Your Financial Future / A Few of My Favorite Books of the Past Year

By Roxanne Fleszar

One of the things I love about being a financial planner is staying on top of world and economic events. We live in an inter-connected global community. As my clients have a portion of their assets invested in international stocks and bonds, I want to understand the social, political and economic landscape around the world as much as possible.

So what books caught my attention in the past year? Well, let’s start with energy resources, the oil and gas reserves that make the world go round. The Colder War: How the Global Energy Trade Slipped from America’s Grasp by Marin Katusa was recently published. The author knows commodities well; he was instrumental in the development of Canada’s largest copper mine. Today he travels extensively throughout the world’s energy hot spots which include Russia, the Middle East and South America to manage his four energy and resource hedge funds. All the actors are here: the Saudis, Russians, Iranians, Turks and the Chinese just to name a few. The author is good at explaining the connections between the political parties in the past, the trade-offs for money and power today and their future implications. The price of oil has fallen over 50% since June. Will price declines be sustained? Will the US dollar retain its status as the world’s reserve currency or will President Putin’s presumed grand strategy of starting a “colder war” supplant it? It is a fascinating read.

Unfortunately, the world economy has not fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History is compelling reading. It gave me greater insight into the power of the financial industry upon our politicians before the crisis and now. If you are paying attention, many members of Congress are currently attempting to weaken parts of the Frank-Dodd bill, legislation that was written to protect the taxpayers from the follies of financial deregulation. Read it and see if you are compelled to contact your Congress persons about proposed and potential future legislation and that may take us into another crisis!

I truly admire Nicholas Kristof, a reporter for the New York Times. He writes about contemporary issues at home and abroad. He and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn wrote Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. We have heard a lot about the kidnapping last year of the school girls by Boko Haram in Nigeria. There are many countries plagued by violence, infant and maternal mortality, child prostitution and the like. The stories presented here are both tragic and uplifting. Practical solutions we can choose to be a part of are outlined; yes, we can be a part of the solution, one person at a time.

On a lighter note, the novel, The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones is a delight. I love food so learning about the Chinese culture through the escapades of an American food writer living in Beijing was educational and entertaining. They view food as art and as an expression of the philosophy of Confucius. It certainly differs from our fast food and processed food mentality!

I am traveling to India this week to attend the wedding of the daughter of long-term friends of mine. So of course, I wanted to brush up on the history of the country and obtain an understanding of how call centers, high technology parks, and the younger, better educated generation are changing their culture. India Calling by Anand Giridharadas, an American whose parents immigrated to the US from India in the 1970’s, was the perfect book to give me a perspective on the traditions of the country and the tug-of-war between the old and the new.

I hope you have favorite books that you want to share with friends and colleagues. Happy reading in 2015!

Roxanne E. Fleszar, CFP, ChFC is President of Financial Resources Management Corporation, a registered investment advisory firm with offices in Key West, Boston and Naples.

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