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The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America | 
 enlarge | Author: Alex Berenson
Creator: Mark Cuban
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $4.36
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Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 85616
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0812966252
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
EAN: 9780812966251
ASIN: 0812966252
Publication Date: April 13, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
With a new Afterword by the author and a new Foreword by Mark Cuban
In this commanding big-picture analysis of what went wrong in corporate America, Alex Berenson, a top financial investigative reporter for The New York Times, examines the common thread connecting Enron, Worldcom, Halliburton, Computer Associates, Tyco, and other recent corporate scandals: the cult of the number.
Every three months, 14,000 publicly traded companies report sales and profits to their shareholders. Nothing is more important in these quarterly announcements than earnings per share, the lodestar that investors—and these days, that’s most of us—use to judge the health of corporate America. earnings per share is the number for which all other numbers are sacrificed. It is the distilled truth of a company’s health.
Too bad it’s often a lie.
Alex Berenson’s The Number provides a comprehensiv, brutally factual overview of how Wall Street and corporate America lost their way during the great bull market that began in 1982. With wit and a broad historical perspective, Berenson puts recent corporate accounting (or accountability) disasters in their proper context. He explains how the wheels came off the wagon, giving readers the information and analysis they need to understand Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Halliburton, and the rest of the corporate calamities of our times.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
 Insightful and easy to understand March 13, 2003
Ari Sakoyan (Illinois)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I am a professor of finance and economics and must recommend this book for anyone with even a basic interest in corporate markets. I've asked my students to read The Number largely because it presents a fair and in-depth perspective on this fascinating economic fallout without ignoring the historical context. Berenson writes clearly and perceptively while analyzing from both top to bottom as well as left to right the market growth and its subsequent implosion.
Every investor should be forced to read this book January 16, 2004
mark cuban (dallas, tx USA)
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
I get asked all the time to write a book about business and investing. Fortunately, I dont have to or want to any longer. The Number is the book about investing I would write. Its not a how too book, its a book that pulls back the covers on Wall Street and shows once and for all that it is not an efficient market, and that indivudal investors and fund managers need to know that they are walking into a world that is far more ponzi scheme than a source of capital for growing companies and returns for investors.If you buy stocks without reading this book first, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage
Number One! March 19, 2003
Steve Cochran (Atlanta, GA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
The Number is first rate! Berenson provides real analysis for once - rather than the drivel and blather we here from the talking heads and market pundits, on TV and radio. It's a sober assessment of what is really amiss with finance. Unlike the soundbytes you constantly hear, The Number realizes that the financial mess we're in is a problem 80 years in the making. Here's to hoping some of the guys on wall street, the ceos, and the accountants actually read this book - then maybe things will change...
An Investor's Must Read March 8, 2003
Douglas Berry (San Francisco, CA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you want to truly understand how the markets got haywire - read The Number. Alex Berenson takes a complex and multi-faceted subject and really explains how Wall Street and corporate America ran amuck. The Number is a smooth read with the right mix of details and overview. More importantly, Berenson manages to pull back the covers on corporate America and give the average investor a real explanation of what went wrong - and still is wrong (something you don't see Wall Street, accountants, or companies doing). A great read - any serious investor should check out The Number.
Impressive Debut March 8, 2003
Laura Tenney (Houston, TX)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
New York Times investigative reporter Alex Berenson has written a terrific expose on the current mess that is Corporate America, ala Tyco, Enron, Worldcom... The Number is objective and comprehensive - it assigns blame where it is due - leaving no one off the hook: the CEOs, banks, the auditors, the SEC, even the individual investors. A revealing look at how the bubble got so big and why it burst. After reading The Number, I feel like I can say that I have a better sense of what really makes the markets tick.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
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