A guide to the fundamental principles of building and maintaining personal wealth, relying more on the author’s instinct...
Criniti (The Necessity of Finance, 2013) interprets the key concepts underlying economic and financial behavior, with an emphasis on personal finance.
Criniti makes frequent references to his previous book as he guides the reader through 218 principles of economics and finance that he finds to be both essential and universally applicable. His claim that “around the 1950s it became formally necessary to create finance, the science of managing wealth for an individual, a group, or an organization” may raise the eyebrows of readers familiar with a longer span of history, but it does allow readers to understand what exactly the author means by “finance.”Most of the principles identified in the book relate to matters of personal finance—spending, saving, retirement—and business operations. Some of the principles Criniti explores are reasonable if somewhat simplistic guidelines: “Always keeping your promises can help you to keep your good reputation.” and “Only give gifts that you can afford to give.” Others require greater leaps of logic or adherence to a profit-driven worldview: “Economic cycles are naturally required wealth adjustments by economic entities.”; “Some people will do anything to deprive you of your wealth.” Some principles merit two pages of explanation, while others are dispatched in a paragraph or two; the explanations are derived more from the author’s understanding of his principles than from empirical evidence or analysis. The principle that “Wealth is attracted to cities,” for instance, is supported by no data, merely the claim that “In general, you will find your greatest opportunities to build wealth in cities versus suburbia or the country.” Although the title suggests an introductory economics course, the readers who will find the greatest value here are those in search of a more philosophical companion for their personal finance handbooks.
A guide to the fundamental principles of building and maintaining personal wealth, relying more on the author’s instinct than on quantitative data.Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0988459526
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Criniti Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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