5 comments about The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever.

1. Wonderful book. This book has given me loads of useful information about the fashion industry. I use information from it in nearly every job interview I've been to.



2. Very interesting, business minded look at the fashion industry and the struggle between the creative and the profitable. Written in a straight forward, non-fluffy manner.



3. I had high expectations that the book failed to meet. The beginning chapter is great, explaining the "end of fashion" - clearly organized and interesting. However, much of the rest of the book was a poorly organized slow read. It starts with some history of the "old" French labels, then it goes all over the place, in chapters devoted to individual designers or pairs of designers. There is little rhyme or reason in those chapters, and everything seems to happen from the late 1960's until the late 90's, so much of it is contemporaneous and it is hard to see what point the author is making about the evolution of fashion. The worst part of the book, however, is that it is dated - it talks of labels that nobody cares about, or about movie stars and events that were relevant in the 80's up to mid 90's - the early Clinton days are as hip as it gets.
   
   Overall, if you are interested either in the design aspects of fashion, or the business side, you are better off trying to find better reading somewhere else.



4. Anyone interested in fashion must read this book. It is a quick read and super entertaining. I now look at luxury goods in a whole new light.



5. I loved this book! I am not a fashionista or big business person by any stretch of the imagination, but Teri Agins's look at the evolution of the fashion business is a true page-turner. I couldn't stop reading. This is not your typical business book written just for industry insiders.
   
   It used to be that it was the fashion designers who dictated what women should wear, but now the tables have turned, and designers look to the public/street for inspiration. Fashion is no longer so much an art form as it is a big business, and Agins's book really delves into how this came about via clever and creative marketing. She also looks at the mass-marketing of fashion, which in and of itself, is fascinating. It's clear that the author has done her homework. A great book about a fascinating industry.

1 comments about Can "It" Happen Again? Essays on Instability and Finance.

1. This great book is composed of thirteen essays restating and elaborating Minsky's great contribution to economics: the Financial Instability Hypothesis (FIH). The basic idea is that because the realized returns on any investment project are uncertain (and not merely risky), the contractual debts firms and entrepreneurs incur in financing these investments are inherently unstable. The "subjective state of expectations" will give rise to three different methods of financing: hedge, speculative, and ponzi. Hedge financing occurs when there are considerable margins of safety between fixed payments and *expected* returns. Speculative financing is defined by a project which over the course of its operations will generate *expected* revenue that will be greater than fixed payments, even though in the short-term these payments will be larger than initial realized returns. This gives rise to refinancing, which occurs if both parties to the agreement (lender and borrower) agree on the expected rates of return. Ponzi financing is a very unstable state in which the *expected* realized returns are not even sufficient in paying either the interest or principal on loans.
   
   Now one moves from hedge to speculative and then to ponzi finance according to the general mood of the market. If the market is experiencing a "state of tranquility," then the typical margins of safety that characterize hedge finance will be displaced by speculative finance which is still considered safe according to entpreneurial optimism. This is all subject to change, however. The performance of the market, interest rate changes, rapid changes in animal spirits, etc. etc. are all conditions which give rise to market instability.
   
   In so many words, this is basically Minsky's FIH. Minsky believed that this concept was a logical implication of Keynes' work, although he is careful to point out that the FIH stands on its own even if it is interpreted as being inconsistent with Keynes' message.
   
   Minsky is a pleasure to read and I recommend this book to anyone interested in "endogenous instability". Minsky believed that all market disruptions are *systemic* and not merely accidental. This sets his work apart from most professional economists.

5 comments about Foundation and Endowment Investing: Philosophies and Strategies of Top Investors and Institutions (Wiley Finance).

1. Starting with the thorough introduction, this book taught me volumes about foundation investing. I sit on a foundation board, and I feel much more comfortable with investment policy discussions now! I recommend this book and have loaned my copy out to our executive director.



2. Authors Larry Kochard and Cathleen Rittereiser have published an instructive and rare look behind the scenes of a collection of elite endowments and foundations. Their important text enhances and expands the good work of David Swensen in "Pioneering Portfolio Management" by revealing the thoughts and investment processes of a dozen accomplished Chief Investment Officers. "Foundation & Investment Investing" will be valuable for a broad universe of readers including CIOs, board members, investment staff professionals, portfolio managers and analysts, fund marketing professionals, business professors and their students, and individual investors. As foundation and endowment investment offices can be challenging to understand, I have bought additional copies for my colleagues in our equity hedge fund. I have also bought copies for a few individual investors who have asked for my guidance on managing their retirement portfolios in this increasingly volatile and complex investment environment. The final chapter observes that the CIOs interviewed are "all likable people". I agree, and enjoyed the sharp and candid insights of each of the CIOs. The interviews with Mark Yusko and Alice Handy were particularly enjoyable and instructive.
   
   As CIO of Georgetown University and investment management executive of Alternative Asset Managers, respectively, the authors' historical perspectives and informed commentary are interesting, and their organizations are lucky to have them.
   
   I hope Kochard and Rittereiser are interviewing another dozen CIOs for a sequel to this excellent and important investment management book!



3. Clearly Kochard and Rittereiser know how to ask CIOs important questions as they themselves are insiders in the foundation/endowment field. Their years of industry experience and network with these accomplished CIOs has made reading their book an eye-opening experience. The interviews are conducted with highest quality that are conducive to bringing out sharpest, practical and candid observations by these industry-recognized CIOs. I also think that the writing is sharp and clear-cut that help to drive home key takeaways for readers . Many investment professionals, whether or not working in the endowment/foundation field will benefit from reading the book to have a grasp of today's fast-changing and more complexed global investing. I do hope to see sequels from the two authors as they have proven to work together so well.



4. "Foundation and Endowment Investing" by Larry Kochard (himself a top Chief Investment Officer) and Cathleen Rittereiser is a very well written and valuable book. While providing an excellent general overview of how the investment landscape has changed for some of the most innovative investors today, I found the most interesting and valuable section to be the profiles of 12 of the top endowment and foundation CIOs. The authors obviously spent hours interviewing and gaining insights from these titans of the investing world, resulting in a very readable and valuable book.



5. This book is a must read for all institutional marketers. I learned something new on every page. It was of particular interest to me to learn about the early work experiences of the featured CIO's and how they made it to the top of their field. I found the book well written and easy to read. Well done.

1 comments about Study Guide for Sell and Sell Short (Wiley Trading).

1. The book starts with a brief introduction to the fundamentals Dr Elder has been promoting since his first book (how to buy, example setups, psychology and risk management) and then moves to advanced topics (keeping records, where and how to sell, where and how to place stops, how to short and presents a strategy for finding stocks to trade).
   
   All the previous is illustrated with examples from Dr Elder's own diary where you can see how a professional trader executes his trades. Only this point is worth many times the book.
   
   I have read many trading books and it is difficult to find a new book that really adds something new. This book has a lot of material and it is a pleasure to read. I highly recommend this practical hands-on book to everybody that takes trading in a serious way.

5 comments about The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy.

1. Quite the eye-opener about how many supposedly rich people are actually being supported by their parents. I did think it had a lot of undertones about how being cheap, I mean frugal, was noble in its own right and there's nothing worth spending money on except charity and education. But it was motivational, inspirational and educational.



2. This was a surprising book, because it goes against popular myth as to who are the wealthy and why.
   
   If politicians and business leaders had read this book, we may not have gotten ourselves into the current financial mess!



3. This is one of the best books on wealth bulding I have even read and I've read hundreds of them.
   
   It does a superb job of profiling key characteristic and behaviors that American typically fall into putting themselves deep into debt and then gives simple and easy to connect with ways to counter these behaviors to put yourself on the right track to financial independence.
   
   Really, really great! Do yourself and your family a favor and read it.



4. my husband loves it! lots of facts about millionaires and how they live and spend their $



5. This book's subject matter is good. The problem-it reads like a bad research paper. It's so boring!!!!! If you're interested in stats on every page, have at it. Otherwise, check it out at the library and skim the main points.

5 comments about Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions).

1. North's work attempts to show how hard-rational choice theory and neoclassical economic theory are weak in that they argue that cooperation and coordination are not fundamental to transactions. North writes that in the "zero transaction-cost world, bargaining has no place, however, in the real world, institutions, bargaining and cooperation are necessary" (16).
   
   The author argues that the rigidity of the human behavior described by hard-rational choice theorists is not practical in a real-world sense. For example, actors do not have perfect "computational power" and as such they don't have a perfect description of the world. Rather, the situations faced by actors are complex and uncertain. As such, transaction outcomes are unpredictable. North writes, "Uncertainties arise from incomplete information with respect to the behavior of other individuals in the process of human interaction" (25).
   
   In order to protect oneself or maximize his or her individual utility, an individual must collect information regarding a transaction. The costs of transaction "consist of the costs of measuring the valuable attributes of what is being exchanged and the costs of protecting rights and policing and enforcing agreement" (27). Institutions are created to generate regular patterns in human interaction. Doing so decreases the costs of transaction, or "playing the game."
   
   However, the game is never stable and as such institutions are malleable; they are capable of change. Yet the changes occur slowly, by increments. In the later chapters of the book, North takes a historical look at economic development, stability and change. Had all things been equal, transaction costs being zero, North argues that little diversity between economic systems would exist. North writes, "In a world in which there are no increasing returns to institutions and markets are competitive, institutions do not matter. If the actors initially have incorrect models and act upon them, they either will be eliminated or efficient information feedback will induce them to modify their models" (95). However, in real-world situations, institutions do matter and they are in continuous need of minor, or marginal, adjustments. In many ways, it is the behavior of the actors that make adjustments to the institution. North writes, "Incremental change comes from the perceptions of the entrepreneurs in political and economic organizations that they could do better by altering the exiting institutional framework at some margin" (8).
   
   In conclusion, new institutionalism has emerged in response to the concentration on behavioral/rational choice theories in the discipline. The new institutionalism attempts to "bring the institutions" back in to political science. However, institutional scholars have evolved from the days of strictly studying the political systems of polities. The new institutionalism attempts to blend aspects of behavioral/rational choice theories with the importance of institutional structure and establish a new paradigm with which to study political phenomena.



2. As a fan of the economic focus on institutions, I was excited to read one of Douglass North's books. North is the founder of this school, it would seem, and won a Nobel for it.
   
   Unfortunately, North's book hasn't enough mathematics to satisfy those with a quantitative bent, nor enough elegance to captivate anyone. I had to put it down after 80 pages (of 140 or so). I haven't felt like precious moments of my life were being lost so viciously since I last hurled Cryptonomicon across the room. I'm told that I should read North's papers rather than his books; this seems wise.
   
   If you want to read books that refocus economics on institutions, I'd strongly suggest starting with Bowles's "Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution." It's the best synthesis of the subject that I've seen, bringing in threads from evolutionary game theory and probably every major economist from the last 75 years.



3. Douglass North is an excellent writer, and this book is the amazing culmination of a lifetime's work in the area known as New Institutional Economics. This school or tradition is concerned with the role institutions play in the functioning of economies, and in particular, how they influence economic performance. Institutions are defined as rules or constraints, both informal (social conventions, habits, norms, etc.) and formal (legal rules and regulation), on human behavior. Rules, however, only provide the framework for action, and it is here where Douglass North brings in "organizations", which are responsible for determining the ways in which those "rules" become articulated, accepted (internalized) and enforced.
   
   A lot is covered in this book, but some general themes and arguments can be gleaned from the very short and immensely accessible number of pages. Perhaps most importantly, North argues in this book that conventional concepts like economic efficiency, cooperation, perfectly defined and costlessly enforced property rights, "frictionless exchange", costless information, and economic rationalism are by no means "given" in the standard economic modeling framework. These all depend on the "stability" of the institutions that exist in society. Stability, in turn, also depends on the ability of the agents responsible for measurement and enforcement to reduce transaction costs so that economic performance can be improved. This itself is by no means "given", because the State (the agent commonly assigned the task of enforcement) typically acts in ways that make property rights less secure, and hence raises transaction costs.
   
   If all of this sounds interesting, then Douglass North's book is perhaps the best source to consult on these matters. His prose is eminently readable, and he is a pleasure to follow as he tells his story in fascinating detail. I have explored other books that deal with similar topics, but I still regard this book as the most edifying.



4. This is a really good and insightful book for anyone interested in economics, especially as it relates to determining factors in economic growth. In about 150 pages, North presents an interesting and thought provoking theory of economic growth.



5. These are strange times in the economics profession. Most economists insist upon representing actual economic systems with mathematical models that bear little resemblance to reality. The results of these models are often quite strange. Government deficits are offset by taxpayers who save more money in anticipation of higher future taxes. Monetary policy is neutral; it has no real predictable effects. We are in equilibrium in every phase of the business cycle. Investors might as well pick stocks by throwing darts. Economic analysis is judged by its formalism, not its realism.
   
   This book by Douglass North is a refreshing change from `economics as usual'. Here the factors that matter most are real institutions and actual history. North draws upon the right kind sources for his theoretical underpinnings (Coase, Hayek, Ostrom, Olson, Veblen- yes Veblen too). North also focuses on an issue of primary importance- economic performance through time. How does economic development happen? Why does it happen in some nations and not others?
   
   There are some important ideas here. We need to think in terms of adaptive efficency (p80-81). Incremental changes in institutions comes from entrepreneurs (p8). We should understand institutional change in terms of transaction costs, relative prices, and ideology (p86). North has constructed a theory of institutional change using a blend of common sense and subtlety that is rare in modern economics. This book should be required reading for all econ grad students.
   
   There are some historical examples sprinkled through this book. Personally, I would have liked to see more history. But it is still the case that there is more history here than one typically finds in contemporary economics. Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic performance is not easy reading, but it is easier to read and vastly more informative than the math models that most economists try to pass off as proper economic analysis.

3 comments about Standard And Poor's Fundamentals of Corporate Credit Analysis.

1. This book is long overdue. It typically takes a credit or corporate banking professional several years and several levels (analyst, senior analyst, associate/assistant vice president, and finally, vice president) to piece together the knowledge and analytical skills presented within this wonderful book. The book offers a comprehensive foundation in business, financial, and strategic analysis (among several other related topics) in a very easily digested and understood manner. I guess my only complaint is that I didn't have the opportunity to write it myself!! I would advise every credit or relationship management team leader to purchase this book for their entire team -- particularly for their analysts and associates (although... on second thought, perhaps everyone on the team should have a copy in their desk drawer.) Bottom line: Highly-recommended. AAA+++



2. I had the pleasure of working with one of the authors 15 years ago. But don't let that sway you. I truly appreciate the scope and effort put into this book. We will use it as an outline for how our analysts should approach analyzing a credit. Chapter 3 alone is worth the price of admission as the authors list the elusive "qualitative" factors that go into a credit rating, beyond what the ratios tell you it should be. While the book barely scratches the surface of certain analytical methods (the Merton Model got 1/2 a page), and it is written more for the layman or student, I still learned many things. And I've been in the business 20+ years. The prior reviewer, and many others will say they wished they wrote this book. I will too. I even briefly started my own version recently. But I first turned to S&P's ratings criteria as an outline. As such, the right people wrote this book. The authors fully used the vast resources and data mining of S&P. This certainly feels like a team effort. The telecom analyst wrote a piece on the rapid decline of telecom credits in 2000-2002, and other professionals added real life examples. The book organizes itself in the top down approach to analysis. It starts with sovereign risk, then moves to industry, then company business/competitive risk. It then highlights the ratios to look for, and also gives data on seniority and recovery values for specific levels of debt. It then uses these tools to analyze a fictional company. It ends with case studies that cover M&A, sovereign risk and other topical reviews that act as a real life summary to what you just learned. Highly recommended. Well done.



3. I did not like the book, since being in the industry for more than seven years i felt the book is basic. However it is a must read (Cover to Cover) for those who are in undergraduate in the field of risk management or finance. This books gives the introduction to financial model building. But this intro is so brief that it will be your imagination to make full use of it. However for new commers in this field or interested it is good to give it few hours.

5 comments about The One-Page Proposal: How to Get Your Business Pitch onto One Persuasive Page.

1. This book is exactly what the title describes itself as: a theory and method of creating a one page proposal. It's best suited for the entepreneur pitching venture capitalists. I got some ideas from it, but wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped for what I needed. One thing I'd have liked would have been a job aid/chart with the section titles and brief highlight of what to include.



2. I enjoyed the ideas and writing style of this book. I am always interested in techniques for getting to the point faster. This style of proposal may work well when presented to a decision-maker that doesn't have time for the details. Unfortunately, many people do have time for the details or they will pass the proposal down to those who must make time. In those cases, a one-page proposal will lack details that the reader is expecting and, when competing against others, may cause this proposal to be excluded due to insufficient detail.
   
   This book will be very helpful for those who write proposals that put people to sleep. At this point, my proposals still need to be in the 2-3 page range; however, there's a chance I just need to get better at fitting all the necessary detail onto a single page.



3. This is a thin book, and it is easy to read. It definitely has good ideas, and I have already put them to use. If you can get one good idea from each "encounter," you are ahead of the game.
   
   What do decision makers read, how do they want it presented? That is the subject of this book. Quality and bervity are preferred to quantity for certin types of proposals. This is a concept that can bring significant value, if properly applied. I do recommend this book.



4. I certainly believe in being brief. I've written long proposals that end up confusing people and me losing the deal. So, I recommend this book to those who would be well served by this type of proposal.
   
   Having said that, I don't believe it will help the person who does average deals on the Internet. On the net, you have something to sell. A service perhaps. Someone wants to know what you'll charge to do a certain task, project or job.
   
   All you need to do in this case is figure out what the project should fetch and write your prospect, telling him what your job involves and what value you'll bring to the table and how much you'll charge. At least, that's how I see it.
   
   So, to me, this book offered nothing I could use. But there are lots of great reviews here and that tells me that many people find it useful. I'm only offering my impression for what it's worth.
   
   - Susanna K. Hutcheson



5. Although the one page proposal samples (with font size =<8) are in fact much longer than one page (with normal font size), the author's pitch to make any proposal concise, targeted, well researched, quantitative and actionable is much appreciated. The Target/Financial/Status/Action Approach is practical. However, in this era of Financial Tsunami and Powerpoint Presentation, I am afraid its daily application is quite limited, except for those who always meet customers beyond the normal office environment (and without a notebook nor a projector).

1 comments about Stigum's Money Market, 4E.

1. This book is pretty comprehensive in its scope. Overall it is pretty accessible to both laypeople and finance types. Might be improved with a slightly different layout with more structure. Overall though, I would recomend it for somebody who really wants to know about the world of Moolah!

3 comments about Governmental Accounting Made Easy.

1. I bought this book to help me study for a Governmental Accounting class final. I wish I had the book the entire semester. It's a well written, concise book that boils down the intricate details of governmental accounting that is presented in text books into the more manageable and understandable essentials. It must have helped, because I ended up receiving an "A" in the course.



2. Very informative.
   I would like to have seen a little more elaboration on a few concepts/topics, but overall a very good book for its purpose.



3. I purchased this book because I was taking a Governmental Accounting class online & the required text was awful! I needed some immediate help, and my instructor was no help so (as usual!), I turned to Amazon.
   
   The title of this book says it all. The author explains the very difficult concepts of governmental accounting very clearly. It is easy to decipher what the funds are and how they inter-relate. This book is very well written and follows a logical, sequencial path. I never would have passed my class without this book!