Wall Street Noir: PW talks with Norb Vonnegut

Norb Vonnegut's debut, Top Producers, details intricate Wall Street scams, but at heart it's about friendship and betrayal more than stocks and bonds.

You're unsparing in depicting the vicious infighting that takes place among competing financial firms.

Oh, let me be very firm. This is Wall Street, not church. Competition is brutal. When financial professionals see the opportunity to take clients, they do.

Will this book affect your career on Wall Street?

I'm a wealth management professional. What I do right now is run a blog called acrimoney.com, where I can write about financial services free from the constraints of affiliations with any one firm.

Recent Wall Street scandals make your novel particularly timely.

I wrote Top Producer in 2007 and thought I was writing fiction. Then 2008 came along, and it all proved to be true. This isn't scientific, but if I had to handicap the percentage of bad guys in financial services—maybe 5% at the max would be my best guess. The payment mechanism that attracts really smart people to financial services also attracts the criminal element. We saw that attraction play out in 2008 when so many Ponzi schemes unraveled.

Any thoughts on how these frauds might be prevented or detected more quickly?

I would separate money management from financial reporting. Money managers produce financial statements. Often they are custodians of assets at the same time. My solution is, separate the two—separate the custody of assets from money management. By doing so, it would make it far more difficult to commit fraud.

A very funny scene in Top Producer involves “peeing in the shower.” Was that a real incident?

Let me just say that any similarities between real people and fictional characters is purely coincidental. And if I can leave it at that, I'd be grateful.

What's the easiest part of writing?

Writing is really hard. You're by yourself, you sit alone, you play with the words, and you're constantly going back to make the story better. Writing dialogue is just so much fun. Perhaps this isn't the easiest part, but I can absolutely see what I write in my head. When I'm writing, I can visualize—it plays like a movie in my head.

Any relation to Kurt Vonnegut?

Kurt is one of my cousins and a source of inspiration every day. If he hadn't been one of the greatest writers who ever lived in the United States, he would've made a damn good bond trader because he always knew how to promote.