books either, judging from the Amazon sales rank. (Ted Dichtler)

Coincidentally, Ted Dichtler's review was posted just a few weeks after our friend George thrashed the same book.

No wonder this book is a dud.

Michael Mandel's book has laid an egg, but you can only understand why if you make the mistake of picking up this book and reading it. This same gent, who "predicted" the Internet depression (after it already happened) now seeks to burden us with the believe that all these hobgoblins out there are the "enemies of growth." But his arguments are unconvincing and poorly presented, in prose that is hackneyed and academic-dull. (George)

Despite his almost visceral aversion to Mandel's Rational Exuberance, ten months later George opted to read yet another book by the author, The Coming Internet Depression.

Nice going, Mandel. He predicts a decline in Internet stocks in a book that comes out in October 2000-- AFTER the market falls. He predicts a "depression" when what we got was a mild recession. Mandel's next book is about the dangers that iceburgs pose to ships like the Titanic, and how we have to watch out for Al Qaeda. (George)

So far, among reviewers Rich Golden, George, Ted Dichtler, Jim O'Reilly, and Marty Ross, we've seen instances of cross-over among everybody but Marty and Rich. Until now...

Readers who believed the publisher's hype and expected another fast-paced sophisticated thriller along the lines of All the President's Men or Indecent Exposure are going to be disappointed...Power Failure is a much better and more interesting book. This one simply fails to generate enough, pardon the expression, wattage. The writing is lackluster and book is simply not a very good read. (Marty Ross)

Like Ted Dichtler, reviewer Marty Ross also warns readers against falling for the publisher's "hype," in addition to offering the book Power Failure as an alternative, and concludes by attacking the quality of the book's writing.

Forget the hype--this book is a bomb. The authors could not get access to the real players in the Enron drama, so they did what they thought was the next best thing and wrote about themselves...Power Failure told the story from the inside. This book tells the story from the outside and not as well. The writing is pedestrian, the insights marginal. Avoid. (Ted Dichtler)

Marty Ross spent part of his Christmas Eve, 2003 offering up this review of Levitt's book:

This book needs to be read over again, in conjunction with Gary Weiss's scorching expose of Wall Street, "Wall Street Versus America." He excoriates Levitt's record as SEC chairman, and points up the yawning gaps and omissions in this book. *

I read this book when it came out and I thought that it was self-serving and generally of no value whatsoever. Now I went back to it after reading the Weiss book and I found it was actually a pretty contemptible piece of work after all. (Marty Ross)

*Though dated 12/24/2003, this review makes reference to Gary Weiss's second book, which was not published until 4/6/2006. Just though it was worth mentioning.

Rich Golden reviewed CNBC Wall Street reporter Charles Gasparino's Blood on the Street: The Sensational Inside Story of How Wall Street Analysts Duped a Generation of Investors but here again, had nothing positive to say about it.

Haven't I read this before? Henry Blodgett is a liar! Oh my. Stop the presses! That's the kind of breathless, naive tone of much of this book. Puh-lease. I've read this all before. (Rich Golden)

Totally loved it. Am a great fan of Cramer's from watching his TV show and this book packed the same wallop as his show. I've read many books on investing and this one is right up there with One Up on Wall Street in the classics of investing. A big booya! (Ted Dichtler)

George read Cramer's Confessions of a Street Addict and was touched.

You may not like Jim Cramer--I find him a little abrasive--but you can't deny that he is a riveting and excellent writer. This book is one of the best inside accounts that has come out on Wall Street, and by far the best book ever to come out on the hedge fund biz...Instead of portraying himself as "philanthropist" or other self-indulgent crap that we get in other books of this kind, we have an honest, warts and all portrayal.

The shame is that a lot of the negative reviews on this book are a result of its chief asset, which is its honesty. (George)

Good gawd, this is the best book I have read in a long time--and definitely the best book I've ever read about the Mafia or Wall Street. It is funnier and more knowing than Liar's Poker, and much more disturbing than any of the James Stewart books I have ever read. And it is a cut above any book I have ever read about the Mob--thrilling and funny at the same time...It is reminiscent of the story that Nick Pileggi told in Wise Guy or the movie Goodfellas, but with considerably more humor and with a more entrancing style. At times I laughed out loud!...Born to Steal is a winner! (Ted Dichtler)

Ted Dichtler on Wall Street Versus America:

A solid, well-researched appraisal of the various ways Wall Street in its various guises can and does rip off the public.

This book is a considerably broader look at securities industry practices that Weiss's previous book Born to Steal, and in this broader canvas he paints a picture that is more disturbing. In Born to Steal the protagonist was a young punk from the fringes of society. In this book society itself is to blame.

The book is tough on pretty much everyone involved, but is toughest on Arthur Levitt, who presided over the SEC in the 1990s. Highly recommended. (Ted Dichtler)

Rich Golden on Born to Steal:

It's interesting to contrast this detailed, fascinating account of Mob pump and dump schemes with the much-hyped "five families" compendium that just came out the other day, and which I found to be pretty lame.

What sets this book apart is its rich detail. Instead of relying on secondary sources like some Mafia writers, Born to Steal takes it all from the horses mouth, a kid from the streets of Staten Island who was lured into a Mob brokerage house...

What is particularly compelling about this book is that it shows the Mafia in decline. There is no "resurgence," as one recent author argued. On the contrary, the mob seems to have regenerated to becoming a shadow of its former self. It is now little more than a street gang.

This book is compact, engrossing and a great read that is informative. Well-written and witty too, it brings out the irony in every situation. (Rich Golden )

Rich Golden on Wall Street Versus America:

A solid, tough-minded yet breezy examination of nefarious Wall Street practices by a master investigative reporter...This book is a good supplement to Born to Steal but covers a much broader canvass.

Weiss does not hide his contempt for Wall Street hypocrisy, and his treatment of the financial media is refreshing.
I would recommend this book to anyone reading Joel Greenblatt's Little Book That Beats the Market. I happened to like that book very much, but here we get a differing point of view, which is that stock-picking systems don't work. I think both points of view have validity, and likewise I would recommend that readers of this book should read Greenblatt's.
I just read Cramer's new book and it definitely conflicts with that too. Again, it is the philosophical difference between value investing and efficient markets. Both need to be understood by investors.

Overall I came away from this book a little shell-shocked, but it definitely makes convincing arguments and does so with zest and wit. (Rich Golden)

Marty Ross on Born to Steal:

I laughed out loud reading this book, which is a really exciting read as well. This book reminds me a lot of the Scott Turow books, but it doesn't take itself, or its cast of characters, quite as seriously.

Even so, this book gets into the mind of the criminal better any I have ever read, as is as good a tour of Wall Street--and the Mob--as I am sure I will ever find. (Marty Ross)

Marty Ross on Wall Street Versus America:

I'm surprised that more attention hasn't focused on how this book takes aim at the financial press. It is definitely a case of ready, aim and fire, and Weiss scores a bullseye.

The book is a sometimes raunchy, always very funny examination of all things related to Wall Street. But I liked most how he totally rips to shreds the financial press from stem to stern. Nobody escapes his slingshot, not even his own colleagues at Business Week...

Additional Information

Tim Picks actually first used the "Eddie Haskell" line to refer to Goldman Sachs back in 2002.

This book is filled with many funny lines, with Bear Stearns is the "Eddie Haskell of Wall Street" and the New York Stock Exchange as acting in a "vampiristic" fashion. The crazy thing is that when you think about it, you realize it is all true! (Marty Ross)

George on Wall Street Versus America:

Wow! This book blasts its way across Wall Street and doesn't pull any punches. Weiss is acerbic, insightful and very very funny...A solid, fast read that should be on the shelf of every investor in America. (George)

George on Born to Steal :

Start reading this early in the day. Why? BECAUSE YOU CAN'T PUT IT DOWN!!!!!

I took this book to the beach during the July 4th weekend and made the mistake of starting to read it in the afternoon. There I was as the sun was setting at 8, and I was still reading it. Everyone was gone and I was squinting as the sun went down. That's how electrifying this book is.

Louis Pasciuto is a parochial school kid from Staten Island who has a slight character-development issue: He steals. He stole when he was a small child and as a teenager he found just the place to practice his craft. Wall Street beckoned, in the form of a well-groomed stock scammer named Roy Ageloff.

Such is the setup for one of the most readable stories that have come down the pike in a long time. Weiss's portrayal of the world of Wall Street and the Mafia is extraordinarily revealing. I heard this is going to be a movie and I can see why.

I don't want to give away any of the plot, as this is one of those books that you read with your hand on the page to keep from letting your eyes wandering down to see what is happening in the future. It was an education on the subject of Wall Street, and I came away from reading this book with a wealth of education that I hope will make me into a smarter investor.

One thing about this book that is surprising is how entertaining and funny it is. You wouldn't expect that from a book about Wall Street or the Mafia. But Weiss has extraordinary comic sense and he brings out the irony in some characters who are at once loathsome and fascinating. He also makes some sharp observations on the abysmal failure of Wall Street regulation and the moronic character of so much that has been written about the Mob.

Born to Steal is a winner in every respect. (George)

But what about Jim O'Reilly?

Interestingly, Jim O'Reilly was the only one of the five who never reviewed Gary Weiss's books.

However he did the next best thing: he reviewed The Sanity Check Blog, run by Weiss's avowed mortal enemy Bob O'Brien.

Check Your Sanity At the Door.

This is arguably the worst website on the Internet purportedly devoted to the stock market and investing.

This website promotes the lastest variation on a very old, long-discredited conspiracy theory that occasionally makes the rounds. It is now being promoted by a consortium of stock promoters and is led by Patrick Byrne, the famously flaky CEO of Overstock.com, whose demagoguery is prominently featured on the site.

Let's start with the name: "Sanity check." In a sense that is correct, because you have to "check your sanity" at the door. The purpose of this website is to confuse, frighten, misinform and mislead investors.

Enter the site and you are told that the purpose is to promote a "market reform movement." But as you penetrate the layers of this site, you see that what the site operator has in mind is one issue and one issue only: something he describes as "stock counterfeiting" or "naked short selling."

As you go through the site, you see that every problem the market faces, from microcap fraud to Enron, supposedly boils down to a mammoth "conspiracy of miscreants," and that yet another conspiracy has been whipped up to cover up the central conspiracy.

Therefore Enron was not the fault of its management. Various microcap frauds were not the fault of stock promoters or company officials. Companies don't decline because they are bad companies. Their stocks decline because of a "conspiracy of miscreants" and "bad guys."

It's all laid out in this slick, well-financed website, written for the express purpose of deceiving the public by experts -- the boiler room con men made famous by the movie Boiler Room.

These same con men and their allies are the principal advocates of the "stock counterfeiting conspiracy" theory advocated on this website.

To further this lurid tale, which is advanced by several "blogs" on the site, the website takes highly technical securities processing esoterica and weaves grotesque conspiracies around them.

Central to its premise is the idea that "fails to deliver," a commonplace occurrence in the market that does not disadvantage investors, is somehow a cover for mammoth "stock counterfeiting."

The "experts" spouting nonsense on this site are microcap stock promoters and a "Dr. Jim," who is promoted as an "expert on securities processing" but was recently outed as a dentist in Oregon.

Why devote a website to a non-existent problem? Because the principal proponents of the "stock counterfeiting" conspiracy theory are microcap stock promoters seeking to create a smokescreen for their own activities. Some of their wares, such as a crummy delisted mining company called CMKH and a mob stock manipulation called Eagletech, are promoted on this website.

In this website you see a lot of references to "bad guys" and "miscreants." They are never stock promoters or actual criminals, but rather people seeking to bring actual fraudsters to justice. The "enemies" of this "market reform movement" are viciously attacked and villified in a manner more suited to a cult than a "stock market reform movement."

Additional Information

This review was posted on 3/11/06. Two days later, Gary Weiss blogged about TheSanityCheck.com and Bob O'Brien's then-recent attack on Jim Cramer's character.

Among the central villains of this tale are regulators, Eliot Spitzer, and investigative journalists who have targeted the "stock counterfeiting" myth, and these are villified and libeled routinely, along with other "miscreants" such as CNBC host Jim Cramer and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.

The webmaster of the site, not surprisingly, carefully guards his identity in order to avoid being sued or subjected to prosecution for the lies and stock promotions contained on this website.

So if you own a stock that has declined and want to blame somebody OTHER THAN THE COMPANY --- this site is for you. You'll be deceiving yourself, but that's understandable because the people who run this site are experts at deception.

And with that, gentle reader, we rest our case.

Antisocialmedia.net again calls on Gary Weiss to end his seemingly limitless online charades.

(Ready to run up the score a little again? OK, how about this...)

Jim O'Reilly also reviewed Blogger.com:

...my blog utilizes the blogger.com platform exclusively. (Jim O'Reilly)

Jim O'Reilly also reviewed two DVD compilations of the Naked City television series.

Image Entertainment has really outdone itself with this outstanding collection from one of the best television shows ever to be shown. Am waiting impatiently for the remaining shows to be released on DVD. (Jim O'Reilly)

Marty Ross thrashed Arthur Waskow's A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven: The Jewish Life-Spiral as a Spiritual Path with particular zest:

The World According to Waskow should be the title of the totally nonsensical, wretched collection of claptrap. Arthur "East River" Waskow should hold the title of "rabbit" and not "rabbi" because all he has done here is taken his personal political and pseudo-social agenda and coated it with a think shellac of Judaism. I took this book out of the library.

I returned it. You should do the same. (Marty Ross)