market-economics

Mark Smith, a Goldman Sachs and Wall Street veteran, takes an entire book to attempt to get across the point that stocks should be valued based on future earnings, and are (were) not overpriced in the late 90's. The book was composed during the late 90s and early in 2000, during the biggest stock market bubble of all time. He carries a major grudge against Jessie Livermore, and John Kenneth Galbraith, and takes every opportunity to throw in a "cut" on these 2 historic figures. Seems obvious why he carries a negative torch for Galbraith. Galbraith devotes a chapter in his mid 50's book The Great Crash 1929 to Goldman Sachs participation in Wall Street Chicanery though several investment trust schemes. Galbraith's treatment of Goldman was based on fact. More respect for Galbraith's views should have been shown.

Seems the overall point of the book is that no price is too high for stocks, and that you can't beat the market using technical analysis or fundamental analysis. His halting of his narrative to provide a physical description of characters are both annoying and distracting. Its an obvious attempt to bring some sort of writing style to his descriptions which are clearly not there.

Smith goes to great lengths to make a case for stocks being not overvalued in 1929, the early 70's (during the nifty fifty popularity), and before the 1987 crash. However, he fails to look back on whether the earnings and dividends produced by companies after these times would have justified these valuations. Such an analysis would have made this book valuable. Instead we get late 90's rhetoric to support his case.

He suggests that increased "productivity" through technology justifies higher p/e's. This garbage logic is coming back as the market rallies in late December 2003. Such logic was also used in the 1990s bubble era, just as productivity increases from the prohibition was used to support 1929 bubble valuations. I would suggest saving your money for now, and reading this book after the next stock market calamity which is coming to your neighborhood soon. The book will then be good for a few laughs.

A key debate among economists is just how "rational" markets are. One school says they are completely rational, immediately absorbing all available information into the pricing of the items traded in each market. Others (with far fewer followers these days) say markets are far from rational, needing massive government intervention. The terriory between these two viewpoints is most likely where the "truth" lies.

Smith takes an interesting, very focused approach to this debate. His focus is the history of the U.S. stock market; his thesis is that the market is getting closer to rational perfection with each passing decade. The result is an eminently readable book.

In his march through twentieth century stock market history he introduces us to a host of characters - some are famous names you will already know; others are les well known scoundrels that taught lessons valuable to those who police the market.

Smith's story also introduces, and explains, various investment strategies and fads, placing each in historical context.

If you already have a doctorate in economics, this book may teach you little. But if you read history, business and economics titles because you want to, not because you have to, buy this book.

Mark Smith has succeeded in writing one of the best histories of the stock market certainly in recent times and maybe of all time. The book has rich descriptions of many of the individuals and companies that have shaped the market over the years. But much more importantly, the book has a coherent, important message.

Smith argues, quite persuasively, that the history of the stock market can be seen as a continual (if sometimes bumpy) upward movement in the valuation measures applied to the market. Smith brings us back to the days when common stocks needed to YIELD more than bonds because they were riskier. He then traces the advance of P/E ratios all the way to the present. Although I am still unconvinced by his arguments that the markets of the late 20s and late 60s were not bubbles (he seems to almost make bubbles definitionaly impossible), this book is a valuable contribution to the current debates about the state of the market.

This is not a get-rich-quick book or a how-to manual, but the story Mark Smith lays out is vitally important to all investors and is an enjoyable read to boot. Highly Recommended.

Many people who have been burned by going into new areas will grade this as five-stars for encouraging caution in expanding a company's scope. If that's all you want from a book, this is a five-star book. If you want to learn what the exact lesson is, and why that lesson is true, you'll have to look elsewhere however. If you want to learn how to beat the odds in this area, you will also have to look elsewhere.

I found Profit from the Core to be a directionless mishmash of data without firm definitions that repeatedly espoused the idea of "stick to your knitting." As a result, I took up Beyond the Core with great trepidation. At first blush, Beyond the Core seemed to cure some of the peripheral problems of Profit from the Core . . . until I began to notice how almost all of the important examples of continuing business model innovation had been excluded that seemed to fit all of the criteria (except perhaps being willing to be interviewed by the author). Mr. Zook continues to avoid defining what "the core" is, so that basic problem continues.

The book's message is "stick to your knitting . . . unless you have not choice . . . then don't go away from your cost advantages and knowledge." If you want to know a little more about that message, you can read all of the key points in the book summarized in the Afterword on pages 189-192 in less than five minutes.

The book will mainly be helpful to those who are thinking about making unrelated acquisitions. The advice: Don't do it! The odds are way against you . . . but even the most unrelated acquisitions sometimes work (GE bought NBC and has done well with it, for example). The book lacks clear direction for how some overcome the odds.

The book was also curiously silent about how companies can use small experiments to test their way into new areas. That's the way that most firms expand beyond their core.

The methodology looks very much like those employed in Build to Last and Good to Great . . . but don't believe it. Cases were selected in part based on whether Mr. Zook could interview the companies. So it's really a subjective sample. So take the conclusions with a selective grain of salt. Here are some of the cases of those who have prospered with expanding into new areas that seem to fit the Zook criteria but don't appear in the book: Beckman Coulter; Berkshire Hathaway; Clear Channel Communications; Education Management; GE; Iron Mountain; Nucor; Paychex; Sony; Virgin Group; Xilinx; and Zebra Technologies. It's not surprising that the book fails to describe the discipline of continual business model improvement as a best practice . . . a serious omission for this subject.

Ultimately, I think the flaw behind the book is to look at moving "beyond the core" separately from looking "at the core." If the two books had been combined into one that looked at how to outperform the competition, there would have been the basis of helpful insights. Or, this book could have been scoped down into how to grow into new areas with internal development activities versus acquisitions. That would have been helpful. But with the focus of "beyond the core," you are left in a never-never land that you may not want to be in. The other interesting question that could have been addressed is how companies prospered by eliminating the old core and replacing it with a new one through acquisition as a number of companies have.

As I thought about why the author might have chosen this direction, I realized that it may be an unconscious use of the older ways of strategic thinking. Those analytical schemes separated thinking about existing business areas from entering new ones. For some time though, most strategic thinkers have emphasized seeing the questions as connected. You should, for example, be pursuing your best opportunities. That means comparing all choices in some manner at the same time.

The other problem with data-heavy studies like this one is that you are relying on backward impressions (with 20-20 hindsight). Studies of best practices are best done by looking at the decisions and actions when they are made . . . and then measuring the results to see what happens. Interviews taken at such times reveal much different information than the neat success stories spun after the fact. Clayton Christensen does a good job of explaining this issue in chapter one of his new book, The Innovator's Solution.

As I finished the book, I began to think about the many unsuccessful unrelated acquisitions that I have run into among companies. In almost every case, I remember reading a thick book by a name consulting firm that had explained at the time of the purchase why the acquisition could not miss. Perhaps a follow on for this book would be how to avoid bad advice in evaluating acquisitions.

Standing Tall among Business Books, Chris Zook has indepth research examples of Companies portraying picture of today's business times. Numerous CEO reports, charts and graphs with real practical illustrations are varied. Outside a core business, the expansion is detailed in this book - on how to go ahead framing and practically applying the ways and means so as not to harness the existence levels. The books offers nurturing roots of business, examples on adjacency expansions with pros and cons of success and failure measures. The name itself speaks big 'Expand market without abandoning Roots' and the rule of the game lies in effective management. The author pin points steps to leverage best avenues and the possible adjacent moves so as to reach competitive edge and pooling profit without harnessing the roots of main frame business. In today's time, with diversifications, 'Beyond the Core'- the book serves a Good Reference and as I read on Chris zook's comments, I feel this is a 'Grab Pick' and Must for all Big Company Executives.

I enjoyed Chris Zook's first book, "Profit from the Core", and believe that his new book, "Beyond the Core", is also a must-read. While "Profit from the Core" eloquently described how a company could make the most of its current strengths, "Beyond the Core" may be even more relevant for a company trying to succeed in today's economy by explaining how to find new growth opportunities around a core business.

Zook clearly demonstrates, through well-reasoned analysis and CEO interviews, how a company can take a core capability and apply it to new customers, geographies, products and channels. He also shows how some of the most successful companies have a repeatable formula that they apply to their adjacency expansions. The Nike, Dell, UPS and Lloyds Bank examples are particularly compelling.

Zook's "Beyond the Core" provides a practical framework for identifying growth opportunities and structuring the organization for success. The book explains how the connection to a strong core business, the measurement of the profit pool, and the potential to become a leader should all play a role in deciding which adjacencies a company should pursue. I think anyone involved with helping a company create profitable growth would want to read this book. It is not surprising that THE ECONOMIST recently rated "Beyond the Core" as one of the top Economics and Business books of 2003.

This book won't cure cancer, but it sure will overcome a lot of missed connections among people with valuable knowledge, experiences and talents who could be sharing them with one another.

Ms. Klaus argues persuasively that most of us don't put our best foot forward, out of a desire not to seem like braggarts. In the process, we look worse than we really are . . . and no one really cares. Careers, relationships and opportunities languish as a result.

Most people would like to present themselves better, and would concede that point. What's good about this book is that it is filled with practical advice for turning yourself into an interesting and relevant brief story for those you meet.

The heart of the book is the Take 12 self-examination where you start developing what's potentially interesting and relevant about you to share with others. Then, there's lots of advice for how to customize that material into 30 second (for elevator conversations) to 3 minute (for selling or interview intros) versions that fit your audience at the moment. If you only read that section and did the exercises there, you would more than get your value from this book.

The book begins with Ms. Klaus challenging myths about bragging (such as jobs being well done speaking for themselves, and good girls don't brag) by looking at actual experiences where the results of those myths were harmful for those who acted on them.

Quickly, attention shifts in chapter 2 to "What So Good about You" and there's more there in the Take 12 than you probably appreciate now.

Most of the rest of the chapters address specific situations such as how to behave in the office (even if you are a tele-commuter), handling job interviews, being in performance reviews, using voice mail and e-mails, when you are not employed, and when you are self-employed. For professionals who work on their own, chapter 8 which addresses the last subject can be worth a fortune to you. I thought it was very well done. Then the book moves back into overviews (chapter 9 is on brag nags to keep you focused and chapter 10 has a self-confession by the author and 12 tooting tips).

If you've ever felt awkward in advancing your own views or interests in any of these situations, take a look at this book. You will probably find helpful ideas that you'll be comfortable following.

In the course of my business career, I've had occasion to meet many successful people. Almost all of them follow the kind of gentle, discreet communications approaches described here. So I can testify that this approach must work for getting to the top!

This is an amusing, informative book advising people how to self-promote. I read the book, and then put into practice what was taught for some telephone promotion for raising funds for a non-profit organization that I work with. It was amazing how the technique Ms. Klaus advised encouraged the return of calls previously ignored. I was so pleased. As well, it is fun to read, making you chuckle throughout. She is a great educator.

Probably most people were taught three principles early on in life: Obey the golden rule, don't pick up hitchhikers, and let other people praise you. Author Peggy Klaus can't help you with the first two, but she debunks the third principle.

Just what is bragging? Or put more properly, WHEN is bragging bragging and when is it taking advantage of opportunities? According to Klaus, there's a time and a place for proper bragging. Bragging (or "self-promotion") can be practiced in and out of the office. It can help you get better assignments, better pay, better recognition, better relationships, and more. But you have to do it properly...

Klaus show us first how NOT to brag, citing many examples of failed bragging and how to correct them. When practiced correctly, the principles of BRAG can help you communicate your talents without coming across as obnoxious. Recommended.

193 pages

I found this book quite helpful for my team. It covers the current issues quickly and well. Although it is repetitive, the book presents a tapestry that steers thinking in IT toward strategic alignment. The book lays the foundation for the holistic integration of IT and business strategy, using techniques (though not explicitly) of portfolio management, continuous improvement, teambuilding, and enterprise architecture modeling.

I highly recommend this book. It should be paired with a more enterprise architecture centric book to provide a complete actionable background. That said, the book stands alone to plant the foundation for successful IT/Strategy convergence.

Information technology has made possible the Information Age. Today, organizations are wrestling with the monumentally complex decisions about how to invest in this ever-advancing technology-investment decisions that are shaping the competitive destiny of corporations. How such decisions are made and how they should be made is at the heart of this book. The central theme is linking strategy with a firm's IT portfolio: its total investment in an IT infrastructure. The authors explore four approaches to such infrastructure investment decisions, ranging from none to an enabling view that positions the firm to optimize its IT core competence in a strategically flexible manner.

The authors have synthesized the approach market leaders take to leveraging IT. This books shows how IT creates business value and how top performing firms use IT in alignment with their current and future needs and goals. The book's concluding section addresses how to manage the IT portfolio for optimum business results. The work includes a useful grouping of infrastructure services into 8 management clusters. Reading this book is a delightful educational experience; it is also requisite reading for all strategists.

Information technology has made possible the Information Age. Today, organizations are wrestling with the monumentally complex decisions about how to invest in this ever-advancing technology-investment decisions that are shaping the competitive destiny of corporations. How such decisions are made and how they should be made is at the heart of this book.

The central theme is linking strategy with a firm's IT portfolio: its total investment in an IT infrastructure. The authors explore four approaches to such infrastructure investment decisions, ranging from none to an enabling view that positions the firm to optimize its IT core competence in a strategically flexible manner. The authors have synthesized the approach market leaders take to leveraging IT. This books reveals how IT creates business value, and how top performing firms use IT in alignment with their current and future needs and goals. The book's concluding section addresses how to manage the IT portfolio for optimum business results. The book includes, among many of its nuggests, a useful grouping of infrastructure services into 8 management clusters.

Reading this book is a delightful educational experience; it is also REQUISITE READING for all strategists. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and the Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

I have read several options books and they are mostly theoretical or geared towards option market makers. This was the first book I read that I felt was practical. The beginning of this book is very simplistic and explains everything from what an option is to how they are priced. I found it a little to easy, but if you do not know anything about options then this would be a great place to start. The second section and strategy section are the best I have seen for the practical retail trader. I found it very interesting how market makers make markets and how it may effect the retail trader. This was also the first book that I have read that made volatility simple to understand. The best part was the strategy section. The book is divided into bullish, bearish, flat market, and volatile market strategies. I found this to be a great reference tool. This book should be on the self of every advanced retail trader. I have seen the author, Michael Williams, speak in New York and found him very knowledgeable, but even more importantly an excellent teacher. I would rate this book 4 1/2 stars because I am already familiar with options and the beginning is introductory. This book is for the retail client that wants to take advantage of options and the leverage they provide. I would rank this book for beginners to intermediate. For an advance book I would recommend Natenberg's "Option Volatility and Pricing". These two books together are all you need for stock options.

...well, almost! Reading this clear and concise book makes me feel that even a math-phobe like me can master the options market! While reading the explainations of what an option is, to the lingo, to postions, I never felt that I was in over my head...or that it was written in a way that was determined to go over my head! It's simplicity was refreshing and empowering, and I find that I go back to it again and again as a reference point.

Who knew I'd ever get excited over a book about options trading?

Finally, a book about options that is understandable and helpful. The book has been reprinted so the errors that the other readers referred to have been corrected. I loved it!

Don't expect to learn much from this book. Strategies are all well known. Buy low and sell high. If you think that you are going to make a lot of money just by reading this book, think twice. Make no mistakes. The author suggests some risky (some very risky) strategies and the stock market is not all roses like the book wants you to believe.

This is a great book. The author breaks away from the "buy and hold" philosophy and helps us to see that if we treat our investing like it was a business, then we can do well in "bull" or "bear" markets.

This is by far one of the best books for traders ranging from beginner to advanced. It presents market dynamics and trading strategies in easy to understand concepts. This book has proved to be invaluable in helping me make more money. As a matter of fact he even has a website at bobeldridge.com.

This book is a typical Toffler mishmash of speculation and rambling incoherencies. Even if you can get through the first few chapters, it's not worth whatever mark-down price the stores are offering it at. Suggest you read the work of more cogent futurists.

Simply, the most comprehensive and clear view of the possible future I have ever experienced. I read the book in 1992 after having it sit on a bookshelf and collecting dust for over a year. I waited too long! This is one of the most powerful studies of the future which we are now experiencing. Many of the phenomena taking place around us are foreshadowed in this comprehensive and easy to read volume by Heidi and Alvin Toffler.

Clearly, they have looked into the future and given us a road map through which to navigate the post cold war information society which has grown like a virus out of control.

From economic boom (unparalleled post world war II economic expansion) to the rise in religious fanaticism and terrorist activity (including domestic terrorism as witnessed by the Federal Building, the World Trade Center and the attacks on numerous women's health clinics)to the acceleration of the information-communications driven economy ( the internet and its impact on wealth creation was no surprise to Powershift readers).

While many of the things that are foretold in this volume have come true, the open ended nature of those things is what makes reading this now so compelling. The advice and knowledge to be gained here is still valid. We are only in the top half of the first inning but the runs are being scored like mad!

This book serves as a great underpinning of understanding of the dynamics of the new world. Read this and you will be fascinated and energized by the possibilities of the future. The reading is easy and the writing is tight enough to give you the basic ideas and to allow your imagination and view of the future take flight.

I was fortunate enough to have been given this book to read almost 15 years ago. I was unfortunate enough not to have taken full advantage of the information inside it. I basically predicted Walmart's advance using the lowly Barcode, and the current problems that we are experiencing in the middle east due to fundamentalism - not moslem fundamentalism or christian fundamentalism, fundamentalism as a result of our fear of the inevitable pace of change as it increases evermore. The book is still relevant and I find my self quoting it and Mr. Toffler in discussions with friends and family on world affairs.

The author is very good in leading the reader through how money and its avaliability play an important role in determining the economy of any country.
The banking industry and its role are covered as well - starting from a historical perspective to the present day. Our class was doing a chapter on the various reforms in the banking industry when the Enron-Anderson scandal happened. We had some very though-provoking discussions in the class based on the material in the text.
While I am not a complete stranger to economics, I took home a lot of valuable information by the time I was done with this course and this text book. I only wish the publishers had included a CD ROM of real-world exercises / problems that stimulate thought on issues to consider when determining monetary policy.

Highly recommended for both dummies and people familiar with economics. The author presents an unbiased, unpartisan, clear introduction to numerous aspects of monetary policy, financial institutions, and financial markets. Along with factual material the author presents important and profound generalizations and principles.

For once, there is an economist with a passion to teach and communicate well. Although it is supposed to be an introductory text in monetary economics, I return to it again and again to check my basic understanding of this subject.

"The Frozen Water Trade" is an interesting chronicle of a long dead and forgotten industry. In this book, a story is told about how a particular idea first considered to be absurd, but then grows to a tremendously large business all around, and then impacts other later industries (such as beer brewing in Milwaukee) and then ultimately capitulated from the march of technological progress.

In many ways, I found the actual specifics about the business of selling ice as interesting as the general story about 19th century business life, such as dealing with relics from the mercantilist age in the caribbean to the business like of 19th century Boston shipping magnates. If the concepts that I am describing sound interesting to the slightest, then this book will not disappoint.

Mr. Gavin tells a very good tale of how Fredric Tudor took the seemingly absurd idea of selling ice and turned the idea into what was one of America's largest industries of the 19th Century.

What I found most captivating - more so than the biographical aspect of the book - was how Gavin put ice in perspective in America. It was a huge industry producing millions of dollars a year and employing thousands (many on a seasonal basis), yet because it was not taxed there is very little hard data. Moreover, ice appears to have been a primarily American love in the last century. Only after WWII did the rest of the world pick up our affinity for cold drinks and food. These perspectives make the book more than a biography or "how they done it" book and makes it worth reading.

Although I thought the book weakened towards the end (as if he was looking to fill a few more pages) it was a joy to read. Gavin made the history of a unique industry into a good story.

As a business professor, I found this book part entertaining history, part cautionary tale about the risks and rewards of hubris.

One might at first read it as the story of a mad genius, Fredrick Tudor, a 19th-century Boston scion fallen on hard times with the nutty notion to ship ice to the Caribbean. Tudor truly didn't seem to have a good head for business, but the fundamental economics of the trade were so strong that he eventually flourished. Take something that you can get for practically free (ice). Hire farm workers laid off for the winter (they'll work for practically nothing). Pack it with something that people want to get rid of (sawdust). Transport it in ships that would otherwise be carrying only ballast (they'll carry it cheap).

Tudor appears to have been more-or-less an irascible nut, whose initial forays into shipping ice were disastrous (he forgot, for example, that no one in the Carribean had a place to store it, so that the first purchasers could do nothing more with their blocks of ice than carry them home gingerly in their aprons and watch them melt). As a sideline, he tried to corner the US coffee market and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and alienated everyone who could help him gain a technological edge over his competitors.

In sum, Tudor is a fascinating character, but the trade itself is even more interesting then he was. Weightman's narrative is well-researched, charming, and swift. It would make an excellent choice for anyone interested in history but also a great change-of-pace for anyone interested in business in general.

Instead of investment secrets or unique skills of gurus projected by the book title and its cover design, it was the authors' free writing, primarily fundamental analysis oriented, of asset allocation, diversification, interest rate, GDP, tax, dividend payout ratio etc etc and their effects on investment return well supported by the authors' own unscientific choice of data within a 10 yr range skewed favorably towards the authors' points of view.

I dont mind reading just another investment book (and not the investing secrets advertised) if it "shows me the money", as I had already read over tens of them. However, I am disappointed by the authors' poor writing skill and the limited knowledge presented.

In research term: Sell.

I was pleasantly surprised upon reading this book at just how well written the book was. William Donovan does a wonderful job all around. I highly recommed this book to anyone and everyone.

Mr. Babin and Mr. Donovan have provided the investment tools necessary for any investor to make educated and wise decisions on how to create and/or maintain a winning portfolio. As relatively new investors, my wife and I are confident that by putting these "investing secrets" to work for us, our financial future is on solid ground. The ideas and strategies presented are logical and easy to follow and understand. TOPTHEDOW.com, the book's companion, is well worth the time to explore. We have done our homework and believe that this book is a must read for all investors-both novice and seasoned!