As he reveals in The Capitalist Code, "Life can be faced by moaning and complaining or it can be faced by study, work, optimism, and faith in the free capitalist system. Guess which side gets the happier life?"Most Americans have not inherited wealth or a successful business that could set them up for life. That means most Americans are destined for financial worry and concern for the rest of their lives. Right? Wrong! Ben Stein explains how the wonderful system of stock market capitalism can allow any American to build financial security. In this succinct guide, you will learn: Why it really is better to have money— and how to get there How to save first, and then spend— automatically Why investing in great companies is easier than you think That's what this book is all about: how to harness the incredible power of the U.S. economy for enjoyment and security by being owners of profitable businesses-by consistent, conservative investment starting as young as possible in a diversified port- folio of stocks. Anyone can be a capitalist—and should be. All it takes is a little bit of knowledge and an even smaller amount of action. All it takes is The Capitalist Code.

    A brand is not just a logo. It is the image your company creates of itself, from your advertising look to your customer interaction style. It makes a promise for your business, and that promise becomes the sticking point for customer loyalty. And that loyalty and trust is why, so to speak, your laptops sell and your competitors' don't. Whatever your business is, whether it's large or small, global or local, Branding For Dummies gives you the nuts and bolts know-how to create, improve, or maintain a brand. This plain-English guide will help you brand everything from products to services to individuals. It gives you step-by-step advice on assembling a top-notch branding team, positioning your brand, handling advertising and promotion, avoiding blunders, and keeping your brand viable, visible, and healthy. You'll get familiar with branding essentials like:Defining your company's identity Developing logos and taglines Launching your brand marketing plan Managing and protecting your brand Fixing a broken brand Making customers loyal brand champions Filled with easy-to-navigate icons, charts, figures, top ten lists, and humor, Branding For Dummies is the straight-up, jargon-free resource for making your brand stand out from the pack--and for positioning your business to reap the ensuing rewards.

    The accessible, step-by-step format of this guide includes the latest examples, charts, and additions to reflect the changing markets. It also includes new and updated discussions on other options issues, such as Long-Term Equity Anticipation Securities (LEAPS) and the intricacies of options taxation, as well as understandable instructions about how to master options terminology and concepts, read the market, utilize new online resources, and more. Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, this straightforward resource shows readers how options work as well as where they can fit into anyone's personal investment plan.

    Well-run blogs do more than offer an outlet for your thoughts. They've actually influenced everything from a company's image to the outcome of a local election. Because the blogosphere is pretty crowded, it's a good idea to find out a bit about the anatomy of a blog, what makes a good one, and what it takes to keep one going before you dive right in and start sharing with the world. Blogging For Dummies, 2nd Edition gives you all the basics so you can get a good start. And if you've been around the blog a few times and want to advance to the next level, Blogging For Dummies, 2nd Edition even takes a look at podcasting and videoblogging.You'll find out how to:Make your blog stand out in a crowd, build an audience, and even make it pay Choose the best software options, boost readership, and handle comments Generate revenue from your blog with ads and sponsorships Protect your privacy and your job Deal with spam and the inappropriate comments from that guy who posts several times a day Find your niche Attract and keep readers Use your blog to promote your business, cause, or organization Add audio, video, cool widgets, and more Ready? Get Blogging for Dummies and let's get started!

    But how many investors have the time, talent, and luck to earn consistent returns this way? In The Ultimate Dividend Playbook: Income, Insight, and Independence for Today's Investor, Josh Peters, editor of the monthly Morningstar DividendInvestor newsletter, shows you why you don't have to try to beat the market and how you can use dividends to capture the income and growth you seek.

    In Money, Jacob Goldstein shows how money is a useful fiction that has shaped societies for thousands of years, from the rise of coins in ancient Greece to the first stock market in Amsterdam to the emergence of shadow banking in the 21st century.At the heart of the story are the fringe thinkers and world leaders who reimagined money. Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor, created paper money backed by nothing, centuries before it appeared in the west. John Law, a professional gambler and convicted murderer, brought modern money to France (and destroyed the country's economy). The cypherpunks, a group of radical libertarian computer programmers, paved the way for bitcoin.One thing they all realized: what counts as money (and what doesn't) is the result of choices we make, and those choices have a profound effect on who gets more stuff and who gets less, who gets to take risks when times are good, and who gets screwed when things go bad. Lively, accessible, and full of interesting details (like the 43-pound copper coins that 17th-century Swedes carried strapped to their backs), Money is the story of the choices that gave us money as we know it today.

    Social media marketing is a cheaper and highly effective way to spread up-to-the-minute news; an easy, inexpensive way to enlarge your audience, customers, and business.Social Media Marketing For Dummies provides an indispensable resource for small businesses and start-ups looking for low-cost online marketing strategies, as well as for marketers in larger companies who want to be more involved with social media. Learn which social media site best fits you and your business and how to:Use Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and other social media outlets to full advantage Create your own online spokesperson for your brand Identify social media sites that appeal to your target audience Tell which social platform works for which objectives Develop a unique, Google-able voice in social media Optimize your page to attract clicks and customers Set up a program to assess your success and measure your results Social Media Marketing helps you learn the art of social media marketing to build your business to its full potential. Includes contributions by Michael Becker, Jeannette Kocsis and Ryan Williams

    Data sets such as customer transactions for a mega-retailer, weather patterns monitored by meteorologists, or social network activity can quickly outpace the capacity of traditional data management tools. If you need to develop or manage big data solutions, you'll appreciate how these four experts define, explain, and guide you through this new and often confusing concept. You'll learn what it is, why it matters, and how to choose and implement solutions that work.Effectively managing big data is an issue of growing importance to businesses, not-for-profit organizations, government, and IT professionals Authors are experts in information management, big data, and a variety of solutions Explains big data in detail and discusses how to select and implement a solution, security concerns to consider, data storage and presentation issues, analytics, and much more Provides essential information in a no-nonsense, easy-to-understand style that is empowering Big Data For Dummies cuts through the confusion and helps you take charge of big data solutions for your organization.

    In Deals from Hell, Robert Bruner, one of the foremost thinkers and educators in this field, uncovers the real reasons for these mishaps by taking a closer look at twelve specific instances of M&A failure. Through these real-world examples, he shows readers what went wrong and why, and converts these examples into cautionary tales for executives who need to know how they can successfully navigate their own M&A deals. These page-turning business narratives in M&A failure provide much-needed guidance in this area of business. By addressing the key factors to M&A success and failure, this comprehensive guide illustrates the best ways to analyze, design, and implement M&A deals. Filled with in-depth insights, expert advice, and valuable lessons gleaned from other M&A transactions, Deals from Hell helps readers avoid the common pitfalls associated with this field and presents them with a clear framework for thinking about how to make any M&A transaction a success.

    Now, as the reality dawns that many debts cannot be repaid, we find ourselves again in crisis. But the oncoming defaults have a time-worn place in our economic history. As with the crises in the 1930s and 1970s, governments will fall, currencies will lose their value, and new systems will emerge. Just as Britain set the terms of the international system in the nineteenth century, and America in the twentieth century, a new system will be set by today's creditors in China and the Middle East. In the process, rich will be pitted against poor, young against old, public sector workers against taxpayers and one country against another.In Paper Promises, Economist columnist Philip Coggan helps us to understand the origins of this mess and how it will affect the new global economy by explaining how our attitudes towards debt have changed throughout history, and how they may be about to change again.Winner of the Spear's Best Business Book AwardLonglisted for the 2012 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award

    She addresses every aspect of the American Dream—home, family, career, retirement. She teaches us that in order to create lasting security we must learn to stand in our truth. We must recognize, embrace, and be honest about what is real for us today and allow that understanding to inform the choices we make.  The New American Dream is not the things we accumulate, says Orman, but the confidence that comes from knowing that which we’ve worked so hard for cannot be taken away from us. In THE MONEY CLASS, Orman teaches us how to take control over our present—right here, right now—in order to build the future of our dreams.  Whether navigating the complicated mix of money and family, offering the most comprehensive retirement resource available today, or delivering a bracing dose of reality when it comes to recalibrating our expectations and our goals, Orman educates us with her signature no-nonsense approach and laser-like clarity. She empowers us to live a life of integrity and honesty that will create an enduring legacy for future generations—a New American Dream that lies in truth, security, financial freedom, and peace of mind.

    You'll never find a wiser advisor with a bigger heart.” -- Malachi Rempen: Filmmaker, cartoonist, author and self-described ruffian This book grew out of a series of letters to my daughter concerning various things—mostly about money and investing—she was not yet quite ready to hear. Since money is the single most powerful tool we have for navigating this complex world we’ve created, understanding it is critical. “But Dad,” she once said, “I know money is important. I just don’t want to spend my life thinking about it.” This was eye-opening. I love this stuff. But most people have better things to do with their precious time. Bridges to build, diseases to cure, treaties to negotiate, mountains to climb, technologies to create, children to teach, businesses to run. Unfortunately, benign neglect of things financial leaves you open to the charlatans of the financial world. The people who make investing endlessly complex, because if it can be made complex it becomes more profitable for them, more expensive for us, and we are forced into their waiting arms. Here’s an important truth: Complex investments exist only to profit those who create and sell them. Not only are they more costly to the investor, they are less effective. The simple approach I created for her and present now to you, is not only easy to understand and implement, it is more powerful than any other. Together we’ll explore: Debt: Why you must avoid it and what to do if you have it. The importance of having F-you Money. How to think about money, and the unique way understanding this is key to building your wealth. Where traditional investing advice goes wrong and what actually works. What the stock market really is and how it really works. Why the stock market always goes up and why most people still lose money investing in it. How to invest in a raging bull, or bear, market. Specific investments to implement these strategies. The Wealth Building and Wealth Preservation phases of your investing life and why they are not always tied to your age. How your asset allocation is tied to those phases and how to choose it. How to simplify the sometimes confusing world of 401(k), 403(b), TSP, IRA and Roth accounts. TRFs (Target Retirement Funds), HSAs (Health Savings Accounts) and RMDs (Required Minimum Distributions). What investment firm to use and why the one I recommend is so far superior to the competition. Why you should be very cautious when engaging an investment advisor and whether you need to at all. Why and how you can be conned, and how to avoid becoming prey. Why I don’t recommend dollar cost averaging. What financial independence looks like and how to have your money support you. What the 4% rule is and how to use it to safely spend your wealth. The truth behind Social Security.

    Thing 4: The washing machine has changed the world more than the Internet. Thing 5: Assume the worst about people, and you get the worst. Thing 13: Making rich people richer doesn't make the rest of us richer.If you've wondered how we did not see the economic collapse coming, Ha-Joon Chang knows the answer: We didn't ask what they didn't tell us about capitalism. This is a lighthearted book with a serious purpose: to question the assumptions behind the dogma and sheer hype that the dominant school of neoliberal economists-the apostles of the freemarket-have spun since the Age of Reagan.Chang, the author of the international bestseller Bad Samaritans, is one of the world's most respected economists, a voice of sanity-and wit-in the tradition of John Kenneth Galbraith and Joseph Stiglitz. 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism equips readers with an understanding of how global capitalism works-and doesn't. In his final chapter, "How to Rebuild the World," Chang offers a vision of how we can shape capitalism to humane ends, instead of becoming slaves of the market.Ha-Joon Chang teaches in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge. His books include the bestselling Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism. His Kicking Away the Ladder received the 2003 Myrdal Prize, and, in 2005, Chang was awarded the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.

    But Steven E. Landsburg...is one economist who fits the bill. In a wide-ranging, easily digested, unbelievably contrarian survey of everything from why popcorn at movie houses costs so much to why recycling may actually reduce the number of trees on the planet, the University of Rochester professor valiantly turns the discussion of vexing economic questions into an activity that ordinary people might enjoy. -- Joe Queenan, The Wall Street Journal The Armchair Economist is a wonderful little book, written by someone for whom English is a first (and beloved) language, and it contains not a single graph or equation...Landsburg presents fascinating concepts in a form easily accessible to noneconomists. -- Erik M. Jensen, The Cleveland Plain Dealer ...enormous fun from its opening page...Landsburg has done something extraordinary: He has expounded basic economic principles with wit and verve. -- Dan Seligman, Fortune