A clear, invigorating point-by-point breakdown of how money works.
A plainspoken primer on the basics of personal finance.
This slim book from Alexander (Mozart and Great Music, 2015, etc.), a manager for a semiconductor company, asks some simple questions—What is the difference between money and wealth? What is the nature of debt? Why are con artists so common and so successful?—and provides some equally simple clarifications. Money, he maintains, is a sign of wealth, but only one of many; true wealth is the goods and services that money buys, which “frees people from drudgery. Wealth grants time to do other work, or time to play. Wealth is essentially good.” The book moves quickly via concise, clear chapters that address such concepts as paper money, banking, investment, inflation, and the Federal Reserve. Alexander has authored a series of similar instructional manuals, and that expertise is evident here on every page; he effectively breaks complex ideas into their essential elements and untangles complicated connections. For example, the author explains nuances of the United States government’s decision to move its currency away from the gold standard, the nature of credit and debt, and the darker nature of credit cards, which, he contends, “are designed to enslave you.” This final point, that debt must be avoided at all costs, is a recurring theme, and the author strikes an equally cautionary note when discussing the difference between speculating and investing. Alexander’s writing is remarkably free of the financial jargon that tends to creep into similar books on money basics, and his warnings—against con artists, pyramid schemes, and government overreach—are stark and straightforward. Newcomers and experts alike will be well-served by these basic reminders.
A clear, invigorating point-by-point breakdown of how money works.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-937597-21-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: School of Pythagoras
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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