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Published Books & Website Links

Books . . .

• Take on the Street How to Fight for Your Financial Future
• Arthur Levitt served as Chairman of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission from July 1993 to February 2001- the longest in the SEC's history.  His tenure at the SEC was preceded by 16 years of first-hand experience on Wall Street, and 11 years as Chairman of the American Stock Exchange and as owner of Roll Call, a publication that covers Capital Hill.  Chairman Levitt moved the SEC forward in a number of areas, but focused most on investor education,  protection and empowerment.  Levitt created the Office of Investor Education and Assistance and the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission's website (www.sec.gov), which contains a wide range of services.  He is the ultimate Wall Street insider.  His book is written in clear English.  He shares how Wall Street really works, the wide ranging conflict-of-interests of brokerage firms, investment advisors and mutual fund families.  This is a must read for all investors, from novices to seasoned professionals.  Most important, Levitt  provides solid advice for individual investors and essentials on how not to lose money.  Click this link http://www.sec.gov/about/commissioner/levitt.htm to see Levitt's SEC biography. 

by Authur Levitt

 is available in paperback via the Internet at BooksAMillion.com

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ISBN: 0375714022
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date: Nov 2003

• Yes, You Can Time the Market!
• Ben Stein and Phil Demuth have teamed to create an in-depth historical analysis of the several methodologies for outperforming the stock market.  Here is one of the several reviews of this effort, quoted directly from the book and from the listing in the Books-A-Million listing:
•  " ‘ Buy and hold’ makes sense for the average investor in stocks. Even better, say Stein and DeMuth, is to buy only when prices are low and hold when prices are high, keeping accumulating savings in Treasuries while waiting for ‘ low’ prices. They define ‘ low’ and ‘ high’ prices by historical experience. An interesting and thoughtful analysis."
  – Professor Milton Friedman
  University of Chicago, Nobel Prize in Economic Science, 1976

by Ben Stein & Phil Demuth

 is available in paperback via the Internet at BooksAMillion.com

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ISBN: 0471679267
Publisher:

John Wiley & Sons

Date: Sept 2004

• Irrational Exuberance 2nd edition
• Robert Shiller is a well-known economist and historical pundit digs deep into the phenomenon of bubble markets and the behavior of irrational exuberance. Shiller's book starts with an in-depth analysis of the 1990s Stock Market Bubble. This second edition incorporates the parabolic surge in real-estate price trends since 2001 and discusses the similarities between the earlier stock-market boom and bust, and current trends with housing prices in the United States. Shiller contains that the two phenomena are related; as investors moved from the deflated stock market into real estate, and that real estate will experience a similar downturn that stock prices experienced.  It also studies the cultural factors behind market bubbles, such as hype-mongering news media, and psychological factors, such as herd behavior.  The book's title comes from a December 1996 speech from then Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's description of investors.   

by Robert J. Shiller

 is available in hardcover via the Internet at Amazon.com

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and at BooksAMillion.com

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ISBN: 0691123357
Publisher: Princeton University Press USA
Date: Feb 2005

• Full of Bull: Do What Wall Street Does, Not What It Says, To Make Money in the Market
• Stephen McClellan was a Wall Street insider for over 30 years primarily as a top-ranked investment analyst with firms such as Merrill Lynch.  Readers will learn the code language that brokerage firms use when providing buy, sell and hold opinions.  His effort is to put individual investors on equal footing with the world’s biggest institutional investors  Straightforward and courageous Full of Bull offers the guidance few brokers provide their clients.  It's a must read for anyone wanting to learn and profit from how Wall Street really works.. 

by Stephan McClellan

 is available in hardcover via the Internet at Amazon.com

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and at BooksAMillion.com

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ISBN: 978-0132360111
Publisher: FT Press
Date: Oct 2007

• Greenspan's Bubbles The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve
• Author, William A. Fleckenstein, is a successful hedge fund manager and market commentator.  His opinions have appeared in every form of media, including regular interviews on CNBC.  Allan Greenspan's served nearly 20 years as Federal Reserve Chairman.  Labeled “Mr. Bubble” by the New York Times, Greenspan was hailed during his tenure and famous for the “Greenspan Put”, which created a false perception that risk could be removed from the financial markets. Using public records, this eye-catching book reveals the extent of Greenspan's mistakes and creates linkage between him and every economic calamity since he became the Fed chairman in 1987:
  • The stock market crash of 1987
  • The Savings & Loan crisis
  • The collapse of Long Term Capital Management
  • The tech bubble of 2000
  • The feared Y2K disaster
  • The credit bubble and real estate crisis of 2007

  Greenspan's Bubbles offers a straight-talk assessment of a Fed chairman's actions which have caused a series of ever-greater problems for our domestic and the global economy.  These problems will take years and perhaps decades to rectify.   

by William Fleckenstein

 is available in hardcover via the Internet at Amazon.com

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and at BooksAMillion.com

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ISBN: 978-0071591584
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Date: Jan 2008

• The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System (Hardcover)

• Acclaimed author, Charles Gasparino, produced a sweeping examination of one of the most volatile, high-anxiety periods in our nation's history. "The Sellout" traces the implosion of Wall Street back to its origins in the late 1970s when it embraced a new business model predicated on taking enormous risks. Readers are walked through Wall Street's three-decades' binge with reckless risk-taking, uncovering the wide range of culpability.  Gasparino captures how the arrogance and sheer stupidity eroded Wall Street's dominance and greatly weakened the financial security of millions of middle-class Americans.

  "The Sellout" offers an extremely  thorough investigation of Wall Street's latest gilded era.  Investors take note and be aware!

by Charles Gasparino

 is available in hardcover via the Internet at Amazon.com

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ISBN: 9780061697166
Publisher: Harper Business
Date: Nov 2009

• This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (Hardcover)

• Throughout history, rich and poor countries alike have been lending, borrowing, crashing--and recovering--their way through an extraordinary range of financial crises. Each time, the experts have chimed, "this time is different"--claiming that the old rules of valuation no longer apply and that the new situation bears little similarity to past disasters. This book proves that premise wrong. The authors cover 66 countries across five continents, guiding readers through eight astonishing centuries of government defaults, banking panics, and inflationary spikes. The authors are leading economists who draw important lessons from history to show us how much--or how little--we have learned.

  "This Time Is Different" is a must read for market historians and for those interested in learning from the lessons of the past to better prepare for the future.

by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff

 is available in hardcover via the Internet at Amazon.com

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ISBN: 9780691142166
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Date: Sep 2009

• The Oil Card: Global Economic Warfare in the 21st Century

• Author, James Norman, challenges the conventional wisdom surrounding high oil prices, shedding an entirely new light on free-market industry fundamentals. By deciphering past, present, and future geopolitical events, Norman makes the case that oil pricing and availability have a long history of being employed as economic weapons by (and against) the United States.

  "The Oil Card" is a compelling must read for market strategists and for those interested in geopolitical strategy.  It certainly offer fuel to the statement "perception is often opposite reality".

by James R Norman

 is available in hardcover via the Internet at Amazon.com

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ISBN: 9780977795390
Publisher: Trine Day
Date: July 2008

• Popes and Bankers: A Cultural History of Credit and Debt, from Aristotle to AIG (Paperback)

• Author, Jack Cashill, provides clear reasoning and insights as to how America, and the world, arrived into its current financial mess.  This book takes  the reader all the way back to Aristotle and ends with the housing crisis in America.  The author does an excellent job explaining the crisis in terms the average person can understand.

  "Popes and bankers" is a fascinating must read for market strategists and for those interested in the evolution of money and debt from biblical times to our current modern era.

by Jack Cashill

 is available in hardcover via the Internet at Amazon.com

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ISBN: 9781595552730
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Publishers
Date: March 2010