economics-times

The book is an introduction to time series and covers ARMA, VAR Unit roots and Basic Cointegration, is a good book for people that want learn time series quickly, the book has some elementary theory of time series and many examples and exercises, the computacional problems needs some of RATS ...the book describes time series without advanced mathematics.

This is the best place to start to learn time series econometrics for anyone who has in his background only basic econometrics, calculus and matrix algebra. The reason is that Enders makes very complicated subject to look rather simple. This book shows how and why time-series is different from standard econometrics. It covers a lot of models employed in time series: ARMA, VAR, Unit Roots, Cointegration and Error-Correction. It proposes simple strategies that applied researchers can follow making their treatment of time-series more or less adequate. However, you would underestimate complexity of time series after reading this book. I would recommend to combine it at least with Hamilton's book.

I bought Walter Enders book several years ago, when I was an undergraduate student. It's a nice manual. Perhaps you won't see the statistical demonstration of the unit-root (Dickey-Fuller) test, but you will understand why it doesn't follow a standard probability distribution and you'll know how to use it. It's the same idea with Perron's unit-root with structural change test. The author introduces the reader to the main topics of interest in the time series field; ARIMA, VAR, ARCH, unit roots, cointegration, and distinction between deterministic trends and stochastic trends. This work is done through an understandable and fun text. You will enjoy reading the book. Besides that, the author illustrates each topic with an economic example perfectly presented and, in general, very interesting (business cycles, PPP, foreign exchange Market efficiency, Unit roots in GNP for example). I particularly enjoyed the unit root and the perron's test chapters. I used them a lot in my final work in college. Here, you will have the simplest explanation of ARCH processes. As someone else said, this is only an introductory book (for applied econometricians it should be seen as an excellent and very intuitive cookbook); if you are interested in time series, you can begin here, but you should then reading more advanced books, such as Hamilton's Time Series Analysis. A great combination of introductory manuals can be achieved if you have Johnston and Dinardo "Econometric models".

The distinct brown box arrived and I tore open the packaging! I had eagerly awaited the arrival of this book and I wasted no time in diving into the pages.
I started typing an illustrative review of what I thought about each "chapter", but I think that I will cut away the fluff and just let you know what I thought.

Out of the 20 businesses that the book profiles, I thought that on the most part 13 of them were just plain boring. I tried to read the book in one shot but found myself falling asleep as I trudged through the pages. A better way to read the book, I discovered, was to read it chapter by chapter, on different days and at different times.

You will gain insights into the different companies, which will enable you to appear insightful when participating in conversations, unfortunately your knowledge will be rather skin deep as the book does not probe very far beneath the surface.

The book enabled me to sort through the stories, pick the best ones, and now I will go out and buy other books which are about those companies or people that interested me, (such as David Ogilvy). I also found that the book made great use of language and I was always equipped with a pen, writing down and looking up numerous words.

I found the stories in the book very interesting. They covered a a wide spectrum of industries and spanned over a long time frame. The stories clearly illustrated the most important business figures of the particular time and industry.

However, I thought the stories were lacking in detail to make it truly a great read. After reading the book, I felt that I was introduced to the great figures in business. But to know them better, I have to read another book.

For example, I knew something about Henry Ford before reading the book. In the story about Henry Ford, I found it superficial. However, in other stories that I was not familiar with the protagonist, like McGowan, I found the story illuminating. I never knew the telecommunications business could be so interesting.

As such, I recommend this book to people who wants to know some of the greatest people in business. But to those who want to find out about the secrets to their success, the answer will lie in other more detailed books.

A great book about the people who made a real difference in shaping the present that we live in and influencing the future as it will become.

From Robert Morris to Bill Gates; the books takes you on a promonade into their kingdoms. Explaining to the reader many valuable information about each "tycoon's" personality, enterprise, industry, and the general business environment in his particular era.

I personally enjoyed the chapters on David Ogilvy, Ray Croc, Sam Walton, Walt Disney, Joseph Wilson, Henry Ford and Harley Davidson.

The book portrays many successful personalities and companies that will be of interest to people in varying specializations within Business.

An enjoyable read and a good reference.

Also read "Lessons from the Top" and "Radical Marketing"

This is a good book if you have a toddler or younger child.
and also it is good if you have NO experience being frugal and have never heard of discounts, etc...
I suspect the author is married to a guy with a good job and he makes a lot more money than my husband does, I also suspect that they own a nice home, and aren't struggling to come up with a downpayment on a home.
Its easy to be a stay at home mom when Dad earns a lot.
maybe her idea of cutting back means on the dinner parties and expensive jewelry
a good book for the yuppie set.

I really read this book, unlike the authors friends who posted here and clogged up the true review space with false praise

The purpose of this very readable book is to allow a parent to spend more time with their children. The author used her experience in financial journalism to calculate expenses. After surveying more than 100 mothers, she then wrote this book to help other families with young children survive on one income. Most mothers are at home when their children are young. Whatever your reason, this book can help you to spend less on living expenses without pain.

This book has four parts. One) to help you analyze your present financial situation and plan for the future. Two) has hundreds of tips to help you cut spending. Three) shows how to save more while earning less. Four) tells you about work: quitting & keeping benefits, part-time work, and how to resume full-time work.

I really like this book - it gives you the knowledge you need to know to make changes in your budget, expectations, etc. Topolnicki really knows her stuff, and delivers the message in a user-friendly manner. I recommend this book to all parents who want to cut back to one income.

First the positive:
This book is full of useful information to help you in organizing your home, your time, your life and more. There are many hints and techniques as well as a encouragement. If you are just starting down the road to organizing, this is a good book to begin with.

However, if you already have a fairly well run family and need to fine tune your organizing this is not the book to get.
Much of this can be read in any women's magazine in any given month. Many of the ideas are very simplistic (not that this is all bad).

Overall, I'd say that there are other better books out there that deal with organizing a home. I prefer Confessions of a Happily Organized Family or others by the same author.

I am organizationally challenged. I admit this. My home is an explosion of toys, cracker crumbs, laundry and paperwork. Our bills are regularly late because we can't find them or worse forget about them. I would like to say this book re-invented my life, I have to be realistic though. After almost 30 years of disorganization nothing will change over night. The author does offer some very practical simple solutions that I was able to implement with almost no effort. This was great for us. I created an organization system and rearranged a few items of furniture to find that I could use the space and things I already owned to my advantage. I try to look through the book weekly to find something new I can add to our routine to see what we can do to improve things. If you are just starting out with organization or you are to the point I was where you were ready to explode this is an excellent resource.

It's so easy to feel like we stay-at-home moms do so little in the world. Everyone else has titles at their job: "assistant product developer", "marketing coordinator", "research and design engineer". We're simply "Mom". And often as we sit around in our jeans with banana mash stuck on them juggling a baby and figuring out when we need to leave to pick up our older ones from school, we wonder whether we're really that important.

Kathy Peel helps us in two ways: first, she encourages us that what we do truly is important. In fact, it's the most important job there is! And if we're going to do it right, it requires some organization.

The Family Manager doesn't just teach us how to organize our homes, it helps us make sure that the main priorities don't get lost in the shuffle of driving to gymnastics, to Boy Scouts, and the grocery store. She reminds us to plan family activities, to make everyone feel special, and to take time just to enjoy each other. And to keep stress to a minimum, she reminds us to do the "preventative maintenance" in all areas of our lives, so that we don't have to spend precious time putting out fires.

When I wrote To Love, Honor and Vacuum, I didn't repeat what Kathy Peel did, because she did such a good job. I focused on how to change our relationships so that we don't feel so taken for granted, but I recommended that everyone also read The Family Manager to learn how to do that housework quickly, efficiently, and to everyone's benefit.

If you're down in the duldrums and feeling like you're running off your feet, this book will help you to remember that you are important and that you can make a difference.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility and self-determination? The reason people work so much is because they feel that it is a means to satisfy their wants. In a voluntary society, people exchange their resources because they see themselves better off afterward. I have a socialist friend that says he is a slave because he has to work. I fail to see how working in America is harder than trying to "live off the land." We have the highest standard of living in the world because we've earned it. I will continue to work and enjoy the fruits of my labor. I want the freedom to be able to work overtime if I need more money. I don't want the government limiting the amount of work that I'm "allowed" to do. This is my life and your life is yours. Make your own choices and decisions, and take responsibility for the results. Peace Out

If the author had his way, we would be working only 20 hours a week with 8 weeks of vacation a year. The author thinks and shameless writes that working hard is bad. If you have a tight deadline to meet, who cares? Just relax and take that 3 week vacation. You want to get ahead in life? Work less, not more. How can we resolve all our society's ills? Give everyone tons of vacation and forget about their productivity. You are insane if you are a hard worker who actually want to contribute. Not only are you insane, but you are evil too, because you make everyone else work harder bring on ill health and stress in the work place. Shame on all the hard workers!

On a serious note, this book is very unbalanced. Yes, leisure and vacation are important, but he totally dismisses the value of hard work in everyone's lives. Actually, I have worked too hard to write this review, I think I will take a 2 week vacation as my just compensation.

Joe Robinson is on to something with "Work to Live." It seems like everyone I know is crying for more free time, but the days just get longer, the weekends shorter and there seems to be no relief in sight. Emails, voicemail and fearful days are eating into our peace of mind and keeping us on duty 24/7.
Show your boss this book the next time he or she gives you a hard time about taking time off. There's great information here to support your cause because a break from the job is a good thing for the workplace, not just the workers.
After spending years putting in 60 hour weeks, missing weddings and funerals, and most of my life, I was downsized. "Work to Live" and Joe Robinson can help us all realize that if we don't take care of ourselves, no one will.
Learn from the Europeans who would never dream of giving up their vacations. Why do we? It's time to get a life...now.

I have seen motivational speakers pump up a crowd to a frenzy, and two weeks later the same people in the crowd don't even remember being there. The same thing happens with these parable books. I liked this book because it took it to the next level by teaching us how to make the changes and ideas actually stick in the long term, now that is productive. Another great book is Rat Race Relaxer: Your Potential & The Maze of Life, it too offers stories and advice on improving your workplace and life.

An excellent book for our changing work enviroment. Let's face it, the workplace isn't the same as it use to be. you better get on board or be left behind. This book will show you how.

How do you get a group of people to adopt new strategies of coping with change? This story provides food for thought. I recommend you read it along with Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self. When we use Optimal Thinking, we take the most constructive actions and achieve what is supremely important.

John Steele Gordon is an excellent writer, one whom I have enjoyed very much in the pages of American Heritage and who wrote a nifty history of Wall Street called "The Great Game."

This book, "Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt" is a good, if brief, overview of the fiscal history of the American government. It is somewhat misnamed, since the National Debt serves as a background and tie in to each period of fiscal history studied.

The author does a superb job of explaining Alexander Hamilton's establishment of our financial, banking, debt and money system. Here is a woefully under appreciated founder explained succinctly and whose brilliance and indispensability are brought forth by Gordon.

Descriptions of attitudes towards and major changes in financial policy and tools follow. Gordon covers the major aspects: the struggle over the Second National Bank, Jackson's paying off the debt (the only time the US Gov't has been debt free), Lincoln and Chase's tax, greenback and bond finance of the Civil War, the long fight to establish the income tax, the fight over high marginal rates and an efficient system of taxation, and the change in view in the last century from one that deficits and debt were something to be controlled to our current sorry state of view whereby no one worries about much about deficits anymore.

Debt, when properly used, has allowed us to primarily wage wars. It was retired in times of peace. We face an interesting time now, when debt as a percentage of GDP is much higher than it has been in most peacetimes. This raises the question that if we have to fight a truly massive and long war in the future, will we have the capacity to borrow what we need (based on historic statistics, it is a question well worth pondering).

Gordon finishes the book with a polemic against the political culture that has lost its way in terms of providing an efficient and fair and economically sound system of taxation and the willingness to moderate the nation's debt.

This is a good and interesting book. Anyone looking for a succinct telling of the development of our government's fiscal structure will appreciate this gem.

Just two years ago, John Steele Gordon's book on the history of the U.S. federal debt would have seemed dated, even though it was published in 1997. After more than twenty consecutive years of operating in the red, the U.S. federal government had not only erased its annual deficits and began paying down the debt, but surpluses were projected over the next ten years.

This is no longer the case. A tax cut, the war on terrorism, and a slowdown in the economy have combined to push the U.S. government's outlays above its revenues. They have also made this book -- "Hamilton's Blessing" -- relevant again.

Gordon's book is two things: 1) a basic history describing the twists and turns of U.S. fiscal policy over the last two hundred-plus years and 2) a political tract condemning the latest turn U.S. fiscal policy has taken since the Great Society.

By combining the two, Gordon seeks to show that the most recent practice of U.S. fiscal policy -- that of habitually running deficits in peacetime -- is not only unprecedented in U.S. history, but also, more importantly, unsupported by any sound theory of economics.

"Hamilton's Blessing" is well-written and interesting. The book is only slightly marred by a lack of detail in some areas. How exactly does a large public debt hurt your average citizen and by how much? We never find out.

Gordon also should have kept his own political bent out of the book. Among other things, he spends three pages in a less than 200-page book detailing Jack Kemp's personal and political history, including his football career. All very interesting, but not really relevant to the history of the U.S. debt.

This book is detailed, but easy to read, giving a good background on how our national debt came to be what it is today. Teh book also covers several of the more popular schools of thought on economics, specifically the teachings of John Maynard Keynes, the namesake of Keynesian Economics. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever questioned our government's inability to pay down the national debt as that debt is known as "Hamilton's Blessing."

Methods are outdated and rely more or less on the momentum stock craze of the late 90's.(example: csco was 70 a share when they wrote the book and is used in most or their examples.) I highly doubt they are still trading. Daytrading is a tough business so look to get reliable infomation. Dont start with this book. Sorry to be so critical but its just bad information to sell to the public.

Nothing you could not find for free in internet.
I'm glad if the authors are making any profit from this book, because I doubt they are earning much by trading if all they know is put in here...

With all the hype about day trading and with the Nasdaq market subject to such wild swings I was looking to take some of my money and attempt to leverage my knowledge base. I have been an enterprise networking products sales person and I consider myself reasonably savvy about emerging trends in technology. Reading this book was my "look before you leap," and provided me with some sound investing guidelines, philosophies, nuggets of information and the kind of reality check that will make this endeavor less akin to buying a lottery ticket. I recommend it for anyone who's interested in managing their own investments.

If you've never read any other book on organization, time management, or efficiency, do NOT get this one. The author provides many useful tips, but not a "system."

The tone of the author is unfortunate. I have never read a book where I was so put off by the author. You know how Tom Cruise portrays Jerry McGuire at the beginning of the movie "Jerry McGuire"? That's what the author sounds like. Business is life, money is the bottom line, winning is everything.

The author, Mark McCormack, was the founder of the sports management company on which "Jerry McGuire" was based, so maybe that's where the similarity comes in. Whatever the connection, the tone of the book is that of an obnoxious braggart.

On more than one occasion, Mr. McCormack excuses bad behavior in favor of the results they achieve. The ends always justify the means.

With that said, there are some useful tips if you have already brushed up on time management and organization. If you have not, this should not be your first purchase. I would suggest: "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, "The Organized Executive" by Stephanie Winston, and/or "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey.

It is hard to argue with Mark McCormack's success. He's built up an almost billion dollar business. I will say that in another book, he said he takes only 3 day vactions. That if he took a 2 week vacation "I'd be so worried about my business at the end of the second week, it wouldn't be worth it." And he promotes working long hard hours. But I know more than one filthy rich self-made man, who are not retired but active in their businesses, who nonetheless do NOT work long hard hours year round, and take as much as a month off straight, while their businesses hum along nicely without them. I would say McCormack is failing in his methods of getting results if he can't at this point take long periods of time off, without worrying about his business. Richard Branson is active in his much larger Virgin empire, but he takes weeks off to go on those balloon expeditions of his. What is he doing right that McCormack isn't?

An example: In the book TIME TRAP (a time-management book I highly recommend) the author sites a salesman who made two goals for the next few years. The goals were to, each year, 1) double his income 2) double his vacation time. (!!) And the salesman succeeded, so that he doubled his income, as well as his vacation time, so that in the third year he had a lot more money, plus 6 weeks in vacation time. THAT'S what I call getting results!!!!

Harvey Mackay in one of his books sites a saleswoman he hired, who told him she worked 20 hours a week at her interview. Mackey told her, "But your resume says you did $2 million in sales at your previous job." She said, "I did. You can phone them and ask." Mackay did so, and they confirmed what she said. Mackay says to the reader, "So I don't care HOW many hours a week she works, with those kind of results."

Maybe it's the nature of a service business (which is what McCormack's management company is): you can't let a factory stamp out widgets while you do something else. You have to keep cracking the whip, or inspiring your subordinate agents, if they are what make-up your company. If that's the case, I'll avoid service businesses.

This has helpful stuff in it. I even went out and bought a stopwatch to time certain tasks to speed myself up, as this book recommends. But the time obsession is kind of ridiculous at times, to the point where you almost expect Mr. McCormack to say, "If you could shave making love to your wife from 15 minutes down to 15 seconds, you'd save so much time." To get philosophical, Abraham Maslow wrote the seminal book TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING where he writes of the "self-actualized" personality, that he considers the most highly evolved personality type, but who are less than 1% of the population. One common trait amongst these extremely happy people is they often experience "peak experiences" where they feel immense joy and these experiences "trascend time." These people lose track of time during these experiences!!!! Now, it seems an obsession with time such as McCormack preaches would completely interfere with one's ever having such joyful experiences. I suppose it's like a lousy movie, where you are always looking at your watch, versus a great movie, where you forget about everything but the movie. So, I suppose to be successful and efficient, you have to say good-bye to happiness in a big way. But it's success that is supposed to make you happy, right? A major contradiction!!

If you have never been a project manager, and suddenly you need to learn rules of the game, this is a book I would recommend you to use as a reference material. It is easy to read, has real life examples and various templates related to project management are presented in this book. Highly recommended.

We (26 person team) just finished a 2+ year project using On Time Within Budget as our process guide. Bottom line: the project came in 7 weeks late -- not bad for a company used to 6 to 12 month schedule overruns. We'll do better next time with more experience on the methods described in the book. Advice to others: the chapters on estimation, standards, and risk analysis are great. The chapters on software teams, quality assurance and testing are good pointers to what we needed to know, but we also used other books on these subjects to fill in more details that we needed. Most everyone liked the epilogue (pulling it all together). This book helped to pull us out of the dark ages into modern software project management. Strongly recommended!

I don't usually write reviews but I was prompted to do this one because I strongly disagree with a preceding review. I am an EE senior manager and software development had always been a mystery to me until I got hold of On Time, Within Budget. I particularly found the following chapters helpful: Chapter 1 which includes reasons for project success and failure, Chapter 2 on risk management and how to reduce the cost of risk events, Chapter 5 on the management of software engineers, and most especially the Epilogue on pulling it all together, which provides a great overall perspective.

This book is full of real-life examples; it was clearly written by someone who has been down in the trenches. This adds credibility to the methods described.

I have learned a lot from the book and I use it as a reference regularly.