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Rating: 
Summary: A GREAT TALE OF THE "AMERICAN DREAM" COME TRUE
Review: For someone who has made a valuable contribution to American finance and poitics, there is no better person to speak about Baruch than Baruch himself! He has given a very comprehensive record of his life starting from his parents' history to his childhood days, right on to attending college and getting married then onto his career in Wall Street and Government. Baruch mentioned that many people wanted him to write about himself, supposedly that they might find "some short cut, some sure-fire formula for becoming rich." He assures everyone that Wall Street must be treated like any other profession where hard work, patience and cost pays off, not tips and rumors!
Rating: 
Summary: A Review on Bernard Baruch
Review: This book was wonderful and informative. It was an autobiography on one of America's most successful political advisers and Wall Street Stockbrokers. Not only did Baruch share many life experiences, he also gave many words of wisdom that were very inspirational. I felt like I got to know Bernard Baruch and I now have a huge respect for the man he was. He truly cared about the United States and all of the people in it. He made his work personal. On page 85 he states that, "Above all else...the stock market is people (that)...pit their conflicting judgments, their hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses, greeds and ideals." Baruch was extremely wealthy as a stock broker, yet he knew life was more than money earned. "....I realized how much there was could not be bought for money (178)" He was also very generous with the money he made. His mother told him to "do something for the Negro (289)", which he did. He donated money to help build a hospital but required that the hospital in South Carolina leave beds reserved for Negros. He also contributed money for college scholarships solely to African Americans. Overall this book showed me what a great man he was. It also gave many stories about his adventures has a stock broker and a political adviser under Woodrow Wilso and Franklin Roosevelt. Baruch found his passion in politics and economics. "A skilled operator in any field acquires an almost instinctive 'feel' which enables him to sense many things even without being able to explain them. (260)" I think Baruch had that "feel" and that is why what he did with his life was so rewarding.
Rating:
Summary: Stand the test of time. Excellent!
Review: Though legislation and time changes, human minds and rules of the game dont. In this book, the great "operator" of the first half of the twentieth century (I really think only Jesse Livermore and Bernard Baruch deserve the honor) talked of his political views, family relationship, and most importantly to trader readers like me, a lot about his "operation". Dont wanna be so hard sell here. However, if you like Reminiscences of a stock operator, you shouldnt miss this. In fact, there are many commonalities between the two, like their strong avoidance of tips and influence of "insiders", searching and acting on facts and facts only, mass psychology as the dominant market driver, demand and supply as the ultimate axiom, extravagant hopes and talk of a "New Era" in advance of financial panics, the seeming almightiness of Morgan, the formation of a pool by a speculative crowd is a sign of weakness, etc etc. I am quite surprised to have found so few reviews here about this book relative to ROSO. Anyway, dont miss this. p.s. I would like to quote some paragraphs from the book for your reference. 1. Page 105: Speculator comes from Latin speculari, which means to spy out and observe.... To be successful ....in all human affairs including the making of peace and war, three things are necessary. First, one must get the facts of a situation or problem. Second, one must form a judgement as to what those facts portend. Third, one must act in time before it is too late. 2. Page 183: ...when money came into the hands of people too easily. Such money did not seem real. When men tossed around such huge sums in bets....they had lost all sense of value and of economics. No market in the hands of such people could be a stable or genuine one.....behind their bantering I sensed a feeling of insecurity, as if they were talking strong to cover up their own weaknesses. 3. Page 184: To enjoy the advantages of a free market one must have both buyers and sellers, both bulls and bears. A market without bears would be like a nation without a free press. There would be no one to criticise and restrain the false optimism that always leads to disaster. 4. Page 248: The true speculator is one who observes teh future and acts before it occurs. Like a surgeon he must be able to search through a mass of complex and contradictory details to the significant facts. Then still like the surgeon, he must be able to operate coldly, clearly and skillfully on the basis of the facts before him. What makes this tasks so difficult is that in the stock market the facts of any situation come to us through a curtain of human emotions....how to disentangle the cold, hard economic facts from the rather warm feelings of the people dealing with these facts. 5. Page 318: This test of our ability to govern ourselves is really threefold. First, it is a test of values, of what things we will give up in order to make other things secure. Second, it is a test of our reasoning powers, of whether we have the wit to think our problems through to an effective solution. Third, it is a test of self discipline, of our ability to stand by our values and see our policies through, whatever the personal cost.
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