Fund-of-funds Books

I found this to be a very clearly written and informative introduction to the ways in which living creatures have already influenced geological processes.

This is the only Washington biography written by a contemporary who knew him and served with him in the Army. Certainly the longest Presidential biography I know of written by a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. According to Senator Beveridge's later biography of John Marshall, Marshall wrote it in installments, and sold it through the U.S. Post Offic distribution network, to make enough money to pay off his massive Virginia land purchsse which in turn enabled Marshall's children to live out their lives free of the need to write books or make land deals. And it worked that way. But that's not all this is.

The first entire volume says little about Washington, because Marshall felt he needed to set the stage with a condensed history of the colonies prior to Washington. Few of Washington's later biographers went to such subsequent introductory lengths, but then Marshall's law practice ended up acquainting him with the early pre-history of the deeds and conveyances of Virginia, the further elaboration of which can be interpreted as enveloping the rest of the colonies.

This is also a history of the U.S. Army, and how it fought and starved in successive cycles which are described in minute detail exceeding most other accounts. Some of this covers organized military campaigns preceding the declaration of independence, the scope of which I had not heretofore realized by undergoing annual waves of pilgrim-study in "My Early Education."

Leading and embodying this story of land and armies, and ideas, Marshall gives us Washington, illuminated most clearly by excerpts from Washington's own letters. Marshall also gives us Marshall, distilling out of military examples and instances of weak government preceding 1789, potent arguments for increased federal power to do the things our federal government has since done quite well: raise armies, raise taxes, subdue the Indians, kick out the European powers, build a strong navy, and take no back talk from smallish tyrants resentful of centralized governmental power directly and simultaneously exercised on each citizen, and on each state.

When Hamilton wrote that we need "energy in the Executive" he had to have been thinking of Washington, and Marshall catalogs this energy with meticulous documentation of each British officer leading campaigns against us, each subordinate officer on our side under Washinton's command, and how the constant maneuver of armies up and down the length of our seaboard was accomplished--usually without many shoes and without much dry powder.

So Marshall knowing Washington probably insulated him from too much disconnected iconography, and his writing is free of modern fixations on negative or unseemly personal or pychographic tidbits of trivia. Modern readers are left to cling to factual reporting of how Washington handled this British Lord or that recalcitrant congress.

There's a lot here in all five volumes, and the flow of the over-written parts isn't that bad once you get used to it. When one man had such a central role in all of the key events of our country's founding, and rode out the formation into its institutional phase, thereafter to die in bed at home, Marshall may not have been able to write it any other way than to go over all of the events, to catch the essence of the man.

Neat discovery: LaFayette was only 24 years old while commanding the French at the battle of Yorktown. Marshall quotes from the letters of Cornwallis (or maybe it was Sir Henry Clinton) who refers to LaFayette as "the boy." This is the same boy who later presented Washington with the key to the Bastille, which today hangs on the wall of the stairway of Mount Vernon going up to the second floor.

Barr and Weintraut's work gives concrete advice to tomorrow's leaders on how to position and structure their businesses in order to attract venture capital and ultimately, win. The emphasis is on internet startup financing but I think young CEOs targeting other industries may benefit too. The subjects covered vary from really simple observations based on common sense such as the importance of focusing on the customer and why it is important to hire the best folks you can get, to more complicated issues such as how much equity to give to whom and what to expect will happen to the capitalization structure over time.

The book is peppered throughout with specific Internet company war stories from the last decade that well illustrate their insights and keep the prose entertaining and punchy. I would definitely recommend this book for folks interested in founding or working at a startup, especially first-time entrepreneurs that haven't had much experience with venture capitalists.

Ms. Mason has painted such a wonderful picture of the care of people with AIDS.

James Schleifer's book gives one a wonderful insight into the mind of one of the great social scientists writing about America and Democracy. From reading the book I deduced that De Tocqueville is a social scientist before Marx! He compares European culture and government with the fledgling culture and democracy he observes in America. He is very much impressed with what he sees taking place in America in the 1830's and hopes it will spread to Europe. He at first believed that America's prosperity was simply due to geography and their distance from powerful neighbors, he abandons this idea after his visit to America. He comes to realize that the West is not being peopled "by new European immigrants to America, but by Americans who he believes have no adversity to taking risks". De Tocqueville comes to see that Americans are the most broadly educated and politically advanced people in the world and one of the reasons for the success of our form of government. He also foretells America's industrial preeminence and strength through the unfettered spread of ideas and human industry.

De Tocqueville also saw the insidious damage that the institution of slavery was causing the country and predicted some 30 years before the Civil War that slavery would probable cause the states to fragment from the union. He also the emergence of stronger states rights over the power of the federal government. He held fast to his belief that the greatest danger to democracy was the trend toward the concentration of power by the federal government. He predicted wrongly that the union would probably break up into 2 or 3 countries because of regional interests and differences. This idea is the only one about America that he gets wrong. Despite some of his misgivings, De Tocqueville, saw that democracy is an "inescapable development" of the modern world. The arguments in the "Federalist Papers" were greater than most people realized. He saw a social revolution coming that continues throughout the world today.

Schleifer in his book ably shows how De Tocqueville realizes at the very beginning of the "industrial revolution" how industry, centralization and democracy strengthened each other and moved forward together. Schleifer's book convinces me that not only is De Tocqueville still the preeminent observer of America but is also the father of social science. As a retired Army officer and student of political philosophy, I find this book is a must read for anyone interested in American history, political philosophy or the social sciences.

This couldn't be timelier. Much water has passed under the bridges on both Wall Street and Main Street since the first edition came out in 2000. As Editor Virginia Reynolds Parker points out, there's been a bear market and hedge fund assets have more than doubled to over $1 trillion dollars. Meanwhile, Parker's book became the standard reference for hedge fund investors. The updated version should prove just as useful and indispensable.

Pensions in particular have been flocking to hedge funds, the fancy and expensive cousins of mutual funds that the media insistently calls "risky". But what does that really mean? There are two ways of using this book. If you're looking for specific information on hedge fund strategies and the hazards they may involve, turn to the appropriate chapter. In the spring of 2005, for instance, when convertible arbitrage returns turned into copious amounts of red ink, you could have read detailed descriptions of how convertible securities perform in the face of various shocks and why convertible returns have been disappointing since 2002 (chapter 10).

If, on the other hand, you want to grapple more broadly with the slippery idea of risk, start with the paper by Robert Jaeger on how to define it, measure it, and manage it. He makes this complex topic comprehensible. In simple terms, risk is expected pain. Assessing it in any situation requires answers to two questions: How likely are the painful outcomes? How bad is the potential pain? Jaeger points out that the answers may not be numerical. Even if you have data, you're not going to understand risk by looking at numbers.

The pieces are written by investors, managers, bankers, and lawyers. The book conveniently bundles these together in sections, starting with the investors' perspective. Mark Anson, the chief investment officer of the California Employees' Retirement System, leads the lineup with a study on how to measure performance. His findings are essential to anybody that invests in hedge funds.

Maybe these intricacies are not for you. In that case, make sure your financial adviser, consultant, pension officer, and foundation chief read this book.

Experienced financial professionals with years of practical operating experience wrote this recently published book. Therefore, it is not surprising that this book methodically covers the principal payment systems (checks, ACHs, wires and global transfer systems - CHIPS and SWIFT), their basic workings, risk, and how to manage those risks. The subject matter of this book is critical for corporate financial managers - CFOs, Treasurers, Cash Managers, Controllers - as well as bank operations officers, and bank and corporate auditors.

Since check fraud is currently a $10 billion a year problem an entire chapter is devoted to checks, their characteristics, the prevailing regulations, the risk parameters, and how to manage that risk including using internal controls, bank controls, check stock controls, and positive pay controls. The authors warn corporations that they should be alert to "gross negligence and willful conduct clauses" in bank agreements which may put undue and unnecessary risk on them.

Wire transfer, defined to include FedWire, CHIPS and SWIFT, are covered in two chapters. The first chapter covers the transfer from the originating bank to the receiving bank. The next topics reviewed include: liability for fraudulent transfers, managing risks in the links of the wire systems, and the bank's perspective on wire transfer risk. The second chapter on wire transfers focuses on completing the transfer and the rules for handing errors.

The Automated Clearing House (ACH), the second type of electronic funds transfer, in addition to wires, is covered in a separate chapter. A basic discussion of this payment type is provided along with a definition of the types of ACHs and how they are processed. The ACH origination process is covered and the warranties and liabilities of the originating bank are examined.

Other topics reviewed in this section include ACH prenotification, reversal of duplicate and erroneous payments. The authors then examine the receipt of entries, returns, change and acknowledgements. Lastly, settlement and accountability, cross-border payments, US Government payments, and ACH payment system risks are reviewed.

[In light of the recent coverage in an August 2003 issue of the American Banker newspaper, corporate treasury managers should make sure that they setup special ACH debit blocks on their bank accounts to reduce the risk of ACH fraud.]

An entire chapter is devoted to Electronic Commerce and Internet payments. Corporate financial managers are well advised to bone up on this material to ensure that they protect their corporate assets from potential fraud in these two exploding areas. There are a cyber crooks and hackers who are looking to defraud any company that doesn't protect itself on the Internet. Also included in the book is an 8-page glossary.

The last chapter covers the specifics of controlling corporate payment system risks as opposed to risks faced by financial institutions. Included in this chapter is a 5-page "Risk Management Crime Coverage Checklist." Additional material covered in this chapter are pointers on handling payment systems disruptions, managing check, wire, and ACH fraud.

In conclusion, this book covers all the bases on payments system risk. The readers will obtain a comprehensive view of the entire subject matter and be better prepared to face the challenges ahead once they realize the importance and understand the vulnerabilities in the existing payments systems.

Measuring Jerusalem is a well researched and documented book which gives an excellent view into a(as yet) little known period in the history of Palestine, and the British role therein. The 19th century "opening" of Palestine and European conflicting interests (especially British) are the main focus of the book. Details of the "Imperialist" aims and manipulations are combined with the descriptions of the adventures of the intrepid explorers (many of whom played a dual role as explorer and spy). I especially enjoyed the personal stories of the explorers themselves and their adventures in Palestine (such men as Sir Charles Warren, Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, James Finn, T.E.Lawrence are talked about). I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Palestine, it's history, it's exploration and it's role in 19th century Imperialism.

Excellent resource. Covers all the issues revolving around membership programs. Lots of specifics, examples and ideas;
for membership staff, boards, and executives. Fills a major need for specific ways to carryout and improve membership programs. Great to have input from experts on a subject that so many non-profits grabble with everyday. Covers such essential membership topics as planning, membership and fund-raising, getting and keeping members, volunteers, the internet. Also helpful examples:
of worksheets, budgets, and helpful case studies, plus software information.
Truly "an action plan for results." Recommended highly.

Thought to be a pupil of the more famous Roger van der Weyden, Hans Memling was born in Seligenstadt (now Frankfurt am Main) in 1435 and flourished in his time as one of the great Flemish or Northern Renaissance painters. He died in Bruges in 1494. Though Memling painted in all the usual forms of his day - altarpieces, works for cathedrals and hospitals - he was a master of portraiture, painting faces with meticulous detail, suggesting the character of each sitter, and each glowing with life. His 'Portrait of a Man' is one of his most recognizable works, a young man in black cloak and hat sharing a gold medallion/coin with the viewer. In other portraits of old women we see the human side of the cloistered Renaissance woman.

The truly remarkable aspect of Memling's career is the vast output of works that are familiar images to us all but without the immediate name reference enjoyed by the more famous artists, This fine book, a catalogue for a traveling exhibition among the Museo Thyssen- Bornemisza, Madrid, the Groeningemuseum, Bruges, and The Frick Collection, New York, focuses solely on the portraits and in doing so allows our eyes to grow into the recognizable techniques and repeated forms that mark Memling's art. The commentary by Till-Holger Borchert, Lorne Campbell, Paula Nuttal, and Maryan Ainsworth goes far beyond the usual dry artspeak found too often in catalogues of Renaissance art and draws the reader into a deep appreciation for the extraordinary art of Hans Memling. This is a finely curated exhibition, and a brilliantly produced book from Thames & Hudson. Grady Harp, November 05