The Last Partnerships narrates the rise and fall of the great financial houses--from the "Yankee Bankers" at the turn of the 19th century, up to Goldman Sachs's historic IPO in 1999-- tracing their origins, their successes and failures over the years, and the reasons for their ultimate demise.

How do you get in on those deals--especially if you're not a Silicon Valley insider? How do you buy the high-tech win-ners and avoid the losers? How do you find the Yahoo!s, Microsofts, and Ciscos of tomorrow? The answers are here, in this newly revised edition of the national bestseller The Gorilla Game. The book reveals the dynamics driving the market for high-tech stocks and out-lines the forces that catapult a select number of compa-nies to "gorilla" status--dominating the markets they serve in the way that Yahoo! dominates internet portals, Microsoft dominates software operating systems, and Cisco dominates hardware for data networks. Follow the rules of The Gorilla Game and you will learn how to identify and invest in the "gorilla candidates" early on--while they are still fighting for dominance, and while their stocks are still cheap. When the dust clears and one company clearly attains leadership in its market, you'll reap the enormous returns that foresighted investors in high-tech companie

CNBC anchor Insana (The Message of the Markets) has chronicled past investment fads and bubbles to provide lessons to prospective and current investors. He asserts that it's "not enough to study, observe and comment on financial folly." Investment fads will continue to happen, and by using historical information investors may recognize the signs of an impending bubble. The author devotes most of the chapters to describing the fads and bubbles that have occurred over the years, such as the Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s, the feverish interest in plank road companies in the 1840s and 1850s, the surge in closed country funds in the late 1980s, and the bull market of the 1990s. The chapters "Trendwatching" and "Endwatching" offer advice on how to identify a mania while it is happening and describe the effects on the investor and the stock market when a bubble bursts. The last chapter contains questions and answers for analyzing the possibility of a future "hard asset" bubble. While well written and offering valid

For several years high-profile corporate wrongdoers have been vilified by the media. Yet the problem, according to Gary Weiss, is not just a few isolated instances of malfeasance. The problem is in the very fabric of Wall Street and its practices that enable and even encourage corruption—practices that are so pervasive and so difficult to combat that they are in effect perfect crimes, with the small investor left holding the bag. In this blistering report from the front, Weiss describes how the ethos of Mafia chophouses, boiler rooms, and penny stock peddlers now permeates all of Wall Street. Protected from investor lawsuits by laughably corrupt arbitration systems, Wall Street firms are free to fleece unsuspecting clients with little or no risk. But as this empowering book shows, ordinary investors can fight back and come out on top—if they learn to recognize warning signs, filter media chatter, and spot looming corporate meltdowns in advance. Prepare to be surprised, get angry, and t

Many investors, including some with substantial portfolios, have only the sketchiest idea of how the stock market works. The reason, say Lynch and Rothchild, is that the basics of investing -- the fundamentals of our economic system and what they have to do with the stock market -- aren't taught in school. At a time when individuals have to make important decisions about saving for college and 401(k) retirement funds, this failure to provide a basic education in investing can have tragic consequences. For those who know what to look for, investment opportunities are everywhere. The average high-school student is familiar with Nike, Reebok, McDonald's, the Gap, and the Body Shop. Nearly every teenager in America drinks Coke or Pepsi, but only a very few own shares in either company or even understand how to buy them. Every student studies American history, but few realize that our country was settled by European colonists financed by public companies in England and Holland -- and the basic principles behi

Stock options have been much maligned recently, mainly because of fatcat executives who've cashed them in for millions, before the share price tanks and average shareholders suffer. But stock options can be a very good thing if handled correctly, say Rutgers University professors Blasi and Kruse and BusinessWeek editor Bernstein. They make the argument for why options-offered to all employees, not just upper-level execs-are a serious boon, "bringing about a more productive company and, ultimately, rewarding employees and outside shareholders alike." The book does seem a bit quaint at times, such as when it talks about how Silicon Valley types have got it right when it comes to options. (Many of those high-tech firms, of course, are either defunct or fighting for their lives.) The pace is somewhat plodding, as the authors recount company strategies and cite various studies, but the introduction and conclusion focus on sexier, newsier issues such as the "option-induced avarice" that led CEOs to jimmy company nu