William Ackman, Founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., is a hedge fund manager and investor activist. According to Bloomberg, “(Pershing’s) 32.8 percent for the first 10 months of 2014, making it the No. 1 fund in Bloomberg Markets’ annual ranking of the best-performing large hedge”
He explains finance and investment in under a hour to help you get a better understanding of just what it takes to understand this often opaque and complex world.
Who rules America?
All the Presidents’ Bankers is a groundbreaking narrative of how an elite group of men transformed the American economy and government, dictated foreign and domestic policy, and shaped world history.
Culled from original presidential archival documents, All the Presidents’ Bankers delivers an explosive account of the hundred-year interdependence between the White House and Wall Street that transcends a simple analysis of money driving politics—or greed driving bankers.
Prins ushers us into the intimate world of exclusive clubs, vacation spots, and Ivy League universities that binds presidents and financiers. She unravels the multi-generational blood, intermarriage, and protégé relationships that have confined national influence to a privileged cluster of people. These families and individuals recycle their power through elected office and private channels in Washington, DC.
All the Presidents’ Bankers sheds new light on pivotal historic events—such as why, after the Panic of 1907, America’s dominant bankers convened to fashion the Federal Reserve System; how J. P. Morgan’s ambitions motivated President Wilson during World War I; how Chase and National City Bank chairmen worked secretly with President Roosevelt to rescue capitalism during the Great Depression while J.P. Morgan Jr. invited Roosevelt’s son yachting; and how American financiers collaborated with President Truman to construct the World Bank and IMF after World War II.
Prins divulges how, through the Cold War and Vietnam era, presidents and bankers pushed America’s superpower status and expansion abroad, while promoting broadly democratic values and social welfare at home. But from the 1970s, Wall Street’s rush to secure Middle East oil profits altered the nature of political-financial alliances. Bankers’ profit motive trumped heritage and allegiance to public service, while presidents lost control over the economy—as was dramatically evident in the financial crisis of 2008.
This unprecedented history of American power illuminates how the same financiers retained their authoritative position through history, swaying presidents regardless of party affiliation. All the Presidents’ Bankers explores the alarming global repercussions of a system lacking barriers between public office and private power. Prins leaves us with an ominous choice: either we break the alliances of the power elite, or they will break us.
Investing is all about common sense. Owning a diversified portfolio of stocks and holding it for the long term is a winner’s game. Trying to beat the stock market is theoretically a zero-sum game (for every winner, there must be a loser), but after the substantial costs of investing are deducted, it becomes a loser’s game. Common sense tells us—and history confirms—that the simplest and most efficient investment strategy is to buy and hold all of the nation’s publicly held businesses at very low cost. The classic index fund that owns this market portfolio is the only investment that guarantees you with your fair share of stock market returns.
To learn how to make index investing work for you, there’s no better mentor than legendary mutual fund industry veteran John C. Bogle. Over the course of his long career, Bogle—founder of the Vanguard Group and creator of the world’s first index mutual fund—has relied primarily on index investing to help Vanguard’s clients build substantial wealth. Now, with The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, he wants to help you do the same.
Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing will show you how to incorporate this proven investment strategy into your portfolio. It will also change the very way you think about investing. Successful investing is not easy. (It requires discipline and patience.) But it is simple. For it’s all about common sense.
With The Little Book of Common Sense Investing as your guide, you’ll discover how to make investing a winner’s game:
You’ll also find warnings about investment fads and fashions, including the recent stampede into exchange traded funds and the rise of indexing gimmickry. The real formula for investment success is to own the entire market, while significantly minimizing the costs of financial intermediation. That’s what index investing is all about. And that’s what this book is all about.
Posted in Books
Tagged bogleheads, investing, john bogle, Personal Finance, vanguard
A revocable trust also sometimes known as or referred to as a revocable living trust, sets provisions altered, changed, or even canceled dependent upon the grantor of the trust. During the “life” of the revocable trust, income earned is distributed to the grantor or grantors, and only after the grantor’s death does property held within it transfer to the stated beneficiaries.
Investopedia explains a revocable trust as, “This type of agreement provides flexibility and income to the living grantor; he or she is able to adjust the provisions of the trust and earn income, all the while knowing that the estate will be transferred upon death.”
The 500 million acres of United States timberland isn’t just owned by foresters and paper companies. Increasing amounts have been bought by private investors (often buying just a few hundred acres), hedge funds, and big institutions. Why the sudden interest in one of the world’s oldest industries?
We live in a world where the S%P 500 can lose over half its value in 15 months, where home values recently tumbled by more than 30% nationwide (immediately after reaching record highs), and even “safe” municipal bonds returning just 3% are at risk of default. In contrast, timberland returns have been relatively stable over time, offer unique tax advantages, and function both as a hedge against inflation and a return producing investment.
The author (a private investor) has dedicated significant time and resources to researching the details of timberland ownership and shares his research and insights – both for individuals interested in purchasing timberland as well as those managing the forested lands they already own.
HBCU Money 