market-economics

I think this is a book for two reasons. Many motivational or business books are about a guy that either started a big company because of a great product and statistically that is just a small number of business people (like a Bill Gates) or they are an executive that was a success in a larger organization (like Jack Welch) or they got a head start with a family business (like Sumner Redstone or Ted Turner). But here is a book about a small business operator. He is much closer to the average guy. He was running in fact a small business both inside and outside of competitive yachting.

Secondly he covers all the basic fundamentals in motivation and planning. I will not review them again here - you can look at the index - but it is simply a great summary of things to do and attitudes that must be developed.

This is a short but powerful book just 200 pages long and costing now only $5.00.

It is a great buy.

Jack in Toronto

This is a formulaic book with a great message. The writing style may drive you nuts, but the message about the commitment to performance is there. My favorite people are those who truly love something, especially something with measured performance, and Dennis Conner clearly loves winning yacht races. This books isn't about yacht races (there are other Dennis Conner books about that), it's about winning at whatever you do. I return often to this book for motivation and ideas on how to improve.

Both the best of books. There is no one better.

This wonderful tome, with its flowing prose, can teach even the most broken down of brokerage horses how to be a top producing stockbroker. Perfect reading in that rented cessna with the horse down below in the cargo bay or on the beach in Monaco on a "business lunch". More fun to read than a pile of GONEX prospecti.

I've been a managed director on The Street for over twenty years and I've seen a lot of retail stockbrokers come and go. If your book is taking a hit due to the internet this is a must read. I'm sipping chardonay and working on the backswing.

I've been a managing director for over 20 years on the street and if my brokers had this resource I would have won a lot more trips to the South of France and other exotic locales. For every broker with a book this is a must read.

This is a great introductory text. My only complaint would be that it's a little dated at this point. It needs to be updated in a third edition.

Since I bought this book, I have it as my desk reference. For beginners in this area, is a great comprehensive tool to help understand capital markets. For the more skilled financial readers, is an obligated desk reference.

Fabozzi and Modigliani take you in complete tour through capital markets. In the early chapters you will find valuable information about financial systems and institutions, about how the primary and secondary markets work, among many other issues.

Then the book explains debt and equity markets, finishing in the later chapters with great explanations on derivatives markets.

Definitely, I made a great investment in buying this book.

We have been using this excellent book on our Capital Markets and Institutions course. It serves as a very solid foundation on which to build our more advanced courses on corporate finance.

Very seldom do you find a technical book that is interesting to read. I found this book to be not only understandable to people of the profession but also to people who know very little about investing and the way the market works. The author achieved this through an ease of writing with explanations understandable to everyone and actually fun to read. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about market.

This book by Michael McDonald is an excellent one for obtaining an insight into the workings of the sometimes confusing stock market. His method of presentation makes it understandable, especially for the average non professional investor like myself.

How many people who invest in bonds really know how they are priced, or what fair value of stocks is, or how lump sum pensions are calculated? This information alone, based on stacking the money theory, is worth the price of the book.

His analysis of market timing versus buy and hold is a must read, plus learning about the Elliot wave theory and how to use it, along with contrary opinion, and if the market is in a trading range, gives you valuable tools to use in guiding your investment decisions.

Anyone new to the market, as well as serious investors who have been in the market for sometime, should have this book in their library to take advantage of McDonald's expertise and experience.

I found Mr. McDonald's work to be extremely interesting. As an investment professional, I can appreciate the considerable skill and erudition the author brings to bear as well as the straightforward, admirably lucid quality of his writing.
The author presents a remarkably attractive thesis and fully articulates it, making what could otherwise be an obtuse economic postulate a functional, successful model for avoiding the pitfalls of investing.
Above all, Mr. McDonald convinces the reader that financial markets are not governed by random, chance factors, but rather can be made profitable to investors if they can master the scientific principles that drive it. It is to the author's credit that these principles are explained with such skill as to make them understandable to the widest possible audience.
I cannot praise the book too highly, and I look forward to future works by Mr. McDonald.

An excellent introduction and review of free markets and how, through finance, they are able to provide the best allocation of resources for all. Even better was the examination of how free markets are thwarted by interest groups who seek to carve out protected enclaves from competition. The book is not a right wing fantasy where gov't is always evil, in fact it acknowledges that the structure of gov't is highly important because interest groups will attempt to utilize any form of gov't to their own ends. In such a situation, government is all the more important because the right type of structure can channel such pressure away from market destroying measures.

It is refreshing to see experts explain cutting edge ideas in a way that is accessible to all. This book explains why the free markets are important to all of us and why we cannot take them for granted. It also spells out in convincing fashion why the free markets are often at risk from those who at first might be considered their strongest supporters.
It is important for the common person to understand the forces at work and their own self interest so that they use their political force towards their own and the greater good. It is also very usefull for policy makers in designing systems that are not only more effecient but that are more resilient to subversion and grounded in stronger political support.
As an investment professional, this book is interesting as it points to the need to move away from the paradigm of free markets and unbridled competition to generate above average profits. The extent and liklihood of participants actually subverting the free market process and competition should be a part of the analysis in projecting long term profitability of sectors and companies.

Insightful, interesting and thought-provoking. Must read-even for a non-finance expert like me.

As a "lay" reviewer I strongly echo Business Week's recommendation that Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists is a great book for "the rest of us". The book starts off by explaining why free financial markets are critical and what the role of the financier is. (Many of my friends in Corporate Finance and Investment Banking should at least read this part as it explains what they do, why it is important and why they deserve the big bucks much better than they have ever been able to explain it to me!)

The book then goes much deeper to unpeel the layers of the onion and explain how financial markets develop, what conditions are required to keep them vibrant, what risks they face and who has vested interests in their development. This is key value of the book as I see it. The authors made me think more deeply about the capital markets that I take for granted. For example it seemed surprising to think of "saving" capitalism from capitalists, but after reading the book I must concede that the authors have a point. The very capitalists who initially benefit from capitalism are the ones who stand to lose the most if competition (i.e., new capitalists) enters their markets. Thus they incumbents are likely to vociferously oppose open markets--often masking their vested interests in the guise of humanitarian concerns like the working conditions of third world labor.

The book is very easy to read and the authors pull the reader along by summarizing their arguments intermittently. They encompass both developed and developing countries in their analysis and support their arguments with interesting examples from world history ranging from 13th Century Europe to modern day corporate America. The book does slow down a little in the middle, but if you persevere it picks up right back up again. By the end Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists leaves you informed, interested to learn more and makes you understand and think deeper about a subject that is extremely relevant to all of us.

Insightful, interesting and thought provoking-isn't that the hallmark of a great read?

This is a fairly good book. At my company all senior management is really hyped about it. On our planning meetings there are at least three references to the book. So, I read it to be on the same tune with them. This book is focused on two fundamental dogmas: "Think global, act local" and "Concentrate on your core competencies". After reading this book I start submitting all these suggestions, but the best responses I received were: "We will THINK about it in 2001. Until than we will do it the old way". In general a good read to evaluate your attitude towards customer evaluation and market segmentation. The problem is continuous repetition of the same statements. (I guess that is necessary for some senior management).

Hall's central idea is not original--everyone knows the old sales ideas are falling apart--there's more competition, more choices, more information. Hall's idea is not Relationship Management, per se, but how to best attain it.

What makes this one stand out from all the other books preaching the exact same idea is that Hall provides some excellent strategies for those who do not run the Marketing Department of a Fortune 1000 corporation.

Like Michael Levine's Guerilla PR: Wired, which also focuses on low-cost alternatives to the high-priced ideas of Madison Avenue, Hall knows how to achieve a valued objective without an equivalent cost. Personally, I found Levine to be a more enjoyable read, though.

Hall stresses, as evident in the title, the right customers, the right service, the right sales, the right cost.

They're all important, but the last one especially so. I simply cannot wage a multi-million dollar campaign, but I need to compete with those who can.

Hall's book was a godsend. I really have hope for the next 3 years.

Provides the essential and practical framework needed to help unify employee thinking and actions around what must be done to continuously leverage profitable customer value in an increasingly more sophisticated and competitive marketplace.

Definitely not a book for novices of investment. I would like to say not a book for anybody, but that seems to be too harsh. May be it is fair to say you can still do well in investment without knowing his methods. His way is not for a regular individual investor, not for the faint-hearted at least.

But there are some valuable lessons you can learn from reading his not so easy-to-understand writing. He talked about a phenomenon in business world, in which an industry feeds on its own success and grows bigger and its stock prices higher, until it tumbles. Then, the fall will trigger more to fell, until it seems there is nothing left. Sound familiar to the dot com bloom and burst of 2000? Actually, he was talking about the electronic industry bloom-burst cycle in the 1960s in America.

An electronic firm buys components from other electronic firms. When one was successful, say, its new TV model is a big hit, it buys more from its suppliers. And it get imitates and its competitors are buying more from their suppliers. Suddenly, there are many electronic firms and everyone seems to have a bright future, i.e. ever growing sales. This in turn makes investment in electronic firms seem a sure ticket to win. And they do, their stock prices just shoot off the roof.

But then, the public can only take so many new TV, even you buy an extra one for your mother-in-law, because it is a cool new trend, there is a limit how many they can sell. Then one of the TV manufacturer fells, so are their suppliers, and the suppliers¡¦ suppliers. Once the chain reaction begins, there is no going back. Companies fell and their earnings become losses. Stock prices of electronic firms tumble and tumble. With that goes the money of many papas and mamas, and ¡§intelligent¡¨ investors like you and me.

George Soros¡¦ way is to buy during the up-trends, take profit and wait for a while, then sell shorts during the downward cycle. He described what he did during those days in details.

Another boom-burst cycle he described is on LBO ¡V ¡§Leverage Buy Out¡¨ in the 80s. I am going to leave you to read the book to find out.

Or until, I have time and read it again.

There is an account of his biggest winner ¡V the bet on Pound against Bank of England. But it is not very good, because I can¡¦t remember a thing about it.

In this updated edition, Soros summarizes his worldly philosophy--the connection between thought and reality and how it applies to financial markets. The heart of the book remains Mr. Soros's account of what he did with Quantum Fund in the mid-1980s, both as an example of his approach and a remarkable lesson in how to make money in markets where most of the time nobody, including Mr. Soros, knows what's coming next.

His philosophical tenet, Reflexivity, denotes a feedback loop: Individuals act on their views of a situation, thereby changing the situation. For example, if traders believe a stock is going up, they buy it, thereby bidding it up. But their belief caused the result; there may be no fundamental reason for the rise.
Thus what we think determines what we do and has consequences, but typically it is not correct.

Inspired by Heisenberg's rule about quantum particles, Soros proclaims a human uncertainty principle which suggests our understanding is often incoherent and always incomplete. From his case study, one notices that uncertainty continually besets Mr. Soros in managing his hedge fund, which has the same name as the particles subject to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

General models do not always translate into money making practice. But Soros provides an insight of great practical significance: traders need to be adaptive, because there is no way of knowing beforehand how a market situation will turn out.

The Quantum Fund experience demonstrates how that works. This exercise in global macro strategy, a master speculator's take on commodity, currency and equity markets, is a a litany of doubts and hazards.

He's been losing on currency trades for several years. Then in September 1985, he makes a killing by buying a lot of yen just before central banks switch to a new exchange rate system and the yen rises. There is a pattern: he sustains losses, reduces positions, gets out, then sees a great opportunity and pounces. In short, he constantly and quickly adapts to events.

Despite various setbacks, Quantum Fund's NAV per share rose 121% in 1985 and 43% in 1986. Such numbers make for legend and Mr. Soros became one.

How did he do it? He keeps an open mind and continually modifies his outlook with new information. As he remarks, "the markets provide a merciless reality check," and Mr. Soros never stays with an idea that fails the test. Most of the time he can't predict what's coming, but he promptly corrects course in response to feedback. That limits losses. On rare occasions he can see through the fog of uncertainty and hauls in the booty.

This is not an easy book to read, but as another hedge fund manager, Paul Tudor Jones, describes it in the foreword, it is a timeless guide.

This is by far one the most important business books ever to be written. It's a must for anyone looking to educate themselves about the world of business. Anyone can learn from the How-To gurus, but if you want to truly educate yourself, read this book.

Very usefull, specially for begginers that want to understand the data releases that are market-movers.

I first purchased this book about 10 years ago and have done so about once a year since then. It is of great help for those just fresh from the university and to the seasoned financial guru. When data has been made public from the FED, this book helps one to diagnose and better comprehend those economic figures.

This book turned the light bulb on for me. Definately worth the price and one I will keep and recommend to others.

Barbara A. Gutek and Theresa Welsh believe that companies can improve their relationships with customers if they find the approach that best fits their business. The authors emphasize the difference between real relationships - ongoing, personal contacts between a customer and an individual service provider - and mere encounters - where the customer's relationship is with the company and a random variety of service employees. Many companies confuse the two, trying to turn encounters into relationships, and ending up with pseudo-relationships that alienate customers. Instead, realistically determine what you offer customers and what customers want, and then adjust your systems or policies accordingly. This excellent book provides executives and business owners with an insightful analytical framework for understanding customer relationships. While clear and well organized, it is sometimes repetitious - perhaps to be sure we all get the idea - but we [...] recommend it highly for the soundness of its concepts, if not the economy of its prose.

This is an extremely well-written book. The authors are obviously excellent communicators and give wonderful examples in order to make their points. They segment different approaches to customer service brilliantly. The fundamental message is that if you can't really provide a mutual bond of trust with your customer (i.e., a relationship), then don't bother trying to fool anyone by saying all of the right things (i.e., a pseudo-relationship). In today's commodity marketplace we find an even greater emphasis on what was originally Fred Taylor's model of efficiency, via chain stores and vast corporate bureaucrasies. This outcome, say the authors, lends itself more to encounters than relationships. By enhancing encounters, therefore, companies can still satisfy the customer without the high cost of developing a relationship.

The only down side of the book for me was the discussion of technology (as well as several rather malicious pokes at Peppers & Rogers). The authors clearly chose only to view computer technology as an insidious and poorly implemented medium that threatened to reduce front line "encounter" people to automatons (albeit mildly useful in relationship environments). Although no one will argue that IT practitioners often do not understand business, the fact is that technology today is evolving into a very powerful tool for augmenting customer relationships. Granted, we hear a lot of unfounded hype about e-business, CRM and ERP systems. However, used appropriately, emerging technologies will help encounter businesses understand the needs of individual customers to a far greater extend than has been possible up to now.

Overall, a very worthwhile read.

The subtitle is correct. The authors do indeed provide strategies for effectively "aligning customer relationships, market strategies, and business structures." They make a key distinction between encounters with customers and relationships with customers. As Jeffrey Gitomer and others have already observed, "customer satisfaction" is measured in terms of each transaction whereas "customer loyalty" depends upon a relationship of repeated transactions. Gutek and Welsh obviousy agree. In the Preface, they assert that "This vital -- and misunderstood -- distinction between the two fundamental ways to deliver service is the catalyst to structuring the business for maximum success." Their excellent book is then divided into ten chapters which guide the reader through a step-by-step process.

For example, Chapter One "looks at customer perceptions of some common practices that result from mistaken ideas about what constitutes a relationship." Chapter Five identifies several different types of encounter and then examines one specific kind: "when the individual service provider is replaced by a machine." In Chapter Ten, the final chapter, the authors bring the reader back to the central question (ie What are the basic causes of customer dissatisfaction and how can they be avoided or eliminated?), then discuss "the trends that will be important for success in the years beyond 2000."

As technological connectivity rapidly and extensively replaces so much of direct human interaction, it is imperative to understand the differences (as well as the implications of those differences) between an encounter with a customer and a relationship with a customer. Gutek and Welsh have made an invaluable contribution to our understanding of those differences...and to our understanding of how to achieve and then sustain enhanced relationships with those whom we are privileged to serve.

Very clear and easy to understand, I recommend that any business traveler to Asia read this to avoid social faux pas. I also recommend that they read "New Asian Emperors" by George Haley to understand how their potential partners or competitors may think.

Scott D. Seligman brings his considerable experience working and living in China to this revised and updated edition of his classic guide. James McGregor, the former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said the original classic, "should be a mandatory carry-on item for all business travelers to China." More than a how-to, this is an updated, candid, and thorough tour of protocol, manners, and culture. It delves deeply into the reasons for Chinese behaviors, and shows how you can deal effectively with any business or social situation. We at getAbstract recommend this book to anyone visiting or working in China, or dealing with the Chinese professionally or socially in any country.

If you're planning on doing some business in China and are unfamiliar with Chinese customs- do yourself a favor and read this book. Concise, well written and informative, Chinese Business Etiquette is a good introduction to getting by in the Middle Kingdom.

Besides helping you to do business in China, this book can also prevent you from looking like a complete moron in a Chinese social situation.