With all the financial know-how and experience of the wizardson Wall Street and elsewhere, how is it that the market still goesboom and bust? How can people be so willing to get caught up in themania of speculation when history tells us that a collapse isalmost sure to follow? In this primer, the renowned economist JohnKenneth Galbraith reviews the major speculative episodes of thelast three centuries - from the 17th century tulip craze to thecalamitous junk-bond follies of the 1980s. His insights provideimportant lessons on speculative economics, and demonstrateconclusively that money and intelligence are not necessarilylinked.

"A magisterial work...You can't help thinking about the economic crisis we're living through now." --The New York Times Book Review It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person's or government's control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions made by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of that economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades. As yet another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, Lords of Finance is a potent reminder of the enormous impact that the decisions of central bankers can have, their fallibility, and the terrible human consequences that can result when they are wrong.

A satisfied customer is a loyal customer, and in today's supercompetitive business economy few things are as crucial to a company's bottom line as the quality of its customer service. This latest title in the popular Perfect Phrases series is just the thing for customer service employees and those who train and manage them. Perfect Phrases for Customer Service gets you quickly up and running with everything you need to keep customers happy and loyal, including: Clear explanations of the reasons for difficult customer behaviors Proven tools and techniques for successfully handling even the most cantankerous customers 101 dialogues and *s organized according to types of difficult behaviors, usable as is or as part of a training program, and easily tailored to any industry and company culture

The nonprofit sector is growing rapidly, creating a major need for expert advice on how to manage these organizations effectively. Management legend Peter Drucker provides excellent examples and explanations of mission, leadership, resources, marketing, goals, and much more. Interviews with nine experts also address key issues in this booming sector.

Crises -- anything from a natural disaster to a data-security breach to the defection of your best employee -- can prevent you from carrying out your business operations. But with good planning, you can minimize the impact of a potential disaster. This book shows you how to: Avoid a crisis entirely Lay the groundwork for managing a crisis Know when a crisis is imminent Contain and resolve a crisis Learn from each crisis you've resolved

Filled with stories of hope，inspiration，and perseverance from 40 countries，If Life Is a Game These Are the Stories，is a treasury of tales that open your heart and uplift your spirit。 The stories reinforce the "rules of being human" that have circumnavigated the globe for 30 years! Quotes such as Leo Rosten’s reflection that "the purpose of life is not to be happy-but to matter，to be productive，to be useful，to have it make some difference that you have lived at all" add a special quality。 Wisdom rings through every precious，heartfelt slice of life in If Life Is a Game These Are the Stories，including passages by Franklin D。 Roosevelt，Maya Angelou，and Desmond Tutu。 The storytellers range in voice and locale-from the United States to Nicaragua，from South Africa to Romania，from Israel to Japan。 Whether the setting is local or exotic to the reader，the experience shared in each story seems deep and familiar。 These stories are a balm for the friction in today’s world。

Project Management reviews the steps in organizing and managing projects, from how to build a realistic schedule to how to measure both success and failure. Project Management discusses team building, timing, the planning process, estimating project costs, managing project interfaces, risk management, and more.

The world-renowned marketing consultants and bestselling authors of Positioning, Marketing Warfare, and Bottom-Up Marketing offer a compendium of 22 innovative laws for understanding and succeeding in the international marketplace. Illustrations.

Cooperation is the king! Teamwork achieves maximum results by infusing each member's talent, creativity, and energy into the given task. In today's fast-moving work environment, a team is far stronger than an individual in execution and creativity. This book provides 24 rules and guidelines for molding individual team membcrs into a solid and functioning group. Look at this value-packed book to learn how to: Forge a team that can make a difference and achieve great performances; Eliminate rivalries and focus on solving problems or challenges at hand: Handle the conflict well and drive for better results: Inspire creativity. This book shows you how to build a great team. working with individual members as well as the collective team to produce creative, consistent. and decisive results.

Jack Welch knows how to win. During his forty-year career at General Electric, he led the company to year-after-year success around the globe, in multiple markets, against brutal competition. His honest, be-the-best style of management became the gold standard in business, with his relentless focus on people, teamwork, and profits. Since Welch retired in 2001 as chairman and chief executive officer of GE, he has traveled the world, speaking to more than 250,000 people and answering their questions on dozens of wide-ranging topics. Inspired by his audiences and their hunger for straightforward guidance, Welch has written both a philosophical and pragmatic book, which is destined to become the bible of business for generations to come. It clearly lays out the answers to the most difficult questions people face both on and off the job. Welch's objective is to speak to people at every level of an organization, in companies large and small. His audience is everyone from line workers to MBAs, from

This hands-on, concise guide gives you 24 proven techniques for communicating clearly and managing conflicts. It features guidelines for everything from sharing information and gathering input from employees to handling disagreements to conducting results-driven meetings and presentations.

In today's world, yesterday's methods just don't work. In Getting Things Done, veteran coach and management consultant David Allen shares the breakthrough methods for stress-free performance that he has introduced to tens of thousands of people across the country. Allen's premise is simple: our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential. In Getting Things Done Allen shows how to: Apply the "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule to get your in-box to empty Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations Plan projects as well as get them unstuck Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed Feel fine about what you're not doing From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done can transform the way you work, showing you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.

You've just been promoted to a managerial position for the first time - congratulations! But beware: the managerial role differs markedly from the individual contributor role. Go into the job with mistaken assumptions about what to expect, and you just may be blindsided by surprising realities. This book helps you lay the foundation for succeeding in your new role, explaining how to:

While what you do obviously sets the tone for each sales call, your sales success is based on what your customer does. To achieve breakthrough success, you must learn how to make customers do what you want them to do, at each stage of the sales process.

Winning the Battle in your Mind. There's a War Going On And Your Mind Is The Battlefield. If you're one of millions who suffer from worry, doubt, confusion, depression, anger or condemnation, you are experiencing an attack in your mind. Overcoming negative thoughts that come against your mind brings freedom and peace. Find out how to recognize damaging thought patterns and stop them from influencing your life. In this powerful book, best-selling author and conference host, Joyce Meyer, guides you through an honest self-appraisal by sharing the trials, tragedies and ultimate victories of her own marriage, family and ministry- including the truth she learned about what she was thinking and feeling every step of the way. You'll gain insight into how Joyce won the battle in her own mind- and how you can as well. You'll also discover how to: -Find peace and stop brain-storm of mental activity. -See the truth by thinking correctly. -Use spiritual weapons effectively. -Overcome the 10 wilderness mentalities that hol

Og Mandino This great book can be your key to success and happiness if you will only follow its powerful principles. Harvey Mackay Looking for a book with the power to jump-start your life? Look no further. Brian Tracy's Maximum Achievement is a wake-up call to the wonders within us all. It is straight to the point and straight to the heart. Denis Waitley Brian Tracy is a master of self-management skills development. In this treasure chest, he gives us an encyclopedia of inner wealth more knowledge-based, action-oriented, and relevant to today's global achiever than any other source you can tap. More than a self-help book, this is an owner's manual for high-performance winners.

From "Soccer Moms," the legendary swing voters of the mid-1990s, to "Late-Breaking Gays" such as former Gov. Games McGreevey (out at age 47), Burson-Marsteller CEO (and campaign adviser to Sen. Hillary Clinton) Penn delves into the ever-splintering societal subsets with which Americans are increasingly identifying, and what they mean. For instance, because of "Extreme Commuters," people who travel more than 90 minutes each way to work, carmakers must come up with ever more luxury seat features, and "fast food restaurants are coming out with whole meals that fit in cup holders." In a chapter titled "Archery Moms?", Penn reports on the "Niching of Sports": much to the consternation of Major League Baseball, "we don't like sports less, we just like little sports more." The net result of all this "niching" is "greater individual satisfaction"; as Penn notes, "not one of the fastest-growing sports in America... depends substantially on teamwork." Penn draws similar lessons in areas of business, culture, technology

Today – six years after it was created in a Harvard dorm room– over 500 million people use Facebook regularly, in just aboutevery country on earth. That a company this powerful andinfluential was started as a lark by a couple of 19-year-olds makesit a fascinating and surprising tale. That one of them, thevisionary Mark Zuckerberg, had the maturity, strategic smarts andluck to keep his company ahead of its rivals anchors thetale. With exclusive inside access to all the company’s leaders DavidKirkpatrick tells of the vision, the tenacity, the refusal tocompromise, and the vision Zuckerberg has to remake the internet. Abrilliant and fascinating cast of characters created Facebook andKirkpatrick has interviewed all of them. Never before haveZuckerberg and his closest colleagues told what really happened asthey built their dynamo while eating fast food, staying up allnight, and thumbing their noses at how things are usually done.

Malcolm Gladwell is the master of playful yet profound insight. His ability to see underneath the surface of the seemingly mundane taps into a fundamental human impulse: curiosity. From criminology to ketchup, job interviews to dog training, Malcolm Gladwell takes everyday subjects and shows us surprising new ways of looking at them, and the world around us. Are smart people overrated? What can pit bulls teach us about crime? Why are problems like homelessness easier to solve than to manage? How do we hire when we can t tell who s right for the job? Gladwell explores the minor geniuses, the underdogs and the overlooked, and reveals how everyone and everything contains an intriguing story. What the Dog Saw is Gladwell at his very best asking questions and seeking answers in his inimitable style.

best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea. Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in

In today's fast-moving workplace, time has never had greater value--or been in shorter supply. Time Management provides you with the tools and techniques you need to make each minute count. Filled with workplace-tested strategies for either improving upon the systems you currently use or replacing them with methods that are proven to be more efficient and time-saving, this latest book in McGraw-Hill's renowned Briefcase Books series will provide you with: Strategies for matching the right time-saving tool to each situation Management techniques for recognizing and eliminating procrastination Methods for working toward team goals while still saying "NO!" to time wasting activities and ideas

How to Plan and Execute Strategy provides you with 24 practical steps for creating, implementing, and managing market-defining, growth-driving strategies. Encompassing every stage of the strategic process, this tactic-filled handbook shares exactly what you need to know in order to: Define your businesses Know your market Understand your opportunities and threats Set feasible goals and objectives Create the strategies to achieve your objectives Identify and set priorities Write your business plan Get the right people Communicate the strategy and obtain commitment Integrate across functions Execute with discipline Monitor results, evaluate, and react Every successful company has benefited from an excellent corporate strategy. With the proven techniques in this portable, hands-on guide, your business will reap the same rewards. How to Plan and Execute Strategy shows how to get a leg up on your competition and sustain

When Hank Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, was appointed in 2006 to become the nation's next Secretary of the Treasury, he knew that his move from Wall Street to Washington would be daunting and challenging. But Paulson had no idea that a year later, he would find himself at the very epicenter of the world's most cataclysmic financial crisis since the Great Depression. Major institutions including Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup, among others-all steeped in rich, longstanding tradition-literally teetered at the edge of collapse. Panic ensnared international markets. Worst of all, the credit crisis spread to all parts of the U.S. economy and grew more ominous with each passing day, destroying jobs across America and undermining the financial security millions of families had spent their lifetimes building. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime economic nightmare. Events no one had thought possible were happening in quick succession,

Start with a monkey. It comes from your subordinates shifting their responsibility to you -- until you're working for them! How does the successful manager keep monkeys off his back? In this lively, provocative seminar, two of today's foremost consultants show you: ·How to recognize monkeys before they land on your back ·How to stop your subordinates from imposing unnecessary time demands on you ·Why "an honest day's work for a fair day's pay" does not apply to managers ·The real answer to the Manager's Lament: "where does all the time go?" ·Why you should be on the golf course on Saturday instead of at the office

The latest addition to the bestselling Perfect Phrases series, Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisors is an indispensable tool for novice to mid-level managers and frontline supervisors. Corporate communications guru Meryl Runion coaches readers in the six fundamentals of effective delivery, including "Be Short, Specific, Targeted," and "Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say, and Don't Be Mean When You Say It." And she arms them with: Hundreds of perfect phrases for every phase of management, from supervising operations, to performance reviews, to communicating the company's mission Expert advice on effective communication, with tips on what to say and what not to say, establishing the right tone, establishing authority, and more Phrases for hundreds of specific tasks, including delegating, giving feedback, empowering employees, handling emotional employees, disciplining, and terminating。