The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means

This is an interesting book from a brilliant man, George Soros. Soros challenges the theory of market equilibrium and explains how it’s based on false assumptions. He also presents his theory of reflexivity which states that not only fundamentals affect the market value of stocks, but the value of stocks also affects fundamentals. Soros then gives his outlook on where we are heading in 2009. One of his major points is to short US equities, European equities, and the US dollar while going long emerging markets equities and currencies. 

Outliers

Everyone is capable of obtaining the same goals as long as they are all provided the same opportunities. The brilliantly easy read, ‘Outliers’, both comforts and astounds us with this affirmation. From the sky rocketing career of Bill Gates and Bill Joy to the relationship between airplane captains and airplane crashes, Malcolm Gladwell intrigues us with refreshing facts that leave us mulling and dissecting them for hours afterwards. “It is not the brightest who succeed,” Gladwell writes. “Nor is success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is, rather, a gift. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities — and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.” We have to face the truth, no matter how scary it seems, we are all capable of greatness, and it’s not all in our hands.