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by Thomas K. McCraw (Get the Book)
Only two men are honored with statues outside the U.S. Treasury building: Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin. McCraw (business history, emeritus, Harvard Business Sch.), who won a Pulitzer Prize for Prophets of Regulation, explores their qualities, foibles, achievements, and failures in order to show why both deserve credit for laying the foundations of American governmental finance. Hamilton, McCraw explains, as the first Treasury secretary, contained the crushing national debt, made the country creditworthy, established a national bank, and sowed the seeds of rapid economic growth. Gallatin was an ardent Republican, but McCraw says he was also pragmatic in accepting much of Hamilton's system and, as Treasury secretary in the Jefferson and Madison administrations, cut government spending, reduced the national debt, eliminated taxes, expedited the Louisiana Purchase, formulated land policy, and favored internal improvements. In his concluding chapters, McCraw draws parallels between his subjects' immigrant backgrounds, national visions, and understanding of capital and credit. VERDICT McCraw is a talented storyteller. His highly readable and fascinating work portrays the brilliance of Hamilton and Gallatin against the difficulty of their time and is strongly recommended to all readers interested in American and financial history. --Library Journal
by Peri Pakroo (Get the Book)
Pakroo, an attorney and small-business expert, plumps up her earlier book, The Small Business Start-Up Kit: A Step-by-Step Legal Guide (6th ed., 2010), by adding material that focuses on the unique needs of women entrepreneurs. Both books offer solid advice on crafting a business plan, designing a marketing strategy, choosing the appropriate legal structure, handling employment issues, and working with legal and financial professionals. In this new volume, Pakroo adds an opening chapter on work/life balance that discusses working with spouses, mixing business and children, and designing a business structure compatible with career and family goals. She covers the challenges of home-based businesses; considers financial, tax, and health-care considerations for women; and provides a list of agencies that serve women in business. There are tips, anecdotes, and practical insights from a number of accomplished women entrepreneurs on such topics as business travel with children and creative ways to reduce child care costs. The accompanying CD includes extended interviews and a collection of financial forms and worksheets. VERDICT There is enough distinctive material here to justify owning this as well as Pakroo's other title, at least in larger public libraries. Newly entrepreneurial women will appreciate this source. --Library journal
by Jennifer J Ramberg (Get the Book)
With a collection of 183 ideas, tips, and hard-earned insights, MSNBC host Ramberg offers a helpful book for small business owners culled from years of interviews and research. The tips are loosely arranged into chapters focusing around themes such as "Being the Leader," "Cultivating Customers," and "Building Relationships." Bite-size nuggets of insight are suitable for readers looking up a specific idea or simply leafing through the book for some inspiration. Neither difficult nor obfuscated, the advice is often simple yet powerful. For example, job hunters will welcome Tip #147 ("Be the first one at every event"). Much of Ramberg's advice goes beyond the purview of small businesses, such as advice on backing up data, managing your time, and prioritizing your energy. Bar codes are included for many of the tips, and these will take the reader directly to a Web page that includes videos from the show Your Business with JJ Ramberg, as well as tips and advice from people out there producing and achieving. --Publishers weekly
by Tammy Strobel (Get the Book)
This cheerful handbook offers the emotional and practical lessons Strobel learned while radically downsizing her living space, disposing of most of her possessions, and simplifying her lifestyle. Through her RowdyKittens blog, Strobel and her husband have shared their transition from a generous two-bedroom apartment in 2004 to the TV-free, refrigerator-free, 128-square-foot house-on-wheels parked in a corner of a friend's Portland, Ore., yard. She makes a persuasive argument for simplification and is careful to offer advice not only to Small Living movement radicals but to anyone looking to "right-size" their life. Social relationships, she argues, should be both the core of personal satisfaction and a way to share resources. Additionally, Strobel urges budgeting for experiences rather than objects and finding ways to spend less time commuting and working just to pay for unnecessary goods. A list of "micro-actions" that anyone can do-like the "100 Thing Challenge" or the "one in, one out rule"-is offered to aid in re-evaluating one's relationship with space and ownership. Although her personal choices may seem extreme, the environmental politics and magnitude of change Strobel asks of her reader is distinctly moderate, making this a practical book even for those who only want to live a little bit lighter. --Publishers Weekly
