5 comments about Economics For Dummies.

1. Very well-written and clear introduction to economics for people who don't know anything in that subject. I would swap microeconomics and macroeconomics chapters; would also prefer significantly more real-world examples. Would be nice to have a couple chapters for people who know enough math and wish a bit deeper understanding.



2. Economics can be a very complex subject, but this book does a great job of breaking it down into very easy to understand language. The author starts by explaining the basics of economics, both macro and micro, and then gives real world examples that allow you to understand what he just explained. Every person who has a job or has investments should know something about basic economics and this book will make that very easy. Who knows you might even be able to see trends coming before they hit and be able to make proper ajustments in your finances to protect yourself and your family.



3. Haven't read it all yet but its well written and funny so far.
   
   Think I will learn a lot from it.



4. This is the best primer on basic economics I've ever read. Masaki writes with tremendous clarity. As promised, every concept covered--always clearly and with admirable thoroughness--is accompanied by relevant, illuminating real-life examples. The book is a treasure for anyone wanting to discover the world of economics.



5. I thgought this was a very informative book. For such a tough subject matter, the author kept you interested. This book teaches you the nuts & bolts of economics so you can now form your own opinion. Word of caution....have a fresh mind when going over graphs & charts....you need to understand these !

5 comments about Financial Peace Revisited.

1. Ramsey offers some good thoughts, but the examples offered are at best questionable. First, I agree that debt is a burden when used incorrectly, but Ramsey seems to tag debt itself as an immoral product of lenders. Debt does not have a moral character; debt is a tool, much like a pick or shovel, when used correctly it has benefits, when incorrectly it can create problems. Ramsey offers this advice when buying a car without cash to purchase. Buy a '$5700' car to arrange for payments of $100, rather than a new $23,000 car with payments of $300. Invest the difference, $200, for seven years to save for the next car. Ramsey uses an investment return rate of 10%. I can't think of any reasonable investments that will yield an average of 10% a year for seven years, especially with an initial investment of $200. Nearly all cars in a recent search of AutoTrader.com in such a price range had well in excess of 100k miles and many were nearly 10 years old. Maintaining a car with age or mileage such as these would be an expense that would likely exceed the savings of $200 per month, unless you are good at car repair. Nor does Ramsey comment on the fact that lenders charge much higher rates on older used cars, rates of 18% (or more) are likely. A much better alternative would be a newer used car, especially one without the bells and whistles, that would have factory warranty remaining. Accelerate the payments, if the payment is $350, pay $450 in order to retire the debt with as little cost as possible, when the loan is repaid, direct that payment to savings. Take care of the car and keep it until repairs exceed the value of the vehicle.
   
   Ramsey recommends investing in mutual funds as a primary investment vehicle. He then gives examples of the poor return when investing in the NYSE, stating that a dart board approach for picking stocks is nearly as effective as professional investors (he is right about this, because of the short time frame allocated the investment). I don't know who he thinks invests the money placed in mutual funds or what they invest in, but he again assigns the NYSE almost a moral character. Mutual funds usually have expensive 'loads' and have ongoing fees assessed against your investment. If you don't have the time to investigate your investments with some detail, mutual funds are okay, but a better approach is investing your money in the market based on YOUR research. There are many resources to help you do this that doesn't require a great deal of technical knowledge. Investing in anything requires your due diligence and on going follow up. Stock in solid firms that pay a dividend offer the opportunity for a good reward for long term investors.
   
   Buy 'The Richest Man in Babylon' and a good investment book, you will be better served.



2. Dave Ramsey makes everything so simple. I just wish I would have had this information in my 20s or even younger. It is changing my life. It gives me hope and promise.



3. I took the Financial Peace University class and received this book along with the class materials. Dave Ramsey is a special financial adviser in the way that his advice focuses on changing financial management behavior first and then getting into the more in-depth details later.
   
   There are a lot of reviews and descriptions here, so I'll keep my thoughts on this simple: check out the book, take the program, and you will not regret it. This works if you apply it from my experience and the experiences of those I know who took the class. This isn't a quick fix: it'll take you a couple months to get the hang of things and some time after that to get your finances in order.
   
   If you're serious about changing your financial future, you should really take the class, too. It's cheap and they are conducted throughout the country.



4. First, I feel that most of Dave's advice is perfectly solid, and almost guaranteed to get anybody out of debt. The debt snowball and gazelle methods are right on. You have to be extremely motivated to get ahead financially, especially if you are tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hole. His worksheets for budgeting, managing debt etc are simple, straightforward and will get the job done. Nevertheless, I have no choice but to ding the rating on this book, and give it only 3 stars because of one chapter that I find completely unfocused and potentially very damaging: the "Only Buy Big, Big Bargains" chapter. Here's the thing: I've never been in the kind of debt Dave and his listeners have experienced. Never. The reason being: I come from a frugal Scots-Irish family and materialism was always discouraged in my family. Frugality was always praised and rewarded. These are lessons I absorbed in my baby formula. My father's two uncles were bachelor farmers who accumulated a legendary FORTUNE by living simply, frugally and not letting themselves get sucked into the acquisitive, materialist mindset that started taking over this country from the 1950s and onward. Since they were the only rich people I ever met personally, I have based my own financial decisions on their example and folk/inherited wisdom. The number one thing they (and I) would NEVER DO is pay even a cent more than we have to for any type of depreciating asset. The chapter on Big Bargains in Dave's book rambles on for pages on how to get a great deal on a luxury car (that you would STILL end up paying 5 figures for!), implying that you don't *really* have to make any sacrifices to make his system work. This is just like telling a room full of alcoholics that they can still have an occasional beer, as long as they water it down with some ginger ale first. ABSURD. I have to tell Dave's readers that if you want to be wealthy, and teach your children to be wealthy, you MUST adhere strictly to the "Rich Dad Poor Dad" principle of investing in ASSETS, not LIABILITIES. Spend the least amount possible on a depreciating asset like a car, without actually buying a lemon. There aren't many individuals or families that couldn't get by with a secondhand Toyota Corolla, and you can probably get one with about 20 to 30 thousand miles on it for under 10K. NEVER spend more than FOUR digits on a car. That should be GOSPEL. My great uncles drove their pickup truck until it rusted and fell apart and they had no choice but to buy another one, to run the farm. They paid cash for a new truck at that point, although the dealer sneered at their ragged overalls and thought they weren't customers worth his time. Boy was he ever wrong! They were without a doubt the richest people he probably ever met in his pitiful life. You can get rich too, but NOT BY PURCHASING DEPRECIATING ASSETS. If you like "nice things" the way Dave does, then learn to like "nice things" that typically APPRECIATE IN VALUE: paintings, antiques, fine oriental rugs -- NOT CARS. Buy only barely enough car to meet your transportation needs. That's it. Ignore Dave when he gushes about a luxury care he got such a great deal on. He is totally brain farting on this one.



5. Every parent should make this a must read book for their child before he or she goes off to college or graduates high school. It will save them from many problems that face so many in this economy.

5 comments about Currency Trading For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance)).

1. This is the book that every Forex trader new and experienced should have in their library. I have been trading on an off for a couple of years and learned more by reading this book in a couple of weeks than I learned reviewing info from dozens of sources. The authors are outstanding and experts in their field and I now am better armed to do battle in the forex market.



2. The book is awesome. Even dumb like me eager to move forward from pages to pages. Really good start for dummies :)



3. It is great for Forex traders. A lot of field experience, detailed howtos, tips and what to remember are really useful, advices are earnest. It is a must for all new Forex traders before starting the real trade.



4. Let's face it, we're losing trillions off Wall Street. But if you time it right, you can buy some cheap currencies now that's going to lead to some solid gains in the future. People are flocking to the dollar which will have the opposite effect down the road with euro and other strong currencies. This book guides you to all of that (the other FOREX books are absolutely weak). See my other reviews for recommendations on how to beat Wall Street.



5. I am a newbie to currency trading and this book has already given me enough information to start trading. It discusses all aspects in an easy to understand format. This is a must read for the newbie as well as a great reference for those with some trading history. Use it and profit!

5 comments about Essays on the Great Depression.

1. Bernanke rigorously explains the economics of the Great Depression. A massive monetary contraction (reduction in the money supply) was the cause of the Great Depression, in large part due to the flawed gold standard that was created following World War One. The massive banking collapse (due to weak regulation) further worsened the disaster. To a lesser extent, the Smoot-Hawley tarriff contributed to the cause. Sticky wages and other factors contributed to the slow recovery.
   
   Bernanke first shows that the countries that abandoned the gold standard the soonest, such as Britain, were the ones that recovered the quickest. The countries that clung to the gold standard the longest, such as France, were the ones that suffered the longest. The countries that were not on the gold standard - perhaps using the silver standard - avoided the Great Depression!
   
   Due to the gold standard and other misguided judgements, the Federal Reserve constricted the money supply again and again. The gold standard caused a run on the gold supply, followed by further Fed tightening of the money supply to defend the currency, leading to widespread bank panics, which constricted the money supply further due to the sharp drop in bank loans and the loss of consumer confidence in the financial services industry, which was hardly regulated.
   
   The economic crisis was made worse by the massive banking collapse. Thousands of undercapitalized banks went insolvent, and thousands of people lost their savings. Bank panics swept across the country. Other banks refused to make new loans for fear of loan default. The banking crisis resulted in a further contraction of the money supply. The banking industry completely collapsed at the end of Hoover's presidency.
   
   Sticky wages also contributed to the depression, although not as much as Keynesians think, according to Bernanke. Hoover and FDR may have made this worse by trying to maintain and increase the spending power of workers, although the counter argument is that this increased worker spending power increased spending and demand. The book examines many other factors too numerous to list in this review. This is the best book on the economics of the Great Depression.
   
   Once taking office in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt quickly removed America from the disastrous gold standard (which previous administrations would never have done) and FDR saved the collapsed banking industry. Recovery followed. According to Bernanke, industrial output in America grew 5% per quarter from 1933-37. Per quarter. Real wages grew substantially. Productivity grew substantially. Unemployment dropped.
   
   Bernanke says that Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal era of 1933-37 achieved strong economic growth by several different measurements. FDR reversed the contraction in 1933, so technically the depression ended in 1933. GDP grew over 50% in four years. This period of high growth was interrupted by a severe recession in 1937-38, which was followed by more high growth. According to Bernanke, "Quarterly growth rates for manufacturing employment, hours, and input in 1938-40 were 1.8, 2.8, and 4.9 percent, respectively."
   
   I used a pencil to highlight the conclusions in this book. A massive amount of rigorous economic data is included, so only an economist will understand everything, but anyone can understand the conclusions. Bernanke inserts summary sentences so anyone can understand the conclusions. Highest recommendation.



2. Overall Bernanke does a good job at looking at different theories, but his theories on the dangers of deflation have been refuted by many authors. It is too bad that this theory clouds his vision, or else his treatment of the depression would have a lot more authority.
   
   For the economist, I would highly recommend "America's Great Depression" by Murray N. Rothbard. He is by far the most thorough in his treatment of the period, delivering the most compete and well founded theory for the cause of the Great Depression, too bad Bernanke hasn't read it.



3. The Federal Reserve made the Great Depression almost inevitable when it inflated the money supply. The Fed inflated the money supply before it contracted it. With a true, pure gold standard, this initial inflation never would have been possible. Everything else about the contraction, corrections, tariffs, etc. would have been a moot point, and we wouldn't have had a great depression. Serious recession with some of the other bad decisions, maybe, great depression, nope.
   
   To claim that the gold standard caused the great depression is shady, lawyerly logic indeed--no matter how many reams of mathematical data you distort to fuzzy the matter, it just doesn't jibe.
   
   It all began with rampant inflation (increasing the money supply, ie printing or creating more paper money without a corresponding increase in gold, silver, or real goods and services. As more goods and services aren't created at the same instant new money springs into existence, prices should rise in proportion to the newly created money, but most people don't realize this is what is happening. They mistake the extra money for wealth (additional goods and services, or shifts in demand), and make illusiory assumptions/decisions that are later corrected.) It all began with rampant inflation by the Fed--the primary occurence a gold standard prevents. Period.
   
   Most everything else is just goobley-gook by the rich to keep the poor duped and ignorant, and by corrupt social engineers who fancy themselves do-gooders. There are problems with gold standards, especially when some countries have honest gold standards, others countries don't, and their currencies and goods are exchanged freely, BUT these are far outweighed by the problems and wealth redistribution to the rich created by fiat money systems. Period.
   
   It serves the ultra-wealthy, and proponents of big government and socialism and collectivism, to dupe people about currency reform. Saying the gold standard caused the great depression is like saying raw vegetables cause heart attacks, or breathing clean mountain air causes lung cancer. To claim that the very thing which would have prevented a great depression is the cause is extremely audacious, and supremely sinister, but hardly surprising.
   
   When you are on a gold standard, and you inflate the money supply (ie, create more dollars out of thin air, or simply print more), of course there is a run on gold. This is what the gold standard is supposed to do! The gold standard will prevent governments from printing additional money, by calling their bluff (ie, making them honor their commitment to exchange each dollar for a fixed weight (not monetary value, but weight) of gold). If the government keeps printing, people keep redeeming money, they run out of gold, and the scam is up. In an honest gold standard, this isn't attempted, people know the gold is there, and they simply use the money for its intended purpose--to store value and trade.
   
   When money isn't tied to gold or a commodity, the government prints more, spends it, and each citizen holding money is taxed because their money is reduced in value so that the new money has value. No tax collectors are needed, but this is a bad way to tax because altering the money supply distorts the price signal that is the backbone of the marketplace. The crafty can speculate against these distortians, picking the pockets of honest working class people who, without realizing it, are paying a hidden currency tax.
   
   If banks hadn't commited fraud by circulating money not backed by assets, they wouldn't have failed. The massive banking collapse was fraud being realized, and the accounts being cleared. It sucks that so many middle class people took it on the chin, but the lesson is that we need honest banking in which more money cannot be created out of thin air, and contracts are honored, and liabilities on the ledger cannot be magically converted to assets, and pyramided ad fraudem. One more time: If the Fed hadn't inflated the money suppy, there wouldn't have been a depression. If there had been a pure gold standard, the Fed wouldn't have been able to balloon the money supply. Period. To simply begin halfway into the story by starting with the contraction is unfathomably dishonest.
   
   Countries can get screwed just like people in this system, especially those countries with honest money who can't print it out of thin air like non-gold-standard countries. If they aren't aware how much new money is printed, their imports/exports can suffer, and they end up conducting transactions for depreciating paper currency that ultimately screws them by declining in value faster than they realized, fall prey to gold speculation or price instability, etc. But placing primary blame on the gold standard is absurd. Its like saying the guy that left his house unlocked is guilty of felony robbery when all his possessions are stolen. The thief is the problem, not the gullible or un-streetsmart homeowner -- though he should certainly be wiser and limit his interactions with criminals (fiaters). The corrupt money was the problem, not the honest money. THe fiat system of currency printing was the problem, not the gold standard.
   
   "Undercapitalized". What a cozy euphamism. You mean a bank that fraudulently pryamided assets, misrepresenting time deposits as demand deposits?
   
   In an honest gold standard, a disastrous contraction of the money supply is not a worry, as it is never inflated disastrously, so a house of cards is never created in the first place.
   
   Roosevelt saved the banking industry. What a hero! In English, he perpetuated the fraud, and shifted the cost for all the banks' fraudulent contracts it couldn't honor immediately, but should have been forced to long term, to the people. Then he allowed the fraud to continue. Robin Hood in reverse. What a role model!
   
   All the rest is expected. After the correction, inflation was much more modest, meaning intervention in the marketplace via distorted price signals was much more modest, meaning citizens not machinated by corrupt currency did what they will usually do--busted butt and created prosperity.
   
   Many rigorous economic studies churn numbers, and then try to assign causes or meanings to those numbers, without truly assessing/considering what the numbers mean in terms of actual human behaviour, especially in terms of fundamental causalities that lead to the data. This is one of Rothbard's main problems with conventional economics.
   
   Read Rothbard's book for a real explanation of the Great Depression much more elegant and less scathing than mine. As long as propaganda like this masquerades as truth, the common man's freedom and standard of living will continue to decline.
   



4. Bernanke is ,unfortunately,ignorant of the preventive medicine approach to Bubbles and Depressions first postulated by Adam Smith in 1776 in the Wealth of Nations and then reapplied by J M Keynes with the additional analytic conclusion emphasizing the importance of clearly differentiating between tolerable security (risk)and uncertainty.
   Smith made it straightforward and easy. There are four categories of borrower to whom commercial and Wall Street investment banks can make loans available to-the prodigals,projectors,imprudent risk takers,and the sober people.The task of money and banking policy is to prevent loans from being made to the prodigals,projectors(Keynes's speculators of chapter 12 of the GT,1936),and imprudent risk takers(dealt with by Keynes in chapter 11 with his lender's risk versus borrower's risk distinction).Economists don't seem to get it.Neither do Fed chairmen.Allow the capital markets to be dominated by leveraged buyouts and hedge fund speculators guarantees that the inevitable bubble will be created.The only question that remains is whether or nor some type of bailout will prevent a panic and crash.This type of money and banking policy allows the problems to be created and then attempts to prevent the problem from mushrooming into a serious recession or depression.
   
   Smith's advise to Bernanke and his coauthors would be to, first, fix the rate of interest permanently a little bit above the prime rate and then maintain it at that level for the long run and ,second,only permit loans to be made to the sober people.Otherwise,periodic financial crises will occur. It's as simple as that.None of the essays deal with the fundamental goal of banking policy-Prevent the problem from arising in the first place.Of course,if you believe in the Efficient Market Hypothesis fairy tale, where all price changes in financial markets are normally distrbuted,as does Bernanke,no problem is supposed to occur.But they do.



5. Anyone can spin a story about anything using the various mumbo-jumbo parts of mainstream economics. Bernanke here has decided to ravage the gold standard. Suffice to say, it is extremely tedious, banal, and antithetical to common sense.
   
   Ludwig Von Mises predicted the Great Depression in 1919.
   
   Here's two easy steps to understand the real cause of the crash.
   
   1. Read Murray Rothbard's America's Great Depression
   2. Google "Benjamin Strong", the first Federal Reserve chairman who served until his death in 1928. Bernanke does not mention Strong at all. You will find almost all the answers in Strong's tenure. For the severity and length of the recession, please read Jim Powell's "FDR's Folly".

5 comments about The Intelligent Investor: The Classic Text on Value Investing.

1. This book is hailed, and with strong reason, as one of the cornerstone pieces of investment literature. The ideas surrounding valuation and the like are as valid now as they were when the pen first touched this masterpiece.
   
   It is not one of those over-hyped, over-produced get rich quick in the stock market type pieces, but rather a solidified educational fundamental foundation to theory of value investing.
   
   A warning to the novice: This book is written in a very technical language that will be hard to grasp without an understanding of the market in general. This should not be a first investment book, but rather a compliment to your growing collection.



2. Since reading Graham, I keep running into his name everywhere -- and for good reason. Graham (and his disciple Warren Buffet) does not talk about -- or believe in -- get-rich-quick schemes (those are speculation), but in sound principles of looking for solid, well-run companies, and buying their stock when the price dips. (The market gets hysterical and goes up or down in ways that have nothing to do with the intrinsic value of the company.) If other people are foolish enough to sell off a good company at a bargain price, there's nothing wrong with being smart enough to go against the market and buy a bargain. If you want to invest but don't know how to do it intelligently, read Ben Graham for starters.



3. This is a great book for a beginner. covers a lot of the basics, some of the stuff may be outdated but the fundamentals do not seem to have changed.



4. Typically, when Nobel laureates and/or Pulitzer Prize winners are asked how they came to such remarkable achievements in the understanding of their chosen fields, their response is, "because I stood on the shoulders of giants." In essence, they studied and improved upon the contributions of the giants who came before them and that's telling; because, if you want to gain a clearer understanding of the modern day great minds, simply dig up the classics that they studied. For instance, for a better understanding of classic capitalism you have to read An Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. But if you want to gain a clearer understanding of Adam Smith's true message concerning capitalism you have to read The Wealth of Nations in conjunction with his other famous work, The Theory of Moral Sentiment. For a better understanding of politicians and what we commonly refer to as their unscrupulous behavior, you have to read, The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli. If you're looking for a clearer understanding of man's quest for validation here on earth, one has to read Viktor Frankl's, Man's Search for Meaning. All of these people and their works are universally recognized and accepted as the pinnacle starting point of greatness in their fields. If you were to add to that list, The Intelligent Investor, by Ben Graham, you may very well have found a blue print for the successful manipulation of life. If the world were to recruit one of its greatest investors to instruct the rest of us in balanced, diversified portfolio management, we'd start with Ben Graham. For those of you interested in exploring the possibility of wealth creation and personal portfolio management, there is absolutely no better financial and/or philosophical starting point than The Intelligent Investor. According to Warren Buffet, "The Intelligent Investor is by far the best book on investing ever written." Even if you don't plan on managing your own portfolio, wouldn't it be nice to know what questions to ask? Probably so! Do yourself a favor and buy this book. Read it, learn it and love it! Because once you've learned the text of this book, you'll never be the same.



5. If you understand Benjamin graham in "The intelligent investor" you would only think that he sold a million dollar idea for $20 .This wouldn't just make you rich but will give you a robust character . My title says Sweatless fortune , you got to understand graham to believe that .

5 comments about Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your SmallBusiness.

1. On page five, bullet point three: Mr. Levinson states, "Traditional marketing is geared toward big business.... The soul and spirit of guerrilla marketing - is small business: companies with big dreams and tiny budgets." However that was not my experience reading this book. Instead he seemed to promote laborious and expensive marketing tactics. I thought I was going to be reading a book about low / no-cost, surprise attacks, launched in the dead of night with no warning. Instead what I read was kind of stale, old school stuff.
   
   For example; Chapter 3, The Sixteen Monumental Secrets of Guerrilla Marketing, starts with the sentence, "If you're a guerrilla, these sixteen secrets are not secret to you at all." OK, then why am I reading this book? Then the secrets end up being more general philosophy rather than tactics, such as commitment, investment, consistent, confident, patient, assortment, subsequent, etc., etc. In my opinion, he spent too much time making things rhyme and not enough into research into successful low / no-cost product launches or common themes and marketing techniques that sky-rocketed the success of the Zero to Two-Hundred-Mile-an-Hour companies. That's what I call a 600 pound Marketing GUERRILLA.
   
   The chapter on MiniMedia Marketing was mildly interesting but nothing new as of the fall of 2007.
   
   Then you have MaxiMedia and everything here costs some big bucks, sorry Jay I'll pass..
   
   I'm not going to say that this book is without merit; it has good stuff in it if you haven't been in the sales and marketing business very long. It's a book that the novice can learn a good deal from, but more and more the younger aggressive person learns most of these things on the go and has picked up 90% of this stuff in a year or two in the business. If you are just starting or are unfamiliar with sales and marketing; then by all means get this book and dive in. However, the title Guerrilla Marketing implies something completely different to me than a book of general principles and tactics on the subject of marketing.



2. Great book if you have money to spend and are looking for ways to boost your bottom line. While some of the guerrilla tactics are too expensive for the tiny business just starting out, they are really good if you are looking to stretch your advertising dollar.
   
   One of things I like about Jay's approach is that sure, most of the tactics you've probably heard of before. Where this book really comes in is how Jay explains philosophically why you should be doing this. I found myself reading some of the tactics and thinking, "yeah, yeah, heard this before but just haven't done it." But the way Jay puts things I was like why the heck am I not doing this? After reading what Jay has to say, the proverbial light bulb goes off and your procrastination turns into profitable action.
   
   From the author of Internet Marketing-Profits That Lie Hidden In Your Website: How To Triple Your Web Sales In 25 Days



3. I think the book does provide small business owners with ideas and tactics to use that their competition would not see coming, however the book didn't bring really anything new to the table that I think is that secretive and was very very repetitive, it constantly talks about his tactics and how they wouldn't work for the big corporations, but they would work for you and how this that works for the big corporation wouldn't work for you, yeah, we get it, like I said just very repetitive and seems like it went in circles just from different degrees of the circle you still end up really no more wiser than you were before you read it.



4. Although most of the information in this book has been around for a long time, it will probably be helpful if this is your fist marketing book -- & you have a fairly large budget for your marketing campaign.
   
   I was hoping for more internet marketing advice, but found only a small section dedicated to this venue. This was surprising considering the internet is fast becoming THE marketing tool of today and the future.
   
   Plenty of help in this book on all other forms of media advertising, but all require sizable budgets.
   
   As for book quality... The text is a bit small and crowded, and is printed on newsprint quality paper. The addition of some subheadings here and there just to break up the pages a bit would ease a rather monotonous flow.



5. There's no question that the author is great at marketing--his own stuff. The book is essentially a loud ad for himself and his other books. It's a slight book with large-type (I felt like I was being yelled at). The information is basic and essentially a pep talk. If you're looking for concrete marketing information, this book will not provide it.

5 comments about Free to Choose: A Personal Statement.

1. A more essential guide for those of conservative and libertarian leanings I can't think of.
   
   Friedman, in his traditionally accessible, though brilliant, way elucidates economics, politics, and freedom in a timeless classic.
   
   Would buy again and again.



2. Arguably Friedman's magnus opus, Free to Choose is a book that will radically change the reader's way of thinking. Admittedly, before reading this book I would have been proud to vilify the free market. Like so many others, I fell victim to the demagogues. Free to Choose revolutionized my ideas about the role of government, and how intervention is inherently inefficient. Frieman's ideas are undoubtedly controversial, but Friedman himself was no polemicist. He would look down upon today's radio scum, like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. In fact, Friedman would look down upon most modern conservatives. He proudly acknowledged that he was in fact liberal (in the term's classical usage).
   
   Free to Choose brilliantly reveals how over-regulation, astronomically high spending, and an ever-growing bureaucracy have impeded freedom. In the chapter "Created Equal", Friedman summarizes his entire set of ideas in a few words. He says that today many are pursuing "equality of outcome" rather than what the Founding Fathers pursued - "equality of opportunity."



3. Dr. Friedman is plainly an educated and articulate man and his arguments have a seductive veneer of logic to them. The tragedy is that his interpretations are extremely selective: he focuses exclusively on what he perceives to be the strengths of the free market, while completely disregarding its costs. In this respect, he shares the mentality of the fundamentalist. Anything that ever goes well, he attributes to the free market; anything that ever goes wrong, he dismisses as either an aberation, a reflection of inadequate adherence to his core belief system. He has thus created a logical closed loop, which admits no possibility of his starting assumptions being flawed.
   
   Which is highly unfortunate, as he makes a great many assumptions, such as costless mobility of labor, perfect information, and the eventual trickle down of wealth, which are empirically unsound. If a worker loses his or her job, Dr. Friedman assumes that, somehow, that person will be able to find a bigger and better job elsewhere. How? Where? How is that person going to find the wherewithal to pay for the additional training and/or education needed for that real or imaginary bigger and better job? How will s/he pay for rent, food, transportation, health insurance, childcare, etc., while looking for this bigger and better job? Such trifles are plainly not Dr. Friedman's problem; nevertheless, they do pose a whopper of a problem if you're the person who's lost your job.
   
   Likewise, Dr. Friedman simply takes it for granted that companies will behave honorably, will have access to perfect information, and consumers will never be misled or swindled, but will unfailingly shape the market based upon sound decisions. Wow. Must be a nice planet Dr. Friedman lives on. On this planet, companies make rash and/or unethical decisions on a daily basis which are based upon poor information and/or immediate short term gains, for which the general public bears the cost.
   
   Because Dr. Friedman ignores such inconvenient realities, he views the world through rose-colored lenses and is blind to the dismal performance of his ideas whenever they have been implemented as policies. In every instance around the globe, the inevitable result of Friedman's radical ideology has been a tiny handful of predatory capitalists becoming richer than kings while the rest of the country sinks into abject poverty. Dr. Friedman's ideas, in every instance where they have been applied, from Chile to Argentina to Russia to Poland to South Africa to SE Asia - the list goes on - have unfailingly produced huge surges in unemployment and poverty, wholesale selloffs of the country's natural resources and other assets, and, of course, the adoption of repressive measures by governent to force the unpopular policies upon the unwilling populations. How ironic that Dr. Friedman describes himself as an advocate of free choice, when he has personally advised governments around the world to coerce their citizens into accepting his disasterous economic "reform" programs. Not surprisingly, Dr. Friedman doesn't wish to discuss the victims of his ideas, or, insofar as he recognizes them at all, he condescendingly dismisses them as the tragic cost of "progress." Progress for whom? Again, Dr. Friedman doesn't concern himself with such details.
   
   The central flaw in Dr. Friedman's ideology is that he takes no account of wealth distribution. If an economy increases in efficiency, Dr. Friedman claims vindication. But if the benefits of any such increase go exclusively to a tiny minority while the vast majority of the population experiences a sharp reducation in quality of life, how has any overall increase in efficiency improved matters? Dr. Friedman seems to assume that the billionaires his policies create will reinvest their wealth into their local economies. Yet, empirically, we find once again that such is not the case. Billionaires invest their wealth where they can gain the greatest return on their investment. Why then would they want to invest in their own countries? The people who live there, thanks to them and Dr. Friedman, are unemployed and too poor to be able to afford to buy anything. The country's natural resources have already been privatized and sold off, what's left in the smoldering husk Dr. Friedman leaves behind to entice investment?
   
   In sum, what Dr. Friedman describes as freedom of choice is an attempt to legitimize and apply a palatable facade to a wild west approach to economics, in the which the strongest and most ruthless rise at the expense of the weak, a kind of economic Darwinism. It's not without logic, but the cold, cruel, heartless world Dr. Friedman has to offer is a pretty terrifying place.



4. 
   This is absolutely the best book on basic economic thinking. It is filled with sound logical arguments for free markets. This book should be the starting point for anyone interested in politics and politically economy.
   
   Milton Friedman is "way out there" for many, but his debating skills are solid. I used arguments in this book during debates in grad school and easily hammered classmates who couldn't figure out how to argue against the "green pieces of paper" statement when they were arguing on how the U.S. should eliminate our trade deficit.
   
   In this book Dr. Friedman will teach you what free market capitalism is and is not. He will demonstrate how government regulation failures lead to the Great Depression and how monetary shocks (kicked off by the government yet again) created problems in the early 70s. Dr. Friedman will make his case for school choice and discuss why regulation harms consumers.
   
   This book covers nearly all the most basic angles of economics you will hear about in your local newspaper and on tv. Reading this book should give you enough working knowledge to be prepared to debate or discuss economic topics with others.
   
   Milton offers you the tools and answers to hammer most any local socialist. His writing is clear and his arguments are easy to understand. I recommend this book to any person wanting to learn more about free market capitalism.



5. This is an excellent book about the Free Market, and how people are free to choose their own path in life. Milton Freidman was one of the best economic thinkers of our time and will be sorely missed by those who believe in the free market.
   Friedman discusses how socialist societies eventually fail and the people that are stuck in those societies are not free to choose their own path in life.
   Capitalism may not be perfect, but it is much better than societies that are run by a centralized governement.

5 comments about Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box.

1. A great read. If your organization is a learning organization and is interested in finding a book that is a page turner for those who do not normally read then this is a book for you. The authors found a way to present the concepts of the next generation of leadership in an easy to understand easy to follow dialoge. The next generation of leadership in my opinion is idea that empathy and social understand are crucial to being a leader. This book will help give an organization a common vocabulary to discuss issues.



2. If you're looking for something a little different in a book on leadership, then look no further than LEADERSHIP AND SELF-DECEPTION by The Arbinger Institute. This is different from other leadership books in that it reads in the form of a story (not a parable) about a man who has just landed a job with a company he has long coveted. He is about to learn exactly why the company, Zagram, has achieved such greatness.
   
   Follow the journey of Tom Callum as he is introduced to the principles that have set Zagrum Company apart from the competition. You'll be introduced to the principles of self-deception, self-betrayal, and being in or out of "the box". The critical point the reader will learn here is that we all spend a great deal of time in the box and when we are in the box, we are not operating anywhere near where we should. Furthermore, being in the box effects not only our work, but all inter-personal relationships and interactions in life.
   
   Not to worry, though. The authors won't leave you hanging. Tom later learns, as his training continues, how to step out of the box. Although he also learns that what he has learned, and what this story covers, is only the first phase of a three part plan. It is a little disappointing to not be introduced to the second and third parts of the Arbinger Institutes plan, but don't let that stop you from reading this book.
   
   In fact, you probably won't just read this book and be done with it. I plan to re-read this immediately. It is simply too much to fully comprehend in one reading, at least it was for me. The story is entertaining. The lessons are well presented and logical. What you take away will be invaluable. I see many ways of implementing what I have learned here, not just in business situations, but in marriage coaching as well. These are principles that will affect all aspects of life and business.



3. This book is exceptional in regard to understanding the inner workings of our perceptions and the effect our personal character influences what we see and hear. Highly recommended.
   
   Coach Charles Powell



4. This book was such an easy read and very motivating. It will cause anybody to self-reflect and want to make changes in their lives. Anyone who reads this book will not be disappointed.



5. After reading this book, I had to read it again. I was reading it for a training and I explained to my Trainer that this book is a "good ouch". If you want to change your way of being in relationships, if you want transformation in your company, applying the principles from this book will definately bring a transformation. I recommend this book to everyone from student, husband, wife and executive. Cheri

5 comments about How To Make Money In Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad, 3rd Edition.

1. I haven't traded one share of stock in the Market...yet. With that having been said, I figured, if you're going to get advice about how to be successful in the Market, you may as well go to someone who knows. William J. O'Neil has been trading since the early 1960's. He bought a seat on the Exchange in 1963. William J. is also the founder of Investor's Business Daily (IBD). If you are interested in the Market and you haven't read an IBD, I would suggest that you at least try it. Information is the key to making sound decisions.
   As a whole, the book is basically an advertisment for IBD. But don't let that get in the way of the information, guidance, logic, and strategies that are offered within the book. Before reading this book, I didn't have a clue about trading stocks. Now, I'm confident that I can pick a potential winner, take a position at the right time under he right conditions, take profits at the right time and, if necessary, bail out with minimum losses.
   I definately recommend this book.



2. William O'Neil, who started a successful financial paper known as Investors Business Daily, wrote How to Make Money in Stocks. Decade of research, critical thinking and common sense has helped O'Neil to create some very powerful ways of investing successfully.
   
   This book isn't about getting rich quick. It takes time, study diligence and patience coupled with controlling ones emotions to become an excellent investor.
   
   I have read many books, magazines and articles on investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more over the years. O'Neil's ideas are some of the most solid and consistent I have found to apply to the stock market.
   
   In the book he teaches his CAN SLIM method of investing. Looking at these indicators are powerful ways to find the right stocks. CAN SLIM stands for:
   
   C = Current Quarterly Earnings per share: The Higher the Better
   A = Annual Earnings Increases: Look for Growth
   N = New Products, New Management, New Highs
   S = Supply and Demand
   L = Leader or Laggard
   I = Institutional Sponsorship
   M = Market Direction
   
   There are other great ideas in the book such as: Nineteen Common Mistakes Most Investors Make, How to Cut Your Losses, When to Sell and Take Your Profit and much more. How to Make Money in Stocks is a gold mine of ideas!
   
   The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking



3. Pros:
   
   * I know nothing about the stock market until I read this book.
   * Very well explain on how to tackle the market during good times or bad.
   * Even you know nothing about stock, you can have better understanding on this industry once you have read this book.
   
   Cons:
   
   * This book is good for gaining more knowledge but does not provide any plan or action that we need to take in order to succeed in this business. Overall, it is still ok.



4. Some reviews think this book is about
   
   * using technical analysis to buy and sell stocks in general, it is not, it is about buying the best of breed (in the very best industry groups) when the time is right and only this point is determined by looking at the chart, once this is passed in strong volume, chances are good that prices will move higher. (VOLUME is one of the classic indicators, see Livermore, Darvas etc)
   
   * it is pushing IBD too hard, I agree on that, and I would give it 4.5 points if it were possible because of that, but IBD and esp. dailygraphs.com is simply saving you hours every day.
   
   * think there are still too many good stocks around even in IBD and they don't say buy or sell this stock now. I remember having read Livermore's thoughts via the "make an easy buck in the stock market" crowd, "how easy is it to make a quick buck with brain surgery?" It takes a lot of work everyday to check the potential stocks.
   
   * not all chart patterns are 100% up to the rules, this is correct but one would also check the daily charts and this might explain a bit.
   
   Overall the book contains top advice based on old truths.
   
   Another book that has lots of charts and explains the stages/cycles of stocks is Weinsteins "Secret for profiting..." Weinstein has good suggestions for longterm stop movement, while Weinstein is not interested in the quality of the company, it is worthwhile to read it because of the stock stages.(as mentioned in O`Neils book on when to sell, the quality of the stock -e.g. stellar growth outlook- is not important only price/volume action - a hint for DISTRIBUTION, in the stock market the future is now)



5. A must have investment book but this method requires a lot of close monitoring of the market which most of us can't do as non-professional investors.

5 comments about Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.

1. "Disrupting Class" is a very interesting read for people interested in improving education here in the U.S. Dr. Christensen argues that the main problem with traditional schools is that they cannot provide individualized instruction that best meets each student's needs. As a home educator, I couldn't agree with him more. He sees computer-based learning as a "disruptive innovation" that will solve the problem of how to provide this type of "student-centric" learning to the masses (since not everyone can homeschool or hire a tutor for their offspring).
   
   Dr. Christensen revisits the argument from his earlier book "The Innovator's Dilemma" that "disruptive innovations" don't initially compete directly against the current market leader's product but rather against nonconsumption. For example, in the '70's Digital had a very successful market for $200k minicomputers. Apple couldn't directly compete with DEC's minicomputers because their personal computers weren't good enough at the time to solve the problems that DEC's customers had. So Apple marketed its IIe PC as a relatively affordable toy for kids. Kids were nonconsumers so it didn't matter to them that the Apple wasn't as powerful as the existing DEC minicomputers. A few years down the road, however, improvements in PC technology rendered DEC's minicomputers obsolete.
   
   Dr. Christensen argues that the traditional government-run education system will in the near future be "disrupted" by the innovation of computer-based learning. At first, online learning will compete against nonconsumption by offering classes in subjects where there isn't enough demand in any given school to justify offering a traditional course (such as a very advanced math one or an unusual foreign language). But eventually, He believes that the technology will improve such that computer-based learning will render the traditional model of education obsolete.
   
   In "Disrupting Class", he postulates that demand for computer-based high school classes will follow an S-curve that will start to "flip" (significantly accelerate) in the year 2012. In the years between 2012 and 2018, Dr. Christensen projects that the share of online courses will grow from 5% to 50% of all high school courses. That timetable seems a bit ambitious to me personally, but I believe he's got the basic right idea about the growth in the demand for online classes.
   
   The main problem I had with "Disrupting Class" is with the way it is written. It reads like a management consultant's report filled with buzzwords and jargon (not surprisingly Dr. Christensen used to work for BCG). It would've been much better had someone else gone through the authors' draft and re-written it in plain English. I found it very tiresome to have to stop constantly to figure out what exactly the authors actually meant by all their convoluted gobbledygook. Throwing buzzwords and jargon into nearly every sentence doesn't make the authors look smarter, just much less coherent!
   
   The other thing I would've liked to have seen discussed in "Disrupting Class" is the question of whether or not it is good for children's brains for schooling to be mostly computer-based. Dr. Jane Healey wrote a very interesting book about a decade ago called "Failure to Connect" about some worrisome research findings on the negative impact of computer use on children. Has more recent research allayed or deepened those concerns? Before our society makes the shift predicted in "Disruptive Class", shouldn't we be examining this very important question?



2. Rocket Builders most influential author, Christensen, with his co authors has taken his theory of disruptive innovation and focused on the education sector. The authors do not lay blame but with Christensen's laser sharp analysis, peel back all the root causes of public perception and changing goal posts for education and what it has done to the institution over time. He then goes on to explain how classic disruption theory - which starts with non consumers and then slowly moves up the competency level as the incumbents are forced to retreat to higher value activities is already progressing in education. He predicts that by 2020, disruptive innovation will hit that 50% mark to turn the tables on other methods (monolithic education in this case) . They show how trying to bring the disruption inside present institutions can not succeed due to the constraints that are already in place. His statements ring true as we have seen the impact of disruption on public and private sector already.
   
   Since his team always does their homework, you are exposed to fascinating research on the impact of verbalization on new borns up to 3 years old. They explain how that is an academic headstart any parent can give their child now. He posits that early kindergarten (after 3 yrs old) and other high priced interventions are doomed to a limited success rate. As well he quickly exposes the paucity (weak techniques and theory) of real research in education since it all to often stops short of causality ( I can certainly testify to that) . Then he explains how computer based education methods are already changing and adapting to the needs of a student centric model. He illustrates how Howard Gardners multiple modes of learning could be accomodated in the disruptive model.
   
   Once again there is a second book within the book with copious research notes in every chapter. I am one of those professional educators who packed it in based on what I experienced as the overall futility of real change in education. Now this book has reawakened my interest in change in the education market - moving to a student centric model. If you have children or grandchildren - you need to buy and read this book. If you are in the e-learning market - it is required reading. Thank you McGraw Hill! I really liked it and it is as always an easy read with loads of detail if you want it.



3. I thought this book was an academic waste of time. Like sure when we use computers things are going to be disrutive, like in other industries. This book provides little in the way of what is being done well now, and the sub disruction. They use abstract examples from other industries where they sould be focused on education.



4. Christensen approaches improving the education system from the broad lens of innovation, rather than focusing solely on examining the school system itself. The result: a powerful perspective on how disruptive innovation outside the mainstream curriculum can ultimately transform the techniques and results of the public school system in general.
   
   Disrupting Class outlines a thorough argument for how to dramatically improve the U.S. educational system including:
   
   * The shortcomings of previous approaches to improving education, and therefore what needs to be different in the future
   
   * The importance of adapting teaching techniques to different learning styles (building on previous work Gardner and others); I can particularly relate to this as I have a family member with dyslexia who became an avid reader after receiving a different approach to reading instruction rather than the standard public school curriculum.
   
   * The potential for computers and more modularization of teaching to deliver individualized learning in the context of the school system; Christensen is quick to point out that more computers are not the solution, it is the way in which computers are used that are critical.
   
   * The barriers to change in the current system; Having studied numerous organizations within and outside the educational system, Christensen presents a valuable framework for how to drive change in organizations with different characteristics. The challenge is that the public school system has one of the most complicating set of features. Through understanding these factors, administrators and educators must employ different approaches to creating change which are outlined in the book.
   
   * The need for innovation in areas outside the mainstream elements of the educational system (the book draws on the principles from Christensen's previous work, The Innovator's Dilemma); He cites examples from outside and within the educational system and illustrates how "disruptive innovation" around the fringes can ultimately redefine the public school system as we know it today.
   
   In addition to having a compelling thesis, Disrupting Class is also an easy read. Christensen makes it come alive through weaving a narrative throughout the book of a public school principal struggling to make a greater difference in her students' development.
   
   While the book overall is excellent, there are two sections which could have been shortened without detracting from the overall story. The first is Chapter 6 which makes the case, largely based on the research of others, of the importance of learning in the first 36 months of development. While I found it compelling and causing me to wonder if I had done enough for my own children at that age, I did not find it added much to the overall thesis. Similarly, Chapter 7 discusses the need to change the research approach in the field of education improvement. While it may be useful to some educators as they evaluate options in the future, I found it less engaging than the other chapters.
   
   Overall, Disrupting Class is a must read for those interested in education from any perspective - parent, educator, administrator, politician or non-profit organization. As someone who is a parent and involved in a non-profit in the education arena, I find this book incredibly energizing - it has given me some ideas for innovations to test in the non-profit context alongside the public school system. I encourage you to read it and find ways to apply the lessons in your environment as well!



5. Clayton Christensen has gained fame in researching how disruptive technologies are best brought to market in the world of business. He applies the results of this research to hypothesize how education methods uniquely tailored to each student through the use of computer led education are likely to be adopted.
   
   The key observation that Professor Christensen makes is that each student has different intellegences, including linguistic, logical-methematical, spatial, kinesthetic, etc. The classroom, by being forced to standardize on a teaching method for a particular subject, cannot appropriately adapt the teaching of each subject to the learning and intelligence patterns of each student. Computer-based education can overcome the standardized approach, however. He argues that the adoption of computer-based education as a supplement to the teacher led classroom is not the likely path of successful adoption.
   
   The book is written for government officials, teachers, administrators, parents and entrepreneurs. It is probably most valuable to entrepreneurs who are exploring the market for user generated educational content.