"Dr. Stamatis has tackled an area that is just learning the tremendous value of the Six Sigma methodology and how to use it. The financial community is proving that Six Sigma can and will reduce errors and prevent mistakes from occurring. Dr. Stamatis lays out the formula for success by starting with the foundations of Six Sigma and then moving into its application in financial arenas. He has given numerous examples and references that will assist in developing this methodology into a reality for your organization."

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Money shows that any numbskull can master personal finance. In this second edition, a father-and-daughter writing team, Robert K. Heady and Christy Heady, give readers the best advice culled from their many years of experience in consumer rights and money management. The Headys believe that money must be managed for the long haul and that there are no quick ways to build wealth. The guide is easy to read, witty, and scornful of the hype dished out by banks and other peddlers of personal finance. It provides a plethora of personal-finance tips for consumers, including how to get the best deal on a mortgage, pay off debt, and bank online. The authors expose financial pitfalls such as bank-sold mutual funds, dealer financing for motor vehicles, extended warranties, and those dreaded bank fees. A full chapter is devoted to the evils of credit cards, which they feel is the biggest ripoff in the financial world. The writers contend that the toughest thing about saving is making the decision to do it. You should get going by putting aside a little amount of money each month through a mutual fund or dividend reinvestment plan. "The whole idea of managing money is to save a dollar here and there and then take that dollar and build it into two," they write. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to understand that.

Investing is all about common sense. Owning a diversified portfolio of stocks and holding it for the long term is a winner’s game. Trying to beat the stock market is theoretically a zero-sum game (for every winner, there must be a loser), but after the substantial costs of investing are deducted, it becomes a loser’s game. Common sense tells us—and history confirms—that the simplest and most efficient investment strategy is to buy and hold all of the nation’s publicly held businesses at very low cost. The classic index fund that owns this market portfolio is the only investment that guarantees you with your fair share of stock market returns.

To learn how to make index investing work for you, there’s no better mentor than legendary mutual fund industry veteran John C. Bogle. Over the course of his long career, Bogle—founder of the Vanguard Group and creator of the world’s first index mutual fund—has relied primarily on index investing to help Vanguard’s clients build substantial wealth. Now, with The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, he wants to help you do the same.

Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing will show you how to incorporate this proven investment strategy into your portfolio. It will also change the very way you think about investing. Successful investing is not easy. (It requires discipline and patience.) But it is simple. For it’s all about common sense.

As described by Lewis, liar's poker is a game played in idle moments by workers on Wall Street, the objective of which is to reward trickery and deceit. With this as a metaphor, Lewis describes his four years with the Wall Street firm Salomon Brothers, from his bizarre hiring through the training program to his years as a successful bond trader. Lewis illustrates how economic decisions made at the national level changed securities markets and made bonds the most lucrative game on the Street. His description of the firm's personalities and of the events from 1984 through the crash of October 1987 are vivid and memorable.

The wildly financially successful authors of this book state, early on, that a reader will not find in its pages specific advice on how to make or invest money. It's more a book of philosophy (note the "why" in the title), and if it's not exactly Kierkegaardian in scope or language, this collaboration of real estate magnate and rags-to-riches financial guru manages to entertain and to inform. Written in bite-size chunks and adorned with quotes (some from the authors' previous works or speeches) and graphs, it explains why some people get rich and others… well, don't. Some tales are shopworn: the many references to Warren Buffett are tales well told, for example, but what works best are the aphorisms and the personality type descriptions within the "CASHFLOW Quadrant"—no matter what you do for a living, in your heart are you an E, an S, a B or an I? (Key: E=employee; B=big business owner; S=self-employed, specialist or small business owner; I=investor.) But Trump and Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) together are a strangely winning combination (they've published this book jointly and privately—and a portion of its profits will be donated to charity). Bottom line: these Messrs. Money-bags know their business. We're talking billionaires here, and really, how can you argue with success?

Since its first publication in 1994, Winning Low-Limit Hold'em, by Lee Jones, has become the major reference on playing Texas Hold'em at the lower limits. However, poker has changed over the several years and Lee has continued to study the game. The result is this revised and expanded second edition.

If you play low-limit Hold’em, or would like to learn to play Hold’em, this book is for you. It won’t teach you a lot of advanced poker theory, but it will give you a solid foundation with which you can be a winner at low-limit Hold’em.

Read this book, study it carefully, and be disciplined: you’ll be able to beat any 1-4, 3-6, or 1-4-8-8 Hold’em game you join.

This book provides a complete approach to the economics of financing medicines and policy implications for the efficiency and equity of health systems. In all health systems with majority public financing, pharmaceutical reimbursement is one of the key factors in policies of change and transformation of health services in order to face the future with guarantees of financial sustainability.

The initial chapters seek to answer questions about the efficiency with which the public sector intervenes in the pharmaceutical industry: Is the present system of drug patents efficient and fair? What would be the best way to control drug prices? Is it possible to encourage competition in this market for the patient’s benefit? The remainder of the book provides evidence on the impact of instruments and policies aimed at rationalizing and controlling pharmaceutical expenditure: What can we expect from the application of reference pricing systems? When, how and where should the user be made to share the cost of medicines? What economic and non-economic incentives should be applied to drug prescription?

Jaume Puig-Junoy has performed an invaluable task in creating a cohesive, and analytically rigorous book of specially commissioned chapters on this pertinent topic.

The Public Financing of Pharmaceuticals will appeal to academics and researchers involved in public finance, health policy, health economics, industrial organization and the pharmaceutical markets in Europe and in the US, where there is increasing public interest in drug coverage. The book is also intended for a wide variety of professionals in the health industries and policymakers.

The Micro Cap Investor

Learn how today's smartest investors are discovering opportunities—and reaping profits—ahead of the Wall Street pros

Micro cap stocks are all but ignored by professional investors who can't risk losing their companies' clients—and their own careers—to the sudden volatility and price swings that are common to the micro cap market. But it is just that volatility, plus their proven record for outperforming large cap stocks over the long term, that makes micro caps perfect for independent investors looking for market-beating returns.

A fresh perspective on predicting the market The experience of Wall Street investment manager and analyst Michael McDonald offers a new perspective on how to navigate the turbulent ups and downs of the markets. His innovative approach to the stock market teaches investors how to use new investment strategies intended to replace the "buy and hold forever" strategies of yesterday. McDonald discusses what a "trading range" market is-a roller-coaster ride in which the market will neither gain nor lose much ground-and guides readers through this market with his proven investment strategies. This book provides an understandable way to make sense of the unpredictable stock market, taking into account more complex theories, including chaos and contrarian approaches. Along with his expert advice, McDonald presents four investing paradoxes that will help investors make smarter decisions now and predict where the market is heading, using his proven theories. From the Inside Flap Predict Market Swings With Technical Analysis The efficient market theory concludes that stock prices are essentially random and unpredictable. So how do thousands of professionals earn a living each year on Wall Street by predicting stock prices? The answer is quite simple–by using techniques that allow for a stock market that can at times become predictable. Let Wall Street financial consultant and market analyst Michael McDonald show you how to navigate the turbulent ups and downs of the market in Predict Market Swings with Technical Analysis.

Cost Reduction and Control Best Practices provides financial manages with no-nonsense, balanced, and practical strategies that are being targeted and used nationwide for controlling costs by thousands of companies in areas such as human resources, compensation, benefits, purchasing, outsourcing, use of consultants, taxes, and exports. These best practices are based on the trenches experience, research, proprietary databases, and consultants from the Institute of Management and Administration (IOMA) and other leading experts in their fields.
* Provides best practices and techniques for controlling costs within a company
* New chapters focus on outsourcing costs, downsizing, consultants' costs, and business tax costs
* Provides the latest strategies companies re using to control costs