The High-beta Rich
How the Manic Wealthy Will Take Us to the Next Boom, Bubble, and Bust
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $14.61
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Paul Costanzo
-
By:
-
Robert Frank
About this listen
The rich are not only getting richer, they are becoming more dangerous. Starting in the early 1980s the top one percent broke away from the rest of us to become the most unstable force in the economy. An elite that had once been the flat line on the American income charts - models of financial propriety - suddenly set off on a wild ride of economic binges.
Not only do they control more than a third of the country's wealth, their increasing vulnerability to the booms and busts of the stock market wreak havoc on our consumer economy, financial markets, communities, employment opportunities, and government finances.
Robert Frank's insightful analysis provides the disturbing big picture of high-beta wealth. His vivid storytelling brings you inside the mortgaged mansions, blown-up balance sheets, repossessed Bentleys and Gulfstreams, and wrecked lives and relationships:
- How one couple frittered away a fortune trying to build America’s biggest house - 90,000 square feet with 23 full bathrooms, a 6,000 square foot master suite with a bed on a rotating platform - only to be forced to put it on the market because “we really need the money”.
- Repo men who are now the scavengers of the wealthy, picking up private jets, helicopters, yachts and racehorses – the shiny remains of a decade of conspicuous consumption financed with debt, asset bubbles, “liquidity events,” and soaring stock prices.
- How “big money ruins everything” for communities such as Aspen, Colorado whose over-reliance on the rich created a stratified social scene of velvet ropes and A-lists and crises in employment opportunities, housing, and tax revenues.
- Why California’s worst budget crisis in history is due in large part to reliance on the volatile incomes of the state’s tech tycoons.
- The bitter divorce of a couple who just a few years ago made the Forbes 400 list of the richest people, the firing of their enormous household staff of 110, and how one former spouse learned the marvels of shopping at Marshalls, filling your own gas tank, and flying commercial.
Robert Frank’s stories and analysis brilliantly show that the emergence of the high-beta rich is not just a high-class problem for the rich. High-beta wealth has national consequences: America’s dependence on the rich + great volatility among the rich = a more volatile America.
Cycles of wealth are now much faster and more extreme. The rich are a new “Potemkin Plutocracy” and the important lessons and consequences are brought to light of day in this engrossing book.
©2011 Robert Frank (P)2011 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
Richistan
- A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich
- By: Robert Frank
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through Richistan entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own "arborists". They're also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
-
-
Ho Hum....being rich is work!
- By Scarlett on 06-16-07
By: Robert Frank
-
Rich Dad Poor Dad
- What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
- By: Robert T. Kiyosaki
- Narrated by: Tim Wheeler
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With an incredible number of 5-star reviews, Rich Dad Poor Dad has challenged and changed the way tens of millions of people around the world think about money. With perspectives that often contradict conventional wisdom, Kiyosaki has earned a reputation for irreverence and courage. He is regarded worldwide as a passionate advocate for financial education. His easy-to-understand audiobook empowers you to make changes now - and enjoy the results for years to come.
-
-
great book but....
- By Mathew Copeland on 11-28-17
-
Liar's Poker
- Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1986, before Michael Lewis became the best-selling author of The Big Short, Moneyball, and Flash Boys, he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms. During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to New York- and London-based bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush. Liar’s Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years - a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business.
-
-
Finally!
- By Anonymous User on 02-08-22
By: Michael Lewis
-
The Snowball
- Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
- By: Alice Schroeder
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 36 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as "The Oracle of Omaha."
-
-
2,220 well-invested minutes!
- By BogKid on 01-07-09
By: Alice Schroeder
-
A Man for All Markets
- From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market
- By: Edward O. Thorp, Nassim Nicholas Taleb - foreword
- Narrated by: Edward O. Thorp
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The incredible true story of the card-counting mathematics professor who taught the world how to beat the dealer and, as the first of the great quantitative investors, ushered in a revolution on Wall Street.
-
-
A life of a genius
- By Oleksiy Volovik on 05-08-17
By: Edward O. Thorp, and others
-
The Barefoot Investor
- The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need
- By: Scott Pape
- Narrated by: Scott Pape
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the only money guide you'll ever need. That's a bold claim, given there are already thousands of finance books on the shelves. So what makes this one different? You'll get a step-by-step formula: open this account, then do this; call this person, and say this; invest money here and not there. All with a glass of wine in your hand.
-
-
Sure It's An Aussie Book But--
- By Gillian on 03-27-18
By: Scott Pape
-
Richistan
- A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich
- By: Robert Frank
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through Richistan entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own "arborists". They're also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
-
-
Ho Hum....being rich is work!
- By Scarlett on 06-16-07
By: Robert Frank
-
Rich Dad Poor Dad
- What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
- By: Robert T. Kiyosaki
- Narrated by: Tim Wheeler
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With an incredible number of 5-star reviews, Rich Dad Poor Dad has challenged and changed the way tens of millions of people around the world think about money. With perspectives that often contradict conventional wisdom, Kiyosaki has earned a reputation for irreverence and courage. He is regarded worldwide as a passionate advocate for financial education. His easy-to-understand audiobook empowers you to make changes now - and enjoy the results for years to come.
-
-
great book but....
- By Mathew Copeland on 11-28-17
-
Liar's Poker
- Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1986, before Michael Lewis became the best-selling author of The Big Short, Moneyball, and Flash Boys, he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms. During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to New York- and London-based bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush. Liar’s Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years - a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business.
-
-
Finally!
- By Anonymous User on 02-08-22
By: Michael Lewis
-
The Snowball
- Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
- By: Alice Schroeder
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 36 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as "The Oracle of Omaha."
-
-
2,220 well-invested minutes!
- By BogKid on 01-07-09
By: Alice Schroeder
-
A Man for All Markets
- From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market
- By: Edward O. Thorp, Nassim Nicholas Taleb - foreword
- Narrated by: Edward O. Thorp
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The incredible true story of the card-counting mathematics professor who taught the world how to beat the dealer and, as the first of the great quantitative investors, ushered in a revolution on Wall Street.
-
-
A life of a genius
- By Oleksiy Volovik on 05-08-17
By: Edward O. Thorp, and others
-
The Barefoot Investor
- The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need
- By: Scott Pape
- Narrated by: Scott Pape
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the only money guide you'll ever need. That's a bold claim, given there are already thousands of finance books on the shelves. So what makes this one different? You'll get a step-by-step formula: open this account, then do this; call this person, and say this; invest money here and not there. All with a glass of wine in your hand.
-
-
Sure It's An Aussie Book But--
- By Gillian on 03-27-18
By: Scott Pape
-
Am I Being Too Subtle?
- The Adventures of a Business Maverick
- By: Sam Zell
- Narrated by: Sam Zell
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Self-made billionaire Sam Zell consistently sees what others don't. From finding a market for overpriced Playboy magazines among his junior high classmates, to buying real estate on the cheap after a market crash, to investing in often unglamorous industries with long-term value, Zell acts boldly on supply and demand trends to grab the first-mover advantage. And he can find opportunity virtually anywhere - from an arcane piece of legislation to a desert meeting in Abu Dhabi.
-
-
Excellent story, but ....
- By David K. Robbins on 08-06-17
By: Sam Zell
-
The Cult of We
- WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion
- By: Eliot Brown, Maureen Farrell
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
WeWork would be worth $10 trillion, more than any other company in the world. It wasn’t just an office space provider. It was a tech company - an AI startup, even. Its WeGrow schools and WeLive residences would revolutionize education and housing. One day, mused founder Adam Neumann, a Middle East peace accord would be signed in a WeWork. The company might help colonize Mars. And Neumann would become the world’s first trillionaire.
-
-
Incredible
- By Reeka on 08-02-21
By: Eliot Brown, and others
-
The Motley Fool
- You Have More than You Think
- By: David Gardner, Tom Gardner
- Narrated by: David Gardner
- Length: 2 hrs and 17 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David and Tom Gardner are back to help you take control of your personal finances. Fully updated, The Motley Fool: You Have More Than You Think provides guidance for anyone trying to balance lifestyle aspirations and financial realities. Also: The Motley Fool Investment Guide.
-
-
Mixed feelings
- By GregK on 04-15-04
By: David Gardner, and others
-
King of Capital
- The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone
- By: John E. Morris, David Carey
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The financial establishment---banks and investment bankers, such as Citigroup, Bear Stearns, Lehman, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley---were the cowboys, recklessly assuming risks, leveraging up to astronomical levels, and driving the economy to the brink of disaster.
-
-
Great Story Ruined by Monotone Reading
- By Marc on 04-23-13
By: John E. Morris, and others
-
Learn to Earn
- A Beginner's Guide to the Basics of Investing and Business
- By: Peter Lynch, John Rothchild
- Narrated by: Peter Lynch
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many investors, including some with substantial portfolios, have only the sketchiest idea of how the stock market works. The reason, say Lynch and Rothchild, is that the basics of investing aren't taught in school. At a time when individuals have to make important decisions about saving for college and 401(k) retirement funds, this failure to provide a basic education in investing can have tragic consequences.
-
-
Good Starter
- By Charlie on 03-19-13
By: Peter Lynch, and others
-
Buffett
- The Making of an American Capitalist
- By: Roger Lowenstein
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Starting from scratch, simply by picking stocks and companies for investment, Warren Buffett amassed one of the epochal fortunes of the twentieth century - an astounding net worth of $10 billion and counting. His awesome investment record has made him a cult figure popularly known for his seeming contradictions: a billionaire who has a modest lifestyle, a phenomenally successful investor who eschews the revolving-door trading of modern Wall Street, a brilliant dealmaker who cultivates a homespun aura.
-
-
Life changer
- By Steven on 03-28-15
By: Roger Lowenstein
-
The Gambler
- How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History
- By: William C. Rempel
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The rags-to-riches story of one of America's wealthiest and least-known financial giants, self-made billionaire Kirk Kerkorian - the daring aviator, movie mogul, risk taker, and business tycoon who transformed Las Vegas and Hollywood to become one of the leading financiers in American business. Kerkorian combined the courage of a World War II pilot, the fortitude of a scrappy boxer, the cunning of an inscrutable poker player, and an unmatched genius for making deals.
-
-
Not enough detail on his business life
- By Zahid Jafry on 06-12-18
-
The Science of Money
- How to Increase Your Income and Become Wealthy
- By: Brian Tracy, Dan Strutzel
- Narrated by: Brian Tracy, Dan Strutzel
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The subject of "money" remains one of the most fascinating, thought provoking, emotional, polarizing, and well-researched subjects in the world. Scores of books, articles, blog posts, and speeches have been written on what money is, how to earn it, how to spend it, who has it and who does not, and a myriad of other topics related to the effects that it produces. Yet, despite the constant focus and interest on the topic, there is one word that describes the average person's views around money: confusion.
-
-
Quality book
- By Amazon Customer on 06-14-17
By: Brian Tracy, and others
-
Making it in Real Estate
- Starting Out as a Developer
- By: John McNellis
- Narrated by: John McNellis
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What does it take to be a successful real estate developer? Best-selling author John McNellis tells you how, sharing practical tips and advice from his wealth of experience over 35 years in real estate development. Like meeting with a mentor over coffee, McNellis entertains with witty anecdotes and wisdom on how to take advantage of opportunities and avoid pitfalls. Offering humorous insights, the book covers the ins and outs of how to get financing, working with architects, brokers, and other professionals, how to make a good deal, and win approval for your project.
-
-
A must for developers
- By jeremyeb14 on 03-10-21
By: John McNellis
-
Street Smarts
- Adventures on the Road and in the Markets
- By: Jim Rogers
- Narrated by: Michael Bybee
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jim Rogers, whose entertaining accounts of his travels around the world - studying the markets from Russia to Singapore from the ground up - has enthralled investors and Wall Street aficionados for two decades. In his engaging memoir Street Smarts, Rogers offers pithy commentary from a lifetime of adventure, from his early years growing up a naïve kid in Demopolis, Alabama, to his fledgling career on Wall Street, to his cofounding the wildly successful Quantum Fund [omit George Soros], Rogers always had a restless curiosity to experience and understand the world around him.
-
-
Another Self Indulgent Memoir by Hedge Fund Mgr
- By Timothy McCarthy on 01-17-18
By: Jim Rogers
-
Brazillionaires
- Wealth, Power, Decadence, and Hope in an American Country
- By: Alex Cuadros
- Narrated by: Alex Cuadros
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Bloomberg News invited the young American journalist Alex Cuadros to report on Brazil's emerging class of billionaires at the height of the historic Brazilian boom, he was poised to cover two of the biggest business stories of our time: how the giants of the developing world were triumphantly taking their place at the center of global capitalism and how wealth inequality was changing societies everywhere.
-
-
A Michael Lewis style take on Brazil
- By Lane on 07-18-16
By: Alex Cuadros
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Richistan
- A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich
- By: Robert Frank
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through Richistan entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own "arborists". They're also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
-
-
Ho Hum....being rich is work!
- By Scarlett on 06-16-07
By: Robert Frank
-
The Zeroes
- My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane
- By: Randall Lane
- Narrated by: Randall Lane
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Magazine entrepreneur Randall Lane had a prime seat at Wall Street's biggest greed fest. The Zeroes is a memoir about the excesses and bad behavior of an outsider who got pulled into a crazy, self-contained world.
-
-
A very entertaining tale
- By andy on 11-03-13
By: Randall Lane
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
-
The Money Culture
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 1980s was the most outrageous and turbulent era in the financial market since the crash of ’29, not only on Wall Street but around the world. Michael Lewis, as a trainee at Salomon Brothers in New York and as an investment banker and later financial journalist, was uniquely positioned to chronicle the ambition and folly that fueled the decade. In these trenchant, often hilarious true tales we meet the colorful movers and shakers who commanded the headlines and rewrote the rules.
-
-
Not the normal great Michael Lewis
- By Me on 05-12-12
By: Michael Lewis
-
The Greatest Trade Ever
- The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History
- By: Gregory Zuckerman
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2006, hedge fund manager John Paulson realized something few others suspected - that the housing market and the value of subprime mortgages were grossly inflated and headed for a major fall. Paulson's background was in mergers and acquisitions, however, and he knew little about real estate or how to wager against housing. He had spent a career as an also-ran on Wall Street. But Paulson was convinced this was his chance to make his mark. He just wasn't sure how to do it. Colleagues at investment banks scoffed at him and investors dismissed him.
-
-
Better Books Now Available
- By David on 05-02-11
-
The Capitalist Code
- It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich
- By: Ben Stein
- Narrated by: Blake Swihart
- Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most Americans have not inherited wealth or a successful business that can set them up for life. That means most Americans are destined to live with financial worries and concerns for the rest of their lives, right? Wrong! With his entertaining and informative style, New York Times best-selling author, actor, and financial pundit Ben Stein refutes the current notion that the corporate system is rigged against ordinary citizens and explains how corporate stock ownership is the best system ever devised.
-
-
underwhelming narration
- By Brandon Crow on 10-27-17
By: Ben Stein
-
Richistan
- A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich
- By: Robert Frank
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through Richistan entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own "arborists". They're also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
-
-
Ho Hum....being rich is work!
- By Scarlett on 06-16-07
By: Robert Frank
-
The Zeroes
- My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane
- By: Randall Lane
- Narrated by: Randall Lane
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Magazine entrepreneur Randall Lane had a prime seat at Wall Street's biggest greed fest. The Zeroes is a memoir about the excesses and bad behavior of an outsider who got pulled into a crazy, self-contained world.
-
-
A very entertaining tale
- By andy on 11-03-13
By: Randall Lane
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
-
The Money Culture
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 1980s was the most outrageous and turbulent era in the financial market since the crash of ’29, not only on Wall Street but around the world. Michael Lewis, as a trainee at Salomon Brothers in New York and as an investment banker and later financial journalist, was uniquely positioned to chronicle the ambition and folly that fueled the decade. In these trenchant, often hilarious true tales we meet the colorful movers and shakers who commanded the headlines and rewrote the rules.
-
-
Not the normal great Michael Lewis
- By Me on 05-12-12
By: Michael Lewis
-
The Greatest Trade Ever
- The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History
- By: Gregory Zuckerman
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2006, hedge fund manager John Paulson realized something few others suspected - that the housing market and the value of subprime mortgages were grossly inflated and headed for a major fall. Paulson's background was in mergers and acquisitions, however, and he knew little about real estate or how to wager against housing. He had spent a career as an also-ran on Wall Street. But Paulson was convinced this was his chance to make his mark. He just wasn't sure how to do it. Colleagues at investment banks scoffed at him and investors dismissed him.
-
-
Better Books Now Available
- By David on 05-02-11
-
The Capitalist Code
- It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich
- By: Ben Stein
- Narrated by: Blake Swihart
- Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most Americans have not inherited wealth or a successful business that can set them up for life. That means most Americans are destined to live with financial worries and concerns for the rest of their lives, right? Wrong! With his entertaining and informative style, New York Times best-selling author, actor, and financial pundit Ben Stein refutes the current notion that the corporate system is rigged against ordinary citizens and explains how corporate stock ownership is the best system ever devised.
-
-
underwhelming narration
- By Brandon Crow on 10-27-17
By: Ben Stein
-
The Frackers
- The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters
- By: Gregory Zuckerman
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knew it was crazy to try to extract oil and natural gas buried in shale rock deep below the ground. Everyone, that is, except a few reckless wildcatters - who risked their careers to prove the world wrong. Things looked grim for American energy in 2006. Oil production was in steep decline and natural gas was hard to find. The Iraq War threatened the nation’s already tenuous relations with the Middle East. China was rapidly industrializing and competing for resources.
-
-
Balanced approach on controversial topic
- By Chris on 01-02-14
-
Glass House
- The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town
- By: Brian Alexander
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Anchor Hocking Glass Company, once the world's largest maker of glass tableware, was the base on which Lancaster's society was built. As Glass House unfolds, bankruptcy looms. With access to the company and its leaders, and Lancaster's citizens, Alexander shows how financial engineering took hold in the 1980s, accelerated in the 21st century, and wrecked the company.
-
-
What really happened to the American Dream?
- By Bill on 05-10-17
By: Brian Alexander
-
How Money Became Dangerous
- The Inside Story of Our Turbulent Relationship with Modern Finance
- By: Christopher Varelas, Dan Stone
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a veteran of the trade, a provocative and entertaining voyage into the turbulent heart of modern money that sheds new light on the rise of our threatening and complicated financial system, how money became our adversary, and why finding a new course is crucial to a healthy society.
-
-
Must read
- By Craig M. Stratton on 02-08-20
By: Christopher Varelas, and others
-
The Lost Bank
- The Story of Washington Mutual - The Biggest Bank Failure in American History
- By: Kirsten Grind
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the most dizzying days of the financial crisis, Washington Mutual, a bank with hundreds of billions of dollars in its coffers, suffered a crippling bank run. The story of its final, brutal collapse in the autumn of 2008, and its controversial sale to JPMorgan Chase, is an astonishing account of how one bank lost itself to greed and mismanagement, and how the entire financial industry - and even the entire country - lost its way as well. Kirsten Grind’s The Lost Bank is a magisterial and gripping account of these events.
-
-
Sad and Angry by Turn
- By Johnnie Walker on 07-24-12
By: Kirsten Grind
-
Tap Dancing to Work
- Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966–2012: A Fortune Magazine Book
- By: Carol J. Loomis
- Narrated by: Susan Boyce, Barry Press
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Carol Loomis first mentioned a little-known Omaha hedge-fund manager in a 1966 Fortune article, she didn’t dream that Warren Buffett would one day be considered the world’s greatest investor - nor that she and Buffett would become close personal friends. Now Loomis has collected and updated the best Buffett articles Fortune published between 1966 and 2012, including thirteen cover stories and a dozen pieces authored by Buffett himself. Loomis has provided commentary about each major article that supplies context and her own informed point of view.
-
-
A collection of finance articles - not a biography
- By Gerardo A Dada on 08-23-13
By: Carol J. Loomis
-
Boom, Bust, Exodus
- The Rust Belt, the Maquilas, and a Tale of Two Cities
- By: Chad Broughton
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2002, the town of Galesburg, a slowly declining Rustbelt city of 33,000 in western Illinois, learned that it would soon lose its largest factory, a Maytag refrigerator plant that had anchored Galesburg's social and economic life for decades. Workers at the plant earned $15.14 an hour, had good insurance, and were assured a solid retirement. In 2004, the plant was relocated to Reynosa, Mexico, where workers sometimes spent 13-hour days assembling refrigerators for $1.10 an hour.
-
-
A Story I thought I Knew
- By Meek84 on 07-08-18
By: Chad Broughton
-
Pound Foolish
- Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry
- By: Helaine Olen
- Narrated by: Lyn Landon
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the past few decades, Americans have spent billions of dollars on personal finance products. As salaries have stagnated and companies have cut back on benefits, we've taken matters into our own hands, embracing the can-do attitude that if we're smart enough, we can overcome even daunting financial obstacles. But that's not true. In this meticulously reported and shocking audiobook, journalist and former financial columnist Helaine Olen goes behind the curtain of the personal finance industry to expose the myths, contradictions, and outright lies it has perpetuated.
-
-
The dark side of my industry
- By jfoxcpacfp on 06-15-13
By: Helaine Olen
-
King of Capital
- The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone
- By: John E. Morris, David Carey
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The financial establishment---banks and investment bankers, such as Citigroup, Bear Stearns, Lehman, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley---were the cowboys, recklessly assuming risks, leveraging up to astronomical levels, and driving the economy to the brink of disaster.
-
-
Great Story Ruined by Monotone Reading
- By Marc on 04-23-13
By: John E. Morris, and others
-
Waffle Street
- The Confession and Rehabilitation of a Financier
- By: James Adams
- Narrated by: Scott Merriman
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jimmy Adams was laid off from a hedge fund in early 2009. Wearied by eight years in the bond market and disillusioned by the financial services profession, he decides to get an "honest job" for a change. Before he knows what hit him, Jimmy finds himself waiting on tables of barflies at his local Waffle House.
-
-
A wonderful story of human nature and economics
- By Douglas Meadows on 01-29-24
By: James Adams
-
Ahead of the Curve
- Two Years at Harvard Business School
- By: Philip Delves Broughton
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2004 Philip Delves Broughton abandoned a post as Paris bureau chief of the London Daily Telegraph to join 900 other would-be tycoons on the Harvard Business School's plush campus. With acute and often uproarious candor, he assesses the school's success at teaching the traits it extols as most important in business: leadership, decisiveness, ethical behavior, and work/life balance.
-
-
On one breath.
- By Atkins on 05-17-22
-
Crash Course
- The American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster
- By: Paul Ingrassia
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Crash Course, Ingrassia answers the big questions: Was Detroit's self-destruction inevitable? What were the key turning points? Why did Japanese automakers manage American workers better than the American companies themselves? Ingrassia also describes dysfunctional corporate cultures (even as GM's market share plunged, the company continued business as usual) and Detroit's perverse system of "inverse layoffs" (which allowed union members to invoke seniority to avoid work).
-
-
Contemporary History at Its Best
- By Roy on 04-19-10
By: Paul Ingrassia
-
Hedgehogging
- By: Barton Biggs
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rare is the opportunity to chat with a legendary figure and hear the unvarnished truth about what really goes on behind the scenes. Step inside the world of Wall Street with Barton Biggs as he discusses investing in general, hedge funds in particular, and how he has learned to find and profit from the best moneymaking opportunities in an eat-what-you-kill, cutthroat investment world.
-
-
HedgeHotDogging
- By Bob on 10-01-06
By: Barton Biggs
What listeners say about The High-beta Rich
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Saltypants
- 03-27-12
TERRIBLE NARRATOR!!!
The book was interesting, but the narrator was HORRIBLE. Almost no inflection in his voice made things just run together into a long string, which made it hard to follow after a while.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer
- 11-30-11
Pretty entertaining Book, I enjoyed it.
It was quite an insight to life of High-Beta rich (as Robert Frank calls them) I didn't really know, far from the world of reality TV we all aware of . This was the best book to see the wealthy in true form.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joshua Kim
- 05-06-12
high beta read
Robert Frank is the wealth reporter for the WSJ, where he writes the wealth blog, and is also the author of the 2008 book Richistan. Reading The High-Beta Rich is good fun, as who doesn't like to hear about former billionaires reduced to cleaning their own toilets and shopping at Marshalls. Frank hangs The High-Beta Rich on both stories and data, and he is a good story-teller.
The underlying data story is the degree to which the income, and therefore spending, of the wealthy fluctuates. Today's rich are different from the previous wealthy class, as most of the recent big fortunes were made by way of financial manipulation as opposed to the traditional route of building a company over many years (or through inheritance). The formerly mega-wealthy that Frank profiles made their millions (or billions) by borrowing large sums of money, and as often as not investing this borrowed money in overpriced real estate development schemes. As quickly as the sub-prime bubble burst, they were forced to lay-off the armies of butlers and private chefs that they had accumulated during the financial and housing bubble. The fallout of the rapid declines in the wealth of many previous top-earners is not however limited to the yacht and mansion set, as many municipalities (read Aspen) and employees (read most of us), have grown to depend on the tax dollars and spending of the rich. Turns out, an economy based on rich people is a volatile economy indeed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nichelle
- 11-04-11
Sell to the Classes, Join the Masses
This books is full of lots of interesting riches to rags stories, but it also explains why it's better to have a middle class driven economy than a richistan driven economy. Politicians need to quit worshipping the rich and read this book, and then they need to pass a law that caps all political contributions at $500 or less.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gabe
- 12-13-11
A great follow-up to Richistan
This book was a very interesting and entertaining follow-up to Richistan. The audio is very clear and the listening experience is great. From private jet repo men to the rise and fall of America's most lavish lifestyles, it's all very eye opening.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul
- 05-25-16
Superficial
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
No one
What could Robert Frank have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Better research.
How could the performance have been better?
Better content.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
Not really.
Any additional comments?
It was too superficial. Needs to have been better researched and more in depth.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!