Interesting reads 26 Sept 2013 – Economy, Currency, and few metrics

1. How The Economic Machine Works – http://bit.ly/1ftVSA7
An interesting video on how Economy works
2. How Currency Works – http://bit.ly/1gZdYI7
A simple but, excellent explanation of how the currency works – Starting from barter system, through paper currency, upto the current electronic payments, this article puts down in simple language. Minted currency started as back as 2500 BC as metal rings, coins were introduced as back as 700 BC and current paper currency were introduced during Tang Dynasty in China during 618-907 AD
3. Top 3 Useless Stock Metrics that Investors Use – http://bit.ly/1b5pl0e
In this article the author tries to explain how Price to Sales, Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow and Return on Assets are not so useful metrics. But, I still think the ROA is still a very useful metric. But, isn’t any metric to be considered along with other key parameters / ratios?

Finance Documentaries

I would like our readers to checkout this website if you have not already – http://www.financedocumentaries.com/.
This site contains approximately 200 documentaries on various subjects on Finance, Banking, Investing and related areas.
I have checked out a few and it looks great.
Just wanted to share with you all.

Recommended Reading List

Thought I would share the list of recommended books, the best ones on each category.
I have read some of these myself and have experienced the rich knowledge in these, but, most of them are still on my ‘to read’ list.
Please share your thoughts and the books that you think I might have missed out.

Personal Finance

• Winning the Wealth Game – Sanjiv Mehta
• Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki
• Cashflow Quadrant – Robert Kiyosaki
• The Richest Man In Babylon – George S. Clason
• Asset Allocation: Balancing Financial Risk – Roger C Gibson
• The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk – William J. Bernstein
• The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy – Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko
• I will teach you to be rich – Ramit Sethi
• The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness – Dave Ramsey
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth – T. Harv Eker
• Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
• The Forbes/CFA Institute Investment Course: Timeless Principles for Building Wealth – Vahan Janjigian, Stephen M. Horan, Charles Trzcinka

Economics

• Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy – Thomas Sowell
• Economics in One Lesson – Henry Hazlitt
• Principles of economics – N. Gregory Mankiw
• Principles of Macroeconomics – Joseph E. Stiglitz
• Principles of Microeconomics – Joseph E. Stiglitz
• The Economics of Inflation – Constantino Bresciani Turroni
• Kautilya’s Arthashastra: The Way Of Financial Management And Economic Governance – Kautilya, R. Shamasastry (Translator)
• The Box – How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger  – Marc Levinson
• How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes – Peter D. Schiff and Andrew J. Schiff
• Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists: Unleashing the Power of Financial Markets to Create Wealth and Spread Opportunity – Raghuram G. Rajan
• Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy – Raghuram G. Rajan
• Breakout Nations: In Search of The Next Economic Miracles – Ruchir Sharma
• Spot the Next Economic Bubble – Saurabh Thirani
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything – Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
• The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World – Tim Harford
• The Undercover Economist – Tim Harford
• 23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism – Ha-Joon Chang
• 50 Economics Ideas You Really Need To Know – Edmond Conway

Finance & Valuations

• The Interpretation of Financial Statements: The Classic 1937 Edition – Benjamin Graham
• Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset – Aswath Damodaran
• Damodaran on Valuation – Aswath Damodaran
• The Little Book of Valuation: How to Value a Company, Pick a Stock and Profit – Aswath Damodaran
• How To Read A Balance Sheet – Ram Kumar Kakani
• How To Read A Cash Flow Statement – Ram Kumar Kakani
• How To Read A Profit And Loss Statement – Ram Kumar Kakani
• Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports – Howard Schilit and Jeremy Perler

Economic History

• Wealth of Nations – Adam Smith
• Das Kapital – Karl Marx
• Lords of Finance – Liaquat Ahamed
• The Ascent of Money – Niall Ferguson
• The Worldly Philosophers – Robert L. Heilbroner
• The Great Crash 1929 – John Kenneth Galbraith
• A short history of Financial Euphoria – John Kenneth Galbraith
• Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises – Charles P. Kindleberger, Robert Z. Aliber
• Tulipomania: The Story of the World’s Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused – Mike Dash
• The Secret History of the South Sea Bubble: The World’s First Great Financial Scandal – Malcolm Balen
• 100 minds that made the market – Ken Fisher
• Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story – Kurt Eichenwald

Investing

• Intelligent Stock market Investing – Dr.Yasaswy
• The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns – John C. Bogle
• The Little Book that Builds Wealth – Pat Dorsey
• Learn to Earn – Peter Lynch
• One up on Wall street – Peter Lynch
• Beating the Street – Peter Lynch
• The Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham
• Security Analysis – Benjamin Graham and David Dodd
• Margin of Safety – Seth Klarman
• Benjamin Graham on Value Investing – Janet Lowe
• The Warren Buffett Way – Robert G Hagstrom
• The Warren Buffett Portfolio – Robert G Hagstrom
• Buffett – The making of an American Capitalist – Roger Lowenstein
• How to pick stocks like Warren Buffett – Timothy Vick
• The New Buffettology – Mary Buffett & David Clark
• The Tao of Warren Buffett – Mary Buffett & David Clark
• The Essays of Warren Buffett – Lawrence A. Cunningham
• The Real Warren Buffett – James O Loughlin
• Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements – Mary Buffett and David Clark
• Of permanent value : The story of Warren Buffett – Andrew Kilpatrick
• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life – Alice Schroeder
• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits – Phillip A Fisher
• The Little Book that Still Beats the Market – Joel Greenblatt
• Dhandho Investor – Mohnish Pabrai
• Mosaic: Perspectives On Investing – Mohnish Pabrai
• Poor Charlie’s Almanack – Charlie Munger, compiled by Peter D. Kaufman
• Damn Right – Behind the scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger – Janet Lowe
• Investing the Templeton Way – Lauren C. Templeton, Scott Phillips
• Common Sense on Mutual Funds – John C Bogle
• Bogle on Mutual Funds – John C Bogle
• Quality of Earnings – Thornton L. O’glove
• Moats: The Competitive Advantages of Buffett and Munger Businesses – Bud Labitan
• Valuations – 30 Intrinsic Value Estimations in the Style of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger – Bud Labitan
• Supermoney – George J. W. Goodman
• F Wall Street: Joe Ponzio’s No-Nonsense Approach to Value Investing for the Rest of Us – Joel Ponzio
• Value Investing And Behavioral Finance: Insights Into Indian Stock Market Realities – Parag Parikh
• The Little Book of Behavioral Investing: How Not to Be Your Own Worst Enemy – James Montier
• The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-The-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History – Gregory Zuckerman
• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator – Edwin Lefèvre
• Market Sense and Nonsense: How the Markets Really Work (and How They Don’t) – Jack D. Schwager

Business & Strategy

• How to win friends and influence people – Dale Carnegie
• Everything You Wanted to Know About Business & Economics – Rommel Rodrigues
• The Goal – Eliyahu M Goldratt
• Competitive Strategy – Michael E Porter
• The Competitive advantages of Nations – Michael E Porter
• Built to Last – Jim Collins
• Good to Great – Jim Collins
• How the mighty Fail – Jim Collins
• The Art of War – Sun Tzu
• Nuts! – Kevin Freiberg, Jackie Freiberg
• Business Stripped Bare – Richard Branson
• Steve Jobs: A Biography – Walter Issacson
• In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies – Tom Peters, Robert H. Waterman
• Who moved my Cheese – Dr. Spencer Johnson
• Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done – Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
• The Essential Drucker – Peter F. Drucker
• Moneyball – Michael Lewis
• The Best Business Books Ever: The Most Influential Management Books You’ll Never Have Time to Read – Basic Books
• Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big – Bo Burlingham
• The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership – John C. Maxwell
• Titan – The life of John D Rockefeller Sr. – Ron Chernow
• Sam Walton: Made in America – Sam Walton with John Huey
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change – Stephen R. Covey
• The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business – Eric Schmidt, Jared Cohen
• The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Management Books You’ll Never Have Time to Read – Perseus Publishing
• Lateral Thinking – Edward De Bono