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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. A carnival performer who bites the heads off live chickens and snakes is definition of a _____.
(a) Geek.
(b) Freak.
(c) Nerd.
(d) Stooge.

2. What is the expression that describes a customer who has gone under as a result of a trade?
(a) Excised.
(b) Disintegrated.
(c) Wiped out.
(d) Blown up.

3. In New York, when a trader is starting out, the excitement of being part of the action comes at the price _____.
(a) A few million dollars.
(b) One's soul.
(c) Freedom.
(d) One's sanity.

4. According to the author, even knowledgeable thrift presidents feel they face a choice between rape and _____ when dealing with mortgage traders.
(a) Slow suicide.
(b) Long-term gains.
(c) Prison.
(d) Battery.

5. Howie Rubin is picked up by which company when he is fired from Merrill Lynch?
(a) Bear Stearns.
(b) Salomon Brothers.
(c) Shearson Lehman.
(d) Drexel Burnham.

Short Answer Questions

1. What ritual of the London office is fairly renowned in New York?

2. How much debt does the savings and loan companies seem to want to sell in 1981?

3. What is the primary aspect of business that always matters most at Salomon Brothers?

4. Ronald O. Perelman is a hostile trader who took over which cosmetics company?

5. A guiding principle of Salomon Brothers that Tom Strauss iterates to the author is that customers have _____.

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does one trader think that Mark Smith is not a Trojan Horse like some of the other traders believe?

2. How is Howie Rubin thought of at Salomon Brothers? Why?

3. Despite the upheaval in the mortgage market, what is the initial objection that remains valid as the mortgage market evolves?

4. Do bosses at Salomon Brothers think badly of employees who are not at their telephones all the time? Why or why not?

5. From the moment the Federal Reserve lifted interest rates in October 1979, what happens to the thrifts?

6. How does Bear Stearns take the $250 million loss that Howie Rubin incurs at Merrill Lynch?

7. Why do thrifts come back for more, even though they don't understand what is happening to their loans in the mortgage bond market?

8. How does the role of researcher change at Salomon Brothers during the mortgage bond explosion?

9. What is the "gospel according to Ranieri"?

10. The author is convinced that the worst thing a man can do with a telephone without breaking the law is what?

(see the answer keys)

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