Thomas

This book is both interesting and useful. It offers exposure to a wide variety of investing related topics. I believe most individual investors will find something useful in this book. If you are looking at some different investing books I recommend this one and Peter Lynch's "One Up on Wall Street". I recommend these two above "Forbes: Greatest Investing Stories" and "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits (Philip Fisher).

This is an overview of the Bush mass media advertising strategy in the 2004 election. The speaker is quite good and relates some interesting information about how the campaign was conducted. He also makes a few predictions about the future of advertising in political campaigns and the effect the Internet will have on this. One thing to point out is that this recording is from a live presentation where campaign ads were shown on video. Obviously you cannot see these commercials on this recording but this does not detract from the experience all that much.

I believe individuals who are invested in equities will benefit from reading or listening to this work. This book includes useful information on investing strategies that one might want to consider. He also presents some interesting information that runs counter to common beliefs held buy many investors. For example, which would you have chosen in the early 1990's: To invest in China or in Brazil? Brazilian stocks did far better although the economy there grew very slowly during the study period. Stocks in China did not do so well despite a torrid economic growth rate. Jeremy Siegel has conducted extensive new research since his last book, "Stocks for the Long Run" (1994). As a result, he has changed some of his recommendations and strategies. My only negative comment is that he perhaps spends a bit too much time on some of the negative things that were said about him during the peak of the bubble. He questioned some of the ridiculous valuations of Internet stocks and received alot of hate mail as a result. Of course, history proved him right and I'm sure he enjoyed including his "I told you so" comments in the book.

Overall a worthwhile book. I recommend this, along with Peter Lynch's "One up on Wall Street".

Just wish to add another positive review to this book. A couple of previous reviewers mentioned that since this is an abridged version, it detracted from the original meaning. That might be true and it is good to know. I'll just add that I had not had any experience with the original version and still thought this to be an excellent audio book. The narrator does a great job with the conversations in the book. It is usually very clear and easy to tell, just by his voice, when he has switched to a different speaker.

This audiobook contains 10 chapters. Each is a fairly detailed look at a important investing "story". Each chapter usually focuses on an individual. People covered include Ben Graham, Hetty Green, Georges Dorio (spelling? - now that's the trouble with audiobooks :), the founder of T Rowe Price, Marty Whitman and Muriel Siebert.

The stories are interesting and I suppose there is some wisdom to be gained from these auditory pages, but this is not a book to really help you with choosing investments. If you are looking for that, other tomes will suit you better.

This book provides some interesting ideas on how to manage your investments, but as another reviewer has already stated, some of the strategies are not easy for the individual investor to employ. I don't think I'll be able to meet the bankers of the companies I am investing in anytime soon!

So, I would not put this at the top of my list of investing books to recommend, but do not completely pan it either. The author does espouse a long term investment strategy and offers what appears to be some sound advice for choosing investments. One particular bit of advice was a set of 14 points, some of which can be used as a screen to look for potential investments.

If you have not read (or listened to) "One Up on Wall Street" by Peter Lynch, that is a work I highly recommend.