Yesterday, I am at NPR, waiting to tape a segment on foreclosures. There is a pile of books and magazines a coffee table. I spy the title Satisfactionby Chris Denove and J.D. Power IV.
As someone who has been blurbed and who gives blurbs, the above the title blurb by Lee Iacocca catches my eye:
“If you can find a better book on customer satisfaction, buy it.”
Dan Gross, of Slate and Newsweek, got interested in the curious wrinkle presented by the publishers of Sarah Palin’s forthcoming book and Ted Kennedy’s True Compass: both publishers didn’t want an ebook available during the first few weeks on sale.
In response, I wrote a piece for TheBigMoney.com because it dawned on me that we’ve all forgotten what book publishers are still really good at, the big personality. Palin’s book–which displaced Dan Brown from the number one spot at Amazon two days after it was announced and weeks before it would be available–is clearly going to be one of those books. And, if it is, her publisher might even make a dollar or two after it earns back the $7 million they paid her. To do that they’ll need a lot of sales velocity:
Velocity comes from ubiquity, and ubiquity is what the modern publishing business is best at. Most people won’t buy Palin’s book in a bookstore; most of her buyers probably don’t have a bookstore they visit regularly. Instead, the bulk of sales will be in Wal-Marts, Krogers, Costcos, and newsstand chains like Hudson News. The first week or two—when most of those sales will take place—it won’t be hard for consumers to come across a copy of Going Rogue, so there’s no reason to divert from the big show even the small percentage of sales that e-books represent.
If the Palin book works—and it is beginning to look like she can make herself the key anti-Obama rallying point—it will be a reminder of the political power books can wield. Each sale will be a vote for Palin—though without the consequences of actually electing her; each book will also become a little campaign poster stoking her base and impressing her skeptics. Politics is media, and the publicity tour as trial campaign looks to be the last best hope of the publishing business.
Source:
Why Big Books Still Matter
Sarah Palin’s Book Demonstrates the Power of the Book as Talisman
MARION MANEKER
TheBigMoney.com
http://www.thebigmoney.com/features/kindle-chronicles/2009/10/04/why-big-books-still-matter
Terrific book review for Bailout Nation in Asia Times:
“For the past three decades, finance replaced doctor or lawyer as the smart career choice. The cleverest people gravitated to business schools and then to Wall Street, some detouring to Silicon Valley during the dot-com boom. So how did these masters of the universe create the worst global economic misery in 80 years?
It was stupidity and arrogance, pure and simple, fund manager and TheStreet.com columnist Barry Ritholtz contends in Bailout Nation, the same traits that led a previous generation of America’s best and brightest to the tragedy of Vietnam (and a group of more recent, less illustrious ideologues to the debacle in Iraq). At least Camelot’s villains thought they were doing good for the world. The modern bankers and traders and quants and arbs who acted so irresponsibly, almost exclusively with other people’s money, were simply trying to make themselves obscenely wealthy.
These “idiots”, as Ritholtz often calls them, richly deserve every ounce of approbation he musters. He repeatedly contends that rather than being bailed out, they deserve to have been bankrupted, exposed as charlatans, hooted out of their professions, tarred, feathered, and in some cases jailed. . .
In his very readable book that will delight general readers as well as finance buffs, Ritholtz traces the history of US bailouts.
When things fell apart in September last year, Ritholtz says, the government should have nationalized AIG, separating the giant’s solvent insurance business from its loopy financial funhouse. Instead, US taxpayers have doled out $173 billion and counting to repay not widows and orphans holding policies on dear departed dads, but a coterie of Wall Street tycoons and overseas banks escaping the consequences of their foolish risks. That’s not capitalism but socialism for the wealthy at taxpayer expense.
Bailout Nation’s straightforward, compelling account puts the crisis in context, explains why the US government responded so stupidly, offers solutions, and advises how to prevent a repeat. Ritholtz’s indictment of the financial and political establishment isn’t terribly unique, but it’s devastatingly accurate.”
Outstanding!
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Source: Named and shamed
Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy by Barry Ritholtz with Aaron Task
Reviewed by Muhammad Cohen
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KJ03Dj01.html
The US President Barack Obama, despite being articulate, is allowing his team to sound like philosophers and researchers when they explain what is going on in the marketplace and what the business plan is to fix it, rues Barry Ritholtz in ‘Bailout Nation’ (www.wiley.com). “This is the first time we’ve had to handle this situation, and it’s incredibly complex and difficult. While it takes great minds to devise a solution, when it’s time to explain it to the typical family, it needs to be kept reasonably simple and clear.”
The author gives an analogy from the field of sports, thus: “If a football coach has a brilliant game plan on the blackboard but cannot simplify it so it is crystal clear to the players, that plan will not get executed properly. The probability for failure increases.”
Perhaps, Obama’s speech last week, in the Federal Hall on Wall Street, was to make amends for the absence of clear communication. He had then chastised the industry for still engaging in “reckless behaviour,” “quick kills,” “bloated bonuses,” and taking “exorbitant risks that were unsustainable for the system,” as www.bloomberg.com reported on September 15.
The book has a chapter titled ‘Casino capitalism,’ which suggests that a simple solution to banks’ problems is to identify the banks that are insolvent and temporarily nationalise them. “Appoint new management, and give them six months to spin out 10 per cent of each of the separate viable pieces, with the taxpayer retaining the rest as passive investors. Bank of America can spin out five major pieces: BoA, Merrill, Countrywide, a toxic holding company, and the rest of its holdings,” Ritholtz recommends.
The call for nationalisation, he reasons, is not a move toward socialism, but an attempt to prevent casino capitalism from bankrupting the country. “Real capitalists nationalise; faux capitalists look for the free lunch.”
An example of the latter is the backdoor bailout of major financial institutions with AIG serving as the middleman; for, it is actually a bailout of private speculators, the author fumes. “Not only are US taxpayers subsidising the bad decisions made by executives in the US, but we are also bailing out the poor judgment of the rest of the world.”
Forbes: Book Review: Rescue Fatigue
Michael Maiello, 07.16.09, 12:01 AM EDT
Barry Ritholtz’s ”Bailout Nation.”
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/15/bailout-nation-aig-chrysler-opinions-book-review-barry-ritholtz.html
Asia Times Named and shamed
Reviewed by Muhammad Cohen
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KJ03Dj01.html
Marketwatch: The roots of ‘Bailout Nation’
Commentary: Ritholtz book dissects crisis and Greenspan
By Howard Gold
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ritholtz-gets-to-the-roots-of-bailout-nation-2009-08-04
Reuters Bailout study widens the “Big Picture”
Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:47pm EDT
By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE55A6CK20090611
ABC News ‘Self-Inflicted Damage’: Highlights From ‘Bailout Nation’
New Book From Bailout Critic Barry Ritholtz Takes on Citigroup, Chrysler and More
ALICE GOMSTYN
ABC NEWS Business Unit, May 27, 2009
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=7681437&page=1
This presentation/speech explains why we are likely suffering through a range-bound market. I updated the data; found a better way to explain old and new topics; changed my mind on some things; and answered questions that have been raised by readers.
I have to warn you this PDF is 20 pages long. However, a lot of space is consumed by charts and tables thus don’t let the size scare you.
I have to think this person is going to have their hands full for a few years . . .
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The Assistant General Counsel will be responsible for working on regulatory legal matters and rendering advice in multiple areas of S&P’s Ratings Services and will obtain significant professional development in a fast-paced high growth Financial Services company. This candidate must have substantial experience in a major financial services firm or law firm and be a highly motivated team player with superior legal ability, written and oral presentation skills and superior interpersonal and communication skills. Management experience and skills a plus.
The artist who created Wall Street’s famed “Charging Bull” statue sued Random House and the authors of a recently released book on the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers over their use of an image of the bull.
On Wednesday, artist Arturo Di Modica filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleging the book, “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers,” uses an unauthorized image of the bull on its dust jacket.
The nearly 7,000-pound sculpture was placed unannounced in front of the New York Stock Exchange in 1989 and was soon moved to Bowling Green in lower Manhattan, where it has been on “temporary” display for 17 years. It has become a popular stop for tourists.
Di Modica has previously said he was inspired by the 1987 stock market crash to create a sculpture “that would encourage young people to rebound and help put American business back on track.” He registered a copyright on the bull in 1998 and has previously brought legal action over the unauthorized use of the bull’s image.
His Web site proclaims Di Modica “sculptor of the world famous bronze ‘Charging Bull’” and promises to soon have a “Charging Bull Gift Shop,” a 360-degree view of the sculpture and other features related to the bull.
My Superagent/Lawyer, Lloyd Jassin, emails me: “It’s a teachable moment. Pig parody = transformative fair use, i.e., a socially productive use looked upon favorably by copyright law. Used for a different purpose than original. Bull cover = infringement.” (see this on Fair Use)
Thank goodness for Derivative Works copyright rules! The pig pull is obviously protected as Parody.
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Now that I look at the two covers side by side, not only did they violate the Copyright of the bull sculptor, it really looks like they did a nice job “imitating” the layout of my cover!
Andy Lees heads up a small macro sales team at UBS. (I have occasionally included some of his quotes at TBP). Anyway he has written a book which he believes has some ground breaking ideas in Below are the accompanying notes he sent with it to his clients yesterday.
The Right Game: The Credit Crunch – Treating the disease rather than the symptoms.
The best book you will ever read…or at least the best book I will ever write.
It looks at the structural issues that explain the build-up in credit and the subsequent crunch. By putting things in a structural context, it suggests that a lot of the policies that governments are pursuing are adding to the imbalances and inefficiencies rather than addressing them. Governments are effectively repeating the same mistakes that got them in this position in the first place.
The world’s shortfall of energy is only going to intensify. Whilst economists dismiss energy as only accounting for 4% or 5% of the modern economy, they fail to understand that this is simply the cost of extracting the fuel. The value to the economy is many multiples bigger, and it is this energy subsidy that effectively explains most economic activity. Understanding how this energy subsidy affects the economy, and how it is collapsing, will explain how the world economy is set to change over the next few years. Even productivity growth itself is explained by the energy subsidy.
Unfortunately the EROIE (Energy Return of Energy Invested) of alternative energies is no more than 15% of the present EROIE of our existing fuel mix. To get the same net energy subsidy from this green energy would mean the energy industry and infrastructure growing from 4% or 5% of the economy to 25% and higher. Either the gross economy would have to soar or the net (non-energy) economy would have to shrink. The implications are huge and will affect every aspect of life, with implications for everything from relative prices to default and credit rates on debt.
The book looks at how this is likely to unfold. Whether we will all go down together or whether certain economies will outperform others. How can countries best protect themselves from the mess and what can investors do. Is there anywhere safe and what will central banks do?
Whilst the press is getting in a fluster about the merits of the Efficient Market Hypothesis and the Capital Asset Pricing Models at the moment, this looks at the “dismal science” of economics in a different light, simply applying some of the most powerful laws of physics to the economy and re-establish simple relationships that over-complicated hypothesis’s have forgotten about.
It is not a 5 minute read but hopefully it is worth the investment of a few hours.
Andy Lees heads up a small macro sales team at UBS looking across all asset classes. He has been both on the investment management side at a leading UK life assurance company from 1985 to 1992, and since then on the sales side at SG Warburgs through all its various guises to the present day UBS. He likes to think of himself as applying common sense business and mechanical skills to an industry that has forgotton what it is; a source of capital for the real economy. His grounding was in derivatives which gave him access to Treasury, Foreign Exchange and Sovereign bonds, as well as European single stock fund management.On the sell side he helped build the institutional and hedge fund derivatives business into a dominant force before stepping up a bit further and setting up a specialist macro team 3 years ago which has allowed him to remove himself from execution but focus on much more idea generation with clients. Andy looks at short term ideas, but tries to put them in a structural theme; how for example changes in demographics meant that the tide of free capital was about to turn in 2008 and that trading should have that in the back of its mind rather than as one client once said; “so tell me how do I make money trading demographics over the next week”. He has been increasingly interested in the energy market for the last 10 – 15 years watching the declining spare capacity within the industry whilst most commentators looked only at inventory data rather than understanding what was going on beneath the surface. Andy had been asked for the last 10 years to write a book, bringing some of his thoughts and previous ideas and publications together. He wanted the right time to tell this particular story which the credit crunch offered him as he felt it emphasized the bigger story that he was looking at, acting as a focal point.
Consumer Credit outstanding fell $14.8b in Sept seasonally adjusted, almost $5b more than expected and marks the 11th month in the past 12 of declines. At $2.456T outstanding, it is 4.9% below the record high in July '08. After a flat reading in Aug, (didn't fall b/c of the CARS program), non revolving debt outstanding fell by $4.9B. Revolving (mostly credit cards) balances outstanding fell by $9.9B. To fully put into perspective today's data, look at the current level of consumer credit (doesn't include mortgages, the biggest chunk of consumer credit) relative to GDP. As of Q3, it totaled 17.2%...
