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No book will replace a professional accountant, but I have a feeling that my accountant will be grateful that I’ve used this book come tax time, as I will have categorized things correctly, saved the right receipts, and will understand what he is talking about when he is explaining my return.

AFLAC (ya know.. the crazy duck commercials) Is with out a doubt the best policy out there for missing work due to sickness or injury.

Now I am not just saying that based on opinion it is fact unlike many other responders who give opinion I can back it up… Check A.M best the largest independent insurance company rating institution also the Natuional Underwriters Association. You will see they are rated A+ superior and the reason is they pay 98% of thier caims within 7 to 10 days. Aflac understands that when we are hurt or sick we need money now. the law gives insurance companies 60 days generally to pay a claim so alot of companies wait till day 59 then send out check. Policies can be purchased either directly or through payroll deduction you save about 40% going through your employer. If your employer does not offer AFLAC then ask them to inquire. Unlike most benefits AFLAC for the most part is free for the employer to offer. The employer spends no out of pocket costs to offer and they are vouluntary. there are about 11 different policies to choose from i.e Cancer, Dental, hospital and short term disabilty.

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“Expectations Investing” is divided into three parts. Part I details how to determine the expectations for a stock based upon its current market price. Interestingly, rather than determine a “fair price” based upon a company’s free cash flow, the book turns this process upside down, using a company’s stock price to determine the market’s expectations for free cash flow going forward. Next, the book helps identify “expectations opportunities” – places where revisions in the stock market’s expectations are likely to take place. By focusing on key areas where expectations opportunities may take place (so-called “turbo triggers”), the skilled investor can modify their discounted cash flow projections to determine the appropriate price. This section further provides a framework to determine when to apply buy, sell, and hold decisions. Lastly, Part III of the book explains how certain, specific corporate events (mergers, share buybacks, and incentive compensation) may signal that expectations revisions are in order.

Within the book itself, I found the chapter on “Analyzing Competitive Strategy” to be an outstanding, investor-focused distillation of many of the points contained in Porter’s “Competitive Strategy.” Moreover, the chapters on specific corporate events were interesting insofar as they explain, in greater detail than I had read before, the quantitative analysis that underlies decisions related to mergers, share buybacks, and incentive compensation.

Potential readers should be aware that the authors of this book, like many stock analysts, adhere to the so-called “Capital Asset Pricing Model” school of thought (that the value of a security equals the rate on a risk-free security plus a premium, beta, which is determined based upon the volatility of the security in question). This model is just one of many that investors may use. Moreover, although stock analysts may have access to customers, creditors, competitors, and company insiders, many individual investors will lack those contacts, and thus face some difficulty in determining possible expectations revisions. Even if an investor had access to such information, the developing field of behavioral finance (see Belsky and Gilovich, “Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes” as but one example) would caution that investors seeking to implement the methods set forth in this book need to be careful of confirmation bias (tending to view information in a way that supports their pre-determined preferences) and information cascade (too much information), among others.

Lastly, readers should be aware that modeling out the process described by this book requires some math, and the ability to create spreadsheets of middling-level complexity. This is not a “buy low P/E” book – readers will have to do their homework to use these methods. Anyone who isn’t looking to put several hours into investigating each stock they are interested in should look elsewhere.

In all, this is a well-written book that makes a very complicated process relatively simple. It is not designed for the casual reader, and implementing the expectations investing process certainly takes considerable work. However, the book provides valuable insights into how analysts function and how stocks are priced by public markets.

However, if forced to pick a well-written, fairly sophisticated book on investing, I’d recommend a few other books ahead of this one, including “Security Analysis” by Benjamin Graham and either of Martin Whitman’s books (“The Aggressive Conservative Investor” or “Value Investing”).

You should be able to determine what applies in your case by reading the policy. If you can’t find it or don’t understand it, call your agent for clarification. Your situation may be further complicated because you may run into problems being considered the “primary” driver of the vehicle, especially if you lease another at the same time so be sure to explain this to your agent.

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Chances are, however, the book buyer is searching for sources of inspiration for her own investment portfolio or her hedge fund selection process. In that case, the book is not worth it because it doesn’t provide any evidence of what could be the strategies that might benefit the most from the current state in financial markets or which might benefit from future states or under uncertainty, etc. The book is just a compilation of known hedge fund strategies, a technical dictionary if you will, where you get a detailed explanation of this and that but no insight on when or where.

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I’m really glad I bought this book and will use it as a tool for gathering more knowledge about these essential industries as well as the challenges facing us resulting from climate change, oil depletion and international resource instability.

J. Marshall Gilmore, energy consultant and attorney

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To take one example of this book’s failings – biofuels. The corn ethanol issue is reasonably argued – that there is a limit on how much corn can replace gasoline, and it’s impact on food prices. Yet already ethanol production has peaked and plants are being shut down as ethanol failed to compete on price with oil. The hope that cellulosic ethanol can fill the potential for this fuel is raised, although no pilot plants have been built as far as I am aware. At the same time, the field of synthetic biology isn’t mentioned, nor the use of gene engineered algae to produce fuels.

Perhaps the failings of a book like this should be obvious. Technology changes very rapidly. Early ideas often do no pan out, especially commercially. VC’s sink money into lots of companies, only a few of which will bear fruit. Large companies may be “green washing” themselves by promoting their efforts which were never designed or expected to be commercial successes.

Cive it another 5 years and I think this book will be mostly obsolete. Better to read about these technologies on the web.

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The Clean Tech Revolution is a book that covers the most dramatic industrial shift in more than a century. This book is authored by members of the clean tech consultancy, Clean Edge, and I highly recommended it to anyone looking to learn about the past, present, and future of clean technology, as well as learning about the companies and cities that are the leaders of this emerging industry.

Here are some of the highlights:

* Audience – The book is great read for anyone who is a potential stakeholder – entrepreneurs, consumers, investors, government officials, and executives will all learn something new after reading this.

* Organized for easy reference – The book was well organized – anyone looking to learn about one or two particular technologies can jump around to a chapter on the technology they are looking for as the book has individual chapters on wind, solar, biofuels, transportation, green building, the grid, and more.

* “Ten to Watch” – Each chapter has a list of the company’s that are leading that sector – the company names can be found at the Clean Tech Revolution blog.

* Clean Tech Cities – There is an entire chapter dedicated to developing cities and regions to become clean tech hubs, and like the technology chapters there is a list of the leading clean tech cities. I am hoping we here in Pittsburgh can someday learn how to emulate some of the cities that made the list. Portland and Austin come to mind.

* Marketing Clean Tech – The do’s and don’t's for marketing these technologies. There are decades worth of case studies of flawed marketing of solar and other environmental friendly technologies.

* Verdict – Definitely a great book for you if you are reading this here blog. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a broad sweeping overview or reference book of the industry. There are several good books available that are more focused on particular industries like oil, electricity, solar, and even green business. I will be reviewing a few of these in the upcoming months.

Some other things to note: It was nice to read that the authors of the book were in agreement with a lot of the things I have posted on here, particularly my position against corn based ethanol. I also agree with the authors that shifting subsidies from “entrenched” conventional energy companies to those producing renewable energies would be the easiest way to support further growth and adaptation of renewables, and I agree with them that sin taxes are another sensible way to fund these initiatives.

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The reader should be cautioned that the authors themselves in their introductory chapter say that they are not going to provide a “buy list” of stocks and that they use the term ‘investment’ broadly (to cover personal development, careers, etc. also. The reader is well-served by such an approach, since the discussion is dispassionate and devoid of the hype that surrounds the usual books on alternative energy. However, a discerning reader will be able to identify some potential investment themes and develop an excellent watchlist. Recent ETF introductions (such as those by Powershares that have a global focus) should also be on anyone’s watchlist, since their portfolios seem to reflect thoughts similar to those in the book. (The authors dont mention these ETFs since they were introduced only around the same time as the book was released). Also, some of the companies mentioned in the book (such as enerNOC and Comverse) have since gone public and that info is not reflected in this book – shows how quickly this domain is changing. Another minor complaint is that while the authors provide an excellent overview of the key players in the frontlines of each of the technology, it does not provide a more detailed look at some of the indirect beneficiaries (for example, Zoltech in windpower). Apart from these minor irritations, the book is a solid addition to anyone’s investment library.

The book is written in a very approachable and engaging manner, and each chapter is self-contained. The chapters on solar, wind, grid management, and water filtration stand out. The book concludes with a slightly off-beat transition into topics that an individual investor may not find immediately useful, but nevertheless, a good read. A must-have book, especially for the wealth of information you can gain for the price of a few Starbucks visits….

/sarcasm

State inspections are a different matter. My state inspects all rental units once every 3 or 5 years (I forget which).

The news this morning is stating that her comments about being broke were lies. (Even Rush is saying that we should have known that immediately.)

A question could be regarding how a woman who’s greatest income was when she and BJ were in the White House, come up with enormous wealth? Just seven years later she has enough to LOAN five million dollars.

Romney expended his own wealth without asking for repayment from his supporters.

Clinton is making her contribution(?) a loan. The woman wants contributors to allow her to regain her wealth.

Gads! What a woman.

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Steve S.

Since Hillary fails to disclose how she “Earned” the 5 million dollars since her income from being first lady and a Senator is well documented it does raise eyebrows on how legal her income really is?