Bank

Save your money. Nothing these books tell you (which you can get off the net) will save you money--and the information will get you into trouble besides.

The real professionals don't need books. The rest of us need to invest our money wisely, and not send it to Adam Starchild.

If no-risk is as much risk as you're willing to absorb, you should know about a unique, tax-free annuity that's completely private, in a country world renown as a bastion of safety and privacy. What's more, the profits are guaranteed by the nation's government. Hold it in any currency you choose -- Swiss francs, German marks, U.S. dollars -- and change whenever you wish, as often as you like. Over the last 25 years, this strong, safe annuity averaged over 10% yield annually. That yield, combined with currency gains, would have turned a $50,000 investment in 1971 into $633,100 today; a 955% gain -- with absolutely no risk. (A U.S. annuity at the same rate of interest would be worth a mere $169,300 today.) You'll find the details on this investment in Swiss Money Secrets.

Investing in Swiss francs is, simply stated, the best road to international diversification. The turbulence in global equity markets does not alter the case for investing in safe, fixed-income instruments abroad. In fact, it underlines the importance of having Swiss franc denominated annuities in an investment portfolio -- an investment which Adam Starchild describes in great detail in Swiss Money Secrets. If your tolerance for Wall Street's volatility is running out or if you wish to fortify your portfolio against a worldwide crash, you would be well-advised to look into these crash-proof investments.

This has the basic knowledge need to manage your finacing ranging from simple budgeting, credit, stocks and mutual funds, Certificate of Deposit, how to read the market and the prime rate and what it all means. Also, it provides the mental mindset you need to manage and spend money properly, without resorting to short term spending splurges. There's tables for calcuating college funds, morgages, and retirements but most importantly how to avoid the many traps and scams many vendors use to make money off of you without providing any extra services. The one thing I found somewhat worrysome is the way the authors protrayed the banks and other institutions to the point of scaring the reader into being nearly paranoid of all financial instistutions. The fees these institutions charge are describe in the book with good details. A good "how to avoid pitfalls" book.

I love this book! Before reading this book, I wondered how anyone could ever save money in the world today. It has helped me to mangage my money easily. An easy to read book, which I use now as a reference whenever I have a question concerning my personal finances. I finally started a 401K, bought a house, a new car, and I am finally learning to save some money,instead of living paycheck to paycheck.

This book gave me invaluable advice regarding my finances. I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone! I have adopted many strategies in the book to save for a rainy day. Thank you, and when are you coming out with another edition?

Chris Marrison's book is something I have been seeking for a very long time. It is well organized and easy to read. I have spent several years in strategic financial services consulting, wherein a strong foundation in risk measurement concepts and tools is essential for consultants across experience levels. Though having studied undergraduate finance and statistics, I ended up developing my rudimentary (and incomplete) knowledge of risk measurement in a very ad-hoc, context-specific and inefficent fashion. Now an MBA student at Harvard, I come across peers also seeking to understand the business, technical and practical aspects of risk measurement, as conceptually, 'risk management' is a common idea but an abstract practice for many professionals. There is no other textbook I've come across that addresses the essentials of risk measurement in as tangible a manner. I will not hesitate to recommend this book as a great primer to fellow students. The only caveat I offer is that this book is for those truly interested in jumping into the practical applications of risk measurement - for more of an overview of risk management theory, or esoterica for that matter, you're better off looking elsewhere.

Moving from academia to the real world is made much smoother with this great text by Dr. Marrison. This book integrates interest rate, liquidity and credit risk with bank management perfectly. Anyone interested in gaining a strong economic background with a quantitative degree like myself will find this book extremely useful.

Marrison has written an outstanding book on risk management. What is attractive about the treatment is the fact that it covers all aspects of risk management for financial institutions. Lots of books focus only on "new" techniques (VaR, portfolio credit risk models) or only on "traditional" techniques (credit analysis, ALM). Marrison treats them all, and uses capital allocation as a unifying theme.

Two previous reviews that suggest Marrison is too basic or merely repeats other authors are, in my humble opinion, dishonest. Marrison is a sophisticated book for sophisticated readers who are new to risk management. This includes MBA students taking courses on the capital markets or risk management. It also includes professionals working in their first risk management position. Marrison did not invent VaR or ALM, but authors of other books did not invent these concepts either. An author's task is to describe established concepts in a manner that is accessible to and useful for his audience. In this respect, Marrison's book is a dramatic step forward. His choice of topics, organization and writing are superb.

One of those previous reviews recommended that you read books by certain other authors instead of Marrison. Of those books, the only one that Marrison competes with is Jorion's Value-at-Risk. Marrison is an order of magnitude better than that book. The other books cover unrelated topics or are more advanced treatises on specific topics. You might graduate to such books from Marrison, but they are not alternatives to Marrison.

Finally, you can't beat the price on this book. Marrison simultaneously offers a bargain AND one of the best books available on risk management.

There has to be an easier way to get characters to make life-altering revelations than "Gravesend Light". Does it really take a Perfect Storm and a guy (Ray) (just out of jail and so sure that love is what it is, that it doesn't matter who you love as long as you love someone), a pregnant teen 'outed' in church who comes to the protagonist's lover for an abortion, all the while the lover is pregnant and has to decide for herself if the choice was not using the diaphragm or keeping the baby, while our hero has somehow talked his way onto a fishing boat while trying to be an anthropologist and is undergoing a sea-change while the rest of the cast undergoes an earthchange. Phew.

Okay what really bugged me was at the end of the book when Joe and Day decided what to do (I won't spoil it for you have hadn't read it yet) and Day says- "Sounds like a plan". Life's weighty issues for well over 300 pages and that's what she says. Indeed after playing with his marriage proposal like a teen being asked to the prom. Day wasn't that shallow the entire book but at the end she's as shallow as the water he washed-up on.

I first saw David Payne on cable channel Book TV. He was explaining how GRAVESEND LIGHT was nearly "orphaned" and not published. What a shame that would have been. This was a wonderful read, start to finish, and I will surely be going back to his prior works. Joe's claim that there are two covenants: "self-realization and self-sacrifice-and that they are completely incapatible" rang throughout this wonderful journey. And we will all of us (men) learn much from the strength of Day. I was sucked into the undertow of this story from the start and I never wanted to escape. It was an magnificent undertow. At times I drifted; other times I was carried willingly. Bravo, Mr. Payne. This was a wonderful read.

Wow, the preceding review from "S. Boston" was so wrong-headed and so wrong-hearted, I just had to respond. I've read Early from the Dance, Ruin Creek and Gravesand Light and though Ruin Creek is my personal favorite, this book is FAR tighter, far more disciplined than Early to the Dance, and it's heart is just as big. Pro-Life? WHERE did you get that? One of the truly admirable things about this novel is that it puts forward both the pro-life and pro-choice positions without tipping the scale in either direction; it's fair to both and, as such, completely devastating. And as far as Day, a pro-choice OB having unprotected sex, this story is about where PC politics breaks down and simple humanity takes over. DAY has a human moment-- are we going to pillory her for that? She lets herself slip-- doesn't this happen to committed Yale-educated pro-choice OBs just as much as to anybody else? Plus, she's desperately in love when this happens, and they're in the middle of an unfoldiung crisis, and there's alcohol. What makes the scene so great is that Payne had the guts to ALLOW her to be human in definace of PC dictates. If anything, I think the book ultimatly tips-- just slightly, slightly-- toward the pro-choice side, but it's really not about politics, finally, it's about being human, and how we repeat the destructive cycles we learn in youth from our mothers and fathers, and how, sometimes, with great luck and bravery, we break out of them and set ourselves free. No let down here.

Russell Banks' short stories (as well as his novels) have a vivacity created at least in part by his willingness and ability to shift his mindset in a way that can only be described as brilliantly bi-polar. He can recreate tropical landscapes and moods, but his native New England is depicted as a disturbingly poetic tundra with equal skill. Russell Banks' novels and short stories are a treasure for American literature. It's nice to finally see his brutally honest work receive the attention it has long deserved.

This guy is great. His writing is so spare, so tender and so beautiful it's almost too good! This does mean the book lasts longer than most as you have to keep setting it down to gasp in wonderment, shake your head and think about what you've just read. I love Russell Banks!

I'm not much of a reader, but after someone read me one of the short stories in this book, I had to get it. It's great. The plots are fascinating, the characters believable, and many of the stories will make your jaw drop. Each story left me wanting to read the one after it! I couldn't put this book down until I finished it.

I looked forward to the book Welcome to Heavenly Heights by Risa Miller after reading the blurbs on the back of the book. And I fully expected to enjoy this book since it was set in Israel where I have enjoyed visting. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would and seriously doubt I will suggest it to other readers.

The book takes place on the West bank of Israel. There in a volatile setting in an apartment complex known as Heavenly Heights are several American couples who have chosen to make "aliyot" to the promised land. Imbued with a sense of urgency to live in this land some are ill prepared for the reality of the country and their very existence. While the men worship together and seek out jobs, it is the women who form a support group to survive their days and nights in such a viloent climate. The book seemed to me more like interwoven stories depicting each families trials and attitudes rather than one narrative. And while some of the characters and events were more interesting than others, ultimately I felt the book was flat and failed as a good read.

This book is the debut novel of Risa Miller who obviously not only has an intimate knowledge of the land but also the feelings of those who emigrate expecting one kind of life and getting something else instead. But I am still not sure why I didn't enjoy this book more. Even now several days after I've finished the book I can't put my finger on it. Perhaps it is the state of world affairs at this time. Or perhaps it is the news of what life is like in Israel today which overshadowed my enjoyment of this book. For sure Ms. Miller fully depicted the difficulties American families have making "aliyot" although in the end I didn't find her characters all that interesting or sympathetic.

That said I now ask myself if I would I read this author in the future? I am sure I will since I found the writing was quite good, at times even beautiful. I only hope I find her characters in future novels more compelling since I enjoy character driven novels best.

Risa Miller's first novel, "Welcome to Heavenly Heights," is a series of vignettes about a group of people living in the same building on the West Bank. The protagonists of this novel are American Jews who have left the comfort and security of their homes for a precarious existence as settlers in a disputed area of the Middle East.

Mike and Tova are one of the couples who make the move. She is a bit skeptical about leaving their comfortable home in Baltimore, but Mike will not allow Tova's qualms to get in the way of his vision for their future. Another settler is Debra, a convert who originally came from Appalachia. She is the daughter of an absentee Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother. Debra loves to sing and her sunny disposition is infectious. Less sunny is Sandy, the mother of an only child, Yossi. Yossi has emotional problems and he is always getting into one scrape or another. Sandy and her husband, Nathan, have their hands full keeping their rambunctious son on an even keel.

Miller's book is not political, nor is it linear. There is no plot to speak of. The author acts as a photographer, taking snapshots of the residents of building number four in Heavenly Heights. We get to know these settlers only briefly and we see them as fallible people, each with his or her own issues, who have chosen to risk everything for their ideals.

Miller has attempted a difficult literary feat, and she does not completely succeed. The book has an unfinished feel, and there are several sections that left me merely puzzled as to what the author was trying to say. However, Miller does succeed in depicting the tremendous personal sacrifices that the settlers made when they chose to live in Heavenly Heights.

While newscasters trumpet the latest statistics from one of the most vied for areas of the world, first time novelist Miller puts very human faces on an often misunderstood way of living. Her perceptions are astute, her prose meticulous, and her powers of observation remarkable.

This is the story of a group of American Jews who leave the United States to make Aliyah - they go to Israel, to a settlement on the West Bank. It is the first year in their new home that Miller traces with artist's eye and abundant heart as she depicts a culture and a faith through their dinners, weddings, births, marriages, adjustments, and mikvahs.

What must it be like, what motivates one to leave the comforts of America for a dangerous place where car and bus bombings are a daily occurrence? Couple that fear with an iffy water system, a tedious, sometimes blind bureaucracy, and construction that often would not pass inspection.

It is a place where worship is familiar, but men bring guns to the shul. It is a land where the sound of dropping bombs echoes throughout. Yet, in the West Bank settlement of Heavenly Heights there can be heard the sound of laughter as friendships are forged and religious faith reigns supreme.

Winner of a PEN New England Discovery Award for this unpublished manuscript, Miller is a deft writer who does a service by sharing the lives of these sturdy souls. "Welcome To Heavenly Heights" is a book to be read and remembered.

- Gail Cooke

As a former Bank of America employee, I read with interest Ross Yockey's authorized biography of Hugh McColl. McColl proves to be a shark when it comes to buying banks, devouring one bank after another in an effort to build a coast to coast banking franchise. Yockey provides much detail of McColl's early years, growing up in an affluent household (McColl's father owned banks and land) as well as McColl's efforts to impress his hard-to-please father. It was McColl's father who gave his son a push into banking, making a phone call to an old friend to help Hugh land a bank job with NCNB. The book details McColl's rise in NCNB, and, once he became more powerful in that organization, his many business conquests, first taking over, with military precision, small banks in North and South Carolina and then moving on to larger banks in Texas, Georgia, Florida, Missouri and finally San Francisco's Bank of America. On the negative side, the details of the BofA/NationsBank "merger of equals" are sparse, but I understand that the book was printed too soon to provide any information that isn't already available in newspapers. Also somewhat tiring is Yockey's, or McColl's, negative image of anything north of Baltimore and west of Charlotte. Throughout the book, there are constant negative references to anything outside of the South. Yockey also paints McColl as a man who believes deeply in diversity. But his contempt for anything outside of the South (or anyone who is not a former NationBank employee) makes one wonder how sincere McColl really is about diversity and inclusion. One interesting note, not mentioned in the book, is that most of the senior female employees in the old Bank of America left the bank soon after the merger. If McColl truly believes in diversity, I'm sure more would have stayed. It is also interesting to note that, in all of McColl's major takeovers, most of the senior staff (both male and female) in the takeover targets were either forced out or left the organization. McColl clearly shows loyalty to his old NB teammates and seems to have difficulty accepting his new associates. Overall, the book was enjoyable and entertaining.

Althought I enjoyed this book about Hugh McColl, I got the impression it was another part to McColl's PR effort. The book was so flattering in its portrayal of Mr. McColl you wondered if Bank of America might not have subsidized it. Even with that criticism, I still recommend the book to anyone interested in the background of the buyer of Bank of America.

Ross Yockey does an exceptional job of explaining the ins and outs of bankings most aggressive company while capturing the thoughts and emotions of the very real human beings involved. Inspiration can be drawn from this book for all walks of life.

As others have commented, Saving the Sun provides a good chronology to the LTCB takeover, a significant event in Japan's recent history. But there are problems with the book. I lived in Japan during most of the 1990s, and Tett's constant pigeon-holing of the Japanese and American attitudes contains some truth but is exaggerated and becomes tedious. (Even the title is an exaggeration.) Tett may be a financial journalist, but there are enough errors that one questions her expertise on the subject matter. In addition, it is difficult for the reader to get a sense of the scope in some sections as numbers are almost never provided within a clear context. For example, Japan's debt may be "horrendous" although its savings may be "staggering." What is the horrendous/staggering ratio, and how has it changed? Still, readers interested in Japan should read through the shortcomings because the anecdotes Tett provides are interesting and the story itself is important to understanding what is happening inside Japan's financial sector today.

"I would put an exclamation point at the end of all these sentences! On this one! And on that one!"

The above speech from Seinfeld's Elaine pretty much sums up my feelings regarding Ms. Tett's attempts at "writing". I feel like Franklin Dixon (yes, he of Hardy Boys fame) wrote this account of LTCB/Shinsei. Much of the dialogue (whether direct quote, questionable translation, or fanciful conjecture) is peppered with inappropriately many exclamation points, making the story sound like a teenage mystery adventure novel.

Aside from the unnecessary dramatization, and the author's tendency to intersperse good economic analysis with poorly considered social commentary about Japan, the book is informative and interesting. If you are interested in learning about the main players in the Shinsei drama, and learning a fair bit about the differences between Japanese and western political and financial systems, then this book is definitely worth the three stars I am giving it.

I just finished reading Saving the Sun, and today (2004-Feb-19 in Japan) Shinsei actually completed the IPO mentioned in the book. The shares were offered at the upper end of the range, and traded at a 66% premium. It looks like Collins, Flowers and Co. will be making a handsome profit for their investors, after all.

Let's wait and see #1: let's see if New LTCB Partners CV (Netherlands) is allowed to get away with paying zero tax in Japan.

Let's wait and see #2: let's see if Japan ever allows foreign investors to get this much control in this profitable a local investment ever again.

Let's wait and see #3: let's see if the Shinsei experience has any lasting (positive) effect on reforming the Japanese financial system -- history says it won't, but we keep hoping.

Finally, one material transgression worth noting is the author's reference to Anil Kashyap of "Chicago University". Professor Kashyap is certainly a good teacher and a great researcher, but we prefer to refer to the institution as the "University of Chicago" -- please take note for the 2d edition, Ms. Tett.

"Saving the Sun" is a masterful work detailing not only the reasons for the collapse of the Japanese banking system, but of the problems encountered by bankers and investors from disparate traditions seeking ultimately to speak one economic language. One of the major reasons why the book resonates is due to the unique qualifications of Gillian Tett to pen such a challenging work about a nation which, to many westerners, remains shrouded in exotic mystery. Tett was trained as a social anthropologist, gravitating into journalism and rising to become Tokyo bureau chief of the prestigious Financial Times.

Tett is able to wear two hats simultaneously, providing us with a more entertaining as well as informative work due to her sociological as well as economic insights. Rather than supplying a series of charts explaining what happened to Japan's banking culture, Tett instead supplies an informative analysis of events by focusing closely on the movers and shakers from Japan and America involved in the volatile existence of Japanese banking from the nation's crushing defeat in World War Two to post-9-11.

The tide of events is organized into basic categories, all flavored with the insight of a trained financial journalist telling her story in the manner of a perceptive novelist. The story is seen from the perspective of Long Term Credit Bank, one of the nation's most revered institutions, which soared like an eagle during Japan's heady days of economic expansion, then descended like a wounded duck in the wake of a sea tide of bad loans occasioned in large measure by inflexible cultural traditions. When its hapless president, LTCB veteran Katsunobi Onogi, was ultimately arrested and successfully prosecuted for covering up series' of bad loans concerning which he was expected to take diligent action, he lamented that he was victimized by a tradition that mandated such an attitude. Tett reveals the tragic results of a tradition in which, whereas Swiss and American bankers expected losses to be written off and no more money extended to the distressed subsidiary banks and companies, the powers that be believed that the economic system should be treated as a family. To cut off such institutions involved, in the Japanese view, a divorce rather than a necessary business move.

Tett demonstates the markedly different ways that the Americans and Japanese see the overall economic picture, along with basic differences in how work forces are observed, when she writes about the purchase of the collapsed LTCB by an American team led by Kentuckian Tim Collins, friend and confidante of President Bill Clinton. The American group led by Collins changed the name of LTCB to Shinsei, then set out to achieve a profound positive change. Never is the disparity between American and Japanese cultural viewpoints more evident than when Collins and a team of Americans decide to have lunch in the bank canteen. The extroverted Kentucky business giant and his group, which includes Vernon Jordan, seeks to socialize with members of the work force, who have never seen such a display in their lives, sticking to their own small clusters of co-workers and disdaining fraternization.

Gillian Tett has provided the reader with a great service. This book provides an opportunity to understand the economic strategies of the Japanese economic system and the cultural divide that often permeates interaction with Americans who disdain tradition for a practical "bottom line" operating pattern.

This book is a great start to give you the tools that you need to become profitable at purchasing tax deeds and liens. The glossary is extremely helpful in deciphering the "language" of this area of investments, and I have been able to utilize several of legal forms included in the book myself.
I have been able to personally work with the author learning how to purchase tax lien certificates, as well as tax deeds at various auctions in several different states.
This is an incredible opportunity, and is not like playing the stock market and hoping for the best. This is the most secure investment with the highest return rate that I'm aware of. This is a great book for someone who is looking for a high return with little risk, or for someone who is looking to make some extra money part time, or as a full time job.

For anyone who wants to get a basic understanding of how tax liens and deeds work, how to discover where to find the sales and how to research and purchase them, this is the book. A quick read without a lot of puff and fluff it gives you all the info you need to get started.

An easy to read concise look at the tax lien and deed industry with a really useful list of questions to ask when you call counties to find out about their sales. Most other books I've read deal with Lien OR deed purchase. This deals with both. I don't like to spend a lot of time reading I would rather do and this was definitely the book to get me doing. Very motivating.

Clarke is a visionary, and he has prophesized some incredible ideas long before they were mainstream. He continues to explore fascinating scientific thoughts and insights in this book about the raising of the Titanic. However, I find that the book has no central focus. Attempting to use the Titanic as a focal point, Clarke jumps from story to story -- about the Mandelbrot Set (a fractal pattern that is self-replicating), an invention in the field of windshield wipers, automated undersea exploration, and the lives of several diverse characters -- while never focusing the story on any overlapping theme or circumstance. In fact, the story of the Titanic is written off early on and given very little play. It seems Clarke would have been better off simply writing an essay about new technologies instead of wasting the readers time with simple plot twists, one dimensional dialogue, and emotionless characters.

Mr. Clarke is still, in my eyes, a great visionary thinker. He also writes a good sci-fi story. However, this one certainly isn't it. Read it for the ideas, read it for the insights, but please don't read it for the plot.

I read this book for the first time about 10 years ago. Before Y2K and before the 1997 film Titanic tweeked everyones interest in the Titanic. The main story deals with the attempt to raise the Titanic from the ocean floor and transport it to a location where it can be maintained and saved from further decay.

Aside from the plot there were some very good subplots. One dealt with the YTK problem. This book was published a decade before YTK and way before most people, like me, were even aware that there was a YTK computer problem. The solution offered in the book obviously was not one that came to pass but it was still interesting to read about the nature of the problem and the difficulties that could arise if left unchecked.

The technology used to raise the Titanic was well described. I am not that scientific or math savvy and so I cannot say if the technology described is currently possible but it seemed possible the way Clarke described it.

The story is set around the year 2012, the 100 year anniversary of the sinkning of the Titanic. I'm quite sure some of the technology mentioned in the novel does not exist. One invention involving the future of windshield blades and keeping rain off of an automobile windshield was interesting. On the other hand I found the whole "M-set" thing to be beyond me. I'm not sure what role it actually played in the overall plot. I gather that the "M-set" is used in other novels and may make more sense to those that have read more of Clarke's novels.

Lastly, this book is a quick read. It is not to deep or to shallow. An excellent book to read during breaks on the job or to read during an evening when you have time to kill.

Everyone knows this author; Arthur C. Clarke is a genius of his time and ours.
I myself think anything dealing with Titanic is going to be a boring attempt at a topic that has been very over done, but I actually enjoyed this book. This was a story I felt I had to concentrate on; I was trying to figure out the math questions on my own without much success but a headache, but don't let that put you off, if I concentrate to much on anything my head begins to throb, anyways:
The story line is fairly, well to be attempted. To bring Titanic up and of course it's going to take a few pretty pennies to do so. So why not make a big deal about it and have a race, two sides battle a way to the prize and to the success of having to bring up a snapped in half, ocean liner that sunk a hundred years ago? The interesting part is the year this book was written in and the year the characters are placed in, and of course what year you read the book. I was shocked at the way this author thought of the future, and it was so scary a mind could think that up.
I can't remember but years ago, people wanted to bring up the Titanic; they should of read this book and just left their grubby hands off it. (I think they did)
There is robots, huge squid, big high on their horse characters and over the top genius on this case and I even liked them.
The characters are well, not really that important, it's the idea and plot in the book. Sometimes I lost myself in all the gumbo jumbo about how, when, where, and exactly the way your going to do it, but still it was a good book. The idea of M-set interested me much and I even read the little, explanation of it at the end of the book. WoW!
I'd say if you like Clarke and his books, read it. If you like the idea of Titanic, read it, if you like sci-fi, Read it. I think it's a good thinking book and worth the time.