A thoughtful but scattered reflection on the last decade of the country’s financial vicissitudes.
An assemblage of a professional investor’s blog posts about the management of one’s financial assets.
Debut author Weil retired in 1995 from a successful career as a hedge fund manager. At the enthusiastic urging of his daughters, he started a blog about the stewardship of financial assets and maintained it for nine years, running from 2007 to 2016. By his own account, he’s a less than prolific writer. In 2008, the momentous year of the mortgage crisis, he posted 17 entries, and in 2016, only one, which covered Brexit. The author describes himself as a contrarian and essentially risk averse. He prefers an atypical “top down” approach to hedge fund management, which begins with a basic decision regarding what percentage of one’s funds will be directed to equities and what percentage will be slated for fixed income rather than starting with the selection of individual stocks. He covers a wide range of topics with confident expertise. Some of his discussions are more imminently practical: how to properly deleverage oneself, when to buy into a bear market, or how to read the market’s “sentiment indicators.” Other posts are more broadly conceived: the government’s response to the mortgage crisis, China’s future economic challenges, or how hedge funds can be a destabilizing force. Thrown in are plenty of tantalizing apercus—the author proposes a theory about Bernie Madoff’s descent into criminality and considers the condominium market in Manhattan. The writing is crisp and often infused with charming personality: “You can assume that these are the meanderings of an addlepated geezer or reflections of someone who had spent several decades as a hedge fund manager, still retains most of his brain cells, and wishes to share his experiences and observations about the current state of financial assets.” This book isn’t written for the neophyte—if you don’t know what a Fibonacci number is, he encourages you to Google it. Also, one wishes the author fleshed out the basic principles of his approach more, perhaps in place of some of the more dated discussions.
A thoughtful but scattered reflection on the last decade of the country’s financial vicissitudes.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 152
Publisher: KDP Amazon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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