Why Wall Street Matters by William D. Cohan

WHY WALL STREET MATTERS by William D. Cohan was just released and it seems fairly apropos with the Dow surpassing 21000 earlier this week. The author, a well-regarded financial journalist, has been appearing in several interviews such as this one from CBS NEWS:

And while writing a review [“Big Bonus, Big Problem”] for Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, Burton G. Malkiel succinctly outlined Cohan’s concerns about compensation and incentives on Wall Street. Cohan stresses that there have been excesses on Wall Street, but also argues that recent regulations have often been counterproductive.  In WHY WALL STREET MATTERS he begins by providing history, explaining what banks are, and then moves on to talk about innovations in the 1970s and later.  Cohan comments, “what Ranieri [from Salomon Brothers] and his innovation [packaging mortgages] really did was fundamentally change the ethic of Wall Street, from one where a buyer knew a seller, and vice versa, to one where the decision to buy something was separated from traditional market forces.”

Cohan writes based on his own experience and insider knowledge. Calling his book "simple, concise and clear," Cohan says he wrote it because "people need to understand [something so] essential to our way of life."  WHY WALL STREET MATTERS will be an appealing read and high interest for many of our students.

The Boom by Russell Gold

Did you know that U.S. energy companies are drilling and fracking about 100 wells every day across much of the country? That statistic came from an award winning Pulitzer-Prize nominated reporter, Russell Gold. I often read his columns in The Wall Street Journal and found his new book, The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World, to be a fascinating read as well. 

Gold lays out the facts, teaching his readers about the pros and cons of this controversial technology. To what extent is water contaminated? What waste is happening and where (with Gold's parents' farm and North Dakota as examples)? What steps (fixing leaks and adding infrastructure) can be taken to improve the situation? What factors (like more energy independence, increased revenues and more jobs) seem to counteract pressures for stricter regulations and environmental safeguards?  Read Russell Gold’s book and learn more in this extensive (over an hour) interview conducted at Columbia University in early April 2014:

 

At New Trier, additional materials on “fracking” are available through diverse sources such as CQ Researcher database; DVD titles Gasland; a new book, Frackers, by another Wall Street Journal reporter (Gregory Zuckerman); plus numerous online industry resources. Many of our students have chosen non-fiction books for Junior Theme this year and I think that The Boom is an ideal candidate.  Not only is the high interest topic presented in a very engaging, readable way, Gold is a fantastic role model for our budding researchers. The Boom has 30+ pages of sources and a 15+ page index – all of which will give our students plenty to explore as they consider the future of energy production and consumption.