Business Books from "The Economist," January 14, 2012

Business., Digital ID 1644934, New York Public LibraryThe January 14 issue of The Economist has reviewed (and maybe recommended...) five new books on a few different business topics. I'm using this as an opportunity to post a list of these titles with links to the Library's collections.

For those interested in the articles, you can find them through some of our electronic resources (I recommend EBSCO's Business Source Premier, available from home with a library card — I have put a link to the articles from Business Source Premier after each title) or on The Economist's website (if you're a subscriber). For those who are too impatient to read those, I've included for each book, based on the articles, a short squib.

Enjoy!

Pricing the Future: Finance, Physics, and the 300-Year Journey to the Black-Scholes Equation, by George G. Szpiro
(Economist Review)

Robert Merton, Myron Scholes, and Fischer Black developed an equation that can be used to value options, for which a Nobel Prize was awarded in 1997. The publication of the equation led to an "explosion" in option trading, and "transformed investment banking and stock-broking." This book traces the history of options trading from the 1630s through the recent financial crisis to the present.


Exile on Wall Street: One Analyst's Fight to Save the Big Banks From Themselves, by Mike Mayo
(Economist Review)

Nothing is so entertaining as a good tell-all, with names, dates, and close-up views of venality!


All Business is Local: Why Place Matters More Than Ever in a Global, Virtual World, by John Quelch and Katherine Jocz
(Economist Review)

Globalization does not operate as a steam-roller, which can even out everything in its way. This book helps to reveal the "complexity of a world that is at once flat, spiky, globalised and local."


World Changers: 25 Entrepreneurs Who Changed Business As We Knew It
, by John A. Byrne
(Economist Review)

Corporations are not people, people! But entrepreneurs are, which is what makes them interesting.


Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? Trick Questions, Zen-Like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You Need to Know to Get a Job in the New Economy, William Poundstone
(Economist Review)

As for me, I already know the answer to this question after reading the subtitle — so much for working in the "New Economy." But for the rest of you, why not read the book and give it a go!