Dealbreaker
If there's one place online that has captured the zeitgeist of trading floors on Wall Street — the bathroom humor, the outsized egos and the language — it's Dealbreaker. The site is run by Bess Levin, a humorist cum reporter who has successfully managed to turn Wall Street's biggest names into cartoon characters — and into her most loyal readers. The site feels like a mashup of Page Six and Bloomberg News. The articles may be laced with humor, but beneath all that wit lies a remarkable truth that often cuts closer to reality than more sober news reports. Bess's trick is that she's not laughing at Wall Street; she's laughing with them. As a result of Bess's frequent potty mouth, many financial institutions block the site, but that hasn't stopped a fiercely loyal group of readers from making their way to Dealbreaker and adding their comments, typically filled with some sexual innuendo, on just about anything. (You do not want to cross this group!) Nonetheless, Dealbreaker is always good for a quick laugh in the middle of the day or even a penetrating insight into the way Wall Street thinks.
Sorkin is the author of the book Too Big to Fail and a columnist at the New York Times. He is the creator and editor of the blog DealBook at NYTimes.com.