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Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World

Peter Zeihan · ★★★★★ · 464 pages · 2020

Peter Zeihan does a huge forecast of where the world is going post American led world order that is already underway continues. This included the prediction of the Ukraine conflict (this was written in 2020). Peter is one of those people who creates a world view shift and I definitely think watching his hilarious and depressing videos on YouTube would be a good intro to read this work.

Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Revised and Updated

Michael R. Bloomberg · ★★★☆☆ · 245 pages · 1997

The first part of the book was pretty good into how Bloomberg was started and how it became what it is. The second part dragged though I suppose it was because of him laying out his principles in a way that just didn’t appeal to how I read those things.

Investing in Commodities For Dummies

Amine Bouchentouf · ★★★★☆ · 259 pages · 2015

It is very basic understanding of the commodities markets and the different things that are traded within it. Though it has some information on trading I do not think this book is good foe that. It is a good place to jump off into specific areas as it it seems having a single book covering the investing of various commodities would not be possible because of how the various futures contracts work.

Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business

Mark Robichaux · ★★★★★ · 409 pages · 2002

It is crazy to read about the growth of cable. I never really think about it. TV is just there... However, the linking of America's cable is explained through John Malone the owner of TCI, which eventually became a part of Comcast. The growth of the business has all the aspects of why we still hate the cable industry, bad service, roiling regulators, etc. However, from a business point of view, how the cable business grew and the techniques used to grow it are what are used in the tech industry now. Great read on a crazy story of an industry.

Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game

Walker Deibel · ★★★★★ · 312 pages · 2018

Most products that we use on a daily basis were companies that were bought by others. McDonalds, Google Docs, Tesla, I’d argue the second time that Steve Jobs came back to Apple. None of these were the founders. They were the people who took a product market fit business and turned them into large scale businesses.

The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources

Javier Blas · ★★★★★ · 417 pages · 2021

Commodities were something I never understood but this books covers the modern history of it. It goes through the wild commodity swings from the 50s to how commodities are traded now covering the various trading firms that have profited off the major shifts such as the Soviet Union collapsing, China rising, the Arab Spring. All in all it also covers the transition from physical commodities to paper commodities (futures) and how that completely changed the risk of the game.

The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization―Irreverent Predictions from a Geopolitical Strategist

Peter Zeihan · ★★★★★ · 512 pages · 2022

One of the best books that I have read recently that gets to the breakdown of the world order post WW2 and why it is finally breaking down. Zeihan does a great job going through the details of how the breakdown will happen, and from what has been happening after Ukraine war a lot of his predictions in the book (written before the war) are starting to come to fruition. Highly, recommend reading to understand where the world will be going in the next couple decades.

Supply Chain Management For Dummies

Daniel Stanton · ★★★★★ · 368 pages · 2020

Did I read a whole book on supply chains for fun? Yes, yes I did. This book was great for it too as the author broke down the entire supply chain into parts and defined each part and how it interacts with the whole including logistics, technology, project management, warehousing, and finance. I’d recommend reading this book to get an understanding of how the supply chain functions.

More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite

Sebastian Mallaby · ★★★★☆ · 653 pages · 2010

I’ve been trying to understand the American financial system better so this book popped up as a history of hedge funds. For all the mysterious talk of hedge funds it seems they are not that mysterious at all. They are just a pool of money from different investors much like a company is made up of many owners. The people running the hedge fund take 2% management fee and 20% on the upside profit. Hedge fund managers invest based on their particular edge or expertise.

King of Capital

David Carey · ★★★★☆ · 402 pages · 2010

Pretty detailed account of Blackstone and in turn private equity.

Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric

Thomas Gryta · ★★★★☆ · 368 pages · 2020

Great history of how GE started its long decline since the Jack Welch era. I suppose a lot of it comes down to having a business that is too complex for anyone to understand, too Industry focused versus comparative advantage focused, and hubris thinking you are better than others and not taking outside ideas. The book stops in the middle of 2020 so a year before the split that was recently announced dismantling the GE we know.