This is the story behind the most dramatic World Series of Poker ever and its lasting effects, told by the players, the TV execs, the tournament directors, techs, writers, and the 2003 WSOP champ himself, Chris Moneymaker. Moneymaker, an amateur poker player with a name too good to be true, defied the odds to win the 2003 WSOP main event, just as the twin inventions of online poker and the hole-card camera simultaneously arrived to revolutionize a game long-relegated to smoky bars and living rooms. More than a decade later, with the online-poker world in an ongoing state of flux, the "Moneymaker effect" continues to reverberate while the recollections and insights of the more than 30 eye-witness contributors remain as relevant and insightful as ever, whether you're a player yourself or simply interested in a great real-life narrative.
Three hundred years ago, a charismatic young gambler and man-about-town with a natural gift for mathematics fled London for the Contintent. His name was John Law and he had a good reason to go, having killed a man in a duel. Living off his lucrative winnings at the gaming tables of Europe, Law became increasingly fascinated by the nature of finance and journeyed to the impoverished , famine-stricken France of Louis XIV with an extraordinary idea. At the time when wealth was stored and exchanged as gold and silver coin - and there was rarely enough to fund the extravagance of kings, let alone trade - Law realised that the overriding problem was lack of available money. He reasoned that if this could be lent in the form of paper, properly backed by assets, then it could be lend repeatedly and credit used to multiply the opportunities for the making of money. Such a radical notion meant Law faced opposition from powerful vested interests. His persistence paid off in 1716 when, with royal backing, he established the first French bank to issue paper money. He also created a trading company which made its shareholders rich beyond their wildest dreams: so much so that the new term 'millionaire' was coined to describe them. What follows is the stuff of epic drama: a tale of fortunes won and lost, of paupers made rich and lords losing all. And in telling this enthralling tragi-comic story, Janet Gleeson brings to life two fascinating characters who together would change the way the world worked: the inscrutable John Law, and mercurial money itself.
When real money is at stake, it tends to clarify the mind, and for over a decade, Anne-Marie Fink has had literally billions of dollars resting on her assessments of companies. As an equity analyst and professional investor, she has been charged with understanding whether businesses are solid, long-term moneymakers–or rotten tomatoes–before investing with them. She has had unusual access to an incredible variety of businesses, from entertainment conglomerates to newspapers, Internet companies, airlines, railroads, furniture manufacturers, auto suppliers, staffing agencies, and others. Well known for her ability to drill down to the details and understand what makes a business tick, she has skillfully dissected the story of many a CEO and talked with people up and down the ranks, as well as customers, suppliers, regulators, distributors, bankers, and rivals–anyone who could give her insight on a company’s operations. The result is a book of great originality–an unusual and perceptive look at business that busts myths and conventional thinking. Based on what she and her investing colleagues have seen firsthand, Anne-Marie Fink’s The Moneymakers provides a highly pragmatic framework for thriving in our hypercompetitive world. They include: • Shrink to grow: Why expanding a bad (low-return) business means you just have more of a problem, and how a step backward is often the best way forward. • Good performance requires inefficiency and duplication: How maximum efficiencyproduces suboptimal results by stifling innovation. • Don’t be a customer fanatic: How to know when to listen to and when to ignore your customers. • Economics always trumps management: Ignore bedrock economic laws–such as supply and demand–at your peril; it is akin to ordering the tides to stay in place. • Why happy employees don’t make for high-performance workplaces. • Problems in business are like cockroaches–there’s never just one: How to catch problems before they infest your company. • Avoid the trap of profitless growth: Additional profitis an illusion if it consumes too much capital. • Megatrends start as ripples: How to position your business to ride long-term waves, not be drowned by them.
On the death of France's most glorious king, Louis XIV, in 1715, few people benefited from the shift in power more than the intriguing financial genius from Edinburgh, John Law. Already notorious for killing a man in a duel and for acquiring a huge fortune from gambling, Law had proposed to the English monarch that a bank be established to issue paper money with the credit based on the value of land. But Queen Anne was not about to take advice from a gambler and felon. So, in exile in Paris, he convinced the bankrupt court of Louis XV of the value of his idea. Law soon engineered the revival of the French economy and found himself one of the most powerful men in Europe. In August 1717, he founded the Mississippi Company, and the Court granted him the right to trade in France's vast territory in America. The shareholders in his new trading company made such enormous profits that the term "millionaire" was coined to describe them. Paris was soon in a frenzy of speculation, conspiracies, and insatiable consumption. Before this first boom-and-bust cycle was complete, markets throughout Europe crashed, the mob began calling for Law's head, and his visionary ideas about what money could do were abandoned and forgotten. In Millionaire, Janet Gleeson lucidly reconstructs this epic drama where fortunes were made and lost, paupers grew rich, and lords fell into penury -- and a modern fiscal philosophy was born. Her enthralling tragicomic tale reveals two great characters: John Law, with his complex personality and inscrutable motives, and money itself, whose true nature even to this day remains elusive.
The case studies in this second volume focus on entrepreneurs targeting sustainability issues, and how their personal values shape strategies and initiatives. The award-winning cases describe new patterns of value creation and the challenges of dealing with existing paradigms.
"Economic power is becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of the few, even as democratic movements worldwide allow for political power to be dispersed among the many. With their access to influence, the wealthy can shape and constrain the political power of the rest of the world. As the economic dominance of an elite minority coincides with the forces of globalization, is oligarchy becoming the dominant political regime? This collection explores the renewed relevance of oligarchy to contemporary global politics. By drawing out lessons from classic texts, contributors illustrate how the character of oligarchical regimes informs contemporary political life. Topics include the relationship between the American government and corporations, the tension between republican and oligarchical regimes, and the potential conflicts that have opened up between economic management and political life. On Oligarchy deftly illuminates the significance of this regime in the context of pressing global economic and political issues."--Publisher's website.
Takes an in-depth look at twenty-six economic and social development successes in Sub-Saharan African countries, and addresses how these countries have overcome major developmental challenges.
