More than anything else, the passing of Tom Wolfe reminds those involved with Wall Street and finance — and those who write about it — of Sherman McCoy, the protagonist of The Bonfire of the Vanities.

In Wolfe’s novel about the exuberance and the excesses of New York City in the 1980s, McCoy was portrayed as bond trader, a job that brought him enormous wealth and prestige. Unlike young Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, who barely scrapes by as a bond salesman, McCoy is a “Master of the Universe” for his skills in dealing with issues such as an obscure French security.