Investment-history

It's no exaggeration to regard it as a story book. Somehow the reality is more harsh and crueler than fictitious TV drama and movies, and the history of the investment world is surely no exception.

Back to the book. This is in fact an excellent collection of writings from books, journals amd newspapers of different witnesses to the author's selection of major debacles of the past four centuries. There are twelve parts of unequal period, with a timeline of critical incidents in the beginning of each part, followed by selected witness reports as mentioned above. Certainly, not everything could be accounted detailedly (so I would like to recommend "Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor", a book that dug deeper but not as wide) but readers certainly would have a very correct idea of what went wrong.

As a CFA charterholder (not yet, passed all three levels of exam but not paid the fees), I strongly recommend AIMR to put this book into the required list of reading to warn its members of the limitation of the financial techniques or theories or calculations or integrity stuff we try to preach. Anyway, a must read for anyone, especially serious players!

p.s. One minor drawback: Soros was not there. He should have been.

One example of an interesting foreshadow is that the author has included a picture of the Banker's Trust building reflecting off of a Deutsche Bank conference room table. The two frims merged several years after the photo was taken.

Since buying this book I now enjoy walking around lower Manhattan. While before I was caught up in the rat race, I know see the beauty of the arcitecture and can better appreciate the history of Wall Street. This book is full of insightful anecdotes which lead to interesting stories for me to share.

This book is a must for anyone who works in the finacial world for its insight and to keep around for others to enjoy.

I was happily surprised when I saw one of the authors books on Nantucket while on vacation there. I bought the book and was again happily surprised at its combination of photography and narration. I would rate Nantucket Island five stars as well.

There are others that have written about the same subjects as Sutton...Carrol Quigley(Professor of History at Georgetown University)...Werner Keller...Dr. Emanual Josephson...Gary Allen...Charles Levinson...etc...but none covered the subject in as great a detail and as broad an area and with the documentation that Sutton did...in Wall Street And The Bolshevik Revolution(Arlington House Publishers) he documents that a small group of Wall Street bankers financed the Bolshevik Revolution...in the 3 volume,Western Technology And Soviet Economic Development(Hoover Institution Press)these same groups actually built the
Soviet economic structure from 1917 to the
present...and it is this work, i believe,(in part) and the work of others documenting this subject that helped bring down the Soviet Union...if they financed the Revolution and built the economic infrastructure...then they controlled it...which is what they are doing today with the billions of dollars they are investing in the Peoples Republic of China...! Control of the economic structure of a country is real power not political power...!

Sutton has written about many other subjects but it is the above mentioned that are amoung the more important works...i believe they are available at...

www.amazon.com... you won't look at International Politics in the same way...again...

woody voinche
marksville, louisiana

He shows that the American government intervened on the behalf of Leon Trotsky, who was detained by Canadian authorities, so he could travel to Russia and agitate for the Reds. Apparently Trotsky might have been German instead of Russian, but in the end I guess we'll never know for sure. Both Trotsky and Lenin were sent into Russia with money and assistance from foreign governments to stir up trouble.

This book also goes into detail on the 1917 American Red Cross mission to Russia which had more bankers than doctors. William Thompson, then a Director of the New York Fed, gave $1 million to the Reds for propaganda purposes. He then brought enough of his Wall Street buddies on board that the Bolsheviks were their guys, to bring the White House over to their side. Wilson's influential advisor at that time was Edward Mandell House, who in Phillip Dru: Administrator stated that he believed in socialism as envisioned by Karl Marx, but with a spiritual leavening. With advisors as such, it was not so difficult.

House also used his influence to get Red agitator Minor, who drew a cartoon showing Wall Street types fawning over Marx in the introduction to the book, off the hook after being arrested by military authorities in France for distributing subversive Bolshevik propaganda. His daddy was a well-to-do person back in Texas, where House came from, who gave good old E.M. House a call to get junior off the hook.

Sutton also showed how many of the businesses that did business with the Reds originated from 120 Broadway. Since the robber barons already ran out all competition in the US, they needed captive foreign markets to satisfy their insatiable greed. They had a boot in all camps, and used their ability to feed, fund, and arm the winning party, in this case the Bolsheviks, to obtain trade concessions. This lot did the same by backing Sun Yat Sen in China, and various governments in Latin America.

Sutton also shows how many of these Wall Street supporters of the Bolsheviks started a group stating their opposition to the socialists. They then told New York Times reporters that they feared a Red revolution in America and that the Reds would sabotage and wreak havoc on our economy even as they were setting up the Ruskcom Bank and conducting business with them. Sutton appropriately described this behavior as totally amoral.

There was one quote from the book that will be forever etched into my mind. This quote was from a business figure working in the American consulate in Russia to a British colleague. It was along the lines as such:
You may have heard that I own 50% of the forests in Siberia and all of the Magnesium deposits in Georgia. Now, of course, this isn't true. But, let's say that it is true. I am an American wolf and you are a British wolf. But, both being intelligent wolves, knowing if we don't join forces this hour and together hunt the German wolf, we will come to naught.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the business mentality. It has always been that way, and with industrialization and our livelihoods increasingly put in the hands of these people, it explains very easily how the man in the street gets screwed. Read this book and take it to heart. These egotistical, greedy SOBs have been running our country into the ground for over a 100 years, and reading this book and sharing it with fellow patriots is the only way to stop these treasonous scumbags!

Perhaps at least a few of these names are unfamiliar to you. That is one of the great benefits of this book: It introduces a "cast" of literally hundreds of different "characters", most of them probably unfamiliar to most readers. I was fascinated to learn how important their "roles" were...how significant the impact of their work has proven to be.

For whom will this book be of greatest interest? Probably for those such as I who enjoy a story well-told, who have a keen interest in knowing more about various "entrepreneurs and inventors who revolutionized modern business", and who appreciate having what amounts to a frame-of-reference within which to understand current and future developments. Also, Young's book will suggest additional readings such as full-length biographies of the major "characters" in the "tales" he has told so well.

If you are using your American or European style to work and even partner with China's firms, you must be failure in the end.

Relationship with the Government and officials are the major concerns when you stepping into the door of China.

Think Global and hire Local Chinese people is the only way to have the final success with your partner in China.

China means: " Always in the historical culture "
So don't think about China with your American Standard !

Try to learn with your local Chinese people (doer)

Anyway, China is opened now and also needed to face the ways for WTO ! Reckon, China can learn from their European and American business partners from today.

He was also a strong environmentalist, clearly never forgetting that his youth spent in the wilderness of frontier America shaped him morally and spiritually, and that even though the concept of "survival of the fittest" applies to all of us one must never forget perserverance, courage and loyalty to family, friends, and business clients if one is to succeed and maintain one's moral compass.

He also was able to forgive his clients' weaknesses and helped them improve their lives. If only that happened today!

Any business public relations firm should read this book and read what customer service and loyalty should be all about - and anyone interested in a unique American Renaissance man should order this book for themselves, family members and friends. They won't be disappointed.