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Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader Review

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(More customer reviews)There are several very interesting parts of this book, the most notable being the chapters (4, 7 - 10) in which Mr. Partnoy gives a high level description of some of the transactions that he was involved in. Some of his anecdotes, particularly those in which he discusses the atmosphere in an investment bank around bonus time (pg.40 - 42, 202 - 205), are pretty amusing and dead on accurate. The author's descriptions of some of his deals are clearly told from a junior banker's perspective, but they do a good job of putting forth what was being done, how it was being done, what everyone's perceived incentives for the transaction were, the work required to get the deal done, what kind of money, and importantly what kind of fees were involved. In this regard, the book offers more than both "Liar's Poker" by Lewis and "When Genius Failed" by Lowenstein.
Like all books written by former investment bankers the book contains liberally sprinkled anecdotes regarding job interviews from hell, the ridiculous daily escapades that can occur on a trading floor, strip clubs, the lack of personal lives, gambling trips and other stories which could easily have been pulled from the pages of Mr. Lewis's book or "Monkey Business" by Rolfe and Troob. All of these shenanigans culminate around the bank's (in this case Morgan Stanley), or more specifically, his group's annual sporting clay outing, FIASCO. The book also suffers from a somewhat poorly defined timeline and the lack of a defining event which drives the story. Due to these faults, it is at times little more than a book about the evils of investment bankers, the ignorance of their customers, all put forward to enforce Mr. Partnoy's somewhat guarded thesis; Derivatives are used by organizations that are legally prevented from investing in certain areas in order to skirt those laws.
This is a good book that could have been better, the occasions where it shine through make it worth reading, but also unfortunately let us know the author could have produced a somewhat better product.

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FIASCO is the shocking story of one man's education in the jungles of Wall Street. As a young derivatives salesman at Morgan Stanley, Frank Partnoy learned to buy and sell billions of dollars worth of securities that were so complex many traders themselves didn't understand them. In his behind-the-scenes look at the trading floor and the offices of one of the world's top investment firms, Partnoy recounts the macho attitudes and fiercely competitive ploys of his office mates. And he takes us to the annual drunken skeet-shooting competition, FIASCO, where he and his colleagues sharpen the killer instincts they are encouraged to use against their competitiors, their clients, and each other. FIASCO is the first book to take on the derivatves trading industry--the most highly charged and risky sector of the stock market. More importantly, it is a blistering indictment of the largely unregulated market in derivatives and serves as a warning to unwary investors about real fiascos, which have cost billions of dollars.

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Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State Review

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(More customer reviews)Professor Huang has written a brilliant critique of China's economic development (and of necessity, debunks much of what others have written about China's economy). He shows that China's development started in the 1980's with government programs focused on the rural economy, with programs designed to encourage rural entrepreneurs. Unfortunately with the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the new government leaders (technocrats from Shanghai) focused on major programs for urban areas, including massive construction projects and encouragement of foreign investment. Rural enterprises (and their required informal and official funding networks) were shut down. Although there was a proliferation of highrise buildings and massive construction projects (Three Gorges Dam, Shanghai's maglev, the Olympics,...) the result was slower income growth (especially in the rural areas), increasing illiteracy (parents could not afford to pay rapidly increasing tuitions), declining health care (hospitals, like schools, also became profit centers for local bureaucrats), expropriation of farmers' land, and much much more corruption, all of which has led to increasing social disorder among peasants who are finding themselves worse off. Party cadres' pay has rapidly increased and there are now far more of them. And productivity growth has declined or has even straight-lined. A return to the policies of the 1980's is clearly in order, but the current leaders, while trying to fix things, are still relying on top down commands and controls, and they have a much larger bureaucracy to keep happy.
Anyone trying to understand China's economic development over the last thirty years must read this. The causes of China's growth are badly misunderstand; too many economists and analysts have been overwhelmed by the vision of Shanghai's massive development without understanding the tremendous cost and waste involved, and the penalties paid by the common people (income for the poorest Shanghaiese has actually been going down).
The book should also be a lesson for Western politicians who think that China's methods of centralized planning and control of industrial policy can be applied in the West. Or maybe our politicians also understand how government control can lead to huge payoffs for politicians (as with Countrywide Credit's payoffs of at least two senators and lots of others politically connected, not to mention the huge salaries paid to Democrat politicians 'working' at Fannie Mae).
Read this book if you have any interest in China or economic development!

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An Economist Book of the Year, 2008This book presents a story of two Chinas - an entrepreneurial rural China and a state-controlled urban China. In the 1980s, rural China gained the upper hand, and the result was rapid as well as broad-based growth. In the 1990s, urban China triumphed. In the 1990s, the Chinese state reversed many of its productive rural experiments, with long-lasting damage to the economy and society. A weak financial sector, income disparity, rising illiteracy, productivity slowdowns, and reduced personal income growth are the product of the capitalism with Chinese characteristics of the 1990s and beyond. While GDP grew quickly in both decades, the welfare implications of growth differed substantially. The book uses the emerging Indian miracle to debunk the widespread notion that democracy is automatically anti-growth. The single biggest obstacle to sustainable growth and financial stability in China today is its poor political governance. As the country marks its 30th anniversary of reforms in 2008, China faces some of its toughest economic challenges and substantial vulnerabilities that require fundamental institutional reforms.

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The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature Review

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(More customer reviews)Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault are arguably two of the most influential thinkers of the late twentieth century - important contributors to Western intellectual history. Despite their significance, however, this small text has limited value. It is a hodgepodge of loosely related and previously published material much of which is available on line for free.
The book, as its title suggests, is notionally centered on the 1971 Dutch Television debate between Chomsky and Foucault moderated by Edlers on the question of whether or not there such a thing as an "innate" human nature. While the `debate' is largely an exercise in the two protagonists talking past each other; it is nonetheless an interesting small episode in contemporary intellectual history. The video and transcript have been available on-line for years. Had the remainder of the text been post-debate reflections or new analysis of the issues raised in the discussion the text could have been quite interesting. Sadly, this is not the case.
The remaining four essays are transcripts of interviews and presentations by Foucault and Chomsky on other subjects - Chomsky does offer a few small asides on the debate at the end of one interview. The two chapters on Chomsky are transcripts of 1976 interviews with Ronat. `The Philosophy of Language' is a collection of Chomsky's musings on the modern intellectual project while `Politics' provides a feel for his well known political views which range from insightful reflections on the nature and function of societal power structures to his more fringe conspiracy-type views. While interesting small pieces they have been previously published and have only a tenuous link to the earlier debate.
Michel Foucault's `Truth and Power' is a transcript of an interview with Fontana and Pasquino in the mid 70s that focuses on the evolution and focus of Foucault's thought. While "Omnes et Singulatim: Toward a Critique of Political Rason is based on lectures Foucault gave at Stanford in the 80s discussing power and reason in modern society (available on line). Again these are fine small pieces, however, in the current text they feel like filler.
Chomsky and Foucault are important and interesting thinkers. That said, I do not see the value of this text. Some original analysis of their debate could have been interesting.

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Two of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers debate a perennial question.In 1971, at the height of the Vietnam War and at a time of great political and social instability, two of the world's leading intellectuals, Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault, were invited by Dutch philosopher Fons Edlers to debate an age-old question: is there such a thing as "innate" human nature independent of our experiences and external influences?The resulting dialogue is one of the most original, provocative, and spontaneous exchanges to have occurred between contemporary philosophers, and above all serves as a concise introduction to their basic theories. What begins as a philosophical argument rooted in linguistics (Chomsky) and the theory of knowledge (Foucault), soon evolves into a broader discussion encompassing a wide range of topics, from science, history, and behaviorism to creativity, freedom, and the struggle for justice in the realm of politics.In addition to the debate itself, this volume features a newly written introduction by noted Foucault scholar John Rajchman and includes additional text by Noam Chomsky.

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Suffer the Children Review

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(More customer reviews)While John Saul is not held in the highest of regard by many horror fans, he is the man who first introduced me to the genre. Some of his later novels did indeed become pretty repetitive, but his first novel, Suffer the Children, is a dead-on, unflinching classic. This was the first truly scary book I ever read; I was probably around twelve at the time, and I remember staying up into the wee hours of the morning to finish it and then finding it almost impossible to get to sleep. Reading it again now, it still possesses much of the power it possessed years ago. It is a tale of a family curse, murder, schizophrenia, general unhappiness, and gruesome, frightening events. Long ago, the scion of the Conger family killed his daughter, supposedly bringing a curse down upon the succeeding generations of his family. Now, Jack Conger fears the curse is real. In a drunken rage, he physically assaults his youngest little girl Sarah. While he struggles to remember what exactly happened that day and grows increasingly estranged from his long-suffering wife, his daughter exists in a quasi-comatose state, living in her own silent fantasy world. The Congers look at their first daughter as a true blessing through all of their pain--Elizabeth is mature beyond her years and takes care of her little sister with great love and kindness. When several local children begin to disappear, though, the Congers' delicately balanced world finally turns completely upside down.
This is a pretty scary novel, largely because the horror centers around the two young sisters Elizabeth and Sarah. The description of the gloomy woods around the home and the truly dangerous embankment nearby help produce a great dark atmosphere, but Saul's description of a series of horrible events is especially unsettling. The story gets pretty gruesome at one point, and I think some horror writers would not be bold enough to go as far as Saul did. Saul committed himself fully to this novel and dared to describe everything in great detail; combine that with his incredibly effective characterization of the two sisters and you get a true horror classic in every sense of the word. Saul hooks you securely in his clutches and drags you down with him into the pits of depravity. The ending did not provide me with a complete feeling of closure, but I certainly have no quarrel with it; in fact, the evil Saul so vividly describes almost defies comprehension and thus necessitates the type of ending Saul chose to give us. I would highly recommend this novel to any horror fan--Saul creates a psychological atmosphere of real terror that essentially oozes out of the pores of each page.

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One hundred years ago in Port Arbello a pretty little girl began to scream. And struggle. And die. No one heard. No one saw. Just one man whose guilty heart burst in pain as he dashed himself to death in the sea. Now something peculiar is happening in Port Arbello. The children are disappearing, one by one. An evil history is repeating itself. And one strange, terrified child has ended her silence with a scream that began a hundred years ago.

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My American Unhappiness Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a novel that I was very excited to read, because it deals with a very relatable issue for people my age, the "Gen Y" crowd. That is the issue of our collective unhappiness, our dissatisfaction with life in general. In recent years I've personally dealt with this issue, mainly stemming from job frustration and having a BA degree that I've never really used. My friends and family have all at one point expressed a similar feeling of general malaise, whether it be related to jobs, relationships, money, or living situations. So why are Americans so unhappy?
In My American Unhappiness, Zeke Pappas tries to find the answer to that very question. As the head of a project called "The Inventory of American Unhappiness," he collects interviews with people across the nation in an attempt to distill a singular answer to why, despite greater (relative) wealth and opportunity than people of other countries, Americans are generally unhappy. While working on this project, Zeke finds himself entering a dark period of his own life. He is trying to come to terms with being a young widower, while taking care of his sick mother and fighting for custody of his orphaned nieces.
This is a very deep and meaningful story, with an unexpected plot twist and a surprisingly uplifting ending. Well written and thought-provoking, the book is filled with poignant comments on the hopes of young Americans:
"...that life will offer you much, that you will have choices upon choices set out before you like a feast, and all you have to do is choose the kind of happiness you would like to pursue."
And the reality when they grow up:
"...you don't care how somebody's novel, thesis, art, job, marriage, life is going...because you simply don't have the energy to hear about other people's struggles and triumphs. Your own joys and woes are exhausting enough, aren't they?"
The characters are interesting and complex, especially the character of Minn. On the surface she is a typical "girl who majored in Humanities but now works at Starbucks," but her positivity provides a nice contrast to Zeke's cynicism.
The only thing that detracted from the book was the political commentary. For me the intermittent side remarks about Bush, Obama, and 9/11 did little to help me understand Zeke's character, and struck me as self-indulgent on the part of the author. They bordered on obnoxious and did nothing to advance the story.
That being said, My American Unhappiness is a valuable novel to read, because it speaks to the sentiments of many modern Americans. If you've ever woken up one day and thought "this isn't what my life was supposed to be like," you can get something out of this book.

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Topgrading for Sales: World-Class Methods to Interview, Hire, and Coach Top SalesRepresentatives Review

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(More customer reviews)Following the advice of a reviewer I did not pay full price for this book, I paid $2.92 plus shipping. The book is an easy read with its 54 pages and another 50+ pages of appendixes. Topgrading is a thorough and extensive selection system for hiring top performing people, in the case of this particular book, sales representatives. The problem is that you keep waiting for some real substance beyond the proposed premise of don't hire anybody unless they are the best. The system is quite elaborate in the information you are asked to collect, but you are never given any method for evaluating or how to use this information. They just keep saying that people using their system have much fewer washouts and more high achievers. Reading it was like watching those late night 60-minute infomercials.

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A concise extension of the business classic Topgrading, targeted to sales managers Brad Smart's Topgrading has sold more than 150,000 copies since 1999, making it the definitive book for executives who want to hire, coach, and retain top talent. Now Smart has teamed up with Greg Alexander, who used Topgrading to radically improve his sales force at EMC. In Topgrading for Sales, they have boiled down the key Topgrading ideas to a pithy 112 pages while focusing on the unique needs of sales managers and sales directors. Great sales forces don't just depend on strategies— they depend on hiring the best possible reps. But surveys show that about half of all hires and promotions put an underqualified person in the wrong job. No wonder the average tenure for sales managers is only nineteen months. Topgrading for Sales takes the guesswork out of hiring by teaching readers how to interview systematically for A-level talent instead of relying on hunches and prejudices. It also shows how to coach B-level reps to turn them into A-players and how to weed out C-players before they do too much damage.

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The Magus of Java: Teachings of an Authentic Taoist Immortal Review

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(More customer reviews)Kostas Danaos' story about THE MAGUS OF JAVA became possible when he started out on a quest to track down the man he saw in a documentary film called, "Ring of Fire", who could start fires by intently focusing yin and yang energy onto a small pile of papers. I also saw this spectacular film footage, and was quite impressed by it -- it was the most memorable and amazing part of the whole film.
Danaos was so moved by seeing the film of the mysterious man with the pyrokinetic powers that he set out from his homeland in Greece to find him, and ask if he would accept Danaos as a student. Fortunately for us, Danaos succeeded. His book tells the story of how the amazing Chinese-Javanese acupuncturist and martial artist John Chang came to be "The Magus of Java", and includes some highly personal accounts of his early training with his neikung master.
Many people will be skeptical that there are individuals who can train themselves to levitate, be telepathic, and have precise control over telekinetic abilities. If you cannot suspend your disbelief, this book might be unsettling to you. Since I have personally experienced a wide range of rather amazing incidents (including putting my hand through several layers of clothing I was wearing to touch my own bare skin underneath), overwhelming doubt is not an impediment to my keeping an open mind about the remarkable claims made by Kostas Danaos of John Chang's abilities.
What sets THE MAGUS OF JAVA apart is the way Danaos presents the concept of learning to work with yin and yang energy as being the key to mastering one's ability to extend the powers of one's mind beyond one's body. Only limited results are possible when we work with just yang energy -- while incredible things are possible with a combination of yin and yang. The yin and yang are much like polar opposites, and when energy is intentionally allowed to flow between the yin and yang designated areas, miraculous things can occur. I especially loved the many stories of the "Taoist Immortals" sprinkled liberally throughout this book, as they helped to point out that humans with god-like powers can sometimes cause as much damage as they can bring healing and good to the world.
While many martial arts and bioenergetic schools work exclusively with yang energy (and a few work with yin energy), there are precious few who appreciate and integrate a combination of the yin energy with the yang. The system of neikung that John Chang teaches contains 72 levels of mastery, and the reason that only the first four are rudimentarily covered in this book is that it is extremely dangerous to practice these meditations without a teacher's guidance. Several people died as this form of neikung was being developed by trial-and-error, since the two energies of yin and yang when compressed and placed side by side have tremendous power to destroy.
I give this book my highest recommendation to any serious student of spirituality, metaphysics, or the martial arts. Reading it with an open mind will show you a world of new possibilities, and might just change your life!

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The story of John Chang, the first man to be documented performing pyrokinesis, telekinesis, levitation, telepathy, and other paranormal abilities. • The author, a mechanical engineer, provides scientific explanations of how these powers work. • For the first time, the discipline of Mo-Pai is introduced to the West. In 1988 the documentary Ring of Fire was released to great acclaim. The most startling sequence in the film is that of a Chinese-Javanese acupuncturist who demonstrates his full mastery of the phenomenon of chi, or bio-energy, by generating an electrical current within his body, which he uses first to heal the filmmaker of an eye infection and then to set a newspaper on fire with his hand. Ring of Fire caused thousands to seek out this individual, John Chang, in pursuit of instruction. Of the many Westerners who have approached him, John Chang has accepted five as apprentices. Kosta Danaos is the second of those five. In his years of study with John Chang, Danaos has witnessed and experienced pyrokinesis, telekinesis, levitation, telepathy, and much more exotic phenomena. He has spoken with spirits and learned the secrets of reincarnation. Most important, he has learned John Chang's story. John Chang is the direct heir to the lineage of the sixth-century b.c. sage Mo-Tzu, who was Confucius's greatest rival. His discipline, called the Mo-Pai, is little-known in the West and has never before been the subject of a book. Now, John Chang has decided to bridge the gap between East and West by allowing a book to be published revealing the story of his life, his teachings, and his powers. It will surely expedite what may well become the greatest revolution of the twenty-first century--the verification and study of bio-energy.

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