Erik’s Blog: Board Shorts and Business Suits

Many reporters, economists, and wanna be economists are comparing the recent stock market crash to the famous crash of 1929. The crash that marked the start of the Great Depression. The crash that changed America. But is it really the same?

Knowing little about the 1929 crash I haven’t really been able to make the parallel myself. I’ve been stuck listening when I’d love to offer my own opinions. So a few weeks back when I was, surprise surprise, waiting in an airport I stumbled across a used book with a title staring back at me. Rainbow’s End: The Crash of 1929.

I decided to buy the book and begin to read it on my 14 hour journey back to Hawaii from the mainland. The back cover seemed to have rave reviews (which rarely happens on a book cover) and the thought of finally figuring out what caused the stock market crash was intriguing enough.

Turns out it was an amazing book. It reads like a story rather than restating facts in dry collegiate language. It kept me reading and interested in something that most would find a boring subject were it not strikingly similar to todays events.

The author, Maury Klein, writes Rainbow’s End not focusing on the events right around 1929, but rather, builds up to the crash. Starting at the turn of the century. He talks about how the automobile transformed American way of life more than any other invention ever had. Klein focuses on the effects the automobile had on how people traveled and interacted with people, the status symbol a car made, the drive by manufacturers to reduce the cost making it more of an minorly-expensive commodity than a luxury item. And most importantly he talks about how automakers begin to shape how companies did business.

He focuses on one big player, with big ideas, Billy Durant who helped create holding companies like GM to brand different cars and build huge conglomerates. Durant lived the American dream and Klein captures the most pivotal moments of that dream.

He goes on to talk about how banks began to transform. He talks about how America used to be a country of men and women who saved, and worked hard to save some more, but began to turn to country that used credit to purchase things. (sound familiar) Fueled by the automobile, large appliances, and other luxuries, America began to buy things now on want rather than on necessity.

He talks about how banking giant of the time National City began to offer trading of securities all over the US, not just to the wealthy in New York and Chicago. How citizens were talked into buying on margin, and that the market would always go up. How the government sat by as banks were allowed to offer whatever they wanted to customers, manipulate stock as they saw fit, and get away with a lot that today would land you in jail.

The parallels, as you can read from above, are amazingly similar to today. The 20’s built into an enormous bubble of lavish spending that burst in late 1929. While Klein doesn’t go into detail much after the crash, he does talk about Hoovers unfortunate taking over of a market on the verge of disaster and his real inability to use the government to overcome a widespread depression.

If you have any interest in the stock market of today, and wish to learn from the past, read this book. Maybe you’ll be able to read the market better and see why the government is so scared of banks collapsing and people losing all of their credit.

A while back it was suggested to me to read a book about economics. While I never took economics in college, and really only heard horror stories (except from the guy who suggested the book to me) I was interested in the economy, money, and reading. So I thought I’d give it a shot.

The book, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, was an amazing book and not really all that much about economics at all. Rather it is a book about using fundamentals in economics and other sciences to look at various social issues from several different point’s of view.

What I mean by this is that the author, Steven Levitt, looks at an issue plaguing the world using different questions. Sometimes questions that might cause controversy, but when one digs deeper, the questions he asks seem to make more sense than possibly those questions raised to provides answers in the first place.

Take for instance his possibly controversial reason for a drop in crime rates. At first it may seem like the drop in crime rates can be tied to social programs aimed at reforming criminals. Obviously, certain politicians would support this stance given that it is usually government money providing such support programs. This support usually comes in the form of reports on how well the government money is doing reforming criminals exemplified by the drop in crime rates.

However, Levitt takes a different aim at the reason behind the drop. In Freakonomics he states that it’s not necessarily these programs or gun laws or any other government interaction with groups more prone to criminal acts, instead he looks towards Roe v. Wade which allowed abortions to those who would otherwise have brought children into this world that were more likely to resort to criminal acts. Crazy? At first you may think this guy is nuts, but really look into it. Look into how well the dates of Roe v. Wade and criminal acts drops overtime. It becomes very intriguing.

Of course this is just one of the examples from his book. He talks about gangs, gun control, and even the KKK. All of these controversial topics he analyzes not to spew his own political rhetoric on the general public, but rather, he brings up these topics to try and encourage everyone to look at these topics differently and not just how the media or government or even the scientific community looks at them and reports to you.

In a time where every place you turn you hear of a new report claiming to have solved some new social mystery and prove that this new opinion is the right one, Levitt offers a breath of fresh air. He challenges readers to try and ask more than just the question of norm and really look beyond forest to see the trees.

Check out his book Freakonomics

The Perfect Mile

The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb is just like the subtitle reads: “Three Athletes, one goal, and less than four minutes to achieve it.” For any person who has trained to run a mile I believe the dream of the four minute mile is bouncing around their head somewhere, man or women. The number is somewhat magical, just over 4 laps around a standard track, in less than 1 minute per lap, and the Author portrays every minute of it’s mystic quality on every page of this book.

The Perfect Mile follows three runners during the middle of the 20th century as they all compete against the clock and each other to break the unbreakable barrier first. Roger Bannister, the English fellow, John Landy the Aussie, and Wes Santee the American.

Neal Bascomb captures the excitement of each race, the grueling battles of workouts these men completed, as well as the human side of pushing yourself to the limit. I was amazed at how well a story I already new the ending to could be written but it kept me reading more and more with every page I turned. Even though the outcome was set in stone, literally, I could feel myself rooting for the underdog and wanting history to be rewritten.

The Perfect Mile ends with a less known race between Roger Banister and John Landy that will leave you wishing there were more races written down. This book is a must for anyone wanting an inspirational book about sport and life.

I recently went back to Wisconsin and had a long plan trip to get some reading done, 12 hours both ways long (with layovers). I decided to take a rest from all the finance books I’ve been reading and try something new.

The last few times I was at the book store I passed by a newer book called How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer. It truly was, as the subtitle explains an Unlikely Theory of Globalization.

Having listened to Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat I have had a taste of globalization and enjoyed the look into how globalization is changing how we conduct business and the truly awesome power of the shrinking world. Having looked into the subject a little more than just that one book and having traveled (if only for two weeks and 4 countries) the world, I fealt I had a decent grasp on different corners of the earth. After reading How Soccer Explains the World I am beginning to sing a different tune.

Although it is a book focused around the cultural rifts in neighboring towns and countries and how they are exacerbated in the battles waged on the pitch. The book talks about the wars in the Balkans, the Hooligans of England, and the buying off of refs in Italy. The book explains cultural rifs, religious persecution, and of course the fall of South American Soccer Clubs.

This book was great, aside from the large words that I don’t think even Google could find. With the World Cup less than 10 hours away, this book is a great primer to get you pumped for the weeks of endless action on the field. Whether it’s football, futbol, or soccer give this book a read.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

This book is by far the most important book anyone seeking financial freedom should read. The concepts contained within the pages are so simple yet most people I know, including myself, never have looked at their financial world the way Robert Kiyosaki explains you should look at them. The basic idea is that assets aren’t assets until they are creating money for us. Once reading the first few chapters I guarantee you’ll be hooked.

There are some people out there who have rad the book and been disappointed. People I have talked with exclaim that the book doesn’t really tell you anything about how you should get rich. And that’s just it. There isn’t any set way to become rich, no real estate or stock tip that is going to send you from the poor house to the mansion. The idea behind Rich Dad, Poor Dad is that you begin to look at you financials for what they are, most likely a bunch of liabilities and opens your eyes to what an asset could be. You then have to use your mind and your ambition to discover what helps you make money and get out of the rat race!

If you’re looking for a great book to get you motivated to become financially free then START WITH THIS ONE! You’ll then want to further your knowledge with more books, asking questions, and trial and error. The idea behind Rich Dad, Poor Dad is to allow yourself to think about money differently and begin to see ways that money or lack there of can make you RICH.