Take This Medication an Hour Before or Two Hours After Eating
... or you will throw up.
It's that depressing, folks.

Not the book, but what it speaks of.

Unbelievably Brilliant!
I don't give top ratings lightly, but this book is breathtakingly well written and carries a powerful message. Any given chapter is a great eye-opener to how our society works and what's REALLY going on in the world around us... with all the distractions stripped away.

Unlike Arianna Huffington's "Pigs at the Trough," which consists entirely of disjointed anecdotes on "what's bad," this book tackles the underlying reasons for WHY it's bad. Corporations have quietly and efficiently consolidated their economic muscle and merged it with political power--witness the everyday complaint that Special Interests hold sway in Washington. But as Derber shows, few are willing to make the obvious connection--that the problem is not simply government per se, but unrestrained corporate power.

And Derber is no hippie anti-capitalist wacko, either. He acknowledges that globalization is inevitable, but simply notes that we need to ensure it's the right KIND of globalization... the kind that's accountable to the public and that serves the public good. For all the conservative and libertarian whining about how the evil UN represents a "loss of U.S. sovereignty," notice that they never say a word about the WTO and similar business deals that have _already_ undermined our sovereignty, setting up arrangements that subordinate our laws to corporate profits--all with zero accountability to anyone but the executives and stockholders.

This books outlines real, practical solutions for putting the brakes on corporate power while still promoting economic growth and profitability. Environmentalists and unions don't HAVE to be at odds, not when they can unite against the common enemy and take positive action to force corporations into their proper, subordinate role to public government.

Maybe good for beginners
If you haven't read any other critiques of corporate power, this isn't a bad introduction. It covers the basics adequately (deregulation, privatization, monopolies, anti-unionism), but you have to wade through prose like "The language of responsibility -- rather than accountability or democracy -- reflects the depoliticizing of a movement that claims to speak for empowerment." For more experienced readers, I would recommend "The Corporation" by Joel Bakan.

Verbose unstructured rambling
The essence of the book is "corporations behave badly". I happen to agree but I don't need 339 pages to tell me this. I was hoping to learn something here. I was hoping for some history of how corporations developed. Nothing of the kind. Just a comparison to the gilded age (late 1800s) repeated throughout the book that is obvious to anyone who knows American history. Those liberals who love to read long winded tirades that support their point of view may enjoy this book. But if you aren't a liberal or if you are a liberal with a brain, this book will bore you to tears.

An easy read that includes consumer responsibility.
This is a book that shoud be read by anyone who is in the least bit interested in global economic affairs, sweatshop-labor, and flight of capital.Charles Derber gives an excellent description of the history of corporations within the United States and elsewhere as well as timeline leading into what they have become. He advocates careful legislation, but more importantly - grassroots activism. His solutions include educated consumerism, socially-responsible investing, and cooperation of non-profits.This book is an easy read that doesn't require an MBA to understand - it should be required reading for political economics courses.

This Book Changed My Habits for the Better
When I opened this book I thought I already knew a fair amount about the issues it contains. But Big Box Swindle really shows so many angles on the struggle between small, community owned businesses and the Big Box retailers that I was engrossed from the very first chapter. I didn't know about Geoffrey's Loophole, for example. That was highly edifying, and also gives the reader plenty of hope. This book is suggested reading for anyone who shops. Ever. But it should be required reading for anyone who sits on a town council. The book illustrates precisely the way in which communities say "yes" to big box development for hopeful and promising reasons, but receive far less than they bargained for.

If wishing made it so-the view from acedemia

This book can only be written by someone who has never started or operated a business (successfully). And thanks once again to another academician who is unleashing torrents of whiney college grads who want to be paid excessively while having jobs that they feel should be untouchable.

I thought that the example of the quaint local bookstores was telling as to how the author just doesn't get it. One book store-quaint. A local operation that grows to six units-quaint. Barnes & Noble's with three units-economic catastrophe! I wondered what the one book store operation thought about the six store chain, local or otherwise. Who would the author like for us to regulate and determine when someone is doing well and when they are doing too well and need to be stopped?

Ask a group of people "Does Walmart put little businesses out of business?" divide the room based on a pro vs. con answer, and then ask for explanations and examples. What you will find is those who feel big box, any big box "category killer" is the bane of all economic evil are not entrepreneurial in any way shape or form. They will not understand the evolutionary history of American business, and they are not competitive despite their protests to the contrary.

Personally, I cross reference my liberal leanings with the stark reality of what does and doesn't work. If these small businesses are such great and venerable ventures, why do people flock to other stores when they open? Are these consumers being enticed in some invisible fashion that I'm not aware of? Do small businesses deserve some sort of protective status in a free market economy? Do the people that believe big box is evil really want to be told where we can and cannot shop?

We own a small graphic design/printing business and we compete on some level with the likes of Kinko's (FedEx Office), Office Depot, Post Net, the Internet, printers large and small, and various other independents and franchises. When I tell people that my dream come true would be to create a campus here that would accommodate all of these companies where consumers could compare us based on price, quality, and service-they think I'm nuts. Invite my company to the dance, and we'll take on the competition of all kinds because THAT is the way it works. Hiding or getting protection from your competition only enables mediocrity and the consumer suffers.

Credit where due, one thing the author covered which was actually accurate is that donation seekers will quite often prey on the small business because they can reach the decision makers, but will turn to big box to save money when they are going to purchase something. We discovered this as well. Rather than shrink away from this challenge, we put protocol in place to ask the person if they shop at our store when they ask for donations. Those who are our clients (who don't really need to be asked) we take care of. Those who don't are given a discount rather than an outright donation. But there are many small businesses that do nothing to support the community and let's not be naive about the "Mom & Pop" operation. They are not all running positive businesses with a warm and fuzzy approach like a Norman Rockwall painting.

The key is don't do what the category killers do better, rather you should enhance your approach to do what they can't and exploit that fact. If you have a product and service that is sculpted to the marketplace you will actually do better to locate close to big box than to run and hide from the reality that you share the marketplace with them. This sense of entitlement that is being fostered at home and reinforced in schools is what the true bane of our society has to deal with.

Great book
A book every caring American should read. It tells you what Wallmart has realy done to us.

Big Box Swindle
Very well researched and documented. Easy and interesting read, even an involved story at times. I liked the book and the presentation very much. I have corners turned on many pages. I feel better now whenever I shop locally (non-big box)... and I find the price difference not that dramatic.

Like discovering the Wizard of Oz is just a guy w/fancy special effects gear
I just started reading this book and I'm already blown away by the world it is revealing to me! Reading how Wal-Mart has corrupted the free enterprise system by manipulating all the mechanisms that enable/encourage fair trade, competition, market demand, consumer preference, cultural uniqueness, etc. was startling. And the part about how Wal-Mart is slowing gnawing its way inside the manufacturers to the point where it requires a company to buy raw materials from Wal-Mart, and soon won't even buy goods but will expect manufacturers to provide goods on consignment! I know that doesn't sound dramatic, but consider what happens when Wal-Mart tells P&G that it must have 100 cases of a new product in every store, in spite of what P& G's projections say the market demand is. The market doesn't go for the product, so only 60 cases are sold per store. Wal-Mart has no risk because they don't own the merchandise. So P&G has to eat the loss somehow. And as the book showed, if a company says no to Wal-Mart, they get kicked out of the store and the sudden loss of revenue can and has bankrupted companies. Good God!! And of course, Wal-Mart isn't the only one doing this.

Reading this book is like accidentally walking into a store's backroom and coming across some dirty sweatshop where everyone is in chains. Then some cleancut, smiling guy hooks your arm, leads you out and gives you some urgent story about how they're trying valiantly to keep such conditions from being necessary in every store in the world. Then stuffs a 30%-off coupon into your hand and guides you to the weekly sale rack.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a guy who likes popping into Target, Home Depot and a host of other chains. But seeing behind the shiny laminated displays makes you think....

Financial Accounting
Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making by Paul D. Kimmel. ISBN: 0470437278! In great condition!

disappointed
book was not described correctly in ad.
shipping time was acceptable, book received different cover, should have not been posted under original post.

The book is great
The book is in great condition, even though, there was an error with the shipping. I appreciate the book when I recieved it. Thanks

Great concepts and materials
I love this book. It is very easy to read and understand with the examples.

thoughtful inclusion of relevant course materials
the book is in great shape, and it also came with the thoughtful inclusion of about 100 pages of relevant course materials that i can also learn from. very satisfied with the price & quality. :)

good stuff!


item shipped on time. Arrived in good condition - thanks for the smooth transaction!

Excellent IP overview for managers and investors
This book offers a comprehensive overview of intellectual property issues, suitable for (among others) high-tech executives, entrepreneurs, and investors in early stage companies (all of which describe me). Its coverage includes trademarks (6 chapters, 70 pages), copyrights (5 chapters, 68 pages), patents (4 chapters, 40 pages), and trade secrets (1 chapter, 18 pages), plus chapters on unfair competition, owning IP created by employees and independent contractors, and conducting internal IP audits. I have experience with software copyrights and biotechnology patents; this book is fairly strong on the former, but only briefly mentions the latter. The material on internal IP audits is rather brief (12 pages) but includes a fairly good audit checklist, and an action plan for protecting a company's IP; also, the first chapter should be required reading for managers, since it points out the many places in a business where valuable IP may be found, department by department.The writing is very clear -- certainly not "obtuse" as one reviewer claimed -- and the book is quite current, with good coverage of the Internet's impact on copyright and other IP issues, and coverage of recent changes in the law such as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The book is a high-level overview for managers rather than a lawyer's or practitioner's guide, but it does describe the application process for trademarks, copyrights, and patents, all in reasonable detail. Yet this book is just 250 pages of highly readable text -- not a huge tome -- which I think makes it suitable for managers, early stage investors, or board members, especially in high-tech companies.

Save the money
I found this book very obtuse and thought the author tried to make this subject much more difficult than it really is. Save your money.

Highly Recommended!
In the interests of safety, we'll refrain from quoting this fine book by Deborah E. Bouchoux, a specialist in intellectual property who teamed with AMACOM to create that rarest of volumes: a straightforward book about law that is simple to read (it's a formula she should patent). This comprehensive volume covers the nuts and bolts of U.S. patent and trademark law. It also gives advice on how to protect your intellectual property and avoid infringement, and reports on the latest patent trends in high tech. Of most concern for general business managers, Bouchoux reviews how (and why) to conduct intellectual property audits within your organization. With intellectual property emerging as the new corporate treasure of the knowledge economy, we [...] suggest that research and development managers and executives of every stripe study this volume carefully. Why should your attorney be the only one who understands what you really own?

Still a Must Read for anybody considering I-banking.
I got this book yesterday and read through it quickly that night. First of all, it is hilarious. The critic review on the covers says "funniest book since Liar's Poker." I disagree, this is funnier, even though Liar's Poker was funny in its own right. Caveat Emptor, though, the humor is bawdier than most anything I've heard in a locker room. The language itself is a testament to the investment banking world and how it desensitizes junior bankers.

To many, the book will be most startling in just how unglamorous the Investment Banking life actually is. Even the rainmakers at the top of the heap, the managing directors, don't necessarily live a glamorous life. While junior bankers have to grovel to the MD's, the MD's themselves spend their lives groveling to clients and the buyside, trying to justify their existence with pretty pitch books and fonts that are just right.

The most amazing thing about the banking life, though, is not the hours. It's how useless most of those hours are. From what I gathered, the associates and analysts do maybe 4-8 hours a day of real, productive work. The rest of the hours are spent making mindless changes for MD's, only for the MD's and Vice Presidents to change their mind and throw out a lot of that work. Associates spent a lot more time in meetings and travel than I expected, typically just to bring pitch books and give a formidable presence for the bank.

In other words, Monkey Business reads somewhat like a long MBA case study about a mismanaged company who promotes top performers rather than good managers (although it is far, far more interesting than a case study). The MD's have all the hallmarks of bosses from hell. They don't understand what junior bankers actually do and they motivate by crucifying for mistakes and missed deadlines while taking all the credit when there's success.

From the long hours and the constant mistreatment, it's easy to see how investment banks precipitated the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. During the peak of investment banking, 2003-06, bankers were so desensitized that they had no idea how to think or build value for the economy. Everything was about money, everything was about selling and sounding good and not truly working on behalf of their clients. While most of these shenanigans happened in the trading side of I-banks and not the banking side, the same culture permeated throughout, the almighty dollar before EVERYTHING else.

My only real disappointment was the new post-crisis afterword. Most of the afterword was fine, tying up the loose ends and showing the investment banking can actually lead to good buyside or senior banking jobs, if you're willing to sell your soul for a few years. Rather, I was disappointed that he focused on the trading that led to the crisis, something well-known at this point. I was more interested in why banking still hasn't changed, why analysts and associates are still so poorly treated and why there's so much motion with so little relative value produced.

Read this if you're interested in how businesses work and if you want a good, if very vulgar, laugh. DEFINITELY read this if you're an Ivy undergraduate or MBA student considering wads of money I-bankers may be throwing at you. Realize that there's more to choosing your offer than the salary and if anything could possibly offer a career path half as attractive as the eventual buyside job after banking, take it.

Must read for anyone considering investment banking career
This book gives a good idea about what an analyst or associate does in investment banking. Must read for anyone considering such a career.

How Could Anyone Give This Book Less Than 5 Stars?
This book is hilarious! But educational, too! This was the second or third book I read about investment banking, so I wasn't shocked by some of the stories, but thoroughly amused. This is a MUST read for anyone who is thinking about going into investment banking, but it is also a great read for anyone who isn't. I love books like this--I don't have the longest attention span, but I couldn't put this book down until I was finished reading it.

Lame
I really enjoyed Michael Lewis' "Liar's Poker," and thought that "Monkey Business" maybe if it wasn't as well-written or as witty as "Liar's Poker" would at least be entertaining and critical. Neither one of the authors is a good writer, and it's annoying how they switch from one voice to the other because it really adds nothing to the reading experience. This is a weak and lame book about the experience of two Type A personalities trying to make it as Wall Street investment bankers. Work was painful and pointless and life...well, there was no life -- and so the two heroes had an epiphany one day and decided to change their lifes and switch from Wall Street investment bankers to Wall Street money managers. So it's easy to see that their critical attacks on Wall Street are only half-hearted and often insincere. Who doesn't know that Wall Street bankers are a bunch of con artists trying to sell questionable companies to an unquestioning public?

An evening's worth of sound entertainment
Hilarious, to say the least...peppered with humor (some of it off-color), Rolfe and Troobe provides an account of their career in the IB world. My interest in this book is purely for reasons of entertainment; I can't seem to agree with statements like "must have if you decide to take the IB route" or "should make you rethink the banking profession" and all that. While this book chronicles the life of the authors at DLJ, one can, enough creativity assumed, come up with a hilarious account of any profession. So I don't look at it as a swipe at the IB profession as much as a swipe at the great circus we are all involved in on a daily basis. An investment banker, probably mortgages a bigger part of his/her life for the almighty $, but it's only a matter of degree. In fact, one of my recent client calls reminded me of, "...unlike the contestants in traditional beauty-pageants, bankers aren't normally required to wear bathing suits at the pageant, but if the client asked them to, they'd come in wearing the tightest nut-hugging speedo ever seen"

A real page turner along with a wealth of information
Great book just wish the authors wrote a follow up.

Lots of useful information!
this book has helped me tremendously in my CA Real Estate Escrow class. it provided me with adequate information to use on the state exam and in class exams. i highly highly recommend this book.

Is there anything under 1 star?
Donny sure has no idea what the term "Real Estate" means.

NP Business Practice and Legal Guide is Excellent !
This book is an excellent and should be required for all advanced practice nursing curriculum for NPs. I went to school in a different state and then returned to my home state so the practice requirements and laws were quite different. I used this book to prepare for my interviews, transition to my new job and discuss with the person who hired me about my scope of practice etc. Although I was very pleased with my graduate curriculum ( this book was required for my program), this book is great because it condenses all of the info that you learned in graduate school and is an easy read. It provides great references and has all the extra " need to know" info.. SO BUY it! you will be pleased

NP practice and legal guide
This was a very informative and helpful book. As a recent Nurse Practitioner graduate, it provided me with crucial information utillized in negotiating my first contract. I highly recommend it!

must have
I use this book over and over. It was extreemly helpful for drafting a collaborating agreement as well

User-friendly!
This book is filled with practical, business-oriented information that nurse practitioners need. It is very easy to read and has state-by-state information listed at the end of chapters where it is revelant.

NP student input
The text book is very easy to read, and provides good information. It is a book that will be useful in the future. It includes information on each of the different state's rules and regulations for practicing as a practitioner.

Exhaustive History
Blackmar creates a complete picture of the renter-rentier system in New York City. An excellent historical work, even if it is a bit dry at times. A must read for any urban history enthusiast.

Well Written
As a grad student, I found this book to be very well written in easy to read language. It does an excellent job of showing new technologies' relevance and application in business.