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Rating: 
Summary: A major Disappointment
Review: As a fam of Spin Cycle I was eagerly anticipating this book, but after reading only half way through I must say this is one of the most boring books I have ever read. The author brings nothing new to the table and he repeats old news stories over and over again to the point of making the reader fall into a deep coma.I don't buy new books to read old news stories. Most of the material is "ancient" in that it took place a few years ago and any respectable investor knows that Wall Street is all about today or tomorrow--not what happened in 1998. He puts CNBC, Jim Cramer and others under such a microscope that it becomes silly. I really don't care when Maria gets a cup of coffee or Jim clicks his mouse to buy a stock. Give us something we care about it and can learn from--not a book based on old news and yellowing newspaper articles.
Rating: 
Summary: Reads like a novel, enlightening for investors
Review: If you invest at all - stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. - you need to read this book. Howard Kurtz has the inside track on the investment bankers, mutual fund managers, and the financial press, with insight into what the real agendas are - and therefore, who you can really trust. He gives fascinating details of the celebrities in the financial reporting world, from cable news channels devoted to business reporting, to the publishing world and the movers and shakers on Wall Street - and most importantly, who's really driving the show, who the analysts are really working for, who the brokers are pressured by, and why analysts who downgrade stocks are usually fired. The book is filled with plenty of anecdotes, details of who owns what, who works for who, who's related to or dating who, where the unusual friendships have created unexpected channels of information, and how the financial reporting business is influenced and controlled by special interests that may surprise you - but that make complete sense once Kurtz explains it all. If you want to read "between the lines" in the financial reporters to see the truth and decipher the actual future of the market, this book is required reading to help figure out where the truth is coming from, and where the truth is not. Not to mention - it's just plain fascinating. This book reads like a fascinating dramatic novel.
Rating:
Summary: Fortune Tellers or Witch Oil Salesmen
Review: If you want to know a stock to buy tomorrow or which way the market is going, this is not the book for you. But, if you want to know why not to trust analysts, the CNBC talking heads, or almost anyone connected to Wall Street, then this comes close to explaining it all. In my 35 years of investing, I have learned these lessons. It is all to obvious from paying attention to the market in the past few years that most people have not. Before you spend your hard earned money on that next chat room can't lose, you would be well advised to spend the $20 to buy and read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but superficial look at buss. journalism.
Review: In rating a book, it's important to keep in mind the author's original intent. Complaints that this book is useless as an investment guide don't tell us much except that some readers bought the wrong book. For better or worse this is not an investment book. It's not even a book about Wall St. per se. It's a book about the most prominent segment of the financial media and its ambiguous relationship with the business world it covers, specifically between 1998 & early 2000. A timely and important topic if there ever is one, which can certainly use a hard-hitting piece of journalism. Unfortunately Mr. Kurtz never took his kid gloves off and the entire book is infused with a somewhat quaint, Liz Smith-like quality. Although there were a few tidbits of info scattered here and there. For instance, did you know that the guests on Taking Stocks actually get to pick the stocks they wish to talk about? Nonetheless, the book is an easy and entertaining read, especially for the biz news junkie who enjoys a tour backstage, even if one doesn't exactly get to step into the dressing room so to speak. There are a good deal of trivia. We learn that CNBC actually stood for Consumer News and Business Channel and in its first incarnation, they actually sent reporters out to squeeze tomatoes at the local produce stand. We learn about David Faber's daily grapple with his personal demon in the form of Steve Lipin - a square-jawed Clark Kent to Faber's Lex Luthor. We learn about Bob Pisani's brief but memorable video appearance opposite a porn star in a pink bikini (the girl was wearing the pink bikini). There was a great deal of ink devoted to Jim Cramer, the pugnacious Wall St "Wild Man" whose manic energy makes me want to suck on a D-size lithium battery just watching him; as well as Money Honey Maria Bartiromo, who evidently works very hard but had been reluctant to challenge her sources in public. As a side note Maria's reporting has been improving steadily much to my gratification, although unfortunately she goes home every night to a comically inept self-admitted pump-n-dumper whose stock... Aw forget it, no fun kicking a guy when he's down. Let's just say the guy has neither the incentive nor the ability to help her fulfill her journalistic potentials and I shudder to imagine what idiocies he spews over her each day. Wall St analysts do not fare well in this book. Kurtz is probably not familiar with the esoteric world of finance and he did not discuss the analysts in any depth. (His lack of familiarity also leads him to harp on certain trivial issues such as "whispered numbers" etc.) Nonetheless, yesterday's golden boys and girls such as Blodget and Meeker looked downright foolish in retrospect. The media certainly played its part. Take Ralph Acampora. Now, I think technical analysis can be useful in gauging market psychology, but its value is limited and strictly secondary. You'd therefore expect technicians to be relegated 2-to-a-stall in that windowless office possibly converted from a bathroom. But no, they become giant media personalities with thousands hanging onto their every word, most of which turn out to be (very expensively) wrong. And why is it that people who worked so hard at self-promotion are uniformly "bemused" at all the media attention they do wind up getting? I for one promise I will not be "bemused" if I ever become a media star, except perhaps at all the other media stars. A few heroes do emerge from this book. Mark Haines, the Jabba the Hut-like presence on the set of CNBC's Squawk Box who looks almost cute when angry, turns out to be the closest thing to the conscience of CNBC. And Chris Byron, the caustic and sometimes crude columnist for the Observer, is that rare breed of financial reporter who doesn't care if his sources refuse to return his calls. He finds it more productive to dust off the financials and follow the paper trail. This reluctance to offend is in fact one of the biggest problems in financial journalism. I don't pretend to know the pressures facing a reporter, but I do know that the "pros" on Wall St. have agendas very different than my own and once I've taken a position on a particular stock, I have an agenda very different than those of other individual investors. Heck, if I could get away with it I'd gladly supply every story from my desk. What use is keeping a channel open when nothing but hot air ever comes through the channel? But I digress. Overall, this is not a book that will surprise the seasoned investor, although it may confirm the suspicions of the novice investor. It may read a bit too much like something out of People, but face it, how many people actually tune in to CNBC just to hear Fred Sears's latest opinion on GE? ("It's a wonderful stock Jack Welch is such a handsome man!" He helfully explains, spitting out dingleberries as he speaks.) I know half of you pervs tune in to ogle Maria and the other half Liz Claman. So bring this book to the beach. But when you want to get serious, read Chris Byron.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but not needed for the home collection
Review: This book offered some interesting insight into how analyst news and forecasts effect the stock market. The main message I came away with is "don't believe the hype". If you are looking to bolster your confidence in your own ability to make stock picks in the face of contridictory market analysts then take the time to listen to this book. If you're not interested in an autobiogrophy of famous Wall Street gurus then skip it. You can get the same information and much more valuable insight from reading some of the Peter Lynch books.
Rating:
Summary: Too much James Cramer, not enough Wall Street
Review: This is mostly a minibio of James Cramer with a lot of attention paid on the side to CNBC and Maria Bartiromo specifically. If you're very interested in Cramer, you can just go get his actual memoir. As for me, I am interested in Wall Street and the system of disseminating and evaluating information and opinion about stocks -- the conflicts of interest, the conventions, the legal rules, the strengths and weaknesses. I don't know how you can analyze those issues without spending time on the role and motivations of key research analysts, the position of the SEC and the communication conventions between companies and journalists, hedge fund and other money managers and the SEC. Any book claiming to treat these issues and focusing on 1998-2000 would have to deal extensively by the phenomenon represented by Mary Meeker and Harry Blodgett, which this book does not. The book focuses disproportionately and without explanation on a few TV personalities without treating the overall issue. Too bad for me. It would have been fine if the title had been accurate -- something about James Cramer. Or even "Crazy Days at CNBC." The data does not synthesize into any larger recommendation or theme. It comes across as an accurate chronology without analysis. The writing style is correspondingly dry.
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