There are compliance lessons to be learned in Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever by Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell. Lance Armstrong was one of the best cyclists in last 20 years. But his wins were built on a foundation of illegal doping and performance enhancing drugs. It’s … Read more »
Category: Book reviews
Weekend Reading: The Undercover Economist Strikes Back
Financial Times columnist and bestselling author Tim Harford tries to show us that macroeconomics is not that hard in The Undercover Economist Strikes Back. In order to fix the economy, we need to understand the economy. The book is a “practically minded poke-around under the hood of our economic system.” It’s a sequel to The Undercover Economist, … Read more »
Weekend Reading: Ingenious
In 2007, the X Prize Foundation announced that it would give $10 million to anyone who could build a safe, mass-producible car that could travel 100 miles on the energy equivalent of one gallon of gas. The challenge attracted more than one hundred teams from all over the world. Jason Fagone follows four of those … Read more »
Weekend Book Review: A Giant Cow-Tipping by Savages
The 1908s was the start of the M&A boom, glorified on the big screen by Wall Street. John Weir Close looks back at those days in A Giant Cow-Tipping by Savages. The author is a lawyer and a journalist. He founded the M&A Journal and was an editor at The American Lawyer. His book seems … Read more »
What Was It Called Before Mr. Ponzi Did It?
When Bernie Madoff’s fraud was exposed it was labeled a Ponzi scheme. Madoff was not investing the money as promised. He was using new investment money to pay old promised returns. I thought it would useful to look back at the original Ponzi scheme to see if offered insight to today’s world of compliance. I … Read more »
Weekend Reading: Year Zero
It was December and I needed a “Y” book to finish off my A-to-Z reading challenge. I had my eye on Year Zero by Ian Baruma. But I couldn’t get my hands on a copy and the year was coming to a close. I noticed a different Year Zero by Jeff Long. I had read … Read more »
The Books I Read in 2013
My goal this year was to finish reading a book every other week. (For the math or calendar challenged, that’s a goal of 26 books.) I’m happy to say that I smashed through that goal. I ended up with 44 books on my Read in 2013 shelf during the year. Compliance Books For those of … Read more »
Starting New Compliance Habits in 2014
One of my favorite books of 2012 was Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit. The book is full of interesting ideas and based on an impressive collection of research. But it does a great job of balancing intellectual seriousness with practical advice. Even better, it’s written in a lively style, making it easy to read … Read more »
High Performance with High Integrity
What is the proper role of business? Ben W. Heineman Jr. served as the senior vice president and general counsel of GE for 15 years so he has some sense of the role of business. During that period GE was one of the most respected and valuable companies in the world. Mr. Heineman has an … Read more »
Weekend Book Review: Mortal Bonds
Sometimes, when I’m looking for a break from reading compliance materials, I look to read a thriller. Maybe a financial thriller would be a good change of pace. A publisher offered me a review copy of the financial thriller from an award-winning author and I cracked it open. Mortal Bonds is Michael Sear’s follow up … Read more »