Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets

While arranging my old books, i found this book. Damn, I forgot that I bought this book and I never read it before, hahaha...

This book is interesting. First of all, Jim Rogers's books are always interesting due to his very indifferent life and exciting way of leading his life. Secondly, this book is interesting as the author pointed out a lot of future progress in the world. As I am reading it late (after few years, oh my god!), some predictions by Jim Rogers either becomes reality or becomes irrelevant at the moment. Thirdly, this book is interesting to me as the whole book is not bored at all. After all, every human beings dream to have life like Jim Rogers. Hence, since we cannot make it, why not envy him? Haha... Finally, we got a book that travels all around the world. There is a Chinese idiom that says: A book holds a house of gold (书中自有黄金屋). Well, this book certainly meets that.

I read every book by Jim Rogers. Surprisingly, this book rates as one of my favorites. Perhaps, I am in the age of getting old. As such, I am no more the guy who is searching high and low for investment holy grain. I appreciate more on Jim Rogers's life journey. From there, I found the wisdom I want and I hope it will help to shape my entire life.

The small flaw in this book perhaps lies with the facts that there are some repetitions from his past book. Hence, a new reader may find this book perfect. But, old timers who had follows Jim Rogers for the past few years might get bored with the repetitions.

This book offered a lot of wisdom and interesting insights. To me, this is a book of Jim Rogers's life journey. The title itself tells the whole story. It is not only about how to be street smarts in the market. It is also about how to be street smarts as human beings. I highly recommend this book despite the small flaw as mentioned above. For a full rating of 10, I am going to rate this book at 8.

Last but not least... we just could not ignore the street smarts quotes from the book. Here we are:

Do not worry about failure. Do not worry about making mistakes in life. It is good to lose money, to go broke at least once, and preferably twice. But if you are going to do it, do it early in your career.

You can diversify, and you will be safe, but you are not going to be rich. Stay with what you know, do not jump around.

There are plenty of ways to make money on Wall Street, and just as in any endeavor, whether it is a music, art, or finance, you have to find your own way. 

The fact is that these politicians and bureaucrats, including the secretary of the Treasury, know little about currencies. They speak out of both sides of their mouths, often at the same time, and will say whatever is most politically expedient at the moment.

Plato, in The Republic, says that the way societies evolve is by going from dictatorship to oligarchy to democracy to chaos and back to dictatorship. The Asian way seems to suggest that Plato knew whereof he spoke.

The Chinese are among the best capitalists in the world. California is more communist than China. Massachusetts is more socialist than China. People would rather do business in China than just about anywhere else in the world, including South Korea, including Europe and certainly including United States.

All the growth rate figures are unreliable. It is stupefying to me that India could claim to have a clue what is going on even in India, much less in China or in the United States. America is always revising its numbers, and most of them are made up. I have learned over the years not to pay attention to them. They are mainly exercises in public relations.

Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance

As I mentioned before, I am short of investment books at the moment. Hence, any book will be my choices right now. In fact, I do not mind reading lousy books. Reading itself is already an amazing journey. To be able to judge at the end of the journey means we did catch up something along the road. So, whether it is a good or bad journey, a journey is still a journey to appreciate...

This book was actually grabbed during a book fair. In fact, it was grouped in those offering books where I can buy the next one with RM1. Well, I admit I was in the rush that day and this book was simply bought to make up the number. At the end, I did not even realize that this is another book on 2008 financial crisis... Gosh, so boring, LOL!

Well, please do not get me wrong. This is not a lousy book. But, ever since 2008 sub-prime crisis, this kind of books are all over in the markets. With year 2015 is around the corner plus markets everywhere were making new highs recently, this book does not seems appealing at all. The author did an excellent analysis with tons of ideas as future solutions to face another possible "white swan" (as according to author) in long run. However, I do find that ideas presented although sounds logic with sense... the solutions will be costly. In fact, I do not think authority will react such a way. After all, we are passing 6th year since 2008 and those solutions may not sounds applicable and relevant anymore.

As a summary, this may be a good read right after the 2008 crisis. However, to read it in year 2014 does not seem right in the first place. Rating wise, out of 10, I am giving it 4. Overall, not much of refreshing thoughts throughout the whole reading process... 

Keynes: The Return of the Master

This book was a gift from a buddy long time ago. In fact, I wanted to buy this book since day one. For an author who is so familiar with John Maynard Keynes, I found no reason not to follow all his books. As according to my buddy, this could be one of the best. Well, compares to the three biographies written by the said author… I have to agree with my buddy… This book is simply awesome!

First of all, I found this book not boring and not too “academic” as compares to similar books. The author did well by focus on the previous world financial crisis before presenting the rationalization behind Keynesian economics. At the end, it is a book that utilized history and theories of capitalism to explain current economic problems. Of course, not every reader agrees with Keynes’ theories. However, I thought the author did extremely well by provide clear and easily understandable descriptions in presenting the state of economies.

Having said that… I found no reason not to give a full 10/10. This is really an excellent read and I highly recommend this book for any readers who are keen to have a refresher on economic theories. Thumbs up!!! 

The Investment Revolutionaries

Honestly, I initially found it hard to classify this book. At first glance, this is a similar book with the series of “Market Wizard”. But, once a reader read through few chapters, it is not only some interviews. The whole book covers much more than that. However, thanks to the wide coverage; I actually found myself lost and confuse at the end, LOL…

Ok, I believe I know what is the intention from the author in producing this book. However, he is too greedy by putting in almost everything. At the end, readers are not only confused. They would find it hard to concentrate and absorb the said “revolutionaries” too. In short, it is definitely not a well-organized book.

Furthermore, the so called “revolutionaries” actually do not sound revolution to me at all. I think I am reading some general stuffs and the said general stuffs obviously do not benefited me. To make things worse, the author are picking up (sort of copy and paste) here and there on other peoples’ opinion without expressing his final thoughts. End up, I found myself reading sort of newsletters. As such, the whole reading experiences was so bad…Speechless, LOL.

Ok... Enough is enough. This is just one of those books in the market. The irony part is… I actually could not find big flaws in this book. Overall... in my humble opinion, this is really a dull and boring book. As such, I am rating it at 1/10. This book was shift out immediately after my final read. Allow me to say this: Damn, wasted my time… LOL. 

Red Blooded Risk (The Secret History of Wall Street)

"Applied probability" is something I love to dig always... In fact, books like "The Black Swan" and "The Signal and The Noise" remain my all time favourite. Now, we got this book from Aaron Brown... another "applied probability" stuff with a very special name: "Red-Blooded Risk" taker... Hmm... Something interesting....

Aaron Brown started by define the differences between risk and danger(opportunity)... "Risks are two sided, you can win or you can lose. Dangers and opportunities are one sided...Dangers and opportunities are often not measurable. Risk however are measurable... Dangers and opportunities often come from nature. Risks always refer to human interactions and their level must be under our control..." From there, the author managed to classify 4 different groups of risk takers:
1. Coward - Treats risks as dangers.
2. Thrill seeker - Treats risks as opportunities.
3. Cold-blooded - Treats both dangers and opportunities as risks.
4. Red-blooded - Excited by challenges, but not to the point of being blinded to dangers and opportunities.

Overall, this book presents plenty of ideas on how to be a practical risk-taker. In fact, it is more than investing and financial stuff. To me, it is more like a guide towards risks in life. The whole book combines the real experiences from the author along with the historical episodes that happened in real life. After all, the author is famous as Quant's Quant. Hence, he is absolutely the right person to comment on it.

The best part is... this book contains series of "secret history of Wall Street" along with the diminishing function of money. (Paper money will fade to insignificant economic importance, to be replaced by derivative-like arrangements.) In fact, this is the first book that defended speculators, derivatives and the financial market as a whole. Read this:

Everyone is greedy and finance would be a strange career choice for someone without and above average interest in money. The sin is to be interested only in money.

Finance is just another business, or to be evaluated by how much it improves things for customers, what resources it consumes and the quality of jobs and quantity of profits it creates. It has no mystical value like "making the economy more efficient" and a person who makes that his justification for a huge paycheck is likely looking for an excuse, not a reason. 

Value investor provide liquidity because they buy when others sell and sell when others buy. They are the one kind of speculator polite people like to talk about. They give the markets rationality and liquidity.

Momentum investors give the market volatility. They are behind bubbles and crashes, and they suck liquidity out of the market. But, without them you have no market, or at best a quiet market that adds little economy value.

One silly thing you read about futures markets is that they are zero-sum. But, a bank is also zero-sum. Every dollar in interest paid to depositors is paid by borrowers. Yet banks add tremendously to economic growth. Money itself is zero-sum. It represents an asset to its owner and an equal liability to everyone else. In the case of futures markets, and derivatives in general, since each user has a different numeraire, each one can count a net profit in economic value. Insisting the markets are zero-sum is a symptom of not understanding numeraires.

An even sillier charge is that futures markets are a casino where speculators create risk that spills over and harms the real economy. Of course they are casinos where speculators create risk. If speculators went away or stopped creating risk, the markets would collapse, and they would take their vast economic value with them.

Relatively, compares to the other applied probability stuff (ex. The Black Swan), I thought this book is a more entertaining read. However, I cannot deny on its prolixity and disorganised structure on his articles. In fact, some chapter titles tend to be misleading as the contents may not focus 100% on the title itself. Perhaps, this is due to the author's style of tracing to the origin of the origin. End up, readers might felt a bit of mess and find it hard to concentrate.

As a summary, this is one of another great work on applied probability. If "The Black Swan" and "The Signal & The Noise" deserved 9/10, this book at least scored evenly at 9/10 too. Like I mentioned above, it is the prolixity that bring certain damages to a supposed great book. Other than that, I thought this is a book that benefited me so much. Thumbs up for the author to come up with such a nice writing!

Finally, I picked up some of the nice quotes that I personally love it so much. Well; again, perhaps more prolixity than ever; but catch the point, as it represents some splendid wisdom....

A frequentist might test hypotheses at the 5 percent level... What if the 95 percent she's right about are trivial things we knew anyway and the 5 percent she's wrong about are crucial?

If you take an optimal amount of risk- not more and not less- you can be certain of exponentially growing success... Taking less risk than is optimal is not safer; it just locks in a worse outcome... Taking more risk than is optimal often leads to complete disaster. ~~~ John Kelly

The forms of money that stimulate the economy are those that equate constraints and goals of important risk-taking activities. At the moment, financial derivatives are the most important form of money used in advanced economies.

Mutation is almost always bad for the individual, but the optimal amount is good for the population.

To take advantage of evolution you need to add some randomness to your learning and experiences. ... The more you read, the less certainty you find. The people with the most narrow and rigid views have generally read the least.

You cannot understand the economy without understanding the markets, and you cannot understand the markets without trying to beat them. 

Kelly showed that beyond a certain point, more risk only increases the probability of bad outcomes. Moreover, taking less than optimal risk actually guarantees doing worse in the long run; it only appears to be a safer course.

The reason the portfolio of all seven commodities did so much better than the individual assets when we invested 100 percent of our money is not that diversification lowers risk and lower risk is good; it's that it just happened to produce a portfolio with near the optimal amount of risk.

More and more transactions are mediated by direct good exchange, automated clearing by Internet bidding or matching, and goods delivered by status rather than equal value by transaction... Paper money will not disappear or lose its value, any more than gold lost its value when paper money arrived. But, paper money already lost its place as an economic driver.

You could fight a war for any stupid reason you liked (in fact, in most wars one or both sides claimed to be fighting for peace), except one: you couldn't fight a war against taxes.

Socially, you can be a loner. You're not interested in other people's opinions, since those are what made the market inefficient in the first place.

If you cut losers faster and let profits run longer, you'll have a lower accuracy ratio but a higher performance ratio. Attempting to increase the accuracy ratio by sacrificing performance ratio seldom works. Therefore, the usual advice is to target a specific performance ratio, adjusting your trading if necessary to get to that target, but only to monitor the accuracy ratio. When accuracy ratio is high, bet bigger, when it's low, bet smaller.

Organisations depend on complex information flows. Unless there is constant, rigorous testing of that information, its quality will be very poor. That lack of quality will be obscured by...the poor quality of the data. The poor quality will be further obscured by systems and people that force the data to be consistent.

Bad data leads to inefficiency and uncontrollable risks. Even if it didn't, given the vast sums spent on processing data, it's worth spending a little effort to make it good.

They say if you work in kitchen you'll never eat at a restaurant. Well, I never worked in a restaurant kitchen, but I'll never believe a number unless it's something I can validate.

Success requires innovation, and innovation implies frequent failure. Failure isn't the problem. Slow and expensive failure is. Fail often, fail fast, and fail cheap is the formula for success.

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

This is a very interesting book... Reading through the whole book is like watching a thrilling drama.... The ups and downs in the LTCM are like a roller coaster where success and failure is either a thin or fine line along the journey... In fact, this is not the first time I read about LTCM. Many years ago, Nick Dunbar's "Inventing Money" was my favourite for a while and the said book still remains on my shelf...However, I think this is a better book as Nick Dunbar focus too much on the theoretical economics. At least, Roger Lowenstein (being the author of Warren Buffet biography) is good in telling stories... more of a human story!

This book is divided into two parts. First major part focuses on the rise of LTCM, while second part talks about the fall of LTCM. On the first rising part, there are few interesting events and statements:

1. Having worked at major Wall Street bank, J.M. felt that investment banks were rife with leaks and couldn't be trusted not to swipe his trades for themselves... As a precaution, Long-Term would place orders for each leg of a trade with a different broker... Even Long-Term's lawyer was kept in the dark. ~~~ What J.M. felt is true in real life... Contradict to usual perception that the world of investment is correlated with power, money and cash; "low profile" obviously is the key here...

2. LTCM on 25% of profit with 2% charge on assets plus the lockup period of 3 years, which was unheard... Some more, people have serious doubt with Meriwether after he had been sanctioned by SEC in the Mozer affair in Soloman's office. ~~~ Wow!!!! 25% + 2% is incredible stuff in US!!! So, of course "unheard", LOL.

3. There is a reason why financial markets run to extremes more often than coin flips. A key condition of random events is that each new flip is independent of the previous one... But market has memories. Sometimes a trend will continue just because traders expect (or fear) that it will. Investor may slavishly follow the trend for no other reason than that they think enough others will do likewise. ~~~ How true... That is why the market does not fit the ideal of rational investors in efficient market.

4. Over time, market does correct their mistakes... But, what if, before prices corrected, they got further - drastically further - out of line? ~~~ Spot on... this is why timing and money management is so important!

5. As their third year drew to a close, the partners collectively had a stake in the fund of $1.4 billion, nine times their initial $150 million investment. It was an incredible fortune to have made in so little time- and all from bond spreads! The partners' nervy decision to keep redoubling their bets had vaulted them into the super rich overnight. ~~~ Wow!!! Mr. Greed arriving...

6. Their hunger to turn millions into billions knew no bound, nor did it recognise any risks. For men who prided themselves on being disciples of reason, their drive to live on the edge seemed inexplicable, unless they believed that becoming the richest would certify them as also being the smartest... Hilibrand personally borrowed $24 million more from Credit Lyonnais, which set up a program to let the partners borrow against their interests in the fund. ~~~ Wow!!! Mr. Greed in control, LOL.

On the "fall" of LTCM:

1. True, it had happened in 1987 and again in 1992. But, Long-Term's models didn't go back that far. As far as Long Term knew, it was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence- a practical impossibility. ~~~ A very good reminder to those who think analysing a short brief data is good enough...

2. There was no liquidity in credit markets. There never is when everyone wants out at the same time. This is what the models had missed. ~~~ Dreadful and horrible at the end...

3. When you need money, Wall Street is a heartless place. ~~~ 100% agreed!

4. Goldman represented investment banking at its mercenary ugliest. To J.M. and his partners, Goldman was raping Long-Term in front of their very eyes. ~~~ Mr. Cruel in charge right now...

5. When a quake hits, all markets tremble. Why was Long-Term so surprised by that? ~~~ Sounds weird but true...

6. As Keynes noted, one bet soundly considered is preferable to many poorly understood. The Long-Term episode proved that eggs in separate baskets can break simultaneously. Moreover, Long-Term fooled itself into thinking it had diversified when, in fact, it had done so only in form. ~~~ Diversify? Never in my dictionary...

In summary, this book by Roger Lowenstein is an amazing stuff. I just could not put down the book from the first moment I started it. It is a very nice journey (tough for the genius though) for readers to get a better understanding on the fall of LTCM. As I mentioned above, at least we are not being bombarded with tons of boring theoretical economics. With due respect to Nick Dunbar, I really prefer this book compares to "Inventing Money". As such, I am giving full mark 10/10 to this book. Thumbs up!

Diary Of A Hedgehog

The legendary and late Barton Biggs is the author of "Hedgehogging" and "A Hedge-Fund Tale of Reach & Grasp"~~~ two of my all time favourite books... In fact, "Diary of a Hedgehog" is the final book from the said author. He completed shortly this book before his untimely passing... R.I.P to the great man who had contributed so much in the world of investment as well as his writing stuff....

So, how good is this book? Relatively; compares to the author's other books, this is definitely not the best book to pick on. Well, this is a book that reveals the author's assessment of the economy from 2010-2012. As such, it is like reading newspaper column with tons of past events that we are very much aware of... To make things worse, it is more or less like reading some old newsletter since the assessment itself were very much outdated. The good point is... since it is outdated, we have the opportunity to review on the thought process of a smart investor. After all, those economic events already happened and the author's assessment at various point can showed us how good he is to qualify as a legendary investor.

Having said that... for a full score of 10, I am giving this book 3/10. To be honest, I admire the late Barton Biggs. However, reading newsletter does not seem to be my cup of tea. In fact, the so called "final words" by the author are not  really interesting. It failed to inspire me in triggering any further thoughts on investment as a whole. End up; it is just another dull book although I did pick up one or two excellent quotes as below:

In reality there are times to stick to your guns and there are times to cut and run. However, you can burn up a lot of performance dancing around trying to avoid wiggles.

The first word in analyst is Anal.

If investing were just all history, the historicans would be billionaires.

"We  must base our asset allocation not on the probabilities of choosing the right allocation but on the consequences of choosing the wrong allocation." ~~~ Jack Bogle

Mr. Market and clients don't give a hoot about your hip or mental state. You still have to perform and make the right decisions.

Every investor is different and everyone has his or her own releases... Figure it out, and when the stress mounts, stick to your own routines.

Overall, not a bad book... but, simply not good enough compares to the famous "Hedgehogging"... 

The Ten Day MBA

I hardly go into this... I mean, academically books.. To be frank, since I graduated from university, my focus was more on books that I failed to read during my university time. After all, a three straight years of degree life did just enough for me to find excuses into exploring non-academic books, LOL. So, I guess it is time to refresh a bit into what I studied 15 years ago, LOL.

MBA is something attractive to me all the while. I know I may not have the chance to further my studies into this (at least in short term) . As such, I am very curious with this book... Well, a MBA to complete in 10 days' time.. Why not? LOL...

At the end, this is the only book for me for the past 10 days. To be honest, I really enjoyed it. The past 10 days proved to be educational (although academically too, LOL). My curiosity was satisfied with the author's creativity in writing this book. After all, we are talking about the "secrets" taught at Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, Northwestern and Virginia. So, what is there to complain about?

The only setback perhaps lies with the simplicity. MBA holder and prospective MBA holder may not like it... The fact is, the author needs to fit in 9 major courses plus a series of MBA minicourses in a book! As such, certain details may not be adequate and readers need to read further in other resources. However, if a local university degree holder like me can understand and appreciate the whole book, I guess the so called "simplicity" is not an issue to any other readers.  After all, I am not reading for academic purpose. I am reading it to sharpen my competitive edge, expertise and performances in certain area. In fact, most of the topics were covered (although not 100%) in my university time. Hence, the said book also acts as a good "refresher" course to a busy man (ahem!!!LOL) like me.

Overall, I love this book so much. In view of that, I am going to rate 9/10 for this book. An excellent academically book and an excellent "refresher"... no doubt!

Contents:

Day 1: Marketing

Day 2: Ethics

Day 3: Accounting

Day 4: Organizational Behavior

Day 5: Quantitative Analysis

Day 6: Finance

Day 7: Operations

Day 8: Economics

Day 9: Strategies

Day 10 MBA Minicourses

Soccernomics

Soccernomics? Wait a minute... Soccer or economics? Yes, it is the combination of both !!! Amazing, right?

The two combined topic good enough to convince me. In fact, over the years, I had been wondering why nobody combines sports with economics... After all, Arsene Wenger had already showed the whole England how important data analysis since his arrival in 1996.

In fact, it took me more than a week to read and re-read this book. Yes, I read twice. First attempt was to read the whole thing... second attempt was to revise a few interesting parts. Having said that, I really love this book.

Few interesting points from the perspective of football fan (in fact, kinda shock on certain details as I thought I know enough football, LOL):

1. The reluctance and resistant shown by the English to accept "tactical" stuff ~ proper tactical guidance were seen as laughing stock those days. Wow... now I can imagine how hard Wenger was when he arrived at highbury (1996).

2. Club's victory and long term successes is determined by the club efforts in providing a competitive salary cap. In other words, salaries to attract stars and salaries to hold on with existing stars are the main factor (92%) contributing to a club's long term glories. In opposite, transfers market (by buying and selling stars) merely contributed 16% to a club's long run glories. ~~~ Well, it answers my long doubt question... looks like Wenger's philosophy to sell a star each season is totally wrong !!! LOL.

3. The facts that even club like Chelsea and Real Madrid ignore the basic problem of a player ~ Adaptability. Anelka's issue at Bernabaeu is an open stories those days. (well, served him right !!! LOL). But, Drogba's stories at West London was a real shock to me !!!

4. The facts that BPL clubs are one of the worst businesses in the world... Yet, millionaires are putting their monies in...Are they really buying simply due to their passionate in football? LOL!

Author did a very sharp forecasting at the end... Both author suggest that future football glories lies with modern town (or perhaps capital) clubs with the reason that millionaires are more than willing to invest in clubs based in capital rather than those based in cowboy town. Well, it means that club in London, Paris, Moscow and etc.are going to attract huge monies sooner or later. Right now, Chelsea had just won their first Champions League trophy (forget about how they won it though...LOL)... and Paris Saint-Germain looks to be another Citeh in France league soon. So, they are right !!! Bingo !!!

As a conclusion, Soccernomics is a real nice book for the game's intelligentia. Both authors explain trends on and off the pitch that helps us to understand to a much greater extend. Although there could be concepts that you do not fully agree on (Still think Guss Hiddink is over-rated! LOL)... but we have to appreciate how they dig out statistics and how they presented the whole concepts in such an excellent book. I hope I have the time to re-read this book again. Having said that... I rated this book at 9/10. I know I am bias... but, football remains something passionate to me... just like how I remain passionate in my books as well as my life... Football forever !!!

大投机家的证券心理学

读了一系列【大投机家】，是时候看一看其他出版社的翻译了。原本以为这是本关于大师的哲学总结（科斯托拉尼的最后一部作品）。结果，和整套【大投机家】系列相比之下却没什么大分别。简单来说，重复性的问题比【大投机家5】还严重，哈。。。

不过，不同的出版社还真有它不同的素质。老实说，这本的翻译好多了。准确度提高了，文字方面也细腻了。所以，如果没读过一系列【大投机家】，这本书还真是科斯托拉尼翻译作品里最好的一部。评分方面应该分成三个部分。如果完全没读过大师的作品，这最后一本佳作至少都有9分。（满分10分）。如果看了全五本【大投机家】系列，分数最少到降到只剩1分。理由是，真的重复再重复再重复。。。但，如果想得到更好的阅读乐趣，这本书应该都值6分吧。（翻译方面真的比较有水准）至少，下次想复习大师的作品，这一本应该是我的首选。。。

因为重复性的关系，经典语录几乎是零。。。好不容易把整套科斯托拉尼的作品都啃完了，最后还是该留两句个人非常喜欢的大师语录。

“我是投机人士，始终如一！”

“有钱的人，可以投机，. 钱少的人，不可以投机，. 根本没钱的人，必须投机！”

大投机家5（股市预测与分析）

大投机家系列的第五本了。。。这本再次延续了上一本的精髓。整体来说，还是不错的。唯一的批评是里面的言论开始在重复了。从坏的角度来看，作者很多理论（甚至有些小故事）都在前四本出现过。从好的角度去看，证明作者对于自己的哲学理论真的深信不疑。或许，这些理论的重复性也证明它已经不是一般的理论，更多的是已经被接受的事实。别忘了，大投机家系列并不是同一时期拟笔的。。。所以，一系列下来，重复虽重复，但却不失它的意义。至少，它也帮我一再复习，让我更肯定这些哲学理论的可行性。谢谢大师无私的奉献。。。

特别钟爱作者关于“作为一个投机者，你觉得羞愧吗？”的言论。。。这里是一部分精彩的答案（真叫人拍案叫绝）：“不，我甚至感到骄傲。很多人羡慕投机者这个职业，因为他们看似不用工作，就能赚钱。。。我觉得无所谓。我宁愿要一千个人羡慕我，也比一个人同情我好。投机者虽然不是传统意义上的职业，但也是正当职业。脑力劳动对于保持良好的精神状况是很重要的。。。投机者整天都在思考，分析。即使在晚上，他也在进行自我斗争。。。投机者是独立的，他不必受规定的约束。。。”

评分方面。。。如果看过前四部，分数应该是6分（因为重复性的关系）。如果错过了前四部，分数至少都值8分。。。简单来说，还是本佳作，值得推荐。。。。
因为重复性的关系，语录自然越来越少了。。。

未来将会是混乱不堪的 – 当然这种混乱只存在于人们的头脑中，在金融市场上不过偶尔发生。

鸟儿的翅膀系上黄金，它就不能在空中飞翔。世界经济从黄金当中解放，它就能自由在空中飞翔。

一个人带着狗在街上散步。狗总是一会儿跑在前面，一会儿返回主人那里。一直都这样，最后他们同时到达终点。人或许走了一公里，狗却往返数次走了四公里。人就是经济，而狗就是股市。

成功的投机者不是靠自身的聪明，而是靠其他人的愚蠢或软弱赚钱。

投机家们如果赚了钱，他们认为是自己的功劳；一旦赔钱，就是别人的责任。

某某先生是个很有影响力的人，但是“每人”先生的影响力更大。

波浪理论是一种对公众的愚弄。我偶然得到一本艾略特先生的书。。。在前言中，他写到：“对于我描绘的东西，读者不要考虑它们为何会这样，它们就是这样的！”

俗语说，一不做，二不休。对于股市，我则认为：“只重小利者，不成大事”。

Asian Godfathers

Financial Times said: "Alarming... Englightening... Joe Studwell should be named chief myth buster for Asian business." ~~~ Agreed !!!

Business Week said: "An intriguing and myth - shattering study of the region's powerbrokers...[and] a richly reported study of power and stunted economics development." ~~~ Agreed !!!

The Washington Times mentioned: "A superb and thoughtful book that deserves a broader range of readers than the serious policy wonks, economics fans, and Asia hands likley to reach for it reflexively." ~~~ Just could not agreed more...

My favourite Wall Street Journal Asia rated it as "A Blast".... and finally, The Times (London) classified the said book as "A first-class study... The product of an original, inquiring mind."...

Now my turn to say something about this book.... LOL. One word to sum it up ~~~ "Awesome"! This is a real nice book with plenty of facts and lessons to ponder (whether you are a student, a politician, an economist or a rubbish like me, LOL) about... My first glance on this book was actually on a Chinese version. In fact, I found it hard to get the English version eventually (Chinese version? It is everywhere !!! LOL). Perhaps, this book attracts more Chinese (Chinese education?) readers since they are kind of familiar with "Chinese God Fathers", LOL.

Well... something crossed my mind after finished the book ~~~ It is rather hard to believe that the author has not been taken to court for his great stuff... LOL. Here are some entertaining excerpts to suport my point:

"HK and Singapore perform a simple economic trick: they arbitrage the relative economic inefficiency of their hinterlands."

"...T.J.S. George's observation that 'he detected in Lee the insecurity of a man alienated from his Chinese morrings, a man who, because he does not quite belong anywhere, has had to remake Singapore in his own image to compensate for his own alienation'."

"Asian godfathers are not the product of social mobility. The notion that they are, however, is part and parcel of the tycoons' self-image. It is important to their personal sense of pride and it is critical to the maintenance of authoritarian political structures and unfree markets in the region."

As a summary... perhaps most of us familiar with most of the stories (rumors?) written by the author. But, an outstanding written job plus detail analysis certainly add up extra points to the collection of stories (rumors? LOL). I personally like it so much that I would rate it as high as 9 out of 10. A deduction of -1 was purely based on the facts that the collections of stories might not be accurate 100%.... putting it aside, this is a must read book ! Simply awesome....

Here are some other nice excerpts from the book:

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him:"Whose?" ~ Don Marquis

The good thing about Confucianism is it makes Asian people willing to suffer pain... ~ Hong Kong tycoon Ronnie Chan

大投机家4（最佳金钱故事）

如果说【大投机家1】是上上等之作，【大投机家2】肯定是下下等级的作品。【大投机家3】倒是替作者挽回了一些颜面。。。而【大投机家4】绝对是作者的另一部上上等佳作。

【大投机家4】讲的是金钱故事。。。而，这些金钱故事所带出的哲学真的很棒。怎么个棒法？？？？看看我下面列出的经典语录就足于证明了。。。这好像是我第一次记录了那么多的语录。坦白说，我还删减了许多。。。

整体来说，大投机家系列里，我个人是比较喜欢【大投机家4】的。感觉上，里面的金钱故事真的很到位。。。很多事我也经历过。当初得出的结论或许还不够。。。看了这本佳作之后，整个人也开窍了许多。真的要多谢大投机家的真诚分享。。。个人还特别偏爱“我事业中的三份档案”。诚如作者所说：“这是一个股市专家典型的故事。这个故事告诉我们：他必须是能够从新站得起的人。。。”

评分？10分满本应该给予10分的。。。但，有个小小缺点。。。我真的觉得海南出版社的翻译不是那么的精准。老实说，大投机家系列（由南海出版社翻译的）我看了三本；之前就一直觉得很混乱。仔细想想，过往海南出版社的作品（尤其是翻译）还真的都有类似问题。所以，10分满分还是只能给9分。。。

以下是作者非常精彩的语录：

人不一定要富有，但一定要独立。

做投机者是一份美好的职业，富于幻想，也富于冒险。他可以造钱，他可以富有，但是他也可能失败，失去很多甚至在一夜之间破产。

三种不同的方法来输掉财产：最快的方法是赌轮盘；最写意的方法是很女人在一起；最笨的方法是买股票。

英格兰人说：“我的家就是我的城堡。”而炒股人的发明是：“我的鼻子就是我的城堡。”

俾斯麦对于黄金：“货币背后的黄金是一条被子，在它的下面躺着两个人，每个人试图把被子拉向自己的一边。”

对于黄金：“黄金的储备是一件紧身衣，它虽然可以让妇女拥有优美的身材，却限制了他的全部行动自由。”

即使在最保险的交易中也要考虑到各种因素，尤其要考虑到意外事件。

如果在一次投机中投入太多或不能顶住一次小小的逆流，即使有最敏锐的判断力，也会失去一切。

知道的太多最后会有害处。。。一个好的法官不能太专家也不能太观众，他必须保持在完全客观的金色的中立位置上。好的投机者也一样。

只有那些拥有比借款数目高出很多财富的人才可以贷款买股票。。。人们绝对不应该用贷款买股票，除非他是一个轻举妄动的冒险家。

所有的国家，城市，大小企业，建筑巨头和商人们都欠着债，以至于他们如果没有“一点儿通货膨胀”就永远不会被其债务解放。

通货膨胀是一个大弊端，但与通货紧缩相比它是一个较小的弊端，通货紧缩最后必然导致国家资本主义。

通货膨胀是一场舒适的温水浴；如果人们一直加热，浴盆最后会爆炸。

80年代的美元升空展示出，外汇投机者生活得多么危险。

人们议论一个富有的笨蛋总像议论一个富人，而议论一个穷人则像议论一个笨蛋。

“股市专家”这个赞誉我不接受。我知道今天是什么，昨天曾是什么，就已经足够了。

多数情况下是行情制造新闻，而不是新闻制造行情。

一句老话说：股市是没有音乐的蒙特卡罗。而我的断言是：股市是有很多音乐的蒙特卡罗。但人们必须有天线来接收这些音乐并听出其旋律。

我们这些老投机者最大的不幸是：我们积累了经验，但是失去了勇气。

在过去混乱的年代，很多唯利是图的人把事情搞得更乱，以便更好地浑水摸鱼。

每一项预测都有50%猜中的机会，因为股市的跑道上只有两个参赛者：涨势和跌势，上或下。

游戏是一种激情，它造成享受也造成痛苦。一个游戏者的最大享受是：赢。第二大享受是：输。而游戏者最大的兴趣是在赢和输之间的差距。如果没有输，没有差距，也就没有享受。

没有一个彻底有知识的人，只有半有知识的人。而一切都取决于他用这一半的知识做些什么。

人们在买进的时候需要有想象力，再卖出时需要明智。买入时需要浪漫，卖出时要现实。

大多数拥有赚很多钱素质的人却不具备享受钱的素质。

在股市上经常是感觉告诉我们应该做什么，而理智告诉我们应该避免什么。

谁在股市上过于重视小节，就不配做大事。

在爆炸之前和危机之后总是一片宁静。其间发生的，只是没有理智和歇斯底里的噪音。

关于股市的小道休息，炒股人连他的父亲也不许相信。

通货膨胀是债权人的地狱，债务人的天堂。

用其客户的钱投机并运气不好的银行工作者经常变成骗子，而运气好的变成天才。

多很多炒股人来说，他们在年轻时花出了他们老了以后挣的钱。

魔鬼为了惩罚人类而发现了股市，因为他们相信上帝能从虚无中创造出东西。

一个政府越多地反驳一种可能实行的措施，就越可以肯定它将被公布。

如果一个人在专家的建议下挣了钱是一个成功；没有专家的建议而挣了钱是一个更大的成功；而如果恰恰与专家建议相反行事而挣了钱，那么是一个巨大的成功。

大投机家3 （股票培训班）

如果【大投机家2】是“失望”，那么【大投机家3】其实还好。。。如果【大投机家1】那么棒，那么【大投机家3】还是没那么精彩。。。

【大投机3】讲的是股票。。。基本上，作者是做到了。但，排序方面还是挺凌乱的。有一点我不肯定。。。到底是作者的凌乱还是翻译者把它变得凌乱？哈。。。

整体来说，以一个经验十足的投机者去解剖股票这玩意儿还是值得捧场的。作者对于整个股市市场的见解也值得大家去探讨。我个人认为作者真的把股市看透看精了。在那个没电脑的时代，能够把数据读得细又读的通透还真不容易。。。

评分方面肯定高过【大投机家2】，哈。。。这回，就给六分吧。始终，凌乱不堪的排序真的挺烦人的，哈。。。

股市变化莫测多端。。。就连最聪明的国民经济学家自己也算计不出来，汇率会升到那一点；而海洋学家却还能把大海的潮汐运动的测量精确到以秒计算。

股票市场上得来的钱只是借来的钱。。。股票就是一个高利贷商人，每一次股票投机家，不管是成功还是失败，都得向他讨教。

投机家能够从玩纸牌中得到的启发：手里的牌好，他要多挣钱；牌不好，他只能少丢钱。如果来了突发事件，这个事件对他来说有利，他就应该赚多钱；若不利，他必须谨慎从事，尽可能少输钱。

不管它是投机还是投资，其成功与否不在于所认股的证券的质量的好坏，而在于所操作的数量。

人不可能先知先觉明天或者后天的事情。但，人们可以尝试去明白今天和昨天的事情。

请你永远不要相信那些声称自己已经知道了事情结果的人，只应该相信那些一直在摸索事情真相的人。

成功之后，一个股民应该仍然保持谦虚的心态，切忌浮躁骄傲，因为就是最愚蠢的人也能在股市上火一把，小有成功。

一个热衷于玩牌，赌博等游戏的人，绝不会永远从赌场上撤离。一个赌场老板曾经说：“最倒霉的就是，有人在我这儿赢了钱之后走了，又到别的赌场去，把钱输在哪儿了。”

历史上那些经济家都是“大思想家”。。。他们着迷于数字的计算和统计，从不去研究数字背后的事情。

在过去的罗马，那些资本家们联合起来，聚合力量，为的是进行航海冒险。现在，“冒险”这个词在华尔街都变得“时髦”了起来。

必须时刻警惕，对所有的预言家们的预言都持谨慎审视的态度。遗憾的是，人们总是很快就忘记了这一切，预言预示的越大，陷阱去的人就越多。大多数的人都认为，既然那么多人都在做肯定就是对的。

知识每个人都有，只是思考的艺术各不相同，那是老天赐给每个人的礼物。

在股票市场上2x2不等于4，2x2=5-1。。。事情总不会按照你的想象准时到来，或者不来，或者来了别的，或者姗姗来迟。所以，这个该死的股市上弄出来的钱都是用痛苦做糖衣包裹着的钱，先是痛苦，后来才是钱。

大投机家2（ 一个投机者的智慧）

安德烈 科斯托兰尼（Andre Kostolany）。。。【一个投机者的告白】（内地出版商把它翻成大投机家1～ 一个投机者的告白）已经够吸引我了。从那时开始，在恒河网就订了他的其他五本作品。现在这五本书都顺利的上了我的书架。所以，接下来的几个星期应该都是关于安德烈 科斯托兰尼（Andre Kostolany）的作品。先来看一看【大投机家2】吧。。。

一直以来，看书或看电影都有这个问题。。。续集往往不如第一集来的好。【大投机家2】也抛不开这个宿命。。。没有了第一集的投机精髓，换来的是罗哩罗嗦的成长过程。没有了第一集的连贯性，换来的却是乱七八糟的排序。我看着看着好像在看一本历史书，但中间又冒出一些些投机智慧。偶尔觉得过瘾时，怎么又回到了欧洲历史上。简单来说，整本书就是穿插在历史与投机之间。但，连贯性又不足。好纳闷噢！！！

本人不太推荐这本书。评分十分满分顶多也只值那两分。说真的，太失望了！！！！真期待大投机家3可以为作者争回点面子。

以下是几句还不错的语录。。。

给投资家们提个建议。。。去药店买点安眠药，蒙头大睡。把闹钟上到三年后，任窗外电闪雷鸣，尽可闲庭信步。到那时投机商们睡狮猛醒，会意识到他们将面对一个美妙的惊喜。

钱多的人，能做股票；钱少的人，不可以做股票；没钱的人，必须做股票。

几乎任何一个股民，在他的一生之中，迟早会当一次投股专家，因为他总是能对一把的。

我的大儿子一定是一个音乐家；二儿子是个画家；三儿子是个作家；四儿子一定要当个股票商，为的是养活其他的兄弟们。

开车教练对我说：“你永远不可能真正学好驾驶，因为你总是看发动机罩。你抬起头来，看看远方的地方吧。” 。。。我建议经济学家们抬起头来看着远方，不要喋喋不休的谈论明年的增长指数。。。对于投机商来说，好与坏的经济形势都要冒同样的险。

一些股票交易所的顶尖人物对金融市场却知之甚少。

Money Mavericks

Money Mavericks ~~~ A confessions by a Danish with a London based hedge fund, named "Holte Capital" ...The title itself is attractive to amateur like me ... and the description via the back of the book (as below) is good enough to seduce me into buying this book, LOL.

“I read this book cover to cover, and enjoyed every bit of it. The hedge fund industry is not known for its modesty, yet this book is not only full of fascinating information but is refreshing in this respect as well.”
Andrei Shleifer, Professor of Economics, Harvard University

“Without sensationalising, Lars tells it like it is – a no-holds-barred, warts-and-all account of what it’s like to try and set up and run a hedge fund.”
Neil Wilson, editor, Eurohedge

“A compelling and demystifying chronicle of hedge funds, and of hedge fund managers. Lars’ experience is by no means novel in the industry, but his perspective most certainly is.”
Drew Dickson, Managing Partner, Dickson Capital Management

"In a world where few understand their complexities, Money Mavericks provides a compelling and accurate insight into the secretive workings of a hedge fund."
Tets Ishikawa, author of "How I Caused the Credit Crunch

This book reminds me of "Hedgehogging", one of my favourite books... Relatively, "Money Mavericks" was more on the story-telling style with simple wording and minimal financial stuff. Take a look at some of the interesting points (or phrases) as listed below. You will surely enjoy it...

It is a story of naivety, rejection, hubris, bubbles quickly inflating, arrogance and occasional hatred. At the same time, it is one of success, ambition, friendship, courage and love.

When self-confidence becomes arrogance you deserved to be shot down.

Of all the things we needed six month before launching the fund, having a prime broker was the one we cared about the most.

Real managers don't sweat even when the kitchen gets hot.

The human side of constantly being evaluated on short-term performance numbers was a drain.

You are a number. Basically if you have bad performance numbers you are a bad person... If you have high assets under management and therefore rich, you might get a reprieve but only for so long...If you are small and perform poorly you think everyone from your mother-in-law to the postman is giving you a pitying look saying, "This is clearly a guy out of his depth", and you begin to be defensive and see humiliating ridicule in innocent comments from those around you. If you are at a dinner party and a friend at Goldman tells you he has been promoted, you take this to mean "At least I know what I am doing." One month I was down 4% in an up market and I thought everyone was looking at me thinking "How can anyone be so stupid?" It is not a happy place to be. '

Running a hedge fund was obviously a 24/7 proposition, but I was also guilty of being unable to disconnect.

Once potential investors have satisfied themselves that you are not a crook, the single question they most often ask is 'What is your edge?'

If a medium-sized firm... can generate $ 1.5 million in trade commissions every year, it becomes obvious why the banks and brokerage houses take you to the Super Bowl.

... the short term perspective of his investors left him no room to engage in a random market where there was no saying what stocks would do in the short run. "It's all a fucking lottery."

The more money you had invested, the more fees and attention you got.

On top of the nice phrases as mentioned, I myself particularly loves chapter 6 ~~~ "The Mickey Mouse Fund". Well, most traders went through such a period. So, it is no surprise at all for a beginner fund like Holte Capital. Credit must be given to the author for his willingness to reveal it. The best part is... he revealed it in a humour way too, LOL. This is then follow by the breaking through and how Holte Capital goes from a million funds into a billion funds (Mickey Mouse tag was finally removed! LOL).  Since "the more money you had invested, the more fees and attention you got" ~~~ the author Lar Kroijer was eventually a popular figure in the world of hedge fund and as a result...these were among the discoveries made about him:

1. Outstanding parking tickets from place he used to be...
2. Her wife did not paid her phone bill when she left Denmark...
3. Lar Kroijer did not renewed his Massachusetts driving licence and had not taken a new one in another US state.
4. Lar Kroijer almost moved to Mongolia...
5. Lar Kroijer lied about graduating from Harvard with honours
6. Lar Kroijer changed his name !!! ~~~ Alamak !!! LOL.

.... and plenty more.... Series of hilarious jokes... but sounds familiar? Hmm...

Lastly, we had the real confessions when his partner, Brian decided to call it a day! This is the moment when all the pros and cons (to quit or to carry on) came out. Well, I love one of the reason to quit ~~~ "You are not changing the world" !!! Exactly... Capitalism might have creates tonnes of wealth. But, it is not changing the world like what Steve Jobs did !!!

Overall, this is a nice book although I must admit that I prefer "Hedgehogging".  To me, "Hedgehogging" gave more details and "Hedgehogging" was more 'ruthless' in presenting the whole picture. However, I salute and respect the author's courage to confess completely the whole ups and downs of a hedge fund. I personally appreciate this kind of books. It passes through success stories as well as the road down events... In view of that, I rated it 7/10. Why not 10/10? Well... simply because I love "Hedgehogging" more, LOL...

Notes To The Prime Minister - The Untold Story of How Malaysia Beat the Currency Speculators

"Notes to the Prime Minister"…. True, it is a book with record of discussions between Tun Dr. Mahathir and Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997/1998. Well, the title of “Notes” is appropriate… However, I am not so sure about “The Untold Story of How Malaysia Beat The Currency Speculators”… Are they beaten at the end? Hmm…. Foods for thought today…

Since I am not an expert, (If I am, Tun Dr. M might spot me walking down a street in Kuala Lumpur too, LOL) I am not going to dig much into the rational of peg and unpeg. Just a few obvious points…. First of all, as we can see, ringgit was pegged at a time when the great of Asian Crisis was already over. If Malaysia did not peg the ringgit in September 1998, the Ringgit would have gradually appreciated anyway (The movement of Rupiah and Won during that period will tell the whole story)…  Secondly, at the point the Ringgit was fixed against the USD in September 1998, I believe it had already settled around its long term equilibrium value. At the end, the so called “capital controls” failed to prevent capital outflow. At the same time, they were also imposed at a point in time where speculation was already dying away. Worse, the appreciation of the USD four years later made Malaysia’s exports completely uncompetitive… Finally, here is the man who was part of the team at Bank Negara which incurred huge exchange losses betting on the British Pound in 1992… Yet, Tun Dr. M spotted him walking down a street in Kuala Lumpur to teach him about currency and currency trading? Just an example… the issue of “Impossible Trinity” keeps on popping up in my mind when I read about his suggestions to lower down interest rates during the turmoil. With due respect, is he really the right man? Hmm…..


Forgive my sarcastic wording… I am just telling some facts based on my personal understanding. To sum it up, just take a peep at Korea and Indonesia (Thailand too despite the political turmoil). Obviously, the said countries are much better at the moment even though they accepted the so called “stringent conditions” from IMF! Want more evidence? Hyundai vs Proton? Not strong enough? Just check how many of you are using Samsung products at the moment, LOL.

Well, the good thing is… I am kinda fortunate that I am not in the political scene. Just read through the notes in the book… I would sum it up with one word: EXHAUSTED!!! Look at the time and schedule starting from walking on the Kuala Lumpur Street to the Argentina trip. Then, check through all the dates and times on the notes. It is really tough for two of them to work through the whole process. Like I mentioned above; I am not an expert. Hence, it is not fair for me to just criticize without appreciating their hard works. My final words on this two mighty political giant… taken the final results aside, I do believe they had did their part in their respective role. Big applaud on that…

Ok… summary on the book… Well, not a bad book to read… but, surely not an excellent book to recommend to book worms!!! LOL. In my humble opinion, this book is as good as” Doctor in the House” (which I did not bother to buy at all, LOL). Read it if you got time. If you are busy, there are plenty of better choices…. Rating? 5/10 with credit goes to the writing of author rather than the contents! LOL…

华尔街2：金融的力量

【华尔街1】 太精彩了。我是看DVD才知道CCTV又来了这么一套大制作。对于以前的制作如【大国崛起】，我都是看了又看。总觉得他们很用心的在制作。当然【华尔街1】也是套佳作！

对于【华尔街2】，我一直都搞不清楚。到底它是纯粹书籍还是像【华尔街1】一样有DVD版。试着到处寻找DVD，但都徒劳而返。。。。最后只得先把【华尔街2】的书籍买下。（太急了，不能等了，LOL）

往往，太期待反而。。。。或许【华尔街1】真的太好了。【华尔街2】反而缺少了什么似的。。。里面的观点，本人也不完全认同。但，基本上还是一套不错的书籍。10分满分都该有个6分吧！但，6分其实是奉献给CCTV制作群多过于给这本书籍。期待下一个更好的专题吧！

目录：

上篇：打开国际视野

        罗伯特·席勒：我们要从破灭的泡沫中不断学习
缪丽尔·希伯特：我的一切从华尔街开始
贝萨尼·麦克林：安然改变了我的生活
约翰·利普斯基：金融监管，预防危机
吉姆·鲍顿：把美元变成金元
罗伯特·福格尔：用挑衅的方式解释过去
凯瑟琳·韦伯：他是我的骄傲
布鲁斯·欧斯特：纳斯达克需要冒险精神
罗伯特·斯基德尔斯基：凯恩斯密码的破解者
刘醇逸：经济危机引起金融转移
查理斯·盖斯特：华尔街的繁荣与衰败
格特·卢文赫斯：经济强国理应具备雄厚的经济实力
乔纳森·梅西：金融需要多方面监管
福里斯特·卡皮：英格兰银行的建立是让人民替国王还债
兰德·考尔德：信贷消费史——从胜家缝纫机到梅西百货
劳伦斯·迈耶：稳定的汇率有利于全球经济
路易斯·海曼：摆脱不了的债务危机
布鲁斯·格林沃尔德：我眼中的价值投资理论
蒂姆·德雷伯：风险投资中的大赢家
马丁·沃尔夫：华尔街的变故证明金融体系的脆弱

下篇：倾听中国声音

吴敬琏：人性具有复杂的双重性
陈志武：金融市场曲折向前发展
马蔚华：金融创新势在必行
秦晓：从华尔街发现金融的力量
李国平：华尔街不应对金融危机负全责
王沅：金融狂欢的盛宴总会结束
楚钢：一部《华尔街》，一幅资本市场波澜壮阔的画卷
方星海：金融危机加快中国金融前进步伐
杨鶤：华尔街的经验
李扬：全球正处于后金融危机时期
陈思进：负债消费的是与非
高占军：《华尔街》告诉我们什么
张育军：创新是金融市场发展的灵魂

郎咸平说:我们的生活为什么这么无奈

本书一共六个部分。第一章既为第一部分，点出了本书的主题——“无奈，为什么离我们越来越近”，本章盘点了几个最为流行的关键词，比如说“淡定”、“愤青”、“无奈”、“幸福”等等。第二、三、四章为第二部分，通过央企涨价、368万的天价过路费、菜贱伤农又不惠民三个主题让我们看到的是，似乎什么都在涨价，但就是老百姓的工资不怎么见涨。第五、六、七章为第三部分。第五章的“油荒气短”让我们看到油疯狂涨价背后的主要原因并不是国际油价的上涨，而是数不清的税费。第六章讲的是在银行一次又一次“加息”后，我们发现，我们在银行的存款还是在不断贬值，中小企业想从银行拿到贷款简直比登天还难。第七章的主题是养老金改革，告诉我们一个真实的传说，养老金也是会破产的，有我们中国香港的养老金破产作证。

郎教授的演讲从不缺乏精彩之处（至少没有货币作者的阴谋论，LOL）。所以郎教授的书怎么能错过呢？老实说，看了好多本郎教授的书，每一本都不错。就这本来说，评价都有8/10 吧。。。教授又一次的给我们更震撼的解析！