Review of The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror (Hardcover)

I had never heard of George Soros until I read an editorial he sent in to the Wall Street Journal. The editorial piqued my interest and so I looked him up and discovered this book.

The Age of Fallibility is very well written and presents very complicated theories in an easy to grasp from. Soros writes with the mentality of someone that really wants to get his point across: He tells you what he is going to talk about, talks about it, and then tells you what he just talked about. This has the affect of seeming a bit repetitive, but at the same time, you realize that the ideas are actually sinking in.

The first half of the book is dedicated to Soros' theory of reflexivity. Basically, reality isn't a fixed thing that we work around, it is constantly changing because of our actions and our thoughts. The idea of an open society is one that accepts that we will never reach a "perfect" solution to anything and so we must always work together to improve what we are doing, understanding that each improvement we make will require additional improvements.

The second half of the book is geared towards asking what is currently wrong with America, what is wrong with the world, and what we can do to fix it. Soros gives an in depth look into all three topics and makes some very good points.

To say that George Soros is anti-American is just silly. He merely points out the ways in which Americans can improve in our domestic and foreign policies. This is part of the open society model. There is always room for improvement. Pointing out that something can be improved is not the same as being against it.

The book got over my head a bit towards the end. I don't know enough about Russia to follow a lot of the points made there. Overall, this is a great book for someone who is interested in what is currently happening in this country and the world and would like to know more.



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Review of The Essential Buffett: Timeless Principles for the New Economy (Hardcover)

The definitive book on Warren Buffett has yet to be written.Perhaps only Mr. Buffett can do so, and he has no incentive in this direction.Interestingly, the more Mr. Buffett's performance weakens versus the market, the more books come out focusing on his methods.Mr. Buffett writes about his thinking in his annual reports of Berkshire Hathaway, speaks about it at his annual meetings, and occasionally shares ideas with reporters.Conclusions about his methods then are a distillation of these sources, much like the CIA used to interpret what the Soviet's thought by reviewing Pravda.The results are probably about as accurate.My main complaint about this book is that Mr. Buffett does not and probably will not invest in the new economy.And for good reasons.It doesn't fit his investing standards.So a book that takes the principles and applies them in that direction is misleading at best, and I suggest you decide what you want to call it at worst.

If you want to read a good book about Mr. Buffett, I suggest that you read How to Think Like Benjamin Grapham and Invest Like Warren Buffett.That volume covers much of the same ground as here, but does so better.It also is more accurate in characterizing Mr. Buffett's philosophy, as I understand it.You can read my review of that book.

If you have read Mr. Hagstrom's book, The Warren Buffett Way, you probably don't need to read this one as well.Let me summarize some of the key points so you can decide.Here are the principles in the book, as I have paraphrased them:

(1)Think about a stock investment like you are buying the whole business.

(2)Give yourself a large margin of safety when you buy, picking a time when a stock is depressed well below its economic value.

(3)Hold few stocks and think about their current and future fundamentals constantly to see if your assumptions are holding.

(4)Avoid speculation at all costs.

The tenets of The Warren Buffett Way are repeated here:

Business Tenets

(a)"Is the business simple and understandable?"

(b)"Does the business have a consistent operating history?"

(c)"Does the business have favorable long-term prospects?"

Management Tenets

(a)"Is the management rational?"

(b)"Is management candid with shareholders?"

(c)"Does management resist the institutional imperative?"

Financial Tenets

(a)"Focus on return on equity, not earnings per share."

(b)"Calculate owner earnings."This is essentially free cash flow.

(c)"Look for companies with high profit margins."

The reported reason Mr. Buffett does not buy technology stocks is because he feels the long-term prospects are too murky.He is probably right in most circumstances.Technology companies are usually about as successful as their new products.How can you know how good they will be versus the competition 10 years from now?

The fundamental premise of a book like this is also questionable in another way.If you want to get Warren Buffett's results, you can simply own Berkshire Hathaway stock while Mr. Buffett is alive.

For most people, indexed mutual funds are a better choice.I suggest that you read John Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds to learn the argument for that approach.If 90 percent of the pros cannot beat the market, can you expect to do better?

After you read this book, also think about where modeling of a famous person's behavior might not capture what you want to learn.For example, can an actor distill her or his approach into a few principles and tenets?Yes, but that distillation wouldn't allow you to duplicate the results.

Take your money seriously, and keep focusing on how to keep it safe as your first investment priority.Avoiding losses is a key Buffett principle that has served him and his investors well.

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Review of Real Estate Valuation in Litigation, Second Edition (Hardcover)

The author addresses appraisal subjects in the terms and in a context that an appraiser normally communicates.He provides adequate legal explanations and court case reference, so, the appraiser can communicate with their legal counsel & clients.It is extremely insightful for all who are doing any type of court or property tax appraisals.It is slanted to condemnation assignments, however, the appraisal & legal principals are enunciated clearly enough that, they are easily extended to property tax and estate appraisal assignments.It has been helpful to my work my Ad Valorem assignments.



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Review of The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance (Hardcover)

Lester Salamon's edited book, "The Tools of Government," is an immensely useful work that identifies the various tools that government has today to effect its goals.Government policy-making has changed in recent decades.Now, problem solving by the public sector is not carried out by government alone.Nonprofits and the private sector have become involved, too.As Salamon notes (page vii): "Largely overlooked. . .has been the extent to which actual public problem solving has come to embrace the collaborative actions of governments at multiple levels and both government and private institutions."

A table on page 3 well illustrates this thesis.This table shows that:

(1) In social service delivery, 56% of services are delivered by nonprofits, 4% by for-profits, and 40% by government.

(2) In health, 44% of services are delivered by nonprofits, 23% by for-profits, and 33% by government.And so on.In reality, public service delivery is a complex mixture of government and non-governmental actors.

This volume describes the various tools used by those who deliver services--from economic regulation to government corporations to vouchers to grants to loans to tort liability to contracting and so on.The point is simple: there are many tools that can be used to achieve public goals--whether those services are actually delivered by the private sector, not-for-profits, or government itself.

However, tools are not developed and deployed in a vacuum.This volume also discusses the use of such tools in democracy and the nature of the politics of tool use.Also well discussed is accountability of the nonprofit, for-profit, and governmental sectors.

In the end, a well worthwhile book for those interested in how government decisions and priorities become implemented and services delivered.The book is not elegantly written, but there is much content here.



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Review of Oxford American College Dictionary (Hardcover)

This 2002 book is an abridgement of the excellent New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD, published 2001), with a price in line with other college dictionaries.Unfortunately, there seem to be a few problem areas.

The first thing that will strike many college students and graduates is the almost complete absence of etymologies.A few of the more interesting ones are highlighted with the heading WORD HISTORY; for example, this is one of very few sources that make clear why the Dutch for "the cage" appears in English as DECOY.A few other etymologies appear with the heading ORIGIN.For the most part, you won't find any.It would seem that such information would add a lot to many entries, such as UBUNTU, TRIFFID, GROK, TOHUBOHU, and thousands more.One consequence is that the usage note for ESKIMO refers to a deleted etymology.Granted, the etymologies in most competitors have a lot of fluff; they'll show two of numerous older spellings of "dog" before implying that the trail grows cold in Old English; a simple "<OE" or "OE<?"should be enough.The datings that appear in a few competitors and some other Oxford dictionaries would be a fine addition.

In a brief survey of one-word lowercase entries from LI to LIEDER in this and three comparable (college) dictionaries, it appears that coverage in this dictionary is nearly as good.It is, however, the only one to omit LIAISE, LIBELANT, LIBELEE, LICENSURE, and an adjectival form for LIBATION (but the competitors disagree, two showing LIBATIONARY, one LIBATIONAL).This dictionary relegates LIBERALISM to a run-on, a word for which the competition had relatively long entries; the difference is partly offset by a longer entry for LIBERAL.But it was the only one not to relegate LIBERTARIANISM to a run-on.It has only run-ons for LIBERATION, LICHENOLOGY, and LIBRETTIST (the precise relation between a librettist and a libretto is not one of the senses given elsewhere for the suffix -IST).Two competitors explain the missing LIDLESS, a poetic form that may well still be met in colleges.It is the only one to list LICENSED, a form unlikely to be sought.Elsewhere, it is not hard to find entries that all the competitors omit; WAQF and CINQ will intrigue Scrabblers.

More than a dozen pages are blank.This is certainly a surprise, since most publishers allot their lexicographers however many pages can be printed affordably for the intended sales price, and they scramble to squash the available material into what seems to be too small a space.Larger Oxford dictionaries would provide plenty of material for filling these pages up.

No doubt Roger Staubach is pleased to have an entry, and would be even more so if his name were spelled correctly.It's unclear whether users would expect to find anything about him in a dictionary, but this one tries to include a lot of currently famous sports and entertainment personalities, and users might enjoy this feature.Cal Ripken makes an appearance too, but since the entry hasn't been updated, his 2001 retirement is unnoted.The space devoted to Perry, a tennis star from the thirties, might have been better devoted to Commodore Perry in a college dictionary, and there are many similar examples.

Unnecessarily in my opinion, an illustration for skyscraper has been edited to remove the World Trade Center.There are quite a number of illustrations, many adding little besides a break in what some readers might consider monotonous text.Whoever drew the picture for hyperbola has little appreciation for asymptotes.Every country comes with a large map, showing very few cities other than capitals, and mostly useless.The result is that the Northern Mariana Islands are shown with greater detail than in the National Geographic Atlas, while most of the largest U.S. cities appear on no map whatever.It's unclear that dictionary users expect maps, and those that do will probably look elsewhere.

Inevitably a new work has slipups here and there,of them possibly attributable to the abridgement.The entry for the noun SHANKS' MARE reads "used to walking"; you need the complete entry from NOAD to make any sense of the definition, which in itself is more of an explanation than something that can take the place of a noun.The symbol for SECOND didn't survive intact.The entries for GOODNESS and SAKE disagree on the punctuation of"for goodness' sake".Only the illustrative citation for Spartan hints that its metaphoric usage is now usually uncapitalized.And the spelling Stonehendge appears.At times one feels that one is the first human to be reading certain entries in their current form.Information for REIS, BO, SH, ADELGID, etc., is present, but not anywhere you are likely to look.On the other hand, "Sly" is cross-referenced to Stallone.

Kudos to Oxford for its sensible treatment of the spelling or usage of such entries as miniscule, flout/flaunt, plaintext, back seat, hopefully, disinterested, under way, supercede, they, and dozens more.Hopefully a future edition will have something to say against the spelling KI for the word pronounced CHI and now usually spelled QI.And hopefully we won't have to wait long for the Second Edition of this dictionary, a more patient and careful abridgement of NOAD.Except for price and portability, nearly all the pluses of this work are found in NOAD, while most of the minuses mentioned above are not in NOAD.For now, if you can afford only a college dictionary, I would have to recommend one of the others.



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