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IN GOOD FAITH

THE INSIDE STORY OF PRUDENTIAL-BACHE'S MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR SCANDAL THAT DEFRAUDED THOUSANDS OF INVESTORS AND FRACTURED THE ROCK

A hit-or-miss recap of events leading up to a 1993 decision by Prudential Securities to settle fraud charges with the SEC, albeit without admitting guilt, from a journalist who is not up to the job of explaining, let alone illuminating, a perdurable scandal. Drawing mainly on secondary sources and interviews with a handful of minor players with axes to grind, Sharp offers a rough idea of the trouble Prudential Insurance bought with its 1981 acquisition of Bache, a second-rate Wall Street brokerage firm. A financial force to be reckoned with, Pm has 140-odd subsidiaries, vast resources, and an enviable consumer franchise (reinforced by its familiar Rock of Gibraltar logo). For all its assets, the mutual insurance company's foray into retail brokerage proved a disaster. Bache's stock in trade was limited partnerships, which its registered reps hawked as tax shelters with high-yield investment appeal. Although federal tax law changed during the mid-1980s, Pm-Bache's venal, high-pressure tactics did not; tens of thousands of clients were duped into buying inappropriate and economically unsound LPs. Lawsuits were filed, and regulatory authorities eventually got into the act, but not before $5 billion was lost. In her first book, Sharp attempts to tell this sorry tale through low-echelon hucksters who either left or were dismissed by the firm and a few investors who lost money on Pm-Bache deals. Her approach will leave most readers puzzled as to whether the corruption was systemic or attributable to a few rogues (as the parent organization still insists). The narrative's clarity also suffers from the author's bent for going off on tangents. At no point does Sharp probe the cultural differences that make buttoned-down insurance underwriters and freewheeling brokerage houses strange bedfellows in the first place. A dispensable take on fiscal misdeeds that await perceptive coverage.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0312304595

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1995

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...

A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.

The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

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THE CULTURE MAP

BREAKING THROUGH THE INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.

“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

Pub Date: May 27, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1

Page Count: 288

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014

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