Fund-of-funds Books

Dr. Pappas, with many years of experience in the biotechnology industry and as a biotechnology consultant, has compiled a unique glossary aimed at the biotechnology entrepreneur. It is unique in that it bridges the fields of science, business, law and marketing- all essential for the operation of a successful biotechnology business. The eight appendices that include acronyms, biotech recruiters and venture capitalists interested in biotechnology provide much useful information that is not readily available elsewhere. Dr. Pappas did all the legwork to provide a single reference source with a wealth of information. I am sure the biotechnology entrepreneur will find it useful and refer to it often.

Several years ago when I read an advertisement on a digital camera, I came across the word "megapixels". "What does that mean to the camera?" I wondered. Now that digital cameras are very popular, I can say that most people understand the meaning "megapixel" as it refers to digital camera --- 1 million pixel resolution but rating counts the sensors on the CCD, not the pixels in the resulting image (remember that is important.) Biotech is a highly geared up technology nowadays. There are so many words or terms you might not have heard just one year ago. "The Biotech Entrepreneur's Glossary" (2nd Edition) is a book coming at the right time for entrepreneurs to have a better understanding and to get a perspective on business in biotechnology area.
I have biomedical engineering background (Ph. D.). When getting in this area, I was really confused by some words and terms. An example is "differentiation". In electronics a "differentiator" is a circuit in which the output voltage is in proportion to the rate of change of the input voltage. But "differentiation" in the Biotech Glossary defines it as the process of cell and tissue specialization involving differential gene expression. In addition, some words and terms are hard to find definitions in other dictionaries. For example, "emulsification" which I could not found in "Merriam-Webster" dictionary, is defined in the Biotech Glossary as the "solubilization" of liquids or oil into very small volumes of water." These are very helpful to an engineer focusing in biotech.
At the end of the book there are eight appendices for the most website links and information of biotech recruiters, venture capital firms, and government offices.
Those are very useful resources for business startup and financing.
Overall, the definitions of words and terms from contemporary biotechnology point of view and the appendices regarding venture capitalists and recruiters make this book very unique and essential to be a book on your desk.

The Biotech Entrepreneur' s Glossary is a truly useful book for entrepreneurs and others dealing in biotech. It includes a lot of useful terms in multiple subjects relating to biotech business and operations. As an engineer, I find the biochemistry terms and list of acronyms to be especially helpful.

"The Biotech Entrepreneur's Glossary" is truly the Rosetta Stone of biotech venture capital, providing complete definitions of both technical and business terminology. The book also 8 appendices that cover frequent abbreviations and provide lists of biotech recruiters and VC firms. As an entrepreneur, I have found my copy to be tremendously useful, and would recommend this valuable resource to anyone involved in the field.

The second edition of The Biotech Entrepreneur's Glossary, which was published earlier this year, has been expanded to include more biotechnology, computer and business terms. I was pleased to note that there are more US and EU VCs listed in the appendix and that many had web site addresses were included as well as e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. Also, the appendix containing biotech recruiters was expanded. This is the first crossover glossary for biotech and business terms I have seen. It will clearly assist entrepreneur's, biotechnologists, and others who wish to have a single source for biotech, business, patent and IS terminology. Every start-up requires tools to help make it successful; this glossary is one of them.

I read this book as a recommendation from my school freshmen year in college. To be honest, this book could have been 10 pages long. The story was interesting for the first few pages but it became extremely repetitive. This book basically had two elements: stories about the people/cultures she encountered on her walk, and complaints about politics. The book never became specific with its politics, just general statements. If you're going to be political, then be political; don't be general. Second, the people she encountered were described the same throughout the book.

Let me summarize the whole story with one short paragraph:
"I met some amazing people today that let me into their home warmly. It always amazes me how trusting people can be. I also hate corporations and greedy politicians. We need change. Let's go walking again."

Granny D. is a great writer and I offten enjoyed her stories in this book. This is a classic and any one who wants to learn more about the political process, campaigne finance reform, or just want a great read this book is for you.

This book is about 90 year old Doris Haddock walking from Los Angeles to Wshington to call attention to the need for campaign finance reform. Regardless of your politial persuasion, I think you'll find Granny D's book a fun and inspiring read. She intersperses
stories from her life with her pitches to run the money changers out of the Capitol. Her charm is reflected near the end of the book where she says, " Well, I am finished with this book, but I am not finished with my life or with my passion for campaign finance reform. There is almost always time to find another victory, another happy ending. I hope that is your feeling about life, too. I thank you for the time spent with me between these covers. I apologize for preaching far more than I intended, but I 'm sure you skipped through the worst of it"

Oh that we should all be able to pursue such adventure in our life, let along in our 90th year.

This is an inspiring story on two levels: as a chronicle of an elder woman's courageous effort to mobilize attention and action to the cause of campaign finance reform, which she considers a step in the redemocratizing of America; and as her spiritual autobiography, the summation of her life experience and perspective.

Granny D speaks to me when she says that "people have a great, unmet need that expresses their passions and values . . . they think they are being cheated out of that life--that they will die and it will have passed them by. They see an old woman doing something she believes in, and she somehow carries this ineffable something for them. Our shallow culture makes us people of great longing, for we are not always provided with opportunities to live out our most meaningful beliefs."

What begins as a journal of her remarkable trek, walking along roadsides at the pace of ten miles a day from California to Washington DC, transforms into another kind of account, the inner journey that brought her to this enterprise, the singular incidents and loving relationships that shaped and fostered her through her long life. By the end of this book, she can examine both her triumphs and trials and ask, "Do we see who we are, finally? Do we see, behind the curtain, the scars and insecurities that have controlled us? And when we see them and look them squarely in the eye, do they lose their power over us, backing down from their bullying bluster? Indeed they do. We become free to take our life in whatever shape it has become, and find a good and enjoyable use for it, serving others and ourselves."

Granny D shows that old age doesn't have to be synonymous with dotage, with being passive and indifferent to our world, to what goes on around us--to what the future may hold. She shows that age and accompanying infirmities are, at worst, inconvenience, not an excuse to block or ignore the desires of the heart and the active mind. She demonstrates, no matter the immediate outcome, the power of one. And she reminds me of a remark attributed to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that if one does not have a cause to live for, then one has no reason to die.

Granny D is real. That's the highest praise I can bestow. You feel you've met the real person and that she's presented herself, warts and all. I actually read this book with pen in hand, marking points to write down to form a synopsis of her wit and wisdom for later reference. This is certainly not something I do more than once in a decade. I'd expected more of a description of the walk itself, and less of a memoir, but I was delighted with what I got. I loved her and the people she met along the way. Though she and I have differing viewpoints on several issues, I thoroughly respected her and was nearly overwhelmed with the magnitude of her undertaking and her optimism.

I like this book, but i still found another material to supplement some detail it doesn't cover and those are what I need.

The book is an excellent source for information on the relationship between the brain and behavior

This book is an excellent reference on neuropsychology. I am a graduate student in neuroscience and I was pleasantly surprised to note that this book was very thorough in its discussion of different topics. My research concerns aspects of activity in the temporal lobe and the authors have discussed some of the cutting edge literature.This book is definitely a cut above the normal neuroscience textbooks.

The authors have clearly taken the time to go through the literature and pick out interesting papers and placed them in a quick and readable manner. I would recommend this book to any student of systems neuroscience for a good introduction to the fascinating aspects of brain function. In fact I would go as far as saying that this book is an ideal companion to the now dated bible of neuroscience (Kandel, Schwartz and Jessel).

This work is titled "Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology." The work provides a very nice perspective on what is know about the human brain and how it affects our thinking and decision-making.

One positive feature: it is well written and you do not have to be a doctoral student in neuropsychology to follow the book from chapter to chapter.

A second positive feature is the wide ranging coverage of basic subjects--from the evolution of the brain to its basic organization to the structure and function of the cortex to a discussion of higher functions (such as memory, language, emotions, and so on), as well as abnormalities that can occur in the brain.

All in all, a valuable volume that provides the reader with a good introduction (at more than a very basic level) to the structure and functioning of the human brain. It also makes us think a little bit about what it means to be a human.

I just wanted to point out a few things for those looking to find a deal on the editions pubished before the fifth. I bought the 4th edition for a class, saved some bucks, but I have been having to constantly check with folks who have the 5th edition because many chapter and heading locations have changed between the two editions. In addition to this, there are several new chapters that reflect the development of neuroscience in the years between the two editions, such and brain imaging and plasticity. Now after struggling with the earlier edition for two months I am having to biuy the fifth to get the assigned chapters that are not in the fourth.

So, the 4th edition certainly is a good text, but be aware of the changes if you are using this for classwork.

The central thesis of this book is that Western countries have largely become Servile States. This might come as a shock to the average modern reader. While everyone can relate to the feeling of being a slave in our modern world of big business and government, they would have a difficult time agreeing to the notion that they are slaves by law. After all, the Westerner has the political freedom to choose whether he wants to work or not.

As Belloc explains, freedom is made up of more than just political freedom. True freedom consists in the ability to produce, which by nature requires capital or land in addition to political freedom. Consequently, both capital and land are monopolized by a very few owners. The rest are proletarians that must work for their ability to produce on the owner's terms. The proletarians' political freedom does give them the liberty to bargain for their work, but the proletarian is constrained by the uncertainty of sustenance, so the bargain isn't quite an equal one. "The vast bulk of so-called `free' contracts are to-day leonine contracts: arrangements which one man was free to take or to leave, but which the other man was not free to take or to leave, because the second had for his alternative starvation."

Belloc acknowledges that the Servile State requires laws upon which the political freedom is also eliminated. Belloc shows how these laws are in place already in the form of welfare and minimum wages. The modern reader is compelled to question the reasoning here, as he sees how such laws as the minimum wage do not bind either the worker or the owner to the extent of slavery. Still, the underlying principle, that the legal framework for the modern Servile State will be abstract and indirect, as opposed to overt, is convincing.

Most importantly, this book does not explain how to avoid the Servile State and to return to what Belloc promotes as the only stable form of society, the Distributive State. To redistribute property would go against the principles that the Distributive State relies upon--the ownership of property. In a confined world, the reader is left to wonder if it is possible after all.

This should not discourage the potential reader. There is enough insight in this short volume to enlighten even the most ardent capitalist or socialist, and the fresh perspective offered therein is sure to incite more fruitful motives by all.

The Servile State is perhaps Belloc's most complete exposition of his theory of the various possible forms of political economy. Belloc argues that Western Civilization was first founded on a servile economy, where a very small group of men owned the land, labor, and the capital necessary for production. Yes, they owned the labor. Hence, the appelation, servile. Belloc then argues that Western Civilization gradually became, from this servile state, a distributive political economy. By this, Belloc meant that ownership was widespread among free men. Belloc argues quite convincingly that this is the natural state of man. And it is certainly the state of Western Civilization when the predominat influence on civilization was the Mystical Body of Christ, His Holy Church. Belloc argues that this state of affairs came to be changed with the Reformation, what he, in other books, has styled the "shipwreck of civilization". Focusing on England, in particular, Belloc proves that a small, landed aristocracy became overwhelmingly powerful in this "rising of the rich against the poor" and, later, established the inherently unstable capitalist society.

Writing in 1912, Belloc held that the capitalistic society could not endure in its then present form. Looking back, it is how remarkable how prophetic was his vision. He argued that the collectivist form of socialism was, in essence, a chimera. Further, he set forth that the decayed capitalist state would ultimatley revert to a servile status.

As we look about us in 2008, it is truly striking how many of the features of the servile state are upon us. One factor that Belloc did not emphacize so much, but that is also dispositive of our current situation is the crushing impact of debt. Acknowledging that point, we can say that Belloc's book is remarkably prophetic, beautifully written, as are all of his works, and still tremendously important. Pick up this important little book. Give it a good and thoughtful read. And be richly blessed by the experience.

Hilaire Belloc was a brilliant and prolific author whose writings on virtually every imaginable topic catapulted him into the top ranks of English intellectuals. Despite his enormous body of work, Belloc is not nearly as famous today as his friend and compatriot, G. K. Chesterton. Chesterton wrote some books on economic and social policy, but still left some areas unexplored. Belloc's "The Servile State" plugs a major gap by explaining the economic history of Britain.

To begin with, Greece and Rome were slave states. Large majorities of the population were enslaved, abused, and denied any hope of freedom or dignity. It was only with the arrival of Christianity that slavery disintegrated. Through the Middle Ages the ordinary people gained more and more rights, and eventually Europe had a population of free and self-sufficient men and women.

Then came the moment that Belloc views as the turning point: The Protestant Reformation. In England, the seizure of the monasteries ended the advance towards freedom. Millions of peasants were deprived of their land and denied a means to make a living. They migrated to the cities, and were soon exploited by rise of factories and industry. By Belloc's time, 95% of the population owned no property and were wholly dependent on the wealthy and the government.

As Belloc wrote this book, socialism was the dominant trend in intellectual life in England. Almost everyone agreed that it was only a few years until the establishment of a socialist paradise. Begging to differ, Belloc predicted that there would be no socialist paradise (right), slavery would be re-established (wrong), and the rich would get richer while the poor remained poor (right).

Belloc was not right about everything, but he certainly saw through the rhetoric of the socialists more readily than other men of his time. "The Servile State" is a model of crystal-clear reasoning and straightforward writing, and it belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who wants to understand history.

In this liberty classic, the Catholic intellectual Hilaire Belloc writes that the present system of capitalism is likely to give rise to something new, the servile state, because of inherent instabilities within it. Belloc defines this state as, "That arrangement of society in which so considerable a number of the families and individuals are constrained by positive law to labor for the advantage of other families and individuals as to stamp the whole community with the mark of such labor we call the servile state." This servile state is a return to the form of pagan slavery that existed in Europe before the advent of Christianity abolished it. Belloc contends that from the original pagan form of slavery, Christianity brought about a new system of society, the distributivist society. In this system, every individual was an owner of property and belonged to guilds which allowed for him to own the means of production. However, the distributivist system failed with the breakdown of the Christian faith. For example, the Reformation allowed for the Crown to confiscate monastic lands. Thus, a small group of indiviudals, the capitalists, came to own the means of production and the property. Belloc does not blame the existence of capitalism on the Industrial Revolution like most other thinkers have. Rather, he sees the problem in society as existing before the Industrial Revolution. Belloc contends that had distributivism not broken down, the Industrial Revolution would have been beneficial to all concerned. The current system of the capitalist state is unstable however, and may give rise to one of two separate things. Reformers have tried to create from the capitalist system a collectivist (or socialist) state. In the collectivist state, private property would be abolished and a group of managers would control all property for the proletariat in trust. Belloc contends that this form of collectivism is likely to give rise to a third thing, the servile state. One way reformers have tried to accomplish this goal is through "buying out" capitalism. Since the state is an older institution than the capitalist owners, it has been considered possible that the state can "buy out" the capitalists. Belloc finds such an idea problematic and shows how this is not possible to occur. Alternatively, the other possibility is for society to return to a distributivist system in which all individuals own property and the means of production. Belloc finds this alternative to be the best, however, he notes that it is unlikely to happen given the current direction in which society is taking and amounts to "swimming upstream". So, while the socialist alternative works within the capitalist system, it will ultimately lead to servitude. Belloc points out examples of how legislation designed to benefit the proletariat has actually increased the development of the servile state. Examples of this include regulation such as employee compensation and minimum wage laws, which were in the initial stages of being enacted in Belloc's England. The future for freedom looks grim because the proletariat is willing to give up its political freedom in exchange for security and guarantee of subsistence standards. For example, Belloc points out that minimum wage laws actually benefit capitalists because they guarantee that there will not be unruliness among the workers. Also, such laws and regulations involve the creation of a class distinction between proletariat and employer. Given the direction the welfare state has taken contrary to liberty and towards further regulation, these cogent writings of Belloc from near the beginning of this last century serve as an important warning and prophecy for the future. We have indeed headed in the direction of servitude, and Belloc's distributivist ideal seems less and less likely.

For an interesting alternative understanding of the modern world and its condition see Julius Evola's _Revolt Against the Modern World_.

Hilaire Belloc's 1912 classic represents the former UK Liberal Party parliamentarian's break with capitalism, state socialism and the welter of piecemeal liberal and social democratic reforms that would ultimately evolve into the modern welfare state.

The book is simultaneously easy to read and clearly argued, yet sometimes verbose and long winded. Still it's logically argued and conceptually sound.

The `Liberty Press' edition I read included an excellent introduction by American sociologist Robert Nisbet. This extended essay includes personal biographical insights which indicate that `The Servile State' played an important role in the development of Nisbet's own stream of pluralist conservative thought, a line hitherto neglected by Nisbet's intellectual biographers. Nisbet, following Belloc, champions the role of intermediate institutions, between the citizen and the state, as providing the true institutional skeleton of freedom. Although usually characterized as a conservative, Belloc's Servile State played a critical role in influencing such radical non-conservatives as Dorothy Day and John Anderson, the founder of the Sydney left libertarian movement. This movement later spawned such prominent Australian international intellectuals as Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes and Clive James. Anderson, I believe, even attributed his rejection of Marxism to Belloc. One can easily imagine Belloc engaged in lively debate over drinks with these now prominent, if somewhat wayward, descendants.

Still `Servile State' is not purely a polemical book. It includes insightful historical analysis of the rise and decline of slavery in the west. It shows just how deep rooted and unpeculiar "the peculiar institution" has been. And just how poor most of the more popular explanations for it's survival across the centuries have been. The great myth of slavery is that it represented the permanent subjugation of defeated foreign enemies. Although prisoners of war were often enslaved, this source of slaves was statistically trivial. Belloc's explanation has the advantage of explaining the relative "success" of slavery, both in it's historical longevity and relative absence of social or intellectual critique. Slavery flourished as it provided a means to avoid poverty. The destitute would sell themselves and their descendants to provide for immediate needs. This piece of inconvenient history has actually become even more inconvenient since Belloc's day as the welfare state, and it's corresponding net of taxes, border controls and ID cards, has grown. Has 'democracy' allowed 'the masses' to sell themselves into state slavery on an installment basis?

The book touches on Belloc's own explorations of the role of Henry VIII's confiscations of Church property and it's redistribution to court favourites thus founding the great landed fortunes of England. Thus as Belloc notes in other books, establishing a powerful vested interest materially invested in the official anti-catholicism that held sway in the anglo-saxon world virtually for centuries. Belloc sees this act and subsequent actions pushed through by a state dominated by the same interests, for example, the enclosure of the commons, as tilting the development of English capitalism and industrialism against the now landless masses and proletariat. Propertyless masses are simultaneously prey to both the advocates of socialism and victims of economic instability. The servile state, Belloc hypothesizes, is built by these pressures from below and above. The most prominent capitalists have no problem aligning themselves with the state, however interventionist. This insight, offered in 1912, before the great wars and great depression accelerated the growth of big government, is perhaps the book's most accurate prophecy.

So has the growth of the modern welfare state proved Belloc's prediction of a new servile state? His prediction fails, although the 20th century did see new slave regimes under totalitarian guise, the liberal democracies did not evolve as far in the direction of forced labour as Belloc and later day followers imagined. But then again the dreams of the original founders and pioneers of welfarism failed too. The original welfare pioneers imagined a society of economic justice and security with the poor and homeless protected by impositions on the rich. They never foresaw a day when middle income earners would often be taxed at rates from 30 to 50% of their income with no apparent shift to egalitarianism. Although state enforced compulsory labour has not emerged (yet), Belloc's imagined servile future with a progressively disempowered mass and a surviving class of super-rich but politically well connected capitalists sometimes seems somewhat closer to modern reality than the vision splendid of the welfare pioneers.

Maybe we need to think of Belloc's book as a warning rather than a prophecy.

This is truly a fascinating book. Few books have had a greater influence on my political thought. The initial assumptions have a libertarian bent, but the construction of the argument from there is brilliant. As for an overview of the book, I feel that Mr. Templeman's review below was just about perfect.

A few other reviews have dismissed this book somehow as sloppy and even halarious. I would like to just make sure that the credibility of the work put forth by Buchanan and Tullock is realized. This book, along with a number of other great accomplishments, won James Buchanan a Nobel Prize in economics. To view this work as a right wing rationalization is way off base, study the works of Buchanan and Tullock and you will realize that statement is completely ridiculous.

The Calculus of Consent, written by James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, is one of the founding publications of what has since become known as the subdiscipline of public choice, which is the application of tools of economic analysis to the domain of political decision making. In theory, political decisions are made by elected officials in their pursuit of the "general interest" or the "common good", however defined. In reality, however, political decisions reflect the outcome of the workings of a number of interested parties, which includes voters, politicians, career government officials (bureaucrats), special-interest groups, lobbyists, etc., each of whom have their own agendas and interests. When someone appeals to the public interest while making a political argument, more often than not the underlying motive is a matter of self-interest (e.g. teachers' unions angling for larger teacher salaries under the pretext of improving public education). Public choice theory does not mean to be critical or cynical about this. Instead, it is merely intended to be descriptive: that's simply the way the political decision-making process works, and we need to understand this first before we try and improve the world through politics. For his central role in the development of public choice theory, professor Buchanan would go on to earn the 1986 Nobel prize in economics.

The book's main contribution lies in its development of the analysis of political behavior, particularly so-called logrolling (i.e. vote-trading, or political exchange). The Founding Fathers set up our political system in order for the general interest to be served rather than interests that only benefit specific groups at the expense of the rest of the population. But elected officials have learned to circumvent that intent by happily trading their vote on issues on which they don't care one way or the other in exchange for votes on issues about which they do care. All members of the legislature end up voting for each other's pet projects, which all get enacted at taxpayers' expense.

The authors propose that one solution would be to distinguish between legislative rules and constitutional rules. Legislative (statutory) rules may be adopted by simple majority coalitions pursuing their own interests. Constitutional rules, on the other hand, are supposed to be decided on without regard for short-term individual consequences ("what is right in the long run?" instead of "what's good for me today?"). Legislative rules are substantive, constitutional rules are procedural. Constitutional rules are meant to restrict abuse of the legislative process by majority coalitions. The difference between legislative and constitutional rules is perhaps somewhat idealistic. After all, what's to prevent people from voting for or against constitutional rules based on their short-term interest. In theory, people are thought to realize that "what's right" will also benefit them, as everyone else will be bound by the same rules, but in practice it doesn't always quite work that way (e.g. people may be aware that a constitutional balanced budget amendment is the morally right thing to do to prevent saddling their descendants with public debt, but as of yet no such amendment has been enacted). Still, the legislative-constitutional distinction is at least helpful as an analytical device.

As the authors acknowledge, in real life things aren't always quite as black-and-white as they have here been described. Sometimes people--yes, even some politicians--vote according to their conscience rather than according to their own self-interest. But the insights and analysis offered by the book and by public-choice theory more often than not do apply. The book is highly persuasive in demonstrating that democracy's simple-majority voting rule (50 percent plus one vote) does not inherently lead to superior decisions. For example, it offers a convincing explanation for why even in majoritarian democracy, taxes and government spending, whether on public services or on redistribution, are clearly "too large", i.e. larger than the vast majority of Americans would agree to if they were to redesign and rebuild government all over again from scratch today.

Stylistically, the book is light on math and the authors have an elegant writing style. But it is somewhat on the academic side and rather heavy on preliminaries. More comprehensive and more easily digestible treatments of issues of political decision making in a democratic context do exist, but even now, some four decades after its initial publication, the book is still considered a classic work in the history of economics and political organization. Its central section is "a simple logrolling model" (pp. 136-142 in the Buchanan Collected Works edition).

The main contribution of this pathbreaking book is by providing a rationale for the "counter-majoritarian difficulty": Why does society tolerate the "dead hand" of the constitutional framers to limit the freedom of choice of living individuals who wish to undo the constitution? The authors muse that in some previous stage, where individuals cannot identify their future preferences, each individual is threatened by two kinds of risk: The first is that others will attempt to take something that belongs to her and achieve their purpose by popular vote. From this prespective each individual desires that such a popular vote will not be made effectual unless supported by the largest number of participants. The second concern is that individuals might wish, in the future, to appropriate something that belongs to others, and may be thwarted by a popular vote, inimical to their cause. From this second perspective they wish to institute a rule that allows the appropriation to take place with only a minimal number of supportets. Each one of these two perils can be represented by a cost function, where the cost is a function of the number of voters necessary to carry the proposed measure; adding up the two functions generates an aggregate cost schedule for all rational players. The minimum of the aggregate function indicates the optimal number of individuals, as a portion of the voting population, necessary for carrying the proposed measure. If this number is greater than 50% of the population, this fact justifies the entrenchment of entitlements in a constitution. The grain of salt that must be added to this analysis is that the authors do not provide an explanation why that number might be greater than 50% of the population, or what might be the conditions that must be satisfied for the generation of that number.

The Calculus of Consent was a pioneering book when it was first published in 1962. While this book does have some overlap with the slightly earlier work of Anthony Downs and Duncan Black, Buchanan and Tullock took the economic analysis of democracy into new territory: constitutions. Chapter six is the core of this book. Here the authors specify the logic behind cost minimizing constitutional rules concerning public choices. The ensuing chapters sort out many details regarding the workings of democracy. This book is highly abstract, but it also contains much common sense and realism.

Buchanan and Tullock make a strong case for constitutionally limited government. In some respects this is an uncontroversial assertion. Who wants unlimited government in the strict sense? Who wants totalitarianism? Well, nobody does, when you put it that way. However, many people do want to disregard constitutional limitations when it suites them (both welfare state liberals and conservatives are guilty of evading American constitutional laws). Buchanan and Tullock make you think about where "we" should draw the line between the private and public sectors. Buchanan and Tullock make you think about how "we" can draw a line between the private and public sectors. These are the big questions of political economy. Whether you agree with them or not, they will make you rethink your position (provided you keep an open mind).

My main beef with this book concerns `political opportunity costs'. How do we know the value of forgone political alternatives? Can we know the value of forgone political alternatives? My own take on this last question is rarely. I was lucky enough to take classes with Buchanan and Tullock, so they have read my work on political opportunity costs (and commented on it favorably). Well, enough self promotion (my policy conclusions differ little from theirs anyway). The Calculus of Consent is a classic in modern political economy. All political science students should read it, especially at the graduate level.

This is one of the best books on the market for beginners. It contains all things that a beginner needs to know about what a stock is, how the stock market operates, capitalism, how free markets operate and much more. It explains how to really invest and trade for profit using valuations, technical stock movements and emotional factors. It also expands into the futures and bond markets and explains options and selling short. I found the chapter that tracked all the greatest performing sectors for each year over the last century very informative. This book is just packed full of information that you will learn from and be able to profit from in the markets. The only reason I did not give it five stars was due to it needing an update, it is a 10 year old book and I would like to see the last ten years added in to an updated version of this book.

Also check out Jason Kelly's "Neatest little guide to stock market investing" for another great book for beginners.

This book is pure gold for investors who are just getting started in playing the market. Coupling this book with a subscription to Investor's Business Daily will help you make good decisions quickly and minimize the punishing losses that naive investors sometimes take. IBD does a good job of explaining technical issues in easy to understand language along with showing pertinent charts and graphs.

This book is actually half decent it isn't near as good as How to make money in stocks but it covers a lot of relevant information for newer investors.

The chapters cover these wonderful topics:

* Capitalism: What it is and why it works
* The stock market: Primer on what stocks are and how the market works
* Mutual funds
* Options
* Bonds
* Futures market
* Economics and economic indicators

The book reminds me of Investing Smart however Guide to the Markets is at least 10 times better and covers more topics, not to mention the writers are much better than Dhun H. Sethna.

I recommend this for beginning CAN SLIM investors.

Reed Floren

Even a novice could learn the working of western
economics ( capitalistic ), the influence of Government
intervention, the mechanics of the stock market, and
the way to use the best investment paper today: Investor's
Business Daily. Only criticism: you should have noted
that the book is the same as the one published 10 years ago,
and not a new edition!

This book is a *primer*, and as such will likely be neither the best nor the worst book you'll ever read on the subject of investing (fwiw, I actually found the content average, and the writing style a bit like summertime in the Sahara). For me though, the book earned its fourth "star" for a single--yet *really* important--reason: its connection to the IBD newspaper. For about $25, _Guide to the Markets_ explains much of its information using the same graphs and other formats as you'll find in the company's daily. *That* is a great deal considering that IBD is one of the best, if more expensive, investment tools available. For its ability to cheaply provide access to that very powerful tool, while also providing other occasional insights, _Guide to the Markets_ is a very good value. (It's nicely indexed enough to serve as a solid reference as well).

The Future Dictionary is worth every penny and it is not that expensive. Also, it comes with a bonus CD that has some good bands and good tracks on it.
The definitions range from silly, serious, sad, thoughtful, and even just mean at times, but always funny and insightful.

Hundreds of writers and artists submitted work to put this book together and if you are a fan of McSweeneys, Dave Eggars, David Sedaris, Jonathan Safran Foer, Kurt Vonnegut, or any other great writer from this era, this is a book that you must have.

The thing I enjoyed the most about this book were the new writers I had never heard let alone read before. I may not agreed with all of there opinions I did joy the writing. At times I felt that it was over-politicized and close minded but over all had a very important message.

Not only did I enjoy this book both for straight-out reading as well as random dipping, but I've bought it for three different friends AND I've purchased more copies as insurance for the looming gift-giving season. It really is the perfect book for every shelf.

This book is a positive contribution to our current state of disunion in the United States. Yes, there are entries that look back at the Shrub administration with contempt, but others look at a positive future where we overcame the myopia, nepotism, and greed of the bushies. It is positive in itself that the future is there to write the entries. I would have given it 4 stars, but a reviewer that obviously did not read it compared it to Ann Coulter and only gave it one star. I am canceling out that vote. Thanks are owed to Foer, Eggers, et al. for their quality writing, work, and discerning eyes.

It's hard for me to write a fair review of this book for a number of reasons. When I ordered it from the McSweeney's website, it was as a part of their Cheapo Bundle, and the brief description mentioned absolutely nothing about politics (there was also no easily accessible link to the book's own web page). The book was said to contain "over 1,000 definitions by almost 200 authors, including Stephen King, Jonathan Safran Foer, Kurt Vonnegut... Jonathan Franzen, Joyce Carol Oates... Art Spiegelman," etc., so I figured this was a "dictionary" of words created in the novels and stories of these authors, collected for the first time in one volume. I'm not mad that the volume turned out to be a political screed, since I only paid $4.50 for it (they don't call it the Cheapo Bundle for nothing), but I am disappointed.

The main problem with this book is that it isn't particularly funny. It seems to have been cobbled together in the last days before the 2004 election in an effort to gain more liberal votes, and I can't help but wonder if there wasn't too much of a rush. For a "future" dictionary of our country, many of the references are already well-outdated (though some have admittedly gained even more ground over the last four years). Most of the humor comes off as cynical or mean, sometimes both. Humorists like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert can pull this off, but that's because they're actually funny. Most of the people involved in this project are the writers of serious fiction, and aren't too good with pithy humor.

I did, however, laugh at the definition of "misteak."

The music CD that came with the book is decent, if depressing. Most of the tracks are anti-war songs.

If you're looking for something to inflame your anger towards the Bush Administration, this is the book for you. If you're looking for an intellectual approach to current political issues, give it a pass.

Ann Marie O'Phelan, MFA's HOW TO GO TO COLLEGE ON A SHOE STRING is a key acquisition for any collection catering to college-bound students. It provides all the details on how to get scholarships, grants and fellowships to reduce out-of-pocket expenses, covers new alternative ways of financing college, and provides all kinds of tips on how to save money on everything from books to entertainment while in school. Will appeal to general-interest novices.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is a useful, informative guide and an invaluable resource for both parents and students. It is very detailed and covers everything you need know and provides a lot of information that I haven't seen in other books.

The sections about the ins and outs of financial aid and forms were very useful. The author even talks about how divorced or separated parents should fill out financial aid forms. Other sections discuss grants, scholarships, loans and the pros and cons of working while attending school. I like how he outlines student loan and credit card debt pitfalls and warns about the numerous scams that parents and students encounter. The chapter on living cheap is not only incredibly thorough and realistic, but it's also got some excellent resources for saving on textbooks as well as studying, living and traveling frugally.

I recommend this book. It's well organized and is written in a casual, easy-to-follow style. I especially like his use of case studies that give real-world examples and the Appendix section, which includes six pages of handy, useful links that cover all of the topics discussed in the book. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

According to experts a college degree can nearly double your annual salary, but the road to acquiring one can be expensive. How To Go To College On A Shoe String offers several ways to pay for college while attending, and offers suggestions on how to decrease the amount of student loans that will need to be paid back after graduation. This educational book does a great job of exploring the advantages and disadvantages of student loans, local community colleges, cooperative education, work study programs, and working while attending college. It emphasizes the importance of taking your SAT's, when to send out applications for financial aid and scholarships, how to organize application paperwork, and how to keep everyday expenses such as textbooks, meals, and transportation to a minimum. In this book you will find countless informative websites, some of which include worksheets to calculate the amount needed for financial aid, and others for lis ts of organizations and the sc holarships they offer. This invaluable reference manual is detailed, organized and reader friendly. After reading How To Go To College On A Shoe String, you will have a better understanding of the college application process and can concentrate on your education and enjoying your college years. I give this book a 4 out of 5 star rating.

Many parents, including myself, are starting to question if they will be able to send their child to college. In my area, a year of college at the state university tops $25,000, a little less if room and board is eliminated. With four years of college costing what many of us paid for our first houses, not to mention rising fuel costs and soaring heating and electricity bills, college savings have been sidelined in lieu of paying for necessary bills. There are still transportation costs, books and school supplies to consider. How are we going to send our children to college when there is no money in our already tight budgets?

Ann Marie O'Phelan's book can help any family figure out how to make college affordable. In many fields, a college degree is not an option it's a requirement. A recent scan of job postings in my area of Vermont found that even a city bus dispatcher is required to have a minimum of an associate's degree. Without a degree, salaries are much lower and jobs can be hard to find.

How to Go to College on a Shoestring offers sage advice to both student and parent. Besides the handy "Case Studies" that offer tips from those who have been there, the book is divided into ten chapters:

· How Am I Going to Pay for College?
· Applications
· The Numbers Game
· Grants
· Learn Now, Pay Later
· Work It Out!
· The Scholarship Jungle
· Bringing It Home
· Avoiding Trouble
· Living Cheap

What I like most about this handy guide is that it goes beyond finding college loans or grants. You'll find tips on getting into the college of your choice, the pros and cons of getting a job in high school to pay for college and tops on saving money while in college. Students learn how to shop wisely for things like groceries and textbooks.

The author's put a lot of work into her book. She includes a thorough listing of college funding programs for every state and pages of information on financial aid programs available in the U.S., as well as common scams that are circulating.

HOW TO GO TO COLLEGE ON A SHOESTRING is a must-read for every parent and high school aged child. It's packed with important information and handy tips to help keep college costs down and to ensure your child/children are able to attend college.

As a side note, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the Humane Society of the United States.

I have 2 in college, one one the way so I was very interested in the book, but didn't expect to read much that was not common sense or I already knew. I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only is is packed with great information, in a very light read - it has quite a bit of great information and advice which i had not thought of, did not know about or had not considered.

I am not convinced I can get 3 kids through college on a shoestring, but I can certainly do it quite a bit cheaper thanks to this informative and enlightening book. If you have kids on the way to college (or adults), this book is money well spent.

An excellent starting point for anyone with questions about the basics of investing. Kristof starts off with a chapter on finding the money to invest and how to change attitudes toward saving and investing. She includes tips for addressing universal problems as well as guidance on gender specific money problems ("emotional spending" for women and "competing with strangers" for men). One of the most informative parts of the book was the section in chapter 8 about "How to Read a Financial Statement." Even after years of reading those closely printed statements they can be overwhelming. Kristof tells you which sections to look at and what to look for to determine if the company is worth investing in. Chapter 14 - "The Lazy Investor's Portfolio Planner" shows you how to put all the lessons together to determine your goals and how to reach them. Simply a well written and accessable guide to taking those first steps into investing and what to do once you get there.

I have just finished reviewing Investing 101. As the title implies, this book takes a detailed look at finances (personal) but more to the point it takes a look at what is a financial market and how to invest, as an individual, without, hopefully losing your shirt.

There is a handy quiz to find out just how high (or low) your tolerance to risk is and based on this, the book continues to explain all the fundamentals about investing wisely.

This book is written for a novice and the terms used are everyday and easy to understand. This book also describes the various financial terms that are used in the market and this feature was quite helpful.

While I enjoyed this book, it focused more on families and less on singles - which is something that I was interested in. Also, this book's audience definitely is novice as there is very little in the way of intermediate financial information.

This is a great book for somebody who is starting out or who needs to polish their knowledge.

This review is about the updated and expanded 2008 edition of Investing 101 by Kathy Kristof, nationally syndicated Personal Finance Columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

I approached this book from two perspectives, first, as a teacher (retired) of technical subject matter and, second, as a self-reliant investor (active) who is living out of his retirement funds.

View One

As a teacher, I had three objectives for students who took my courses. I expected students who completed my courses to come away with: (1) an appreciation for the discipline, (2) an understanding of the subject matter, and (3) a proficiency for putting the discipline into practice. If I were teaching Investing 101, could I realistically expect my students to achieve these same objectives with Kristof's composition as their textbook? The answer is Yes, Yes, and Yes. (And, yes, I know that Investing 101 was not written as a textbook, but please bear with me for the sake of this review.)

First, I believe my Investing 101 students will come away with a positive attitude toward the discipline of do-it-yourself investing. The FUD factor (fear, uncertainty, and doubt about private investing) is more than adequately addressed by Kristof in the first chapter of her book. I am convinced that an attitude check at the beginning of my make-believe course compared with the same attitude check at the end of the course would show that anxieties toward individual investing will be allayed because of Kristof's practical advice.

Second, I believe my students will come away with a clear comprehension of what investing is about, not only the buying and selling of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and real estate investment trusts, but understanding these matters in relation to retirement planning and tax strategies. I believe that students who study Kristof's book and complete the paper-and-pencil assignments (worksheets spaced throughout the book) will finish this introductory investing course with enough fiscal savvy to be able to explain their financial goals, buy and sell strategies, and preferred portfolio allocations to their spouse, friends, financial adviser, and tax man.

Third, I believe my students will come away with a proficiency for setting up and maintaining investment portfolios on their own. I believe these portfolios will be wisely allocated between cash, stocks, and bonds so that principal will be protected and grow, income will be provided, and inflation will be hedged. I believe these portfolios, different for each student, will thrive in good markets and survive bad markets.

Overall, I believe my pretend students will benefit by the way Kristof's book is laid out. Each chapter is prefaced with a pedagogically sound "Quick Take" page. Kristof briefly tells the reader "What You'll Learn," "What You'll Do," and "How You'll Use This." If this were a theology book instead of a secular book, I would rename these headings as "Facts to be Believed," "Commands to be Obeyed," and "Promises to be Enjoyed."

View Two

As a self-reliant, active investor who is living out of his retirement funds, I looked for but could not find any ill-advised, slipshod action plans in this book. Kristof writes unambiguously about real financial problems and genuine investment solutions. Her explanations and illustrations are clear and to the point.

On the one hand, I found no investment topics so simple or elementary that they had no place in this book. On the other hand, I found no esoteric discussions of financial topics that were beyond a novice investor's level of appreciation, understanding, and ability.

My Favorite Chapter: I especially liked Chapter 14, "The Lazy Investor's Portfolio Planner." ("Lazy Portfolio" is a hot topic on the Internet. I got 366,000 hits with a Google search.) In this chapter, Kristof tells the reader how to take everything they've learned in Chapters 1-13 and apply it to a "hands-off" portfolio. [...]
My Favorite Kristof Quote: "Do the math."

Bottom Line: I recommend Investing 101, the 2008 updated and expanded edition, both as a tutorial for the newbie investor and as a review guide and reference manual for the intermediate investor.

I love this book. It is excellent for beginners and easy to read. I suggest this book to anyone who wants to learn about investing - its title tells it all. Also, it talks about some basic investment strategies & how to read/interpret a stock analysis , prospectus, etc.

This book does such a wonderful job introducing the beginners to the investing world. Different types of securities, different ways of investing ... this book has them all. If you just start investing or are interested in investing, this book is for you, don't miss out such a good book !

This could be the most expensive book I've ever bought. I started managing my retirement account more actively last year when I changed jobs and rolled my 401k to an IRA. And I've done a good job with etfs and individual stocks. But after reading this drivel I picked a couple of the mutual funds he touts which got absolutely decimated in the current (2008) downturn. I took a bigger loss than I otherwise should have allowed based on his advice to let it ride out the bad times since value fund managers will protect you. And I even kept a relatively small amount in one of the recommended funds after it dropped more than 30%. Now I am entirely convinced that mutual funds as a whole are completely obsolete and buy and hold is for fools. Managers are mostly incompetent and there is no reason to tolerate the high fees and lack of transparancy these vehicles impose. His arguments against the mutual fund industry are valid and the take away should be don't trust any of these crooks in the mutual industry, there are no good ones.

As a financial professional, I would urgently advise individual investors who have entrusted their hard earned money to the mutual fund industry to read this book. I know all too well, as an insider who works for a large investment firm, of the conflicts of interest that exist between the house and the retail investor. You will do yourself a big favor by incorporating some of the basic guidlines in selecting mutual funds whose management team have also a vested interest in the funds they manage. There are few funds currently operating that adhere to such principles. The Goldgarb 10 is a good starting point as these managers have incorporated Graham and Dodd into their investing framework and process.

I wish upon wish that this book had been around when I first dove into the mutual fund world. This book blows the cover off of an entire industry and tells the reader things that he/she will never hear from anyone in the business. During the course of my investing "career", I have seen things in annual reports that didn't make sense, but being the uninformed, trusting individual I was, I assumed things didn't make sense because I wasn't smart enough to make sense of them. Now I know. They didn't make sense because...they didn't make sense. Everyone and anyone who invests in mutuals should read this book.

Active portfolio managers read at your own risk! T Rowe Price Funds shareholders read at your own risk! 401K participants in target date funds read at your own risk! "Financial advisors" read at your own risk! You are NOT going to like what Lowenstein has to say. And his critiques of the industry as a whole often hit the sweet spot (sore spot if you're one of the above). Lowenstein also appears to have an axe to grind against T Rowe Price funds in general and the Science Technology Fund in particular. Not clear if he got burned in Sci-Tech. But Lowenstein's view of what's good in the market and how to get there is limited to what his son has tried to pull off-- a "What would Warren do?" strategy with cherry picked Graham-Dodd adages for tactics. Lowenstein critizes the whole field of mutual funds, but targets only mega cap value funds as the universe to select from. Ignore bonds, ignore small caps, ignore growth companies, ignore international markets. Buy the big stuff Warren would buy, or buy managers who only buy big stuff they think Warren would buy. His critique on asset allocation, for example, is really directed to "sector rotation" equity managers, not at allocating amongst stocks, bonds, cash, et.al.. Bogle did the classic critque on fees years ago. So if you're a big value stock kind of investor without the resources to mimic Warren as Roger wants you to (and, just how many new Warrens has that created?!) then you can follow his dad, Louis, and look for big value manager type mutual funds. Otherwise, look elswhere. But use the industry critques to beat your broker over his/her head with their 3600+ fund offerings loaded with commission $ for their yachts, not your dinghy. and recommend this book to your HR department so they can browbeat your 401K provider too.

In THE INVESTOR'S DILEMMA the writing is so clear and the case so well laid out and logically built that I feel I've had the most enlightening new look at investing...at how to participate in the growth of the world economy with but a few funds.

The book's concrete examples, naming names and showing specifics...rather than simply expounding theory...is compelling.

As a longtime (26 years) investor in Sequoia...my only fund for years, I was extremely interested to read about Fairholme and Wintergreen and am now a shareholder in those, too.

In the face of so many niche funds, sector funds and "style boxes", Prof. Lowenstein's pointing out that these three great managers are now free to invest all over the world in any size company they like is an extremely important point...one that can greatly simplify an investor's job.

THE INVESTOR'S DILEMMA is a beautifully written lesson.