Zocor eye. Zocor….

Chapter 6 (Don’t Buy Regulatory Structure) talks about how government regulation is generally bad for business. Further, he discusses the fact that nearly all government-granted monopolies end up being bad businesses. The truth is that they just get lazy and have a lot of trouble staying profitable when the government protection and subsidies go away. So while it might sound like a great idea (”These guys have a monopoly on x!”) it’s usually an area you want to avoid. You can probably come up with a couple of US examples…

Chapter 8 (Buy the Banks) discusses how banking is the foundation for economic growth. Is a country’s economy is booming, it is very hard for banks not to profit from it. And so they are a good option in developing countries.

Riedel points out some of the big bank failures (in Latin America and Southeast Asia), he says that these places shouldn’t be avoided because of it. These crisis have “purged” all of the bad companies and are “providing solid growth for the future”.

He discusses a bit of basic banking terms and ideas and points out some more of the risks, but generally thinks that banks are a good way to enter a new. It’s kind of the default bet until you find out where the bigger money is going to come from.

As I’ve continued reading the book, I think there is more immediately applicable stuff in the later chapters. The part I’m reading now talks a lot about the supply and demand of stocks. It’s interesting reading and great exercise in thinking about equities in a way we don’t often think about.

Some of the stuff I’ve read in the book is already working its way into my trading decisions.

Agree about your call on Susan - knowing that someone is rude makes me less inclined to bother reading their books and more inclined to believe they made it to the top by a series of lucky events.

Does Ken Fisher provide any other insights other than the three questions? It seems he is living on past glory with price to sales. I know it is used commonly now, and I was considering buying his book, but it smells to me too much like Motley Fool.

Jason posted a series of book reviews at InvestorGeeks, covering the following titles:

* The Real Estate Coach by Bradley J. Sugars.
* Become the Ceo of You, Inc by Susan Bulkeley Butler
* Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
* Finding the Hot Spots: 10 Strategies for Global Investing by David Riedel
* Jim Cramer’s Mad Money by James J. Cramer with Cliff Mason
* The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don’t by Ken Fisher

Just title whatever you are working on to “Quick _______”, which will fool you into getting started. Then when you get into things, you’ll be forced to finish and will end up with something almost as non-quick as it would have been in the first place.

I think I may split these up and repost them later. For now, I like them all in one post.