Concrete economic suggestions for staying afloat, geared toward more experienced investors.
Vanclef utilizes his expertise as a financial planner and investment strategist to offer suggestions on how to invest wisely no matter the status of one’s portfolio or the economic forecast.
Terms like REIT, asset class diversification and capital preservation don’t necessarily roll off the tongue. If these words read like Greek to you, then the book won’t be appropriate. However, those who aren’t financial novices–who have some money in the markets and are looking for a better way to ride out this rough economic time–may be able to use the book’s useful tips and research suggestions. Vanclef writes in a straightforward manner, but he packs a lot into this slight volume. Parts of The Wealth Code are rather dry, especially those involving the nitty gritty of certain classes of investments. Though he sometimes uses simple illustrations and short anecdotes for further explication, the author would have done well to include more. As with financial advice, Vanclef points out that his suggestions are not right for everyone, but still are useful as a jumping-off point. The author’s main thesis is diversification, and he likens a person’s investment portfolio to a wooden table. If it has only one leg, everything is fine, as long as nothing jars that leg. With multiple table legs, if one of goes missing, the table will still be upright. Vanclef sees similar benefits to spreading out one’s money. If you have some cash in real estate, some in stocks and some in oil or gas investments, your portfolio could still be growing even if one of your investment classes goes south. While this seems like common sense, most people have all their money tied to the stock market, creating an uneven financial foundation. The author takes the reader into the deeper definitions and explanations of investment, and that is the book’s primary value.
Concrete economic suggestions for staying afloat, geared toward more experienced investors.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2009
ISBN: 978-1439254479
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It seemed like a good idea: splice cable systems and phone lines and, presto, interactive television! Doesn’t everyone who talks to a TV want the TV to respond personally? The answer, it appears, is no, not even with Picturephone. Davis, a comic novelist (A Meaningful Life, 1971) and a seasoned reporter with a bent for dubiety (Bad Money, 1982) applies his well-honed sense of irony to a story of the lords of electronic media, who hunt for the killer app hidden in the fat pipeline of coaxial cable. In the rush to eat the other guys’ lunches, the crafty top dogs may not have all the technical problems within their grasp, or even understanding, but no matter. Among the CEOs seeking sinecures more avidly than synergies, the greatest schemer is clearly handsome, enigmatic John Malone. The fabled billionaire boss of TCI hustled stockholders, phone companies, equipment purveyors and entertainment providers using basic leverage, byzantine spin-offs and generally clever financial sleight of hand to promote a service consumers didn’t want. That didn’t stop him. Malone’s latest thimblerig involves a sale of his business to AT&T for well over $30 billion. The transaction somehow makes him a major phone company shareholder and still keeps him in control of his own firm. A neat trick, indeed. Supporting players in Davis’s story include such media stalwarts as Steve Ross, Barry Diller, Sumner Redstone, Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner and a squad of tycoons, each trying to improve the thinking of the others. The character delineation is sharp, many adventures are likened to WWII escapades and (though the clichÈ “riches beyond the dreams of avarice” is seriously overworked) the writing has verve and a decided attitude. The media shell games haven’t ended. Now, maybe, if the Internet combines with cable, somebody’s new dreams of avarice may be exceeded. A cautionary tale, indeed, of pirates of the high frequencies dealing with optical fiber, coaxial cable, microwaves, huge debt, and smoke and mirrors.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-385-47927-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
A look at the future through a rose-tinted crystal computer monitor. It’s amazing how one person’s nightmare can make someone else giddy. Kelly, executive editor of Wired magazine, gleefully looks forward to a “new global economic culture” that is characterized, “most important[ly], by a widespread reliance on economic values as the basis for making decisions in all walks of life.” Confronted with extensive alienation from noneconomic human life, Kelly advises us to accept the inevitable and join the electronically induced information age; only those failing to heed the siren call of cyberspace will encounter difficulties. Fortunately, Kelly provides ten rules to guide us on our way in the new economic order, essentially asserting that the entire world will soon look like the current World Wide Web—where power multiplies through connections, maintaining the network is crucial, change is constant, and even successful innovations are quickly left behind—and insisting that we must accept risk and act boldly. The possibilities are tremendous, for we are “about to witness an explosion of entities built on relationships and technology that will rival the early days of life on Earth in their variety.” It’s also possible that Kelly is a bit overenthusiastic. He offers no guarantees, of course, but in the new alchemy of the future, it is abundance, not scarcity, that creates value, and concerns with, for instance, distribution of resources, equal opportunity, or the fate of individuals and nations not “hardwired” into this new reality are barely worth mentioning. For the doubters unable to block out thoughts about the victims of Kelly’s future, however, there is some comfort. As he recognizes, predictions based on a selective reading of current trends are notoriously inaccurate, and all that differentiates his prognostications from failures of the past is that time has not yet proven him wrong. Let’s hope it does so in a manner that discourages further soothsaying. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88111-2
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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