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Ugly Americans: A True Story of High Stakes, Dirty Deals and One Man's $500 Million Gamble
John Malcolm is barely 30, a high school football hero and Princeton graduate, he controls a hedge fund worth $50m. He made his millions back in the early '90's, a time when dozens of elite young American graduates made their fortunes in hedge funds in the Far East, beating the Japanese at their own game, riding the crashing waves of the Asian markets and winning. Failure meant not only bankruptcy and disgrace a la Nick Leeson, but potentially even death - at the hands of the Japanese Yakuza. "Ugly Americans" tells Malcolm's story, and that of others like him, in a cross between Mezrich's own best-selling "Bringing Down the House" and Michael Lewis' "Liar's Poker".
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First published January 30, 2004
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About the author
Ben Mezrich
56 books1,463 followersBen Mezrich has created his own highly addictive genre of nonfiction, chronicling the amazing stories of young geniuses making tons of money on the edge of impossibility, ethics, and morality.
With his newest non-fiction book, Once Upon a Time in Russia, Mezrich tells his most incredible story yet: A true drama of obscene wealth, crime, rivalry, and betrayal from deep inside the world of billionaire Russian Oligarchs.
Mezrich has authored sixteen books, with a combined printing of over four million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and sold over 2 million copies in fifteen languages. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – debuted at #4 on the New York Times list and spent 18 weeks in hardcover and paperback, as well as hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network –written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher – and was #1 at the box office for two weeks, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 including best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin shared a prestigious Scripter Award for best adapted screenplay as well.
With his newest non-fiction book, Once Upon a Time in Russia, Mezrich tells his most incredible story yet: A true drama of obscene wealth, crime, rivalry, and betrayal from deep inside the world of billionaire Russian Oligarchs.
Mezrich has authored sixteen books, with a combined printing of over four million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and sold over 2 million copies in fifteen languages. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – debuted at #4 on the New York Times list and spent 18 weeks in hardcover and paperback, as well as hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network –written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher – and was #1 at the box office for two weeks, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 including best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin shared a prestigious Scripter Award for best adapted screenplay as well.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 216 reviews
February 14, 2010
This is a just-OK book; I did enjoy it it but it's written (as the author points out) for people who don't read much. It represents a new genre of "guy chick-lit"; thrillers with a focus on getting rich quick and beating the system. If you are interested in Japan, being an "expat", and general risky business: this may a good book for you. If you are looking for character development, a real plot, and intelligent prose: not so much. I probably will not read any more of Mezrich's books, but I'm interested to check out the autobiography of Nick Leeson, "Rogue Trader", who features prominently in this story.
September 26, 2011
Ugly Americans by Ben Mezrich is billed as “The true story of the ivy league cowboys who raided the Asian markets for millions.” However, it comes across as fiction. I realize that certain details had to be changed to protect sources. I think that he did manage to get a lot of the details right, but from a market perspective I couldn’t tell you what those were really. However, after reading Rogue Trader, the book about Nick Leeson, who brought down Barclay with his trading in Singapore-and he gets some mention in the book-it seems right. Obviously there are a lot of people in finance and banking that have made and are making a lot of money. I think he is spot on how he portrays these people. The lavish lifestyle they can lead in Japan and how they have mutated into creatures that cannot return to America. They’re used to the “water trade”, which is various levels of seediness are engaged. In addition, there’s a sense of entitlement among these people, Japan is still considered a “hardship post” so they feel the need to have American style apartments, utility bills paid for, membership to the American Club, etc… an inability to speak Japanese, and so on. However, John Malcolm is a former football hero, American everyman, impervious to the temptations of the “water trade”, incorruptible, who makes a big score and benevolently remembers his friends. There’s action and romance as well. I get the feeling that Mezrich was writing for a possible Hollywood option, one of his earlier books Bringing Down The House was optioned by Kevin Spacey. Besides being incorruptible and a football hero, John Malcolm who manages to seduce and win the daughter of a Yakuza who works at a hostess club with no Japanese…then again having a lot of money goes along way. It was a mostly entertaining light read. I’d be curious to read Liar’s Poker, another book about traders, and compare it to that.
January 10, 2008
I read Mezrich’s other novel two years ago (Bringing Down the House) – a “nonfiction” account of Ivy League Whizkids who’d developed a method for winning millions from Vegas by counting cards. Consider Ugly Americans that book’s sequel on speed. Instead of casinos, we have Ivy League Whizkids gaming the Asian markets to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars of profit for a profiteering hedge fund. This somewhat fictionalized account of true events follows John Malcolm (pseudonym), a Princeton alum in Japan, and other American financial expats and the intersection of the Japanese finance industry, the Japanese sex industry, and the Yakuza. The book does a good job of explaining basic market concepts (short-selling, arbitrage, derivatives, etc) in ways that help you better understand how money was being made. While the book is a quick airplane trip read, the writing is atrocious – the prose sounds like writer’s workshop mimicry of John Grisham. The book’s other fault is that it tries to take itself too seriously. The author tries to present the account as an expose on the shady side of American business overseas and the complete lack of morals in the face of money to be made. But the dozens upon dozens of pages spent describing the shining Ferraris, speedy Ducati motorcycles, expensive parties, and high-end escorts paid for by this blood money tend to celebrate the behavior rather than condemn it. This book is less an expose and more a glorification of the American financial cowboy the book sets out to tear down. Ultimately, an entertaining but empty reading experience.
October 22, 2023
Many movies make the claim "Based on a True Story". Supposedly this makes the movie more interesting.
While reading this book, I thought that in fact many novels could also make the claim that they are based on true stories. One thinks about these things while reading this book because while it claims to be non-fiction, it uses many literary devices from novels in order to grip the reader.
The characters, true to the title, are repulsive. Reading this book, one can see the greed and recklessness that is leading the world financial system to the brink of collapse (and possibly beyond the brink).
This content of this book would be more successful packaged as a novel. The veneer of non-fiction does not add anything here.
While reading this book, I thought that in fact many novels could also make the claim that they are based on true stories. One thinks about these things while reading this book because while it claims to be non-fiction, it uses many literary devices from novels in order to grip the reader.
The characters, true to the title, are repulsive. Reading this book, one can see the greed and recklessness that is leading the world financial system to the brink of collapse (and possibly beyond the brink).
This content of this book would be more successful packaged as a novel. The veneer of non-fiction does not add anything here.
November 23, 2011
Good book, light reading, funny and a great story to tell, yakuza characters and Japanese sex stories, well worth the read. This is not an instructional book about how markets collapse or a Michael Lewis-type book that will be misconstrued as a path to ibanking. It's a story. A bit of hero worship, but a fine story, well told. You do have to wonder how many people read it and thought, 'I wonder if that's still going on.... and where do I apply?' Worth reading for a cultural look at Anglo-Japanese relations.
May 18, 2018
Ben Mezrich takes Capote-esque non fiction story telling to a fault. Our spotless, principled Galahad of this tale is John Malcolm, a shining beacon in a corrupt world. Entirely selfless, Malcolm saves his friends, all the ex-pats, his girlfriend... and on the way, he saves himself.
1.5 starz, relatively terrible
August 17, 2014
Ugly Americans is pop business. It’s entertaining but superficial. Mezrich provides only the broadest outlines of the financial aspects of the deals he discusses. He’s much more interested in the Japanese take on sex, conspiracies surrounding the Japanese mafia (“Yakuza”), and the fact that his characters all attended Ivy League schools.
John Malcolm is the alias of a purportedly real person, or perhaps persons. Mezrich claims his book is a true story based on real characters, but he uses aliases for some unexplained reason. Seriously, I just read this book and I still don’t know why aliases are necessary. I guess I’m supposed to assume that “John Malcolm” somehow angered the Yakuza and is in danger for his life. Though what actions he took that would lead to that assumption remain unclear. It seems more likely that dramatic effect was desired by Mezrich. Though Malcom was hit by a car and his apartment was broken into, it’s far from certain these were somehow related to his investment activities. But I get ahead of myself.
John Malcolm grew up poor in New Jersey. His football skills gained him a scholarship to Princeton. He played in a football game of the Ivy League all-stars against a Japanese team before graduating in 1993. After the game in Japan, he met “Dean Carney,” the alias of another Princeton grad who was 10 or 15 years older than Malcolm.
After Malcolm failed to make it in the NFL, he called Carney for a job and got one. Malcolm moved to Osaka, Japan, where all trades on the Nikkei 225 (the Japanese stock market equivalent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average—a broad index of Japanese companies) are executed. Malcolm was basically a computer monkey for about a year; he simply entered the trades that Carney told him to, and received a salary of about $35,000 per year in 1994. Malcolm worked for Carney, and Carney worked for Kidder Peabody, an American investment bank and brokerage firm. Shortly after Malcolm started working, Kidder Peabody sustained heavy losses and was acquired by PaineWebber. A trader named Joseph Jett—his real name—worked at Kidder Peabody and caused its heavy losses over the span of four years. He exploited a glitch in the firm’s accounting system that essentially recorded losses as profits by valuing forward-dated transactions as if they immediately settled. This glitch ignored the time value of money, which is a big thing in finance. (The information in the last two sentences I got from Google because Mezrich declined to provide even that limited information; Mezrich pretty much left it at, “Jett lied.”)
After Kidder Peabody was sold, Carney went off to start his own hedge fund and raised $350 million. It took Carney about 8 months to raise the capital. In the meantime, Malcolm went to work at Barings Bank, an old English investment bank, or “merchant bank,” as the Brits say. Another turd in the punchbowl, Nick Leeson, bankrupted Barings Bank. Leeson continually doubled down on speculative positions. He bet that the Nikkei would go up and was wiped out when the Kobe earthquake hit on January 17, 1995 and temporarily decimated the Japanese economy.
Out of a job yet again, Malcolm rejoined with Carney once his hedge fund was up and running. This was around 1995, and Malcolm’s salary was $150,000 plus bonuses. How exactly Malcolm, Carney, and the other half-dozen traders made money is somewhat obfuscated. All I can do is relate what Mezrich told me, which isn't much. Their bread and butter was trading the Nikkei and exploiting arbitrage opportunities. They would buy and sell positions many times a day, almost always closing every position by the end of the day. In nominal terms, they would trade perhaps $250-$300 million, with profits of about $100,000 per day. Annualized, $100,000 of profit per day comes out to about $25 million. They would also try for big payoffs that once again go unexplained. Mezrich provides by way of description merely, “[A]n arbitrage scheme involving Indonesian municipal bonds…; a short-selling position in a Singapore-based textile firm that [a trader] had rightly determined was hugely overvalued…; and a quick in and out trade involving a South Korean hardware chain, which was expanding its outfit into Vietnam.” He continues, “[C]omplex arbitrage transactions involving certain Japanese convertible bonds that were the first of their kind. . . . [And] an idea involving a currency transaction between the yen and the U.S. dollar.” Oh, I get it. An idea involving a currency transaction. Yes, describing these deals or transactions can be complicated, but Mezrich didn’t even try. I crave the details, and Mezrich provides me with nothing.
Anyway, there are really only three deals that matter. The Hang Seng is an index of Hong Kong companies. During a downturn in the economy, the Hong Kong government purchased about 10% of the Hang Seng and created a large tracker fund, similar to SPDR indices. In the mid-1990’s, tech companies were heating up and becoming large. The Hang Seng needed to rebalance the companies included in the index by including some new, large tech companies, and removing some older, dying companies. One such company was Pacific Century Cyberworks (“PCC”), basically the Yahoo! of Asia at the time. Once it became clear that PCC was going to be added to the Hang Seng, the question arose of how and when that would happen. Demand for shares in PCC rose because the Hong Kong government would need to buy shares to keep the balance of the Hang Seng accurately reflected. Or so many people thought. Malcolm went to Hong Kong and spoke to many investment bankers to try to determine which bank would handle the purchase for the Hong Kong government. Once he found out that none of the banks was handling it, it forced him to reconsider his assumption that there would be a massive purchase. Instead, Malcolm deduced that the largest shareholder of Pacific Century Cyberworks, Richard Li, would sell his shares to the Hong Kong government directly. Therefore, instead of a massive price increase on the day of the supposed purchase, Malcolm determined there would be a massive decline or sell off as investors realized that the large purchase had already been made on predefined terms. So Malcolm shorted PCC and made approximately $20 million in one day.
The second deal was very similar to the first, but bigger. The Nikkei was going to rebalance by adding 15 new tech companies and ousting 15 older, dying companies. Malcolm researched which companies were likely to be added and removed. He spoke to journalists to determine when and how it was going to be done. It was going to be done all in one day. Through Carney’s hedge fund, Malcolm made huge bets. He risked about $800 million in capital shorting the companies that would be kicked off the Nikkei and buying the companies that would be added. He made $500 million off that series of trades for Carney’s hedge fund. Prior to the trade he negotiated with Carney to keep 10% of the profits, and give 5% to his friend Akari, another trader at Carney’s hedge fund. Malcolm was 27 years old, and he had made $50 million for himself.
The third trade involves Malcolm’s friend Akari. Akari was Malcolm’s age, and the first person to show him around Japan. Akari worked at the same places as Malcolm, and brought Carney an investment idea that turned sour. Akari’s deal involved Japanese real estate. Japanese banks had $100 million in loans that Japanese companies owed but couldn’t pay. The collateral for the loans was real estate, specficially warehouses and office buildings worth about $50 million. The Japanese banks sold the loans to Carney’s hedge fund for $10 million. Akari planned to sell the real estate for $50 million and pocket the $40 million difference as profit. But why would the Japanese banks agree to sell $50 million worth of real estate to an American hedge fund for $10 million? In short, the Yakuza, or Japanese mafia, intimidated the banks into not collecting on the loans or foreclosing on the property. Mezrich’s unwillingness or inability to provide details rears its ugly head yet again. He says the Yakuza are pervasive throughout all levels of Japanese society. They permeate politics and commerce. The Yakuza became squatters in the buildings, holding parties and raves. When Akari and Malcolm went to visit the properties, they were threatened with knives by tattooed thugs. Though the banks and subsequent American investors may have had a legal right to the property, the Japanese police, politicians, and judges were unwilling to enforce those rights.
There were never any direct threats to Malcolm or Akari. Malcolm’s Japanese girlfriend, Sayo, apparently tried to warn him several times about the Yakuza. Her broken English and Malcolm’s little Japanese did not make this clear. Malcolm was in a severe motorcycle accident when a BMW hit him on a private road and drove off. Also, Malcolm’s apartment was vandalized. Mezrich implies that these were warnings from the Yakuza, but the evidence is unclear. Either way, Malcolm became angry at Carney who was only concerned with financial profit and not the safety of his traders. Though Akari’s deal went sour, he still cleared $25 million from his 5% stake in Malcolm’s Nikkei rebalancing deal. Even paying back the original $10 million to Carney, Akari would have netted $15 million. Though Malcolm conceived the Nikkei rebalancing deal himself, he gave 5% to Akari because they were good friends, and Akari had originally shown him the ropes. Malcolm was always a gaijin (i.e., a non-Japanese person, perhaps it has derogatory undertones?) somewhat uncomfortable with Japan's "Water Trade" (i.e., the sex industry in Japan) and certainly uncomfortable with the Yakuza. Malcolm left Japan with Sayo, moved to Bermuda, and opened his own hedge fund.
Overall, an interesting story. I wonder how much of it is true. And I would love more specific information about the trades and strategies. A quick google search shows that John Malcolm is likely Michael Lerch. If so, enjoy your money, Mr. Lerch, and watch out for the Yakuza.
John Malcolm is the alias of a purportedly real person, or perhaps persons. Mezrich claims his book is a true story based on real characters, but he uses aliases for some unexplained reason. Seriously, I just read this book and I still don’t know why aliases are necessary. I guess I’m supposed to assume that “John Malcolm” somehow angered the Yakuza and is in danger for his life. Though what actions he took that would lead to that assumption remain unclear. It seems more likely that dramatic effect was desired by Mezrich. Though Malcom was hit by a car and his apartment was broken into, it’s far from certain these were somehow related to his investment activities. But I get ahead of myself.
John Malcolm grew up poor in New Jersey. His football skills gained him a scholarship to Princeton. He played in a football game of the Ivy League all-stars against a Japanese team before graduating in 1993. After the game in Japan, he met “Dean Carney,” the alias of another Princeton grad who was 10 or 15 years older than Malcolm.
After Malcolm failed to make it in the NFL, he called Carney for a job and got one. Malcolm moved to Osaka, Japan, where all trades on the Nikkei 225 (the Japanese stock market equivalent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average—a broad index of Japanese companies) are executed. Malcolm was basically a computer monkey for about a year; he simply entered the trades that Carney told him to, and received a salary of about $35,000 per year in 1994. Malcolm worked for Carney, and Carney worked for Kidder Peabody, an American investment bank and brokerage firm. Shortly after Malcolm started working, Kidder Peabody sustained heavy losses and was acquired by PaineWebber. A trader named Joseph Jett—his real name—worked at Kidder Peabody and caused its heavy losses over the span of four years. He exploited a glitch in the firm’s accounting system that essentially recorded losses as profits by valuing forward-dated transactions as if they immediately settled. This glitch ignored the time value of money, which is a big thing in finance. (The information in the last two sentences I got from Google because Mezrich declined to provide even that limited information; Mezrich pretty much left it at, “Jett lied.”)
After Kidder Peabody was sold, Carney went off to start his own hedge fund and raised $350 million. It took Carney about 8 months to raise the capital. In the meantime, Malcolm went to work at Barings Bank, an old English investment bank, or “merchant bank,” as the Brits say. Another turd in the punchbowl, Nick Leeson, bankrupted Barings Bank. Leeson continually doubled down on speculative positions. He bet that the Nikkei would go up and was wiped out when the Kobe earthquake hit on January 17, 1995 and temporarily decimated the Japanese economy.
Out of a job yet again, Malcolm rejoined with Carney once his hedge fund was up and running. This was around 1995, and Malcolm’s salary was $150,000 plus bonuses. How exactly Malcolm, Carney, and the other half-dozen traders made money is somewhat obfuscated. All I can do is relate what Mezrich told me, which isn't much. Their bread and butter was trading the Nikkei and exploiting arbitrage opportunities. They would buy and sell positions many times a day, almost always closing every position by the end of the day. In nominal terms, they would trade perhaps $250-$300 million, with profits of about $100,000 per day. Annualized, $100,000 of profit per day comes out to about $25 million. They would also try for big payoffs that once again go unexplained. Mezrich provides by way of description merely, “[A]n arbitrage scheme involving Indonesian municipal bonds…; a short-selling position in a Singapore-based textile firm that [a trader] had rightly determined was hugely overvalued…; and a quick in and out trade involving a South Korean hardware chain, which was expanding its outfit into Vietnam.” He continues, “[C]omplex arbitrage transactions involving certain Japanese convertible bonds that were the first of their kind. . . . [And] an idea involving a currency transaction between the yen and the U.S. dollar.” Oh, I get it. An idea involving a currency transaction. Yes, describing these deals or transactions can be complicated, but Mezrich didn’t even try. I crave the details, and Mezrich provides me with nothing.
Anyway, there are really only three deals that matter. The Hang Seng is an index of Hong Kong companies. During a downturn in the economy, the Hong Kong government purchased about 10% of the Hang Seng and created a large tracker fund, similar to SPDR indices. In the mid-1990’s, tech companies were heating up and becoming large. The Hang Seng needed to rebalance the companies included in the index by including some new, large tech companies, and removing some older, dying companies. One such company was Pacific Century Cyberworks (“PCC”), basically the Yahoo! of Asia at the time. Once it became clear that PCC was going to be added to the Hang Seng, the question arose of how and when that would happen. Demand for shares in PCC rose because the Hong Kong government would need to buy shares to keep the balance of the Hang Seng accurately reflected. Or so many people thought. Malcolm went to Hong Kong and spoke to many investment bankers to try to determine which bank would handle the purchase for the Hong Kong government. Once he found out that none of the banks was handling it, it forced him to reconsider his assumption that there would be a massive purchase. Instead, Malcolm deduced that the largest shareholder of Pacific Century Cyberworks, Richard Li, would sell his shares to the Hong Kong government directly. Therefore, instead of a massive price increase on the day of the supposed purchase, Malcolm determined there would be a massive decline or sell off as investors realized that the large purchase had already been made on predefined terms. So Malcolm shorted PCC and made approximately $20 million in one day.
The second deal was very similar to the first, but bigger. The Nikkei was going to rebalance by adding 15 new tech companies and ousting 15 older, dying companies. Malcolm researched which companies were likely to be added and removed. He spoke to journalists to determine when and how it was going to be done. It was going to be done all in one day. Through Carney’s hedge fund, Malcolm made huge bets. He risked about $800 million in capital shorting the companies that would be kicked off the Nikkei and buying the companies that would be added. He made $500 million off that series of trades for Carney’s hedge fund. Prior to the trade he negotiated with Carney to keep 10% of the profits, and give 5% to his friend Akari, another trader at Carney’s hedge fund. Malcolm was 27 years old, and he had made $50 million for himself.
The third trade involves Malcolm’s friend Akari. Akari was Malcolm’s age, and the first person to show him around Japan. Akari worked at the same places as Malcolm, and brought Carney an investment idea that turned sour. Akari’s deal involved Japanese real estate. Japanese banks had $100 million in loans that Japanese companies owed but couldn’t pay. The collateral for the loans was real estate, specficially warehouses and office buildings worth about $50 million. The Japanese banks sold the loans to Carney’s hedge fund for $10 million. Akari planned to sell the real estate for $50 million and pocket the $40 million difference as profit. But why would the Japanese banks agree to sell $50 million worth of real estate to an American hedge fund for $10 million? In short, the Yakuza, or Japanese mafia, intimidated the banks into not collecting on the loans or foreclosing on the property. Mezrich’s unwillingness or inability to provide details rears its ugly head yet again. He says the Yakuza are pervasive throughout all levels of Japanese society. They permeate politics and commerce. The Yakuza became squatters in the buildings, holding parties and raves. When Akari and Malcolm went to visit the properties, they were threatened with knives by tattooed thugs. Though the banks and subsequent American investors may have had a legal right to the property, the Japanese police, politicians, and judges were unwilling to enforce those rights.
There were never any direct threats to Malcolm or Akari. Malcolm’s Japanese girlfriend, Sayo, apparently tried to warn him several times about the Yakuza. Her broken English and Malcolm’s little Japanese did not make this clear. Malcolm was in a severe motorcycle accident when a BMW hit him on a private road and drove off. Also, Malcolm’s apartment was vandalized. Mezrich implies that these were warnings from the Yakuza, but the evidence is unclear. Either way, Malcolm became angry at Carney who was only concerned with financial profit and not the safety of his traders. Though Akari’s deal went sour, he still cleared $25 million from his 5% stake in Malcolm’s Nikkei rebalancing deal. Even paying back the original $10 million to Carney, Akari would have netted $15 million. Though Malcolm conceived the Nikkei rebalancing deal himself, he gave 5% to Akari because they were good friends, and Akari had originally shown him the ropes. Malcolm was always a gaijin (i.e., a non-Japanese person, perhaps it has derogatory undertones?) somewhat uncomfortable with Japan's "Water Trade" (i.e., the sex industry in Japan) and certainly uncomfortable with the Yakuza. Malcolm left Japan with Sayo, moved to Bermuda, and opened his own hedge fund.
Overall, an interesting story. I wonder how much of it is true. And I would love more specific information about the trades and strategies. A quick google search shows that John Malcolm is likely Michael Lerch. If so, enjoy your money, Mr. Lerch, and watch out for the Yakuza.
June 26, 2010
Ugly Americans: the title - calls out to anti-heroes and capitalists, and gives a fair hint at what to expect inside. American expats portrayed as cowboy-empire builders but in our own times and in the unique culture of Japan. Modern day Japan itself is described as a heady mix of old and new where instead of clashing the two are complementing each other. Crime and business, lust and family, American and gaijin, rainmaker and barbarian.... Even the image on the cover shows these cowboys in bespoke suits but wearing frontier boots. You can almost picture them wearing shades to enhance their poker faces!
In this backdrop John Malcolm places the second big bet of his life after losing his first on football. And our proto would have been happy with a 9-5 job had his mentor not fuelled his ambitions with an equal dose of adventure for good measure. Along the way there is the Yakuza crime syndicate, the business of lust, rogue traders, a crime-boss's sexy daughter and really fast bikes.
Ben Mezrich writes in his own simple style - one that speeds up the story and is best suited for fast-paced and alpha-male adventures. Just like Rigged, this book is based on a real man but in this case his identity is not disclosed. This is not a work of literature, rather a book of action that makes you viualise the story in your head like a comic book.
Ugly Americans Reviewed @ FactBehindFiction.com
In this backdrop John Malcolm places the second big bet of his life after losing his first on football. And our proto would have been happy with a 9-5 job had his mentor not fuelled his ambitions with an equal dose of adventure for good measure. Along the way there is the Yakuza crime syndicate, the business of lust, rogue traders, a crime-boss's sexy daughter and really fast bikes.
Ben Mezrich writes in his own simple style - one that speeds up the story and is best suited for fast-paced and alpha-male adventures. Just like Rigged, this book is based on a real man but in this case his identity is not disclosed. This is not a work of literature, rather a book of action that makes you viualise the story in your head like a comic book.
Ugly Americans Reviewed @ FactBehindFiction.com
January 2, 2010
Another non-fiction adventure from must-read author Ben Mezrich, this time following the adventures of the swashbuckling Ugly Americans as they pillage financial exchanges in the Far East. And once again he latched onto a story full of drama, greed and life and death consequences.
The MIT blackjack books got me started with this author, but Ugly Americans and Rigged The True Story of an Ivy League Grad's Wild Adventures from Wall Street to Dubai were even more engrossing.
From what I've read, a number of Mezrich's books are up for movies, so I offer this standard advice: if you are reading this and there is a movie version of Ugly Americans out, READ THE BOOK FIRST! 21 is proof positive that the big screen and those who supply it can not do justice to the writings of Ben Mezrich.
The MIT blackjack books got me started with this author, but Ugly Americans and Rigged The True Story of an Ivy League Grad's Wild Adventures from Wall Street to Dubai were even more engrossing.
From what I've read, a number of Mezrich's books are up for movies, so I offer this standard advice: if you are reading this and there is a movie version of Ugly Americans out, READ THE BOOK FIRST! 21 is proof positive that the big screen and those who supply it can not do justice to the writings of Ben Mezrich.
August 27, 2007
Having run out of books to read, I picked this up in a Positano pharmacy, on the strength of Mezrich's first effort about MIT blackjack card counters, Bringing Down the House.
The book is based on a true story, and is about an American kid--alias John Malcolm--who goes to Japan to work for a hedge fund. Malcolm ends up making millions while living the fast driving, high-flying moneyed, sexed-up lifestyle of rich ex-pats in Japan.
The story is compelling, but not particularly enriching. It's a solid second effort, but in addition to a great story, you at least learn something in Bringing Down the House.
The book is based on a true story, and is about an American kid--alias John Malcolm--who goes to Japan to work for a hedge fund. Malcolm ends up making millions while living the fast driving, high-flying moneyed, sexed-up lifestyle of rich ex-pats in Japan.
The story is compelling, but not particularly enriching. It's a solid second effort, but in addition to a great story, you at least learn something in Bringing Down the House.
May 12, 2015
I didn't expect to enjoy this book, but I truly did. Yes, it had insights into much darkness, but it was a compelling, fast-paced, engaging story.
February 25, 2014
This is a good read and in Mezrich fashion a quick and exciting story about hedge fund traders and the pure adrenaline that fuels them.
The book is about Mezrich interviewing Malcolm who is a trader who is fueled by greed and ambition and raided Japans economy for inefficiencies.
Kabuki-cho is Japan's Adult Las Vegas that anyone can do anything to have fun. Apparently, the repressed culture in Japan allows safety-valve like Kabuki-cho to exists so their sexual repression can have its expression to be released. The only issue is that the Yakuza owned KAbuki-cho For example, in the sexual harassment club allows bored middle management to pretend to pay a flat rate to sexual harass a paid actress from high school girl to other views. According to John Malcolm, the Japanese see sex as just another bodily need to satisfy not an issue of morality.
In the sexual harassment club, John met Tim Halloway a derivatives trader who is a graduate of Oxford and LSE business school and is worth about $10 million with 5 girlfriends under the age of 23.
John Malcolm's world was about performance not appearance. He was one of the last bastion of pure, naked capitalism with a rags to riches story that would make any capitalist proud. Hedge-fund cowboys tend to be former athletes who thrive on competition with some math ability. John had a full athletic scholarship to Princeton. These people just need one big deal to make their billions but at what cost? B/c these investors concern is purely on making money, then they can destroy previously functioning economies and companies by any "pump and dump" schemes that has nothing to do with the underlying fundamentals of the company. At least, it happened in Japan and not the US.
Malcolm was flying 1st class to Japan and was sitting next to a Harvard QB who had the ability and size but not the heart or attitude to make it to the pros while Malcolm owed all his opportunities to pro-football. After the game in Japan, Malcolm met his future boss Carney, a fellow Princeton alum who is also a fan of his. Carney explained a derivative as a financial asset whose value depends on an underlying asset or security so basically betting on the future worth of an asset. After failing to land a job in Wall Street, Malcolm took Carney's offer and went to Japan to make money.
What does it say about America if a mechanical engineer has to work 2 jobs to support his family of 3 and Malcolm's family is still considered working middle class?
Malcolm was glad that half-Japanese Akari a fellow alum picked him up. According to Akari, Japan's culture is made to be polite to other especially outsiders. Interesting how much trust central office has in Carney that he does not have to account for his activities. Carney is basically a franchise of the main office and Akari and Malcolm are his minions. Apparently, the 1st rule of Carney's arbitage game is that one never buys a trade in which they cannot get out of hence short term day trades. American's have the reputation of being a little crazier and thus wealthier in their trading habits within the Japanese expat community.
3 months into Malcolm's job, Carney called him to come to Tokyo and told him to meet him @ a hostess bar where all business transactions happened. Carney is narcissistic in his personality. Malcolm liked the fact that Carney believed in his potential. While at the hostess bar, Malcolm fell in love with Sayo Yamamoto the owners daughter who is either the mob boss or tied to the Yakuza.
According to Mezrich, Japanese loves Jazz and people who are not Japanese will always be outsiders no matter how much they try to fit in. Bronson says he does not fit in NYC nor the US anymore b/c he is too immature for the US besides he is set in his ways being an outsider in Japanese society. They are the masters of the universe transplanted in a society where anything goes.
Malcolm rode Carney's Ducati and love its speed. Joseph Jett the wiz in making money was doing it via accounting tricks that made his losses into profits. For Carney, the fact that his company, Kidder, is tanked was something to celebrate since change was the only constant for him and he and Bill wanted to start their own company. Carney said that he had a similar background as Malcolm and for this reason Malcolm has promise b/c like Carney, he is hungry.
Carney paid for Malcolm to stay in Japan and 1 month into his job search, he got a job with Barings, a prestigious British firm. The Baring boys only talked about soccer, rugby, and sex. The sex talk almost always involved prostitutes. Leeson was the only other subject that they were interested in discussing b/c of his huge trades. Malcolm was to meet Leeson and Malcolm star was rising just b/c he was associated with Leeson.
Malcolm was adrenaline junky who liked the rush that danger gave him. Although Liam seemed at ease in himself, he was sitting on $1 billion of losses. After the earthquake in Kobe, Neeson lost so much money that Barings as an institution became bankrupt and the Baring boys were radioactive. The problem with high-risk finance is that in order to gamble one needs a stable environment which the surprise earthquake destroyed. Also, how does one incentivize the high risk finance to that people's money or whole institutions cannot be destroyed?
With the destruction of Barings by Neeson, Malcolm looked to cash in on his connection with Carney. Carney flew Malcolm to Tokyo and took him to Kabuki-cho to "relax" which included a naked girl giving him a shower and was offered a job with a starting pay of $150,000 and 10% of his profits and a line up of women he could fuck. While he took the job, he did not want to fuck the prostitutes b/c that was not who he was. Malcolm differentiated b/w a brothel where women had some control and soapland in which men simply took the women they wanted as if they were slaves. Instead of sleeping with the sex slaves of soapland, Malcolm went to see Sayo as she stayed with him in his mind through their 11 month separation.
Mezrich was sitting in an ethics class that a finance professor was giving on psychology of gambling which was BS according to a business associate of Malcolm.
Prostitution ring in Japan is controlled by the Yakuza and was called the "water trade" one that Mezrich was ushered into by Malcolm's introduction. Tracey tells Mezrich the Douhan and woman relationship was uniquely Japanese, it is like having an unrequited love relationship where the man buys a beautiful woman to show off without the expectation of anything physical.
Mezrich talked to "Coop" who told him hedge funds were not as bad as some people made them out to be b/c they were unregulated in their investment but completely regulated in how they solicit clients. They have a bad reputation b/c of their secrecy and the fact they use short sell techniques in a bad economy making a profit when the whole economy is tanking. Coop defended shorting as a way to price companies inflated worth into its real worth but there is no way to tell who is investing.
Malcolm told Mezrich that recently the Yakuza and th Triads were working closely in their global operations. So Mezrich got Chien to meet the underground sex trade in Queens, NYC. According to the Yakuza who ran the Queens sex trade that their would be no Japanese economy without the Yakuza. They dealt with golf courses, construction, politics, sex trade, and drugs. If a finance guy ever lost the Yakuza money, they would be dead.
The way Carney's boys tested each other was to take risks like racing each other. True to Reich's analysis, the higher one is on the totem pole of business, the harder one works. Even though Malcolm got Sayo, he has to work hard to come up with an original idea for Carney. Malcolm felt hurt when Akari did not trust him enough to confide in him Akari's deal of buying the collateral debt of Japan one in $.10 on the dollar. But this goes to the competitive nature of investment banking in which even old friends cannot be trusted with ideas. Even charity had to be competitive in the trader community. Even after his accident on the bike, 48 hrs later he was back to work b/c of the competitive nature of the trading community.
Carney's boys stock was rising in the trader community. When Malcolm closed the deal on HK, Malcolm wanted to help Akari on his land deal but Akari was falling apart in front of him. In turns out Akari bought the loans that Japan 1 unloaded and cannot sell it b/c Yakuza were involved in the deal. Akari called to meet Malcolm when he did not show he raced his bike and got into an accident and broke 3 ribs.
Despite the language barrier, Sayo has a calming effect on Malcolm. Sayo was telling Malcolm to be careful and to know when to walk away. When Malcolm tells Sayo that he needs to go to Hong Kong for a business trip, she responded with being worried about his safety saying that Japan is not like America, the rules are different. Sayo does not like Carney b/c he is interested in Malcolm as Tracey said that Carney was Malcolm's Douhan. He wanted Sayo to know that he was doing this for the big opportunity that this presents for him. Sayo was concerned b/c the Yakuza was involved in all matters of finance and politics in Japan and if somehow Carney's boys lost their money, they would lose their lives.
When Malcolm confronted Meyer about Pacific Century Cyberworks in Hong Kong, he freaked out when Malcolm mentioned that he was working for Carney. Meyer was scared of Carney and his Yakuza connections so he told him that no one was buying Pacific Century Cyberworks stock and so Carney's boys decided to short the stock while everyone else bought the stock so under 3 min Malcolm gave Carney a $20 million profit.
Malcom got a $100 thousand advance on his profit from Carney. With the deal, he had become a hot commodity in Tokyo trading community. But his success in the trading floor made his relationship with Sayo suffer. Sayo did not like that Malcolm was turning into a cowboy trader who bought anything and everything in sight and was so close to the condescending Carney. For his part, Carney did not like that Malcolm was spending a lot of time with Sayo @ the expense of the firm espirit de corps. Carney also expected Akari and Malcolm to risk their lives for the firm. He found out that Carney was lying about his background in order for people to want to emulate him and garner their complete and undivided loyalty. For him, his traders were simply profit makers which Malcolm disagreed with wanting people to be people that happen to make profits. Malcolm came home to his place being trashed by the Yakuza. Malcolm realized Carney's firm was the middle man for a Yakuza on Yakuza turf war on each other. He went and talked to Sayo after which she offered to talk to her father to find a way out for him. From the point, Malcolm was looking for an exit strategy and came up with 15 of the biggest Internet companies being added on the Nikkei as his exit point. Malcolm got Carney to ok his exit strategy as well as Akari's in return for the biggest trade of their lives.
The Nikkei deal that brought 15 tech companies into the index while letting 15 dinosaur companies brought $500 million for ASC and $50 million to Malcolm while Akari got $25 million, thus Malcolm found the elusive exit point. After gaining all that money, Malcolm married Sayo and moved to Bermuda to start his own hedge fund with Akari.
The book is about Mezrich interviewing Malcolm who is a trader who is fueled by greed and ambition and raided Japans economy for inefficiencies.
Kabuki-cho is Japan's Adult Las Vegas that anyone can do anything to have fun. Apparently, the repressed culture in Japan allows safety-valve like Kabuki-cho to exists so their sexual repression can have its expression to be released. The only issue is that the Yakuza owned KAbuki-cho For example, in the sexual harassment club allows bored middle management to pretend to pay a flat rate to sexual harass a paid actress from high school girl to other views. According to John Malcolm, the Japanese see sex as just another bodily need to satisfy not an issue of morality.
In the sexual harassment club, John met Tim Halloway a derivatives trader who is a graduate of Oxford and LSE business school and is worth about $10 million with 5 girlfriends under the age of 23.
John Malcolm's world was about performance not appearance. He was one of the last bastion of pure, naked capitalism with a rags to riches story that would make any capitalist proud. Hedge-fund cowboys tend to be former athletes who thrive on competition with some math ability. John had a full athletic scholarship to Princeton. These people just need one big deal to make their billions but at what cost? B/c these investors concern is purely on making money, then they can destroy previously functioning economies and companies by any "pump and dump" schemes that has nothing to do with the underlying fundamentals of the company. At least, it happened in Japan and not the US.
Malcolm was flying 1st class to Japan and was sitting next to a Harvard QB who had the ability and size but not the heart or attitude to make it to the pros while Malcolm owed all his opportunities to pro-football. After the game in Japan, Malcolm met his future boss Carney, a fellow Princeton alum who is also a fan of his. Carney explained a derivative as a financial asset whose value depends on an underlying asset or security so basically betting on the future worth of an asset. After failing to land a job in Wall Street, Malcolm took Carney's offer and went to Japan to make money.
What does it say about America if a mechanical engineer has to work 2 jobs to support his family of 3 and Malcolm's family is still considered working middle class?
Malcolm was glad that half-Japanese Akari a fellow alum picked him up. According to Akari, Japan's culture is made to be polite to other especially outsiders. Interesting how much trust central office has in Carney that he does not have to account for his activities. Carney is basically a franchise of the main office and Akari and Malcolm are his minions. Apparently, the 1st rule of Carney's arbitage game is that one never buys a trade in which they cannot get out of hence short term day trades. American's have the reputation of being a little crazier and thus wealthier in their trading habits within the Japanese expat community.
3 months into Malcolm's job, Carney called him to come to Tokyo and told him to meet him @ a hostess bar where all business transactions happened. Carney is narcissistic in his personality. Malcolm liked the fact that Carney believed in his potential. While at the hostess bar, Malcolm fell in love with Sayo Yamamoto the owners daughter who is either the mob boss or tied to the Yakuza.
According to Mezrich, Japanese loves Jazz and people who are not Japanese will always be outsiders no matter how much they try to fit in. Bronson says he does not fit in NYC nor the US anymore b/c he is too immature for the US besides he is set in his ways being an outsider in Japanese society. They are the masters of the universe transplanted in a society where anything goes.
Malcolm rode Carney's Ducati and love its speed. Joseph Jett the wiz in making money was doing it via accounting tricks that made his losses into profits. For Carney, the fact that his company, Kidder, is tanked was something to celebrate since change was the only constant for him and he and Bill wanted to start their own company. Carney said that he had a similar background as Malcolm and for this reason Malcolm has promise b/c like Carney, he is hungry.
Carney paid for Malcolm to stay in Japan and 1 month into his job search, he got a job with Barings, a prestigious British firm. The Baring boys only talked about soccer, rugby, and sex. The sex talk almost always involved prostitutes. Leeson was the only other subject that they were interested in discussing b/c of his huge trades. Malcolm was to meet Leeson and Malcolm star was rising just b/c he was associated with Leeson.
Malcolm was adrenaline junky who liked the rush that danger gave him. Although Liam seemed at ease in himself, he was sitting on $1 billion of losses. After the earthquake in Kobe, Neeson lost so much money that Barings as an institution became bankrupt and the Baring boys were radioactive. The problem with high-risk finance is that in order to gamble one needs a stable environment which the surprise earthquake destroyed. Also, how does one incentivize the high risk finance to that people's money or whole institutions cannot be destroyed?
With the destruction of Barings by Neeson, Malcolm looked to cash in on his connection with Carney. Carney flew Malcolm to Tokyo and took him to Kabuki-cho to "relax" which included a naked girl giving him a shower and was offered a job with a starting pay of $150,000 and 10% of his profits and a line up of women he could fuck. While he took the job, he did not want to fuck the prostitutes b/c that was not who he was. Malcolm differentiated b/w a brothel where women had some control and soapland in which men simply took the women they wanted as if they were slaves. Instead of sleeping with the sex slaves of soapland, Malcolm went to see Sayo as she stayed with him in his mind through their 11 month separation.
Mezrich was sitting in an ethics class that a finance professor was giving on psychology of gambling which was BS according to a business associate of Malcolm.
Prostitution ring in Japan is controlled by the Yakuza and was called the "water trade" one that Mezrich was ushered into by Malcolm's introduction. Tracey tells Mezrich the Douhan and woman relationship was uniquely Japanese, it is like having an unrequited love relationship where the man buys a beautiful woman to show off without the expectation of anything physical.
Mezrich talked to "Coop" who told him hedge funds were not as bad as some people made them out to be b/c they were unregulated in their investment but completely regulated in how they solicit clients. They have a bad reputation b/c of their secrecy and the fact they use short sell techniques in a bad economy making a profit when the whole economy is tanking. Coop defended shorting as a way to price companies inflated worth into its real worth but there is no way to tell who is investing.
Malcolm told Mezrich that recently the Yakuza and th Triads were working closely in their global operations. So Mezrich got Chien to meet the underground sex trade in Queens, NYC. According to the Yakuza who ran the Queens sex trade that their would be no Japanese economy without the Yakuza. They dealt with golf courses, construction, politics, sex trade, and drugs. If a finance guy ever lost the Yakuza money, they would be dead.
The way Carney's boys tested each other was to take risks like racing each other. True to Reich's analysis, the higher one is on the totem pole of business, the harder one works. Even though Malcolm got Sayo, he has to work hard to come up with an original idea for Carney. Malcolm felt hurt when Akari did not trust him enough to confide in him Akari's deal of buying the collateral debt of Japan one in $.10 on the dollar. But this goes to the competitive nature of investment banking in which even old friends cannot be trusted with ideas. Even charity had to be competitive in the trader community. Even after his accident on the bike, 48 hrs later he was back to work b/c of the competitive nature of the trading community.
Carney's boys stock was rising in the trader community. When Malcolm closed the deal on HK, Malcolm wanted to help Akari on his land deal but Akari was falling apart in front of him. In turns out Akari bought the loans that Japan 1 unloaded and cannot sell it b/c Yakuza were involved in the deal. Akari called to meet Malcolm when he did not show he raced his bike and got into an accident and broke 3 ribs.
Despite the language barrier, Sayo has a calming effect on Malcolm. Sayo was telling Malcolm to be careful and to know when to walk away. When Malcolm tells Sayo that he needs to go to Hong Kong for a business trip, she responded with being worried about his safety saying that Japan is not like America, the rules are different. Sayo does not like Carney b/c he is interested in Malcolm as Tracey said that Carney was Malcolm's Douhan. He wanted Sayo to know that he was doing this for the big opportunity that this presents for him. Sayo was concerned b/c the Yakuza was involved in all matters of finance and politics in Japan and if somehow Carney's boys lost their money, they would lose their lives.
When Malcolm confronted Meyer about Pacific Century Cyberworks in Hong Kong, he freaked out when Malcolm mentioned that he was working for Carney. Meyer was scared of Carney and his Yakuza connections so he told him that no one was buying Pacific Century Cyberworks stock and so Carney's boys decided to short the stock while everyone else bought the stock so under 3 min Malcolm gave Carney a $20 million profit.
Malcom got a $100 thousand advance on his profit from Carney. With the deal, he had become a hot commodity in Tokyo trading community. But his success in the trading floor made his relationship with Sayo suffer. Sayo did not like that Malcolm was turning into a cowboy trader who bought anything and everything in sight and was so close to the condescending Carney. For his part, Carney did not like that Malcolm was spending a lot of time with Sayo @ the expense of the firm espirit de corps. Carney also expected Akari and Malcolm to risk their lives for the firm. He found out that Carney was lying about his background in order for people to want to emulate him and garner their complete and undivided loyalty. For him, his traders were simply profit makers which Malcolm disagreed with wanting people to be people that happen to make profits. Malcolm came home to his place being trashed by the Yakuza. Malcolm realized Carney's firm was the middle man for a Yakuza on Yakuza turf war on each other. He went and talked to Sayo after which she offered to talk to her father to find a way out for him. From the point, Malcolm was looking for an exit strategy and came up with 15 of the biggest Internet companies being added on the Nikkei as his exit point. Malcolm got Carney to ok his exit strategy as well as Akari's in return for the biggest trade of their lives.
The Nikkei deal that brought 15 tech companies into the index while letting 15 dinosaur companies brought $500 million for ASC and $50 million to Malcolm while Akari got $25 million, thus Malcolm found the elusive exit point. After gaining all that money, Malcolm married Sayo and moved to Bermuda to start his own hedge fund with Akari.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 8, 2013
The following review has been copied from http://behnamriahi.tumblr.com
Ugly Americans, written by Ben Mezrich and published by Morrow, is a non-fiction excursion into the life of American expatriates buying up stock in Japan, told from the point-of-view of John Malcolm, former college football star gone stockbroker. When John first finds himself in Japan, after his Ivy League All-Star football team romps the Japanese players, he meets Dean Carney, a mysterious savant in the world of high-finance. It isn’t long before John graduates and he’s in need of a real job when Carney reaches out to him, inviting John to Osaka—only John doesn’t know what he’s getting into. The more money he makes on the Japanese stock market (the Nikkei), the more John is exposed to sex clubs and yakuza manipulation. Even after falling in love with a Tokyo mob daughter, John overcomes the market to win big, only to discover there’s more to his boss than even John can comprehend.
This was a parting gift from an ex-co-worker—one whom I shared quite a bit in common with. Given that not many of our co-workers actually read books (fucking unbelievable), he and I shared a connection that grew as a result of this book and continues to grow to this day. At first, I was suspicious, as I am of all gifts, but have come see why he felt this book made a good fit for me, especially in regard to other books I’ve read this year in the vein of Americans writing about Japan. Only, the way the book affected me turned out far different than I think even my co-worker intended—as I combed though the pages, I began to uncover corruptions in my own work-place that left a poor taste in my mouth while at the same time, the book inspired me to step out of my comfort zone in an effort to make it big, some way, some how. I’ll let you know how that goes.
I’m very wary about calling this nonfiction. Yes, this memoir was meticulously researched. Yes, we do often step out of John’s point-of-view to see as the author sees. Yes, it says nonfiction on the book jacket. However, all of these facts aside, this is a story handed to Mr. Mezrich second-hand. He wasn’t there to experience the details, but that shouldn’t make any difference right? Except these experiences cannot be double-checked—we have to take them at face value because every character in this book has a phony name. As it turns out, in order to protect the person representing John Malcolm and his business associates, every character in the book was given a pseudonym and reinvented physical characteristics, thus making this story no different than any other highly researched work of fiction. To call this nonfiction would be to say that On The Road or Slaughterhouse-Five are works of nonfiction, which just isn’t true—at least not for the most part. And while I am open to accepting what the book jacket tells me, I’ve read an awful lot of blurbs about the quality of various authors that just aren’t true. For instance, Hillias J. Martin of the New York Public Library, Twilight did not have the reader (me) dying to sink my teeth into it. Fuckin’ liars.
Okay, okay, back to the book at hand. John Malcolm is reminiscent of numerous characters exploring the great, wide, Japan, including elements of our protagonists from Shogun or Hokkaido Highway Blues, that quirky, cynical point-of-view of a man open to discovery but hesitant about what he might find. However, he’s also got a little bit of American Psycho in him, though that might just be because of the luxury. Either way, Malcolm’s a memorable character—I remember his name better than I do the author’s! Ha ha. Seriously though, it doesn’t surprise me that the book is labeled as nonfiction in the sense that the character feels real, dynamic, and interesting. He’s flawed and he knows it, but he makes the most of his situation anyway—even when poised against an opposite, like Dean Carney. Opposites are often used in fiction to portray two moral extremes: good and evil. Sometimes, it isn’t about morality as much as just expanding on two extremes, like Nick and Jay in The Great Gatsby. The extremes represented by Malcom and Carney are a little more ambiguous however—Malcom is a kid from Jersey who can’t even afford his own suit while Carney is, well, we don’t know actually. He gives us glimpses into his past, but Carney’s a liar, so don’t cross your fingers that it’ll be true. What we do know is their priorities—Malcolm doesn’t fear the market, but he’s afraid of a butterfly knife and he seems entirely too aware of how much money he’s brokering, while Carney doesn’t have any sense of empathy apart from his love for the money that Malcolm makes for him. It boils down to one, succinct and ironic difference between the characters: their idea of the American dream. After all, they’re both American boys in business, and even though they happen to be in Japan, their dreams both differ greatly and as a result, the relationship between the characters creates the tension of the memoir.
The overall plot of the novel is primarily focused on that conflict, but it’s broken up by intermissions from the author as he chronicles his immersion into Malcolm’s life, both to inform the audience and draw a sense of perspective between the point-of-view of a normal, everyday journalist against high-finance cowboy, once against playing the opposites for us. But our journalist is telling us Malcolm’s story and so he automatically empathizes with Malcolm, especially as he puts himself in harm’s way to understand the harm that Malcolm risked on himself. It adds depth to Malcolm’s character and keeps the audience subdued with a sense of reality as we wander modern Japan on Malcolm’s shoulder, making every setting feel like it’s fresh and every change feel drastic and necessarily dramatic.
But what exactly is a hedge-fund and how does one wrangle it? Our journalist takes care of that too—he drops the necessary information as Malcolm learns it. Malcolm, after all, only puttered his way through Econ I before arriving in Osaka, so as he does anything, he’s pretty much learning about it himself, exploring the market as he explores Japan. The market, in itself, is a facet of Japan that’s untapped in prose but we get to explore it as John does his first time. The sense of newness going into that situation keeps the audience from being alienated and wondering what the fuck high-finance even means, instead maintaining monetary terms in plain, simple, and easy enough language for someone who doesn’t know shit about it, like Malcolm, to not only follow, but to grow expert in. Now I’m not saying I came out of this novel knowing how to work the stock market so I don’t even need a fucking job, but I sure as fuck know what a hedge-fund is now.
Carney and Malcolm aren’t the only recurring characters though—we see a lot of names and faces, but the two most important ones are Akari and Sayo. Akari, a half-Japanese Ivy League grad, is Malcolm’s sempai (and that’s about all I remember from watching anime in high school) who becomes Malcolm’s best friend and Sayo is a yakuza princess that Malcolm starts dating. Because these two characters tend to get the most page space in Malcolm’s life apart from Carney, Mezrich paints for us how Malcolm didn’t move to Japan to simply make money, but to immerse himself in the culture, adding yet another layer to our not-so-tragic hero. Now, I’m not calling bullshit, but Akari only some-what seems like he’s actually fucking Japanese, but it doesn’t matter—it’s what he represents to the story as a whole, to further draw an opposite between Malcolm, open and friendly to the Japanese world, and Carney, who sees everyone (especially Japanese businessmen and women) as objects.
Fiction or nonfiction, I loved the shit out of this book. Exciting, informative, and a little inspiring to boot. It’s funny—I was on the train heading home from work and a young banker, with his banker entourage in button-down shirts that cost more than my rent, asked me what I thought about it. He nodded and smiled when I said it was an accurate depiction of high-finance, not dumbed down for the layman, and then he zoned out of the conversation when I described it’s literary value. For all I know, that motherfucker could have been John Malcolm.
Ugly Americans, written by Ben Mezrich and published by Morrow, is a non-fiction excursion into the life of American expatriates buying up stock in Japan, told from the point-of-view of John Malcolm, former college football star gone stockbroker. When John first finds himself in Japan, after his Ivy League All-Star football team romps the Japanese players, he meets Dean Carney, a mysterious savant in the world of high-finance. It isn’t long before John graduates and he’s in need of a real job when Carney reaches out to him, inviting John to Osaka—only John doesn’t know what he’s getting into. The more money he makes on the Japanese stock market (the Nikkei), the more John is exposed to sex clubs and yakuza manipulation. Even after falling in love with a Tokyo mob daughter, John overcomes the market to win big, only to discover there’s more to his boss than even John can comprehend.
This was a parting gift from an ex-co-worker—one whom I shared quite a bit in common with. Given that not many of our co-workers actually read books (fucking unbelievable), he and I shared a connection that grew as a result of this book and continues to grow to this day. At first, I was suspicious, as I am of all gifts, but have come see why he felt this book made a good fit for me, especially in regard to other books I’ve read this year in the vein of Americans writing about Japan. Only, the way the book affected me turned out far different than I think even my co-worker intended—as I combed though the pages, I began to uncover corruptions in my own work-place that left a poor taste in my mouth while at the same time, the book inspired me to step out of my comfort zone in an effort to make it big, some way, some how. I’ll let you know how that goes.
I’m very wary about calling this nonfiction. Yes, this memoir was meticulously researched. Yes, we do often step out of John’s point-of-view to see as the author sees. Yes, it says nonfiction on the book jacket. However, all of these facts aside, this is a story handed to Mr. Mezrich second-hand. He wasn’t there to experience the details, but that shouldn’t make any difference right? Except these experiences cannot be double-checked—we have to take them at face value because every character in this book has a phony name. As it turns out, in order to protect the person representing John Malcolm and his business associates, every character in the book was given a pseudonym and reinvented physical characteristics, thus making this story no different than any other highly researched work of fiction. To call this nonfiction would be to say that On The Road or Slaughterhouse-Five are works of nonfiction, which just isn’t true—at least not for the most part. And while I am open to accepting what the book jacket tells me, I’ve read an awful lot of blurbs about the quality of various authors that just aren’t true. For instance, Hillias J. Martin of the New York Public Library, Twilight did not have the reader (me) dying to sink my teeth into it. Fuckin’ liars.
Okay, okay, back to the book at hand. John Malcolm is reminiscent of numerous characters exploring the great, wide, Japan, including elements of our protagonists from Shogun or Hokkaido Highway Blues, that quirky, cynical point-of-view of a man open to discovery but hesitant about what he might find. However, he’s also got a little bit of American Psycho in him, though that might just be because of the luxury. Either way, Malcolm’s a memorable character—I remember his name better than I do the author’s! Ha ha. Seriously though, it doesn’t surprise me that the book is labeled as nonfiction in the sense that the character feels real, dynamic, and interesting. He’s flawed and he knows it, but he makes the most of his situation anyway—even when poised against an opposite, like Dean Carney. Opposites are often used in fiction to portray two moral extremes: good and evil. Sometimes, it isn’t about morality as much as just expanding on two extremes, like Nick and Jay in The Great Gatsby. The extremes represented by Malcom and Carney are a little more ambiguous however—Malcom is a kid from Jersey who can’t even afford his own suit while Carney is, well, we don’t know actually. He gives us glimpses into his past, but Carney’s a liar, so don’t cross your fingers that it’ll be true. What we do know is their priorities—Malcolm doesn’t fear the market, but he’s afraid of a butterfly knife and he seems entirely too aware of how much money he’s brokering, while Carney doesn’t have any sense of empathy apart from his love for the money that Malcolm makes for him. It boils down to one, succinct and ironic difference between the characters: their idea of the American dream. After all, they’re both American boys in business, and even though they happen to be in Japan, their dreams both differ greatly and as a result, the relationship between the characters creates the tension of the memoir.
The overall plot of the novel is primarily focused on that conflict, but it’s broken up by intermissions from the author as he chronicles his immersion into Malcolm’s life, both to inform the audience and draw a sense of perspective between the point-of-view of a normal, everyday journalist against high-finance cowboy, once against playing the opposites for us. But our journalist is telling us Malcolm’s story and so he automatically empathizes with Malcolm, especially as he puts himself in harm’s way to understand the harm that Malcolm risked on himself. It adds depth to Malcolm’s character and keeps the audience subdued with a sense of reality as we wander modern Japan on Malcolm’s shoulder, making every setting feel like it’s fresh and every change feel drastic and necessarily dramatic.
But what exactly is a hedge-fund and how does one wrangle it? Our journalist takes care of that too—he drops the necessary information as Malcolm learns it. Malcolm, after all, only puttered his way through Econ I before arriving in Osaka, so as he does anything, he’s pretty much learning about it himself, exploring the market as he explores Japan. The market, in itself, is a facet of Japan that’s untapped in prose but we get to explore it as John does his first time. The sense of newness going into that situation keeps the audience from being alienated and wondering what the fuck high-finance even means, instead maintaining monetary terms in plain, simple, and easy enough language for someone who doesn’t know shit about it, like Malcolm, to not only follow, but to grow expert in. Now I’m not saying I came out of this novel knowing how to work the stock market so I don’t even need a fucking job, but I sure as fuck know what a hedge-fund is now.
Carney and Malcolm aren’t the only recurring characters though—we see a lot of names and faces, but the two most important ones are Akari and Sayo. Akari, a half-Japanese Ivy League grad, is Malcolm’s sempai (and that’s about all I remember from watching anime in high school) who becomes Malcolm’s best friend and Sayo is a yakuza princess that Malcolm starts dating. Because these two characters tend to get the most page space in Malcolm’s life apart from Carney, Mezrich paints for us how Malcolm didn’t move to Japan to simply make money, but to immerse himself in the culture, adding yet another layer to our not-so-tragic hero. Now, I’m not calling bullshit, but Akari only some-what seems like he’s actually fucking Japanese, but it doesn’t matter—it’s what he represents to the story as a whole, to further draw an opposite between Malcolm, open and friendly to the Japanese world, and Carney, who sees everyone (especially Japanese businessmen and women) as objects.
Fiction or nonfiction, I loved the shit out of this book. Exciting, informative, and a little inspiring to boot. It’s funny—I was on the train heading home from work and a young banker, with his banker entourage in button-down shirts that cost more than my rent, asked me what I thought about it. He nodded and smiled when I said it was an accurate depiction of high-finance, not dumbed down for the layman, and then he zoned out of the conversation when I described it’s literary value. For all I know, that motherfucker could have been John Malcolm.
April 7, 2025
Shoutout @chris Symnoski for requesting written reviews moving forward.
And whew, this one did not miss. 255 pages of nonstop action detailing American finance bros teaming up with the Yakuza in Tokyo to bend the rules, get engrained in Japanese culture, and make ungodly amounts of money. It’s not nearly as well known as his other books, 21, Dumb Money, the Social Network, or Breaking Twitter, but I think this is my favorite all time Mezrich novel
And whew, this one did not miss. 255 pages of nonstop action detailing American finance bros teaming up with the Yakuza in Tokyo to bend the rules, get engrained in Japanese culture, and make ungodly amounts of money. It’s not nearly as well known as his other books, 21, Dumb Money, the Social Network, or Breaking Twitter, but I think this is my favorite all time Mezrich novel
December 4, 2021
I read /Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions/, by Ben Mezrich:
https://www.curledup.com/uglyamer.htm
This book is the Liar's Poker of Asia, more specifically Osaka and Tokyo (mostly), with a little bit of Singapore and Hong Kong.
Highly recommended.
https://www.curledup.com/uglyamer.htm
This book is the Liar's Poker of Asia, more specifically Osaka and Tokyo (mostly), with a little bit of Singapore and Hong Kong.
Highly recommended.
April 27, 2017
Excellent excellent
I have a few of Ben mezrich books and love the complex stories. This one blew my mind. Strong recommend.
I have a few of Ben mezrich books and love the complex stories. This one blew my mind. Strong recommend.
July 8, 2021
engaging
April 23, 2024
Best book of the year so far. Really great read. About a trader at the start of his career in Japan.
While the book is based around financial markets it’s not really about financial markets which makes it a really easy digestible read. Gripping story with lots of excitement.
As well as a really cool peak into Japanese nightlife culture and culture around sex. Highly recommend.
While the book is based around financial markets it’s not really about financial markets which makes it a really easy digestible read. Gripping story with lots of excitement.
As well as a really cool peak into Japanese nightlife culture and culture around sex. Highly recommend.
January 20, 2010
The Ugly Americans is the story of John Malcolm, an Ivy League graduate who, when a football career does not pan out, decides to work in the finance industry. He begins his career as a Kidder Peabody trader working out of their Osaka, Japan office, but through an accounting glitch, which is not all his fault, he loses the job. After this point, however, he begins making deals in the stock market that define his career and earn him the moniker of the "young American gunslinger".
I really enjoyed this book because it was sort of an unconventional adventure. I say unconventional because it does not really involve any sort of gunfight, or explosive car chase. Malcolm's adventure comes from the suspense that comes every deal that may make or break his career. It is interesting to think that one person could make the money that he did and the fact that he did inspires me to do the same.
I would reccomend this book to anyone who enjoyed the film 21 or the Ugly Billionaires. Both of the following titles are by this books author, Ben Mezrich.
I really enjoyed this book because it was sort of an unconventional adventure. I say unconventional because it does not really involve any sort of gunfight, or explosive car chase. Malcolm's adventure comes from the suspense that comes every deal that may make or break his career. It is interesting to think that one person could make the money that he did and the fact that he did inspires me to do the same.
I would reccomend this book to anyone who enjoyed the film 21 or the Ugly Billionaires. Both of the following titles are by this books author, Ben Mezrich.
January 13, 2009
Great book for financial read, but as for the fiction about the character, I don't truly beleive it. Turned out to be great for a 24 year old..millions, beautiful wife who he truly loved, great house. Either its all BS or life really is too good for a few chosen once.
November 28, 2025
I loved it!
First time reading this author whose writing I enjoyed. One of my favorite genres in book or film are stories of extraordinary people doing what seems to be the impossible. This book fits in well with one of my topics of interest.
I enjoyed watching how John Malcolm (his pseudonym) started as someone who was naiive and unsophisticated, yet determined and ambitious, moved from such humble beginnings to a moneyed successful trader in record time and at such a young age.
Knowing very little about Japan and the culture I was most surprised to read how they view sex, that they are leaders in the sex industry in all it's many, again surprising, permutations, and the level of power the Yakuza have in all important aspects of Japanese life. In general I enjoyed learning about Japanese culture as it pertained to the people in the story.
Some reviewers have criticized Mezrich's simple level of explanation for the financial working of traders, but it was helpful to me and I did not need to know more than he offered.
A small criticism is that I would have liked warning when he switched to telling of his investigative work; easy to have announced that in the chapter title.
I look forward to reading more books by this author.
First time reading this author whose writing I enjoyed. One of my favorite genres in book or film are stories of extraordinary people doing what seems to be the impossible. This book fits in well with one of my topics of interest.
I enjoyed watching how John Malcolm (his pseudonym) started as someone who was naiive and unsophisticated, yet determined and ambitious, moved from such humble beginnings to a moneyed successful trader in record time and at such a young age.
Knowing very little about Japan and the culture I was most surprised to read how they view sex, that they are leaders in the sex industry in all it's many, again surprising, permutations, and the level of power the Yakuza have in all important aspects of Japanese life. In general I enjoyed learning about Japanese culture as it pertained to the people in the story.
Some reviewers have criticized Mezrich's simple level of explanation for the financial working of traders, but it was helpful to me and I did not need to know more than he offered.
A small criticism is that I would have liked warning when he switched to telling of his investigative work; easy to have announced that in the chapter title.
I look forward to reading more books by this author.
July 1, 2021
No one denies Ben Mezrich's books are formulaic - Ivy League geniuses being bad boys and gaming the system to conquer the world - but this book lacks the pizazz of some of his other books, leaving behind a sad, tired story.
While this story may be based on real life events, it feels like a Gary Stu. Despite going to Princeton, the main character (who is so bland I can't even remember his name) shows no great ability to do anything, yet after meeting one guy in a bar is headhunted years later for the job of a lifetime. What, he's good because this guy who barely knows him says he's good? If he has some skill that made him stand out besides playing football, show it!
Mezrich's disdain for New Englanders is cute in one book, but he keeps slipping it in to all his books. Ben, if you don't like New Englanders, stop writing about them.
While this story may be based on real life events, it feels like a Gary Stu. Despite going to Princeton, the main character (who is so bland I can't even remember his name) shows no great ability to do anything, yet after meeting one guy in a bar is headhunted years later for the job of a lifetime. What, he's good because this guy who barely knows him says he's good? If he has some skill that made him stand out besides playing football, show it!
Mezrich's disdain for New Englanders is cute in one book, but he keeps slipping it in to all his books. Ben, if you don't like New Englanders, stop writing about them.
June 7, 2021
Ben previously wrote Bringing Down the House; a book about a group of maths geeks who take on the Las Vegas casinos by team playing with a gambling system and making a killing at poker.
In Ugly Americans, Ben turns his attention to hedge funds exploiting the economic collapse of Japan in the 1990s. There are many similarities with the books:
– they both are written in the same style, paced with a future film adaptation in mind
– they both alternate chapters of action with ‘expert testimony
– they both claim to be true, however I have my doubts (names have been changed to protect the innocent et cetera)
- They're both ripping yarns, but I feel like I am reading fiction, not Hollywood's version of the truth.
In Ugly Americans, Ben turns his attention to hedge funds exploiting the economic collapse of Japan in the 1990s. There are many similarities with the books:
– they both are written in the same style, paced with a future film adaptation in mind
– they both alternate chapters of action with ‘expert testimony
– they both claim to be true, however I have my doubts (names have been changed to protect the innocent et cetera)
- They're both ripping yarns, but I feel like I am reading fiction, not Hollywood's version of the truth.
March 22, 2022
It's billed as a 'True story....' but it's so fictionalised you'd have to wonder sometimes.
A better title could have been 'Ugly Humans' because apart from Malcolm's mother and his girlfriend Sayo, there wasn't a decent human being among them. Bill Sammons summed most of them up with "I'm just your run-of-the-mill evil capitalist pig"
Revolting greed, the root of their existence, I warmed to none of them, and may I never meet anyone remotely like them!
Could not understand why the main character was "hidden" with a fictional name, when most of the others weren't, surely easily identifiable eventually anyway.
Chapter 25 had the strangest extract relating to Malcolm having to unzip his pants to prove he wasn't a cop before he could enter the brothel. Didn't get this at all, unless I'm being naïve about NYC cops and their "unique" dicks.
If you don't understand anything about the world of trading on the stock markets then you will be none the wiser after your read, as it's assumed the reader is au fait with the "science" of it.
I read it as research and therefore stuck with it to the end, if for no other reason. It didn't answer my questions but that's not the fault of the book, just an error in my book choice.
A better title could have been 'Ugly Humans' because apart from Malcolm's mother and his girlfriend Sayo, there wasn't a decent human being among them. Bill Sammons summed most of them up with "I'm just your run-of-the-mill evil capitalist pig"
Revolting greed, the root of their existence, I warmed to none of them, and may I never meet anyone remotely like them!
Could not understand why the main character was "hidden" with a fictional name, when most of the others weren't, surely easily identifiable eventually anyway.
Chapter 25 had the strangest extract relating to Malcolm having to unzip his pants to prove he wasn't a cop before he could enter the brothel. Didn't get this at all, unless I'm being naïve about NYC cops and their "unique" dicks.
If you don't understand anything about the world of trading on the stock markets then you will be none the wiser after your read, as it's assumed the reader is au fait with the "science" of it.
I read it as research and therefore stuck with it to the end, if for no other reason. It didn't answer my questions but that's not the fault of the book, just an error in my book choice.
December 10, 2022
Cowboys in Tokyo with flashy lifestyles and seedy friends.
Ben Mezrich is a pro at telling these high-flying tech/finance wonder stories.
He captures the drama and the flashy-edgy lifestyle of these 20-something masters of (a) universe in a slightly-bizarre ecosystem.
It was a very enjoyable read.
Upon reflection, I do think it feels like the hero of this story comes across as a little too clean, wholesome, blameless for someone who ran with this crowd and made these kind of edgy hedge-fund trades tainted with a little insider info. Maybe that was the price of Ben M's being able to get close up and tell the story -- in all cases, it must be a tricky balance. There are Large Egos (like the size of Jupiter) involved since these guys get crazy rich very fast in this story.
August 16, 2023
We've been reading a bunch of Ben Mezrich books in the office, and I picked up on Ugly Americans as it takes place in Japan. The non-fiction story takes readers deep into the world of high-stakes finance and the pursuit of wealth in Japan.
The book takes inspiration from the real-life experiences of an American with a knack for trading, as he navigates the complexities of the Japanese financial industry. I was half expecting the book to be highly technical or rather financial, but it's not.
Mezrich's storytelling is informative and entertaining, shedding light on East and West cultural and economic differences. At the same time, while the story may not delve as deeply into the underlying societal issues as some may desire, it remains an insightful and engaging read.
The book takes inspiration from the real-life experiences of an American with a knack for trading, as he navigates the complexities of the Japanese financial industry. I was half expecting the book to be highly technical or rather financial, but it's not.
Mezrich's storytelling is informative and entertaining, shedding light on East and West cultural and economic differences. At the same time, while the story may not delve as deeply into the underlying societal issues as some may desire, it remains an insightful and engaging read.
January 11, 2025
Ugly Americans by Ben Mezrich is a thrilling story about young Ivy League graduates who made millions trading in Asia during the 1990s. The book follows John Malcolm, a recent college graduate, who becomes involved in Japan's intense world of hedge fund trading. The story is filled with big risks, crazy deals, and the clash between American and Japanese cultures. Mezrich creates an action-packed world of finance with twists and high-stakes drama, keeping readers hooked. The characters are larger than life, from tough American bosses to local Japanese players with unique styles. The book shows both the glamorous and shady sides of making money, allowing readers to feel the tension and excitement of their deals. Ugly Americans is a fun and eye-opening read that explores how people act when there's a chance to make a lot of money.
August 20, 2018
Picked up this book for free at a second-hand book store expecting the worst, but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be decent. Plot was gripping but character development lacking. I also found it confusing to read at times because the chapters took place in at different times and places. Mezrich's attempt at making this 'non-fiction' wasn't successful either - his personal anecdotes interrupted the flow of the book and added nothing to the plot. That said, as an Econ major and an Asian, it was both an entertaining and educational read.
October 13, 2019
Well, Mezrich seems to know how to make a Hollywood story out of a real account of an American who amassed millions through trading derivates and other financial instruments in the Japanese Nikkei. I was surely entertained throughout the book but the whole story seems formulaic with a happy ending to boot. Books like this where the authors hide the real identities of the people involved or confabulate stories to fill up missing parts is highly questionable to me. I doubt the authenticity of this story but hell, it was still entertaining and also plausible.
November 9, 2025
My favourite book of the year. The only slight criticism I have was that the time skips to present day occasionally took me out of the moment that Mezrich had worked so well to create. This is a story that covers the involvement of American financiers in Asia with an angle that I have not come across in another book. A highly enjoyable read where you cannot help but fall in love with the characters. This is a non-fiction story which sets the mind racing like an award-winning fiction. Gutted when I got to the end…
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