1 comments about Managing Family Trusts: Taking Control of Inherited Wealth.

1. Although written primarily for financial planning professionals, this book is very accessible for individuals seeking guidance for creating and managing personal wealth via trusts. Readers will learn how the development of mega-banks and baby-boomer wealth has changed the nature of trust management. The authors (principals of investment advisory firms) include many helpful questionnaires and decision trees that will help with the planning process, both for existing trusts and for those developing new trusts. Sophisticated readers may find the lack of thorough footnoting disappointing.

5 comments about High Finance on a Low Budget.

1. The Skousens have drawn from some age old wisdom regarding thrift and lifestyle and have spun an interesting fabric of how that wisdom, if applied today, can still affect our lives dramatically. As the Skousens powerfully point out, a carefully planned expenditure and investment of even meager means can have an unbelieveable impact on our financial well being, both early on and later in life. This book is delightful reading and will not disappoint



2. The one star reviewer must have been expecting something else.

   I bought this book in college when it was only available in hardcover, and I have dog-eared the pages three times over.

   With so many copycat financial books flooding the market, this little book stands as an original. Much of the information is elementary, but the book's value is its breadth and its practical "how to" bent. This book doesn't stop at "consider investing in mutual funds". It gives you funds the Skousens love and the funds phone numbers so you can start today.

   This book also lets the beginner or the small fry dream. It also covers exotic investing in art, metals, foreign bank accounts, currency, options, and tells you how to get a taste of any of these, complete with contact phone numbers. Try getting that from the Wall Street Journal or Barron's.

   It has great, simple chapters on credit management, cutting down expenses, real estate, and most of all, personal responsibility. If you are not a jaded person who has given up on personal finance or a wiseacre who thinks you can't learn anything new, you will like this book. If even one of its dozens of interesting financial ideas or contacts pans out for you or makes you feel better, more like a Rockefeller, then it has earned its keep.

   This book will be a personal favorite of yours. Look for it in hard cover so you won't wear it out.




3. Not memorable. No significant impact.



4. This is a great text for someone who wants to whip their finances into shape. It starts with the absolute basics and gives great hints on how to save money and how to change your thinking so that you may accumulate true wealth.



5. This book provides a great introduction to personal finance. I have read it over a few times over the years, and although some of the specific recommendations are outdated, the concepts presented are still right on target. Anyone that takes an interest in money and investing will probably outgrow the book at some point, but we all have to start somewhere. Skousen is the undisputed heavyweight champion of free-market advocates, and some of his advice is more geared towards advancing this national economic agenda than the reader's personal financial interest. He does point this out, so I took no particular issue with it. I simply did not follow his advice if I didn't see the benefit. Each edition of this book reflects Skousen's intense concern with inflation. Some of the resulting investment recommendations, including gold, art, real estate, and collectibles probably wouldn't have produced a great deal of wealth for many readers. This is hindsight, however, and does not diminish the value of the advice offered in aggregate in the rest of the book.

5 comments about The Soul of the New Consumer : The Attitudes, Behavior, and Preferences of E-Customers.

1. This book gave me invaluable insight into the thoughts of today's Internet consumer. The information is timely and well explained so even those of us new to the Internet Economy can not just understand but apply this information. Worth taking what little time you have to read this book cover to cover. Laurie Windham really knows what she is talking about!



2. A must read for any business that wants to keep existing customers and attract new ones to their web sites. Their research on how people are using the internet and how they plan on using it in the future is very timely and a necessary concept to get to be successful in the dot com arena.



3. A must read book for all people in business. The Soul of the New Consumer gives valuable insight into today's consumers and how to capture new opportunities in the e-commerce business. I highly recommend this to all forward thinking companies and individuals.



4. Great book and insight. Shows how to get into the consumers mind and what's there to use. A book that takes what is in this book and enables you to put it in a solid plan is Make Your Website Work For You, but that's another dollar.



5. So maybe you've been thrust into the new E-whatever position in your company. You feel like a deer in the headlights when the E-consultants and E-agencies come in, start foaming at the mouth and spewing E-jargon. You wonder, what the heck are they talking about and what should I do? Get an agency that speaks English and read this book during the transition!

   Laurie and Ken have compiled an impressive amount of quantitative and qualitative research on which to base "The Soul of The New Consumer". Far and away the most important statement to remember in this book is:

   "In effect, the Web site experience becomes the primary vehicle for building and reinforcing brand identity and preferences."

   Information architecture (the structure of a web site), Internet marketing and Internet branding converge in the mind of the consumer. They should be developed in tandem. The web site experience IS the brand experience; think about it, think about your own web usage experiences.

   "The Soul Of The New Consumer" goes on to discuss issues of great concern to many web users. These include privacy, the (non?) existence of customer loyalty, traffic generation, conversion strategies, and perspectives of E-customers. The quantitative research in the book can be found anywhere, the analysis makes the book valuable and the moderated discussions with consumers add a touch of real world insight that is missing from many books.

   Now that you've read this book, and have a new agency that speaks English, you'll have a better idea of how to communicate with them. You'll know more of the right questions to ask; the answers to look for and maybe even understand a little of the E-jargon should the conversation digress to that level. You might even feel comfortable enough to make up some of your own!

1 comments about 2008 BPM & Workflow Handbook - Spotlight on Human-Centric BPM.

1. The volume resembles more a collection of papers - probably of great value for anyone with a need that matches the contents table. I found the work fairly disconnected, and could not assemble from it a clear view of where this industry was heading... Google searches were more helpful for that particular purpose.
   
   On the positive side, it is a rigorous compendium - but given the cost, make sure that your needs are in sync with the content.

4 comments about The Beneficiary Book: A Family Information Organizer.

1. When my husband died he left me a three-ring notebook which we had labled the emergency book as it contained all the pertinent information about our financial, insurance, tax, etc. situations including the location of necessary documents such as wills to help settle the estate. This book is comparable and would help anyone become better organized to deal with daily and unexpected situations. With the three ring capability pages can be added that would personalize it to your special needs. sms



2. I bought this guide for myself, then my mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away within seven months. The workbook pages really helped me to know what questions to bring up with her. It saved a lot of time and aggravation after she passed away when I wasn't emotionally able to handle tough decisions. There are so many extra tips in this workbook; it is helpful even if you are going on vacation and someone needs to housesit. This workbook is helpful if you're 25 or 75. I highly recommend it.



3. A wonderful tool. This book has helped my family more than I can say. I highly recomend it.



4. The Beneficiary Book is an icredible resource for organizing one's estate. It is well-designed and easy to use. And, it seems to cover all of the bases, so you don't have to rack your brain to figure out what you've forgotten! I also really like the hardcover looseleaf format, as it's easy to pull a page out, fill it in, and replace it. Well worth the cost.

2 comments about All About Self-Directed IRA Investing.

1. All About Self-Directed IRA Investing provides even the most novice wage earner with effective, practical, "user friendly" step-by-step instructions on how to go about setting up an IRA account, make contributions, select investments, and choose distribution methods. All the pros and cons of combining IRA's with individual investor situations are surveyed and illustrated with real-life examples on how to get top IRA account performance. Very highly recommended for anyone undertaking their own financial planning, All About Self-Directed IRA Investing shows how to roll a retirement plan into an IRA; choose between a Roth and a traditional IRA, and convert a traditional IRA to a Roth -- and when to do it.



2. This book is NOT about self-directed IRAs (investing in real estate, businesses, etc., through an IRA custodian). It is about traditional investment IRAs (SIMPLE, SEP, traditional, ROTH). If you are looking for a book on self-directed IRAs look elsewhere.

2 comments about The Window Cleaning Business.

1. This is definitely an informative and straight forward book. The author clearly has experience in the business and helps with everything from a one-man part-time business to a multi-crew high-rise business. My only complaint would be that someone actually take the time to proofread the book. There are so many spelling errors, gramatical errors and just pagination problems that you become a bit distracted from the great content contained within the book. This is especially shocking when you read the author's bio on the back cover and realize that he teaches English! Oh well, don't let these problems deter you from buying this book. It really is an outstanding source of information.



2. "The Window Cleaning Business: How To Start, Run, And Build A Profitable Window Cleaning Business" is a thoroughly 'user friendly', 400-page, comprehensive 'how to' manual on creating and operating a profitable enterprise cleaning windows for any size business in any size building. A former director with the International Window Cleaning Association, author John Baxter draws upon his many years of experience and expertise to articulately explain how to create and register a window cleaning business, as well as how to chose a company name, the proper equipment required, how to advertise and solicit business, keep accounts, organize the office, bid on house and storefront windows, hire employees, keep and process governmentally required paperwork, and every other aspect of a professional window cleaning business operation. A perfect option as a home-based enterprise, "The Window Cleaning Business" can be confidently considered as the 'bible' for creating and operating a window cleaning service in virtually any American community.

5 comments about Global Bargain Hunting: The Investor's Guide to Profits in Emerging Markets.

1. The book reads like a very bad Forbes article. Definitely not what you would expect from noted academics. The book is anecdotal with limited academic evidence presented to prove the authors' thesis that a well-diversified portfolio should include investments in international companies (and probably mutual funds or other indexed investments). Nothing you haven't seen before if you watch CNBC. Therefore, the book adds very little to an investor's understanding of international investing. With a large universe of literature written about investing and portfolio management, save your money and avoid this book like the plague!

   I wanted to add my 2 cents on the benefits and disbenefits of index investing (esp. vs. closed end funds). Benefits: 1) low transcations cost, 2) low tracking error (hopefully), 3) liquidity at NAV. Disbenefits: 1) vicious cycle of reinvesting in winners, 2) fails to take advantage of the asymmetries of information in these markets, 3) fails to use real information which analysts generate (e.g. shouldn't you pull out if you are predicting a currency crisis).

   I took a class with Prof. Mei and even he favored buying into "beat-up" markets after a crisis. That sounds like classic mean-reverting, market-timing investing to me and not buying an index. Don't beleive all the press you read on indexing.




2. As is well articulated in the book "Global Bargain Hunting": A noted economist named Markowitz has shown it is both prudent and profitable to diversify globally. He demonstrated that some degree of global diversification actually decreases overall portfolio risk. It is possible to combine securities in such a way that higher returns and less risk are obtained. And while a tendency exists for "short periods of stress to spread globally", research does not reveal a long term trend of increased correlation among world markets.

   The authors of this book then conclude advocating and clearly biasing index funds as the "simplest way in selecting emerging market shares". But Thaistocks.com disagrees.

   An index fund is an open-ended mutual fund (or an institution) that buys for their investors a pure and only representative sample of common stocks available. The bigger the stock of a select market the more these funds own their shares. The actual number of different kind of listed firms are held to a bare minimum. This portfolio is then simply held with no attempt to trade from security to security or country to country. The passive investment nature of index funds minimizes transaction costs and taxes they tell us, all true enough.

   Index funds have produced before tax, net returns on average two points higher than managed mutual funds, they inform us. Of course this was measured during the boom years prior to the Asian crises. Such large funds probably contributed to this crisis by increasingly paying irrational high stock valuations for pure liquidity and market capitalization, while ignoring rational valuations.

   The authors concede that index funds tend to increase the weight of the countries whose stocks have recently performed well and so increases an investor's exposure to markets experiencing some kind of non sustaining speculative craze. But they stop short on telling us the real wake-up call to individual investors around the world! We much disagree with the key punch line of this book.

   Index funds hold huge amounts of capital and are by any means very large investors when entering emerging markets. These funds by their very definition eliminate from possible ownership, all but the biggest shares in emerging markets. This has been our main point from the very beginning in April 1997: namely, index funds (and many other funds as well), are void of smaller often profitable and very undervalued and neglected export oriented, "value" shares.

   Index funds ignore the very segment of the SET market that since 1997 has by far outperformed the local index as we have documented frequently at our site. Further, this "valuation inefficiency" over many years has lead to huge stock pricing distortions. This I have witnessed here with my very eyes over the past 10 years.

   Fast growing smaller companies better think twice before listing on the Thai stock market as more often then not they get ignored by almost all institutions and traders alike. Hence they receive undeservingly so a huge valuation discount. Yet, from a rational individual investor's standpoint, it is "values and dividends galore" in Thailand's secondary export and niche market shares.

   The authors again and again tell us, "Transaction costs in emerging markets are so large that they will offset any advantage an active manager may gain". This is a terribly misleading statement as in Thailand the buy and then sell trip on SET shares, is a touch above 1% and set to drop to only 0.6% later this year.

   While the Authors Malkiel and Mei believe (and tell us so often) that index fund performance is superior performance, they tell us nothing about the forgotten deep values. The only qualifier is you cannot buy or sell large amounts of their shares quickly as they are illiquid. Illiquid, yes...but to whom? Institutional investors (like index funds) often have strict minimum investment mandates, which are in the millions of dollars worth (not Baht!), for each stock considered. More seasoned individual investors have a big advantage here over institutions.

   Malkiel & Mei, "remain skeptical that anyone -even the pros-can, over the long run, beat the returns from an emerging market index or from a diversified portfolio of closed-end funds selling at substantial discounts." Perhaps they should come take a look at our work?

   This book like so much other literature on this subject again and again fail to tell us the substantial and real advantages to individual investing.




3. This book was disparaged in several reviews. It is obvious the naysayers have an interest in the investing public avoiding index funds. They likely earn (used loosely) their living from the generation of fees. However, the record speaks for itself. Index funds beat the majority of actively managed funds a very high percentage of the time. The divergence is so great that active management of ones money should not even be considered by a thoughtful, prudent, odds appreciating investor. And the odds are the only thing that matters when investing money.

   This book will convince the intelligent reader there really is no argument anymore. All one has to do is look at the performance gap between indexed funds and actively managed funds over the intermediate to long term. It is amazing that anyone would make an argument for actively managed mutual funds given the hard facts. Actually, not amazing, but merely self serving at the expense of others.

   The emerging markets have recently awakened from a long slumber. Reading this book will help you understand the huge potential available overseas and the most efficient way to capture it.




4. This is an interesting read, it presents a very bullish argument for investing in emerging markets based on the tremendous economic transformation that emerging markets are undergoing as a result of globalisation.
   
   Overall this is a simple little book, not a particularly challenging read but worthwhile nonetheless. Its a very decent primer but doesn't seek to go into a huge amount of depth.
   
   The author argues that index funds are overall the most effective way to gain exposure to EM, mainly on the basis of the high transaction costs and thin trading in emerging markets, which more than offset any potential gains that professional investors may make from stock picking and exploiting inefficiencies.
   
   At the very least it does make a good argument for putting a proportion of your portfolio into emerging markets index funds and is a useful book to have in one's library, especially for financial advisors like myself who may find some of the passages in this book very quoteable and useful for explaining the asset class to clients.



5. 1. 85 percent of the worlds population produce a combined 21 percent of the world's production of goods and service.
   
   2. In a ten year period, the economies of Asian and Latin America economies grown three times the rate of growth in the United States, encompassing, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Thailand.
   
   3. Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand have relied on free-market incentives, in the last twenty years, to produced economic miracles.
   
   4. Since 1978, China has recorded an 10 percent growth rate and lifted 170 million rural farmers out of poverty and created 120 million new jobs.
   
   5. China's leadership understands that their survival depends on the "elimination of revolutionary conditions."
   
   6. China's capitalism has beat India's socialism, hands down, foreign investment is flowing in, state own business are being sold, and subsidies cut.
   
   7. Chile market reform has been impressive, as it, adopts a free-market policy, privatized state-owned enterprise, moderated inflation, improved democracy replacing authoritarian oligarchy.
   
   8. The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland have been successful in economic transition, with rapid output growth, and moderate inflation.
   
   9. The global demographic trend is the decreasing size of the U.S consumer market relative to the rest of the world. Each US citizen has about $5,000 purchasing power per year.
   
   10. In the mid-1990s, US institutional investors held close to 95 percent of their equity funds in domestic stocks. In 1997, the great majority of large institutional investors indicated their goal of increasing their portfolio share of non-us stocks to 10 percent or even higher.
   
   11. Free markets are far more effective than government control in promoting growth.
   
   12. By the mid-1990s, Chinese companies signed approximately six thousand technology transfer agreements with developed nations worth $50 billion.
   
   13. Debt financing is more likely to be in the form of long-term bonds than short term borrowing. Emerging markets have experienced a ten fold increase in direct foreign investment since the 1990s. By 1996, the worldwide direct foreign investment reached $500 billion.
   
   14. Emerging markets take a long time to reach the developed countries level of capitalization.
   
   15. We do not expect Russia to reverse their economic reforms and return to planned economic systems.
   
   16. Today's investors rely on the self-interest of developing countries to help guarantee returns.
   
   17. In 1994, Mexico violent political development forced the withdrawal of foreign short-term capital. Large trade deficit drove the peso downward as it free falled against the dollar. Interest rates soared and Mexico was in recession. U.S. investors sold Mexican stock, in peso, and converted them into dollars. Pesos converted into few dollars. The Mexican stock market lost about 70 percent of its value in U.S dollar terms from 1994 to 1995.
   
   18. In China, 1992, Happy Flying, a consumer electronics company traded at more than 1,000 times previous year's earnings. Most investors believed that the Chinese economy would take off and that the earnings of Happy Flying would rise like a rocket as a result of equipping 1.2 billion consumers with TVs and VCRs. This vision justified their belief and investor around the world would pay even higher prices.
   
   19. Chinese government control over initial public offerings helped drive share prices. The average IPO profit was 150 percent. Some investment bankers would keep a large block of securities off the market when the IPO started trading, making the supply tight and the price higher. A considerable portion was sold to corporate managers, government officials, and other people of connections. They were told to hold on and sell at even higher prices.
   
   20. Tight control of the Chinese stock market gave investors a false sense of security, stating, "with socialism, we have the tools to prevent the stock market from booming and crashing." 2008, the Chinese stock market has dropped 50 plus percent from the previous year.
   
   21. In 1992, the Shangai stock market dropped 75 percent. Happy Flying dropped from 14.77 to 2.60 yuan. A second surge and bubble pop caused investors to loss money borrowed from friends and family. Loan sharks charged 20% per month equating to 800% per year to break even. The margin loans were called in an investors took huge losses.
   
   22. In 1987 the Taiwan Stock Market index dropped almost 80 percent in less than nine months, wiping out $184 billion of investor wealth.

2 comments about Investing in Innovation: Creating a Research and Innovation Policy That Works.

1. I do strongly recommend this book for S&T poliymakers and all people working on Strategic Policy on Science, Technology and Innovation.

   Although focused on the American experience, the authors present us with a nice-to-read guide for policy action and decision-making on scientific and technological issues.

   I call for a special attention to the text of JaneE. Fountain about Social Capital - in today's society the main issue for innovation. Specially in countries like Brazil we do have to enhance actions and activities that improve and enable the creation of a great social capital in order to accelerate innovation processes in the country.

   It is a book that you must have in your work desk !




2. 
   Unlike the other three books I recommend below, this book assumes an honest process and strives to recommend the best possible approach to government policy toward science. It was put together during the Clinton years, and its prescriptions have been largely ignored by both the public and the current (Bush) Administration. Of the four, it is the most practical and least controversial.
   
   It does not, however, provide a complete picture. Three other books are helpful:
   
   Science, Money, and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion by Daniel Greenberg is by far the best, the standard in the field, the book to buy if you buy only one. The overall picture is ugly: corruption in politics, corruption in the universities, corruption in the corporations, and the public pays in both excessive costs and lost opportunities for advancement.
   
   The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney is the book that is the most compelling on the perversions of the extremist Republicans (I am a moderate Republican). Read this first or last, depending on your disposition.
   
   Finaly, Frontiers of Illusion: Science, Technology, and the Politics of Progress by Daniel Sarewitz, is an excellent counterpart to Greenberg as well as the other two books If science is corrupt on the one hand, it is also over-sold on the other, a point that Sarewitz addresses very methodically.
   
   I take three bottom lines from these four books together:
   
   1) We are spending too much on military science & research.
   
   2) Neither Congress nor the Executive have a serious strategy for prioritizing problems, finding private sector partners, and providing seed money for innovative solutions.
   
   3) Both Congress and the Executive, as well as the public and the media, are incredibly ignorant about what science can and cannot do, and where all the money is going to generally poor effect.
   
   4) This is all so important that Science, like Intelligence, needs its own Supreme Court. I am persuaded we need a new form of hybid public agency that is fully independent of the Executive, receiving a percentage of the total disposable budget (say 3%) and hence not subject to Congression pressures.
   
   Inspired by one of the other reviews, I would second the view that all these books are US-centric, and that we are missing a huge opportunity for multinational consortiums that might dramatically diversity and accelerate scientific progress, within agreed-upon ethical and cultural parameters, if separated from the ideology of government and the corruption of the private sector.

No comments about 100 IFRS Financial Ratios.