Hiring the Best or Technical Analysis Explained

Hiring the Best: A Manager's Guide to Effective Interviewing and Recruiting

Author: Martin Yat

Employees are your company's number one asset. Hiring the Best, 5th Edition offers managers and HR personnel a proven and practical approach to recruiting and selecting the right people for the job. With over 400 questions you can use to interview candidates and obtain the most pertinent information, you'll be armed with the tools you need to insure that you are indeed Hiring the Best, 5th Edition .

Updates Include:

New section on electronic recruitment

Revised resource section

Information about laws and guidelines which influence hiring practices

Hiring the Best, 5th Edition allows you to determine not only if candidates can do the job, but also if they can be managed effectively and thrive in their new position.

America's leading advocate for working professionals, Martin Yate, C.P.C. is the author of the bestselling Knock 'em Dead series: which includes Knock 'em Dead Resumes, 6th Edition , and Knock 'em Dead Cover Letters, 6th Edition . His previous positions include National Director of Training for Dunhill Personnel System, Inc. and Director of Personnel for Bell Industries Computer Memory Division. Martin Yate resides in Savannah, GA.

Interesting textbook: Kiss Dieting Goodbye or A Guide to Survivorship for Women with Ovarian Cancer

Technical Analysis Explained: The Successful Investor's Guide to Spotting Investment Trends and Turning Points

Author: Martin J Pring

Recommended for professional certification by the Market Technician's Association

The Original­­and Still Number One­­Technical Analysis Answer Book

Technical Analysis Explained, 4th Edition, is today's best resource for making smarter, more informed investment decisions. This straight-talking guidebook details how individual investors can forecast price movements with the same accuracy as Wall Street's most highly paid professionals, and provides all the information you will need to both understand and implement the time-honored, profit-driven tools of technical analysis.

Completely revised and updated for the technologies and trading styles of 21st century markets, it features:

• Technical indicators to predict and profit from regularly occurring market turning points
  
• Psychological strategies for intuitively knowing where investors will seek profits­­and arriving there first!
  
• Methods to increase your forecasting accuracy, using today's most advanced trading techniques
  

Critical Acclaim for Previous Editions:

"One of the best books on technical analysis to come out since Edwards and Magee's classic text in 1948.... Belongs on the shelf of every serious trader and technical analyst."

­­Futures

"...Technical Analysis Explained [is] widely regarded as the standard work for this generation of chartists."
­­Forbes

Traders and investors are creatures of habit who react­­and often overreact­­in predictable ways to rising or falling stock prices, breaking business news, andcyclical financial reports. Technical analysis is the art of observing how investors have regularly responded to events in the past and using that knowledge to accurately forecast how they will respond in the future. Traders can then take advantage of that knowledge to buy when prices are near their bottoms and sell when prices are close to their highs.

Since its original publication in 1980, and through two updated editions, Martin Pring's Technical Analysis Explained has showed tens of thousands of investors, including many professionals, how to increase their trading and investing profits by understanding, interpreting, and forecasting movements in markets and individual stocks. Incorporating up-to-the-minute trading tools and technologies with the book's long-successful techniques and strategies, this comprehensively revised fourth edition provides new chapters on:

• Candlesticks and one- and two-bar price reversals, especially valuable for intraday and swing traders
  
• Expanded material on momentum­­including brand new interpretive techniques from the Directional Movement System and Chaunde Momentum Oscillator to the Relative Momentum Index and the Parabolic
  
• Expanded material on volume, with greater emphasis on volume momentum along with new indicators such as the Demand Index and Chaikin Money Flow
  
• Relative strength, an increasingly important and until now underappreciated arm of technical analysis
  
• Application of technical analysis to contrary opinion theory, expanding the book's coverage of the psychological aspects of trading and investing
  

Technical analysis is a tool, nothing more, yet few tools carry its potential for dramatically increasing a user's trading success and long-term wealth. Let Martin Pring's landmark Technical Analysis Explained provide you with a step-by-step program for incorporating technical analysis into your overall trading strategy and increasing your predictive accuracy and potential profit with every trade you make.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction	1
Pt. I	Trend-Determining Techniques	13
1	The Market Cycle Model	15
2	Financial Markets and the Business Cycle	26
3	Dow Theory	36
4	Typical Parameters for Intermediate Trends	50
5	Price Patterns	63
6	Smaller Price Patterns	98
7	One-and Two-Bar Price Patterns	111
8	Trendlines	136
9	Moving Averages	154
10	Momentum Principles	179
11	Individual Momentum Indicators I	211
12	Individual Momentum Indicators II	237
13	Candle Charts	257
14	Point and Figure Charting	277
15	Miscellaneous Techniques for Determining Trends	287
16	The Concept of Relative Strength	304
17	Putting the Indicators Together: The DJ Transports 1990-2001	322
Pt. II	Market Structure	329
18	Price: The Major Averages	331
19	Price: Group Rotation	352
20	Time: Longer-Term Cycles	364
21	Practical Identification of Cycles	391
22	Volume: General Principles	397
23	Volume Oscillators	409
24	Breadth	435
Pt. III	Other Aspects of Market Behavior	461
25	Why Interest Rates Affect the Stock Market	463
26	Sentiment Indicators	485
27	Applying Technical Analysis to the Theory of Contrary Opinion	511
28	Checkpoints for Identifying Primary Stock Market Peaks and Troughs	526
29	Automated Trading Systems	539
30	Technical Analysis of Global Stock Markets	564
31	Technical Analysis of Individual Stocks	574
	Epilogue	593
App	The Elliott Wave	595
	Glossary	600
	Bibliography	604
	Index	609

People Skills or Natural Cures They Dont Want You to Know About

People Skills

Author: Robert Bolton

A wall of silent resentment shuts you off from someone you love....You listen to an argument in which neither party seems to hear the other....Your mind drifts to other matters when people talk to you....
People Skills is a communication-skills handbook that can help you eliminate these and other communication problems. Author Robert Bolton describes the twelve most common communication barriers, showing how these "roadblocks" damage relationships by increasing defensiveness, aggressiveness, or dependency. He explains how to acquire the ability to listen, assert yourself, resolve conflicts, and work out problems with others. These are skills that will help you communicate calmly, even in stressful emotionally charged situations.
People Skills will show you
* How to get your needs met using simple assertion techniques
* How body language often speaks louder than words
* How to use silence as a valuable communication tool
* How to de-escalate family disputes, lovers' quarrels, and other heated arguments
Both thought-provoking and practical, People Skills is filled with workable ideas that you can use to improve your communication in meaningful ways, every day.

Table of Contents:

Contents
Preface
PART ONE
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE
Skills for Bridging the Interpersonal Gap
Communication: Humanity's Supreme Achievement
The Ineffectiveness of Most Communication
The Ache of Loneliness
So Much Lost Love
A Key to Success at Work
A Life-or-Death Matter
You Can Change
You Will Change!
Managing Your Resistance to Learning
Five Sets of Skills
Summary
CHAPTER TWO
Barriers to Communication
Common Communication Spoilers
Why Roadblocks Are High-Risk Responses
Judging: the Major Roadblock
Roadblock
Sending Solutions Can Be a Problem!
Avoiding the Other's Concerns
Roadblock Number Thirteen
Summary
PART TWO
Listening Skills
CHAPTER THREE
Listening Is More Than Merely Hearing
The Importance of Listening
Listening Defined
Listening Skill Clusters
Attending Skills
Following Skills
Summary
CHAPTER FOUR
Four Skills of Reflective Listening
Reflective Responses Provide a Mirror to the Speaker
Paraphrasing
Reflecting Feelings
Reflecting Meanings
Summary
CHAPTER FIVE
Why Reflective Responses Work
Style and Structure in Listening
Six Peculiarities of Human Communication
Skepticism Is Best Dissolved by Action
Summary
CHAPTER SIX
Reading Body language
The Importance of Body Language
Nonverbals: The Language of Feelings
The "Leakage" of Masked Feelings
Guidelines for Reading Body Language
Reflect the Feelings Back to the Sender
A Clear But Confusing Language
Summary
CHAPTER SEVEN
Improving Your ReflectingSkills
Guidelines for Improved Listening
Beyond Reflective Listening
When to Listen Reflectively
When Not to Listen Reflectively
The Good News and the Bad News
Summary
PART THREE
Assertion Skills
CHAPTER EIGHT
Three Approaches to Relationships
Listening and Assertion: The Yin and Yang of Communication
Methods for Developing Assertiveness
The Need to Protect One's Personal Space
Impacting
The Submission-Assertion-Aggression Continuum
Payoffs and Penalties of Three Ways of Relating
Choose for Yourself
Summary
CHAPTER NINE
Developing Three-Part Assertion Messages
Verbal Assertion: The Third Option
Three-Part Assertion Messages
Effective and Ineffective Ways of Confrontation
Writing Three-Part Assertion Messages
A Voyage of Self-Discovery and Growth
Summary
CHAPTER TEN
Handling the Push-Push Back Phenomenon
Surprise Attack
The Human Tendency to Be Defensive
The Upward Spiral of Increasing Defensiveness
A Six-Step Assertion Process
Summary
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Increasing Your Assertive Options
Many Varieties of Assertive Behavior
"Natural" Assertions
Self-Disclosure
Descriptive Recognition
Relationship Assertions
Selective Inattention
Withdrawal
The Spectrum Response
Options
Natural and Logical Consequences
Stop the Action; Accept the Feelings
Say "No!,"
Modify the Environment
The Danger of Going Overboard
The Aura of Assertiveness
Summary
PART FOUR
Conflict Management Skills
CHAPTER TWELVE
Conflict Prevention and Control
Conflict Is Unavoidable
Conflict Is Disruptive and/or Destructive
The Benefits of Conflict
Realistic and Nonrealistic Conflict
Personal Conflict Prevention and Control Methods
Group/Organizational Prevention and Control Methods
The Dangers of Conflict Prevention and Control
Summary
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Handling the Emotional Components of Conflict
Focus on the Emotions First
The Conflict Resolution Method
The Conflict Resolution Method in Action
Four Ways to Use the Conflict Resolution Method
Preparation for the Encounter
Evaluating the Conflict
Expected Outcomes of the Conflict Resolution Method
Summary
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Collaborative Problem Solving: Seeking an Elegant Solution
Three Kinds of Conflict
Alternatives to Collaborative Problem Solving
Seeking an Elegant Solution Through Collaborative Problem Solving
Six Steps of the Collaborative Problem-Solving Method
What This Problem-Solving Method Communicates
Collaborative Problem-Solving in Action
Handling the Crucial Preliminaries
What Do I Do When Collaborative Problem Solving Doesn't Work?
Applications of Collaborative Problem Solving
Summary
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Three Essentials for Effective Communication
In Communication, Skills Alone Are Insufficient
Genuineness
Non-possessive Love
Empathy
Implementation of the Core Attitudes
AFTERWORD
Four Steps to Improved Communication
A Quantified Commitment to Use the Skills
Select Appropriate Situations
Undaunted by Occasional Failure
Prepare Others for the Change
Skill Training
Notes
Index

Interesting book: Tear up This Book or Can You See What I See The Night Before Christmas

Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About

Author: Kevin Trudeau

Kevin Trudeau blows the lid off a nest of deception and double standards concerning general and individual health in this new book, Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You To Know About. Kevin has risked government prosecution to bring you the full story of an intricate conspiracy.

From the retail supermarket outlets of huge, publicly traded corporations comes processed, manipulated, engineered "food products" produced by other wings of the same corporation. These artificial, toxic treats are then sold with the blessings of the Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug Administration government organizations charged with safeguarding the public good laying the foundations for future disease and chronic ill-health for the consumer, and a guaranteed source of revenue for the medical and pharmaceutical sectors.

Kevin reveals the shocking truth of how drugs which are being advertised directly to the consumer, pushing their use to an all-time high are actually the cause of illness and disease climbing to near epidemic levels.

And, though it sounds dire, Kevin offers a light in the darkness and directs the reader to scores and scores of alternative therapies, medical practices, philosophies and most importantly potential cures that help your body regain its natural state of health and vibrancy.

So follow Kevin on an amazing journey through the behind-the-scenes world of corporate sponsored "nutrition" and "health," and learn about Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You To Know About.

Making Globalization Work or Project Management with MS Project CD Student CD

Making Globalization Work

Author: Joseph E Stiglitz

"A damning denunciation of things as they are, and a platform for how we can do better."—Andrew Leonard, Salon

Four years after he outlined the challenges our increasingly interdependent world was facing in Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz offered his agenda for reform. Now in paperback, Making Globalization Work offers inventive solutions to a host of problems, including the indebtedness of developing countries, international fiscal instability, and worldwide pollution. Stiglitz also argues for the reform of global financial institutions, trade agreements, and intellectual property laws, to make them better able to respond to the growing disparity between the richest and poorest countries. Now more than ever before, globalization has gathered the peoples of the world into one community, bringing with it a need to think and act globally. This trenchant, intellectually powerful book is an invaluable step in that process. This paperback edition contains a brand-new preface.

The New York Times - Jeffry A. Frieden

Stiglitz has given us a well-written and informative primer on the major global economic problems. He helps his readers understand exactly what is at stake.

Library Journal

Nobel Prize winner Stiglitz (former chairman, Council of Economic Advisors; Globalization and Its Discontents) identifies six existing indications that globalization has yet to live up to its promise: the pervasiveness of poverty, the need for foreign assistance and debt relief, the aspiration to make trade fair, the limitations of liberalization, the need to protect the environment, and the flawed system of global governance. In addition to reiterating this criticism from his previous megaseller, Stiglitz here presents concrete methods to enable political globalization to proceed in accord with economic globalization. For example, the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization and a host of additional, soon-to-be-created international political organizations need to start democratically representing the interests of developing countries and stop serving as platforms for the "Washington Consensus." The author occasionally slips by adopting the same type of rhetoric that, he argues, has mystified the processes of economic globalization, e.g., when he suggests that a balanced intellectual property regime serves the interests of every nation developed and developing alike. Overall, his new work succeeds admirably at presenting a concrete course of action for strengthening the institutions and processes of political globalization. Accessible to nonspecialists, this book is recommended for all academic libraries. Cynthia Cameros, Teaneck, NJ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Fighting The Good Fight
Many economists and world leaders agree that globalization is supposed to create higher living standards, increased access to foreign markets, more foreign investment and open borders. But former World Bank Chief Economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz argues in his latest book, Making Globalization Work (a self-described sequel to his 2002 book, Globalization and Its Discontents), that globalization is desperately failing the 80 percent of the world's population that lives in developing countries and the 40 percent that lives in poverty.

The Problems
Stiglitz's overall objection is not to globalization itself; it's to how globalization is managed. He argues that the institutions tasked with managing globalization - the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) - help developed nations more than poor nations and place profit ahead of environmental health and better standards of living.

One reason for this, Stiglitz argues, is the United States' excessive influence on the system. The IMF, for example, assigns votes according to economic size, giving the United States effective veto power. Further, the U.S. president appoints the head of the World Bank. This concentration of power has led to what Stiglitz calls "the Washington Consensus," his term for the lock-step policies shared by the IMF, the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury. The result is that these institutions are only really accountable to wealthy countries rather than the poor countries they are tasked with helping.

What's worse, Stiglitz writes, is that when poor countries seek aid, the Washington Consensus attaches economic policies and lending conditions that are often counterproductive and even undermine the sovereignty of those nations. Its requirements often include massive privatization, spending cuts, lower import tariffs and exposure to volatile foreign capital - four things Stiglitz explains are precisely what developing countries don't need when they're in dire straits. Consequently, Stiglitz argues, countries that have followed the advice of this powerful block have failed almost 100 percent of the time to maintain economic stability.

The Solutions
Stiglitz offers a litany of specific reforms to the globalization management system, but, ultimately, they all rest on the (some might say provocative) idea that the regulatory power of government, rather than unfettered capitalism, makes free markets work. Absent this oversight, he writes, markets dissolve into chaos, dishonesty and secrecy.

One of Stiglitz's biggest proposed reforms is to the global reserve system's dependence on Treasury securities, which he argues is actually a mechanism for funding U.S. overconsumption habits. Stiglitz calls for a new, global reserve currency (called "global greenbacks") system that would stabilize the worldwide yin-yang effect of trade surpluses and deficits.

Stiglitz also proposes global regulation that would restrict activities and political instabilities that harm the environment, and would provide recourse when one nation's environmental actions harm other countries. Stiglitz further argues that poor countries are entitled to compensation for maintaining their biodiversity, especially those with rainforests that spawn drugs and sequester carbon dioxide.

Western banks and multinational corporations are also on Stiglitz's list of institutions needing global oversight. He argues that today's thick corporate veil regrettably tends to relieve employees of moral responsibility. Part of the solution to this, he writes, is more leeway regarding global class-action suits and more enforcement of intellectual property laws so that, for example, AIDS drugs become more accessible rather than more profitable.

Ultimately, Stiglitz concedes, the solution to many of the problems of globalization management lies at the feet of poor countries, which must break the bribery cycle between their governments and international companies, sell their natural resources for a fair price, spend - and save - their money wisely and learn to manage currency fluctuations.

Despite all the protest, Stiglitz is clearly still a cautiously optimistic supporter of globalization. But he is confident that the United States cannot continue to control the world's major economic aid institutions without producing results for the poor countries of the world.

Why We Like This Book
Making Globalization Work explores the problems surrounding the management of globalization. It contributes considerably to the political discourse about the role of governments in the free market through its nuts-and-bolts appraisals of NAFTA, the WTO, the Kyoto Protocol and many other elements of today's globalization debate. But the heart of the book is about finding better ways to make globalization work for the hundreds of millions of people who live in developing countries and in poverty. Copyright © 2007 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Kirkus Reviews

If the free market is the answer to the world's woes, then why is so much of the world getting poorer? Nobel Prize-winning economist Stiglitz (The Roaring Nineties, 2003) ventures some persuasive answers. There are many ways to make globalization work, writes Stiglitz. Regrettably, the U.S. and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are not practicing any of them. Indeed, he argues, "the world's sole superpower has simultaneously been pushing for economic globalization and weakening the political foundations necessary to make economic globalization work." The U.S. consistently plays on an unlevel field, demanding that developing nations open their markets on terms dictated by American interests; globalization as it is now practiced demands that sovereign nations become less sovereign, even as it forces upon developing countries a one-size-fits-all economic system that "is inappropriate and often grossly damaging." America's insistence on the primacy of the free market really means a market that is free for the biggest players, though even a theoretically pure free market is not necessarily the best solution in many instances. For example, Stiglitz writes, many of the thriving economies of East Asia, such as China's, are thoroughly managed, while social democracies such as those of Scandinavia channel much of the GDP into long-range, state-controlled financial sectors for the interest of future generations; meanwhile, free-market experiments in the former Soviet Union have proven disastrous except for a few lucky capitalists. Reining in inequalities is one of the foremost tasks for a globalism worthy of the name, Stiglitz suggests; those calling for ThirdWorld debt relief are on the right track. But there is more to it, he adds, including a rethinking of innovation-stifling intellectual property conventions and a restructuring of international institutions to serve their neediest constituents fairly. A thoughtful essay that ought to provoke discussion in certain well-appointed offices, to say nothing of development and aid circles.

Book about: Pigeon Has Feelings Too or The Demigod Files

Project Management with MS Project CD + Student CD

Author: Clifford F Gray

As the market-leading textbook on the subject, Project Management: The Managerial Process, 4e is distinguished by its balanced treatment of both the technical and behavioral issues in project management as well as by its coverage of a broad range of industries to which project management principles can be applied. It focuses on how project management is integral to the organization as a whole. The 4th edition reflects the latest changes found in the practice. Other texts discuss the topics covered in this text but they do not view oversight as the project manager’s operating environment, as does Gray/Larson.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Modern Project Management
Chapter 2: Organization Strategy and Project Selection
Chapter 3: Organization: Structure and Culture
Chapter 4: Defining the Project
Chapter 5: Estimating Project Times and Costs
Chapter 6: Developing a Project Plan
Chapter 7: Managing Risk
Chapter 8: Scheduling Resources and Costs
Chapter 9: Reducing Project Duration
Chapter 10: Leadership: Being an Effective Project Manager
Chapter 11: Managing Project Teams
Chapter 12: Outsourcing: Managing Interorganizational Relations
Chapter 13: Progress and Performance Measurement and Evaluation
Chapter 14: Project Audit and Closure
Chapter 15: International Projects
Chapter 16: Oversight
Appendix 1: SimProject Case
Appendix 2: Computer Project Exercises

The Necessary Revolution or How to Work a Room

The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World

Author: Peter Seng

Imagine a world in which the excess energy from one business would be used to heat another. Where buildings need less and less energy around the world, and where “regenerative” commercial buildings – ones that create more energy than they use – are being designed. A world in which environmentally sound products and processes would be more cost-effective than wasteful ones. A world in which corporations such as Costco, Nike, BP, and countless others are forming partnerships with environmental and social justice organizations to ensure better stewardship of the earth and better livelihoods in the developing world. Now, stop imagining – that world is already emerging.

A revolution is underway in today’s organizations. As Peter Senge and his co-authors reveal in The Necessary Revolution, companies around the world are boldly leading the change from dead-end “business as usual” tactics to transformative strategies that are essential for creating a flourishing, sustainable world. There is a long way to go, but the era of denial has ended. Today’s most innovative leaders are recognizing that for the sake of our companies and our world, we must implement revolutionary—not just incremental—changes in the way we live and work.

Brimming with inspiring stories from individuals and organizations tackling social and environmental problems around the globe, THE NECESSARY REVOLUTION reveals how ordinary people at every level are transforming their businesses and communities. By working collaboratively across boundaries, they are exploring and putting into place unprecedented solutions that move beyond justbeing “less bad” to creating pathways that will enable us to flourish in an increasingly interdependent world. Among the stories in these pages are the evolution of Sweden’s “Green Zone,” Alcoa’s water use reduction goals, GE’s ecoimagination initiative, and Seventh Generation’s decision to shift some of their advertising to youth-led social change programs.

At its heart, THE NECESSARY REVOLUTION contains a wealth of strategies that individuals and organizations can use — specific tools and ways of thinking — to help us build the confidence and competence to respond effectively to the greatest challenge of our time. It is an essential guidebook for all of us who recognize the need to act and work together—now—to create a sustainable world, both for ourselves and for the generations to follow.

Read also Agent Based Models or Way of the Samurai 2

How to Work a Room: The Ultimate Guide to Savvy Socializing in Person and Online

Author: Susan RoAn

A Classic, Now Expanded and Updated

The new and expanded two-cassette edition of the most effective guide to networking and building both business and personal relationships.

Walking into a room full of strangers, whether at a business function or a cocktail party, is nerve-wracking—especially if you’re trying to make a good impression. In How to Work a Room, Susan RoAne lays out the fundamentals of savvy socializing, teaching you how to interact impressively and make the connections that allow you to move forward in your business and personal life. Her dynamic program, a worldwide bestselling book since its first publication in 1988 and a top-selling Renaissance audiobook since 1991, is now updated and expanded, adding additional punch and appeal to a self-help classic.

With wit and style RoAne addresses all the ways to successfully socialize. This comprehensive two-cassette edition also gives you the tools to network in the “virtual room” and “techno-toy room,” and pays special attention to the new business and social dynamics of 2000 and beyond.

This supercharged three-hour learning experience drives home the most effective ways to make the most of interpersonal and networking opportunities.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: The Roadblocks:

Financial Peace Planner or Richistan

Financial Peace Planner: A Step-by-Step Guide to Restoring Your Family's Financial Health

Author: Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey knows what it's like to have - and lose - it all. After falling so far into debt that he was forced to declare personal bankruptcy, Ramsey rebuilt his financial life. Now he offers his hard-won advice, and much-needed hope, to many Americans who find themselves in serious debt and desperate for a way out.

There are no gimmicks or quick fixes to Ramsey's method of financial salvation. Instead he encourages you to take "baby steps," set realistic goals, and seek the support of family and friends. Ramsey's advice is easy to follow, and, because he's been there, he doesn't talk down to you. His workbook format allows you to frequently monitor your progress and, most important, to face your situation honestly.

Inside you'll find help on how to

• Asses the urgency of your situation
• Understand where your money's going
• Create a realistic budget
• Dump your debt
• Clean up your credit rating

Like any regimen, achieving financial peace requires patience and hard work. But the benefits - even if they're only the ability to sleep at night, answer the telephone, and balance the checkbook without stress - are well worth the effort. And once you're back on your feet, you'll find information on how to grow your wealth, provide for a comfortable retirement, and leave a legacy of financial peace.

Filled with inspirational insights that come from personal experience, The Financial Peace Planner may be the most valuable purchase you ever make.

Interesting book: Save Your Knees or The Perricone Promise

Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich

Author: Robert Frank

The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through “Richistan” entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own “arborists.” They’re also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
Richistan is like the best travel writing, full of colorful and interesting stories providing insights into exotic locales. Robert Frank has been loitering on the docks of yacht marinas, pestering his way into charity balls, and schmoozing with real estate agents selling mega-houses to capture the story of the twenty-first century’s nouveau riche:

House-training the rich. People with new wealth have to be taught how to act like, well, proper rich people. Just in the nick of time, there’s been a boom in the number of newly trained butlers—“household managers”—who will serve just the right cabernet when a Richistani’s new buddies from Palm Beach stop by.

“My boat is bigger than your boat.” Only in Richistan would a 100-foot-boat be considered a dinghy. Personal pleasure craft have started to rival navy destroyers in size and speed. Richistan is also a place where friends make fun of those misers who buy the new girlfriend a mere Mercedes SLK.

“You want my money? Prove that you’re helping the needy!” Richistanis are not only consuming like crazy, they’re also shaking up the establishment’s bureaucratic, slow-moving charity network, makinglean, results-oriented philanthropy an important new driving force.

Move over, Christian Coalition. Richistanis are more Democratic than Republican, “fed up and not going to take it anymore,” and willing to spend millions to get progressive-oriented politicians elected.

“My name is Mike and I’m rich.” Think that money is the answer? Think again as Robert Frank explores the emotional complexities of wealth.

And, as Robert Frank reveals, there is not one Richistan but three: Lower, Middle, and Upper, each of which has its own levels and distinctions of wealth —the haves and the have-mores. The influence of Richistan and the Richistanis extends well beyond the almost ten million households that make up its population, as the nonstop quest for status and an insatiable demand for luxury goods reshapes the entire American economy.

DaleFarris - Library Journal

Frank, Wall Street Journalsenior special writer, created a stir in popular culture when he began his weekly WSJcolumn and daily blog called The Wealth Report, which discussed the way of life of "Richistanis," residents of the unique world of "Richistan," who have realized tremendous wealth. In 2003, the author learned that the number of American millionaire households had more than doubled since 1995 to over eight million and that these newly affluent were beginning to cluster and create their own universe. In 2003, WSJassigned Frank to focus full time on the life and times of the nouveau riche, which led to his popular Wealth Reporter column and, ultimately, to this fully fleshed work, which provides a fascinating analysis of the life and the culture of the ultra-rich. He digs deep, analyzing their high-end investing patterns and business savvy, charitable giving, and purchase of luxury goods and services. Frank describes their own personalized health-care system, specialized transport system, unlimited, customized travel network, household managers, and much more. He also provides an understanding of the paradoxical nature of many of the newly rich that explains why so many are as common as ordinary middle-class Americans, even though they have more money than they could ever spend and are nothing like the select few among this subculture who attract a media frenzy, like Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, and Bill Gates. The lively narration by Dick Hill helps maintain interest throughout this material, which provides an important contribution to the fields of economics and demography. Highly recommended for university and larger public libraries.

Leadership on the Line or One Up On Wall Street

Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading

Author: Ronald A Heifetz

Every day, in every facet of our lives, opportunities to lead call out to us. At work and at home, in our local communities and in the global village, the chance to make a difference beckons. Yet often, we hesitate. For all its passion and promise, for all its excitement and rewards, leading is risky, dangerous work. Why? Because real leadership -- the kind that surfaces conflict, challenges long-held beliefs, and demands new ways of doing things -- causes pain. And when people feel threatened, they take aim at the person pushing for change. As a result, leaders often get hurt both personally and professionally. In Leadership on the Line, renowned leadership authorities Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky marshal a half century of combined teaching and consulting experience to show that it is possible to put ourselves on the line, respond effectively to the risks, and live to celebrate our efforts. With compelling examples including the presidents of countries and the presidents of organizations, everyday managers and prominent activists, politicians and parents, the authors illustrate proven strategies for surviving and thriving amidst the dangers of leading.

The authors also address often-neglected aspects of leadership, such as how to manage your personal vulnerabilities, and how to anchor yourself and sustain your spirit through tough times. Both uplifting and practical, this essential book enables each of us to lead courageously and confidently -- without losing ourselves.

Publishers Weekly

Recognizing that it can be both lonely and difficult at the top, the authors faculty members of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government set out to lend emotional and practical support. Whether leaders represent a local planning board or a Fortune 500 company, they "live dangerously," say the authors, "because when leadership counts, when you lead people through difficult change, you challenge what people hold dear their daily habits, tools, loyalties, and ways of thinking with nothing more to offer perhaps than a possibility." To that end, Heifetz and Linsky offer useful strategies leaders can employ, such as building political constituencies, trying to orchestrate the inevitable conflict, and forcing those who cause problems to actually solve the problems. Indeed, the book does dwell on the negative aspects of leadership, serving more as a troubleshooting guide than a how-to leadership handbook. Some of the examples are informal (e.g., the 1994 Chicago Bulls), while others are more traditional (e.g., city planning and politics). Showing a sympathetic side, Heifetz and Linsky offer tactics to help leaders not to take conflict personally. Remember, they counsel, you are more than your job. This book will undoubtedly provide leaders and managers comfort on days when everything seems to be going wrong in their department or organization. (May 23) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Heifetz and Linsky (both John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard U.) discuss how to survive and thrive on the dangers of leadership. They address leadership at all levels, from parents to everyday workers, managers and community activists, presidents of organizations and of countries. They examine why and how leadership is dangerous, how that danger drives some people "out of the game," possible strategies to reduce the risk of getting pushed aside, ways that people contribute to their own demise, ways to manage personal vulnerabilities, and how to keep one's spirit alive in the face of adversity. This text takes a more personal and practical approach to expand on ideas raised in Heifetz's earlier book, . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading
Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky are two faculty members from Harvard and high-level consultants who understand the risks that are inherent in the role of the leader. They write that leadership is worth the risk because the goals of leadership extend beyond material gain or personal advancement. Real leadership speaks to higher values, surfaces unresolved conflicts, and can make a difference in people's lives. But, leadership can be risky when it brings up unpopular initiatives, puts provocative new ideas on the table, questions the gaps between people's values and behaviors, or asks people to face up to tough realities.

To help leaders survive and thrive, Heifetz and Linsky provide encouragement to those who put their ideas on the line and challenge people to change. Using the lessons learned from their students and clients around the world as inspiration, they offer guides to help leaders name, organize and make sense out of their experience.

Challenges and Pitfalls
The first part of Leadership on the Line explores the challenges and pitfalls of leadership and describes many stories where a leader has been "taken out of the game." Leadership is dangerous, and stories about assassinated leaders make the point.

Some problems are mere technical problems that can be solved with available know-how and procedures, but other problems that cannot be solved with authoritative expertise or standard procedures are adaptive challenges. These require experiments, new discoveries and numerous adjustments.

The authors write, "Without learning new ways - changing attitudes, values and behaviors - peoplecannot make the adaptive leap necessary to thrive in the new environment." Sustaining change requires those with the problem to internalize the change. But, this is difficult because it is hard for people to see that the new situation will be any better than the current condition. The authors write that the single most common source of leadership failure is when leaders treat adaptive challenges like technical problems.

To mobilize adaptive work, leaders must engage people in adjusting their unrealistic expectations, rather than try to satisfy them with a technical remedy. The authors write that leaders must counteract people's "exaggerated dependency and promote their resourcefulness." This requires an extraordinary level of presence, time, artful communication and trust.

Reducing The Risks of Leadership
To offer hope to those who want to avoid being pushed aside, Part Two discusses these five action ideas that help reduce the risks of leadership:

1. Get on the Balcony. First you must see what is happening, then you must take action with a plan. Repeat these two things with discipline and flexibility. Maintain a diagnostic mindset on a changing reality. Address real stakes, fears and conflicts.
2. Think Politically. Place an emphasis on personal relationships. Nurture networks of people, find partners, keep the opposition close, accept responsibility, acknowledge people's loss, model behavior, and accept casualties.
3. Orchestrate the Conflict. Work with differences, passions and conflicts in a way that diminishes their destructive potential. Create a safe environment where conflict can safely take place, control the level of conflict, pace the work, and offer a vision of the future.
4. Give the Work Back. Place the work of finding solutions within and between the factions who are faced with the challenge, and tailor your interventions so they are clear and have a context. Hold steady in the aftermath so you can evaluate your next move.
5. Hold Steady. Wavering or acting prematurely can destroy an initiative. Maintain your poise so you can plan the next step.

The book ends with a discussion of the critical aspects of exercising leadership, and ways to manage personal vulnerabilities without losing hope. These include remembering to pay attention to your own needs, and not forgetting that leadership is a personal activity that is an intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical challenge. Detach your professional life from your role as a leader.

Why Soundview Likes This Book
Leadership on the Line offers a well-rounded approach to leadership that embraces the humanity of the leader while providing numerous pertinent examples and lessons about successful leadership strategies. The authors' words of practical advice and inspiration are packed with wisdom and experiences that can give any leader a better perspective on their crucial role in business, family, government and community. Copyright (c) 2002 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments
	Introduction	1
Pt. 1	The Challenge
1	The Heart of Danger	9
2	The Faces of Danger	31
Pt. 2	The Response
3	Get on the Balcony	51
4	Think Politically	75
5	Orchestrate the Conflict	101
6	Give the Work Back	123
7	Hold Steady	141
Pt. 3	Body and Soul
8	Manage Your Hungers	163
9	Anchor Yourself	187
10	What's on the Line?	207
11	Sacred Heart	225
	Notes	237
	Index	243
	About the Authors	251

Look this: Broken Promises Broken Dreams or George Washingtons Expense Account

One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market

Author: Peter Lynch

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLING BOOK THAT EVERY INVESTOR SHOULD OWN

Peter Lynch is America's number-one money manager. His mantra: Average investors can become experts in their own field and can pick winning stocks as effectively as Wall Street professionals by doing just a little research.

Now, in a new introduction written specifically for this edition of One Up on Wall Street, Lynch gives his take on the incredible rise of Internet stocks, as well as a list of twenty winning companies of high-tech '90s. That many of these winners are low-tech supports his thesis that amateur investors can continue to reap exceptional rewards from mundane, easy-to-understand companies they encounter in their daily lives.

Investment opportunities abound for the layperson, Lynch says. By simply observing business developments and taking notice of your immediate world -- from the mall to the workplace -- you can discover potentially successful companies before professional analysts do. This jump on the experts is what produces "tenbaggers," the stocks that appreciate tenfold or more and turn an average stock portfolio into a star performer.

The former star manager of Fidelity's multibillion-dollar Magellan Fund, Lynch reveals how he achieved his spectacular record. Writing with John Rothchild, Lynch offers easy-to-follow directions for sorting out the long shots from the no shots by reviewing a company's financial statements and by identifying which numbers really count. He explains how to stalk tenbaggers and lays out the guidelines for investing in cyclical, turnaround, and fast-growing companies.

Lynch promises that if you ignore the ups and downs of the market and theendless speculation about interest rates, in the long term (anywhere from five to fifteen years) your portfolio will reward you. This advice has proved to be timeless and has made One Up on Wall Street a number-one bestseller. And now this classic is as valuable in the new millennium as ever.

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job or Bringing Home the Birkin

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (And Their Employees)

Author: Patrick M Lencioni

A bestselling author and business guru tells how to improve your job satisfaction and performance.

In his sixth fable, bestselling author Patrick Lencioni takes on a topic that almost everyone can relate to: the causes of a miserable job. Millions of workers, even those who have carefully chosen careers based on true passions and interests, dread going to work, suffering each day as they trudge to jobs that make them cynical, weary, and frustrated. It is a simple fact of business life that any job, from investment banker to dishwasher, can become miserable. Through the story of a CEO turned pizzeria manager, Lencioni reveals the three elements that make work miserable -- irrelevance, immeasurability, and anonymity -- and gives managers and their employees the keys to make any job more fulfilling.

As with all of Lencionis books, this one is filled with actionable advice you can put into effect immediately. In addition to the fable, the book includes a detailed model examining the three signs of job misery and how they can be remedied. It covers the benefits of managing for job fulfillment within organizations -- increased productivity, greater retention, and competitive advantage -- and offers examples of how managers can use the applications in the book to deal with specific jobs and situations.

Patrick Lencioni (San Francisco, CA) is President of The Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in executive team development and organizational health. As a consultant and keynote speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives and executive teams in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to high-tech startups touniversities and nonprofits. His clients include AT&T, Bechtel, Boeing, Cisco, Sams Club, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Allstate, Visa, FedEx, New York Life, Sprint, Novell, Sybase, The Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Lencioni is the author of six bestselling books, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. He previously worked for Oracle, Sybase, and the management consulting firm Bain & Company.

Table of Contents:

Introduction.

The Fable.

Part One: The Manager.

Part Two: Retirement.

Part Three: The Experiment.

Part Four: Going Live.

The Model.

The Miserable Job.

The Cost of Misery.

The Three Signs.

The Benefits and Obstacles of Managing for Job Fulfillment.

Exploring and Addressing the Causes of Job Misery.

Case Studies.

Taking Action.

The Ministry of Management.

Acknowledgments.

About the Author.

Interesting book: The Wine Wars or Chocolate Companion

Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag

Author: Michael Tonello

An insider's hilarious, whirlwind account of his years spent globe-trotting in search of the holy grail of handbags: the Birkin

For more than twenty years, the Hermès Birkin bag has been the iconic symbol of fashion, luxury, and wealth. Though the bag is often seen dangling from the arms of celebrities, there is a fabled waiting list of more than two years to buy one from Hermès, and the average fashionista has a better chance of climbing Mount Everest in Prada pumps than of possessing one of these coveted carryalls. Unless, of course, she happens to know Michael Tonello . . .

Michael's newfound career started with an impulsive move to Barcelona, a vanished job assignment, no work visa, and an Hermès scarf sold on eBay to generate some quick cash. But soon the resourceful Michael discovered the truth about the waiting list and figured out the secret to getting Hermès to part with one of these precious bags. Millions of dollars worth of Birkins later, Michael had become one of eBay's most successful entrepreneurs—and a Robin Hood to thousands of desperate rich women.

With down-to-earth wit, Michael chronicles the unusual ventures that took him to nearly every continent, from eBay to Paris auction house and into the lives of celebrities and poseurs. Flirting with danger, Michael recounts the heady rush of hand delivering his first big score to famed songwriter Carole Bayer Sager in Paris; how he had to hire thugs to rescue a bag that one of his "shoppers" held for ransom; and the story of the Oscar-worthy performances that allowed him to snag "reserved" bags from other, less dogged Birkinseekers.

Whether he's relating his wining and dining, buying and selling, dodging and weaving, laughing and crying, or schmoozing and stammering, Michael is a master raconteur who weaves together tales of hunting Birkins in the world's most posh locales, memories of meals that would make any gastronome salivate, anecdotes of obsessed collectors with insatiable desires, and sweetly intimate stories about his family, friends, and finding true love. The result is a memoir that is distinctive, fun, page-turning, and as addictive as its namesake.

Kirkus Reviews

Periodically charming but fluffy comic memoir. Semi-bored Massachusetts-based hairstylist Tonello "had spent most of the decade trigger-happy with a can of hairspray and a powder puff" and was ready for a change. A temporary gig in Barcelona convinced him that Spain was the place he really ought to be and that having "too much shit to move" wasn't a good enough reason to stay put. He took the plunge and happily relocated. Once settled across the pond, Tonello drifted into a new business venture: reselling Hermes products on eBay. The most exciting pieces of merchandise he dealt with were the infamously high-end Birkin handbags, and eventually he became obsessed with them. Can the average reader relate to a several-hundred page search for personal and professional Birkin Nirvana? Probably not, but the primary problem with Tonello's debut is bigger than that. The "in search of . . . " subgenre is just about played out. Considering how many of these books clog the shelves, chances are good that a title will blend in with its brethren unless either the object sought or the author is utterly compelling. Despite Tonello's deft sense of humor, sharp observational skills, an appreciation for the absurd and some positive energy, his confessional travelogue/how-to is relatively undistinguished and indistinguishable. Clever yet unremarkable. Agent: Laura Yorke/Carol Mann Agency