financial Books

Recommend this as a must read, or in my case listening too the CD, as it takes you from the beginnings of money to present time and provides a clear understanding of how we get into these messes (global financial meltdowns). This reads like a college text and at time can be slow, but the understanding you gain is worth the effort. I spent 2 week listing to the CD on my 1 hour drive to/from work each day. After a bit of listening you will find the author/reader has a dry sense of humor that comes through leaving you laughing at the efforts of folks to make and control money.

This is an important and timely book. In writing about the leaders at Asia's largest and most important financial institutions, Peter Hoflich has chronicled not only the current state of banking in Asia, but also how these institutions survived the Asian financial crisis and where they are going, in bringing banking services to the some of the world's largest emerging consumer markets.

As US and UK banks are crumbling around us, the tales that the CEOs in this book have lived to tell are especially important. Japan's Shinsei emerged from the former Long-Term Credit Bank after a private equity buyout; Thai banks implemented painful credit controls; Indonesian banks are only now recovering, after a round of mergers.

The range of institutions and personalities covered in this book is breathtaking. Banks include China's ICBC which raised $22 billion in its IPO to India's HDFC that is developing products for all categories of consumers, from the super wealthy to the 700 million unbanked people in the country. Internet-only banks, foreign banks jostling for position among the local domestic giants, family owned and nationalized banks are also featured. One thing's for sure -- these men are women are determining the direction of economies in Asia through the banking services they are developing. They discuss their travails and triumphs in this book.

Hoflich's coverage of Japanese and Korean financial institutions is particularly strong. Certain markets, like Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, are, unfortunately, not covered. But his fluency on issues, easy writing style and wit makes this book an enjoyable read. A must for anyone interested in banking.

No one who has lived through the last ten years can not have realized how tightly the economy has become coupled to the financial marketplace. Prof. Semmler has gone beyond that realization and has undertaken to examine the actual mechanics by which it occurs. In this excellent and intense introduction, current macroeconomic-financial models are explored; the reader will quickly appreciate how asset price booms and subsequent recessions actually work. Semmler's style is "to the point" and his enthusiasm for his subject is contagious. Anyone with an advanced undergraduate understanding of economics, as well as financial professionals, and scientists and engineers with a curiosity about macroeconomics and the financial marketplace will thoroughly enjoy this book.

My students really enjoyed thinking about ways to verify database information associated with a dating service. A fun industry to think about, but the concepts and skills are anything but lightweight. Great package.

This is an excellent text that puts in an intuitive level concepts that usually belong to much more advanced books or technical journals. It should be attractive to both graduate students in economics looking for an intuitive presentation as well as to business or finance Master's students with little background since the book keeps a discursive style with lots of examples.

This book was even more than I expected. It was everything I needed to know to obtain a scholoarship to a good school!

I liked this book very much. It was of interest to me because it explains why risk management and internal controls in ANY organization are so important. As a SCORE volunteer business coach I have to explain what is covered in this book from time to time. It's good for entrepreneurs to think in terms of internal accounting controls.

This book is not written for entrepreneurs, though. It is written for board members of for-profits and nonprofits alike - seasoned and newly assigned. It is also written for executives of these companies and organizations. Among other things this book covers the roles and responsibilities of the Board of Director's "audit committee." It provides a fairly comprehensive overview of what this special group of detached, independent, board members must do in order to protect the company from its executives, its Board, and look out for the shareholders. Without a properly functioning audit committee the executives of a company or nonprofit are free to use the company as their own personal piggy bank. They are free to manipulate the value of the stock through fraud and take part in insider trading schemes.

I loved the Preface to the book. It does a wonderful job of summarizing the book chapter by chapter. Thus, the actual reading of the book was pretty easy. However, I think the book could have been streamlined a little better. I would have reduced the chapters from 15 to 9 as follows:

1. Evolution of Audit Committees
2. It's All about Risk Management
3. Typical Audit Committee Charters
4. Duties of Audit Committees at For-Profits
5. Duties of Audit Committees at Nonprofits
6. Qualifications and Characteristics of Ideal Audit Committee Members
7. Ethics-Related Initiatives
8. The Importance of Internal Controls, including Internal Auditing
9. Information Technology

The author is certainly qualified to write this book. At one time he was Director of Education for Touche Ross, one of the fomer Big 8 public accounting firms. I used to work for one of the other 8. And he has been a controller, CFO, and college professor. Besides the CPA designation, he holds the CIA (Certified Internal Auditor) and CMA (Certified Management Accountant, and the CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner). 5 stars!

PS. Take a look at the Search Inside material offered by Amazon so you can examine the Table of Contents of this book and more fully understand what this book has to offer.

I now bring this book with me on field audits as a quick reference and an indispensible tool. It is so user-friendly and has really found its place in my reference library. It covers all SASs and is updated on Wiley's website continuously so I never worry that it's outdated. I definitely recommend it!

I was pleased to see a book on this subject as there has been so little written about it. I am writing a paper on the legal relationships in the travel industry and I would like to contact the author. My opinion is that travel agents do not fall within the framework of agency law in the true sense. Any comments would be appreciated.. Thanks

I always believed that mind can achieve great things. But, before I read these 4 books, I did not understand why. Thanks to Amazan this knowledge is now common knowledge. Congratulation. Dr Jusuf Hariman (real name)