Author:Michael Brett
Stripping away the mystique from the world of investment and finance, How to Read the Financial Pages is a layman's guide to reading and understanding the financial press and the markets and events it covers. Assuming no financial knowledge, Michael Brett provides a valuable explanation of the workings of the financial world - from money markets to commodity markets, investment ratios to takeover bids. With an extensive glossary of financial terms, this book will help you through the financial columns to a better understanding of the language of markets and money. For ten years How to Read the Financial Pages has been an outstanding first-choice buy for everyone who wants a thorough - but friendly - grounding in finance and investment.
--What are stock markets, currency markets, commodities markets? How do they operate?
--What are derivatives? Could they cause the financial system to crash?
--What is meant by insider dealing? Why is it illegal?
--Who are the main players in the world of money? What do stock brokers, market makers, merchant
bankers and underwriters actually do?
--How has the Internet affected private investors? What are the new opportunities?
It's time to throw another tank of petrol on the Wall Street pyre, as only Lewis can
—— Financial TimesHe is so good everyone else may as well pack up
—— Evening StandardNo one writes with more narrative panache about money and finance than Mr. Lewis
—— Michiko Kakutani , New York TimesProbably the single best piece of financial journalism ever written
—— ReutersHugely entertaining
—— EconomistTerrifying and superbly told
—— Daily TelegraphGenius
—— Sunday TimesCompelling and horrifying
—— GQA more than worthy successor to Liar's Poker ... if you want to know about the origins of the credit crunch, and the extraordinary cast of misfits, visionaries and chancers who made money from the crash, there's no more readable account
—— Daily TelegraphA triumph ... riveting ... a genuine page-turner
—— TimesThe very best book about this whole affair
—— John Lanchester, author of 'Whoops!'If you read only one book about the causes of the recent financial crisis, let it be Michael Lewis's The Big Short
—— Washington PostIn the hands of Michael Lewis, anything is possible ... if you want to know how a nation lost its financial mind - and have a good laugh finding out - this is the book to read.
—— The Sunday TimesMagnificent ... a perfect storm of brilliant writer meeting big subject.
—— The GuardianBrilliant
—— IndependentIn this riveting, well-written expose, Shaxson goes deep into the largely unexamined realm of offshore money. In the process, he reveals that this shadow world is no mere sideshow, but is troublingly central to modern finance, with the US and the UK as leaders. The resulting abuses are widespread, ranging from tax revenue stripping from African nations to individuals and corporations escaping enforcement and accountability. A must read for anyone who wants to understand the hidden reasons why financial services firms have become so powerful and impossible to reform
—— Yves Smith, creator of Naked Capitalism and author of EconnedThey who sold us globalisation as a way of the whole world getting richer with fair rules, cheated us by letting the rich and powerful go "offshore". This gripping exposé should help end the scandal
—— Anthony Barnett, founder of openDemocracyPossibly the most important political book that I have read since The Spirit Level
—— Stuart Weir, co-founder of Charter 88, former editor of the New StatesmanHe has prised the lid off an important and terrifying can of worms
—— Martin Vander Weyer , Literary ReviewLively and well written book
—— Toby Young , Mail on SundayA welcome account of how the sun is never allowed to set on the British empire's old islands, whose fiscal pirates hoard the tax-free treasures of the rich
—— Geoffrey Robertson , New Statesman, Books of the YearShaxson delves into capitalism's secret nooks and tells us about how a culture of secrecy can perpetuate itself. Very interesting
—— William Leith , Evening StandardA compelling read [...] an important and very much a live topic, it'll take you a few hours to read the book but it will be a worthwhile investment of time
—— Peter Magee , BookbagWhat makes this such a good read for the layman is that the author employs all his journalistic skill (he used to work at Reuters) to illustrate his arguments and uses real examples to real examples to illustrate complex issues
—— John Arlidge , Sunday TimesThis book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the world we live in
—— Brian Maye , Irish TimesThis engrossing book about the offshore banking racket, with its eye-opening scrutiny of tax havens and the suited scoundrels who profit from them, will make you think again about the murkier side of the City...This first-rate forensic work ends with a plea that the closed City "must be abolished and submerged into a...fully democratic London"
—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent[An] informed polemic against finance capital
—— Oliver Kamm , The TimesNow more than a decade old, this is still the best introduction to the world of tax havens
—— Economist, *Summer Reads of 2022*