Finance Biography

Where is 'home'? For Amartya Sen home has been many places - Dhaka in modern Bangladesh, where he grew up; the village of Santiniketan, where he was raised by his grandparents as much as by his parents; Calcutta, where he first studied economics and was active in student movements and Trinity College, Cambridge, to which he came aged 19. Sen brilliantly recreates the atmosphere in each of these.

With Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff defined the first phase of the Trump administration; now, in Siege, he has written an equally essential and explosive book about a presidency that is under fire from almost every side. A stunningly fresh narrative that begins just as Trump’s second year as president is getting underway and ends with the delivery of the Mueller report, Siege reveals an administration that is perpetually beleaguered by investigations and a president who is increasingly volatile, erratic and exposed.

John Paulson, a softly spoken hedge-fund manager who still took the bus to work, seemed unlikely to stake his career on one big gamble. But he did - and The Greatest Trade Ever is the story of how he realised that the sub-prime housing bubble was going to burst, making $15 billion for his fund and more than $4 billion for himself in a single year. It's a tale of folly and wizardry, individual brilliance versus institutional stupidity.

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.

From the beginning, Stonyfield Farm turned conventional business practices on their head and grew to become the world's largest organic-yogurt producer. This book will appeal both to consumers who want quality and a better world, and companies who want steady profits and growth.

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.

You May Never See Us Again is the only definitive story of David and Frederick Barclay - commonly known as the Barclay brothers. Born poor, these enigmatic twins built one of the biggest fortunes in Britain together from scratch and spent six decades at the epicentre of British business, media and politics. Journalist Jane Martinson unravels the fascinating story of these once inseparable billionaire brothers.

Tetsuya Ishikawa's story reveals how a young Oxford graduate found himself in command of vast sums of other people's money. It also explalins how a novice to the mysteries of hedge funds and sub-prime mortgages fixed complex deals for billions of dollars in the exclusive bars, brothels, and trading floors of London, New York, Frankfurt and Tokyo - and reaped the benefits in a colossal annual bonus and an international luxury lifestyle.

Some extraordinary and unexpected factors are revealed in Taylor's fascinating new book that explains why some people become billionaires. Despite the fact that the sample of 17 self-made billionaires come from disparate backgrounds, work in different industries, have very different personalities, and superficially appear to have different upbringings, they have one important thing in common: they are all outsiders.

Ackroyd portrays London from the time of the druids to the beginning of the twenty-first century, noting magnificence in both epochs, but this is not a simple chronological record. It is a comprehensive account, animated by Ackroyd's concern for the close relationship between the present and the past as well as by what he describes as the peculiar "echoic" quality of London whereby its texture and history actively affect the lives and personalities of its citizens.

Christine Lagarde is a prominent French Economist and Politician, born on January 1, 1956, in Paris. Renowned for her trailblazing career, she has held key leadership positions, including serving as the first woman Chair of Baker & McKenzie, Minister of the Economy, Finance, and Industry in France, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and currently as the President of the European Central Bank (ECB). Lagarde is celebrated for her resilience, innovative approaches to economic governance, and advocacy for gender equality and sustainable finance on the global stage. Get ...

It was a time when anything seemed possible–instant wealth, glittering fame, fabulous luxury–and for a run of magical weeks in the spring and summer of 1920, Charles Ponzi made it all come true. Promising to double investors’ money in three months, the dapper, charming Ponzi raised the “rob Peter to pay Paul” scam to an art form and raked in millions at his office in downtown Boston. Ponzi’s Scheme is the amazing true story of the irresistible scoundrel who launched the most successful scheme of financial alchemy in modern history–and uttered the first roar of the Roaring Twenties.

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.

Obroni and the Chocolate Factory is Steven's chaotic, fascinating, and bemusing journey to create a successful international business that aspired do a bit of good in the world. This book is at once a penetrating business memoir and a story about imagining globalism done right. Wallace's picaresque journey takes him to Ghana's residence for the head of state, to the Amsterdam offices of a secretive international cocoa conglomerate, and face-to-face with key figures in the sharp-elbowed world of global trade and geopolitics.

Mike Daisey worked at Amazon.com for nearly two years during the dot-com frenzy of the late nineties. Now that his nondisclosure agreement has expired, he can tell the real story - one that blends tech culture, hero worship, cat litter, Albanian economics, and venture capitalism into a surreal cocktail of delusion.

Warren Buffett: An Extraordinary Life covers it all. From early childhood days as an entrepreneur who sold bottles of Coca-Cola at the ripe old age of six, to his climb as the world's most successful investor. It offers an account of his investment strategies, mindset, and attitude towards success, money, and life.

Airline pilot Steven Rozenberg entered the world of real estate investing with jet fuel grit and a candid smile. Building an Empire: Failing Our Way to Millions tells how he met IT executive Pete Neubig, a chance encounter that led to a lifetime friendship and business partnership, and their journey together as struggling entrepreneurs learning the ropes one hard knock at a time. Their story is inspiring and enlightening.

The stories in this book are all true. Its author has been held up at gunpoint at night on a road in Guatemala and shot with a machine gun in the chest and shoulder in Vietnam. He's come close to dying of thirst in the Sahara and freezing to death in the Himalayas. He's contracted malaria and typhoid fever in Ethiopia and hepatitis in India. There have been accidents involving motorcycles and automobiles. He's had close calls involving lions (twice), elephants (three times) and a rhino (once).

Cómo Amazon está cambiando nuestras vidas y lo que han aprendido de ellas las mejores compañías del mundo. Una mirada profunda, reveladora e imparcial al modelo de negocio de Amazon que no sólo ha dominado el mundo, sino que lo está cambiando.

During the harshest year of the Great Depression, Lorena Hickok, a top woman news reporter of the day and intimate friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, was hired by FDR’s right-hand man Harry Hopkins to embark upon a grueling journey to the hardest-hit areas of the country to report back on the degree of devastation. Distinguished historian Michael Golay draws on a trove of original sources - including the moving, remarkably intimate, almost daily letters between Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt - as he re-creates that extraordinary journey.