Business Money Books

This book was fascinating and I couldn't put it down until I finished the last page.
The reviewer who mentioned the author's lack of sourcing is correct and I wish they'd provided more.
I did, however, check out most of the information in this book (I did exhaustive, in-depth research) and found their information to be accurate.

I don't doubt that much of the reporting in this book is accurate. Even so, though the writing in TMATP is decent -- evocative and well-paced -- its reporting leaves much to be desired. TMATP has more than the whiff of conspiracy theory about it, and its authors are, at times, more breathless than dispassionate in their commentary. What is lacking most, in this book, is depth. Denton and Morris draw on numerous sources, to be sure, yet they bring little insight to their task. For a general, and colorful, introduction to Las Vegas and its problematic history, TMATP seems decent enough. For a sophisticated account, one must look eslewhere.

A lot has changed in Las Vegas since this book was first published, but that doesn't change the fact that is remains a stunning read. Learn a little bit about the corruption that created America's playground, the hack "journalist" who started--what is now a media empire in the city--a newspaper to coerce politicians and land developers, and all the shady politics that involve a number of names you will recognize from today's "corporate" Las Vegas.

P.T. Barnum would be oh so proud if he could see what Las Vegas has become to America and the world. And to think once upon a time they used to lure the suckers out to the desert with cheap food and rooms. These days theres not room enough for all the so-called "gamblers" crowding in. I use the term gamblers loosely, because its better than calling all those nice folks losers.

If the movie "Casino" wasn't enough of an eye opener for them, this book should be. It brings together all the elements that created and sustain Nevada's almighty cash cow. From the Mormon's to the Mob, pension funds to junk bonds, it's all on display in this fascinating and well researched historic expose. An illuminated social, economic and crimal perspective, that shines brighter than any neon you'll find on the Vegas strip. The gangsters and the policticians, notice I lump them together along that is with the bankers and corporate tycoons. And if you thought Howard Hughes ended the mob's hold on the casinos, boy are you in for a surprise.

Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and alike, would often reference or joke about their mob bosses all the time, but only they could get away with it. It was no secret, because thats the way business was done back then. And when Hollywood turned its back on Sinatra, he was always welcomed back by the wise guys. The same guys that knew how to treat their customers right. If you didn't really gamble, Vegas was a helluva of a bargain bonanza with it's plentiful buffets, luxury rooms and top live entertainment. The public didn't get to see the cheaters getting beaten to a pulp by casino guards, the state didn't look too closely at what was being skimmed and embezzled. They got their cut and everyone was happy. Of course, if you want to peer behind this sparkling veil, if you really want to find out what really "stays in Vegas", then this is the book for you.

Read this book. Truth does set free. Seems 'conspiratorial' .. but the 'ring' of truth is there throughout .. if one has ears to listen for it.

Michelle Dunn's, 3rd edition of Starting a Collection Agency, is a complete instructional guide written so even the novice entrepreneur would find it easy to follow. This step by step, "How-to" approach carves an easy path to success.

I would highly recommend this book not only to anyone interested in starting a collection agency but also to those willing to follow Michelle's model for any other business. Michelle's gift is to simplify a business approach that will help others succeed.....and she does it exceedingly well.

No one likes bill collectors, but they are a necessary evil to the continued financial prosperity of America. "Starting a Collection Agency: How to Make Money Collecting Money" is a guide to being what is viewed as many as the bad guy, but in fact is just something that must be done. Outlining all anyone needs to start their own company in this field, it leaves nothing to guesswork, covering everything from the frivolous as the stationary, to the advanced tactics of professional promotion. "Starting a Collection Agency: How to Make Money Collecting Money" is highly recommended for anyone looking to start their own business, and doesn't mind being viewed as the bad guy to do so.

Lots of typos and very difficult to understand. Do not recommend buying

I am in Professor McCallum's course on International Money & Finance and as a student who must read this book, I find it very difficult to read. If that is not enough, there are a significant amount of typographical errors.

Throughout his book, Bennett McCallum uses obscure language and inconsistent notation. Basic concepts are not presented in a clear and understandable manner. This entire book reads like an academic paper not a textbook.

This book is a very useful text for an introductory international monetary economics class (first year graduates). It covers a good range of topics and while being good on intuition it conveys almost all basic messages with one work horse model. It is easy for students to see how a change in assumptions, expressed by little modifications of the basic model, leads to very different results. Maybe the sticky price model (Dornbusch overshooting) could be explained a little more clearly. As it is introductory, it does not cover later or latest developments (sunspots, portfolio asset model, bubbles etc.). Moreover, being an American text it does not cover interesting developments and policy issues such as European Monetary Union or international currency crises. But you can't cover everything! I use the book for my introductory class together with Gaertner, Macroeconomics under flexible exchange rates,2000, and other material. Students like it.

TO: Mr. John Rubino/Mr. James Turk BRAVO on your tour de force book that lays out the Truth, unencumbered, and with sobering and simple recommendations on how to save ones self from financial ruin in the next couple of years, and now for that matter.

The comparisons of other empires that have economically collapsed (due to fiat currencies, fractional reserve banking, etc), most mighty nations in history, is an invaluable inclusion to the beginning of the book to give unaware readers perspective at how close to the edge the United States is.

Since 2000, this is what I have been telling people and you both are the first ones I have really seen to make the case in clear terms and dire warnings, with simple steps to protect ones self.. You guys are the best and your book has been a GOLD mine, literally... You guys strike at the heart of the Truth and expose it good, bad, ugly..
This book is small enough, inexpensive enough, and valuable enough to buy a dozen copies and hand them out to relatives, good friends, and those you care about... Simple enough for the economic laymen (most of Americans) to wake up to! People with HUNDREDS of thousand's of USD$$$ in stocks, bonds, over leveraged homes/real estate, etc etc.. This book and information is vital to their future. They could save themselves but unfortunately many will choose not to and will bury their heads and follow the herd of "mainstream" money managers...

I will keep on tyring to wake people up and inform them of the peril ahead, though sadly few have listened to me since I was recommending gold at $320 in 2001 or so... Silver at $5 back then too... Sometimes I am ashamed to be American because of my fellow Americans who have lost their critical thinking skills, independent thought, discernment, and a healthy ongoing distrust of government and Elites... to be and STAY free and economically sound, as an individual, family, or nation, we MUST be informed, vigilant, and critical of all orthodox information and mainstream opinion and most of all, government promises...

You guys are the bright spots of Truth in American economics! BRAVO!

Oh Wow.. Every one should get this Bible. Amazing; it gives you deep details how to profit from precious metals, and gold on top of them. A question to all; who created Gold? Answer is "God." Now who created Dollar? Answer is "Human." In the end Who will win God or human? Answer is left to all of you!!

For anyone interested in the dynamics of our falling dollar, this book: "The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It" is a must read. I was led to it after reading the author's: "How to Profit from the Coming Real Estate Bust." I was delighted to find: "The Collapse of the Dollar's" paperback version updated (containing 2007 numbers)! It's amazing how visionary the author has been. Morover, the book is easy to read/understand. I highly recommend...

Right now this book is sold out, and I'm not shocked. It seems to have been written in the future because it is all coming true. Gold is a great investment. Always has been. Always will be. I know a lof og groups are down on investing capital in gold, but usually those are the people who just don't get it. People who would rather put faith in "ideas" over real things.

For people who are unsure about gold investing, this is the best book to get. It groups together the gold investment and makes a lot of sense. I really think it was a good book for beginners.

I bought the book when it first came out. More importantly, I ACTED on the book's advice. I bought gold, silver, Goldcorp(GG) and a lot more. Goldcorp was selling for about $12 per share at the time. Gold hadn't gone beyond about $430 per ounce. The dollar was trading much higher than it is now. Goldcorp is now at about $40 per share. Gold is near $950 per ounce. Silver is at $18 per ounce. Suffice it to say that if I ever have the chance to meet Mssrs Turk and Rubino in person, I will pick up the tab for dinner!
I had to smile when I read some of the reviews which have been posted on this site. I guess that some people still do not "get it" when it comes to the role of gold in protecting assets and purchasing power. Although the book's title speaks of making a fortune by investing in gold and hard assets, this book is not really a get rich quick book. It is a survival book. With everything that has been happening in the financial sector, the most important thing for all of us is to protect what we have!

G. Arrighi's Twentieth Century is very long indeed. It begins in the fourteenth century.
The author wants to lay bare Braudel's third layer of economic power (the real home of the predators), which covers the self-sufficient economy (the 1st) and the market economy (the 2nd). The predators are those particular communities or governmental and business blocs who accumulate on a world scale an ever-increasing capitalist power.

The author sees 4 historical centers of global accumulation: 1. the Italian city States (Venice, Genoa); 2. the Seventeen Provinces (Holland); 3. Great-Britain; 4. US; 5. ?
Each of these global accumulations is characterized by three capitalist cycles: 1. financial expansion; 2. consolidation and accumulation; 3. renewed financial expansion and emergence of competition.

His analysis is profound and detailed. However, the author doesn't take enough crucial demographic and political factors or decisions into consideration.
There is a phenomenal difference between the first two and the third and fourth accumulation. The 3rd one caused a demographic explosion which is still going on. Its success for the human species is truly exceptional (E. Hobsbawm).
The fall of the British empire was at least accelerated by two world wars which were declared by foreign countries and which left Great-Britain bankrupt (Keynes, Skidelsky).
The basic of the US empire is the dollar (W.G. Tarpley). The fall of the dollar in 1971 was countered by a political decision to inflate the oil prize (W. Engdahl), whereby the dollar recaptured its lost central place in international finance and US banks and oil corporations were catapulted at the zenith of world power (the real predators).

This book is already partly out-of-date. It ends with the Japanese formidable but already extinct expansion, not with the lurking Chinese one (a truly perfect combination of State and capital).
Do we see actually the final capitalist crisis, so many times claimed by pure Marxists? Absolutely not. Engel (not Engels)'s law is still highly in force with a nearly unlimited supply of cheap labor at the disposal of all transnational corporations.
Adam Smith's (and Marx's) law of the tendency of a falling rate of profit is an illusion, because in the long run capital chases earnings.
Finally, in our society, capitalism is not an end but a means to grab power and power means survival. Through history, the members of the ruling class live much longer than the ruled.

This book is a very worth-while read, although its analysis and vocabulary is nearly pure Marxist.

Giovanni Arrighi's text is the most under-rated as well as the most brilliant of all theoretical works on historical capitalism and its futures. Unlike the claims of recent scholars like Hardt and Negri, the text is NOT about one historical cycle succeeding another. Such a claim is one of the worst examples of intellectual misrepresentation that I have ever come across. Their own work ('Empire' and then 'Multitude') are vain and failed attempts to come to terms with Arrighi's work. As a student of Marx, Braudel, and Schumpeter, Arrighi knows better than most that no two systemic cycles are ever the same. Each one not only ruptures the world system, it also creates conditions for its own supersession, in what Arrighi, drawing upon Braudel, calls 'financial expansions', and what David Harvey following Arrighi, calls 'accumulation by dispossession'. By drawing insightful comparisons between four long systemic cycles starting with the medieval Genoese financial expansion, Arrighi demonstrates the novelty of the cycle underlying the long twentieth century as well as pointing to what lies ahead. This is an absolute must read for anyone interested in capitalism, the interstate system, the social movements (though here the text is somewhat deficient), and the possibility of a future different from the lackluster present. Arrighi's work is simultaneously historical and theoretical (theory after all comes from a deep grasp of historical currents). Although much misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misrepresented, and often appropriated without adequate acknowledgement, The Long Twentieth Century is destined to become the classic work of the 21st century. Ten years after it first came out, almost all of Arrighi's predictions are turning out to be accurate, so much so that his school of imitators is becoming as vast as his train of never-ending admirers. To those who like large meta-narratives that combine spatial dynamics with temporal rhythms - and there are only a few out there (Marx, Weber, Braudel, Schumpeter, Perry Anderson, Michael Mann, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Charles Tilly)- Arrighi's work will be the unsurpassable horizon of our times. Arrighi is a master-synthesizer. One of the challenges he raises is the question of synthesis itself. What is entailed in the act of synthesizing without distorting particulars, is the capacity to give each particular its due (as if that were ever possible!). Arrighi's deep compassion for the struggles to bring about a different global future guide much of his architecture. Unlike many who call themselves socialists, Arrighi carries none of their presumptuous and often ridiculous baggage. To read this text is like experiencing a breath of fresh air after so many sterile polemics on the Left. It is a tall order to go beyond the Long twentieth century. Future attempts will invariably find themselves repeating an insight already developed in some obscure page of the Long Twentieth Century. It is the challenge of the 21st to come up with something at least as good as the offering of the Calabrian maestro.

If you are a student of the international system or international relations this is a must read. It should be considered the second part in a five volume set. The first should be something about world systems theory by Wallerstein, a reader will do, then Fernand Braudel's Perspective of the World, followed by Hopkins and Wallertein's Age of Transition. For the final book I recommend Robert Gilpin's response to these works, The Challenge of Global Capitalism published in 2000.

I consider myself fairly well educated: I have a Ph.D. and I've thrived on books in this genre, such as _Europe and the People Without History_ and _The Colonizer's Model of the World_. But I find Arrighi's book a difficult one--a little beyond most readers, I should think.

There are three main reasons for this: a.) Arrighi fails to write for a larger audience and b.) fails to write as clearly as he could; and c.) Arrighi is assuming fluency in Braudel, Wallerstein, Abu-Lughod, and a host of other scholars who have tackled the rise of capitalist empires.

I think most Americans, who have a mediocre background in Marxist theory, world systems theory, class dynamics, and hegemony, might want to pass. Does the name Gramsci ring a bell? How about the basic premises of Lenin? Which way did you nod your head when I mentioned Abu-Lughod? If these notions aren't a part of your working knowledge, take a pass on this book. Try one of the two books I mentioned at the top. And if you *are* well-versed in Braudel, macro-economic theory, and critical discussions of imperialism, you might venture to read this difficult work. Arrighi has put together an ambitious, provocative work, a serious investigation into the power-economies of empires.

Giovanni Arrighi's "Long 20th Century" is a must-read for those who want to understand the global history and dynamics of power and capitalism, and especially the likelihood that in the next couple of decades, the U.S. will continue its current trend, and finally undergo a decisive loss of economic hegemony and power, quite likely to be replaced by China and other Asian economies. Whether such a shift will be accepted by the U.S. and its allies without a cataclysmic resort to military violence is very much in doubt--Arrighi demonstrates that the 3 major similar shifts in the past have been concomitant (both as cause and effect) with continental or global wars.

Arrighi's is a bird's-eye view of history from the 14th century onward, focusing on the repeated, cyclic tendency of leading capitalist groups/states/empires (hegemons) to be superceded by larger and more organized such groups. This has been due, roughly, to increasing nation/state competition for surplus capital that is largely not re-invested in trade and production by the existing hegemon. Such "finance" capital is sought most successfully by the hegemon that will overtake the existing one, but the competition in general has inevitably led to war, after which the superceding hegemon emerges as best positioned to lead the building of a larger world-capitalist system of trade and production.

Eventually, though, the cyclic process begins anew, though Arrighi doesn't claim that the "cycles" are closed loops--the means by which these new hegemons succeed involve technological, political, military, and organizational innnovations. Thus, Arrighi is a small-m marxist, retaining the best of, and building upon, but not limiting himself to, Marx's analysis, particularly regarding the tendency of capitalist re-investment of growing profits in production to eventually depress said profit-rates, as competition for limited markets drives them down. This has happened most significantly to 4 major hegemons: Genoese Italy's 14th century dispersed capitalist merchants, the Dutch nation/state, the British Empire, and finally the U.S. Any notion that U.S. power has ended such cyclic processes, and will "dominate" the world forever, is undermined by his argument--which only goes to 1994, yet is uncannily predictive (in general) of the effects of current events.

The brief summary above does not do justice to the book, which is fascinating in every detail, and truly comprehensive in its consideration of the history of world power and politics. The level of writing is high, but not incredibly dense--it does require close reading, but most educated and interested lay readers should find it amenable. It also has a great bibliography of similarly fascinating reading on related topics. Finally, Arrighi has many articles available online, of which several that I have read are just as cogent and valuable, including a couple recent ones in New Left Review that update his arguments from Long 20th Century to 2004.

after having had the opportunity to attend one of Amy's lectures I was convinced, buying the book would be a good idea! and it was: the book provides the reader with an overview of the relevant fields of activity, fast facts and more detailed and very practical information on what to do in each of these fields. For anyone who wants to start greening events it is informative and perfectly helpful and can be a great source of inspiration!

I think that this book really puts the whole green thing in perspective. Taking some of these small steps are not as painful and I thought and this book gives me some great ideas on how to get clients on board. A must read for anyone that wants to do the right thing and make a living planning events and conferences.

This book was extremely interesting to read and far exceeded my expectations in terms of giving real-world advice that I can use immediately. As a planner I am always charged with showing a positive impact to the bottom line and this book shows me how to do the right thing for hte Earth while also saving money.

In fact, by doing just a few of the tips in the book, I'll be able to save literally thousands of dollars!

Level headed approach to handle a problem that could be desaterous.

The book is easy to read and follow the steps for protection from and recovery of damaged credit.

This is not the feel good book of the summer, it almost scares the pants off of you given the many different ways faceless criminals can rudely interrupt your life with identity theft. This book details out many of the identity theft scams that are prevalent today. It shows you, maybe in a way that is a touch over the top, just how vulnerable you are. On the positive side it also gives you the tools to fight back and the steps you can take to protect yourself. It also instructs you on what you can do if you become an identity theft victim. The book details out how the world of credit operates and your rights and responsibilities.

The current world we live in enables us to be discriminated against in the credit world because of our age, gender or marital status. The privacy of our financial information may be compromised and is so widely disseminated that it is making it more and more vulnerable to identity theft all the time. That is why this book is important, it gives the reader some tools to help us remain safe or at least less vulnerable. Overall the author gives the reader a number of useful and well described tips for how to keep as safe as possible and how to fix problems if they come up. It is a bit on the dramatic side, but if you are a victim of this type of crime then the descriptions are probably right on the mark.

You know those books that promise you untold wealth and secrets to make you rich? This isn't one of them, which makes it one of the best reads I've seen in a while. It gives a realistic depiction of making money in virtual economies (which is pretty amazing in and of itself). It even explores and gives some interesting perspectives on work vs. play and the emergence and confidence of virtual economies.

Play Money, [...] Amazon.com, is an enjoyable three hundred page softbound book from Indiana author Julian Dibbell. Prior to this particular effort, Dibbell also authored another non-fiction book entitled My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. Dibbell is currently a contributing editor for Wired magazine, and he's also had several lengthy pieces published in Details, Harper's, Le Monde, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, Time, and the Village Voice.

Laughingly, Dibbell began selling virtual goods to members of online gaming communities - EverQuest, Final Fantasy, Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, and World of Warcraft. - in hopes of developing a second career in early 2003. His goal was to get rich, document the process for a blog and book, and then exit. But while Dibbell started this venture optimistically - mingling with various weirdoes along the way - he lost his marriage due to this financial pursuit.

Aside from that downer, Dibbell's book soars when examining legal implications of virtual economies. Dibbell introduces Blacksnow Interactive - a company that mined wealth from the in-game economy of Dark Age of Camelot early on in Chapter Two. Mythic Entertainment owns intellectual property rights to Dark Age of Camelot and frowned upon in-game items being auctioned on eBay. Soon thereafter, President Mark Jacobson called Meg Whitman and shut those auctions down. Prompting lawsuits.

You sense Dibbell was skeptical when he began writing about MMO economies in 2002. Dibbell discovered John Dugger had bought a virtual house (for $750) previously owned by Troy Stolle inside Britannia, the mythical world of Ultima Online. Dibbell couldn't fathom why anyone would do this for a game, so he interviewed the 29-year-old Indianapolis construction worker that sold the house, and interviewed the 43-year-old Stillwater bread delivery man that bought the house.

Much of Play Money concentrates on the vagaries of play, work, and a condition called flow. Dibbell also introduces us to [...] - reseller of second-hand items that mines wealth from the in-game economy of Ultima Online in Chapter Six. Bob Kiblinger, sole proprietor of [...], first spotted Stolle's UO account for sale on eBay. He then bought the account for $500, split up the items, then sold Stolle's virtual digs to Dugger for $750.

Of the people profiled here, West Virginian Kiblinger comes off as the most likable. It's implied Kiblinger derives a six figure income off his online bartering, and that he has $15k tied up in "online inventory" at any given moment, but all of that could disappear at any given moment. For some reason though, Electronic Arts has chosen not to go after [...], unlike what happened between Mythic Entertainment and Blacksnow Interactive.

Next, Dibbell compares the imaginary gold of UO to e-gold's gram. Launched in 1996, e-gold is one of six metal-backed currencies circulating online. Dibbell further compares the gold of UO to the Ithaca Hour, a paper currency launched in Ithaca during 1991 and backed by local labor. Finally, Dibbell compares the gold of UO to crypto cash - secure untraceable digital money proposed by mathematician David Chaum that lives on in finance geek sub communities.

Eventually, Kiblinger informs Dibbell of a suspicious gold devaluation, and both realize another player called Ingotdude is involved in "gold farming." In short - Ingotdude was running a bot (composed of 22 PCs, each running a copy of the game, with characters in macro mode) inside Ultima Online which was generating real world payouts on the order of more than $300k. Dibbell is amused to later find that Blacksnow Interactive is behind Ingotdude's exploit.

You'll be surprised to learn that over the course of a year, Dibbell did manage to earn $47,000 by selling intangible virtual goods online through Play Money. His goal was to earn more than $55k (his best year as a writer) but he failed in that respect. Spending 50 hours a week online cost Dibbell his marriage and emotional collapse, but his career eventually recovered and he did manage to finish this exceptional book.

I read this book because I had begun to hear about the world it describes and wanted to learn more. I was REALLY happy with my purchase! Dibbell combines personal experience, interesting interviews, and a broad intellectual reach to make comprehensible the "brave" "new" world of massive multi-user gaming and the way it is making us rethink a variety of taken for granted forms of common sense.

The result is a lot of fun to read and highly educational at the same time.

This is really just another blog-turned-book, with a little bit of filler. The title misrepresents the book - he didn't quit his day job and he didn't even hit his fairly modest goal of a month's earnings exceeding his best as a writer, which is far short of the "millions" the subtitle advertises. I'd give him a pass if the title was obviously sarcastic, but it seems like a cheap ploy to up sales figures. The real slap comes about halfway through the book when blog posts are reproduced wholesale, which can easily be found on the internet on Dibbell's website.

Dibbell is a good writer, but this book just doesn't come close to delivering. If you want a basic account of how you could have exploited Ultima Online five years ago, then by all means, this is the book for you. For everyone else, it's an extended blog post - a quick, basic read that doesn't have a whole lot of substance to it.

What if you could spend your day playing video games and still make a fortune? Wll, now it's possible for the best of what is called the 'gold farmers' to play games and buy and sell fantasy goods in the virtual world and make between 6 and 7 figures a year! Yes, and this author Julian Dibbell did just that -- quit his day job as a writer and became a virtual mogul. Along the way in 12 chapters he looks at the virtual marketplace for virtual loot and the growing economy online in multiplayer online role playing gams MORPGS and Virtual worlds like SecondLife.com to buy and sell virtual real estate, avatars, islands, services and even real life objects in virtual stores. From Ultima Online to paying the IRS -- it's an amazing new world online and whether it's reel or real is still to be determined by the players in the newest game in town.