5 comments about Smart Women Finish Rich: 7 Steps to Achieving Financial Security and Funding Your Dreams.

1. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to become wealthy and this book details how easy it can be. If you're looking for glitz and glamour and "get rich quick" this isn't it. There's no such thing as an overnight success. Read David's book and get going on the road to wealth.



2. Smart Women Finish Rich is a bit different from other financial books I've read. I have to admit I was surprised with how well David Bach addressed both the emotional and intellectual relationship women have with money. His grandmother taught him well.
   
   I am going to say that Smart Women Finish Rich is more for a financial beginner than a woman with financial savvy. It's a well thought out system of gaining and keeping control of your financial self-sufficiency. Bach has filled this book with definitions, resources, quizzes, systems, exercises and tables. I was impressed and give it a must read if you're serious about becoming more financially organized.
   
   David Bach addresses both the heart and the head in Smart Women Finish Rich. He used the lessons he learned from his grandmother, and his mother, as inspiration. After growing up with two such powerful role models, he was surprised by the number of financially uniformed women. Many of the women who came to him for financial advice, had no clue about building financial security.
   
   Smart Women Finish Rich is easy to understand. I read it and "got it." This is a "how to" book that involves a commitment on your part to read, work and put the assignments and lessons into daily practice. Bach has carefully given us valuable financial keys, now it's up to us to follow through.
   
   What you'll get out of this book is going to depend on what you're willing to put into it. It's a book that has the potential to give you a great foundation for financial self-sufficiency.
   
   Here are some of the areas I found particularly useful:
   
   1.The first exercise, "Financial Knowledge Quiz" is a great practical place to start. I found it to be thoughtful and quite an eye-opener. I learned about how well (and sometimes not so well) I understood the role money played in my life.
   
   2. David Bach is adamant about pinpointing the reason money is important to you. To find this out, you'll need to examine your money values and ask yourself if your financial behavior matches those values. He provides a simple but thoughtful exercise called the "Values Ladder."
   
   3. Smart Women Finish Rich is a great blend of exercises, systems, quizzes and practical "real world" information. For example, the "Finish Rich File Folder System" is a simple, easy-to-follow and yet an organizational time saver.
   
   I definitely give Smart Women Finish Rich five stars! If you're ready and serious about getting your financial house and monetary priorities in order, this is the book for you!



3. I bought this book because I heard so many positive things about it. I am in my 50's, five years ago I went from having the wonderful life that all women dream of. I had the beautiful home in the suburbs, 2 beautiful children, friends, you name it I had it. Then I lost it all in the blink of an eye. I had relied on my husband to handle all the finances I couldn't tell you the balance in the check book. All I knew was he made the money and I spent it. Thank the Lord I was a RN, but I hadn't worked in quite a few years. I am not going to go into detail what happened but when I said I had nothing but the clothes on my back I mean just that. I have been working two jobs for the past five years making good money but I have NOTHING to show for it. By reading Suze book I was able to identify myself, it is so easy to understand that someone like myself with NO understanding of finance can take her suggestions and work them into my present life. It is going to take discipline on my part and learning to say NO to my children is going to be the hardest. But, I need to take care of myself. This book was just what I needed to read. I highlighted areas, I keep going back and re-reading certain sections. I keep it next to my bed. Buying this book was one of the best things I have done for myself.



4. I think all women should read this book and share it with others (family and children). Not only does Mr. Bach discuss how saving a little here and there can help with retirement, but he also gives women inspiration to live out (and especially to finance) their dreams. A wonderful book.



5. You all praising this book, how smart it is written, how valuable. But what are the fruits? Show them. Who can say that because of this book she got out of debts, bought a new house and moved from Harlem to 5th Avenue? Or smth like this? It seems to me that it is one more well-marketed book with no real advice in it. Everyone who wrote a review seems like struggling surviving individuals. I don't wanna join you guys if so. Please, who can tell any real outcome they had after reading this book, and then I will buy it.

5 comments about America's Great Depression.

1. The definitive scholarly analysis of why the Great Depression happened and the policy failures which tried to allievate its tragic consequences.
   
   This is the seminal volume that launched Rothbard's reputation as the world-class expert on this issue.
   
   His subsequent work related to the history of the Federal Reserve and its destructive monetary policy which formented the Depression cemented this important assessment.



2. Murray Rothbard's book, America's Great Depression, is really two books in one. One is a very bad book. It purports to use economic tools to explain how the Great Depression came to be. The other is a potentially very good book. What is suggests is that Herbert Hoover, although well intended, engineered a bad situation into a catastrophe. Overall, I do not recommend the book to the general public as having a good explanation of why events of the 1920s led to the Great Depression, nor would I recommend it to the general public as an exemplar of good economic thinking. But I do recommend it to my fellow economists as an exemplar of how not to do economics.
   
   The bad book occupies the introductions to each of Rothbard's five editions of the book (the last published posthumously, and with an introduction by Paul Johnson), and then the first six chapters. From those introductions, it is apparent that Rothbard was a follower of Ludwig von Mises' Austrian school of economic "thinking," a school that apparently believes, economics can be a fact-free science. That can be seen in Rothbard's Introduction to the First Edition where he wrote (xxxix f.): "... I make no pretense of using the historical facts to "test" the theory. On the contrary, I contend that economic theories cannot be 'tested' by historical or statistical fact. ... The only test of a theory is the correctness of the premises and the logical chain of reasoning." If that is indeed the Misesian-school's thinking, I question what kind of theory and what kind of economics can be produced by its fact-free science. Unlike Athena and Zeus, truth cannot spring from von Mises' head unvarnished by observation, and it cannot do so from anyone else's head for that matter. After all, how did von Mises first get to the theory he proposed, and Rothbard used, without actually having observed facts on the ground. In the end, truth needs recourse to facts and observations, and to refutable hypotheses. It is the scientist's task to tease the evidence, or lack thereof, from recalcitrant facts and observations for the hypothesis or theory being proposed. Absent that, all one is left with is fact-free science, which is no science at all. It is simply assertion papered over by an ideological just-so story. In that regard, the Misesian-school appears to be no better than the Marxian school (although ideologically, the polar opposite). If Rothbard represented the Misesian-school accurately, I would dismiss that school's approach as being theory without measurement, in the same way, as in my graduate days, that we dismissed measurement without theory.
   
   To show how misleading fact-free science can be, I recall a famous story about Albert Einstein and quantum mechanics. Einstein, using a thought experiment in 1935 (the so-called EPR paradox) had proposed a seemingly irrefutable test about particles in quantum mechanics. The paradox was impossible to test with the equipment available at the time, and so stood for quite a while. Only in the 1970s and later, with the advent of high-energy cyclotrons, did the paradox become testable and indeed was refuted.
   
   Of course, Rothbard's book is not entirely fact-free. He did use some historical facts to 'test' the theory, or at a minimum, to demonstrate its validity. He did that despite his contention that economic theories cannot be "tested" by historical or statistical fact. I find the difference between what he said he would not do and what he did to be most puzzling.
   
   Rothbard's book, in its first part, contains much that was ill defined, seemingly inconsistently defined, or downright misleading. Also, there seems to have been too narrow a focus on component parts, coupled with a unwillingness to look at larger and possibly more pertinent aggregates. The book has other areas of confusion as well, but those are of less import, and I will skip them in the interest of brevity.
   
   In Chapter 1 of the book, we come across the first of Rothbard's confusing and ill-defined terms. It is in the context of the hypothesis he sets as to the economic theory behind what caused the Great Depression. According to Rothbard, the hypothesis depends on von Mises' view that bank credit expansion will lead to a series of investment errors that turn out to be "malinvestment in higher-orders of production." One can ask, what are "higher-order of production"? Rothbard definition was: investment in capital-goods "most remote from the consumer"(10). What does that mean? Can one consider investment in farmland, a form of capital, as investment in a higher-order of production, insofar as farmland can be pretty remote from the consumer? I doubt that is what Rothbard had in mind. The next question is, what is "malinvestment," and how does it lead to a downturn in the economy? As to the question's first part, what is the definition of malinvestment, frankly, it was never clear to me, being based on the already ill-defined notion of "higher-orders of production." As to the question's second part, Rothbard's reasoning there seems to fail his "logical chain of reasoning." Rothbard's reasoning was that the decline in demand for higher-orders of production is accompanied by an increase in demand for lower-orders of production (whatever that means) and that is what leads to an economic downturn. But that is not logical. When one component of demand is increasing while another is decreasing, why should demand in the aggregate decline? Only a decline in aggregate demand will lead to an overall decline in profits and employment. Otherwise, all we are talking about is a change in the composition of demand, not a change in its total. Rothbard's focus on that component of demand he called, "malinvestment," to the exclusion of other components does not logically explain why the total should decline. If the Misesian hypothesis is that a single component's decline reduces total demand, the burden of proof is on Rothbard, or members of the Misesian-school, to provide first, a tight definitions of terms and then observable evidence to support the hypothesis. Otherwise, all they have done is engage in just-so fables.
   
   Another definition Rothbard used, one that I think is highly misleading, was his definition of "inflation." When I first skimmed through the book, I thought Rothbard had used it as it has been historically used, to mean price inflation. So, I then wondered, what inflation was he talking about? That's because the 1920s was a period of mild deflation in most prices, except for farm land prices, which declined significantly, and for stock prices, which increased significantly. Only upon reading the book carefully did I discover the peculiar meaning Rothbard attached to the term, "inflation." It can be found on p. 12, n.8: " 'Inflation' is here defined as an increase in the money supply not consisting of an increase in the money metal." So, any increase in non-metallic money was for Rothbard, by definition, "inflation." (Some of the reviewers, I observed, do not seem to have noticed Rothbard's odd definition of the term.) Rothbard's terminology was and is downright confusing. The term, inflation, first came into use in the US in the late 1830s when it meant what it means today. (The precise definition is in: Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper: "Monetary sense of, enlargement of prices - originally by an increase in the amount of money in circulation.") In contemporary terminology, it means an increase in the price of good in services. In the 1920s and 1930s, it seemed to have meant an increase in stock prices. (See Amity Shlaes' The Forgotten Man, p. 4.) No twentieth-century economist I know of has ever used the term as Rothbard did.
   
   The meaning Rothbard assigned to the term "inflation" may have in part stemmed from the Misesian thought that bank credit expansion leads to business cycles. But I think the primary reason he used the term was his animus to fractional-reserve banking in general, and to central banks in particular. Specifically, Rothbard saw fractional-reserve banking as being "fraudulent" (25). He would have had the government outlaw fractional-reserve banking by imposing 100% gold reserves on deposits. I find it odd that Rothbard, who professed to be a libertarian, saw no contradiction here between his recommending the use of the heavy-hand of the government to override the people's own decision-making and his own libertarian principles. What I have to conclude is that he viewed depositors as incapable of making decisions in their own best interests. Of course, one can ask, why stop with having government imposing its will in this area? Go the whole hog and become a true Marxist. Have government impose its will in all areas by making all the decisions for the public. I, though, take the opposite view. People have to be considered as capable of making their own decisions and as having responsibility for them. In the field of banking, depositors have to be considered as knowing what's going on, and as being willing participants in fractional-reserve banking. That's because they benefit immensely from fractional reserve banking, with the primary benefit being the reduction in the costs of holding and using money. As a contrafactual, suppose depositors don't want to use fractional-reserve banking. They could always hold cash balances in a vault in their homes or offices or factories. For transactions needing checks, they could go to the bank for cashiers' checks. All that, though, is expensive and inconvenient, which is why depositors use banks whose reserves are just a fraction of deposits. I would also have to conclude here that, not only was Rothbard apparently an ideologue, he was an elitist. Because he thought he knew better, he wanted to make people toe the line for what is good for them. Again, that is not very different from Marxism wherein the leaders supposedly know just the right kind of goods and services to produce for the people (who, though, never seem to concur).
   
   Chapter 4, titled, "The Inflationary Factors," is the heart of the bad part of the book. Rothbard opened the chapter by describing what he thought would happen in the absence of fractional-reserve banking. Specifically, he said (86): "For a hallmark of the inflationary boom is that prices are higher than they would have been in a free and unhampered market." (He of course revealed there that he misunderstood the difference between the level, and the rate of increase of prices. Interpreting a free and unhampered market to mean a market with 100 percent gold reserves for deposits, prices would indeed be higher with fractional-reserve banking, but in an inflationary boom - meaning one where the money supply increases rapidly and relative to gold reserves - prices would not only be higher, they would be increasing faster than they otherwise would have.) But even before the advent of the US current central bank, the Federal Reserve, there never was a period in US history without fractional-reserve banking and with the market being totally free and unhampered. Below I will compare the period 1899-1912, when the market was more free and less hampered, with the period of the 1920s. That is because the first period was prior to the Federal Reserve's establishment, and the second was afterwards when the market was, supposedly, less free and more hampered.
   
   The inflation (of the money supply) of the 1920s on which Rothbard dwelled can be found in Table 1 of chapter 4 (p. 92). To measure inflation of the money supply, Rothbard used a very broad definition of money that included life insurance net policy reserves. While I have seen many definitions of money, I have never seen one like that. Of course, one is free to use any definition one wants, but it has to be grounded in some observable relationship. But Rothbard's approach, that hypotheses and definitions "cannot be 'tested' by historical or statistical fact," precluded his doing so. If we stick with the usual definitions of money for that period, either M2 or M2 + S&L deposits, we find that the money supply grew respectively by 45 to 43 percent in the 1920s. (Rothbard's inclusion of life insurance net policy reserves and S&L capital rather than deposits, increases that number to about 63 percent.) Of course, one could ask, what was the increase in the period 1899-1912, prior to the Federal Reserve's establishment? The respective increases turn out to be, 149 and 132 percent. At a compound annual rate, the numbers for the 1920s are respectively, 4.5 and 4.8 percent, while for the period 1899-1912, they are, respectively, 7.3 and 6.7 percent. (For consistency, I would have compared Rothbard's definition that included life insurance but I did not have data on life insurance for the earlier period; also, again, for purposes of consistency, the data I used were from Table A-1 pp. 704-711 of Friedman and Schwartz's, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960.) Clearly, there is nothing outlandishly large about the money supply growth of the 1920s to get very exercised about. Again Rothbard's narrow focus on a particular datum for a short period turns out, on the surface, not to have any explanatory power.
   
   In both periods, one contributing factor to money supply growth was that both banks and depositors chose to increase the ratio of deposits to reserve money each held (currency plus bank reserves, also called, high-powered money or the monetary base). The difference in the two periods is that reserve money grew more rapidly in the first period than in the second period. In the first period, reserve money grew at a 4.8% annual compound rate while in the second period, it grew at a compound annual rate of slightly more than 1%. Not surprisingly, prices in the first period rose faster in than in the 1920s. (Specifically, from 1899 to 1912 wholesale prices rose 32 percent while from 1921 through 1929 they fell 2.5%!) What we see here is that the 1920s, being less free and more hampered can, sometimes bring about a modest deflation compared to a period that was more free and less hampered. One can see what happens when fact-free science comes to face to face with pesky little facts.
   
   If chapter 4 is the heart of the bad book, Table 7 on p. 109 is the heart of chapter 4. It was from the data in that table, that Rothbard argued (108): "...the inflation [in money] was clearly precipitated deliberately by the Federal Reserve. The plea that the 1920s was simply a 'gold inflation' that the Federal Reserve did not counter actively is finally exploded." His reasoning was that "controlled reserves increased by $1.79 billion for the entire period and that exceeded the monetary gold stock's increase of $1 billion." The problematic aspect with the 'controlled reserves' in Table 7 is that Rothbard's never provided a definition for controlled reserves. While he did provide some computations pertinent to controlled reserves on p. 113, when those computations are applied consistently throughout Table 7, the figures do not add to the amounts he termed there, controlled reserves.
   
   Another way of looking at what Rothbard was describing can be found Chart 25 on p. 282 of Friedman and Schwartz's Monetary History. The chart demonstrates the opposite of Rothbard's claim. It makes it quite clear that what the Fed was attempting to do was to use Federal Reserve credit to offset changes in monetary gold stocks that were occurring at the time. Based on the modest growth of reserve money, we would have to say they were somewhat successful.
   
   Another problematic aspect raised by Table 7 is its narrow focus on reserves held at the Federal Reserve by banks that are members of the Federal Reserve system. He did not account for the vault cash of the members or the reserves of the non-members. By focusing just on those reserves, he gave a skewed accounting of the increase in bank reserves. By Rothbard's accounting, reserves increased by 47.5 percent from June 1921 through June 1929. (See his Table 6, 102.) When all bank reserves are taken into account, though, the increase comes to 27.5%; and when all reserve money is taken into account, the increase is just 8.4 percent. (See, respectively, Table A-2, 738f., and Table B-3, 802f., of the Monetary History.) Again Rothbard's focus on a specific component, rather than on the total, presents results that can be viewed as misleading.
   
   A slightly different explanation of what happened is that individuals had a greater preference for bank money than currency in the 1920s, and so they converted their currency into bank money. Comparably, the banks had a greater preference for reserves at the Federal Reserve then they did for vault cash, so they, in effect, transferred any new funds received from the public into reserves at the Federal Reserve. The increase, than, in reserves held at the Federal Reserve was not so much an increase engendered by the Federal Reserve, but simply the workings of banks and depositors preferring one form of money to another.
   
   After chapter 6, we enter into Rothbard's discussion of Hoover's actions. Although he did occasionally discuss actions by the Federal Reserve in those chapters, his primary focus was on Hoover. This part of the book is potentially very good. It provided me with a good deal more insight into what could have made the Great Depression, great. Unfortunately, Rothbard, in accordance with his school's thinking, did not do a full analysis of Hoover. More statistical work would have been necessary, and that is why this part remains only potentially very good.
   
   Rothbard's description of Hoover painted him as an interventionist, a Roosevelt-lite character. According to Rothbard, Hoover attempted to prevent prices and wages from falling. When demand declines, though, both attempts are futile and just stave off the day of reckoning. Hoover may have been partially successful in preventing prices from falling far enough and fast enough. From 1929 to 1933, wholesale prices fell by about 25%. By comparison, in the previous recession in 1920, wholesale prices fell by 37% in the course of one year. Hoover's success on keeping wages from declining is less clear (especially because good wage indexes do not exist for that time). From 1929 to 1933, average hourly earnings in all industries fell by 25% while in the two years from 1920 to 1922 they fell by 15%. For both periods, the compound annual decline is amazingly close, about 7% per year. Hoover's intentions may have been noble, but all he did was to engineer the economy so it could not adjust to the decline in demand
   
   What about the Smoot-Hawley tariff, which many today blame for the Great Depression? The ostensible reason for the tariff was to help farmers, but if US imports are reduced, it becomes harder for farmers to sell products overseas. (Foreign importers won't have the foreign exchange available to buy the farm products.) Rothbard thought it contributed mightily to the Depression. His evidence was the opposition of almost all the economists and the fact that the market broke after the tariff was signed into law (241f.). That though does not constitute evidence. The market's having sunk is by itself not evidence. The old saw of, correlation is not causation is at work here. The fact that many economists opposed the tariff is also not evidence. Indeed, Rothbard did not accept stable prices as being a beneficial goal of monetary policy despite many economists having recommended it as policy. Moreover, there was an earlier tariff, the Fordney-McCumber Tariff, which went into effect in 1922, and was just as onerous as Smoot-Hawley. Yet, it seems not to have caused any lasting real effects. Rothbard, without having done any of the heavy lifting with regard to analyzing the costs of the Smoot-Hawley, then stated (241)" ... it was at a precarious time of depression that the Hoover administration chose to hobble international trade, injure the American consumer, and cripple the American farmers' export markets by raising tariffs higher than their already high levels." This is economics by assertion. It proves nothing.



3. If we are talking about collectivist government privileges interfering with the sound functioning of a prosperous economy, Rothbard knows we can't start researching the Great Depression with Roosevelt's response to an economic collapse. Rather, there's not much to be said about him in this book.
   
   Rather we look to some pretty non-traditional trends in government power. We go before WWI and the ensuing debt, and the resulting advantages in the world economy. Rothbard even goes into a history of America's previous depressions, which we don't hear about, and were all treated with an increased laissez-faire attitude. So we aren't given a "The Great Depression changed everything" theory of unsound economics, just like in foreign policy "9/11 changed everything". In the 1900's, we get a slew of "progressive" government interference with markets. This is not only the FED, but the income tax (reaching 79% in the middle of the depression), union privilege, increased government spending, removing domestic links between the dollar and gold, "protectionist" tariff hikes, price controls, and eventually a mix of fascism and socialism.
   
   Part of what Democrats don't like to hear is that Roosevelt was personally complemented by Hitler and Mussolini on his fascist economic system. Eventually America would "solve" its depression the same way Italy and Germany did - nationalism for war and increased military spending.
   
   But part of what Republican's don't like to hear is that Hoover started the New Deal, which Rothbard shows is what prevents the economy from recovering as it did in all previous depressions. Hoover supported wage controls in a deflating economy, forcing unemployment, which many people believe WAS the defining characteristic of the depression. Others believe it was the stock market crash. But any quick glance at the changes of money supply shows why prices had to do what they did. In an environment of artificially loose credit created by expanding the money supply, the ability to pay loans and make profitable loans, or even any long-term fixed rate contract, depends upon prediction of the central figures who determine how loose credit will be. Even a small change at the government and FED level can cause a sizeable bust.
   
   Many hold "speculation" accountable, saying that the rampant gains of capitalism spurred this reckless speculation. Well, what could be more recklessly speculative than a small group of men trying to set a monetary policy that would simultaneously create massive credit and consumerism? To function properly, the market would have to speculate the decisions of these people, who were trying to speculate the market. There's your excess speculation, which doesn't happen with sound money.
   
   Rothbard gives a lengthy and powerful description of the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle, which Hayek would eventually win a Nobel Prize for. Also, Higgs shows how the depression could have been considered to last until 1946, if you don't believe that military production bought with debt indicates a good economy. Keynesian and military-keynesian approaches to solving depressions took almost 20 years to fix after an inflationary boom of 8 years.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone interested in a mixture of government policy and the economics behind the Great Depression. It contains well-written arguments and factual numbers to support them. It is not hard to read, although it will read easier if you know a thing or two about economics. Rothbard shines in being able to speak in clear and simple terms while delivering powerful arguments that anyone should be able to grasp.
   
   I do not recommend this book to anyone who is dead-set upon socialism or fascism; however, if you haven't heard of the Austrian Business Cycle Theory to explain the Great Depression, you cannot be dead-set upon those principles. Take the time to read this book. Rational debate requires complete knowledge of opposition viewpoints.
   
   I would supplement this book with other literature from Mises, as well as study the financial situation of Japan in the 90's.



4. We all understand that particular industries and markets may go through hard times at one point or another. But what causes an entire economy to flourish, only to contract at a later date? What causes the entire economy to misread the economic signs? What causes the entire economy to misforecast and make bad investments? What causes a "Cluster of Errors"?
   
   It is hard to believe that anyone could casually discount Rothbard's analysis of the business cycle and the Great Depression given America's current struggle with a depressed housing market caused by the villian that Rothbard goes to great lengths to describe: Credit Expansion.
   
   The fact that this book was written 40 years ago, and that it is just as applicable to today's market as it is to the market in 1929, adds to the intellectual weight and veracity of this work.
   
   This is not a historical narrative, this is a book on economics. It first explains Ludwig Von Mises theory concerning boom-bust business cycles as they are caused by loose Federal monetary policy and loose lending by banks. It then delves into the history of the Great Depression, applying the theory to the history. In terms of readability, I found the book very easy to read and very compelling. In terms of economic analysis I found Rothbard's arguments in favor of Mise's theories regarding the business cycle to be very thorough and convincing.
   
   The Austrian School of Economics is not mainstream. Rothbard is not Friedman, and he is not Keynes. It is unfortunate that some reviewers were hoping to read an echo-chamber for Lord Keynes or Milton Friedman, and seemed to rate Rothbard based on how close Rothbard's theories and conclusions were to the theories and conclusions of their favorite economist.
   
   It is also unfortunate that some of the reviewers were not expecting an economic analysis, but their false expectations should not reflect poorly on the author or his work.



5. In his 1982 introduction to the third edition, Rothbard wrote: "A Democratic administration may be expected to inflate with even more enthusiasm (than the Reagan administration was then engaged in doing). We can look forward, therefore, not precisely to a 1929-type depression, but to an inflationary depression of massive proportions." Although premature in this prognosis, the state of the economy in October 2008 makes Rothbard's remark sound prescient. Anyone wondering whether or not the economic rescue plan of Congress and the Bush administration, or those of the two main presidential candidates, can cure the current depression must read Rothbard's analysis of the 1929 version.
   
   Certainly the current depression vindicates Rothbard of the charges against him (as well as against Ludwig von Mises and the entire Austrian-school of economics) leveled by Amazon critic Jack L. Rutner. Mr. Rutner purports to be an economist himself, yet demonstrates in his review that he fails to comprehend the methodology of economics. Every one of the charges Rutner makes against Rothbard, von Mises and the Austrian school were considered and incisively refuted by von Mises in a 150-page, 1962 essay entitled, which is also available from Amazon (The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method). Rutner obviously suffers from a weakness described by von Mises therein: "The epistemologist who starts his lucubrations from the analysis of the methods of the natural sciences and whom blinkers prevent from perceiving anything beyond this field tells us merely that the natural sciences are the natural sciences and that what is not natural science is not natural science. About the sciences of human action he does not know anything, and therefore all that he utters is of no consequence."

No comments about Donald Trump- Real Estate Investing, Master Secrets to Getting Rich, 16 Disc Set w/FREE Travel Case.

5 comments about The One Minute Salesperson.

1. Compared with the monstrous success of "One Minute Manager", this sales version is kind of disappointed. The book still keeps the simple style to present main stages of sales with diagrams and big bold words. In each stage, it also tries its best to describe the process flow with necessary details.
   
   However, I found it's kind of awkward to navigate in those diagrams for fast comprehension. Furthermore, the extended connection with goal setting, reward, and punishment weakens the emphasis of some key factors of sales: finding customer needs, telling a compelling story, and winning the trust.
   
   Maybe salesmanship is the kind of art which is too hard to teach in a short book (just like the leadership). At this scenario, I would rather to read the big and great book for best descriptions (even as big as Michael Porter's giant volumes for competitive advantage). Otherwise, I'll just save the money to treat my sales mentor a Latte in the Starbucks (after browsing this book at the book store).



2. I think this is a worthwhile book for someone who is beginning a sales career or has an antagonist attitude toward the profession, but wants to change that maybe because they are starting a business, doing consulting, etc. It is particularly good for people who don't feel comfortable with the whole idea of selling, but realize it's an important skill and is even required in daily life e.g. to sell an idea, convince a child to do something in their best interests, etc.
   
   I have read some reviews of this book that sound harsh; I think that some of them may be overstated. While this book is short, simple and a quick read, it does a very good job of driving the basics home in a way that represents the sales profession well and honors an ethical approach to business. While the ideas themselves are simple, their application on a daily basis is not. If you read this book and embody the principles, it will make a big difference in your attitude toward sales as a profession, to your customers and to your personal income.
   
   I think almost everyone reading this has probably been on the receiving end of a bad or unscrupulous salesperson. They unfortunately are not rare and give the profession a bad name. Their tactics are coercive and manipulative. This is not the kind of sales that this book talks about.
   
   Personally, I think a good salesperson earns their money by helping a customer to understand their needs, asks powerful questions that bring out the implications of their customer's business situation and presents options that the customer will feel good about. They also build relationships based on trust, superior product knowledge and professionalism. They keep their commitments, follow through on promises and know the difference between persuasion and manipulation.
   
   This book is a book that uses story to demonstrate what makes a professional salesperson in the best sense of the word. In a nutshell, it's about mastering the basics and doing them from the heart, not with a desire to manipulate. I think this is a worthwhile message to get out there and it really does work, espeically in the long run.
   
   Golfers, bowlers and other athletes revisit the basics frequently, often practicing them on a daily basis. The same principle applies to sales and this book does a good job of driving home the importance of mastering fundamental sales skills.
   
   I agree with some reviews that this book is light on content. However, if a potential salesperson learns even one thing from this book that helps them to do their job better, they will easily pay for the cost of a new copy. If they form one good habit as a result of reading it, it will pay for itself many times over. With that said, why not buy it used if you are skeptical and worried that it will be a quick read? The words are the same and you might learn something. (I do agree that this book is overpriced, however.)
   
   Personally, I have read this book more than once and I have periodically reviewed the material throughout the years. I don't think it's as good as the "One Minute Manager," but it's good. It's difficult to be a GREAT salesperson. You need to study the principles, embody them and maintain your balance, integrity and ethical principles often in the face of tempting or difficult situations. Given this reality, I think a book like this that inspires is a worthwhile read. This is especially true in a profession where a lot of people slam doors in your face and you need to deal well with rejection every day.



3. I loved the one minute manager and I love the one minute sales Person. Sound principles in less than a minute. In the book he includes the most important thing that sales reps forget is to sell yourself first.



4. This book was suggested to me by my office manager and I was underwhelmed! The sing-songy writing and "story-telling" impressed me as juvenile and sophomoric. The "tips" were nothing more than the basics of common courtesy and commitment to customer service that anyone who has experienced a good degree of success in their profession would have already mastered or they would not be successful in the first place. Perhaps if you were clueless it might be helpful, but it left me cold.



5. I bought this book for one of my Call Center sales and service agents. His customer service skills were excellent but he was reluctant to "sell people on something they don't need or can't afford." If they didn't ask about a product, he didn't tell them about it. If he didn't increase his sales quickly, I would be forced to let him go. After reading this book, the employee realized that telling customers about the benefits of our products was merely an extension of good customer service. He said he learned to "visualize the sale" before he answered each call. Immediately his sales increased and he has been one of my most consistent performers in the three months since he read the book. He has increased his potential income from $26,000 to about $43,000 annually due to meeting pay-for-performance goals plus commission. Now my other employees want to read it too and I had to order 3 more copies for my 22 person team. A quick read even for those who don't normally think of themselves as book learners.

1 comments about Doing What Matters: How to Get Results That Make a Difference - The Revolutionary Old-Fashioned Approach.

1. I usually find business books very boring. If it's written by a business leader, these books tend to be a bit self-congradulatory, and don't really explain how to do something. If written by an academic, these tend to be very Aristotelian--that is, categorize well, but don't don't explain the pressures involved when something needs to get done. If written by a business author, tends to be hyped.
   
   When I tried the audio here, I was truly surprised. I learned a lot. The author explains his business management concepts very well. These are practical and theoritical. I have to admit I haven't tried too many business audios, but have read many business books. This is probably the best business course I've ever had from a business leader.

4 comments about Real Estate Goldmine: How to get Rich Investing in Pre-Foreclosures (Audio Business Course).

1. If you like real estate -- and want to make money in real estate -- who better to listen to than Donald Trump and Gary Eldred? Everyone knows what Trump has done in real estate -- there are a billion good reasons to hear what he has to say. Eldred has written over 20 books on real estate, and I took two of his real estate courses at Trump University [...] -- all were great. Anyway, this audio business course was really good and very entertaining. If you want to learn about making big $$$ pre-foreclosure properties, this is a great place to start. Check it out.



2. This is interesting and some what informative but not worth 49,39,29 or even $19.99. If you have a friend you can borrow it from or can find someone to buy it from for $10 it might be worth it. The program is extremely vague and is given with the detail of a free pamphlet someone left on your car windshield. Get any book from the library on real estate and it will give you more information than this program. Donald Trump is great but there are no trade secretes in here. Save your money.



3. I thought this information presented in a well thought out, precise manner. Becasue of this purchase, I intend to purchase other products form this source.



4. There is a fairly good audio presentation by Gary Eldred, PHD. There is no 12 month study course. The web site has not been updated since March, 2007 and the course essentially does not exist.

5 comments about The Little Book of Value Investing.

1. The author states that over a long period of time value companies have outperformed the growth companies. You buy a value company when you pay less its intrinsic value (Buy Stocks On Sale). The key aspect of value investing is an ability to analyze financial statements of the company. The author explains, in the very friendly manner, such indicators of an intrinsic value like Operating Income, Current Assets vs Total Assets (and liabilities), Operating Margin, EBITD Margin, "Margin of Safety" and so on.
   
   The author declares that you can reduce the risk of loss in case of one stock's failure by building a diversified portfolio. However, when it comes to emerging markets, the authors suggest bewaring of them because of the frequent political disasters in particular countries. I do not agree with the author's advice of totally avoiding emerging markets. As an ETF of U.S. stocks like SPDR Trust (SPY) saves from one company's failure, an ETF that includes most of emerging countries, like iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (EEF) can save from a failure in one of the countries. Alternatively, you can build a portfolio of stocks in different emerging countries (as if you do this for U.S. stocks) by yourself without using an ETF or an index mutual fund.
   
   The author also proclaims that cognitive psychology explains why some investors make huge losses because of fear, panic, or following the crowd when it comes to hot sexy stocks. If you like the topic of how cognitive psychology affects investors, I can recommend "The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't" by Kenneth L. Fisher.



2. Great book as an introduction to the principles of value investing as laid out by Benjamin Graham. Very easy to read. With about 140 pages, you can get through this book in a couple of hours.
   
   I'd use this as a warm up book to Intelligent Investor.



3. I learned from a broad range of investing books, and I got this one primarily because it was a short book. I'm only about half way through it, but I think it is very well written. It has some important information on how to approach researching a company. One of the glaring failures is how rapidly the trading environment can change. The book specifically tells investors to avoid China, and I've been making a lot of money investing in my first Chinese company. Read and learn, but ultimately decide for yourself on what you want to buy.



4. This a very clear and concise book--another one, all of which seem lately to contain the same wisdom: buy low (and buy smart). I'm trying. You can still pay too much, or buy too soon, or catch the wrong end of a falling knife, etc. But it's certainly a far better idea than taking hot tips from e-mails, or from brokers.



5. This book was an easy read that introduced the concepts of value investing very well. It will open up a lot of possibilities for those who take notes. If the reader does not know a single thing about stocks this book will have some concepts that will take some time and practice before fully understanding them. That is why I would recommend getting another book that defines stock market terms and concepts in a beginner's format in conjunction with this one. There are some websites online, such as ABOUT.COM that offers a helpful "class" on stocks that will be most beneficial.
   
   I thought this was an outstanding book for the beginner investor to help them establish good trading habits early on, but will leave them wanting more. To become truly successful at trading, more care and education will be necessary. In no way was this a magic book of knowledge that will leave the reader capable of making millions overnight, which, by the way, isn't what this book is about.
   
   This book is HIGHLY recommended for the beginner investor, and recommended for the intermediate investor.

5 comments about Smart Couples Finish Rich: Nine Steps to Creating a Rich Future For You and Your Partner.

1. I am a financial advisor and I keep a copy of this in my office to lend to clients. It has excellent advice, is easy and fun to read, and helps get couples on the same page in setting goals, saving, budgeting, etc.



2. This book is one of the greatest books I have gotten my hands on. I am a newlywed and in my young adult-hood, I have decided that it is time to get my finances on track. I have taken my husband by the hand and we have now made it a ritual that every Wednesday we make time to sit down and plan our finances and our future together. We are only on the second chapter because we complete all of the exercises in the book. The author David Bach has a writing style that is simple, fun, imaginative and to the point. Every time I pick up the book I feel like I have my own personal financial advisor advising my husband and me. Getting your finances in order is a step by step process that requires the mind, patience, discipline and the willing to achieve. Check out what I have written in a year from now and I'll tell you how I am managing my millions!!!



3. Maxed-out credit cards. Depleted savings. Underfunded retirement accounts. Millions of couples struggle with common financial issues, but instead of looking for solutions, they perpetuate harmful behaviors by bickering, blaming and, in many cases, divorcing. David Bach, author of the best-selling Smart Women Finish Rich, says you'll never solve your money problems if you view your partner as the enemy. It's not all your fault, though. Typically, people do not discuss money openly, so individuals may know very little about their spouse's financial priorities, philosophy and history. Establishing and maintaining an open line of communication is pivotal to sensible financial planning as a couple. You don't have to agree on everything. You don't even have to change. You just have to work together. Bach shows couples how to get on the same page. Using clear (in fact, somewhat simplified) formulas and charts, he tells them how to handle saving, spending, investing and retiring. getAbstract thinks that Bach's conservative approach makes sense. So does his emphasis on making your relationship - not money - your number one priority. Whether or not you finish rich, at least you'll be happy.



4. It would have been better had I not been single at the time of reading this!



5. First off let me say two things, 1. I have a degree in business 2. I own my own company and have a pretty strong operation with more than 40 employees. That said,
   I loved the book. It compiles all the information you need. Everything that you have been putting off, and that you knew you had to do, and think about, but you managed to always say "I'll do it later" or "my husband takes care of that", well all that is in this book, simple and straightforward.
   Thinking about retirement is important, for me, very much so since I have three children. And even though I have a very strong business background, these are thing that you don't learn at school, or at work. The basic premise is that very little adds up to a lot. The author presents the math in a very straight-forward manner, and he really gets you thinking, NO, acting upon it. I also appreciated all the helpful web links that took me directly to updated information. It opened up a whole door, on talking about finances with my kids, opening up a retirement account for them (why NOT?- why shouldn't they start saving now?) All in all, even if you have your finances in order, read it, it will give you great ideas and allow you to know if you are on the right track, or if there is something better to do....

5 comments about Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work.

1. this is one another classic from John Maxwell. There are lot many things explained in this book that can help us in our daily life, profession/ business..



2. John C. Maxwell and his team have gathered 11 excellent ways to categorize thinking styles, as well as some introductory chapters on related topics, such as the need to approach life with a positive attitude instead of negative. The approach is typical for self-help books. Tell a story about how someone resolved an issue or experienced a breakthrough using the right kind of thinking, just as you, too, can do if you open your mind and really try.
   
   The stories range from trivial to very effective, and they work best if your own personal learning style works from anecdotes better than mine does. In this book, treat the stories more as examples that as instructions. Maxwell makes one good point after another. What you won't get is a lot of advice on how you can take concrete steps to shore up weaknesses. The basic premise is that the exercises and suggested time for contemplation will help the reader to have better self-awareness and acknowledge the benefits of corrective action. I didn't really feel like doing the exercises, so no doubt I undermined the material's effectiveness.
   
   Mr. Maxwell goes easy on the religious references, which suits his wide target audience. The ones he uses are always low key and reasonable, so a non-religious reader should not be bothered at all.
   
   Again, his list of 11 types of thinking is spot-on. Anyone who aspires to leadership must demonstrate most of them, and many of them relate even to young, junior people. As Mr. Maxwell says, it's never to early to raise your game.



3. In Thinking for a Change, Mr. John Maxwell explores how the way we approach thinking affects our lives. The book is broken out into two main parts. Part I is titled, "Change Your Thinking and Change Your Life". Part II is titled, "Eleven Thinking Skills Every Successful Person Needs. In this part he discusses several different types of thinking which are listed below and how to become more proficient at each...
   
   * Big Picture Thinking
   * Focused Thinking
   * Creative Thinking
   * Realistic Thinking
   * Strategic Thinking
   * Possibility Thinking
   * Reflective Thinking
   * Popular Thinking
   * Shared Thinking
   * Unselfish Thinking
   * Bottom Line Thinking
   
   I believe this is one of those books that the best way to truly unlock it's value is to read it through once and then go back to individual chapters and read and contemplate the ideas of that particular chapter over a week or two period. With this approach you get an overview of what Mr. Maxwell is trying to get at and then you dive deeper into the details and find applications to your life. At this point I have only read it once through. I believe with further contemplation this could be a five star book.
   
   Below are a few interesting tidbits I took away after my initial run through Thinking for a Change...
   
   * The Right Thought plus the Right People in the Right Environment at the Right Time for the Right Reason = The Right Result (pg. 43)
   
   * When team members come to me with a problem, I insist that they that they also supply three possible ways to solve it. Anyone can point out a problem; only people who think well can present possible solutions. (pg. 101)
   
   * Solid strategic thinkers always know that unless people are working to correct or bolster an area that needs discipline, they should always spend most of their time working in and developing their areas of strength. (pg. 148)



4. Should be required reading for all college freshman. From its examples to its suggestions on how to improve one's thinking, it is well thought out and full of insight. If you ever want to seperate yourself from the herd, then read this book and put into practice its recommendations.



5. The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life
   
   Thinking for a Change is packed with great ideas for succeeding in business and life.
   
   This is one of my favorite Maxwell books even though it falls out of his normal leadership content. In this book, John explains what it means to be a good thinker and also highlights the eleven skills every successful person needs including Big Picture Thinking, Creative Thinking, Strategic Thinking, Possibility Thinking, Unselfish Thinking and several more.
   
   I reread this each year and always notice new insights and better approaches to my business and life.I have highlighted significant portions and have used this book as much personally as for business.
   
   This is also a Top 20 recommendation for my coaching clients at The 1% Club, Inc.

5 comments about Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know.

1. Very interesting story on Google. I give it 5 stars for sure. You don't see many people actually telling the actual google Story, so I thought it was a great idea for this author to cover it.



2. Early in "Planet Google" Stross points out that Google's income reached $4.2 billion in 2997 - 99% from the simple text ads that accompany its search returns. Readers also learn that 68% of Internet searches use Google. Thus, one suspects that at least some of Google's current new activities (eg. creating a digital library of all books, providing video search capability, server-supplied software and central data storage, StreetView, translating between languages, voice-to-text capability) are a dangerous distraction from Google's main business (especially creating a digital library of all books - strongly fought by publishers and still lacking an income-generating plan, as well as the book. Similarly, video search is also opposed on copyright grounds, while StreetView has been lambasted as an invasion of privacy and aid to terrorists, GMail blasted as "creepy" for providing ads based on message content, and Google News also attacked on a copyright basis.
   
   Stross also is oblivious to the fact that eventually other Internet-search engines will catch up with Google, its search services will become a much-cheaper commodity, and the company's ability to reward and retain staff will precipitously decline. (It's called "product-life cycle," taught in every business school, and there are no long-term antidotes.) Further, Stross woefully short-circuits a key current and future problem - Google's data-center energy costs - undoubtedly because Google doesn't want to discuss it. Finally, Google's page ranking and Web-searching algorithms do not receive enough attention, while "open" vs. "closed" source coding receives entirely too much.
   
   Nonetheless, "Google Earth" is mostly interesting reading. Google's power derives from the accidental discovery, two years after its founding, that plain text ads on its search pages produce enormous profits. Another key innovation was its requiring that ads be directly relevant to the search and ranking them according to projected income to Google (bid/click X probability of being clicked).
   
   Google's search engine did not start out perfect - 1998 queries sometimes took ten seconds. In 1999 the search engine reviewed only 60 million sites, but the company then aggressively set a goal for 1 billion - at the time, AltaVista, its largest competitor, indexed only 150 million. (Google indexed 8 billion Web pages by 2004, the last year it made data available.) Another important Google advantage was gained by choosing to use low-cost standard PCs as servers, vs. competitors' choosing more expensive, specialized machines. Still another important decision was to avoid human involvement in the search output, contrary to Yahoo, which of course eventually found this approach too slow and expensive.
   
   Bottom Line: Google benefited from lucky and judicious decisions early in its history, as well as very well designed software; however, it now risks sliding downhill by trying to do too many things.



3. The book's title flatters to deceive. The "audacious plan to organize everything we know" has significant impacts on almost all aspects of our lives and how new IT business models emerge - privacy, accessibility, level playing ground for education, security, etc..; growth of software-as-a-service and service-oriented architecture. Despite these meaty issues that the author's premise would have allowed him to provide an in-depth analysis of the trends and implications, he chooses to provide a superficial narration that reads more like a Businessweek article. To be fair, the author did write a few sentences on the above topics, but only as an introduction to his narration of some of the behind-the-scenes incidents that shaped Google's growth. After various authors have done this before, (more notable example - The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Time and The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture), this book breaks relatively new ground for even a casual reader in this space. Nevertheless, the narrations discussing the algorithm itself, and Google's foray into video search and Youtube, travails with Google Answers, email scanning and search, the ambitious book scanning project, and growth pains of Google Maps are entertaining and provides some interesting tidbits. For someone familiar with the search space and avid user of Google, some of these discussions may seem yesterday's news.
   
   Even if it is not, the author misses an opportunity to analyze the fundamental impact Google's 'audacious plan' can have on us. The most glaring omission is Google Health - here is an attempt by Google to develop an ecosystem that stores electronic health records and allows other service providers to tap into this information as and when the owner of the health record permits. The implications of this can be far-reaching and a game changer for how healthcare is viewed in the world, particularly in the U.S. There is perhaps one tangential reference to Google Health in the book.
   
   The book is well narrated, with a sense of urgency that keeps the reader captivated. The notes section of the book is well-organized and provides additional citations and information for the more serious reader (in fact, if some of the information that are now hidden in the notes section had found its way to the main text, the book may have read better). Overall, an entertaining read, but providing no or superficial analysis/insights.



4. For readers who appreciated The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, this book loosely picks up where the former book sort of left off. "The Search" (by different author and published in 2005) covers the origin and growth of general Web search technology and the rise of Google the company up to the point shortly after its IPO. "Planet Google" mainly takes a look at what the company has been doing since (circa 2004-08) and focuses on Google's many attempted forays into products and technologies beyond the core Web search. A chapter is dedicated for each of Google's better-known endeavors, namely book digitization, video/YouTube, Google Earth/Maps, datacenter buildup, Gmail and privacy issues, the go for open-source everything, and the debate of machine-only vs. human-assisted search algorithm.
   
   The author claims to enjoy fairly generous access to Google's facilities and some of its top executives, including CEO Eric Schmidt. The book provides a quick read and is much shorter than the number of pages would suggest as the last 75 pages contain only massive amount of footnotes. It will certainly delight those who have always been fascinated by everything Google.



5. An interesting book about the history of Google, and many of the projects it's undertaken over the years. Most of projects would be impossible to pursue without the revenue Google rakes in with it's search advertising program.
   
   Somehow this otherwise fine story about Google omits the full story about it's FINANCIAL success. Almost all of Google's revenue is from it's search engine advertising, which the founders resisted introducing because they felt it was inconsistent with their objectives.
   
   Google's search engine ads are based on a model pioneered by GoTo -- later renamed Overture, then purchased by Yahoo! -- in the late 90's. A year or two after GoTo demonstrated the viability of such a model, Google started their own search engine advertising. Google's program rapidly became the success it did because their basic search engine was superior, and preferred by the public. I've used all 3 services to advertise an online business over the years. Google ads (and regular searches) have received BY FAR the most hits.
   
   I'm a big fan of Google, and use many of their services. That said, I wonder how much longer their current business model will work where ad revenues are financing everything they do.