Fund-of-funds Books

Looking to start a mutual fund... gave me a lot of great insight into what the necessary steps are.

This the author speaking and reviewing my short. There is so much misconception about there about how to invest. This little short tells you how. I have been a student of the market now for years.

I want you to consider the following:Piscaqua Research in a study covering the period 1987-96 found that only 10 out of 145 major pension funds, or just seven percent, out performed a portfolio consisting of a simple 60%/40% mix of the S&P 500 index and the Lehman Bond index respectively.

Or is it logical I ask for you to believe that you can predict which actively managed funds will out perform, or are you overconfident of your skills? If you are trying to find the great fund managers who will out perform in the future ask yourself: what am I going to do differently in terms of identifying the future winning fund managers, than did the pension plans and their advisors? And if you are not going to something different what logic is there in playing a game at which others with superior resources have consistently failed?

If you a really serious in finding an investment technique that will provide you with reasonable return with less risk I suggest the following little book. This is a little book that I have written and contains the essential of how to invest. Just click on the title to find the book. How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 Different Stocks-Pay no Commission

An excellent, practical guidebook for the mutual fund investor. Helps you understand what you own.

This outstanding book provides the reader a comprehensive overview of almost every mainstream investment tool available. It demistifies investment terminology without ever "dumbing down" or sounding condesending. The chapter on bonds is the best concise explanation that I have read anywhere. This title is highly recommended.

The Washington Post praised this as a "how-to classic" and I would agree with them. It's well-organized and filled with top-quality professional advice. It's also very 'readable' - which sets it apart from so many public speaking texts.

I found this book saved me a lot of time and worry, both in preparing formal speeches and informal presentations. Most important, it will make you a much better, and more confident, speaker.

"I Am an Impure Thinker," a collection of essays, is a book one can read as an introduction to Rosenstock-Huessy's thought. He is an "impure thinker" because he refuses to stay within any of the bounds set by academic tradition. He is also impure because he believes that thought must be accompanied by passionate convictions and engagement, that sterile intellect is a disease. The editors have selected the essays to reflect the author's diversity. The selection is from Rosenstock-Huessy's unpublished writings, with the exception of Chapters 1 and 11. While apparently unrelated, the essays nevertheless have an underlying unity, which runs through his discussion of the concepts of William James, the Gospels, the Egyptian symbol of Ka, and other uncommon sources. Together the essays contribute to the discovery of a post-theological language.
This book is an answer to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's question: How can we speak of God to modern man who "has come of age?" Eberhardt Bethge, Bonhoeffer's close friend, editor, and biographer writes:
"Rosenstock-Huessy refuses to do anything in the usual way. But you may well turn yourself over to him. Behind everything stands the committed responsibility of a great teacher who opens our eyes."
"I Am an Impure Thinker" (together with "Speech and Reality") is an English-language introduction to Rosenstock-Huessy's thought.
"I Am an Impure Thinker" has been reviewed by others:
Rosenstock - Huessy has uncovered many truths hidden from his predecessors.... Whatever he may have to say about God, Man, the World, Time, etc., Rosenstock-Huessy always starts out from his own experience as a human being, who must pass through successive stages between birth and death, learning something essential from each one of them. - W. H. Auden, from the Foreword
"I Am an Impure Thinker" can also be ordered from Argo Books (www.argobooks.org), as can all the rest of Rosenstock-Huessy's English language works, including many of the lectures he gave on these topics. The lectures alone comprise more than 5000 pages of spontaneous comments he made to students from 1949 to 1968.

This is the closing volume of the James M. Buchanan Collected Works series (other than vol. 20, which contains indices by name, by subject, and by title to the entire series, as well as a 46-page curriculum vitae of Professor Buchanan). Volume 19 is the shortest one of the nine volumes in the series that contain papers.

There are a total of 33 essays in this volume. Their contents range from autobiographical reflections to personal reminiscences of fellow economists (Frank Knight, Gordon Tullock, Winston Bush, Jack Wiseman, Friedrich von Hayek) to book reviews to thoughts on the collapse of socialism. Professor Buchanan's writings have been noted for their accessibility to "non-experts", and the essays in this volume are no exception. For the most part they are even less abstract, lighter, at times even fun (although by no means fluffy), than most of Buchanan's other academic publications.

With such a variety of papers, not all of them will be equally interesting to all readers, but there are some true gems here, such as "The Epistemological Feasibility of Free Markets" (don't be put off by that title) and "Consumption without Production: The Impossible Idyll of Socialism".

In addition, the papers on the collapse of socialism are still surprisingly fresh and relevant, even though it has been more than 15 years since the Iron Curtain started coming down in 1989. Why is it that many people are reluctant to embrace free market systems, even though both historical experience and intellectual analysis overwhelmingly demonstrate that collective control, whether of the means of production or of the distribution of product, simply does not work? Buchanan's papers highlight three themes:
* Lack of economic education. It is counterintuitive that complex economies function better without a central managing apparatus.
* Discomfort with competition. This is understandable, of course, but also counterproductive, because recent research suggests that it is product-market competition that is the essential ingredient for achieving prosperity.
* Rent-seeking by political factions. Many people actually benefit from an economic system that is not entirely free (think government subsidies, protective regulations). Individual voters may care less about the size of the overall pie than they do about the size of their individual slice. "Five per cent of a total of one hundred is larger than one per cent of a total of two hundred; the arithmetic is as simple as that." (p. 271)

All in all, this is a worthy volume to close out a set of books that makes for an indispensable addition to the library of any thinking person interested in how politics work.

This book is a "must read" for the serious scholar of IMF programs. It is structured in three parts: a series of short essays on issues relating to conditionality, several country studies of IMF programs and conclusions and policy implications. The book was originally written as a compilation of the proceedings of a conference sponsored by the Institute for International Economics.

The book is superbly organized and features a star-studded cast of economists in policy, business and academia (though it is fairly heavily slanted towards academics). All the major topics relating to IMF conditionality are covered; the effectiveness of IMF programs, contrasts between stabilization and structural adjustment (and the Fund vs. the Bank), and the impact of IMF programs on poverty and income distribution. Every few chapters is followed by comments by such noted individuals as Jeff Sachs, Richard Cooper, Bela Balassa, and Rudiger Dornbusch. The book thus covers a range of individual attitudes and opinions. The third major section, which consists of "opinion pieces" and summaries, is particularly valuable in providing interesting insights and policy suggestions to the overall picture.

Given the increasing importance the International Monetary Fund has assumed in the post-Cold War world, books such as this should assume increasing importance. It does tend towards the technical, but given its origins, this should not be seen as much of a liability.

This collection profiles houses architects have built for their families. The book is interesting on an informational level (lots of ideas for those dreaming of designing their own homes) - but what is unique, is the interplay in each case between human and design elements. A rare book that succeeds on the level of story as well as information.

This book is a relatively small collection with fairly straight forward but beautifully rendered poems that have a simple lyrical quality that anyone can appreciate even if your experience of poetry is limited. The title poem, The Killing of Dreams as well as Orphans and Impasse are gems that have a perfect sense of wholeness and polish. Obviously I am biased as Michael's son but this is truly great poetry that still conveys his essence even after his death in October 1999.