Finance Biography

In December 2008, amidst a world gripped by financial crisis, Bernard Madoff, a respected fund manager, and former chairman of NASDAQ, was arrested by the FBI for reportedly bilking thousands of trusting investors out of $50 billion. In the first comprehensive account of this financial mastermind's epic Ponzi scheme, Catastrophe exposes the real story behind Madoff's upstanding façade-his family's involvement, and his unlikely rise and incredible crash.

Die Geschichte von fritz-kola klingt unglaublich: Als Mirco Wolf Wiegert 2003 mit einem Kumpel 7000 Euro zusammenkratzte und aus dem Studentenwohnheim heraus Coca-Cola herausforderte, war das eine Sternstunde der Gründerszene. Die beiden vertickten die ersten Kästen via Direktvertrieb an angesagte Clubs im Hamburger Schanzenviertel und eroberten von dort aus Deutschland und die Welt. Heute ist fritz die alternative Kola und Limonade Nummer eins mit fast 300 Mitarbeitern in über 25 europäischen Ländern, hat sich nicht kaufen lassen und lebt "indie" at it's best.

In Catch of the Decade, two of Australia's most successful online superstars reveal how they've built, launched, merged, and sold some of the most disruptive businesses in Australia today: Catch, Scoopon, Menulog, and Luxury Escapes. This book contains little-known secrets and strategies that will help you shorten your learning curve, avoid mistakes, and bring your business dream alive.

To ArcelorMittal Steel, Eliese is known as #6691: Utility Worker, but this was never her dream. Fresh out of college, eager to leave behind her conservative hometown and come to terms with her Christian roots, Eliese found herself applying for a job at the local steel mill. The mill is everything she was trying to escape, but it's also her only shot at financial security in an economically devastated and forgotten part of America. In Rust, Eliese brings the listener inside the belly of the mill and the middle American upbringing that brought her there in the first place.

Arianna Huffington is one of the world's most prominent business leaders in media. As cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, she built the first internet newspaper, which eclipsed the traffic of the New York Times and won the Pulitzer Prize. This concise but richly detailed biography provides an overview of Huffington's life and career, chronicling her journey from Athens to London, New York, Washington and California, across seven decades.

What would be the "right" price for your loved one - and can you avoid putting others at risk by paying it? What prevents criminals from maltreating hostages? How do you (safely) pay a ransom? Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business uncovers how a group of insurers at Lloyd's of London have solved these thorny problems for their customers. Based on interviews with industry insiders (from both sides), as well as hostage stakeholders, it uncovers an intricate and powerful private governance system ordering transactions between the legal and the criminal economies.

In a book that’s both accessible and enlightening, Rebecca Friedrichs recounts her 30-year odyssey as an elementary school teacher who comes face to face with the forces dividing and corrupting our schools and culture - state and national teachers’ unions. An exciting true story that features real-life testimonies of teachers, parents, and kids as well as political and social commentary, Rebecca’s journey leads her to the realization that the only hope for America’s schools and families is returning authority to parents and teachers while lessening the grip of state and national unions.

Lloyd Constantine began his career in legal services, representing impoverished clients in civil rights and constitutional cases. Decades later, he would make headlines for representing retailers and consumers against a cartel that undermined one of the fundamental tenets of commerce in America: competition. A man who thrives on competition himself, Constantine now gives us the insider's story on the biggest antitrust lawsuit in history - a case that pitted his small firm against financial-industry giants Visa and MasterCard, along with Clifford-Chance, the largest law firm in the world.

Kellogg in the late 1940s and 50s was a typical American small town complete with high school football and basketball teams, marching band, and anti-Communist clubs; yet its bars, gambling dens, and brothels were entrenched holdovers from a rowdier frontier past. The Bunker Hill Mining Company, the largest employer, paid miners good wages for difficult, dangerous work, while the quest for lead, silver, and zinc denuded the mountainsides and laced the soil and water with contaminants.

Created specifically for executives and managers, Going Wireless shows how mobile technology is impacting every industry, including yours. Award-winning journalist Jaclyn Easton delivers the unexpected: In addition to in-depth discussions about mobile commerce, Internet cell phones, and Palm-type handhelds, she also examines wirefree options you've probably never heard of, all of which are transforming the way companies communicate, manage, market, and sell.

In A Just and Generous Nation, the eminent historian Harold Holzer and the noted economist Norton Garfinkle present a groundbreaking new account of the beliefs that inspired our 16th president to go to war when the Southern states seceded from the Union. Rather than a commitment to eradicating slavery or a defense of the Union, they argue that Lincoln's guiding principle was the defense of equal economic opportunity.

Although one of the most influential thinkers of the last millennium, Karl Marx was relatively unheralded during most of his lifetime. Famous for predicting the inevitable demise of capitalism, it was only after his death that his clarion call reached a wide audience: "Workers of the world unite - you have nothing to lose but your chains." Andrew Collier breathes new life into the achievements of Karl Marx, arguing that his work is still of vital relevance in today’s global climate of inequality.

It’s no secret that hundreds of companies have been slashing pensions and health coverage earned by millions of retirees. Employers blame an aging workforce, stock market losses, and spiraling costs - a perfect storm of external forces that has forced them to take drastic measures. But this so-called retirement crisis is no accident. Award-winning investigative reporter Ellen E. Schultz reveals how large companies and the retirement industry - benefits consultants, insurance companies, and banks - have all played a huge, hidden role in the death spiral of American pensions and benefits.

Facebook's founding is legend: In a Harvard dorm, wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg invented a new way to connect with friends...and the rest is history. But for the people who actually molded this great idea into a game-changing $300 billion company, the experience was far more tumultuous and uncertain than we might expect. Mike Hoefflinger was one of those Facebook insiders.

In the early years of Adams Golf, entrepreneur Barney Adams labored in obscurity. He collected six patents for his golf products, manufacturing fine equipment but enjoying no sales. Everything changed for him and his company in 1996, though, when he invented the Tight Lies fairway wood. Working as a custom fitter, his customers repeatedly asked for a club they could play from "long iron" distance, from 180 to 220 yards to the green. Adams knew the technical secret was to lower the club's center of gravity.

Charlie Munger ist visionärer Vizepräsident von Berkshire Hathaway, einem der 20 größten Unternehmen der USA. Doch noch mehr ist er Warren Buffetts unersetzlicher Geschäftspartner, der über Jahrzehnte besser abgeschnitten hat als der Markt. Munger ist davon überzeugt, dass Sie als Investor dasselbe schaffen können. Seine Lebenserfahrung - ein Bündel interdisziplinärer Denkmodelle aus Wirtschaft, Psychologie und Philosophie - ermöglicht es ihm, Emotionen und Investitionen strikt zu trennen und so die üblichen Fallstricke beim Investieren zu meiden. Das können auch Sie.

Conventional wisdom says most startups need to be in Silicon Valley, started by young engineers around a sexy new idea and backed by VC funding. But as Mikkel Svane reveals in Startupland, the story of founding Zendesk was anything but conventional. Founded in a Copenhagen loft by three 30-something friends looking to break free from corporate doldrums, Zendesk Inc. became one of the hottest enterprise software companies, rapidly growing with customers in 150 countries. But its success was anything but predestined.

Magazine entrepreneur Randall Lane had a prime seat at Wall Street's biggest greed fest. The Zeroes is a memoir about the excesses and bad behavior of an outsider who got pulled into a crazy, self-contained world.

George Washington: general, statesman...businessman? Most people don't know that Washington was the country's first true entrepreneur, responsible for innovations in several industries. In George Washington, Entrepreneur, John Berlau presents a fresh, surprising take on our forefather's business pursuits. History has depicted Washington as a gifted general and political pragmatist, not an intellectual heavyweight. But he was a serious inventor and inveterate tinkerer and just as intelligent as Jefferson or Franklin.

From the beginning, Stonyfield Farm turned conventional business practices on their head and grew to become the world's largest organic-yogurt producer. This book will appeal both to consumers who want quality and a better world, and companies who want steady profits and growth.