Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2007-09-30
The book is clearly satire, and definitely exaggerates a bit, but it still gives you a sense of the Wall Street culture, where people are extremely wealthy but also extremely unrefined (scarfing greasy cheeseburgers while making millions). Very funny. Also extremely informative on topics such as the rise of mortgage bonds and junk bonds as financial tools. The book gives a great portrayal of the genius of the people behind these financial innovations. In fact, its portrayal of people in general is very funny and memorable. One final upside: there are some books, where, if you don't read them for about a week, you have no clue what's going on anymore. This is not one of those. There are relatively few people to keep track of, and they are described so well that you can't forget them.
I would DEFINITELY recommend this book. Funny and informative, a window onto a strange culture known as Wall Street.
Mildly Amusing.......2007-08-28
Michael Lewis' inside look at the heady days of Salomon Brothers during the 1980s and the decay that followed is a mildly amusing, albeit disjointed narrative with little new information. It is funny in parts and some of the character sketches make you pause but overall a strictly average book.
Read "Moneyball" or "The Blind Side" Before This.......2007-07-25
Long before "Moneyball" and "The Blind Side," Michael Lewis wrote "Liar's Poker." It is a short, entertaining story about Salomon Brothers during the highs and lows of the 80's. Salomon created the mortgage bond market. And like many first movers, it exploited its advantage for years. Sellers and buyers barely understood the market. No one understood the bonds' valuations. The only sure thing was that Salomon was going to make money. But ungodly profits enticed competition, and competitors poached Salomon's best traders. Even worse, bond underwriters thought they were more clever each day and created more complicated trading vehicles. Eventually, the market crashed because of excessive supply, complexity, and hubris. In some ways, it parallels what we see with hedge funds today.
Although the book is a simple and entertaining story, it lacks much of the rigorous analytics and insights that are present in Lewis's more recent books. His younger rhetoric is less mature and prone to hyperbole. He desperately tries to hide his arrogance (something you don't see in his later writing). If you're looking for a quick read during a plane ride, then this is a decent story. If you've heard favorable things about Michael Lewis and you want to read one of his books, buy "Moneyball" or "The Blind Side" before "Liar's Poker."
Interesting but not exceptional.......2007-06-27
It provides a good picture of the Wall Street during the 80's but it is sometimes tiring when describing the personality of some characters.
A good recount of some heady times..........2007-06-19
This was a story which had to be told. And it had to be told from the inside. It couldn't have been done any other way, and Michael Lewis does a fairly god job of it.
The book essentially tells the story of the rise and fall from wealth (and grace) of Salomon Brothers, and in particular, their mortgage trading group. Those times were clearly heady ones, with the creation and destruction of ridiculous amounts of wealth - from thin air. (It's a more common phenomenon now given the increasing sizes and reaches of the global financial markets, but this probably represented the earliest of the really big cycles.) Lewis takes us deep into that world, giving us a view from a prime seat in the middle of the best action of those times - at Salomon Brothers. In doing so, he is able to create a fairly strong feel for that world, with all its extravagances and idiosyncrasies, while simultaneously providing a fair amount of objective narrative on the internal and external events. His fleshing out of the characters in the book is well done too, which allows the reader a fair level of involvement and empathy with the events. Another strength of the book is that Lewis never gets too technical, and is able to explain fairly complicated markets in terms simple enough for most people to understand.
On the flip side, I have to caution you that at the end of the day, Lewis might have been a good banker, but he's not a great writer. The book could have been taken to a different level altogether in the hands of a better writer, and much of the strength of this book is eventually derived from the story. That said, overall, I still think Lewis has done a very credible job, and the book is a very worthwhile read for everybody, not just bankers.
Book Description
In this entertaining chronicle, Nocera illuminates how the vision and ambition of pioneers like Charles Merrill, Gerry Tsai, Dee Hock, and Peter Lynch reshaped the American economy and brought the rewards--and risks--of financial opportunity to the middle class for the first time in history.
Customer Reviews:
Great true story, well written.......2007-04-10
This story of the revolution in the credit & investment industries; & it's powerful impact on society.
I am shocked this is not better known.......2006-09-08
I bought this on an Amazon recommendation. Its really a great book. I am truly shocked this book is not better known; I'd rate it a classic on Personal Finance.
A great primer for anyone in the personal finance business.......2005-01-26
If you work in personal finance or want to know how the business came to be, I highly recommend this book. It has one instance after another of "a-ha" moments where the light goes on in your head as to why things in our industry are the way they are. Nocera does a great job of tracing each of the innovations that made Wall Street more and more accessible to the average American, benefiting the investor and the companies that got financing.
The other very instructive point this book makes is about the mind, and methodology of the people who drive innovations. For anyone looking to build the better mousetrap, here is a book about person after person who did exactly that in the arena of personal finance.
Highly recommended.
Exciting story, about your attitude toward $.......2000-12-23
What a thriller! Nocera describes the way Am. attitudes toward debt, investment, savings, and inflation have been transformed since 1958 (the day 60,000 credit cards got mail-dropped in Fresno). Every chapter revealed another fascinating aspect of our changing relationship to $: Credit cards, money market funds, the discount brokerage boom and Charles Schwab's relationship to that force, the superstart fund managers and the personal stories of Peter Lynch and Fidelity, as well as the second wave of credit card design, which focused on poaching upon those most prone to run up debt. This book can give you a deeper understanding of your own attitudes toward finance, while also offering many insights into America's ambivalent relationship toward the dollar and debt.
Greatest Book Written on the History of Personal Finance.......2000-09-01
I reviewed this book for the Lexington Herald Leader when it was first published and have purchased over 200 copies for friends, clients and employees over the years. If you don't just want to understand personal finance but understand American socialogy in general, this is the book to read.
Don McNay don@mcnay.com
Book Description
The Sandy Weill story is truly one for the ages. Starting with$30,000 in borrowed cash in 1960, and relying on uncanny entrepreneurialinstincts in the corporate world, he made himself a billionaire and becameone of the most powerful bankers in the world. After rising to become thepresident of American Express, Weill saw his empire crash and burn.Undaunted, he started over with a second-tier consumer loan company calledCommercial Credit, which eventually led to his position as CEO and thenchairman of Citigroup. While at Citigroup, Weill delivered an astounding2,600% return to investors--better than legendary CEO Jack Welch orinvestor Warren Buffett during that same period. But success is never aneasy path, and Weill shares all the high and low points along theway--warts and all. His ascent to power has been documented by the businessmedia over the years, but never before has Weill gone on the record,revealing his brutally honest and unvarnished side of his astounding lifeand career trajectory.
Customer Reviews:
No Deal at All.......2007-05-16
For all its girth, this book is shockingly shallow and a huge disappointment for anyone hoping to learn real secrets behind the author's successful business career. There is a lot of score-settling and finger-pointing at those who he felt mistreated him (like proteges Peter Cohen and Jamie Dimon), but very little in 'take-away' value about what to look for in building a successful business. I was reading this book simultaneously with Danny Meyer's "Setting the Table" and the contrast could not be more striking. In a much shorter but infinitely richer and more rewarding volume, Meyer painstaking reveals all his business success secrets; the reader feels totally cared for which emulates the experience of being in his restaurants, whereas the Weill volume left me feeling that Mr. Weill cared not one whit for his readers because it imparted so few useful insights.
Good Read but nothing New and Quite Biased.......2007-03-02
This is actually quite an interesting book and a fairly good and fast read. However compared to the previous two books on Weill, this offers maybe only 5% new information and some extra personal view on events that were reported by other authors.
My main grip with this book is that it shows everything in a very biased view. Everyones "leaving" Sandy for whatever reason gave him a feeling of betrayal and someone who did not appricate what was done for them.
Jamie Dimon is depicted as a strong personality, maybe inflexible (Joan Weill also cites this as reason for why everyone close to Jamie left him), but this is not the view for why everyone (and really everyone) close to Sandy did not continue working for him.
While a lot of associates were described as people who could not change the way they worked, Sandy himself writes about having "issues" leaving day to day runnning of Citibank to Chick Prince.
Maybe the only way for a really different perspective on this will be if other executives (especailly Jamie Dimon) ever pen down their side of the story.
GREED CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS.......2007-02-21
I have read in the past biographies of famous businessmen of the 19th/early 20th century. Names of businessmen that can be easily recognized because their names were immortalized with their products and/or services (Chrysler, Gillette, Ford, Edison, Marconi, etc.). The driving force behind the success of those men was innovation/creativity in their products and services that resulted in great benefits to the public in general.
After reading this book, you can only conclude that Sandy Weill's driving force in life has been Greed. The only innovations and creativities displayed by Sandy where those directed to play or manipulate the stock market, and those for self-promotion. Create, merge, inflate the stock value and profit from the above.
It did not matter what the name of the company was, or the benefits to the customers, just merge make a big name, inflate stock value and reap the benefits of that. His practices were investigated by the Federal Trade Commission. He says he was exonerated, but very likely Feds were unable to put a case together.
Family life with his children did not appear to have any meaning. Although he names and blames many others for having poor inter-personal skills for team work within the company, I think he top them all. People who helped him to progress in his "career" within the company ended without jobs.
His name will be forgotten soon, if ever recognized. His only legacy will be the billions of dollars left to his progeny. Money created in a quite bizarre way, jumping from company to company, morphing in this and morphing in that. Is that business?
Good psychotherapy book for those who value other things in life, beside money and power.
Frank (bids2005@aol.com)
PS. The "philanthropy" word in the title of this book is deceiving. Philos= Love; Anthopo= Humans. Love for Humans, this is the only thing lacking in this book. He only loves money.
The Real Deal is really a well written book........2007-01-22
Sandy Weill is very open about details, both business and personal, regarding his rise from an insecure youth with bad school grades to Ivy School grad and creation and subsequent loss of a business empire. Mr. Weill then relates his discomfort in failed attempts to re-enter the business world, which he finally realizes one year later. Remarkably, he creates another business empire, which eclipses the prior empire. I liked that Mr. Weill was very open about his relationships in business, both positive and negative, as well as personal relationships. He often discussed his relationship with his wife and her support of him, as well as the hardships she endured, and also the hardships his children endured, as a result of his career. Having previously worked for Aetna, I had hoped for details in the background of the purchase of that company. Unfortunately, I was disappointed, because only two or three sentences in the booked mentioned it. It was not one of his major accomplishments.
I would recommend this book not only for people seeking insight into successful business tactics, but also for enjoyment of the historical background of how some of the biggest business deals evolved in the last quarter century.
My hat is off to Joan, Sandy's wife. She appears to be not only a true sweetheart to her man, but also a successful business/charity executive in her own right.
Horrendous - self excusing with no real content.......2007-01-11
Sandy spends all his time blaming others for the problems he encountered with personal interactions and does not give any insight as to how he made and negotiated the actual M&A deals. 6 discs of Sandy patting himself on the back with no real content. Don't waste your time and money.
Average customer rating:
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Central Banking in History. (International Library of Macroeconomic and Financial History 10 ). 3 Vol. Set.
Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Pub
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ASIN: 1852785691 |
Book Description
The NFL is the most successful professional sport. The league's secret to success is sound business practices like revenue sharing and a salary cap. These policies have created parity on the field and in the boardroom. Because of the collective approach of the league, a small-town team like the Green Bay Packers has just as much chance of getting into the playoffs--and succeeding financially--as big-market teams in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.
But in 2006, a faction of entrepreneurial owners led by maverick Washington Redskins executive Dan Synder proposed changes to the league finance and revenue models that many fear will upset this near-perfect system. They are creating alternative revenue sources, such as stadium-naming rights, local sponsorships, radio and television deals, pre-game and post-game clubs. These owners are arguing that revenue they generate locally--outside of the normal NFL model--should be theirs to keep. Other owners worry this would dash the league's parity like Major League Baseball, where big-market teams like the New York Yankees flourish and small-market teams like the Milwaukee Brewers flounder.
This critical battle for the future of America's most popular sport has opened a wide rift between owners. Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps offers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the league and examines the maverick owners whose ideas could have lasting repercussions for the players, owners, coaches, and ultimately the fans.
Customer Reviews:
good facts but not much fun.......2007-04-23
This book serves as a functional primer for NFL fans eager to learn the history of the NFL from a business and organizational perspective. However, the author falls short of providing any sort of novel and intellectually-stimulating critical analysis of the league. The writing style is so formulaic and dry that it quickly grates on the reader. Bottom line: this book does great with recounting facts and providing a detailed overview of the NFL's history as a business, enough to make me glad I'd read it. But it wasn't a very enjoyable read.
As a diehard NFL fan, I was thrilled to find out about this book because I'd been looking for a book that 1) would explore the NFL history from a business and organizational perspective 2) would provide independent, critical analysis of the NFL and 3) would do so with intellectual flair, rigor, and creativity.
Having read the book, I now feel that I have an understanding and appreciation for the business and organizational history of the NFL. Yost does a good job highlighting the key business decisions and agreements that have shaped the NFL into the organization it is today, and weaving personal profiles of relevant managers, commissioners, and television producers.
He also has a knack for writing in easily digestible tidbits. Each chapter is broken down into smaller, clearly delineated sections, which helped keep the pace of the book moving forward.
These sections were important for me, because I found his writing style to be grating after a few chapters. He tends to write sections and paragraphs following a simple formula: a statement/claim in the first sentence is backed up by a recitation of evidence: either facts, multiple examples, or quotes attributed to relevant people.
Although this is a no-nonsense approach, and clearly demonstrates that the author doesn't make any wild, unsubstantiated claims, it got old and annoying for me quick.
It was a bit grating on the brain when he'd back up statements with language and quotes that read as if they were lifted straight from league or team press releases. For example, in a section describing league merchandising and the consolidation of official league clothing into a single license awarded to Reebok, the author writes (p. 130) "Reebok develops polo shirts for warmer days, light jackets and sweaters for fall-like weather, and thick parkas for late in the season. Even the NFL's bulky winter wear is more stylish today, and as well-branded."
Halfway through the book, I thought it was going to be entirely a book of celebratory worship. "Gee whiz, hooray for the amazing NFL and their genius decisions and incredibly rich history of brilliant commissioners." But the sole injection of criticism on the part of the author comes from his views on stadium financing. Chapter 9 seems to have been written by a different person, a Bizarro Yost able to find fault with his subject. He makes a convincing case that the NFL vastly overstates the economic benefit of stadium construction, ensuring that public stadium financing results in a net economic loss for the local community and its taxpayers.
In any case, I'd learned a lot about the league when I was done with the book. But I can't help but think that there are a lot of interesting stories about the league's past that weren't covered, perhaps because they put the league in a bad light, and Yost was weary of stirring skeletons too deep in the NFL closet. And the book was hampered by the author's dry, repetitive structure and writing style. I was glad to get the facts, I just wish it were a more fun and engaging read.
Insightful ticket into the finances of NFL football.......2007-02-02
Baseball may be the Great American Pastime, but professional football is America's passion. With revenues in the billions of dollars, massive TV audiences thirsting for its product and merchandise flying off the shelves in thousands of stores, the National Football League is a textbook example of how to build and maintain a thriving pro sports league. While professional baseball, basketball and hockey have all experienced labor strife and endured difficult financial times, the NFL has largely avoided such crippling problems. That's mainly because of its salary cap and a revenue-sharing system that benefits teams in smaller media markets as well as teams in major metropolitan cities. In the NFL, owners and players consider themselves partners in an enormously successful enterprise, rather than operating as greedy adversaries trying to squeeze every penny from each other. Like any other multi-million dollar corporation, the NFL succeeds because of smart management and foresight. We believe that both the casual fan and the rabid NFL loyalist will appreciate author Mark Yost's expert examination of the league's economic infrastructure and behind-the-scenes politics. Highly recommended.
Creating Big Business from Sports.......2006-12-09
I wasn't around then, but from reading it seems to me that during World War II baseball was indeed America's pastime. Football was a distant relative, perhaps about where soccer is today. Now the World Series comes and goes, while every bar and restaurant has a Super Bowl party, and the supermarkets are loaded with Super Bowl displays of beer and snacks.
This book doesn't describe the sport or talk about the coaches. It's about the hard business facts of how the NFL has created a monopoly and built a business model around it for the overall good (that's financial good) of the league.
There are several surprising points: The NFL format appeals to the two prime target audiences of consumers: 18-49 year old males and FEMALES OF ALL AGES, FROM PRETEEN GIRLS TO MIDDLE-AGED MOMS. Really, that big a female audience?
ABC has lost Monday Night Football. It moved to ESPN. Did ABC lose out in the bidding wars? Guess who owns ABC - Disney. Guess who owns ESPN - Disney. Disney simply decided it could make more money moving it to ESPN.
Like I said, this book is about the business aspects, and they are not simple. This is big business, serious business, fascinating business.
Writer's Pedigree Shows Through.......2006-10-05
Fascinating! A brilliantly written insight into all those things you always wondered about the business of the NFL. Already an accomplished writer, Yost's Wall Street pedigree shows through in every page. No spin. Just how it should be. Highly recommend, and a must read for anyone interested in the sports business.
Average customer rating:
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AMERICAN PUBLIC FINANCE 1700 1815 (HISTORICAL PERSP BUS ENTERPRIS)
EDWIN PERKINS
Manufacturer: Ohio State University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0814206190 |
Book Description
A best-selling historian's gripping account of the powerful men who controlled America's financial destiny.
From the first days of the United States, a battle raged over money. On one side were the democrats, who wanted cheap money and feared the concentration of financial interests in the hands of a few. On the other were the capitalists who sought the soundness of a national bank—and the profits that came with it.
In telling this exciting story, H. W. Brands focuses on five "Money Men": Alexander Hamilton, who championed a national bank; Nicholas Biddle, whose run-in with Andrew Jackson led to the bank's demise; Jay Cooke, who financed the Union in the Civil War; Jay Gould, who tried to corner the gold market; and J. P. Morgan, whose position was so commanding that he bailed out the U.S. Treasury.
The Money Men is a riveting narrative, a revealing history of the men who fought over the lifeblood of American commerce and power.
Customer Reviews:
"The Money Men" intriguing ..........2007-02-10
I found this book to be a bit of a challenge, since it takes the reader through the history of U.S. money from before the nation's establishment as a country independent from the crown of England, and the accompanying tax structure, all the way through the Federal Reserve days of Alan Greenspan. Yet what I learned about the men profiled in this book gave me a glimpse of their "inner workings" and how their business - and personal - biases have had an affect on the entire development of the U.S. An excellent read.
Another great contribution from Dr. Brands.......2007-01-05
Dr. Brands never disappoints. His research and witty style makes him a must-read in any topic on American history. Here, he's taken what some might consider a dry economics topic and turned it into a pleasurable experience that will help anyone understand this important current in the course of our country.
Brands Doesn't Disappoint.......2007-01-01
I am a big fan of Bill Brands' work. He's one academic historian who can make complex subjects understandable to Average Joes like me. Unlike the previous reviewer, I don't have much background on the Money Question, which, as Brands explains, so deeply divided the nation for the first dozen or so decades of its existence. So this book was a learning experience for me.
In "The Money Men," Brands elucidates five pivotal stories in America's economic development:
*Hamilton's efforts to establish a national bank and his program to finance the developing country's growth through national debt
*The Jackson-Biddle "War" in which Pres. Jackson prevailed in killing off the Second Bank of the United States
*Jay Cooke's role in financing the Civil War
*The failed attempt of railroad barons Jay Gould and James Fisk to corner the gold market
*J.P. Morgan's role as the nation's de facto central banker.
Of these, I was particularly drawn to the story about Cooke's innovations in selling Union war bonds to the general public. Major bankers, especially New York bankers, had shown only tepid appetite for such bonds amid Union battlefield setbacks. Indeed, except for Lincoln, Cooke may have been the man most responsible for keeping the Union army in the field.
I was also surprised to learn -- as apparently were his contemporaries --of the relatively modest size of Morgan's estate: $68 million. By comparison, Andrew Carnegie amassed a $225 million fortune.
Brands wraps up with the resolution to the Money Question -- the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913. The Fed system was a compromise that combined elements of Hamiltonian capitalism and Jeffersonian democracy. With a couple of glaring exceptions (late 20s/early 30s and 1970s) the Fed system has served the nation's economy well across nine decades now.
Not up to Brands very high standards.......2006-12-20
The Money Men by H.W. Brands is a good, albeit quite brief, review of our nation's historical struggle between the forces of capitalism and democracy. Clearly the two, while a recipe for economic success, opportunity and global power, have collided both philosophically and politically over some two hundred thirty years.
Brands, a highly regarded historian at the University of Texas, and the author of such definitive books and "Andrew Jackson" and "The Age of Gold" seems to have radically tailored his prose for this entry into The Enterprise Series. As it is my first read of these books I cannot be sure if the editors at Norton are seeking to spoon feed a reader audience where little existing knowledge of the specific topics is assumed. It seems as if that is the goal and it is a shame as Brands has so much more to offer. His writing is crisp in The Money Men and the history of a developing economic, financial and monetary system is well done, but from a cursory and overview perspective. Those looking for more should do just that, keep looking.
THE MONEY MEN follows their lives, philosophies, clashes and lasting influences........2006-11-07
The Money Men: Capitalism, Democracy and the Hundred Year's War Over the American Dollar charts the influence and struggles of the financial industry in American history, using biographical sketches of five key financiers to follow the story of the American dollar. Andrew Hamilton, Nicholas Biddle, Jay Cooke, Jay Gould and J.P. Morgan each helped form the monetary system in this country - and thus helped shape its political choices. THE MONEY MEN follows their lives, philosophies, clashes and lasting influences.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
When Washington Shut Down Wall Street unfolds like a mystery story. It traces Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo's triumph over a monetary crisis at the outbreak of World War I that threatened the United States with financial disaster. The biggest gold outflow in a generation imperiled America's ability to repay its debts abroad. Fear that the United States would abandon the gold standard sent the dollar plummeting on world markets. Without a central bank in the summer of 1914, the United States resembled a headless financial giant.
William McAdoo stepped in with courageous action, we read in Silber's gripping account. He shut the New York Stock Exchange for more than four months to prevent Europeans from selling their American securities and demanding gold in return. He smothered the country with emergency currency to prevent a replay of the bank runs that swept America in 1907. And he launched the United States as a world monetary power by honoring America's commitment to the gold standard. His actions provide a blueprint for crisis control that merits attention today. McAdoo's recipe emphasizes an exit strategy that allows policymakers to throttle a crisis while minimizing collateral damage.
When Washington Shut Down Wall Street recreates the drama of America's battle for financial credibility. McAdoo's accomplishments place him alongside Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan as great American financial leaders. McAdoo, in fact, nursed the Federal Reserve into existence as the 1914 crisis waned and served as the first chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
Customer Reviews:
Great read.......2007-08-30
This book is a great read. The topic is fascinating (to me, at least). Some of the material is a bit intricate, but the author does a great job of explaining it. He liberally uses footnotes to explain details which to an economist might be pedestrian but to a lay person such as myself are not obvious. (One ongoing topic is the exchange rate between pounds sterling and dollars, and how that relates to the price of gold and the cost of shipping gold between the UK and the US. He does a great job of walking the reader through the process and the arithmetic.) I highly recommend this book, and particularly recommend it to anyone who wonders what the Federal Reserve Board really does.
Fascinating history of how the U.S. became the world's financial leader.......2007-03-30
In Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day, a blue-blood guest unmercifully grills James Stevens, the head butler at an English estate. The pompous guest is trying to demonstrate that uneducated people should not have the vote. "My good man," he asks, "do you suppose the debt situation regarding America is a significant factor in the present low levels of trade? Or...is the abandonment of the gold standard...at the root of the matter?" Stevens, aware that the question is meant only to baffle him, replies that he has no idea. Poor Stevens! Anyone without a degree in international finance would have an equally difficult time answering such an abstruse question. That's why this intriguing business history book by William L. Silber is so worthwhile: He brings global finance to life by spotlighting America's 1914 money crisis and by explaining how then-U.S. Treasury Secretary William McAdoo used this portentous episode to establish the nation's financial supremacy. We suggest you read this illuminating work of economic history to understand the seminal events that established U.S. monetary policy.
Average customer rating:
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Governing Fortune: Casino Gambling in America
Ernest P. Goss , and
Edward A. Morse
Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0472069659 |
Book Description
Governing Fortune: Casino Gambling in America provides the background needed for citizens and policymakers to make informed decisions about gambling in America.
Edward A. Morse and Ernest P. Goss draw on their legal and economic experience to offer important insights to those wrestling with the policy dilemmas presented by legalized gambling. Rather than a polemic against gambling or an apology for it, Governing Fortune is an acute analysis of the industry, designed to help policymakers and interested citizens make informed choices.
Distinguishing Features
- Evenhanded treatment of pro and con arguments for casino gambling.
- Lucid and understandable explanation of the legal framework for regulating gambling, including both state and federal sources.
- Comprehensive information on contemporary developments in gambling, including Internet gambling and problem gambling behaviors.
Governing Fortune is an essential guide, offering sound and reliable information on the complex of factors involved in any calculation of the social costs of legalized gambling.
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Ron Chernow, the National Book Award-winning author of two astoundingly comprehensive biographies of prominent American financiers, now examines the ultimate decline of such power brokers and the corresponding rise of international money in The Death of the Banker. This surprisingly concise (but no less illuminating) volume opens with an expanded version of a speech on "the dwindling role of the financial intermediary" that he presented early in 1997; it concludes with condensed versions of his earlier books on J. P. Morgan and the Warburgs that show how the essence of financial power has changed in the 20th century.
Book Description
"For anyone interested in the world behind the business-page headlines, this is the book to read." --Publishers Weekly
With the same breadth of vision and narrative élan he brought to his monumental biographies of the great financiers, Ron Chernow examines the forces that made dynasties like the Morgans, the Warburgs, and the Rothschilds the financial arbiters of the early twentieth century and then rendered them virtually obsolete by the century's end.
As he traces the shifting balance of power among investors, borrowers, and bankers, Chernow evokes both the grand theater of capital and the personal dramas of its most fascinating protagonists. Here is Siegmund Warburg, who dropped a client in the heat of a takeover deal because the man wore monogrammed shirt cuffs, as well as the imperious J. P. Morgan, who, when faced with a federal antitrust suit, admonished Theodore Roosevelt to "send your man to my man and they can fix it up." And here are the men who usurped their power, from the go-getters of the 1920s to the masters of the universe of the 1980s. Glittering with perception and anecdote, The Death of the Banker is at once a panorama of twentieth-century finance and a guide to the new era of giant mutual funds on Wall Street.
"Chernow . . . delivers a sound, accessible account of the forces shaping capital, credit, currency, and securities markets on the eve of a new millennium. "
--Kirkus Reviews
Customer Reviews:
Top notch historical overview of investment banking.......2007-02-15
Published in 1997, this book, marking the modern transformation of banking, is a small addition to the Ron Chernow continuum of great American historical writing about finance; Hamilton, Rockefeller, House of Morgan and the Warburgs.
What's next? I can not wait.
an introduction to the history of merchant banks.......2006-08-28
Ron Chernow, who has degrees in English literature from Yale and Cambridge, has written excellent biographies of the Rockefeller, Morgan and Warburg families. In this book, which essentially is a spin-off of his other books, he explains how the economic niche that JP Morgan and the Warburgs inhabited, that of the middleman between the very wealthy and corporations and aspiring entrepreneurs, has disappeared in today's world of telephones, fax machines, the internet, the SEC, and mutual funds and venture capital.
This book grew out of a talk he delivered on the topic, with a brief summary of the Morgans and the Warburgs appended. Oftentimes talks given at conventions are in part written to fill time; this seems to be the case with this book; anyone with a bachelors in economics could summarize it on a page or two without any loss of meaningful detail, the second part is a short look at the lives of the subjects of his other books. Stylistically, the focus is on the use of elegant English, to such an extent that the book suffers under it. There certainly is a place for beautiful English in historical works, as anyone who has read Macaulay's History of England knows, but not as its own reward.
Those who want to familiarize themselves with the economic history of the great merchant bankers in an unthreatening way free of all too much economic jargon will greatly enjoy this book. PhD economists, on the other hand, will probably feel that Chernow ought to get to the point.
Excellent!.......2002-01-22
Brief, to the point and informative. A great anthology of how the financial world got from where it was to where it is now. Chernow is a master financial historian.
Nice little introduction to the history of banking in the US.......2000-06-15
I was disappointed with Chernow's tome on the Morgans, partly because, as he states in this book, it lacked thematic content. I don't think Chernow is right about banking and finance generally becoming 'democratised', even if it is changing. Global finance is still controlled by a very few fund managers and bankers, albeit with an eye to the profit margin. It may be the populace's money, but they do not decide how it gets used, and this is the crucial power in our time. Nevertheless, this is a good introduction to the subject and always readable.
Fascinating Introduction to Banking.......2000-04-07
This book provides a fascinating overview of the evolution of banking from its origins as an offshoot of general merchandising to the complex subject it's become today. Chernow skillfully and entertainingly reveals how bankers have gone from being all powerful "Masters of the Universe" to much less exalted financial bureaucrats. Chernow could have gone further, though, and extrapolated to explain how this is the natural product of capitalism, where the only true "Masters" are the vast bulk of consumers.
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