Learn how to use CDs, bonds, and bond funds to manage risk/reward even during low interest rates. You will learn:How to choose your stocks/bonds allocationHow to become immune to changing interest ratesWhen to use CDs and individual bondsHow to choose a good bond fundHow to hedge against unexpected inflationContents:Foreword by Larry SwedroeIntroduction- Who Should Read This Book?- Start with a Sound Financial LifestyleWhy Bother With Bonds?- Stocks are risky in the short-run, and the long run too!- Bonds Make Risk More Palatable- Bonds Can Be A Safe Bet- Bonds Are An Attractive Investment DiversifierLife Is Complicated. Bonds Are Not.- What is a Money Market Fund?- Are CDs Better Than Bonds?- What Are Bonds?- What is a Bond Ladder?- Individual Bonds or a Bond Fund?Bonds: Risks and Returns- Yield, Price And Making Comparisons— How To Compare Individual Bond Returns— How to Compare Bond Fund Returns— Total Return: To Measure And Compare Performance- How To Reduce Risk From Interest Rates Changes— Duration: The Point of Indifference to Interest Rates— Duration: The Measure of Sensitivity to Interest Rates- How To Reduce Risk From Unexpected Inflation— Real versus Nominal Interest Rates— Why Include TIPS In Your Portfolio?- Credit Quality or Default RiskBuild The Bond Portion Of Your Portfolio- Start With Your Goals.- How Much Risk Is Right For You?— Understand How Much Risk You’re Taking— Take Your Risk In Stock Market, Not Bond Market— How Much in Bonds? How Much in Stocks?— Your Needs Change Over Time- The Importance of Low Cost— How Much To Diversify Bonds?— The Importance of Low Cost— Five Low-Cost Strategies You Can Do Yourself- Taxes Matter- Example Portfolios (both good and bad)Common Misconceptions Important to Correct- Stocks Are Safer In The Long Run- Holding a Bond (or CD) to Maturity Eliminates Risk- Stocks Are Safer Than Bonds- The Best Funds Have The Most Stars- A One Percent Fee Is Small- Rising Interest Rates are Bad for Bond Holders- You Can’t Beat the Market Using Index Funds- Use Multiple Investment Companies To Diversify- You Need Many Mutual Funds to Diversify- Frugal Means StingyReviews Worth Noting:“[As] stocks have surged and bond yields have dwindled, investors increasingly ask "Why bother with bonds?" Rick Van Ness takes this question and runs with it in his book sporting this provocative title. Sooner or later, this question will answer itself, and it will behoove all investors to get to know Rick before it does. Read it, enjoy it, and profit from it—before it's too late.”William J. BernsteinAuthor, The Four Pillars of Investing“In his simply stated and entertaining book, Rick Van Ness eloquently instructs the reader on how to do bonds right – in fact, better than any single book I’ve read.”Allan S. RothAuthor: How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street“If you are a DIY investor . . . you should read this book. It will steer you clear of areas you need to avoid and into where you should be. A quick read filled with valuable info!”Robert Wasilewski“This book should be part of America’s high school curriculum.”Andrew HallamAuthor: Millionaire Teacher

    Good journalism builds communities, arms citizens with important information, and serves as a public watchdog for civic, national, and global issues. But what happens when the news turns its back on its public role? Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of The Washington Post, and Robert G. Kaiser, associate editor and senior correspondent, report on a growing crisis in American journalism. From the corporatization that leads media moguls to slash content for profit, to newsrooms that ignore global crises to report on personal entertainment, these veteran journalists chronicle an erosion of independent, relevant journalism. In the process, they make clear why incorruptible reporting is crucial to American society. Rooted in interviews and first-hand accounts, the authors take us inside the politically charged world of one of America’s powerful institutions, the media.

    Hadoop allowed small and medium sized companies to store huge amounts of data on cheap commodity servers in racks. The introduction of Big Data has allowed businesses to make decisions based on quantifiable analysis. Hadoop is now implemented in major organizations such as Amazon, IBM, Cloudera, and Dell to name a few. This book introduces you to Hadoop and to concepts such as ‘MapReduce’, ‘Rack Awareness’, ‘Yarn’ and ‘HDFS Federation’, which will help you get acquainted with the technology.

    In fact, less than one percent of ideas launched by big companies end up having real impact. The ideas aren’t the problem. It’s the process.The First Mile focuses on the critical moment when an innovator moves from planning to reality. It is a perilous place where hidden traps snare entrepreneurs and roadblocks slow innovators inside large companies.In this practical and enlightening manual, strategic adviser Scott Anthony equips innovators with new tools, questions, and examples to speed through this crucial early stage of innovation. You’ll learn:• How to evaluate your idea’s strengths and weaknesses using the “DEFT” process—Document, Evaluate, Focus, and Test• Fourteen recipes from an “experiment cookbook” to gain confidence in your idea or business• Why “spinouts,” “wrong turns,” and other challenges commonly trip up innovation—and the practical strategies you can use to avoid them• Why innovators need to seek chaos in an age of constant change—and other essential leadership skillsDrawing on his decade of experience as an innovation adviser and investor, Anthony describes hard-won lessons from disruptive start-ups and global giants alike. The First Mile will give you the knowledge and confidence to travel this perilous—but ultimately promising—terrain.The first mile can be a scary place, but you don’t have to traverse it alone. This book can help.

    Challenging the reductionist division of people by race, religion, and class, Sen presents an inspiring vision of a world that can be made to move toward peace as firmly as it has spiraled in recent years toward brutality and war.

    Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known it.Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change--these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there--what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if we fail, the potential losses are incalculable.In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect and show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of the day. It is an extraordinary achievement, one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.

    You understand the basics of investing and diversifying your portfolio. Now it's time to invest like a pro for greater profits--with investment expert David Stein, host of the popular weekly podcast, "Money for the Rest of Us." He's created a unique ten-question template that makes it easy for individual investors like you to:- Invest more confidently- Feel less overwhelmed- Build a stronger portfolio- Avoid costly mistakes- Plan and save for retirementDespite what many people believe, you don't need to be an expert to be a successful investor. With Stein as your personal money mentor, you'll learn how to make smarter, more informed decisions that can help reduce your risk and increase your gains by following a few simple rules for analyzing any investment. This is how the professionals grow their wealth and how you can, too. This is Money for the Rest of Us.

    It's a hard-bound, 898-page, full-color feast for the senses. Completists will get lost in thousands of freshly-manicured setlists, song histories, and charts. Prose junkies will binge on hundreds of evocative show reviews and fan stories. Photophiles will gape at 128 pages of dazzling Phish photography - most of which has never been published. And poster collectors, get ready: The Phish Companion's eight chapters are anchored by stunning original works from Welker, Masthay, Helton, and more - each of whom was commissioned to freely interpret a period of Phish. No need to wait in line before "doors" for this art. If that's not enough, the net proceeds of your purchase will benefit music education programs via grants from The Mockingbird Foundation. We firmly believe that music is not extracurricular, and we have seen first-hand how your generosity changes lives. Yes, the Phish story is one of epic sweep, but it's also personal. It's about the feeling that overtakes you when the lights go down and the roar comes up. Feel the feeling, right at your fingertips. Read The Book.

    

    The gift is a perfect example of what Mauss calls a total social phenomenon, since it involves legal, economic, moral, religious, aesthetic, and other dimensions. He sees the gift exchange as related to individuals and groups as much as to the objects themselves, and his analysis calls into question the social conventions and economic systems that had been taken for granted for so many years. In a modern translation, introduced by distinguished anthropologist Mary Douglas, The Gift is essential reading for students of social anthropology and sociology.

    How long should it take before you stop having to force it and start doing it automatically?The surprising answers are found in Making Habits, Breaking Habits, a psychologist's popular examination of one of the most powerful and under-appreciated processes in the mind. Although people like to think that they are in control, much of human behavior occurs without any decision-making or conscious thought.Drawing on hundreds of fascinating studies, psychologist Jeremy Dean busts the myths to finally explain why seemingly easy habits, like eating an apple a day, can be surprisingly difficult to form, and how to take charge of your brain's natural “autopilot” to make any change stick.Witty and intriguing, Making Habits, Breaking Habits shows how behavior is more than just a product of what you think. It is possible to bend your habits to your will—and be happier, more creative, and more productive.

    This work contains components of the model, which include staffing models and strategy, staffing support systems (legal compliance, planning, job analysis and rewards), core staffing systems (recruitment, selection, employment), and staffing system and retention management.

    We need to remember that sustained economic success is a rare phenomenon.As an era of easy money and easy growth comes to a close, China in particular will cool down. Other major players including Brazil, Russia, and India face their own daunting challenges and inflated expectations. The new "breakout nations" will probably spring from the margins, even from the shadows. Ruchir Sharma, one of the world’s largest investors in emerging markets for Morgan Stanley, here identifies which are most likely to leap ahead and why.After two decades spent traveling the globe tracking the progress of developing countries, Sharma has produced a book full of surprises: why the overpriced cocktails in Rio are a sign of revival in Detroit; how the threat of the "population bomb" came to be seen as a competitive advantage; how an industrial revolution in Asia is redefining what manufacturing can do for a modern economy; and how the coming shakeout in the big emerging markets could shift the spotlight back to the West, especially American technology and German manufacturing.What emerges is a clear picture of the shifting balance of global economic power and how it plays out for emerging nations and for the West. In a captivating exploration studded with vignettes, Sharma reveals his rules on how to spot economic success stories. Breakout Nations is a rollicking education for anyone looking to understand where the future will happen.

    Japan was going to dominate, then China. Countries were called “tigers” or “mini-dragons,” and were seen as not just development prodigies, but as a unified bloc, culturally and economically similar, and inexorably on the rise.Joe Studwell has spent two decades as a reporter in the region, and The Financial Times said he “should be named chief myth-buster for Asian business.” In How Asia Works, Studwell distills his extensive research into the economies of nine countries—Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China—into an accessible, readable narrative that debunks Western misconceptions, shows what really happened in Asia and why, and for once makes clear why some countries have boomed while others have languished.Studwell’s in-depth analysis focuses on three main areas: land policy, manufacturing, and finance. Land reform has been essential to the success of Asian economies, giving a kick start to development by utilizing a large workforce and providing capital for growth. With manufacturing, industrial development alone is not sufficient, Studwell argues. Instead, countries need “export discipline,” a government that forces companies to compete on the global scale. And in finance, effective regulation is essential for fostering, and sustaining growth. To explore all of these subjects, Studwell journeys far and wide, drawing on fascinating examples from a Philippine sugar baron’s stifling of reform to the explosive growth at a Korean steel mill.Thoroughly researched and impressive in scope, How Asia Works is essential reading for anyone interested in the development of these dynamic countries, a region that will shape the future of the world.

    Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't is the first major revision of this business classic. In Scaling Up, Harnish and his team share practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. These approaches have been honed from over three decades of advising tens of thousands of CEOs and executives and helping them navigate the increasing complexities (and weight) that come with scaling up a venture. This book is written so everyone -- from frontline employees to senior executives -- can get aligned in contributing to the growth of a firm. There's no reason to do it alone, yet many top leaders feel like they are the ones dragging the rest of the organization up the S-curve of growth. The goal of this book is to help you turn what feels like an anchor into wind at your back -- creating a company where the team is engaged; the customers are doing your marketing; and everyone is making money. To accomplish this, Scaling Up focuses on the four major decision areas every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. The book includes a series of new one-page tools including the updated One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits ChecklistTM, which more than 40,000 firms around the globe have used to scale their companies successfully -- many to $1 billion and beyond. Running a business is ultimately about freedom. Scaling Up shows business leaders how to get their organizations moving in sync to create something significant and enjoy the ride.