Download the New Releases Audiobooks in Business, Commerce & Economy

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Fool's Gold

Author: Gillian Tett

Narrator: Stephen Hoye

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-24-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 17 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

A best seller on both sides of the Atlantic, Fool's Gold is a key commentary on the causes of the recent financial crisis. Taking readers back to the invention of credit-derivative obligations (CDOs) at J. P. Morgan in 1994, and the subsequent exponential growth of that market, Tett explains how credit derivatives seemed a win-win for the financial world, freeing up capital, increasing profits, and diversifying risk.

In her own inimitable style, Tett makes the missteps clear as the industry hurtles toward a largely unforeseen wave of loan defaults...the worst since the Great Depression.

Fool's Gold was named Financial Book of the Year 2009 at the inaugural Spear's Book Awards.

Critic Reviews:

"A truly gripping narrative....The fact that Tett is able to reproduce such raw private communications is a tribute to her journalistic abilities." (Sunday Times)

"At once a gripping narrative, an education in derivatives, and a most lucid origin-story for the current financial meltdown, it's no surprise the author of this volume is an award-winning Financial Times journalist. Tett's explosive, illuminating narrative is the one to read for anyone confused by the present financial mess." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Excellent but with one criticism....

This book is very well written and researched, and probably as clear and well-organized as possible given the technical nature of the subject matter and the furious cascade of events. I liked the fact that the author had no obvious bias but treats her subjects with scrupulous fairness. She also eschewed taking too much of an ideological stance, leaving readers to ponder the events and personalities and allowing us to come to our own conclusions. Other than the prologue which is also even-handed she mostly refrains from telling us what she thinks.

One slightly more than minor annoyance: the reader, who was otherwise excellent, decided to affect an upper-class British accent for all the English-born characters in the story but he couldn't quite pull it off. The effort sounded like an intentional mockery of the person he was quoting, which, I'm sure, was not the intention of the author.

Other than that, I enjoyed this book so much that I intend to read it again, in part because I still do not have an adequate grasp of these astounding events which occurred, presumably, while we were all asleep.

Now I can explain derivatives

Does a remarkable job of helping me to understand more about the financial world without being overly technical.

great book

I 'read' many audio books - sometimes I have 3 or 4 that I listen to in parallel.

There are some however that do not fit this norm, once I start those, I will not put them down and I am compelled to go to the end, this book is one of them.

This is a very well written book for the 'weekend' economist wanting to understand what is happening now.

Very revealing of corporate greed

I downloaded this book on the strength of the excellent articles by the author in the FInancial TImes. There's a lot of detail, much use of acronyms, that I kept forgetting, and many names to keep track of. However, as someone who has lost money because of the reckless behaviour of these scoundrels in banking I was interested to hear how they did it.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Lehman Brothers

Subtitle: Politics, Law & Business

Author: iMinds

Narrator: Luca James Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-15-09

Publisher: iMinds

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

Learn about the Lehman Brothers collapse with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series.Lehman Brothers Holding Co. was the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank before the firms spectacular collapse in 2008. Lehmans global businesses previously generated more than $19 billion in 2007 from its vast capital markets, investment banking and investment management businesses.

The firms numerous subsidiaries included Neuberger Berman, Aurora Loan Services, Lehman Brothers Bank and Eagle Energy Partners. Lehmans Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing on September 15, 2008 marked one of the largest bankruptcies in U.S. history and sent shockwaves throughout the global financial markets. Lehmans collapse was also the last time the U.S. Federal Reserve would allow a giant bank to fail after the credit crisis that started in 2007.

Lehmans collapse came suddenly, but the firms long history dates back to 1850, when it was co-founded in Montgomery, Alabama by Emanuel Lehman, and other family members who emigrated to the U.S. from Bavaria. Lehman actually started off as a dry goods store and quickly rode the former cotton boom into a lucrative commodities trading business.

Perfect to listen to while commuting, exercising, shopping or cleaning the house.. iMinds brings knowledge to your MP3 with 8 minute information segments to whet your mental appetite and broaden your mind.

iMinds offers 12 main categories; become a Generalist by increasing your knowledge of Business, Politics, People, History, Pop Culture, Mystery, Crime, Culture, Religion, Concepts, Science and Sport. Clean and concise, crisp and engaging, discover what you never knew you were missing.

iMinds is the knowledge solution for the information age cutting through the white noise to give you quick, accurate knowledge .. Perfect your dinner party conversation, impress your boss - an excellent way to discover topics of interest for the future.

Editorial Reviews:

Eight minutes and 19 seconds is the running time of this brief audiobook. Its also about the time it took Lehman Brothers to collapse in 2008s global financial crisis, a crisis Lehman Brothers - the giant financial services firm - helped create. Narrated by Luca James Lee in his native Australian accent, this audiobook by iMinds will introduce the casual listener to the key issues surrounding Lehman and its collapse: the rise of the firm, the roots of its financial problems, and the aftermath of its dissolution. If youve heard the term "too big to fail" but dont quite understand the context, this little listening experience is for you.

Critic Reviews:

"I'm learning all sorts of stuff about stuff I didn't even know I didn't know. And it sticks. In a nutshell: wonderful." (Jonathon Margolis, Financial Times)

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The 86 Biggest Lies on Wall Street

Author: John R. Talbott

Narrator: Richard Ferrone

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-23-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

The 86 Biggest Lies on Wall Street exposes the lies and then exposes us to the truth of what it will take to rebuild our economy. As a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs, John R. Talbott knows firsthand how the financial system operates and how to fix it. As the "oracle" who predicted the housing crisis in his 2003 book, The Coming Housing Crisis, and called the election for Obama when the senator from Illinois was still the underdog (Obamanomics), Talbott's revelations about how Wall Street really works are as clear-eyed and undeniable as his predictions and recommendations for our economic future are tough, sensible, and exciting. We may ignore them at our peril.

Members Reviews:

Stop mixing good and bad ideas.

I have a listened to 50 business / finacial books this year and this is the first one I have not finished.

He is anti-capitalism, pro-government to nausea.

Excellent listen!

An eye-opening book giving readers a good understanding of the deep-rooted corruption controlling government and Wall Street.

Some good, a lot wrong

Makes some good points, but goes off the deep end half the time. I should have looked at the publishing date, and wonder if his ideas have changed since.

great just great

It has opened my eye and some to the way the super rich are pulling the strings of society to line their own pockets with mega Riches

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Stealing MySpace

Subtitle: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America

Author: Julia Angwin

Narrator: Paul Michael Garcia

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-17-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 45 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

Angwin had unparalleled access to all the necessary sources to reveal never-before-told accounts about Rupert Murdoch and Viacom Chief Executive Tom Freston.

Critic Reviews:

"A well-written, entertaining and drama-filled chronicle....This engrossing look at how MySpace became a media powerhouse will find a solid audience of business history, technology and entrepreneurship readers." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Blast from the past

"MySpace remains the dominant social network, with 72 million monthly visitors in the United States". That was 2008. I was transported right back there, and remembered uni life, my wallpaper and that Tom dude who was my "friend". Still it's more a travel through the underbelly of the internet, power play, chance, daring, greed and hubris. A good story. Yes, there are lots of tangents, as other reviewers have pointed out. But it can't have been bad, I only took two days to listen to it. Pity the book cover here looks like an old MySpace banner ad, don't judge the book on that.

Great Info -

Great info - Little Hard to Follow - the read gets easier and easier, well research.

little fragmented jumping from one person to another, quick to little transitions.

I'm techie and in the space, so i found it very entertaining and informative. I can see how others may find it hard to follow as the author jump from one person to person to another, ie my space founder, then the founders of the company that my space founders work at, ie rupert murdoch back story

Interesting, but unfocused

This is a unique, interesting story, but the author follows too many rabbit trails and as a result the book feels unfocused. When the story stays on MySpace and its founders, it's a great listen. The supporting characters and side stories are what bogs it down.

Disappointing

The book reads like an endless succession of 3x5 cards. Way too much detail and not enough context.

Choppy and Boring!

I was excited to give this book a shot, as I thought the subject would make for an interesting story. The problem was that the writing style felt choppy and boring.

To the authors credit, the book was loaded with what seemed to be an accurate yet never ending chronological list of facts and figures.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: globalization

Subtitle: n. the irrational fear that someone in China will take your job

Author: Bruce C. Greenwald, Judd Kahn

Narrator: Michael Page

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-17-08

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

These and other similar notions have become so completely accepted that they are now embraced as the conventional wisdom. In this book, the authors argue that these ideas are either largely false, or at best highly exaggerated.

The book presents a very different position, based on a serious look at the history of globalization and a reader-friendly presentation of the economic data that dramatically refute the accepted truths advanced by so many of its commentators.

Central arguments include: globalization is not a new phenomenon, but has grown and diminished throughout modern history; dealing with globalization requires local and specific rather than generic and global responses; and that as services come to dominate national economies, globalization will wane in importance.

Members Reviews:

Informative, but a little technical

It is helpful to have some background in economics and an interest in globalization to fully benefit from this book. Otherwise, the unitiated will still benefit greatly from the reading and content. It might take a little more consentration, however.

The Intellectual Rebuttal to The World Is Flat

The authors do not argue that globalization is better for us than has been popularly portrayed; rather they argued that globalization simply doesn't have as big an affect on us as has been popularly portrayed.

In contrast to most of what is written about globalization they seem to argue based on the best science of the day.

I personally think they have an important point, avoid the other extreme of arguing that globalization doesn't matter at all, and are much closer to right than most. This all raises the question, "How much can science know the outcome of self adapting systems (perhaps even self aware systems), like the international economy"; I'd guess some, but still less than most pendants (including the authors of this book) suggest.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Planet Google

Subtitle: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know

Author: Randall Stross

Narrator: William Hughes

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-25-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 151 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

Now, with unprecedented access to Google's top management, Randy Stross reveals for the first time the audacious scope of Google's new plan, including such potentially disruptive initiatives as free downloadable software, which could put providers like Microsoft out of business, and GoogleEarth and GoogleMaps satellite technology, which is rapidly mapping the entire surface of the Earth in high-powered detail. Stross explores the profound implications not only for the business world but for our culture at large.

Critic Reviews:

"In this spellbinding behind-the-scenes look at Google, New York Times columnist Stross...provides an intimate portrait of the company's massively ambitious aim to organize the world's information." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Breezy History of Google

This book gives an excellent overview of Google's history as well as a decent thumbnail sketch of the growth of the internet and the history of a few other companies as well--including Yahoo's bungling of search technology that allowed Google to eclipse them.

The author focuses a lot of his attention on showcasing the sometimes brilliant, sometimes serendipitous decisions the founders made that turned a company that was parked in a Stanford University dorm room into a multibillion dollar conglomerate that is rumored to be operating 1,000,000 computers (and growing).

Stross gives a fascinating account of Google's acquisition of YouTube as well as the concerns about privacy and copyright engendered by other projects the company is known for.

The narrator is good on the ears and you'll find yourself wishing there was more to listen to when you reach the end.

Good Insite

I really enjoyed this book as it provided a great view into the Google "products" that I use on a daily basis. I enjoyed the comparisons that the author provided into other companies.

unbiased breakdown

Thought the book was well written and the narration was good. The author does a good job of breaking down Google with little if any biases. The book goes a long way towards making an uninformed industry insider understand how Google is different from other competitors and how they survived so long. It also calms some fears as to wether Google categorizes what you do personally or only per visit.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Who Owns Canada Now

Subtitle: Old Money, New Money and The Future of Canadian Business

Author: Diane Francis

Narrator: Vern Johanssen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-25-08

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 21 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

Media coverage would lead us to believe so, but Francis disagrees. Today, the balance has shifted: only half the families cited 20 years ago and only one of the five conglomerates remain major players. The old boys' network of risk-averse investors has been replaced by daring Canadian innovators, many of them self-made.

Who Owns Canada Now demonstrates that Canada is currently led by business moguls who offer innovative policies and a new vision for the country. Through incisive analysis and exclusive interviews, Francis reveals our country's most powerful players in the most important business topic of the year.

Members Reviews:

This book should instead be titled 'What businesses a bunch of wealthy Canadians owned as of 2007'

To my thinking, this is not the same thing as Who Owns Canada Now since the author herself spends a great deal of time writing about the good and bad of allowing non Canadians to own Canadian resources, and devotes most of the book to telling the reader that most of the Canadians she writes about own vast amounts of foriegn based businesses.

A book that could properly support the title Who Owns Canada Now would instead have told me things like how much of Canada's land and businesses are owned by the crown, by provincial governments, and by private citizens. I have finished the book and I have learned none of this.

Also, the reader reads to fast espcially in the first of the book like he is in a race. Also, the author is female writing in the first person but the reader is male and that bothers me that he is always saying 'I' when it does not fit my mental image of the author.

Old info.

In context of 10 years ago when written, it would still be dull and reflective more of the author's acknowledging her relationships with the 1% while trying to maintain she was not one of them.

Chock full of useful info on a rare a-book topic

I bought this tilte for its rare subject matter. It doesn't disappoint...it's saturated full of useful info on Canadian companies, personalities, and historical developments, all divided by industry sectors. The only small quibbles I had with the whole production was the two or three repetitions. I thought my mp3 player may have skipped but nope, the same ideas (almost verbatim) were repeated a few times. And I felt that Francis -- although she was objective and fair for the most part -- was here-and-there a bit too much of a booster of some of the companies she covered and didn't get into the juicy scandals (Bre-X, Nortel, Livent, et cetera).

PS: Please ignore the story and performance ratings...I'm against forcing people to fill those out.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: EconoPower

Subtitle: How a New Generation of Economists Is Transforming the World

Author: Mark Skousen

Narrator: Jeff Riggenbach

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-26-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 19 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

By understanding and incorporating these principles, better decisions will be made on individual, corporate, and government levels.

To explain this thesis, the author offers analyses of key economists who have changed their views over time, an examination of major domestic and international issues, and an explanation of how economists can predict which politicians will be successful.

Critic Reviews:

"Mark Skousen is an able, imaginative, and energetic economist." (Milton Friedman, Nobel laureate in economics)

Members Reviews:

Old Wine in New Bottles, but Pretty Good Wine

The uninitiated reader will probably never realize that the intellectual roots of this interesting volume lie deep in the past, with the great thinkers of the Austrian school of economics, led by Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek. The Austrians picked up the tattered banner of classical liberal economic thought (laissez-faire) in the first half of the twentieth century, and held it high while others were turning to Marxism, Keynesianism, Institutionalism, and other "statist" ideologies that recognized a need for state intervention in the economy to correct "market failures" and provide the tools that turn formal democracy into a substantive instrument with which the common folk can construct their society of the future.

Why does Skousen not make it clear that this "new generation" is really old wine (Austrian school economics) in new bottles (Skousen and a few modern economic policy experts who heed the ancient Austrian doctrine)? I think probably the reason is that the Austrians were extremely elitist and arrogant, having little appreciation for the ignorant masses who actually vote leaders into and out of office in a democratic society. Hayek himself, a brilliant thinker and Nobel prize winner, once said, when asked what he thought of the brutal Chilean dictator Pinochet, that he preferred a "liberal dictator" to a "democratic government lacking liberalism" (of course, "liberalism" here means classical free market ideology, not the modern American liberalism, which is more akin to social democracy, which the Austrians despised).

Because of their rigid purism in defense of free markets and a minimal state, their policy views have been largely ignored in the modern world. There is no nation that even remotely conforms to the Austrian idea of laissez-faire. Nor will there ever be one, in my opinion, because (a) the Austrians were incorrect in their belief that a laissez-faire economic could be dynamically stable, and (b) no electorate in a democratic society would ever vote for such a system, and in a despotic society, there is little chance the dictator would be of Hayek's cherished "liberal" sort, any more than would the fox in the hen house set out to establish chicken paradise.

This does not mean, however, that the Austrians have nothing to contribute to contemporary policy debates. They certainly do, and Skousen does a fine job in this book in modernizing, democratizing, and softening Austrian positions so that they make economic sense and might serve the needs of the common folk.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Perfect Thing

Subtitle: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness

Author: Steven Levy

Narrator: Anthony Rapp

Format: Abridged

Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-20-06

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 144 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

Besides being one of the most successful consumer products in decades, the iPod has changed our behavior and even our society. It has transformed Apple from a computer company into a consumer-electronics giant. It has remolded the music business, altering not only the means of distribution but even the ways in which people enjoy and think about music. Its ubiquity and its universally acknowledged coolness have made it a symbol for the digital age itself, with commentators remarking on "the iPod generation". Now the iPod is beginning to transform the broadcast industry, too, as podcasting becomes a way to access radio and television programming. Meanwhile, millions of "Podheads" obsess about their gizmo, reveling in the personal soundtrack it offers them, basking in the social cachet it offers, and even wondering whether the device itself has its own musical preferences.

Steven Levy, the chief technology correspondent for Newsweek magazine and a longtime Apple watcher, is the ideal writer to tell the iPod's tale. He has had access to all the key players in the iPod story, including Steve Jobs, Apple's charismatic cofounder and CEO, whom Levy has known for over 20 years.

Critic Reviews:

"Apple fans and iPod owners will enjoy Levy's exploration." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

An enjoyable listen

I enjoyed this audiobook. I knew it was a fluff piece and it didn't have character development, etc, but its a book about the iPod, so that's not what I was looking for. It was an interesting look at the making of the iPod and some very "fanboy" observances. As much as I enjoy my MP3 player (not an iPod, btw), it IS just another means to listen to my own audio collection, albeit a very cool one.

And agreeing with the previous reviewer, the chapter on shuffle-mode was quite a bit long in the tooth and really only worth a couple of minutes mention.

The quality of this audiobook's recording was substandard. The voice was "tinny" and not as clear as most other audiobooks, which is ironic as heck.

Overall, though, if you consider yourself a tech fan, I would recommend this book.

An Appreciation of the iPod

An enjoyable book, keeping in mind that this isn't a critical appraisal - it's more about the phenomenon of the iPod and its impact on culture and music consumption. I saw myself in the book - everything from the new enjoyment I derive from my music collection thanks to my library's portability and shuffle, to the physical connection I feel with my iPod, and now, my iPhone. I think Levy nicely captured the tactile enjoyment many people derive from their iPods. He also filled in a few gaps (for me, at least) in the iPod story.

This Book is a Blast

This book is hardly academic, but it has a lot of fascinating data. It rambles and I love the narration in the audible.com version. The narrator's delivery is awesome. It's also awesome that I was listening to the audible version of the book on ... of course ... my iPod.

I'm not a Mac-ophile. Unlike some of the comments in the book about the spiritual journey of the company Apple, I'm not really there. However, I really enjoyed the description of the how the iPod came to be. How the designers really wanted something "perfect" and kept pushing to create it.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The New American Workplace

Author: James O'Toole, Edward E. Lawler III

Narrator: Patrick Cullen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-28-06

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: Business, Commerce & Economy

Publisher's Summary:

Now, based on 30 years of research, this new audiobook sheds light on what has changed since then, and what hasn't. This groundbreaking work will illuminate the new critical issues, from worker demands to the new ethical rules to the revolution in culture at work.

Critic Reviews:

"This comprehensive and authoritative volume presents the latest information on trends and conditions in the U.S. workplace with clarity and tangible detail." (Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

Strongly Recommend

This audio book is so well written that it is difficult to put down!

The authors include history, current events, and discuss predicted future changes in society and how it will impact the workplace. It is very informative, well paced, and interesting. I plan to listen to it more than once.