Friday Feature Book Review: Freakonomics by Steven Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner ヤバい経済学 スティーヴン・D・レヴィット/スティーヴン・J・ダブナー

Can you make "economics" a usually dull subject more exciting? Yes, you certainly can! The most constant phrases I kept on hearing in my head, while reading this book was simple wow, cool, how amazing, what a great angle, I had no idea. I was really impressed by a style of writing that I had never read before. I could not put the book down. I realized that I had only viewed economics with a very basic boring dry view. This book opened my eyes to seeing the bigger picture about economics.

The two totally "hands on" authors look at the "real but hidden economy" that real people use money for. They are not afraid of looking at where people really spend their hard earned cash, even in illegal ways. They make very innovative observations on what is really happening in the total economy everyday as a result. This is a view of economics that was never taught in school, and makes you sharp in follow up observations. You see the world differently without assumed barriers or fixed rules. You see economics as they really are, not how governments or academics present them to be.

Everybody knows about official economic numbers from the news, but this book brings more. This includes an insider view of many "guilty pleasure" numbers from many paid for items often hidden within the US economy. How much does a drug dealer really make a week? Why does he live with his Mom? Is his net income not high enough to move out? Getting the scoop on how much he really makes is really riveting. You just cannot find such info anywhere else. It is unique and very compelling. It takes a certain odd type of author to even want to know those details. However, it takes a seriously odd one, to go out and really find out. This is not library research.

Many topics just jump out at you needing a good read. How can you resist finding out how the Klu Klux Klan is like a group of real estate agents. How can any July 4th weekend be the best sales days for prostitutes in every major US city. How did being a criminal change widely in its income levels over the last few decades. I did not know how badly I wanted to know the answers to these questions. Until I learned the answers, and more importantly, how they were found. I just could not stop reading.

The Top 3 Takeaways from this book that impact any reader are:

1) The US drug gangs are very corporate. They are very well organized criminal groups. They have extremely clear hierarchy and reportings lines at the core.
2) Prostitution in many cities in the US has a real need for citizens needing time away from relatives on family visits. Supply and demand peak during these periods.
3) The real economy gives a real sense of economic activity. Government numbers are just one boring side to the numeric research. It is certainly not complete as a picture.

If you want to know about this "hidden angle" of the economy you already live in, this is for you. The attitudes of these authors is of curious misfit scientists and is well reflected all throughout the book. It is wonderful stuff. Perfect for a plane journey as it comes in great chunky chapters. Highly Recommended!

Please visit us for our Friday Feature Review where TMJ Partners will review books, movies, conferences and anything else with a financial theme. Follow us now for our free weekly updates, just click here. Thank you for reading and learning more about how money is made in finance! 

If you are interested in Sales & Trading, Banking or FinTech focused roles in Asia or Japan then click here. Follow TMJ Partners on Linkedin Instagram or Twitter. We are the world's #1 recruiter on Twitter, with over 50,000+ followers globally! click here! 

あなたがアジアや日本のセールストレーディング,
バンキング、フィンテックの役割に興味がある場合は、こちらをクリックしてください。ティエムジェィパートナーズをLinkedin Instagram またはTwitterでフォローしてください！ 世界中のTwitterで第1位のリクルーター、50,000以上のフォロワーを既に持っています！クリックしてください。

For more Buy-Side and Sell-Side roles in Asia-Pacific, contact our TMJ Partners Japan & Asia Finance team.
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      Mark  Pink                               Shinichi Nagasawa
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Friday Feature Book Review: Civilisation by Niall Ferguson 文明: 西洋が覇権をとれた6つの真因のナイルのファーガソン

This book is a great application of history to global economics. The author Niall Ferguson, tries to figure out how China lost the plot of world economic domination, back in the 1400s. At that time, China dominated world trade, had sailing ships trading with Asia, Australia, Africa and beyond. It had cities of more than 1 million people like Nanjing, the capital at the time. This was where public health and sewage were already being organised by well trained bureaucrats. If so, then how did things change so much and why? How did Western Europe and the USA later come to dominate the world with Western ways? The clear change to come was not obvious, yet it did take place in the years that followed.

To compare back then, London had only 40,000 people, as the black plague killed much of the population. It had poor general services and very limited government bureaucracy then. So how exactly did Western civilisation come to dominate the world economy for 500+ years afterwards? This becomes an economic mystery to find out how the West could come to overtake the East. The follow up question though, is will the West hold on to this advantage? or will the East now retake the world again in the future? 

To explain how this all took place, the author has come up with 6 "killer apps" or economic principles. They seem to be core reasons why Western Society has developed, and have helped drive them ahead of other previous societies and economic models to date.

The Top 6 Takeaways from this book that impact any reader are these killer apps:

1) Competition, as in the huge amount of decentralized city states and small countries. They all fought for economic advantage and trade across Europe and beyond. This forced intense innovation and progress much faster than the centralized Chinese empire at the time.

2) Science, the amount of scientific technology of clocks, weapons, industrial factories and energy inventions like the steam engine, helped spread this economic expansion far and wide.

3) Property, unlike in South America where the plundering of gold & silver left all land remaining in the hands of the king of Spain, lead to elites. North America was settled by immigrants who got to own land and vote as part of the new world bargain.

4) Medicine, disease has stopped many parts of the world from growing but Western medicine, especially the French. This brought new ways to fight disease in Africa, that allowed many to survive well past their first 30 years and really prosper longer term.

5) Consumerism, the clothes of the West via pop music and movies have spread so far around the globe. It is safe to say today, that the T-shirt and jeans is now a global uniform. This is a never before seen trend globally, and has united tastes in retail fashion.

6) Work Ethic, the protestant work ethic seems to have been another key driver, but why does Europe differ now in lower Church habits compared to the US where worship remains high? Again competition of separate churches competing attracts followers versus centralized European churches with shrinking appeal. 

It is all amazing food for thought, but in the conclusion, it is also clear that China, Korea & Japan have all learned the very same lessons and have made them part of their own economic miracle. If these lessons, these 6 killer apps, can be learned, will the East regain its place again in the world economy? Due to the savings rates needed, that may be a key reason for longer term success and another major change in how the world works economically. Really fascinating reading for anyone into global macro view points. Highly Recommended!

Please visit us for our Friday Feature Review where TMJ Partners will review books, movies, conferences and anything else with a financial theme. Follow us now for our free weekly updates, just click here. Thank you for reading and learning more about how money is made in finance! 

If you are interested in Sales & Trading, Banking or FinTech focused roles in Asia or Japan then click here. Follow TMJ Partners on Linkedin Instagram or Twitter. We are the world's #1 recruiter on Twitter, with over 50,000+ followers globally! click here! 

あなたがアジアや日本のセールストレーディング,
バンキング、フィンテックの役割に興味がある場合は、こちらをクリックしてください。ティエムジェィパートナーズをLinkedin Instagram またはTwitterでフォローしてください！ 世界中のTwitterで第1位のリクルーター、50,000以上のフォロワーを既に持っています！クリックしてください。

For more Buy-Side and Sell-Side roles in Asia-Pacific, contact our TMJ Partners Japan & Asia Finance team.
Tokyo                                          Tokyo

      Mark  Pink                               Shinichi Nagasawa
Direct + 81 3 3505 3891              Direct + 81 3 3505 3891

Friday Feature Book Review: Hedge Fund Market Wizards: Jack D. Schwager 続マーケットの魔術師 (ウィザードブックシリーズ) ジャック・D・シュワッガー

This is the author's 4th "Market Wizards Series" book, and the best by far. Luckily, it is a series of 15 direct and revealing interviews, so every compelling chapter ends while another begins every 30+ pages. Each hedge fund legend, known or unknown to the financial public, brings much to learn. 

I could not put this book down most days once started. The interview with Michael Platt, the founder of BlueCrest, a US$35BN+ AUM debt focused hedge fund firm, was the most enlightening. He fleshes out a crystal clear style of risk control and trading understanding, that many other hedge funds or internal prop teams, will try to follow more often over time. BlueCrest did 50% returns in 2016, and 54% returns in 2017. It is a trading culture of very high performance.

To my surprise, Michael explained that he started out trading his grandmother's account in equities around age 17. He did well until the 1987 crash. He then was mentally scarred for life, and never forgot. He then decided that risk control and downside drawdowns were at the core of overall trading success, not the upside of potential winning trades. It is not how much you can win, it is more about how much more you may lose. This early teen trading experience has prepared him well for markets later on.

Other big hedge fund superstars include Ray Dalio, founder of BridgeWater, a US$120BN in AUM with 1400 staff in the firm. The honesty of Ray with his staff within a culture of open criticism on mistakes, is still difficult for me to access and understand. The method and the secret internal written rules that have been assembled would be a goldmine to read. Ray's market "Principles" are now public, and widely read by many in books today. They are hard won lessons that he now shares openly, and does not keep tightly controlled as an internal form of IP.

Another great profile is Joel Greenblatt, founder of Gotham Capital, author of a well-known market bible, "You Can Be A Stock Market Genius". He has continued to share his market insight with "The Little Book That Beats The Market", followed by "The Big Secret for the Small Investor". All of them like this great book, are filled with great views with amazing insights that keep you reading. Highly Recommended!

The Top 3 Takeaways from this book that impact any reader are:

1) All big winners lose first during their career. They learn to accept the reality of losses, and then grow to learn to be better risk takers.
2) Rules can change, but principles always stay the same. Great traders can adapt their trading principles to various new markets.
3) Every great trader has an edge. They figure out what they are good at and stick with that market beating edge over time. They do not try and trade outside of their best core competence.

At the end, the author Jack Schwager, gathers a great set of patterns and conclusions that can even help the simple small scale investor. The style of reading in this book is of gathering common patterns of intelligence. There are many different kinds of traders and many different markets. The biggest challenge is finding the right market where you can trade profitably over long periods of time. No single trader can be a winner forever, but they can certainly win a lot more than they lose. That is a balance that the best traders seem to be at peace with. All readers can therefore learn from the interviews with high level hedge fund managers active in the market. All of the Jack Schwager books in this series compliment each other perfectly. You only get better by reading them all and gaining a wider more robust view of market opportunities. Highly Recommended!

Please visit us for our Friday Feature Review where TMJ Partners will review books, movies, conferences and anything else with a financial theme. Follow us now for our free weekly updates, just click here. Thank you for reading and learning more about how money is made in finance! 

If you are interested in Sales & Trading, Banking or FinTech focused roles in Asia or Japan then click here. Follow TMJ Partners on Linkedin Instagram or Twitter. We are the world's #1 recruiter on Twitter, with over 50,000+ followers globally! click here! 

あなたがアジアや日本のセールストレーディング,
バンキング、フィンテックの役割に興味がある場合は、こちらをクリックしてください。ティエムジェィパートナーズをLinkedin Instagram またはTwitterでフォローしてください！ 世界中のTwitterで第1位のリクルーター、50,000以上のフォロワーを既に持っています！クリックしてください。

For more Buy-Side and Sell-Side roles in Asia-Pacific, contact our TMJ Partners Japan & Asia Finance team.
Tokyo                                          Tokyo

      Mark  Pink                               Shinichi Nagasawa
Direct + 81 3 3505 3891              Direct + 81 3 3505 3891

Friday Feature Book Review: Street Smarts: Jim Rogers 冒険投資家ジム・ロジャーズのストリート・スマート

Jim Rogers likes to travel and observe economics in action. He can do so now globally, mainly due to great wealth created as a top trader for George Soros. He sees the world with a very rare pair of economic & investment themed pair of eyes. I like his way of seeing the world. As a child in rural Alabama, he remembered a curious story about a friend telling him that if he dug a hole deep enough, he would end up in China! Luckily, he got to fly there as an adult instead, and has returned many times. Every time he visits China or other parts of Asia, he sees new opportunities. There is nothing like being somewhere right on the ground. Seeing is believing for travelers in many interesting ways.

He often sees good bets before the mass market generally. He has often been 2-3 years ahead of most trends, and that is what made him a wealthy money manager at Soros. It still serves him well today. He does not just talk, he also acts in his own personal life. He has moved to Singapore, and his 2 daughters speak fluent Mandarin. This is on purpose, it is planned, and he hopes more western parents will follow him down that road. Some of the most interesting "Street Smarts" from his Asian observations include how Japan, now has more pets than children. This is hardly a great indicator of growth or spending of its people. 

In his view, the US is declining economically at about the same rate as Asia-Pacific is rising. He sees the US as a great nation that has peaked economically, and will be replaced by a new rising star like many others before it. The next wave of investment opportunity is clearly in Asia. This may be it basic dairy manufacturers in Mongolia or nursing homes in Japan. The demographic statistics are clearly in favor of this area's success. It is the region to follow and learn from. Investment ideas are everywhere, if you have the right mindset and a keen pair of eyes. 

He does seem a bit sad at the state of US healthcare and education. He makes a good case that twice as much is spent per person in the US, than any other nation, but with poor results overall. He finds the overall level of education in Singapore to be very high, in fact higher than the overall USA. However, all city states tend to have a much better level of education than any mixed larger scale urban & rural nations. 

Borders are now open, but may start to close again in many places. Trade wars and import duties may return ending our current world of free trade. He remarks that Marco Polo had no passport and was able to travel freely into China. Great nations remain open, and grow more strong from economic influence, not less. The strong have little to fear from outside influence. The US may be close to shutting its doors even more, given the recent Donald Trump popularity of his wall. Unfortunately, this may not be good for the pace of continued innovation. 

The Top 3 Takeaways from this book that impact any reader are:

1) Healthcare in the US may be very much overpriced considering its impact. Preventive medicine and related procedures have evolved greatly in Asia, and could be a good guide for US citizens.

2) Demographics is a shrinking reality for Western nations. They may have some lessons to learn from Asia where the multi-generation family is the norm.

3) Education is not only found in books. Respect for teachers is found in any great society. This core value may be best relearned if the US is going to catch up with Asia and revive public education in future.

This is the kind of book that you want to debate over beers with friends, and reflect travels past and in the future. It helps to open a person's eyes to what really can happen in the short term versus the longer view. It is a great collection of observations of investment tips that can help any portfolio, if you like to keep your eyes open to investment worldwide. Highly Recommended!

Please visit us for our Friday Feature Review where TMJ Partners will review books, movies, conferences and anything else with a financial theme. Follow us now for our free weekly updates, just click here. Thank you for reading and learning more about how money is made in finance! 

If you are interested in Sales & Trading, Banking or FinTech focused roles in Asia or Japan then click here. Follow TMJ Partners on Linkedin Instagram or Twitter. We are the world's #1 recruiter on Twitter, with over 50,000+ followers globally! click here! 

あなたがアジアや日本のセールストレーディング,
バンキング、フィンテックの役割に興味がある場合は、こちらをクリックしてください。ティエムジェィパートナーズをLinkedin Instagram またはTwitterでフォローしてください！ 世界中のTwitterで第1位のリクルーター、50,000以上のフォロワーを既に持っています！クリックしてください。

For more Buy-Side and Sell-Side roles in Asia-Pacific, contact our TMJ Partners Japan & Asia Finance team.
Tokyo                                          Tokyo

      Mark  Pink                               Shinichi Nagasawa
Direct + 81 3 3505 3891              Direct + 81 3 3505 3891