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Showing posts from December, 2022

Hades, Argentina by Daniel Loedel

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Hades, Argentina by Daniel Loedel “Hades, Argentina” is a guided tour through the late-Cold War underworld of Argentina's military dictatorship, which then becomes a journey into the psyche of a still-traumatized people. Those who open the book with little knowledge of Argentina's recent history will recognize a story of trans-generational pain that continues in one form or another in every nation on Earth. 

Books 2022

  Trust   by Hernan Diaz This brilliant novel delves into the power of money, and its ability to “to bend and align reality,” with a focus on a reclusive Wall Street tycoon who amasses incredible wealth through the Roaring 20s and even through the Great Depression. Broken into four distinct sections, each of which offers an entirely different perspective on what came before, it also explores a meta-theme of the truths hidden behind our stories, especially stories about the rich and powerful.  An Immense World  by Ed Yong Ed Yong is perhaps best known for his award-winning science reportage for  The Atlantic . With this book, he shares little-known wonders of the natural world, from turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields to bugs that send vibrational messages via plants. It’s a book filled with fascinating discoveries, and a joy to read. This book opened my world beyond stories about people and made me see all the life that lives around us. The Future is History  by Masha Ge

Other People's Money - Nomi Prins

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  If there's one person Washington   and   Wall Street want silenced... It's Nomi Prins, PhD. One of her first books accurately predicted the 2008 collapse... a full 2 years before it happened. Recently she warned Janet Yellen and other Fed policymakers that inflation was going to spike. They   never invited her back   to another policy meeting. The shortages, the distorted economy... She has been right on every single count. It's no wonder Washington and Wall Street want this woman to shut up. She keeps exposing the problems that they try to pass off as "solved." Now she says   something is about to happen to gas stations. Right as gas prices are starting to stabilize. Her investigation has revealed... The government is mandating a massive overhaul of over 500,000 stations. That's 10,000   per state   on average. I urge you to listen to one of the most accurate financial investigators on the planet... and someone who speaks truth to power... Nomi Prins, PhD.

Livid - Patricia Cornwell

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  Livid By Patricia Cornwell The brilliant mind behind a wildly popular thriller series returns with a brand-new   New York Times   bestseller that’s “guaranteed to keep the reader guessing” ( Booklist )! While serving as a witness in a highly publicized murder trial, forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta learns the judge’s sister has been found dead at her family’s estate in a baffling scene — and she knows the killer isn’t finished…

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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  Book No. 3:   The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable   by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Source: Amazon.com)   The Black Swan   spits in the eye of conventional analysts and economists. If you don’t like your previously held beliefs about the market challenged, then we don’t recommend this book. However… if you are like us and are always looking for the cracks in the dam to start spreading, this book is for you. Traders have often overlooked Taleb’s book in favor of his other classic,   Fooled by Randomness   (which we also recommend if you haven’t read it yet). Both books show how our psychology can conspire against us to make us blind to the most significant risks and opportunities in the market. If you hear a “prominent” economist using the word equilibrium, or normal distribution, do not argue with him; just ignore him, or try to put a rat down his shirt. Taleb makes a strong case that traders tend to overprice small changes in the market and underprice risky-but-rare catast

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

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  Book No. 2:   Thinking Fast and Slow   by Daniel Kahneman (Source: Amazon.com)   Thinking Fast and Slow   is a book about how we think and make judgments in all aspects of our life, not just investing. Knowing why we make decisions will help investors will make their processes more thoughtful and avoid common mistakes. Investing can be high stakes and stressful, and our choices should be deliberate and consistent… rather than emotionally driven and erratic. To improve decision-making, investors must learn a new way to talk about it and identify their faults. As Kahneman points out… In at least some cases, an accurate diagnosis (of bad decision patterns) may suggest an intervention to limit the damage that bad judgments and choices often cause. If you have looked back at your trading record and wondered why you didn’t sell when you knew you should or how you wound up with a terrible stock in your portfolio, this is the book for you.

Financial Shenanigans by Howard Schilit

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  Book No. 1:   Financial Shenanigans   by Howard Schilit (Source: Amazon.com)   Companies lie on their financial reports. Whether through omission, misclassification, or just outright fraud, lies that distort the fundamentals are common, and investors must know where to look to find them. While some background knowledge of the income statement, statement of cash flows, and balance sheet is helpful, we like this book because the author uses real-life examples without the need for an accounting degree to understand how a company might try to mislead you. Some of the company names in the book might be a surprise but make it all the more enjoyable. As you might imagine, although the tricks illustrated in the book have been revealed, other companies will try to pull them over on shareholders every year. The author put it best when he said… Executives’ desire to put a positive spin on financial results has been around for as long as corporations and investors themselves. Dishonest companies

Book of the Day: Mis-inflation

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  Book of the Day: Mis-inflation In this conversational book, Douglas Wilson takes all his burning economic questions and pitches them to David L. Bahnsen. Doug starts their discussion with this one: Politicians have been prophesying hyperinflation for generations now…so where is it?   Readers get to follow along as David’s answer to this question exposes false assumptions on both the right and the left (yes, even some of Doug’s).    More questions follow: The inflation-hawk approach to public policy screams about creating inflation without realizing that that’s what government policies intend to do--they’re just terrible at it, as David shows.    And those on the left continue to suffocate economic growth as they pursue their own counterproductive goals. But what both sides miss is that the best solution against inflation, deflation, and stagnation is found in enterprise.    And it’s in their discussion of wealth creation that Doug and David begin to sketch a vision of how a faithful,