Finance Biography

In September 2014, a Chinese company that most Americans had never heard of held the largest IPO in history - bigger than Google, Facebook, and Twitter combined. Alibaba, now the world's largest ecommerce company, mostly escaped Western notice for over 10 years, while building a customer base larger than Amazon's and handling the bulk of ecommerce transactions in China. How did it happen? And what was it like to be along for such a revolutionary ride?

Lloyd Constantine began his career in legal services, representing impoverished clients in civil rights and constitutional cases. Decades later, he would make headlines for representing retailers and consumers against a cartel that undermined one of the fundamental tenets of commerce in America: competition. A man who thrives on competition himself, Constantine now gives us the insider's story on the biggest antitrust lawsuit in history - a case that pitted his small firm against financial-industry giants Visa and MasterCard, along with Clifford-Chance, the largest law firm in the world.

First published in 1984, The Warren Buffett Way gave investors their first in-depth look at the innovative investment and business strategies behind this living legend's spectacular success. Tracing Warren Buffett's career from the beginning, Hagstrom revealed to listeners exactly how, starting with an initial investment of only $100, Buffett built a business empire worth $19.4 billion.

Den of Thieves tells, in masterfully reported detail, the full story of the insider-trading scandal that nearly destroyed Wall Street, the men who pulled it off, and the chase that finally brought them to justice. Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart shows for the first time how four of the biggest names on Wall Street - Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine - created the greatest insider-trading ring in financial history and almost walked away with billions.

Leland Faust unmasks Wall Street's unsavory tactics in powerful detail by giving listeners a high-level view of how the financial services industry misleads them, overcharges them, and exposes them to needless risk. He documents the financial industry's alluring come-ons, airbrushed risks, high-stakes gambling, half-truths, misleading statements, outlandish predictions, tricks to overcharge customers, bad deals, and outright fraud by the most prominent and renowned of Wall Street's players.

Charlie Munger ist visionärer Vizepräsident von Berkshire Hathaway, einem der 20 größten Unternehmen der USA. Doch noch mehr ist er Warren Buffetts unersetzlicher Geschäftspartner, der über Jahrzehnte besser abgeschnitten hat als der Markt. Munger ist davon überzeugt, dass Sie als Investor dasselbe schaffen können. Seine Lebenserfahrung - ein Bündel interdisziplinärer Denkmodelle aus Wirtschaft, Psychologie und Philosophie - ermöglicht es ihm, Emotionen und Investitionen strikt zu trennen und so die üblichen Fallstricke beim Investieren zu meiden. Das können auch Sie.

When we meet Carrie Sun, she can’t shake the feeling that she’s wasting her life. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Carrie excelled in school, graduated early from MIT, and climbed the corporate ladder, all in pursuit of the American dream. But at twenty-nine, she’s left her analyst job, dropped out of an MBA program, and is trapped in an unhappy engagement. So when she gets the rare opportunity to work at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world, she knows she can’t say no. Fourteen interviews later, she’s in.

Larry Williams has never backed away from authority, especially government authority - the US government or any other, including two battles all the way to the Supreme Court. Libertarian, trader, would-be politician, and Indiana Jones-like adventurer, Larry has gone wherever his spirit moved him and bucked state constraints whenever he found them stifling.

There is growing evidence that Trump has spent decades cultivating ties to corrupt Russians and the post-Soviet state. In Trump/Russia: A Definitive History, Seth Hettena chronicles the many years Trump has spent wooing Russian money and power. From the collapse of his casino empire - which left Trump desperate for cash - and his first contacts with Russian deal makers and financiers, on up to the White House, Hettena reveals the myriad of shady people, convoluted dealings, and strange events that suggest how indebted to Russia our 45th president might be.

How did a high school dropout amass a portfolio of one thousand apartments? This rags-to-riches story could be your story. Learn the lessons they don’t teach you in school. Learn invaluable information about buying or owning rental properties, hard moneylending, foreclosure sales, starting a hedge fund by yourself, and much more. If I can do this, you can too!

Ever since the Reagan era, Washington has been captured by a conservative economic agenda that has failed in every respect and that has long since lost any respect among serious economists. Finally, highly regarded economist James Galbraith presents a full-bore attack on the bankrupt economic policies of the Republican Party - and a much needed reality check on where to go from here.

Pandora’s Lockbox is one woman’s tell-all account of an award-winning career in real estate. If you like determined heroines, jaw-dropping surprises, and underdog success stories, then you’ll adore Nico Griffith’s educational entertainment.

In December 2008, amidst a world gripped by financial crisis, Bernard Madoff, a respected fund manager, and former chairman of NASDAQ, was arrested by the FBI for reportedly bilking thousands of trusting investors out of $50 billion. In the first comprehensive account of this financial mastermind's epic Ponzi scheme, Catastrophe exposes the real story behind Madoff's upstanding façade-his family's involvement, and his unlikely rise and incredible crash.

Covering diversity and equality, globalization, human rights, modern urban living and the role of work and institutions, The Sociology Book looks at the big questions of how we cooperate: What is society? What makes it tick? Why do we interact in the way that we do with our friends, co-workers, and rivals?

Janet Tavakoli takes you into the world of Warren Buffett by way of the recent mortgage meltdown. In correspondence and discussion with him over two years, they both saw the writing on the wall, made clear by the implosion of Bear Stearns. Tavakoli, in clear and engaging prose, explains how the credit mess happened beginning with the mortgage lending Ponzi schemes funded by investment banks, the Fed bailout, and its impact on the dollar.

Steven Mandis charts the evolution of Goldman Sachs from an ethical standard to a legal one and uncovers the forces behind what he calls Goldman's "organizational drift". Drawing from his firsthand experience; sociological research; analysis of SEC, congressional, and other filings; and a wide array of interviews with former clients, detractors, and current and former partners, Mandis exposes the pressures that forced Goldman to slowly drift away from the very principles on which its reputation was built.

David Hume (1711–1776) is a towering and intriguing figure. He was the preeminent philosopher in what is now called the Scottish Enlightenment, a time that was “crowded with genius” and in a place regarded as the rebirth of the golden era of Athens. His writing displayed an astonishing range, addressing everything from metaphysics to politics, and in subject after subject, he produced fresh, novel, and brilliant insights.

Kellogg in the late 1940s and 50s was a typical American small town complete with high school football and basketball teams, marching band, and anti-Communist clubs; yet its bars, gambling dens, and brothels were entrenched holdovers from a rowdier frontier past. The Bunker Hill Mining Company, the largest employer, paid miners good wages for difficult, dangerous work, while the quest for lead, silver, and zinc denuded the mountainsides and laced the soil and water with contaminants.

In today's ruthless world of organised crime, the best criminals aren't foolish enough to steal money out of banks. They wear tailored suits, carry briefcases, and discreetly slip money into banks. Bigwigs, oligarchs and crime syndicates running drugs, trafficking guns and people, arming terrorists and subverting government controls are desperate to put a legitimate face on their wealth. Washing dirty money, moving it around the globe, making it look legitimate is where the action is for both criminals and the authorities chasing them.

By 2050, $50 trillion will change hands in North America in the largest generational wealth transfer ever. It will remake the world and be the biggest money-making opportunity in history. "Business as usual", founded on exploitation and environmental ruin, is over. Climate catastrophe, reactionary politics, and widening inequity have put the world on edge. Meanwhile innovations are shifting the economic ground, and an entire generation is pounding the table for real change.