| Limited insight, single opinion into a large industry (Glendale, WI United... |
Money-Employment-Careers Best Sellers
Books, eBooks & Other Information Products |
Money-Employment.Marc8.com
Sat November 22, 2008 |
|
|
|||
| Book - Customer Review:20
Running Money: Hedge Fund Honchos, Monster Markets and My Hunt for the Big Score Andy Kessler 
Rating: 4.0/5 Stars Rank: 5764 (Glendale, WI United States) December 10, 2004 - 3.0/5 stars 'Running Money' is about the 8th book i've read on the 'Insiders Look at Investing'. Overall, Kessler's book is the shallowest. Kessler gives summary views on his opinions. It's not deep, it's flippant. The book discusses two main topics. The first topic is Kessler's retelling of a day in the life of a hedge fund partner. Kessler cofounded a hedge fund specializing in tech stocks in 1996. Of course, he did spectacular! It was the hottest area in the biggest boom of the 20th century. Right place, right time. Kessler discusses meeting lots of different folks. Most of these folks he doesn't like, and he shares his ridicule. You get the feeling you're with an over-confident teenage boy, who has this need to put everyone down, laugh at every person, twist the words to make a new meaning. (He often renames companies, changing the company name with a negative twist.) This narrative of starting and running the hedge fund is the better part of the book. Not because of Kessler's asides. But because as an investor, i want to know how these funds operate. Of course, how Kessler runs his fund doesn't mean that how other hedgies operate theirs. Kessler's first book, 'Wall Street Meat' was the same narrative book. The second part of the book is Kessler's views on Intellectual Property. The author has convinced himself that he's got the keys to the economic universe, and intellectual property is that key. Since Kessler believes the current US economy is structured to use intellectual property, the author feels all-is- well in the US economy. Basically, he's able to pick through Silicon Valley companies, and find the potential winners. The problem is, Kessler sees the whole world economy through the lens of intellectual property. And he doesn't bother to address any problems of the US economy that refute his argument. The author cherry-picks examples to bolster his conclusions. He writes using a 'heres-my- thinking' approach, laying out the facts that he chooses to include, and showing how he reaches his Viola! moment. The problem is, his conclusions are way too neat and perfect. A large part of the intellectual property argument tells us that 'trade deficits don't matter'. Ok. But, he never gives us counter-arguments on why other people feel they do matter. There are many books written with arguments on the ill-effects of a large trade deficit. Kessler doesn't bother including these. And when he does include other arguments, he gives us a two-dimensional clown to represent the opposing side. At the end of the book he discusses a 'Haarvaad' economics professor, who believes Ghana has the highest quality of life. This 'economics prof' discusses Ghana exporting their 'music'. (The whole argument from the professor is ludicrous, and the reader is part of Kessler's dismissive in-crowd ridicule of the professor.) No one i know would would accept this 'professors' arguments. Yet, Kessler gives the professor to us as the reigning example of an economics professor. And then he generalizes this to show why economics professors practitioners are fools. Only 'investors' know whats up. (We never get a definition for 'Investor'. I wonder what he'd call an economics professor who invests.) This professor's economics argument are not representative of the discussion of trade imbalances. Kessler likes to find a fool, and then use that to dismiss the argument. Kessler likes to think that the thousands of masters and PhD's and professionals in economics are all wrong, and he's found the obvious answer to world economics. Kessler briefly discusses the scandals that have rocked wall street over the past few years. He rhetorically asks "Do we need more regulation to stop this?" The answer is "No. It's up to each investor to know the industry, the company, and even meet the management." Hmmmm. My opinion is that truthful accounting should be regulated, and those that violate truth-in-accounting should be punished. There is an interesting paragraph in the book, when Kessler hears of the fall of LTCM. He says "Those guys [LTCM] were buying bonds, and profiting off the spreads. Is that investing?" He gives the impression that he didn't understand that model of hedge fund investing deeply. Kesslers' is a pure stock-pickers hedge fund, specializing in high-tech stocks. Contrast that to LTCM, which made 95% of their s profits from bonds and derivatives. Two completely different types of investing, yet both under the SEC categorization of 'Hedge Fund'. All-in- all, Kessler's book comes across as a diatribe given by your rich neighbor at a bar-b-q, self- justifying why the system works. It works because he's rich. Yet, the reader is left with the feeling that it succeeded for other reasons than just Kessler's efforts. I've heard it said that everyone is a genius in a bull market. For a much more thorough analysis of world economies, William Bernstein's "The Birth of Plenty" uses a mature approach of proposition and argument, with relevant, historical examples that help prove his points. He's even got strong, relevant counter-arguments. For a deep look at a hedge- fund (without the insider's view), Roger Lowenstein's "When Genius Failed. The Fall of LTCM" is excellent. For a deep look at failed investments during the 1990's boom, try Lowenstein's 'Origins of the Crash'. Kessler's book helps pull the veil from the mysterious world of hedge fund investing, and gives some information about one type of hedge fund inveesting. However, it doesn't give a thorough overview of the hedge-fund business, and it's a fairly one-sided, single-company narrative. Kessler generalizes from a narrow set of situations. Kesslers' opinions of how world economics works doesn't fit in with the narrow amount of supporting detail he gives.
Customer Review: 20 of 24
« Prev Customer Review
|
All Customer Reviews(24)
|
Next Customer Review »
Editorials(11) | Product Info | Product Listings Customer ReviewsRunning Money: Hedge Fund Honchos, Monster Markets and My Hunt for the Big Score Andy Kessler Customer Review
19 - 21 of 24
EditorialsSample 3 of 11Running Money: Hedge Fund Honchos, Monster Markets and My Hunt for the Big Score Andy Kessler
Top 10 Best Selling Money-Employment Book Categories
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||