Street Smarts

February 15, 2013
International investor and worldwide roamer Rogers (A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing, 2009, etc.) recounts his vibrant life and provides significant insight into the financial system. The author begins with his first significant voyage: from the Alabama Canebrake to Yale University and on to Oxford's Balliol College, cutting a voracious intellectual swath. This leads to his first piece of advice on financial issues: At a lecture in 2010, "I explained how the study of philosophy and history were indispensable to me as an investor....It taught me to think around corners, to see what is missing...and in doing so it teaches you to doubt." Rogers' personal life gives considerable warmth to the story, but he is never far from investing. He explains how Wall Street requires judgment, research, curiosity and skepticism; emphasizes the importance of international investing; describes the rise of hedge funds; and examines why American universities are in precarious financial shape. Rogers started the Quantum Fund with George Soros, worked like a dog and retired when he was 37. He was disenchanted with Quantum and ready to ride his motorcycle around the world. There are numerous digressions in the narrative--boat racing at Oxford, hosting Mardi Gras parties at his New York City home, why tenure is a disaster--and an energetic survey of America on the brink, awash with overwhelming debt and no savings to fight it, the government continuing to buy "bonds on what have already proved to be losing ventures run by mediocre people." He satisfyingly rips into Alan Greenspan, Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner, and he offers advice on commodities and currency investing overseas. The author now lives with his family in Singapore, and he includes a sensitive portrait of that city. A satisfying combination of serious gusto and sharp thinking.

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 15, 2013

Wall Street celebrity Rogers (cofounder, Quantum Fund; Hot Commodities; Adventure Capitalist) started out by earning scholarships to attend Yale and Oxford Universities, then made his fortune on Wall Street as the cofounder of Quantum Fund with philanthropist and investor George Soros. In 1979, he retired at the age of 37, preferring to spend his time traveling around the world. He has taught at Columbia University Business School and moved to Singapore, where he currently resides. This latest work--part memoir, part personal philosophy--touches on his career, political leanings, world economics 101, and his life as a dad. The book has a strong political bias, with sections focusing on the Federal Reserve, inflation, health care, tort reform, immigration, and the U.S. economy. VERDICT A Zelig-like right-wing romp through recent history, geopolitics, and economics. Purchase where there is interest.--Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.