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Recommended Books?

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:51 pm
by Bonafede
Any thoughts on some book recommendations that may be similar to Harry Browne's philosophy? I've recently read Fail Safe Investing and Why Government Doesn't Work. Good reads, and very easy to digest.

Other suggestions?

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:40 am
by MediumTex
How I Found Freedom in An Unfree World is thought provoking.

Human Action by Ludwig von Mises has many ideas that were influential to Browne's thinking (it's available free on line).

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:29 am
by 6 Iron
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. Also available online. This is a short, easy to read book, with a profound lesson in the fundamental of economics (from an Austrian school perspective).

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 12:14 pm
by MediumTex
6 Iron wrote: Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt.
Hazlitt's logic is like a blow torch.  Great book.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 1:03 pm
by craigr
I also recommend Economics in One Lesson. This is the book I give to people that want to understand economics. It may not have the answers they want to see, but it has the correct answers. IMO.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 3:42 pm
by LNGTERMER
These are all excellent books, thanks for sharing your favorites, and thanks Bonafede for asking for the benefit of all.
Is there a way of getting these books in audio formats? That would be good way of learning during rush hours :-)

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 4:12 pm
by MediumTex
LNGTERMER wrote: These are all excellent books, thanks for sharing your favorites, and thanks Bonafede for asking for the benefit of all.
Is there a way of getting these books in audio formats? That would be good way of learning during rush hours :-)
If you want something in an audio format, get the 20 disc set of Harry Browne from 1967 that is on his website.  I bought it a couple of years ago and I have probably listened to it 10 times from start to finish. 

It's a bargain at $99 for the download.  It's really an amazing program.  You won't agree with everything he says (I promise--in fact, you may vehemently disagree with some of it), but it is an amazingly stimulating and challenging presentation (especially coming from someone who was in his early 30s at the time). 

It's the only audio program of a seminar I have ever listened to that stuck with me for more than a few minutes after I turned it off.

The fact that the ideas he discusses in this program are still fresh and relevant 43 years later is testament to the soundness of his thinking.  As I said, though, you needn't agree with all of it to get tremendous value from it.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 6:41 pm
by Pkg Man
I am about 3/4ths of the way through Investment Biker by Jim Rodgers.  It is one of the best books I've read in years.  It is about his adventures traveling around the world on a motorcycle in 1990.  Along the way he interjects comments about investing, economics, politics, and life in general.  It doesn't have much to do with the PP, although there are some philosophical similarities.  You will see that a lot of his predictions came to pass and several did not.  All the more reason to use the PP-VP approach IMHO.

I highly recommend it even if you've never sat on a motorcycle.  And if you do by chance ride, I guarantee you will love it.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:23 pm
by 6 Iron
MediumTex wrote:
If you want something in an audio format

This podcast makes for interesting listening in a car:

http://www.econtalk.org/

Russ Roberts is quite skilled in explaining economic issues to the layman, with interesting and varied guests. Incidentally, he was also a driving force behind the boom and the bust video regarding Keynes and Hayek.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 7:31 pm
by craigr
6 Iron wrote:
MediumTex wrote:
If you want something in an audio format

This podcast makes for interesting listening in a car:

http://www.econtalk.org/

Russ Roberts is quite skilled in explaining economic issues to the layman, with interesting and varied guests. Incidentally, he was also a driving force behind the boom and the bust video regarding Keynes and Hayek.
I've been listening to Econtalk for years. It's the only economics podcast I listen to. He doesn't cover the current markets much (which is good) and has a lot of interesting guests that cover a wide range of topics. In particular, I really enjoy his interviews with Nassim Taleb (been on three times I think).

Roberts described himself initially as from the Chicago school of Economics. Although he has said that he does see much wisdom in the Austrian school in describing the markets. He once said, if I recall, that if he were on a plane from Illionois to Austria, he'd be somewhere over France by now.

-- Craig

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 2:45 pm
by Jan Van
David Swensen's lecture "Investing for the Long Run" is number 9 in this series: Financial Markets: http://academicearth.org/courses/financial-markets. You also can get it on iTunes, both audio and video versions...

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 5:57 pm
by MediumTex
"The Fourth Turning" by Strauss and Howe is a great read.

You will learn a lot about the social and cultural history of the U.S. even if you don't buy their overall thesis.

It's one of the better-reasoned arguments for cycles in human relations and institutions.

Their predictions regarding the shape of the future have been pretty solid (the book was written in 1997), and also tend to match my personal opinions about the trajectory of our country, society, culture and institutions.

For many, the PP seems to represent an overall view of the world that is a bit pessimistic, but after reading "The Fourth Turning" you may get a glimpse of the wisdom embedded in the PP, along with its true neutrality (as well as its resilience) in the face of the myriad potential future scenarios that may arrive.

This is my metaphor (not from the book, but the reasoning is similar): Imagine history as a series of waves crashing against a beach.  Most waves are small and make for a nice atmosphere, but occasionally a gigantic wave comes along and basically wipes the entire beach clean.  Between these gigantic waves, people tend to lose their memory of the last big wave and will begin to spend more and more time on the beach, even building houses and cities because it's such a pleasant location.  They wonder why no one thought of this before...until the next gigantic wave arrives.

Investing, I think, involves identifying where the large wave are likely to strike (i.e., almost anywhere) and designing a strategy to protect yourself (such as the extreme diversification that the PP provides).  As people migrate into the high risk areas of the investing world like the mellow sandy beach in my example, you will always seem to be out of step if you insist on sticking to higher ground.  Over time, though, your portfolio will survive while most others, given enough time, will perish.  Look at all the great fortunes of nations, families and companies--they normally meet the big wave much quicker than anyone would have thought.  This is the point that always jumps out at me when studying history. 

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 9:30 pm
by Bonafede
Here's a great article about Investing Newsletters and the accuracy...or rather inaccuracy of them. Great read!

http://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/ ... rmance.pdf

-b

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 11:10 pm
by Pkg Man
Just finished "When Genius Failed", the story about the debacle of Long Term Capital Management in the late 90s.  It's a great read and provides a vivid example of the admonitions HB gave about trying to predict markets  -- even the brilliant can be disastrously wrong.  While the book is an indictment of mathematical finance, Long Term Capital's undoing had just as much, if not more, to do with hubris of the traders. 

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:49 am
by D
"How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes" by Peter Schiff

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 7:19 am
by PP4me
"Why the Best-Laid Investment Plans Usually Go Wrong & How You Can Find Safety & Profit in an Uncertain World" by Harry Browne is the extended version of "Fail Safe Investing".  It is the best investment book I've ever read and a must read for anyone on this forum.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 11:20 pm
by MediumTex
PP4me wrote: "Why the Best-Laid Investment Plans Usually Go Wrong & How You Can Find Safety & Profit in an Uncertain World" by Harry Browne is the extended version of "Fail Safe Investing".  It is the best investment book I've ever read and a must read for anyone on this forum.
I am actually re-reading it ("Why The Best Laid Investment Plans...") right now, and I missed a lot the first time around.  It's really an amazing book.

I was going to post something like the comment above as well.

Harry Browne was one of a kind.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 11:24 pm
by craigr
PP4me wrote: "Why the Best-Laid Investment Plans Usually Go Wrong & How You Can Find Safety & Profit in an Uncertain World" by Harry Browne is the extended version of "Fail Safe Investing".  It is the best investment book I've ever read and a must read for anyone on this forum.
I completely agree. Some parts are a little dated now (mainly his stock fund choices not being index funds and a few other small bits). But the overall book is great from the blistering attack on market timing schemes to the in depth review of the asset classes. It's a great book overall. I even have an autographed copy.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 1:27 pm
by l82start
i just ordered a copy, and i am looking forward to reading it, i expect it will be as good or better than "fail safe investing"

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 4:18 pm
by craigr
Fail Safe Investing is like a car owner's manual. Very simple without a lot of detail on how to run things but ensures the operator can use the vehicle safely.

Best-Laid Investment Plans is more like the technical manual for the car. It explains a lot of the inner workings for those interested in such things.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 6:03 pm
by Pkg Man
["Why the Best Laid Plans" is de rigueur for any serious follower of the PP.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 5:15 pm
by MediumTex
I am going to step away from investing and the PP for a moment and recommend William Catton's brilliant Overshoot.

Catton wrote this book in 1980, and you may be surprised at how fresh his ideas remain and how few people still seem to be aware of his epic analysis.

The Amazon reviews will give you a sense of what it is about.

For a smart person who is looking for a mental and psychological challenge requiring gobs of intellectual torque, this is the book for you.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:45 pm
by PP4me
"Common Sense on Mutual Funds" by John Bogle is excellent and was my bible until I found Harry Browne's Permanent Portfolio books. The short version of this book is "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" by John Bogle.  I prefer the long versions of good books.

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 4:18 pm
by Jan Van
How about "Stikky Stock Charts" ( http://www.stikky.com/0003-stockcharts/ ... etails.htm ): Learn the 8 major chart patterns used by professionals and how to interpret them to trade smart—in one hour, guaranteed.
;D

Yes, I bought that book this past weekend...

Re: Recommended Books?

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:21 pm
by Pres
jmourik wrote: How about "Stikky Stock Charts" ( http://www.stikky.com/0003-stockcharts/ ... etails.htm ): Learn the 8 major chart patterns used by professionals and how to interpret them to trade smart—in one hour, guaranteed.
;D

Yes, I bought that book this past weekend...
"In one hour"? Seriously? 256 pages?