The son of a steelworker from Pennsylvania tells the inside story, warts and all, of his career as a successful investment banker at two of the biggest, best-known, and most controversial firms in the world-Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase-during a historic and turbulent period in US history. Mark Melio's personal anecdotes and observations illustrate the self-absorbed culture, hypocrisy, and rapacious practices of Wall Street's leading banks, how he bought into the fiction that "the customer always comes first," and how investment banks morphed from once-proud partnerships into predators in constant search of new ways to scalp clients. This is a rare glimpse by a thoughtful observer behind the scenes of an institution that built America's "new" economy and then nearly destroyed it.