High Flyers: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders Review

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High Flyers: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders ReviewThe author is a professor of management at USC, so his perspectives on leadership are limited to those qualities found in executives and in very large businesses that support the training of executives. The most helpful aspect of his book is that McCall urges large companies to develop systematic training for executive leaders, rather than leaving younger executives in a sink-or-swim situation. He also has a bias against ruthless, cut-throat competition and male testosterone-driven demonstrations of power and wealth that executives can get drawn into or promote.
Nevertheless, the book is limited: it says very little about leadership as a quality found in other people, other settings; implies that leadership is a unique quality of exceptional people that can be taught to those up-and-coming risers primarily; and supporting data is quite limited. He stumbles when he talks about leadership per se by using an example of a child violin prodigy, as if this child-becoming-virtuoso should be our model of leadership development.
It also is overwritten, the way stuff from Harvard Business School Press is overwritten: breathless, breathtaking, fawning over winners, etc.High Flyers: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders Overview

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My Life in Leadership: The Journey and Lessons Learned Along the Way (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation) Review

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My Life in Leadership: The Journey and Lessons Learned Along the Way (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation) Review"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope." -- Romans 5:3-4 (NKJV)
Long before I had the pleasure of meeting Frances Hesselbein, Peter Drucker used to tell me stories about her outstanding work for the Girl Scouts. I was not surprised when it was announced that the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonproft Management would have Ms. Hesselbein as its CEO. A lot of her work in the last twenty-one years has been for that organization (since renamed as the Leader to Leader Institute). I've also had the pleasure of speaking with her in the latter role and hearing many new stories about Peter Drucker. I was also honored to contribute an article to the Institute's magazine.
If you want to meet a remarkable leader, I recommend that it be Frances Hesselbein. She combines character, commitment to mission, inclusiveness, humility, and selflessness to a greater degree than in anyone else I've met.
The next best thing is to read this book. She tells it like it is. In fact, I was struck by how the words were almost verbatim to some conversations I've had with her.
Brava!My Life in Leadership: The Journey and Lessons Learned Along the Way (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation) Overview

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Ten Steps Ahead: What Separates Successful Business Visionaries from the Rest of Us Review

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Ten Steps Ahead: What Separates Successful Business Visionaries from the Rest of Us Review
The material in Ten Steps Ahead is based on what Erik Calonius learned during his research (including interviews of various business visionaries) from which he gained a much better understanding of "what separates successful business visionaries from the rest of us."
The word "successful" is critically important, reminding us of Thomas Edison's observation, "Vision without execution is hallucination." No one can deny what Walt Disney, Edwin Land, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Jeff Hawkins accomplished, not only within the business world but also in terms of the global impact they and their respective companies have had. Calonius also focuses on other visionaries such as Orville and Wilbur Wright, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, and more recently, Richard Feynman whose achievements also indicate that the brain is a visionary device whose primary function is to create pictures.
Throughout human history, innovator thinkers can usually be divided into two classes: dreamers and visionaries. Those in either group tend to be "ten steps ahead of others" in terms of what their brains "see" but only the visionaries are driven (by forces that Calonius explains brilliantly) to make what they "see" become a reality.
Readers will appreciate Calonius' strategic insertion of insightful comments throughout his narrative. For example:
Former Apple CEO John Sculley: "Both of them [i.e. Edwin Land and Steve Jobs] had this ability to - well, not invent products but discover products. Both of them said these products have already existed, it's just that no one had ever seen them before. We were the ones who discovered them." (Page 52)
Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer on a term they defined: "Emotional intelligence involves the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth." (Page 64)
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, one that heralds the most discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but, `That's funny.'" Isaac Asimov (Page 73)
Andy Hertzfeld on Steve Jobs's "reality distortion field": "It's a confounding mélange of a charismatic rhetorical style, and indomitable will, and an eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand. If one line of argument failed to persuade, he would deftly switch to another. Sometimes he would throw you off balance by suddenly adopting your position as his own, without acknowledging that he ever thought differently...We would often discuss potential techniques for grounding it, but after a while most of us gave up, accepting it as a force of nature."
Time and again, Calonius cites an example of a visionary business leader who is willing to suffer and struggle, to put everything at risk, when pursuing a dream that Jim Collins and Jerry Porras would probably characterize as a commercial-strength BHAG (i.e. Big Hairy Audacious Goal). There are countless situations in which visionaries see what no one else sees but are oblivious to the serious dangers that are obvious to everyone else.
Few of those who read this book are or ever will be a successful business visionary ("ten steps ahead") but all who read it can learn valuable lessons from the material that Calonius provides and be 3-5 steps ahead of where they were before. There are lessons about how to overcome what I characterize as "the invisibility of the obvious" in order to recognize - having developed imaging skills - the opportunities and possibilities that would otherwise be missed. Also, how to overcome resistance, rejection, and ridicule with courage and conviction. Like Tennyson's Ulysses, they are determined "to strive, to seek, to find...and not to yield." And as Calonius points out, one factor in success is under our control: "the number of at-bats, the number of chances taken, the number of opportunities seized."
I congratulate Erik Calonius on a brilliant achievement. To those who read it, I presume to suggest that there are still lots of fat juicy dragons out there roaming around. Go get `em!Ten Steps Ahead: What Separates Successful Business Visionaries from the Rest of Us Overview

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Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business Review

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Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business ReviewAs in The Profit Zone, the co-authors pose and then answer key questions. They also provide numerous checklists which enable the thoughtful reader to undertake a rigorous self-diagnosis. For example, in Part II, such questions and checklists direct and enrich understanding of Mega Patterns, Value Chain Patterns, Channel Patterns, Product Patterns, Knowledge Patterns, and Organizational Patterns. In effect, the authors create an infrastructure within which to organize and then correlate the most relevant experiences of dozens of corporations with the specific circumstances of the reader's own organization. Better yet, although most of the corporations discussed are among the "Fortune 100", this infrastructure is of substantial (if not even greater) value to small-to-midsize companies as well.
In Part III, Slywotsky & Morrison explain HOW "Strategic Anticipation" enables managers to anticipate and respond quickly to patterns as they unfold. Strategic Anticipation helps managers to "move where the value will be." Patterns "hint at the future strategic story of a company or industry, explain the past and describe the present."
Those who have not read Profit Patterns and do not plan to do so can only hope is that the same is true of their competitors. But don't bet on it.Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business Overview

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The Anywhere Leader: How to Lead and Succeed in Any Business Environment Review

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The Anywhere Leader: How to Lead and Succeed in Any Business Environment ReviewThis book is for leaders and managers (aspiring leaders) continuing to look for ways to survive in our never ending, ever faster world. In short: Good book. Enjoyed it. Found it was inline with many of the issues contemporary business leaders increasingly face every day.
In The Anywhere Leader, Mike Thompson's written a book that suggests, just possibly, he could pick up in the shoes of the late Eliyahu Goldratt. He's written in from a somewhat vulnerable, self-deprecating perspective. The effect is for readers to relate more readily, to see this isn't some consultant who takes himself too seriously.
That is actually a recurring reminder: Don't take yourself too seriously.
Custom would suggest referring to the author by his last name, for this book I prefer Mike. Mike addresses so many issues that I've personally struggled with at different times. Such as how to effectively unplug yourself from a 24 hour role? He discusses first hand how he's come to grips with 'kind of' unplugging. Short answer: Be plugged in or be unplugged'. No in-between. You can't 'kind of' unplug. When it comes time to recharge your batteries, you can't do it if you're still taking calls.
Another favorite of mine is the notion of the balanced life. He straight-forwardly shuns the notion: it can't be done. It simply isn't possible to manage your life as though it were eight equally sized pieces, rotating between family, church, work, and so on. The size of the slices change as you move through your days, weeks, months. The key is to pay attention, know when you need to change what you're focusing on, and then do that: focus on that slice.
What I really liked most, was how Mike openly addressed so many issues many of us would (I have at times) kept hidden. How do others approach their '24 hr' days? How do they balance things? What worked three years ago (let alone 15-20) is barely viable, what does viable even 'look like' today? Mike's addressed these from both his personal perspective, as well as professional (based on surveys, studies, and consulting experience).
If you struggle with how to adjust to keep up with today's business world, consider grabbing a copy to read. Mike's work will be worth your time.The Anywhere Leader: How to Lead and Succeed in Any Business Environment Overview

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Catching Our Flag: Behind the Scenes of a Presidential Impeachment Review

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Catching Our Flag: Behind the Scenes of a Presidential Impeachment ReviewRead this book.

You probably will not like it. It will not make you feel good. It may even make you want to throw up. However, having lived through these momentous events in our history, perhaps with only the media's version of the "facts," you need to know what this book has to say. A small group of Congressmen knowingly sacrificed their careers to prevent our flag from touching the ground as it symbolically fell from the highest office in our land. Here is the inside story from a real-life American hero.

A stirring page-turner. Highly recommended.
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Obama on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President Review

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Obama on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President ReviewJustin Frank's Obama on the Couch fulfilled all of my expectations, and then some, after having read his earlier Bush on the Couch. Obviously, Bush and Obama are very different patients, and clearly, Dr. Frank has much greater sympathy towards the current President than he did towards G.W. This makes the book all the more fascinating. He truly takes a loving but rigorously clinical approach to diagnosing the President, drawing extensively upon the President's two memoirs and hundreds of speeches and other public appearances. The unfortunate conclusion that this reader draws from Dr. Frank's analysis is that Mr. Obama is different than what we, the American people, bargained for. If the clinical assessments of the President's quest for a lost father figure, and his sense of rejection by his mother, as well, compel him to suppress a deep anger, and always seek compromise--especially with those who have hurt him--then we are in serious trouble. The depth analysis of the President is all the more compelling and troubling because it is clear, as Dr. Frank admits throughout the book, that he genuinely likes President Obama, and admires his achievements. Yet, as an honest and highly qualified psychiatrist, Dr. Frank cannot avoid identifying some serious personality flaws, that may be the tragic source of Mr. Obama's failure as a President, at the very moment that the nation needs the best qualified leadership in Washington. The book is a well-written, thoroughly gripping volume, and I strongly recommend it for anyone, from anywhere on the political spectrum, who strives to understand what makes Washington--and this President--tick.Obama on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President Overview

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Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama Review

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Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama ReviewThe authors chronicle how Vietnam Syndrome affected the foreign policies of Presidents Ford to Obama. Therefore, not all foreign policy "events" from these administrations are addressed: there is no discussion of Iran-Contra, for example. I was skeptical of this work, concerned that the thesis was forced and contrived. For the vast majority of the book, this is a potential problem that is avoided, due largely to careful selection of specific foreign policy decisions (see above). There is little if any original, earth-shattering research, but it's concise, analytical, and meaningful. Unless one is a historian or reads historical journals, the book is full of insights. For example, there is fascinating discussion of Reagan's uniquely complicated relationship with Cap Weinberger. It's definitely worth a read if you're interested in this general topic.Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama Overview

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Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover's Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) Review

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Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover's Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) Review
Reading this book is a searing experience. On almost every page Hoover calls on the reader to think differently about things the conventional wisdom supposedly settled decades ago.
Everything is meticulously documented, and no one else in human history collected documents the way Hoover did.
Will Hoover's version of events now be the definitive account of World War II? Of course not. But the definitive account of the war can no longer be written without taking Hoover's
work into consideration. And it ought not be enough for those who would dispute him to dismiss him as a sore loser who never got over losing the 1932 election. They should
accept the challenge of showing specifically where he is mistaken.Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover's Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) Overview

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My Fellow Americans with 2 CDs, 2E: The Most Important Speeches of America's Presidents, from George Washington to Barack Obama Review

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My Fellow Americans with 2 CDs, 2E: The Most Important Speeches of America's Presidents, from George Washington to Barack Obama ReviewThe history of the United States comes alive in the words of its presidents.
There comes a dramatic time in the life of a person, party, organization or nation that cries for the uplift and release of a speech. Someone is called upon to articulate the pride, hope or grief of it all. The speaker becomes the center of attention and the world stops to listen.
That responsibility is often shouldered by our President. Great Presidents not only act as the country's head of state, but also the voice of its people. They help define who we are and what we experience. In my opinion, their speeches constitute one of the best expressions of the nation's mood.
This book presents 40 of the nation's greatest Presidential speeches. Former Clinton Speechwriter Michael Waldman, introduces them, anchors them in history and explains their impact.
Acknowledging that speeches are written for the ear, not the eye, this book contains two CD that allow you to hear many of these actual speeches. Some of the recordings are more than 100 years old. The voice of every President since Benjamin Harrison is included.
This book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the nation's history guided by the words of our Presidents.My Fellow Americans with 2 CDs, 2E: The Most Important Speeches of America's Presidents, from George Washington to Barack Obama Overview

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You Can Get There from Here: My Journey from Struggle to Success Review

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You Can Get There from Here: My Journey from Struggle to Success ReviewThis is an important book with a unique perspective relevant to all Americans. Mr. Knowling's life story is nothing short of amazing, his rise from meager beginnings to the upper ranks of American society is inspiring! He has a unique and important point of view regarding the racial divide in America which may seem unconventional to some but very insightful and wise nonetheless. This book was labeled as a business book, however, it is relevant to all readers.
This is worth investing $20 and an afternoon reading.You Can Get There from Here: My Journey from Struggle to Success Overview

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The Secret Life of Barack Hussein Obama Review

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The Secret Life of Barack Hussein Obama ReviewWhen all the mysteries surrounding our president are put into one volume, there is one thing that's clear: something is terribly wrong. As we get deeper in the financial hole (and Obama keeps digging), as we have to suffer with Obama's Army occupying town squares all across America (while he stokes class warfare), and as we continue to live in a world that gets more dangerous day by day (while Obama coddles our enemies and alienates our allies), we'll probably never know who Barack Hussein Obama really is. He just doesn't add up. But this book gets to the heart of the matter, and you won't see any of it in the mainstream press or on the network news. This is NOT The Obama Narrative(TM). Read it - you won't be disappointed.The Secret Life of Barack Hussein Obama Overview

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The Mendacity of Hope: Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism Review

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The Mendacity of Hope: Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism ReviewFinally, a critique of the Obama administration you can believe in. Using Obama's own words, historical analysis, and jaw droppingly good use of snark reminiscent of Hodge's predecessor at Harper's Louis Lapham, Hodge offers a needed critique of Obama's policies from the left in the tradition of Madison and small r republicanism. As does the tea party (who Hodge skewers in devastating fashion), Hodge accuses Obama of class warfare. Except in Hodge's case it is the war of moneyed interests on the rest of us - a war that Hodge traces back to Hamilton and which reaches it apotheosis in Reagan's policies and their fulfillment with the odious Clinton and his fellow Republican successors Bush and Obama.
Anybody who wants to make sense of Obama and his disappointing policies, needs to read this book. It is both terribly depressing and wonderfully enlightening.
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Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President Review

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Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President ReviewEli Saslow's book is a reporting masterpiece -- a tight collection of artfully told short stories and a memoir, really, of the 10 most important issues facing our country. It feels like a novel, as if Eli crafted the most perfect characters to illustrate each issue. But I kept having to remind myself, 'This is all true. He just found the perfect people to tell these stories about America.' As a former reporter, I can't imagine how challenging it was to collect all the information that he did -- the facts, the details, the perfect anecdotes. Each chapter was incredibly easy to read. Entertaining and illuminating. And yet, I feel like each story made me so much smarter about immigration, about the wars, about health care reform, about the oil spill, about how unpaid debts can spiral out of control for some people. It didn't feel, though, like a book that was trying to teach me anything, which made it all the more delightful to feel my brain filling up with smartness on so many issues that I would say I had a working knowledge of from the news and NPR but now feel so much smarter about. I particularly enjoyed how he sprinkled little tidbits about the White House mail department and the history of Americans writing to the president throughout the book. Whether you love or despise the president and politics in general, all of it was so, so interesting.Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President Overview

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Good Guys and Bad Guys: Behind the Scenes with the Saints and Scoundrels of American Business (and Everything in Between) Review

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Good Guys and Bad Guys: Behind the Scenes with the Saints and Scoundrels of American Business (and Everything in Between) Review
Great journalists are renowned for "getting the story" and then telling it well because they are gifted raconteurs whose keen analytical minds focus on who and what are most interesting as well as most significant. They suggest implications that help their readers (and viewers) to gain a greater understanding of what the "story" means. In recent years, my favorite journalists include Ken Auletta, Elizabeth Drew, Thomas Friedman, Hendrick Hertzberg, Jeffrey Toobin...and Joe Nocera. For almost thirty years, Nocera has written articles for a wide range of publications that include The New York Times (for which he writes a Saturday column, "Talking Business") and its Sunday magazine as well Esquire, GQ, Fortune, Money, Slate, and Texas Monthly. What we have in this volume is a collection of articles about various "good guys & bad guys," written over a period from 1982 until 2007.
He divides his material within 14 chapters. The articles of special interest to me are these:
Two articles about Boone Pickens, "It's Time to Make a Deal" in Chapter 1 and "Return of the Raider" in Chapter 14, that serve as "book ends" to all the other articles in between
His profile of Steve Jobs ("Jobs Agonistes") in Chapter 2
His analysis of Charlie Merrill and his dysfunctional relations with members of his family, especially his sons
His profile of Warren Buffett ("Saint Warren of Omaha") in Chapter 8
His explanation of "our love-hate relations with Wal-Mart" in Chapter 13
Obviously, other readers will have different favorites among the 26 articles assembled in this volume. However different the subjects and circumstances may be, however, all of them are exceptionally well-written, informative, and (more often that not) highly entertaining.
Here in Dallas, we have a Farmers Market area near downtown at which several vendors eagerly offer slices of fresh fruit as samples. In that same spirit, I now offer a sequence of three brief excerpts from the profile of Warren Buffett with the hope that they provide at least a "taste" of Nocera's style and perspective.
Why doesn't everyone invest the way Buffett does and, therefore, achieve the same results?
"I think the answer is twofold. First, truly great investing requires a temperament that very few people have. For most of us, it is difficult not to panic when the market tanks, for instance. It is hard not to want to jump on the hot stock, even if we know nothing about the business. The ups and downs of the market are stomach-churning events. The fundamental equanimity required to be a great investor is an extremely rare thing."
"The second reason we don't invest like Buffett is that his methods are far more complicated than they sound. Think about it: When Buffett talks about the `economic prospects' of a potential investment, what he means is that he wants to be able to see where the business will be 10 years from now. If he can see the business remaining dominant for the next decade, he'll consider buying the stock."
"One of the most important reasons for difference [i.e. being able to determine whether or not a business will remain dominant for the next decade] goes almost entirely unacknowledged among those who hope to find in Buffett an easily reproducible investing style. He is a genius when it comes to numbers. `Accounting,' he likes to say,' is the language of business.' It is a language in which his own fluency is unsurpassed, and which gives him an enormous competitive advantage. Usually, all he needs is a quick glance at a balance sheet to know whether he's interested in buying a company or not - because he finds meaning in numbers that the rest of us don't."
I envy those who have read only a few (if any) of the articles (including his Times columns) that Nocera has written for almost 30 years. Now in this single volume, they have some of his best...thus far.
Bravo!Good Guys and Bad Guys: Behind the Scenes with the Saints and Scoundrels of American Business (and Everything in Between) Overview

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Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman Review

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Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman ReviewThought-provoking and inspiring. A very enjoyable look at a plan to improve every aspect of your life. Even though it may seem geared a bit towards business women and entrepreneurs, the message is just as relevant to those that are in any career, including at-home moms. Really, any woman who wishes to make the best life possible for herself could benefit from Vickie Milazzo's teachings. They are universal teachings on the strengths women possess, but may not be utilizing, such as agility, genius, and integrity. She provides her own experience as a successful business woman, as well as the lives of strong women throughout history, as living proof that a life spent entirely on behaving, or pleasing others is really no life at all.Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman Overview

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On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System Review

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On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System ReviewA book like this should be read only along with books like The Failure of Risk Management: Why It's Broken and How to Fix It or The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. These books are about the much broader topics of risk management and risk in finance, respectively, but they do put On the Brink in context.
Paulson has written a detailed, blow by blow, narrative account of several specific meetings leading up to and during the financial crisis. Less of the book deals with stepping outside of these meetings to analyze other specific causes, but there is some of that. The reader has to be careful of an attempt by Paulson to recast his own role in a more favorable light, but I haven't seen anything detailed enough to specifically contradict him, yet.
Paulson does mention an interesting and almost complete list of players in this crisis - Freddie, Fannie, Bernanke, Bush, etc. But he is almost silent on some of the more subtle players like the mathematical models that underestimated these risks (Taleb and Hubbard do and excellent job of this). He reiterates throughout the book that the events seemed "impossible" and yet they are events that seem to happen once or twice a century (Especially considering some of the relaxed regulation and oversight that preceeeded it).
He does mention the role of Credit Default Swaps in the crisis but not, say, the Gaussian Copula, Options, or Value at Risk. The use of such methods are at least partly to blame.
The reader has to assume Paulson's agenda of getting history to come out the way that casts him the way he would like to see it. But it is still an excellent account. We should like to see the accounts of Bernanke and Geithner someday and compare them side-by-side.On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System Overview

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Drinking with Strangers: Music Lessons from a Teenage Bullet Belt Review

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Drinking with Strangers: Music Lessons from a Teenage Bullet Belt ReviewThank God, for the Kindle. I just read Butch Walker's book in one sitting. Butch candidly tells of his life, inspirations and trials in his own voice. He really pours his heart and soul into this book, just like he does with his music. I feel that I understand and connect better to his albums from the Marvelous 3 days to present. The book was so easy to read, I could't put it down.
My husband (a professional musician) started reading this. He said he could really feel where Butch was coming from.
This book is a must read for any Butch Walker fan. You will love the photos.Drinking with Strangers: Music Lessons from a Teenage Bullet Belt Overview

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What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential Review

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What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential ReviewI had been looking for a book that would offer actionable advice and
suggestions on how to better manage my time and set priorities for me and my
team. Starting with a "clean sheet of paper" has been one of the
most valuable exercises in the book. I have read books about leadership
before, but they always seemed very academic and so abstract that they
weren't actually relevant in the real world- or to me and my work in particular- but
this book is different. It's obvious from the start that Kaplan is
someone who has been there and understands what its like
to actually run an organization. I could have used this book when I was just starting out!What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential Overview

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FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 Review

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FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 ReviewCan a book about a 60-some year old election be a real "page turner"? It sure can. David Jordan has produced a book that is highly readable, very well researched, beautifully organized, and full of fascinating but little known facts. Even the extensive footnotes are interesting in and of themselves. The author presents the main issures of the war-time campaign - the democrats' "don't change horses in mid stream" versus the republicans' "twelve years is too long" within the context of the back-room haggling and public speeches that led to the nominations and election campaigns of both FDR and Dewey, as well as the democrats' struggle and in-fighting that led to the nomination of Harry S. Truman for vice president. Some surprises for me were the amount of cover-up of FDR's medical condition, and also the role of that 'progressive' republican, Wendell Wilkie. Full of anecdotes of the forties (baseball, movies, etc) and good-natured but thorough descriptions of the principal players, this book was a delight to read. The photos were interesting and illuminating, and the book cover inspired. I recommend this book to anyone interested in politics, history, recent american culture, and/or the presidency. Bravo, Mr. Jordan.FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 Overview

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