Michael Lewis
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
The Tolleson Lecture
"Wall Street and Baseball: Winning an Unfair Game"
Renowned journalist and author Michael Lewis is
considered one of the nation’s shrewdest observers of politics,
finance and the American scene. He is currently a columnist for
Bloomberg News and a writer for The New York Times Magazine.
In his 2003 best-selling book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an
Unfair Game, Lewis presents lessons to be learned by corporate
America based on successful strategies employed by the Oakland
Athletics baseball team. His other best-selling books include
Liar’s Poker, based in part on his experience as an investment
banker; Trail Fever, an insightful look at American
presidential campaigns; The New New Thing, on the influence
of Silicon Valley; and Next: The Future Just Happened, on the
impact of the Internet boom.
Born in New Orleans, Lewis earned a Bachelor’s degree in art history from Princeton University and a Master’s in economics from The London School of Economics. After working for Salomon Brothers in London and New York, he left the Wall Street firm in 1988 to write his first book, Liar’s Poker. Lewis has been the American editor of the British weekly The Spectator and senior editor of The New Republic. He has written for The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, and many other publications. He lives in Berkeley, California.