WSJ.com is available in the following editions and languages:
Thank you for registering.
We sent an email to:
Please click on the link inside the email to complete your registration
Please register to gain free access to WSJ tools.
An account already exists for the email address entered.
Forgot your username or password?
This service is temporary unavailable due to system maintenance. Please try again later.
The username entered is already associated with another account. Please enter a different username
The email address you have entered is already in use.Please re-enter the email address.
From time to time, we will send you e-mail announcements on new features and special offers from The Wall Street Journal Online.
Create a profile for me in the Journal Community
Why Register?
Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions
As a registered user of The Wall Street Journal Online, you will be able to:
Setup and manage your portfolio
Personalize your own news page
Receive and manage newsletters
Receive and manage newsletters
Keep me logged in. Forgot your password?
Digg
I just finished a book. My fifth. This one is called â??The Wall Street Journal Guide to Investing for the Apocalypse.â? Pick it up in January.
I really dislike the process of writing a book. You have to sit for hours by yourself typing into a computer. Our caveman ancestors wouldnâ??t be caught dead writing a book. So now Iâ??m excited to kick back this summer and just read some of the new books that have come out.
Hereâ??s a list of some Iâ??ve either recently read and enjoyed or ones I look forward to reading on some beach in the next few months. (Actually, Iâ??m lying. I hate beaches. I never go to them. But Iâ??m going to read these books anyway.)
- Goodbye Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune Without Losing your Soul by Anthony Scaramucci
Reading this book will balance out going to see Wall Street II at the cinema. Life on Wall Street can be challenging and fulfilling, but you often have to confront your personal demons and the demons of others. Scaramucci rides a roller coaster from Goldman Sachs to his fund business, to Lehman, and onwards. And he lives to tell the tale.
- Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, by Kathryn Schulz.
This book is dripping with IQ, and it should because Kathryn regularly beats me at Scrabble. Itâ??s the perfect book for all traders and investors. Every bad trader I know gets into a situation where they are convinced they are right. They will argue with everybody about how right they are â?? other investors, their friends, their wives (these traders always happen to be men). Then they will argue on message boards, in bars, on the street, on movie lines. But they canâ??t argue with the markets. Kathrynâ??s book is about the history of being wrong, why we do it and why we canâ??t avoid it.
- The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley
Iâ??ve been optimistic on the economic data lately. You can look at my prior articles to see why. Hereâ??s also a good article by 538.com. â??The Rational Optimistâ? basically looks at the past 100,000 years of commerce among humans to show why in the long run we have reason to be optimistic. Iâ??ve just skimmed it so far but it looks like a great read, and now I plan to do that.
- The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman
George Friedman started Stratfor.com, the premier site to get up-to-date date info on the latest geopolitical situation is in the world. I donâ??t know how he does it. He must have CIA connections in every country in the world. Iâ??ve been reading him since the onset of the Iraq war and heâ??s always been dead-on accurate. His book contains some intriguing predictions. At least one seems to be already coming to pass: Turkeyâ??s emergence as a leader of the Muslim world.
- The Real History of the End of the World by Sharon Newman
This book reminded me (in a non-financial way) of the book I just finished. Basically, we have this almost biological need to try and figure out the end of the world before it happens. Sharon Newman goes through the history of apocalyptic prophecies over the past 5,000 years. It makes me think about the dark predictions that are coming out every week. Last week included: Hungary defaulting and the â??debt contagionâ? spreading, the Koreas going to war, the oil spill spreading up the Atlantic, retail sales â??onlyâ? up 0.1%. This week Iâ??m sure weâ??ll forget those and find some new ones to worry about.
- The Road From Ruin - by Matt Bishop and Michael Green
In a nutshell: Bubbles and busts are common throughout history. But what the authors explain is that bubbles usually are caused by some innovation. And every bust involves trying to regulate that innovation. Regulating too much or too hastily leads to disaster. The different ways in which England and France regulated their markets after the South Sea Bubble and the Mississippi Company bubbles ended up with England flourishing in the one case and France succumbing to revolution and Napoleon in the other. How we regulate the bubble we just went through will determine if we put our innovations to positive use.
- Oprah: a biography by Kitty Kelley
Donâ??t be a snob now. Itâ??s Oprah and its Kitty Kelley. Oprah is one of the most successful businesswomen of all time â?? and one of the largest shareholders of CBS. And she did it from scratch and she did it by, in part, listening to people. Most people donâ??t know how to listen. I want to learn everything I can from Oprah.
- Everything Scrabble by Joe Edley and John Williams
Itâ??s summer, after all. Youâ??ve got to kick back and relax and play some games. This edition takes into account the latest official Scrabble dictionary, which introduces some new key two letter words such as â??QIâ? (similar to â??Chiâ? like in â??Tai Chiâ?) and â??ZAâ? (slang for pizza).
- The Big Short by Michael Lewis.
OK, a few brain surgeons with Aspergerâ??s knew the whole thing was coming and made billions. I am very happy for them. And another bunch of high paid executives had to work ALL WEEKEND dealing with a world financial crisis. How horrible for them. And one guy was on vacation and found $154 million in his account on an ATM because subprime for a year. Itâ??s great when good things happen to good people. Iâ??m a bit bored with this books about the crisis but if you arenâ??t, read this one.
I used to be a normal person and go into a Barnes & Noble (BKS) or Borders (BGP) and pick out the books and try to read the whole thing while drinking a coffee in the cafe. Now, I have to admit, I donâ??t even do that. I browse the bookstores, then download via my Amazon (AMZN) Kindle application residing on my Apple (AAPL) iPad. I feel bad about it. A little bit.
Yahoo! Buzz
MySpace
Digg
del.icio.us
Read Full Article »