Profit The Books

If you're in the natural health field, you really need to read this. It explains how everything got turned upside-down, and how natural healing became so uncommon. It is written by a man that wrote tons of books documenting history.

I'm not sure why he got on this path, but I'm glad he did. He tracks it all back to money, which of course, we still see today. It's a long book, with lots of boring details, but well worth trudging through. I know it's expensive to buy out-of-print books. But this is one it's worth coughing up the dough for.

This is the duck How-to book that I'd recommend to any novice. Especially, for anyone who wants Ducks for pets. It covers the basics well. Having never raised ducks before, this was just the book I was looking for.

The author Cherie Langlois, writes in a humorous and easy to read fashion. In this book she covers duck personality, choosing the right ducks, housing, dietary needs, breeding, duckling care, flock health, harvesting your duck eggs, endangered duck breeds and duck diseases. There is also a well researched duck resource directory and a nice glossary of duck jargon.

This book is put together on glossy, flexible and thick paperstock. It will easily suvive repeated reading or referencing. It has a multitude of color photographs throughout too.

The few things I would've liked to see in this book were more about pond building and perhaps photo's of all the different breeds. Tho, I know that this information would constitute another whole book! If you also want information on detailed pond building or more information on the individual duck breeds- I'd buy this book along with 'Duck & Geese for Beginners' by Rick Luttmann (has detailed pond building info), and perhaps a copy of Carol Ekarius' 'Storey's Illustrated Poultry Breeds' book. This book along with the aforementioned would complete your duck for pets reference library. If you want to take your passion for ducks further (ie professional breeding or showing), you will want to pair this with the 'Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks' by Dave Holderread.

Highly recommend this one!

Dr. McKee's Earnings Management offers a great deal of insight into a highly controversial topic within the realm of accounting. The first third of this book explains the difference between ethical earnings management practices and fraudulent financial reporting. He points out that Generally Accepted Accounting Principles offer multiple opportunities for legal and ethical earning management and points out the benefits of such practices. An especially interesting section provides a model that can be used to measure the bankruptcy probability of a company based upon recent financial performance. Dr. McKee shows how the use of earnings management techniques can significantly reduce financial distress and legitimately strengthen shareholder confidence.

The final two thirds of the book includes specific examples of earnings management techniques used by various public companies in recent years. His explanations of these techniques are thorough, yet at the same time not overly-technical. The writing is straightforward and you will not need to be a CPA in order to understand exactly how your company can take advantage of these earning management practices.

This book is geared toward those involved in the management of public companies; however, I believe it will appeal to a much wider group of readers. It provides information that is useful to all users of financial statements. The ideas contained within it would be useful to CEOs and CFOs, but also to shareholders and creditors, auditors and financial reporting managers, really anyone with an interest in the accounting practices of both public and privately-held companies. Highly Recommended!

As FEMA showed with the disastrous mishandling of Hurricane Katrina a few years ago, a poorly guided philanthropic organization, even with the purest intentions to aid, will hinder the very thing they're trying to assist. To help prevent poor philanthropic management, "Effective Foundation Management: 14 Challenges of Philanthropic Leadership and how to Outfox Them" is here to outline 14 problems these leaders will face, such as lack of trained employees (given volunteer work), shared goals for all members of the organization, among other problems that must be rectified for an effective philanthropic organization. "Effective Foundation Management: 14 Challenges of Philanthropic Leadership and how to Outfox them" is deftly composed and highly recommended to anyone who might find themselves in charge of such an organization and for community library business collections.

This is the legendary book that started it all in the 1970's and has yet to be improved upon. A must for the library of anyone serious about investing. This is important knowledle for both long term investor or aspiring traders.

Yet I have not received payment back for return of the book.I am waiting for your reply.Thanks.

If you believe evaluation is a tool for effective leadership, this book could be a good source for reaffirmation of your belief.

What I Liked About It
-- Shows how to THINK ABOUT INVESTING as opposed to providing rote formulas that will probably be misused
-- Good brief overview of the yield curve and what that means for bond investing
-- Great discussion on strategies for investing in low-volatility rate environment
-- Enlightening discussion of the implicit "put" options in mortgages and corporate issues and how to take advantage of them
-- One of the most human and enjoyable financial books I've read

What Needed Work
-- Will disappoint those looking for a bond investing "playbook" or formula
-- Doesn't discuss in-depth strategies for high-volatility rate environments
-- A bit dated in some aspects.
-- Retail investors may not be able to apply these strategies without significant capital


I've written an in-depth review on my enlightened-american.com website but here's the basic gist:

All the great investors share some common characteristics -- an elegant simplicity, an ability to cut through to the essentials and an approach that integrates other disciplines or perspectives. Furthermore, the great investor-writers like Buffett, Greenblatt or Pabrai have that extraordinary ability to distill complex material into a comprehensible explanation that the average person can grasp. Bill Gross has all of this in spades and displays some of it throughout this book.

Writing in 1997, Gross posits that a combination of high debt levels, expanding globalization and shifting demographics would mean slow-growth GDP numbers. As a result, investors should expect bond/stock returns of 6% and 8%, respectively, since corporate returns should eventually track economic output. He lays out a basic lesson in the yield curve, the case for disinflation and strategies for investing in a world of 6-8% returns.

Along the way, Gross treats the reader to the pros and cons of corporate issues, mortgage-backed issues, emerging-market debt as well as more general concepts like macro-economic analysis, the famous PIMCO total return strategy and the plankton theory (especially pertinent in today's [2007] housing bust). As he discusses these potentially dull topics, he weaves real-life analogies into his explanations and as such, the book is entertaining to read while you're learning. Some of these analogies fit better than others (the Plankton Theory working best) but Gross turns a book about boring bonds into an investing page-turner -- an admirable feat.

Highlights for me include the discussion of corporate and mortgage-backed issues. He outlines their inherent drawbacks and then illustrates why and how to use these features to your advantage in a low-volatility rate environment. I also liked his discussion of stretching short-term yield maturities so that you get a nice bump in yield with marginally increasing risk.

I imagine that some may find fault with some of his predictions. Predictions are notoriously difficult and any inaccurate forecasting doesn't detract from the efficacy or validity of the investment strategies he lays out. His methods are sound and his record proves it -- it's up to you to know when to apply them.

Others may gripe about the non-linear nature of Gross' musings. These people are probably looking for a playbook on bond investing -- a no-nonsense, how-to treatment on bond investing. If that's what you're looking for, I would point to Cohen's Bond Bible. I would also suggest that you are doing yourself a disservice. There is no hands-free formula for successful investing. I can't speak for him but I imagine that Gross takes the long, winding path because for him, investing successfully is as much about surveying all of the societal landscape as it is about crunching numbers. Ultimately, an investing education is more than just how to invest -- it's about how to approach investing. The first path will always see you fighting the last war; the latter allows you to prepare for the war ahead.

-- Davy Bui
[...]

Book was originally printed in 1895, has been updated and reconstructed by other authors (Kay Arthur & Woodrow Kroll). Forget about studying primarly the uninspired books about the inspired book - the bible, study primarly the inspired book for yourself is the theme. It shows step by step and the tools you'll need. In a nutshell, observe, interpret and apply the truths to your life. So simple, it is a lost art.

It is extremely unfortunate that the labor theory of value and the exploitation theory are still prevalent today, over 110 years after _Value and Interest_ first appeared--this in spite of the "rivers of blood and oceans of tears" spilled in the name of socialism and communism.

Given that, it doesn't really mean much for me to assert that Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk was clearly a genius, and that his book is a well-written and devastating critique of the idea that capitalists exploit labor to extract unearned income. Obviously--and tragically--the arguments he presents weren't compelling enough to have made any appreciable impact on history.

Nonetheless, I think this book deserves comment. One of the things that I like the most about it is the obvious care von Boehm-Bawerk takes to avoid simply attacking straw men. On page 14 he writes:

"I am looking at the exploitation theory, I think, with 'it's best foot forward.' I am trying to adhere to a policy which Knies [a contemporary of von Boehm-Bawerk] put so well when he said, 'He who would be victorious on the field of scientific research, must allow his adversary to advance in all the panopoly of his armor and in the fullness of his strength.'"

If I may say so, I think he accomplishes this quite well. In fact, by the time he has finished his elucidation of the theory, he almost has ME convinced of it!

Immediately thereafter, however, he begins a relentless and unflinching assault, attacking exploitation theory from multiple angles and not letting up until he is certain that it is a lifeless carcass. All the while, this attack is accomplished with an enjoyable and engaging--and almost informal--writing style, such that, after a few pages, it almost feels like he's your pal, sharing his thoughts with you personally. I get the feeling that Eugen must have been a very amiable person with a healthy sense of humor (and that's in addition to being an intellectual giant).

The actual chapter extract from _Value and Interest_ ends about 2/3rds of the way through this book. The final third consists of a publisher's postscript, as well as a number of shorter essays by von Boehm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises (his most famous student), and the European scholar Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn.

If only this book could be made required reading for all Marxists!