Michael Lewis, the American journalist and non-fiction writer, originally studied art history as an undergraduate and worked for a prominent art dealer before obtaining a masters degree in economics at the London School of Economics. After a short stint at Salomon Brothers, he wrote Liar’s Poker, which became a tremendous success. However, his fame and fortune continued to arc upward with the publication of Moneyball and The Big Short. Some argue that his education in the humanities, in addition to finance, greatly contributed to the popularity of his work.

An alternative explanation exists. Although baseball and Wall Street are not commonly associated, Lewis’s works concerning both those topics share more than the common theme of lucre. All the books cited above focus on mavericks “gaming the system.” Lewis’s protagonists, such as Billy Beane of the small market Oakland Athletics and the small, out of the establishment traders that bet against mortgage derivatives, are smart non-conformists who rebel against monolithic systems by exploiting inherent inconsistencies. Such a theme echoes the American nation-building construct—lone, free individuals winning against great odds by employing common sense and ingenuity. This is a story line that Americans hear from birth; it is no wonder that Lewis’s books are popular despite subjects that are not necessarily of universal interest. Further support for this thesis is that Moneyball became a major motion picture and a film of Liar’s Poker is in development. Of course, unlike baseball games, such debates can never be definitively scored.

The author primarily does which of the following?

(A) Contrasts two opposing theories for a process
(B) Discusses two suppositions and implicitly favors the latter
(C) Details two programs and definitively prefers the latter
(D) Describes a writer’s work and its dearth of popularity
(E) Outlines the biography of a writer and critiques his work



The author does all of the following EXCEPT

(A) employ an idiomatic expression
(B) describe the protagonists in question
(C) reference popular culture as evidence
(D) discuss the parallels shared by Lewis’s two professions
(E) mention his subject’s formative influences