Politics / History
Author(s): Lee Kuan Yew
Autobiography of Lee Kuan Yew and very detailed history of how Singapore transitioned from a British colony to a federation with Malaysia and then a free country.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
The Singapore Story
Politics / History
Author(s): Lee Kuan Yew
Autobiography of Lee Kuan Yew and very detailed history of how Singapore transitioned from a British colony to a federation with Malaysia and then a free country.
The Man Who Solved the Market
FInance / History
Author(s): Gregory Zuckerman
The best book about the history of Jim Simons, his hedge funds, his employees, and how they became the best performing asset managers in the world.
Boom
Art / History
Author(s): Michael Shnayerson
Where art meets big money. The book tells the history of art from the twentieth century from the point of view of the best selling artists, the major dealers and the biggest buyers.
Netflixed
Business / History
Author(s): Gina Keating
The complete and detailed history of Netflix, its founders, competitors, algorithms, and how in the end it came on top.
Crude Volatility
Economics / History
Author(s): Bob McNally
Great book about the history of oil prices and the most important players during each era. Similar to The Prize but with greater focus on the supply - demand balance and the effect of shale.
The Party
Politics / History
Author(s): Richard McGregor
The rise of the Communist Party and how they kept the grip of power during China's economic transition. It also talks about how the party handles problems from the inside and how some decisions are made.
Bad Blood
Business / History / Crime
Author(s): John Carreyrou
Winner of the FT/McKinsey prize for best business book of 2018. The book goes into detail about the rise and fall of Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes. The most impressive thing is how the company could stay afloat for so long despite all the red flags.
China's Great Wall of Debt
Economics / History
Author(s): Dinny McMahon
The rise of debt to fuel China's economic growth and how the current economic system incentivizes local governments and corporations to keep borrowing to maintain growth above certain benchmarks.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Little Rice
Business / History
Author(s): Clay Shirky
Short book about Xiaomi and their business model in China. The book also includes information about the technology sector and related companies.
On China
Politics / History
Author(s): Henry Kissinger
I've not read many books about China so far but I'm sure there is nobody in a better position to write a book about the opening of China to the world as Henry Kissinger. The book starts with a good introduction of the history and values of China up to the 18th century and then proceeds with great detail to describe the many wars of China with other countries, Mao's communist revolution and the changes implemented by Deng Xiaoping where he was a very important figure as a diplomatic in behalf of the United States.
China's Second Continent
Politics / Economics / History
Author(s): Howard French
The author travels around many countries in Africa narrating the new economic ties that all of those countries now have with China, most of them in the form of deals that involve the building of infrastructure by chinese companies in exchange of natural resources.
Ali Baba
Business / History
Author(s): Duncan Clark
The life of Jack Ma, the founding of Ali Baba and the development of the internet sector in China including other companies like baidu and tencent.
The Deal of the Century
Business / History
Author(s): Steve Coll
The history of AT&T, their monopoly of the telecommunications sector in the united states and a case that lasted many years in court to finally breakup AT&T in many companies that still exist today.
The Everything Store
Business / History
Author(s): Brad Stone
This book is pretty straightforward: the history of Jeff Bezos and Amazon in chronological order. The author has access to a lot of details about the founding of Amazon and its impressive expansion in a lot of sectors.
The Firm
Business / History
Author(s): Duff McDonald
The best book about the consulting world. McKinsey is the main subject but the author also includes a lot of information about other consulting firms like Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company and most important of all: the evolution of the consulting profession since the 20s and how powerful these firms really are.
Thursday, March 8, 2018
The Box
Business / History
Author(s): Marc Levinson
My favorite book about globalization. It explains with great detail how the container helped reshape the world economy making it viable to transport products across the world and change the supply chain as we know it.
The Taking of Getty Oil
Business History
Author(s): Steve Coll
The battle to take over Getty Oil and everyone involved including the children of Jean Paul Getty Jr, the board of the company, Pennzoil, Texaco, many banks, and a long trial.
The Man Who Knew
Biography
Author(s): Sebastian Mallaby
One of the best books about modern central bank policy history through the eyes of Alan Greenspan. It also features the policies of the Fed chairmen before him, his entire tenure and how he also affected white house policy, not only in financial subjects.
The Great Leveler
Economics / History
Author(s): Walter Scheidel
Very dense book but in my opinion the best about economic inequality because it uses no conjectures or hypotheses, just a look at history and facts of how destruction has been the strongest force to reduce economic inequality in a drastic way.
Lucifer's Banker
Finance / History
Author(s): Bradley Birkenfeld
Autobiographical book that describes the importance of the swiss bank secrecy and how the author after working in the industry for years became a whistleblower and ended it.
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