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by Jim Cramer (Get the Book)
Tired of phony promises about getting rich quickly, promises that lead to reckless decisions (the stepping stones to the poor house)? How about trying something different? How about going for lasting wealth#151;and doing it the cautious way? In Get Rich Carefully, Jim Cramer uses his thirty-five years of experience as a Wall Street veteran and host of CNBC's Mad Money to create a guide to high-yield, low-risk investing. In our recovering economy, this is the plan you need to make big money without taking big risks. Drawing on his unparalleled knowledge of the stock market and on the mistakes and successes he's made on the way to his own fortune, Cramer explains#151;in plain English#151;why you can get rich in a prudent, methodical way, as long as you start now . In his own inimitable style, Cramer lays it on the line, no waffling, no on-the-one-hand-or-the-other hedging, just the straight stuff you need to accumulate wealth. (Publisher Summary)
by Gregory Zuckerman (Get the Book)
Fans of the lively, character-driven nonfiction of writers like Kurt Eichenwald and Ben Mezrich should welcome this book with open arms. It's a potentially dry story: a bunch of guys try to make a lot of money by hammering subterranean rock formations (shale, mostly) with liquid, breaking them up, allowing the trapped-in natural gas to come to the surface. This is hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking, and, in Zuckerman's hands, the topic generates a surprisingly entertaining story about Big Men with Big Ideas, the highly competitive (and, in some cases, increasingly desperate) search for a new and potentially highly profitable source of energy. Zuckerman also explores the often passionate and outspoken opposition to the drilling procedure (for some, fracking doesn't just sound like a dirty word; it is one), although he doesn't come down on one side or the other. He shows us the beneficial side of fracking and the potentially environmentally disastrous side, and lets us find our own ground to stand on. A lively, exciting, and definitely thought-provoking book. --Booklist
by Michael Watkins (Get the Book)
In this new edition (1st ed., CH, May'04, 41-5391), Watkins (leadership development consultant) expands coverage to better reflect the contemporary challenges facing today's organizational leaders as they transition into new positions. Based on his study of leadership at major global organizations, Watkins finds that successful leaders must address, immediately at the onset of new assignments, ten challenges or tenets. These include preparing to take charge; planning to learn; diagnosing situations for the right strategy; building productive working relationships; winning early on; instilling new team processes; identifying critical support; and institutionalizing a common framework to accelerate the organization's transition. Like the earlier edition, the book's ten brief, well-written, and straightforward chapters provide a step-by-step plan covering all aspects of adjusting to new responsibilities and organizational cultures, and the demands and challenges to be expected during the first 90 days as transitional leaders. Chapters are supplemented and enhanced with useful case studies, tables summarizing organizational and leadership theories, and a series of introspective questions. A useful addition to leadership studies collections. --Choice
by Anat R. Admati (Get the Book)
This excellent volume provides an invaluable lens through which to view modern banking and the ways it has evolved to privatize returns and socialize risks. The latest financial crisis provides another opportunity to recalibrate the governing rules in the direction of the public interest. However, in the US, the finding of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (2010-11) included a clear rejection of forced structural change in systemically important financial firms. The UK's Vickers Commission report (2011) and EU's Liikanen Report (2012) likewise shied away from full-blown structural banking reforms. Admati (Stanford Graduate School of Business) and Hellwig (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods) provide an accessible explanation of the inherent risks in the current banking system and propose sensible rules and reforms to make the system stable without damaging bank lending or economic growth. It is difficult to argue with the authors' logic from the perspective of the public interest, but it is easy to see how the political economy of bank regulation could have left society highly exposed to the financial risk dynamics of the recent past. This timely volume is accessible to a wide readership. --Choice
by Charles J. Wheelan (Get the Book)
Popular economics writing does not get any better than this. In a dozen somewhat independent chapters, journalist Wheelan presents "Economics 101" in a readable, objective, and delightful manner. Employing basic concepts and assumptions, such as choices, incentives, tradeoffs, prices, costs, and the economics of information, Wheelan cuts a large swath though contemporary microeconomic and macroeconomic issues, controversies, and fallacies. (He sneaks in more sophisticated theoretical points and jargon, e.g., externalities and the prisoner's dilemma, but in interesting, informative ways.) Topics include environmental problems, health care and insurance, risk and safety, education and productivity, the Federal Reserve System and monetary policy, financial markets and capital, inflation and unemployment, international trade and globalization, income and wealth inequalities, and economic development. Using anecdotes and applications galore, Wheelan treats both the power of markets and the role of government in a market economy (including special interest groups and the politics of economics). Devoid of graphs and mathematical equations (but not documentation), this book is quite simply a terrific, much-needed addition to the economics literature for intelligent general readers and must-reading for the media, government officials at all levels, and those who cast ballots and attempt to influence public policy. Highly recommended for general readers, lower- and upper-division undergraduates, and professionals. --Choice
