Street Smarts

Adventures on the Road and in the Markets

By: Jim Rogers

Narrated by: Michael Bybee

Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Wall Street legend and best-selling author Jim Rogers offers investing insights and economic, political, and social analysis, drawing on lessons and observations from his lifetime in the markets.

Jim Rogers, whose entertaining accounts of his travels around the world - studying the markets from Russia to Singapore from the ground up - has enthralled investors and Wall Street aficionados for two decades in such books as Investment Biker, Adventure Capitalist, Hot Commodities, and A Bull in China. In his engaging memoir Street Smarts, Rogers offers pithy commentary from a lifetime of adventure, from his early years growing up a naïve kid in Demopolis, Alabama, to his fledgling career on Wall Street, to his cofounding the wildly successful Quantum Fund [omit George Soros], Rogers always had a restless curiosity to experience and understand the world around him.

In Street Smarts, he takes us through the highlights of his life in the financial markets, from his school days at Yale and Oxford - where despite the fact that he didn’t have enough money to afford the appropriate pair of shoes, he coaxed the crew and helped to win the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race as well as the Thames Cup, the first of his three Guiness World Records - to his first heady taste of Wall Street in the mid-1960s, and his years helping to run the most successful hedge fund on Wall Street.

As a result of his extraordinary success with the Quantum Fund, Rogers was able to retire at the age of 37. Since then he has taught classes in finance at Columbia University, hosted television programs, and traveled the world seeing firsthand how revolutions in Chile affect coffee prices in Seattle, and how shortages of copper in Africa affect electricity brownouts in Ohio.

In the course of his new book, Rogers offers often surprising observations on how the world works - and what trends he sees in the future. He explains why Asia will be the dominant economic force in the 21st century - and how he and his wife and two daughters moved to Singapore to prepare his family for the coming changes. He discusses why America and the European Union are in decline, and what we need to do to right our economy and society. The age of Wall Street, Rogers claims, when the finance industry drove 25% of America’s growth, is over. Tomorrow’s economy will be driven by those who make things - food, energy, goods, and consumables.

Regarded as one of the most astute investors Wall Street has ever known, Jim Rogers once again is at his acerbic and storytelling best.

©2013 Jim Rogers (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"There are almost no investment geniuses. The only ones I know of are Warren E. Buffett and John C. Bogle and Jim Rogers." (Ben Stein, New York Times)

"Jim Rogers makes my head hurt." (Paul Krugman, New York Times)

economics

written well easy-to-understand good look at commodities and why to invest in commodities and also a good look at the Asian market and upcoming profit potentials

Great Marco look at Investing

What made the experience of listening to Street Smarts the most enjoyable?

I like the way Rogers gives a you his ideas on the world and markets. He looks at things with a long term view.

What other book might you compare Street Smarts to and why?

This book is a lot like his other books but more general market advice.

Have you listened to any of Michael Bybee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I'm not sure.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

This would not make a good film.

Any additional comments?

I wish Jim Rogers had narrated the book.

Unexpectedly brilliant

My mother-in-law recommended this book, so I was naturally a bit skeptical. But it turns out Jim Rogers is not just an excellent investor, but also a brilliant writer. Listed through the book in one breath, will download all his other masterpieces. Thank you.

Roman
CEO, Splento

It's Great - Rogers is living it up in Singapore

Some chapters are hugely important, like the discussion of macro and secular trends. This makes this book worth the invested time to listen.

Some chapters are more people magazine stuff than an intelligent Nassim Taleb book.

He's thoughts are not as well organized as other Money and Investor geniuses like Peter Thiel. But they are more approachable than Theil. Interestingly, they probably believe 95% of the same things.

You get much this book offers in fewer words, in a book called "Invisible Hands"....that Jim Rogers actually contributed too. But this book goes deep into the libertarian arguments that are not in "Invisible Hands". It's good for the listener to understand Singapore. and why the City State fascinates Rogers.

Jim Rogers | A great mind

Fascinating look into how Rogers strategies his potential investments and works currencies. His personal travels inspire the way he thinks. The conflict and contrast between his experiences as an IVY League academic and an intern at an Investment firm. He asks the reader not to mimic his journey, rather find one that best suits their personal agenda. Stick to what you know. Do your homework. Pay attention to the world and the way it moves markets. Make decisions based on your work.

Just what you've come to expect from him

Given Jim's success as an investor, he obviously has great insights into markets and the people, incentives and events that move them. In this offering, he doesn't hold back(!) on any one of these, illustrating his points with examples, many of which were headlines; the value being that Jim lived some of these headlines and provides new insights. He candidly points out where incentives are aligned to create mismanagement and offers rational readers many opportunities to work around these issues for personal and investment gain.

Highly recommended - Global reach insights

Valuable global markets view from past and future cast vantage points. Tapestry of business and personal insights. In depth storys and perspectives. Well written and narrated - highly recommended read.

excellent

his interviews are always entertaining, but his books are prescient and well articulated. nothing but respect for the man, who is humble enough to admit a mistake, wing view...and reverse it

Jim Rogers tells it like it is

I always enjoy Jim Rogers being interviewed because he is not afraid to tell the truth as he sees it. This is a good book and I enjoyed it. Doing his own narration was a positive thing for the story and the book.

This guy gets it.

Jim seeks out truth and tells you how it is. His other titles are great too.