Book Description
Published for the very first time ever. Over 850 practical, easy-to-use historical probabilities on the most commonly traded market scenarios!
For years, traders and investors have been using unproven assumptions about popular patterns such as breakouts, momentum, new highs, new lows, market breadth, put/call ratios and more without knowing if there is a statistical edge.
Have you ever wondered the following...
Do these patterns actually make you money? Read on and you'll be surprised by what 15 years of new, previously unpublished research reveals.
Is there a radically different, better way to trade these patterns and indicators that somehow has escaped the awareness of traders and investors? You'll find the answers below...
The answers to both of these questions and much more is contained in Larry Connors' new book, How Markets Really Work. Through new research, much of which has never before been published, you will be able to clearly see which of nearly 850 meticulously researched patterns and indicators have an edge -- and which do not. Best of all, you will be able to apply this information whenever you trade.
Here's how you can use How Markets Really Work in your trading every day. Learn how to focus on trades that have the best edge and stop trading setups that have zero edge. Every time you trade, just look up the current market action in the book so that you can potentially maximize your winning trades while weeding out the losing ones.
Gain an edge that many traders and professional traders do not have. Most traders will continue to operate according to incorrect conventional wisdom because much of it "seems to make sense." But by using How Markets Really Work as your daily reference guide, you will be able to take advantage of market behaviors that consistently repeated themselves over and over again in the past.
Use it to better time your entries and exits into stocks and ETFs. Many times the trading system or methodology you are using will tell you to enter or exit a trade into price action that matches one of the patterns listed in How Markets Really Work. When this occurs, it's a great opportunity for you to fine tune your actions so that statistical probabilities are working in your favor and not against you.
The knowledge contained in How Markets Really Work can be used in developing your very own systems and strategies. Whether you are a system developer or you just want to improve your existing trading strategy, you can use the core knowledge in this book to stimulate your own research and create new systems.
Impact your trading with never-before-seen research on put/call ratios, price movement, breadth indicators, large one-day moves, volume and much, much more. Whether you use these indicators or not, you will finally be able to make informed decisions about their true value to your trading. Each Chapter Of How Markets Really Work Is Backed By Up To 15 Years Of Historical Results!
Customer Reviews:
A good investment for stock traders.......2006-11-30
I have to laugh at the people who gripe about the price of this book, or any other one for that matter. Point blank, books like this one should be considered investments. If they provide you with information to increase your trading profitability or minimize your losses, then the investment has paid off.
How Markets Really Work is definitely a concise text. I, for one, am happy for that. It is a research report which presents a significant proposition and provides considerable evidence to support it. This book does that efficiently with no extra prose and loads of visual support making it a quick read and one that definitely makes the point it seeks to make.
If you are a stock market trader, especially one focused on the indices, How Markets Really Work is a very good investment. It could very well alter the way you approach your trading.
Contrarian argument.......2006-06-04
This book is a quick argument for short-term contrarian trading in the stock market, backed by a zillion pages of data (that nobody is going to do more than flip through and glance at a page here and there). It does makes a good argument, however.
To follow the conclusion in your own trading you will be buying after the market sells off and selling after it rallies. I actually developed and published a simple system based on these principles using Bollinger Bands and betting on reversals when price hits the outer band and stalls the next day (without bursting through it). It works well most of the time, especially in non-trending markets.
The problem with the book is it's failure to follow through with any suggestions for rule-based systems based on it's conclusion. OK, bet on reversals - when do you place a trade? While the market is still moving or after it stalls? How much of a move does it need to be before entering a position? Is it applicable to all time frames? When do you take profits?
Markets move and then correct in waves 95% of the time. Marcel Link concludes in his excellent book "High Probability Trading" that betting on the smaller-wave corrections just isn't worth it in the long run and you are better off betting on waves in the direction of the bigger trend. I tend to agree.
This book is way, way, waaayyyy overpriced for what it is. That being said, it is the best 1-star book I have read.
For me, books are either a 1 star, 3 star, or 5 star. The 5-stars are the classics that are too good to ever remove from your bookshelf, like many of the books I recommend at winningfinancialstrategies.com. The 3-stars get sold on ebay when the bookshelf overflows. The 1-stars go to Salvation Army.
No Composition.......2006-04-20
Research is expensive but presenting research without composition is worthless. Unfortunately this book presents valuable research without composition and it turns out that the content of this book is to be forgotten right after reading it.
Connors=expensive books for little value.......2006-04-19
all connors books are expensive, very expensive.
a $50 book for a 100 something pages which are all filled with graphs.
i wonder if authors like this can sleep peacefully every night without feeling guilty of ripping people off so much.
i dont mean this book is bad bcoz it is thin, quality cannot be measured with the number pages, John Hull's book is a definite example, with so much quality information contained in a relatively small book. however, all connors books are very expensive in terms of both quality and quantity.
there are many other good and reasonably priced books on a subject like this. Skip Connors.
Larry gives you a fishing pole and some pointers; the rest is up to you.......2005-12-28
This book won't teach you how to fish in the seas of the market. Probably anybody who'd shell $50 for a book like this already has a good theoretical understanding of the dynamics of fishing, and is now onto more sophisticated and practical pusuits like trying to optimize when, where, how they hook their prey.
And if you're in that category, this book will probably meet your needs. For those who are too lazy or computer illiterate to run elaborate backtests themselves (count me into the latter category), messrs Connors and Sen have created a lean volume designed to counter prevailing Wall Street wisdom (that the only way to vast riches is in buying AFTER higher prices, good volume, and good breadth) and extrapolate upon some interesting, reliable setups that the reader can then build his own systems around.
The austerity of the book represents both its major strength and weakness. I would have liked some more analysis of drawdown and risk, but that would be more appropriate for a book on actual trading strategy, not a "data reference" like this. Also, the authors' used essentially the same exit date in each chapter and for each setup, eg, 1-day, 2-days, and 1 week. This is appropriate for many of the short-term traders who would read a book like this, but it would have been interesting if they'd incorporated a few more exit parameters. And lastly, I would have liked a bit more context in terms of where the market itself was on particular dates and during particular setups, but that also exceeded the bounds of this book.
Although "How Markets Work" is a bit pricey for what you get, it's still a good resource and well worth consulting.
Book Description
How to invest using straightforward common sense instead of misleading"hot tips"
While market pundits argue the rational market theory, one theory gets almost universal consensusthat of the irrational investor. Outsmarting the Smart Money outlines where most investors go wrong and explains how to instead approach the markets with intelligence and calm. Filled with hard-hitting insights and useful lessons, it shows how to use market-proven techniques and strategies to overcome biases, myths, and mistakesand beat the pros at their own game. Cunningham presents flexible security analysis guidelines for investors who want to guide their own portfolios, but don't want to devote all of their free time to the effort including:
- How to overcome personal biases, misleading information, and market inefficiencies
- Methods to avoid being cheated by money managers, and identify "spin" reporting
Customer Reviews:
Disorganised and unhelpful writings! I really want a refund!.......2006-08-05
Dont know whether the author had been too keen to show how good he wrote or to publish a new book or what, this book just lacked the substance to be useful on investment or trading. I doubt whether any reader of it can "understand how markets really work and win the wealth game" per book title by the very descriptive and insightless essays in unlinked chapters. I wonder why some referrals could praise it as an excellent Trading/Investment Psychology book. As a pro trader/CFA/trading book lover, I cant tell anything positive about it. So far I had rated less than five books of this category a one star as far as I remember, and this book is one of the minority.
Barron's Is Right: Top Book of 2002.......2003-01-26
I read Cunningham's book based on the review in Barron's rounding up the best investment books of 2002. They were right. The book is a eye-opening intro to the psychology of investing, important to investors and market observers/regulators. (Cunningham's other books have more of the basics for investors--also very good books.)
Great Book (Odd Title).......2002-09-19
Awesome. Cunningham dissects the woes besetting corporate American using lucid, concrete examples, with boundless energy and enthusiasm, endorsed properly on the back cover by those who take behavioralism seriously, including Gary Belsky, who wrote the top-seller "Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes" (which is about general habits, not investment philosophy of which Cunningham writes) and Robert Hagstrom, prolific author (who writes about investment philosophy, and sometimes behavioralism). What an astonishing record Cunningham has developed as a writer and expert in invesetment theory and practice! A better title for this book would be Rational Investing in a Hair Brained Environment; the one chosen is unduly flashy for the seriousness of Cunningham's pursuits (he's a professor of law and business!).
Title promises, but book doesn't deliver........2002-09-02
Doesn't this book sound like a battle plan for investment success, maybe one filled with value-based accounting lessons? It's not.
In fact, we are spared math, and we are not given practical counsel, either. That was what I looking for, as the title suggests. The title should be How Can The Smart Money Be So Dumb.
Instead, this is an interesting run-through of recent horror stories on Wall Street from the Internet bubble to IPO's to pro forma accounting and Enron. Behavioral finance is discussed here, but Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes by Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich is far superior.
Or read Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein. Or John Neff On Investing instead.
Mr. Cunningham is one of the new wave of Buffett explainers. (Where were you people 15 years ago when there was money to be made buying Berkshire?) And why does someone so incisive, so downhome funny as Mr. Buffett need so much explanation?? (Try Cunningham's The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America or the Berkshire Hathaway annual report.)
Unfortunately, the author lets slip his idea of a five-year holding period for stocks. That may turn out to be good advice, but which stocks would he choose to hold? We have no idea. (Tech stocks, big winners 2 years ago, have crashed back down to their 1997 prices. And non-tech Walt Disney is well below its 1997 prices.)
I think Mr. Cunningham is an extremely brave and patient investor.
Mind-field.......2002-06-22
In a perfect investment world the price of a stock embodies its value. And those who believe this 'efficient' market hypothesis will be buying index mutual funds certainly not this book. But those who dismiss this academic construct to profit from the inefficiencies evident in the market still run substantial risks not adequately addressed by most investment books. The minefield of risks that Cunningham guides us through is that the biases of others, the cause of those price vs. value anomalies, are also our own biases and can trigger money-losing investment decisions. Overconfidence and the "pattern seeking" bias to project short term trends into the future are just two examples, but they do so some of the worst damage. They lead to a dangerous reliance on margin borrowing and excessive trading activity. Also, recognize that companies make many of the same behavioral errors. It is the author's "smart" investor who can spot the folly of manic acquisitions by companies acting as if they were on steroids - grasping for growth at a fiscal cost. Cunningham dismisses technical analysis as "hokum" (Here he agrees with the proponents of an efficient market who maintain market movements cannot be predicted accurately). Stay away from IPO's, companies relying on pro-forma accounting, and sector funds. Read analyst reports with caution, but do study closely "management's discussion" of their business in the annual report. Be wary of stock buybacks, stock option programs, stock splits, spin-offs, secondary offerings, and performance-based incentive plans. Any of these programs can be abused and rise out of corporate hubris. Above all: Recognize your biases, your tolerance for risk, be objective, and have criteria to know when to sell your positions. A lot of territory is covered in this book with some of the best material appearing in Chapters 10 and 11. Cunningham builds a persuasive case for adopting a long term, value oriented investment philosophy which is least affected by these biases.
Product Description
UNTOLD SECRETS HOW THE REAL ESTATE MARKET REALLY WORKS is the definitive guide on how to Price and Value real estate in a competitive market, written by twenty-five-year veteran Kerry D. Bodily. In this latest book, Kerry writes candidly as a consumer advocate how the current appraisal system methods, commonly used by most home sellers and real estate professionals, are unrealistic for determining the competitive price or value of real estate in an active market. In other words, states Kerry. Today's competition determines today's value, not yesterday's sales. This is the new paradigm solution presented in this book. With real-life examples and humorous stories, Kerry exposes the many-layered parts and parties of real estate transactions. If you're a home seller, he advises how to position your property to get the highest price, and if you're a buyer, how to get the most value for the price paid. He also teaches consumers how to get the most out of their real estate professionals, including agents, home inspectors, mortgage lenders, and others.
Customer Reviews:
A Must Read for Any Professional, Buyer or Seller.......2007-02-16
Couldn't put this book down. This is a very realistic approach to how real estate should be valued and clearly exposes why the standard methods used by agents (and appraisers)to establish a value are not market sensitive and therefore unrealistic. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to price a property "right" for the market. This author also provides the working materials you need to apply his approach from both a buyer and seller side which adds to the value of this book. This is a very usable system and I am particularly impressed by the software that can also be acquired from the author's website.
Customer Reviews:
Reply to previous review.......2002-03-04
The first reviewer of this book obviously did not read it. The book is an extremly well balanced description of the stock market -it shows and explains all the possible pitfalls that can occur when trading. It also dedicates a whole chapter to different methods of investing your money - real estate, antiques, fine wines.... Personally I found the book a great introduction to the stock market and would recommend it to anybody who just wants to understand the business section of their Sunday paper
Another money maker! . . . just not yours........1999-06-15
Very few people will really tell you how the stock market actually works. If they did, it wouldn't. After you read the basics about placing orders and some technical indicators and patterns they hope you'll jump right in and lose your money. Do yourself a favor, study the market from a social history/military/control mechanism point of view by utilizing free library books. By the time you get it, you'll have saved more start-up capital and you won't go broke. Or, find somebody that will tell you the real deal -- and when you do, listen! Be prepared for a real shock, and then a huge sigh of relief!
Book Description
Several years ago, Joel Kurtzman was covering a meeting between a group of Russian economists and politicians and some of America’s best thinkers from business and academia. The Russians were trying to get a handle on exactly who was in charge of the markets and how long the founder of a failed start-up would be sentenced to jail.
It’s easy to see why Joel’s Russian friends were befuddled. But how many of us really understand how the markets work, despite the fact that we live and work in a society that practically worships “the market” as a religion? And when people today are investing more money in mutual funds than in banks, this can be a problem. The markets are big, complex, and completely unforgiving. If you make a major mistake, you risk losing a major amount of money. That’s why it’s vital to peel back the layers of mystery shrouding the markets.
In
How the Markets Really Work, Joel Kurtzman provides a lucid explanation of one of the fundamental forces shaping our lives. In clear, accessible language, Kurtzman explains:
* How markets, which are so vital to the world’s economies, are able to function without any central control
* How they create wealth and spread the risk of the world’s most uncertain, but potentially lucrative, bets
* How markets package and resell debt, connect financial institutions, and set prices
* Why volatility has increased and what this means for the boom and bust of investing
Kurtzman illuminates the musty corners of the markets, showing how the system is both a single network linked together globally and a highly coordinated dance of free-wheeling, unchoreographed dancers that constitutes a massive social mechanism for laying off some of the world’s riskier bets. He explains the kinds of products that traders trade within the network (stocks, bonds, options, etc); how money circulates within the network; and how banks fit into the global network.
This is a book that will help you think strategically about investing. If you understand the markets and the instruments and vehicles that are traded on those markets before thinking about individual stocks and mutual funds, you’ll be a smarter, savvier investor.
The Crown Business Briefings series offers an appealing solution to the dilemma of today’s business audience: how to keep up with the rapid pace of change in knowledge while leading time-crunched lives. The series features short books on important topics of immediate and measurable benefit to today’s broad audience of business readers.
Customer Reviews:
Concise, masterful, sensible.......2007-03-15
I have read many introductions to economics and finance, from lumbering 600-page textbooks to more conversational pop-economics bestsellers, but this little gem is by far the most useful and the most helpful.
Kurtzman trots through all the basic ingredients of a market-driven economy - cycles, equity, securities, currency, value - but somehow manages to actually EXPLAIN how each one works in an accurate way without any condescension. He uses examples from history and the present day to really get the reader thinking about how markets work, a much better strategy than other books that spend too much time knee-deep in analogies about apples, oranges and cups of coffee.
There are also invaluable references to other economists, investors and strategies, from Hernando de Soto to Warren Buffet, which all serve to deepen the book's scope. I was particularly impressed with Kurtzman's final chapters, in which he makes a brilliant and self-effacing argument in favour of research, education and humility when dealing with markets. Despite his ideological preference for free-market capitalism, he clearly is far more thoughtful about it than many other authors.
The book is not written amazingly well, with overenthusiastic punctuation and mixed metaphors aplenty, but it is very concise and straightforward. I was honestly stunned to find that definitions that took up tens of pages in austere textbooks could be excellently summed up by Kurtzman in a matter of sentences. Great fun, very short and incredibly useful.
Needs to consult a dictionary.......2005-03-02
I lost count how many times the word "myriad" was used inappropriately.
On the good side: This book was extremely light reading and can be finished in about three hours. There is a very approachable treatment of certain things that could be very technically difficult for some readers, such as regression to the mean.
There was a (perhaps too) brief discussion about why Russia failed to thrive under the Communist system. I like brevity, but I could have done with a few more pages (or even a chapter) on why Communism doesn't work. Most people refute it on idelogical grounds, but Kurtzman had a great start in bringing up the technical problems of co-ordinating large amounts of (market-based time scale)information by bureaucracy (which uses a bureaucratic time scale) that he didn't develop at greater length. Finally, someone who understands that this is not a matter of opinion!
Good discussion of initial public offerings of companies, which is something that we all "know" happens, but we often don't know the actors. Good discussion of exactly *what* Michael Milken did that got him into so much trouble. We all knew that he spent about a billion dollars in legal fees and is still worth hundreds of millions of dollars after the fact, but didn't know exactly why.
Kudos to him for his beautiful treatment of the complexity of the market and telling us how many players are involved in even the simplest decision.
It also gave an interesting explanation of something that I've wondered for a long time, which was how David Bowie managed to sell bonds in himself/ his catalog of songs and make so much money.
Succinct and readable.......2003-06-15
One of the things that Joel Kurtzman does very well in this pithy little book is demonstrate why the capitalist market system is superior to the old Soviet system of centralized control, why the decisions made by a decentralized economy work so much better than any top down system. However Kurtzman's enthusiasm for the market is eventually revealed as similar to E. M. Forster's for democracy. One recalls that Forster allowed himself just "Two cheers for democracy...there is no occasion to give it three."
Kurtzman writes on page 148 that "Markets may move to the beat of their dumbest members." He adds, "In my view...markets are not rational." To back up his claims he reports that at the height of the Internet bubble in 1999, Yahoo! with sales of $456 million (that's million with an "m") had a market capitalization of $93-billion which he compares to GM, which at the same time with revenues of $177-billion (billion with a "b"), had a market cap about half that of Yahoo! (p. 147) This observation caused Kurtzman to ask, "Yo, Mr. Market, is anybody home?"
Well, it depends on when you knock on the door. In October of 2002 Yahoo's market capitalization was down around $5-billion or so. The real truth is Mr. Market may be irrational for some period of time--indeed for some EXTENDED period of time, especially when you're holding the bag--but eventually a correction occurs, and for a brief shining moment (not the same moment) every stock is priced at what it's worth. (Of course it could also be pointed out that a stopped clock is exactly right twice a day.)
I very much liked Kurtzman's conversation tone and his obvious acumen and the way he explains the underpinnings of the capital markets with an emphasis on understanding rather than mechanical details. (Although an explanation on how the weekend or overnight buy and sell orders received from Internet traders are reconciled at the New York Stock Exchange and at NASDAQ into an opening price would have been nice.) His championing of Michael Milken as one of the great financial geniuses of our times was tolerable, but did Milken really (as Kurtzman insists on page 144) take "an often bloating and ailing American economy" and make it "lean, mean and resilient"? And, although one does not doubt the genius of Warren Buffet, might Kurtzman have pointed out during his several fawning references to the man, that when you have as much economic clout as he has you might well be able to influence the markets to your advantage and to get information that others cannot, and in a nutshell prove beyond a shadow of doubt that money makes money and big money makes even bigger money? He might even have (to be topical and timely) pointed out that Shari'a law, which does not allow interest to be charged on credit, is not in keeping with the realities of the effect time has on capital.
But Kurtzman is an ambassadorially polite man who saved his barbs for the failed communist system and the recent irrational exuberance in dot com land.
Perhaps the highlight of the book, and maybe the most important part, is Kurtzman's explanation of what money is (not obvious) and how it is created and how it can be made to dissipate. For anyone wanting a kind of Reality Economics 101, Kurtzman's book is an eye-opener. He has a gift for explaining things in a succinct and clear manner that other writers on economics might well emulate.
Book Description
"May be the most sweeping and in many ways the most impressive portrait of the culture of the Federal Government to appear in a single work in many decdes....Konwledeable and informative."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Power is the name of the game. But until now, no one outside "the beltway" knew just who was wielding how much--and for what ends. Pulitzer Prize-winning, ex-Washington bureau chief of THE NEW YORK TIMES, Hedrick Smith, tells the whole story. From PACs to influence-peddling from the Pentagon to the WASHINGTON POST, THE POWER GAME reveals Congressional staffers more powerful than their bosses, media advisors more powerful than the media, and money that not only talks but threatens. It's all there, and it's all in here.
Customer Reviews:
All you need to know about Government and then some.......2006-06-07
Hedrick Smith wrote and amazingly in-depth novel about American Politics and Government. So in-depth, in fact, that you have to put the book down every five to twenty minutes to absorb the hundred and one things he just told you.
"The Power Game" is a long read and unless you are superbly interested in politics and government you may not want to read this. However, to everyone that dreams of the Senators at work, taking PAC money and being led by lobbyist (or if you are a Reagan fan), this book is perfect. Smith takes you inside the heart of government. And not the metaphorical heart, he truly shows all aspects of American Politics and Government. I am sure if people were capable or reading so much about politics and government; Smith could have written another 711 pages and still would not have covered everything that HE wanted to. But if it were any longer Smith would not have made a profit selling it.
Smith's analysis of Washington would have brought tears to my eyes, only because of his understanding of the best institution out there. However, Smith's love for Reagan did damper my mood of the novel. Smith seems to have a love affair with Reagan. Though Reagan did shake things up on Capitol Hill, Smith going more than fifteen pages with out mentioning something "great" about Reagan is nothing short of a small miracle.
I would love to Read this book if Smith had written it in the passed five years. Sadly this look at "the Power Game" is almost twenty years old and has no analysis of resent dynamics and shenanigans in Washington. If you are thinking of reading this book, make sure you have time and a lot of love for America. I recommend "The Power Game" because it does give you a deep understanding of Politics and Government. How deep you want to go is up to you. If you can handle knowing everything and then some, please pick up a copy. If you do not really want to know the "then some" or Washington than I would recommend a different novel. There are many novels that will give you an understanding of Washington, with out confusing or boring you. All in all, Great Book.
Why did Hedrick Smith waste years of his life writing this?.......2005-03-23
I have to read this for my AP government class. It is the worst thing I have ever read. Smith goes on for pages and pages repeating his point over and over again. It has become excruciating to read. Some of the stories that he tells are interesting but the rest, about 700 pages, is a complete waste of time.
Pig Circus On The Potomac.......2004-11-07
Talk about your weighty tomes. Hedrick Smith's "The Power Game" takes on the story of politics in Washington, D.C., circa the 1980s. Not only does he dig into every subject imaginable, like the importance of staffers, the intricacies of foreign policy work, and the behemoth of defense spending, but he takes more than 700 pages doing so.
"The Power Game" works best as a series of anecdotes about political life, and the passions that ran riot across the national landscape at various times in the second half of the 20th century. Smith gets some tremendous candor from many of his subjects, like former Massachusetts senator Paul Tsongas, who tells Smith that his "substantive work" suffered most when he was most in the public spotlight. "I was probably a lesser senator when my numbers were going up," Tsongas confesses.
There's great anecdotes about presidential power, too. The book begins with preparations to convert a senator's rambler-style ranch house into a bunker as Ronald Reagan plans a sleepover there, and then dovetails into an account of the symbolic importance of the office. Smith's style is to present such an anecdote at the start of each chapter or section, then offer some insights and overview.
The anecdotes are great, like the one that features Lesley Stahl anchoring a CBS attack piece on Reagan. After, she gets a call from a White House senior official. She expects a tirade, but instead the guy thanks her. Stahl's acid commentary was aired over image after image of Reagan in carefully staged feel-good set pieces, sort of by way of ironic contrast. But the senior official told Stahl no one cared what she said, it was the images that would resonate with the viewer, and those images supported Reagan. Alas, to her chagrin, he was right.
The problem I have is with the analysis and overview. At times Smith is very dry, writing at length about congressional backroom games, staff work, and supplemental appropriations in a way that's probably too elementary for the poly sci student and too dull for everyone else. Elsewhere, he is just wrong, nowhere more so than when he talks about the presidency as a debilitated institution. He discourses on such things as the Democratic control of Congress and the dominance of PAC money as if they are things that will always be with us, when time has shown him wrong.
The last chapter is the book's weakest, not because Smith attempts to offer prescriptions for the ills he ably depicts in the rest of the book, but for the "this could work, but then again..." tone he takes as he offers them up. Smith is a typical reporter; he wants to find fault but not commit himself to anything that smacks of a solution, since his inner cynic tells him such nostrums only bite you back in the end.
There's a great book about Ronald Reagan and his impact on D.C. in "The Power Game" which I sort of wish Smith had hacked from the rest of this book and released in its stead. Smith is no fan of Reagan, but he's a keenly perceptive critic, not blindly partisan but very mainstream media in his generic liberal disdain. He makes some strong points about Reagan's less-than-positive legacy on the economic front, specifically by channeling the artful turncoat David Stockman, who ran the numbers for the early Reagan budgets, then turned around and told everyone Reagan was just in business to give tax breaks to the wealthy. Reagan also got run around by Congress more than popular history remembers, and Smith is there with the play-by-play.
But did Reagan's first term in office see less growth in the national economy than the lone term of his predecessor, Jimmy Carter? Smith says so, but I sure don't remember it that way. He also lambastes Reagan for things that history proved him right on, like his handling of the Soviets, the Contras, and tax relief, and for Star Wars, where the jury is still out. By the end, Smith has worked up such a head of steam that he lumps Reagan and Kennedy alongside Carter, Ford, Nixon, and Johnson as failed presidents. [Here's a clue: When they name a major airport after a president, it probably means he did something right.]
The problem is that the premise of "The Power Game," that Congress is winning, is flawed. Since Smith keeps hitting on that point, it keeps sounding a false note.
But Smith is a solid journalist, and at its best, which it frequently is, "The Power Game" is a fine inside-the-Beltway account of what went on in Washington during a time of great change. In some ways, the book is valuable historical reading as much for what it gets wrong as for what it gets right.
Not Government 101.......2002-12-22
Forget everything you were ever taught or told about how government works. Rick Smith has captured the reality. Though it was written about Washington much of The Power Game is also true of state and sometimes even local government. A must read for anyone with an interest in government or politics.
Cure for the insomniacs.......2002-08-01
This book was assigned to me for summer reading for Advance Placement Government class. I got it through borders and paid high price for it, I highly suggest buying it used through amazon.com. In the beginning this novel seemed very interesting with its unique insider perspective however this insider perspective drowned the novel with annoying anecdotes. The perspective was lost with countless examples that were perfect cure for when I was in desperate need of sleep. The author states his views and makes his points in the first page of two of every chapter and for the next 10-20 pages it just filled with every moment of his 30+ year experience at D.C. This novel is 700+ pages long and could very easily be trimmed down to under a 100 and still have a greater impact. So I would advise to buy it used then just read the first page of every section.
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- Introduction to the Mathematical and Statistical Foundations of Econometrics (Themes in Modern Econometrics)
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- Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach (with Economic Applications Online, Econometrics Data Sets with Solutions Manual Web Site Printed Access Card)
- Law, Legislation and Liberty, Volume 2: The Mirage of Social Justice
- Letter to a Christian Nation
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- Film Directing: Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen
- The King of Lies
- Giuseppe Terragni: Transformations, Decompositions, Critiques
- Medical Terminology for Health Professions
- History: Fiction or Science
- The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
- Sleep, Pale Sister
- Historic San Francisco: A Concise History and Guide
- Houses by the Sea: Mexico's Pacific Coast
- Mountain splendor: This is my Father's world
Dave Landry's 10 Best Swing Trading Patterns and Strategies
Entries & Exits: Visits to 16 Trading Rooms (Wiley Trading)
Street Smarts: High Probability Short-Term Trading Strategies
Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders
Investment Secrets Hedge Fund Manager: Exploiting the Herd Mentality of the Financial Markets
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