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REVOLUTION ON WALL STREET

Name: REVOLUTION ON WALL STREET
Author: Marshall E. Blume
ISBN: 0-393-03526-3

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE

by Marshall E. Blume & Jeremy J. Siegel & Dan Rottenberg ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 30, 1993

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Wall Street's minders had been predicting the imminent demise of the New York Stock Exchange as the world's premier securities market long before the SEC abolished fixed commission rates in 1975. Nearly two decades after this convulsive event, the dire forecasts have begun to come true—as the thoughtful, objective audit at hand attests. With help from Rottenberg (coauthor of Main Line Wasp, 1990), Wharton finance professors Blume and Siegel offer an accessible status report on a long-lived institution in at least partial eclipse. Drawing on NYSE archives and other sources, they first review the history of finance in the US. Getting down to business, the threesome tracks the Big Board's ascent through the go-go 60's, as well as its subsequent decline (as measured, for example, by its share of trading volume). They attribute the slide of the exchange (which turns 201 this year) to, among other causes, the development of alternative markets with cheaper, more efficient computer-based transaction systems; government regulation, which has impaired the NYSE's capacity to respond to threats from upstart rivals (or economic upheavals); the bureaucratic gridlock that can result from a brokerage-community membership with variant need; and the influential dominance of cost-conscious institutional fiduciaries rather than individual investors. Covered as well are the emergence of regional exchanges, offshore competitors, futures markets, and so-called derivatives that afford risk-averse money managers a means to pursue profit without actually committing to debt or equity issues. The authors stop short of specific prescriptions to ensure the survival of the NYSE and its valuable infrastructure, but they conclude that it still has a useful role to play as a servant, if not the master, of a widening world's increasingly interdependent economy. A perceptive, unsparing analysis of a colossus in crisis.

Pub Date: Aug. 30, 1993

ISBN: 0-393-03526-3

Page Count: 292

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.