In Money and happinessour journalist Nicolas Bérubé offers his thoughts on enrichment every Sunday. His texts are sent in a newsletter the next day.
Looking for a book to read this summer? Here are some of the money books I’ve enjoyed recently. The majority are in English – many finance books are published in this language, and unfortunately only a minority end up being translated into French.
The Richest Man Who Ever Livedby Greg Steinmetz
Jacob Fugger, the grandson of a German peasant who lived in the early 16th centurye century, is considered the richest man who ever lived: at the time of his death, his personal fortune represented 2% of Europe’s GDP – equivalent to 460 billion Canadian dollars today. How did he get rich? Jacob Fugger was the banker to the emperors at a time when the Vatican forbade lending money in general, and charging interest in particular. To make the point, the clergy would go so far as to dig up the graves of people accused of having been usurers and point out the worms and maggots on the bodies: this was proof that they were accomplices of Satan! Fugger financed the Habsburg dynasty and probably made Magellan’s voyage around the world possible. A historical non-fiction book that has the merit of reading like a novel.
Freeing Yourself Through Deconsumption: 101 Ways to Achieve Financial Healthby Jean-Sébastien Marsan
“The poor dream of escaping from poverty. The middle class dreams of wealth that constantly slips through their fingers because of their excessive spending. Only the rich have the means to realize their dreams.” It is with these hard-hitting sentences that the author and journalist Jean-Sébastien Marsan launches the charge in his most recent book, Free yourself through de-consumption. Very concrete in his approach, the author gives ideas for improving your finances, including writing down every expense, learning to escape the yoke of the automobile industry’s marketing, reviewing your relationship with debt and stopping being a victim of planned obsolescence. An approach to put in place while the economy is doing well – in order to be free and confident when the inevitable years of slump return.
The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana Kingby Rich Cohen
If you have bananas in your kitchen right now, it’s largely thanks to Samuel Zemurray. This poor Russian immigrant who landed in New Orleans in 1905 became the richest man in the United States by developing the importation and popularization of bananas, a product that was then little known in the late 19th century.e century. Zemurray started his own fruit growing and exporting business in Honduras, before heading the United Fruit Company conglomerate. He defended his interests in Honduras, going so far as to overthrow the elected US-backed government and install dictator Manuel Bonilla, who had been living in exile in New Orleans. An extremely well-written book by journalist and author Rich Cohen, the film rights to which have just been acquired by a Hollywood studio.
The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legendby Rob Copeland
The world of hedge funds (hedge funds) is mysterious. Led by larger-than-life figures, these funds cater to the wealthy and promise to grow their money at a breathtaking rate while minimizing losses in down years. Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund founded by investor Ray Dalio, has become legendary for its management style, in which every employee is rated in real time by his or her colleagues… and no one can get a higher credibility rating than Ray Dalio himself. But after an explosive start in the 1990s, the firm’s main fund, the Pure Alpha fund, has posted an average annual compound return of 1.5% from 2012 to 2023, compared to 12.7% per year for the S&P 500. That hasn’t stopped Bridgewater executives from raking in billions in salaries. A look inside the inner workings of Bridgewater, with its alliances, its denunciations and its internal conflicts between leaders who live in fear of public criticism from the big boss, who will probably make your workplace look like a Buddhist monastery.
Always the same: a book to understand what never changesby Morgan Housel
Books about finance and money often try to stand out by talking about what’s new and hot. Author Morgan Housel did the opposite: he focused on what never changes. The power of incentives, the effects of lowering one’s expectations, the pendulum swing from “quiet” to “crazy”—all of this was true long before we were on this planet, and it will remain true long after we are. A book that will “age” well, because it was designed not to age at all.
Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planetby Hannah Ritchie
If I could give every high school, college, or university graduate one book, this would be it. In this unique and upbeat book, Hannah Ritchie, a data scientist at the University of Oxford and associate editor of the data site Our World in Data, reviews the latest data on the environmental crises of our time. Her conclusion: We have huge challenges, but it’s not the end of the world. In many areas, such as CO emissions2deforestation and the use of chemical fertilizers, developed countries are now moving in the right direction. I wrote about this book earlier this year and I’m posting it here to make sure that anyone interested can get their hands on it, or reserve it at the library.
Read the article “Why it’s not the end of the world”
Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the Greatest Investors Win in the Markets and in Lifeby William Green
I talk a lot about index investing in this column because it’s an approach that beats almost everyone else. But that doesn’t mean that a small portion of active investors don’t have prodigious returns. In this book, author William Green meets with investors like Mohnish Pabrai, Nick Sleep, Jean-Marie Eveillard, Joel Greenblatt, and more. From these encounters, he extracts anecdotes, quotes, and lessons that apply to business and life. Like this observation from investor Tom Gayner: “In my experience, the richest people are the ones who found something good and stuck with it. The people who seem the least happy, the most frenetic, and the least successful are the ones who are always looking for the next big thing.”