Accounting Books

This is a must for the articulate and must be read carefully, consistently or the extensiveness and expertise will cause one to re-read excerpts. Forwarning: create word document to capture the depth of the content to enable review of materials. The book is precise and very well organized. Only one area of weakness in material is more detail regarding corporate minutes. Unless you have been a corporate secretary and done this kind of work you won't grasp the critical issues in doing acquisitions and questions to seller. I do M&A-well worth the money.

Alexandra Reed LaJoux has done it again. Her most recent book on "The Art of M&A Due Diligence" is a valuable tool for the seasoned practitioner as well as the neophyte. She and her co-author Charles Elson effectively combine the big picture with relevant detail so that the reader has a clear understanding of not only the critical concepts but of the process of "due diligence." I found the chapter dedicated to "transactional due diligence" particularly useful. I would recommend this book to anyone serious about transactional work, either as a lawyer, investment banker, or businessperson.

When purchasing a company you need to know what to look for and where to look for it and what it is you are looking at when you get the information you asked for.

If you are selling your company you need to know what someone SHOULD be looking for, where they will look for it, and the kinds of conclusions they should be drawing from what they are seeing.

This book is an incredibly valuable resource in this process. It is organized very logically and is a series of questions and answers so you can hop around to the information you need for the moment. However, it is also written in such a lively manner that it is easy to read from beginning to end. I happen to be fascinated by this topic and think this is an incredibly helpful handbook.

I think that the way you conduct due dilligence says a lot about your chances of success with an acquisition. And I also think that if someone is trying to buy you, you can tell a lot about them by what they want to know and the conclusions they draw from what they see. In either case it behooves you to invest time and a couple of books in a book like this. Well, in this book.

Alexandra Reed LaJoux has done it again. Her most recent book on "The Art of M&A Due Diligence" is a valuable tool for the seasoned practitioner as well as the neophyte. She and her co-author Charles Elson effectively combine the big picture with relevant detail so that the reader has a clear understanding of not only the critical concepts but of the process of "due diligence." I found the chapter dedicated to "transactional due diligence" particularly useful. I would recommend this book to anyone serious about transactional work, either as a lawyer, investment banker, or businessperson.

Excellent coverage of the history of internal control issues. Good analysis of weaknesses/strengths of COSO and the strengths of other control related models. Good explanation of a broader management approach to internal control that the author advocates. Good suggestions for implementing the broader approach in a company and the roles of the Board, Senior Managment and Internal Audit. The author is obviously quite knowledgeable about these issues and the book is easy to read and is very interesting. People interested in developing their knowledge about this subject or concerned about good business and control practices and ways to enhance the likelihood of success for their company will find this book very valuable.

Anyone who read this book when it was first published in 1998 needs to re-read it in the context of the Enron revelations. It is amazing how Steven J. Root's examination and explanation of what internal control is, how it should be implemented and what it can and cannot accomplish is exactly on-point vis-à-vis the break downs in corporate governance at Enron, Global Crossing and others of their ilk. Anyone from business student to congressional overseer, who wants the proper framework for understanding and explaining these crises should carefully study this book.

Beyond COSO is probably one of the best, complete and most recent books on (internal) control. What interested me a great deal was that Root behind the masks of the committee of sponsoring organisations looks, metaphorically speaking. It helped me a great deal on writing a graduation paper on this topic.

Great overview of its history, and other frameworks for internal control evaluations. Clearly the author has major misgivings with COSO, and describes why the shortcomings reflect the biases of the authors, which is the public accounting firms. Excellent overview of other frameworks, and why they might be superior. With the passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act, this understanding might seem more important, but likely many organizations will struggle just to do COSO. An important addition to any research on COSO.

Many fundraising books show you the mechanics of fundraising. Ms. Sprinkel does that, but more importantly, she shows the reader how to approach fundraising with the proper mindset. Gone it the "tin cup" mentality. Instead, she advocates that we approach fundraising with an investment mindset.

Having set the stage with her philosophical approach to fundraising, Ms. Grace proceeds to walk the reader through the different stages of fundraising, including annual and capital campaigns.

I used the information in this book to assist the development team at my children's school with a capital campaign. We trained a number of people in the art of fundraising and went on to raise the money needed for a new building. While I won't give Ms. Grace all the credit, I can say with confidence that the advice she dispenses in clearly written and very effective.

This book provides non-profit executives with a very practical approach to making their organizations more successful financially and more relevant to their audiences. I have advised many non-profits on a range of issues, and I am envious of Grace's admonition to "put away the tin cup." That's one of the truest, most important things that today's non-profit leaders could hear.

Many fundraising books show you the mechanics of fundraising. Ms. Sprinkel does that, but more importantly, she shows the reader how to approach fundraising with the proper mindset. Gone is the "tin cup" mentality. Instead, she advocates that we approach fundraising with an investment mindset.

Having set the stage with her philosophical approach to fundraising, Ms. Grace proceeds to walk the reader through the different stages of fundraising, including annual and capital campaigns.

I used the information in this book to assist the development team at my children's school with a capital campaign. We trained a number of people in the art of fundraising and went on to raise the money needed for a new building. While I won't give Ms. Grace all the credit, I can say with confidence that the advice she dispenses is clearly written and very effective.

Defining the difference between fund-raising and donor development was an eye-opener. In a non-profit world that is increasingly competitive for the donor dollar, Ms. Grace offers a powerfully different approach. Of particular interest was reference to values-based mission statements. Something from which every fund-raising organization can learn

This extraordinary, Psychic,Author, Robert Petro delivers his message with fervor. He welcomes all readers through his step by step approach using his phenominal gift to further enhance the lives of others. Each reader can easily comprehend for himself how to achieve the road to success to their individual path. The book is fantastic!

This extraordinary, Psychic,Author, Robert Petro delivers his message with fervor. He welcomes all readers through his step by step approach using his phenominal gift to further enhance the lives of others. Each reader can easily comprehend for himself how to achieve the road to success to their individual path. The book is fantastic!

This book was loaned to me recently and WOW! was I impressed. As a motivational speaker and entrepreneur I've encountered and taught piecemeal most, if not all, the "secrets". Here they all are in one package in STORY form. Some of us learn better by illustration and this certainly provides that opportunity. What a fabulous experience!

I found this to be an entertaining story, which shows that there are opportunities in every situation if we only know where to look and how to take advantage of them. This book is an "easy read" and I would think young people, in particular, would benefit from it.

If one can gramattically apply the modifer "very" to "Comprehensive" this is the palce to apply it. This book has become an essential tool in my reference library. If you are serious about communicating an important message, this will help. I particularly like the comments on the appropriate use and potential misuse of each ratio.

This book makes a great reference for those that use business formulas on a normal basis. It presents all the normally used formulas in a single book and some special use formulas also. A must for any business library.

Business Ratios and Formulas, A Comprehensive Guide, is the most thorough reference book of its type. Steven Bragg provides a complete explanation of each business ratio and formula and follows each with a scenario example of their applications. Also provided is a discussion of how the resultant calculation can be misleading or should be used in conjunction with other ratios. I have not seen this feature in any other book of its kind.

Another excellent feature of the book is the chapter on "Measurement Analysis with an Electronic Spreadsheet", which describes the use of Microsoft Excel to assist the business professional in automating the analysis. Five types of analyses are included in this chapter: financial statements, project analysis, investment analysis, risk analysis and trend analysis.

In the introduction to the text Mr. Bragg states, "Even if a company has developed a reasonable set of measurements, this does not mean that they should never be changed." As a controller I am in the process of re-examining my company's measurement process. This book is an invaluable resource. Excellent for both the professional and student. A book I wish I had during my MBA studies.

This is not an easy-read book. It is much like a cookbook - there are all kinds of recipes (formulas) identified and explained. A must-read for anyone who wants to start, run, and grow a business.

After reading this book you should be impressed with the fact that every business can be viewed as a database of numbers (statistics). The quality of the databases will vary, often significantly, but all businesses can build quality databases if they so desire. If they do, then they can take advantage of the priceless information included in this book.

I used to work for a small company that refused to keep accurate accounting records. All they worried about it seemed was the cash flow schedule so they could pay their bills. I tried to impress upon them the importance of well-kept books so the health status of the business could always be identified quickly, and strategic planning could be performed to increase profitability or to pursue growth pursuant to a plan. If they had kept books as I suggested, then they wold have been able to take advantage of the book I'm reviewing here.

By reading this book and taking note of the financial data necessary to plug and chug the formulas, you will be knowledgeable about how to set up your accounting records on Quickbooks Pro or whatever other accounting software your company uses. And the better those accounts are set up, the better you will be able to use the information provided in this book.

The other reviewers rightly commend this original, interesting and highly readable book. As this book shows, RCA's readiness to shift factories to areas of cheaper and more tractable labor sowed the seeds of decline for America's consumer electronics industry long before the Japanese onslaught started in the 1960s. Couple this with a series of critical management mistakes, product development failures and hundreds of millions of mis-spent dollars, and you begin to understand why RCA sought out GE as a buyer in 1985. By the mid-1980s RCA management backed the company into a very tight box and it was either voluntarily sell the company or wait for a possible hostile takeover. "Capital Moves" illustrates the grim capitalist logic underlying the processes of globalization -- in RCA's case on a regional and later an international scale.

Related books are Margaret Graham's "RCA and the VideoDisc," Robert Sobel's "RCA," and Alfred Chandler's "The Electronic Century." Although each of these has a diffent purpose and scope, they are all good books about RCA. Jefferson Cowie's "Capital Moves" perfectly complements them and fills a gap in understanding why some American industries "vanished" in a generation. It is a sad story that didn't have to be.

This book discusses RCA from a different perspective than the book "RCA" by Robert Sobel, instead concentrating on labor-management interactions. RCA started out in Camden, New Jersey, but as labor got more organized the company relocated it's operations to reduce labor costs, first to Bloomington, Indiana, and later to Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso. Of particular interest to CED VideoDisc enthusiasts will be the chapters on Bloomington, as that was the location of CED Player manufacturing. RCA announced on March 5, 1984 that VideoDisc player manufacturing was moving to Mexico, but a month later on April 4th the RCA Board of Directors voted to phase out player production completely. The book also discusses the post-RCA era in Bloomington and how conditions deteriorated, particularly under GE and to a lesser degree under Thomson, until electronic manufacturing finally ceased there in 1998.

"Capital Moves" is both a geographical history of the Radio Corp or America (RCA) from its inception in Camden, NJ in 1929 through its several relocations of factories to various regions of the US and beyond and a work of sociology as it examines the nature of the various local communities and the workforces both before and after the arrival of RCA. RCA, like many industrial concerns in the so-called Rust Belt, has always been concerned with operating in locales with favorable labor relations. It was the community characteristics of having a large pool of unemployed workers with limited wage expectations and no history of industrial activism that impelled RCA to move the production of its consumer products, mostly radios and televisions, from Camden in the 1940s to Bloomington, IN, and ultimately to Juarez, Mexico beginning in the 1970s. But the mass production regimes that were established had the unintended effect of significantly altering the social environments into which they moved.

Certainly anti-unionism triggered some of the plant closings that began in the 1970s in the Rust Belt, but RCA actually tolerated the compliant unionism that they recognized in Bloomington and then in Juarez. It was the very nature of the production process instituted by RCA that triggered the worker discontent that they so ardently sought to avoid. The speedup and deskilling under scientific management, the petty authoritarianism, the ignoring of work rules and job classifications, and gender inequities - all sparked resentment and resistance; but did result in some alleviation of the complaints. But a key point is that the ability of a corporation to invest or disinvest literally globally simply transcends the ability of a locally rooted workforce to counter corporate practices, a point amply demonstrated by RCA.

The author is wont to discuss the broader issue of worker solidarity especially across borders, as in the Mexican border. But it is acknowledged that interpersonal relationships on which worker solidarity is built, not to mention local customs or even language, do not translate well internationally. While the author is most assuredly on track to criticize simplistic protectionism to counter run-away factories, there is no commentary on the feasibility of political solutions that are grounded in working class solidarity. The political knowledge and activity of the various workforces encountered is not discussed. The fragmented pockets of resistance that may be found in local communities regarding corporate policies is simply no match for the ideological consistency and political influence of the capitalist class. Without a broad-based worker politics strong legislation to require corporations to absorb the costs to communities of shutdowns and downsizings and to require enforced labor and environmental standards to be reflected in the cost of imported products will not be attained.

The book is most significant in demonstrating that the cross-border moves to Mexico by RCA were little different from their earlier trans-regional moves. In addition, it was pointed out that NAFTA was only a continuation of Mexico's Border Industrialization Plan of the 1960s where a border zone was constructed that permitted the free import of goods for use in products for immediate export - a plan that RCA exploited. The limitation of place-based worker power is well noted. Yet it is the political sophistication of the workforces explored that would have been of most interest to this reader. It will take political power to counter capital mobility.

Cornell University's Jefferson Cowie has penned a critical look at the business and labor history of RCA. In this work, Cowie traces the communications giant's business and labor history from the late 20's in Camden, N.J. to Bloomington, Indiana, to Memphis,Tennessee to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Combining interviews with displaced workers with statistical information, the author effectively explains the playing out of a consistent corporate strategy in the company's migration in search of low wages and compliant workers.

Particularly moving is Cowie's examination of the closing of the Bloominton, Indiana factory.Both managers and line workers are given voice in recounting the traumatic experience of plant closing and its subsequent impact on the community.

This significant work should be read by members of any community trying to come to grips with the issues of NAFTA, plant closings, and corporate responsibilty. Cowie has produced a substantial and readable book.

Whether you agree with the authors' conclusions or not, you cannot really understand how we got into our current financial crisis without reading this book.

A new book documents the house of financial cards that continues to come tumbling down all around us in the mortgage and real estate industries.
Chain of Blame, co-authored by Paul Muolo and Orange County Register reporter Matthew Padilla, offers a comprehensive view of the mortgage debacle but concentrates on the subprime lenders and their Wall Street allies (and in some cases, owners) who pooled and packaged subprime loans into securities without due care for credit quality, greedily booking billions in fees while hoping that real estate prices would accelerate upwards forever to make up for their lack of underwriting.
The book's analysis of the mortgage mess shows how the contagion didn't just halt at our own borders, like the savings and loan scandal of a generation ago did, but flared up worldwide through the overseas sale of poorly-understood and poorly-underwritten collateralized debt obligations containing the worst tranches of a bad book of business.
Chain of Blame also lucidly points out how the creative financing of many lenders, which led to an over-reliance on interest-only and payment-option mortgages, fed the superheated real estate market by putting thousands of new borrowers into the market, creating a demand that sent RE prices zooming to unsustainable increases of up to 33% a year in some markets.

Great book couldn't put it down. In this day and age many have become greedy and instead of using common sense to know if they can afford they simply don't and sign on the dotted line. There are in this life con artists in many forms and it is up to us the consumer to educate ourselves. When we make mistakes we need to take responsibility and not blame the big cooporations, lenders, government, and the like.

This is a very well researched, well written book. It also makes for a good story, told well. See the WSJ review from July 9, 2008 and you'll know what I mean. Five stars, highest recommendation.

This book was very informative, I own a Bankruptcy Petition Preparer Service. To broaden my expertise in Chapter 13, I purchased this book. With the information in this book alone, I am now able to expand my business by offering Chapter 13 service to Attorneys. Five Stars for this book.

The author did a good job organizing the information in this book.

I would also recommend Surviving Financial Disasters by Tiffany R. Love which comes with a CD ROM and actual sample court documents from someone who has been there and done that. Also tells what to expect after you filed your papers.

If you're behind on your bills and creditors are threatening, you can consider filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection - and the 8th updated edition of Chapter 13 Bankruptcy will save you a fortune in attorney fees and confusion. Learn how to determine qualifications, understanding the law's protections, fill out and file forms, pay off debts and represent yourself in court: it's been completely rewritten to reflect the latest changes to federal bankruptcy law and includes all the latest facts, making this a top reference both for filers and for public library reference sections.

This book also showed me how to MOtions and I feel like I can now do a motion for anything. Another great one for nolo.

After many, many years of studying and trading the commodities markets, I have come to recognize Scott Barrie as the leading authority on market cycles and seasonal tendencies. There really is no better source in the trading world for this kind of information than the traders almanac, and the kind of inherent value possessed by this easy-to-follow and remarkably expansive collection of market data is rare in the industry. I cannot even fathom the amount of time and expense which it would take for me to compile this kind of knowledge on my own, so I consider the almanac to be an extraordinary value to myself as well as my associates.

All too often, the wide array of trading paraphrenalia pushed onto the market is "all hat and no cattle". The Trader's Almanac is "all cattle"- this is the kind of information that can make a real difference in a trader's bottom line. The dog-eared and well-worn pages of my 'nearly retired' 2006 grain trader's almanac have about had it, but I'm already laying the groundwork for a successful 2007 with a little help from this new expanded edition.

The one most single thing that makes trading commodities exciting is the fact that they are so seasonal in nature. Think about it, commodities are basically consumable items, such as corn, wheat, beans, gold, and silver. These items are consumable items, and have a very seasonal nature to them. Take wheat for example, we plant it at the same time each year, we harvest it at the same time each year, its open to damage at the same time each year, we take it to market and have storage fees all at the same time each year. This book, The Commodity Trader's Almanac, is the key to being able to take advantage of these trading strategies. Due to these seasonal reoccuring price patterns, we have the ability to profit from such moves each and every year, as markets repeat themselves time and time again. You don't find this type of characteristics with Stocks, you can't do this with Forex, its all about commodities, and this amazing book brings that information out and available to the average trader, information that's only been available to the professional hedge fund traders until now.

I highly recommend this book, I wouldn't even think about trying to trade the commodity markets without it.

Lan H. Turner, CEO
Gecko Software, Inc.
[...]

As a floor trader we are always looking for that "edge" that keeps us ahead of the crowd. I have always used Scott's other works when trading the Ag markets. Now I have that edge for all the markets I trade. This is one of the most useful and concise books on seasonals and fundies I have ever bought!

I traded commodities in the 1990's. I have always complained that there is, "no central source for commodity fundamentals!" I found this publication through the recommendation of a highly regarded (and profitable) futures trader I know. I was delightfully surprised to find that it has everything I have ever wanted but never had on commodity fundamentals!

IF YOU PLAN ON TRADING COMMODITIES YOU MUST HAVE THIS BOOK ON YOUR DESK!

-Dr. Scott Brown, PhD, a.k.a. "The Wallet Doctor"

I was amazed at how complete, thorough, and well thought out this book is. There ARE stages of life, and you have to think of money and wealth-building differently at each stage. Anyone in middle age--or approaching it--can benefit from reading this book.

When you reach your mid-fourties you tend to think you've sorted out finances. On a lay-over in Chicago I started flipping through the copy of Complete Idiot's Guide to personal finance that a friend had loaned me. I quickly started to realize that there were a number of key areas regarding personal debt load where I'd not paid enough attention. The timely insights regarding the danger of excessive credit card balances made me realize that my dream of a nice cabin by a lake would have to wait. Much thanks to Sarah Young and Susan Shelly for this easy to understand guide.

With 401K's at work, college funds, and the banks advising you on various investments, personal finance can be truly overwhelming. This book sorts it all out and explains options in an easy to understand format. I found it to be a most valuable resource for my future financial planning. Mid-life is hard enough...this book just made it easier!

This book was extemely helpful tool that helped me organize my personal finances. The advice was terrific. Easy to follow. It exceeded my expectations. I recommend it wholehearledly. It fits the bill and makes the grade without making you feel like an idiot.