Vesco from Wall Street to Castro's Cuba


Book Description

The account of Robert Vesco, the Kingfish, who bilked investors of $250 million dollars in the early seventies and fled the country just ahead of the Feds, ultimately landing in Cuba.




Selling Snake Oil


Book Description

Selling Snake Oil is sensational confrontation with the masterminds of the world's most innovative and astonishing investment frauds. This book offers a glimpse into the ingenuity, psychology and strategies of history’s most effective swindlers, who successfully duped US presidents, savvy CEOs, seasoned investment professionals, and everyday investors like you and me. The cases are as real as the victims that lay in their waste. But most important are the eternal lessons they left behind. This book is as entertaining as it is actionable, with every story offering readers another layer of protection in their efforts to ward of the charlatans of the future. You will travel from the shores of Antigua to the farms of Ontario, from the Eifel Tower to small-town America and into the sanctuaries of Wall Street. The stories will carry you across the broadest gamut of geographic and historical narratives. All of which, with the singular objective of helping you avoid the next snake-oil salesman.




White-Collar and Corporate Crime


Book Description

This reference guide documents white-collar crimes by individuals and businesses over the past 150 years, offering the most comprehensive array of documents and interpretations available. From Gilded Age railroad scandals to the muckraking period and from the Savings and Loan debacle to corporate fallout during the recent economic meltdown, some individuals and companies have chosen to take the low road to achieve "the American dream." While these offenders throughout modern history may have lacked ethics, morals, or good judgment, they certainly were not wanting in terms of creativity. White-Collar and Corporate Crime: A Documentary and Reference Guide traces the fascinating history of white-collar and corporate criminal behavior from the 1800s through the 2010 passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform measure. Author Gilbert Geis scrutinizes more than a century of episodes involving corporate corruption and other self-serving behaviors that violate antitrust laws, bribery statutes, and fraud laws. The various attempts made by authorities to rein in greed and the methods employed by wrongdoers to evade these controls are also discussed and evaluated.




How They Got Away with it


Book Description

A criminological investigation into the social, cultural, political & economic conditions that led to the 2008 financial collapse.




ISLA


Book Description

Clippings of Latin American political, social and economic news from various English language newspapers.




Security Analysis and Business Valuation on Wall Street, + Companion Web Site


Book Description

An insider's look at security analysis and business valuation, as practiced by Wall Street, Corporate America, and international businesses Two major market crashes, numerous financial and accounting scandals, growth in private equity and hedge funds, Sarbanes Oxley and related regulations, and international developments changed security analysis and business valuation substantially over the last fourteen years. These events necessitated a second edition of this modern classic, praised earlier by Barron's as a "welcome successor to Graham and Dodd" and used in the global CFA exam. This authoritative book shows the rational, rigorous analysis is still the most successful way to evaluate securities. It picks up where Graham and Dodd's bestselling Security Analysis - for decades considered the definitive word on the subject - leaves off. Providing a practical viewpoint, Security Analysis on Wall Street shows how the values of common stock are really determined in today's marketplace. Incorporating dozens of real-world examples, and spotlighting many special analysis cases - including cash flow stocks, unusual industries and distressed securities - this comprehensive resources delivers all the answers to your questions about security analysis and corporate valuation on Wall Street. The Second Edition of Security Analysis on Wall Street examines how mutual funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, institutional money managers, investment banks, business appraisers, and corporate acquirers perform their craft of security analysis and business valuation in today's highly charged environment. Completely updated to reflect the latest methodologies, this reliable resource represents the most comprehensive book written by someone who has actually worked as an investment banker, private equity executive, and international institutional investor. Shows the methodical process that practitioners use to value common stocks and operating companies and to make buy/sell decisions Discusses the impact of the two stock market crashes, the accounting and financial scandals, and the new regulations on the evaluation process Covers how Internet and computing power automate portions of the research and analytical effort Includes new case study examples representative of valuation issues faced daily by mutual funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, institutional investors, investment banks, business appraisers, and corporate acquirers Is a perfect tool for professors wishing to show their MBA students the essential tools of equity and business valuation Security analysis and business valuation are core financial disciplines for Wall Streeters, corporate acquirers, and international investors. The Second Edition of Security Analysis on Wall Street is an important book for anyone who needs a solid grounding in these critical finance topics.




Cuba Confidential


Book Description

From America’s number one Cuba reporter, PEN award–winning investigative journalist Ann Louise Bardach, comes the big book on Cuba we’ve all been waiting for. An incisive and spirited portrait of the twentieth century’s wiliest political survivor and his fiefdom, Cuba Confidential is the gripping story of the shattered families and warring personalities that lie at the heart of the forty-three-year standoff between Miami and Havana. Famous to many Americans for her cover stories and media appearances, Ann Louise Bardach has been covering Cuba for a decade. She’s talked to the crooks, spooks and politicians who have made history, and to their hired assassins and confidants. Based on exclusive interviews with Fidel Castro, his sister Juanita, his former brother-in-law Rafael Díaz-Balart, the family of Elián González, the friends and family of the legendary American fugitive Robert Vesco, the intrepid terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, and the inner circles of Jeb Bush and the late exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa, Cuba Confidential exposes the hardball take-no-prisoners tactics of the Cuban exile leadership, and its manipulation and exploitation by ten American presidents. Bardach homes in on Fidel Castro and his cronies, taking us closer than we’ve ever been—and on the militant exiles who have devoted their lives, with CIA connivance, to trying to eliminate him. From Calle Ocho to Juan Miguel González’s kitchen table in Cárdenas, from Guantánamo Bay to Union City to Washington, D.C., Ann Louise Bardach serves up an unforgettable portrait of Cuba and its exiles.




How to Smell a Rat


Book Description

A timely guide to uncovering financial fraud 2008 and 2009 will be remembered for bear markets, a global credit crunch, and some of the largest investment scams ever. But these scams are nothing new, they've been repeated throughout history, and there will certainly be more to come. But the good news is fraudsters often follow the same basic playbook. Learn the playbook, and know how to ask the right questions, and financial fraud can be easy to detect and simple to avoid. In How to Smell a Rat, trusted financial expert Ken Fisher provides you with an inside's view on how to spot financial disasters before you become a part of them. Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, this reliable resource takes an engaging look at recent and historic examples of fraudsters, how they operated, and how they can be easily avoided. Fisher also shows you the quick, identifiable features of financial frauds and arms you with the questions to ask when assessing a money manager. Prepares you to identify and avoid financials cams that could instantly destroy your wealth Contains examples that highlight how financial frauds are committed Provides questions everyone should ask before entering any investment endeavor With How to Smell a Rat as your guide, you'll learn how to protect your interests and assets from unnecessary losses.




Cuba and the U.S. Empire


Book Description

The 1959 Cuban Revolution remains one of the signal events of modern political history. A tiny island, once a de facto colony of the United States, declared its independence, not just from the imperial behemoth ninety miles to the north, but also from global capitalism itself. Cuba’s many achievements – in education, health care, medical technology, direct local democracy, actions of international solidarity with the oppressed – are globally unmatched and unprecedented. And the United States, in light of Cuba’s achievements, has waged a relentless campaign of terrorist attacks on the island and its leaders, while placing Cuba on its “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list. In this updated edition of her classic, Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History, Jane Franklin depicts the two countries’ relationship from the time both were colonies to the present. We see the early connections between Cuba and the United States through slavery; through the sugar trade; then Cuba’s multiple wars for national liberation; the annexation of Cuba by the United States; the infamous Platt Amendment that entitled the United States to intervene directly in Cuban affairs; the gangster capitalism promoted by Cuban dictator Fulgencio Battista; and the guerilla war that brought the revolutionaries to power. A new chapter updating the fraught Cuban-U.S. nexus brings us well into the 21st century, with a look at the current status of Assata Shakur, the Cuban Five, and the post-9/11 years leading to the expansion of diplomatic relations. Offering a range of primary and secondary sources, the book is an outstanding scholarly work. Cuba and the United States brings new meaning to Simón Bolívar’s warning in 1829, that the United States “appears destined by Providence to plague America with miseries in the name of Freedom.”




The Con Men


Book Description