Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life

As noted earlier, money managers—led by the giant global financial conglomerates that dominate the industry (those conglomerates now own 32 of the 50 largest fund organizations, and another nine firms are publicly owned)—hold as their highest priority the return earned on their own capital, rather than the return earned on the capital they are inve

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My inherent resistance to shortcuts was greatly amplified by a hard experience as a police-beat reporter for the old Philadelphia Bulletin. In 1950, while working at a summer job, I got a call from the news desk to cover a house fire that was two trolley rides away from my location in a firehouse. (I had no car.) It was about midnight; I was tired

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If there were a single phrase that best articulates the attitude of business leaders and managers who both deserve and reward a great workforce, it would be “press on, regardless.” It is a rule of life that has been a motto of my family for as long as I can remember, and has sustained me through times thick and times thin alike.19 The motto’s prove

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In 1955, when the total market capitalization of the S&P 500 Index was $220 billion, neither futures nor options that would enable market participants to speculate on (or hedge against) the price of the index even existed. Then index futures and options were created—a marketing bonanza for the financial field. These new products made it easy no

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It’s my conviction that those of us who do engage in business and financial careers carry a special burden, for it is in business and finance where most of the people in our society make the most money. Yet money itself can easily deceive us about what we do and why we do it. As René Descartes reminded us four full centuries ago, “A man is incapabl

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