Bank Mergers & Acquisitions : An Introduction and an Overview (The New York University Salomon Center Series on Financial Markets and Institutions)

Book Description

As the financial services industry becomes increasingly international, the more narrowly defined and historically protected national financial markets become less significant. Consequently, financial institutions must achieve a critical size in order to compete. Bank Mergers & Acquisitions analyses the major issues associated with the large wave of bank mergers and acquisitions in the 1990's. While the effects of these changes have been most pronounced in the commercial banking industry, they also have a profound impact on other financial institutions: insurance firms, investment banks, and institutional investors. Bank Mergers & Acquisitions is divided into three major sections: A general and theoretical background to the topic of bank mergers and acquisitions; the effect of bank mergers on efficiency and shareholders' wealth; and regulatory and legal issues associated with mergers of financial institutions. It brings together contributions from leading scholars and high-level practitioners in economics, finance and law.

Book Description

Here are 32 of the most useful--and ground-breaking--articles and columns originally published in The Bottom Line: A Financial Magazine for Librarians. Articles cover creative budgeting, cost finding, reading financial statements, fundraising, grantsmanship, investing, productivity, and much more.

Book Description

PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUMENTAL ANALYSIS places an emphasis on the theoretical basis of each type of instrument, its optimal area of application, its sensitivity, its precision, and its limitations.You'll also learn about elementary analog and digital electronics, computers, and treatment of analytical datA. Visit the book companion website for tutorials on instrumental methods, Excel files of data analysis and simulations of analytical techniques to help you visualize important concepts in this course, and selected papers from the chemical literature to stimulate interest and provide background information for study.

Customer Reviews:

Not so good.......2007-09-18

I have to use this textbook for one of my classes, and I must say, it is horrible. The examples for problems in the book hardly give any explanation of what they are doing. The questions at the end of the chapter are very difficult and looking back at the chapter just makes the question even more confusing. I like to use textbooks when I do not understand what is going on in my class, but this one does not help at all! I think the only way you can understand this book is if you are already well educated in the course. Everytime I am assigned problems in the book, I cringe, because I know I am going to be spending hours being more confused than I have ever been in my life.

Instrumental text book review.......2007-07-20

This book covers the basics of instrumental analysis well. This is not a book for someone who needs colored illustrations and flashy pictures. The key words do not jump out of the page like many of the new undergraduate text books. The text is to the point. As with any textbook, there are some minor errors, but this book is better than some others I've encountered.

alternatives to this book.......2007-03-09

I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews of this book. I found it to be very solid.

For those of you who don't like it you have 3 options:

either "Instrumental Methods of Analysis" by Willard, Merritt, Dean, Settle; (ISBN 0534081428) which is excellent and a true classic.

or "Chemical Analysis: Modern Instrumentation Methods and Techniques" by Francis Rouessac & Annick Rouessac

or "Chemical Instrumentation: A Systematic Approach" by Strobel and Heineman. This book, however, is very hardware oriented and not a general instrumental analysis text.

I would also recommend that you buy "Statistics and Chemometrics for Analytical Chemistry" by James N. Miller & Jane C. Miller. It does a much better job than the cursory chapters found in regular analytical texts. Get the 4th or 5th edition. For a paperback, this book is ridiculously expensive if you buy new. Try to find a used copy.

While the book by Miller & Miller is good, it's no substitute for a 1 or 2 semester course in stats. A good book for this material might be Statistics for Research, Third Edition by Shirley Dowdy, Stanley Wearden, Daniel Chilko (ISBN 047126735X)

Check out my other reviews for other undergrad. chem books.

So disorganized a book that it hurts.......2005-12-24

There is no clear organization in this book. Seems like they took many papers and at random picked paragraphs out of them. The only place they show organization is when they are introducing stuff in a chapter.
Works as a reference book because you can look in the back and find the 6 or seven places your topic of interest is scattered in the book. but in general the gain of knowledge through the organization of this book is near to impossible.
The authors of this book should be ashamed of themselves for doing such harm to Chemistry students.

Style of writing is painful.......2005-09-02

Just start reading the introduction, or flip to anywhere in this book to see all you need to know about it's readability: a bit rough to say the least.

For example, in the introduction, the concept of carrying binary data in a shorter period of time on a wire than several measured pulses was presented in such a confusing manner that I was forced to read it 4 times to understand what was already a simple and understood concept to me. The excessive formality of this book is a killer.. It reads at times like a formal mathematics proof book, however, at other times it is a bit more readable.

Like people said.. use this for reference.. not for a textbook.

Average customer rating:

Instrumental Analysis Principles
Douglas A. Skoog , F.James Holler , and Stanley R. Crouch
Manufacturer: Brooks Cole
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Analytic | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books

General & Reference | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0495125709

Average customer rating:

Principles of Chemical Instrumentation
Gary T. Bender
Manufacturer: Saunders College Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Biochemistry | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Analytic | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books

Medical Technology | Allied Health Professions | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Principles of Instrumental Analysis
Douglas A.; Holler, F. James; Nieman, Timothy A. Skoog
Manufacturer: Brooks/Cole Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LTVCKC

Average customer rating:

Principles of instrumental analysis
Douglas A Skoog
Manufacturer: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OENTPK

Flow Injection Analysis: Principles and Applications (Ellis Horwood Series in Analytical Chemistry)

Average customer rating:

Flow Injection Analysis: Principles and Applications (Ellis Horwood Series in Analytical Chemistry)
M. Valcarcel , M.D. Luque De Castro , and A. Losada
Manufacturer: Ellis Horwood Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Analytic | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0133219364

Instrumental Titration Techniques: Principles and Applications of the Volumetric Analysis with Emphasis on Aspects of the Measuring and Instrumental Procedures (ABC Der Mess- Und Analysentechnik)

Average customer rating:

Instrumental Titration Techniques: Principles and Applications of the Volumetric Analysis with Emphasis on Aspects of the Measuring and Instrumental Procedures (ABC Der Mess- Und Analysentechnik)
Friedrich Oehme , and Wolfgang Richter
Manufacturer: Huthig Fachverlage Vertrieb
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Experiments & Projects | Experiments, Instruments & Measurement | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 3778513044

Average customer rating:

Principles of Instrumental Analysis
Douglas A. Skoog
Manufacturer: Thomson Learning
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8T71G

Average customer rating:

Principles of Instrumental Analysis
Douglas A Skoog
Manufacturer: INTERNATIONAL THOMSO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K72DM6

Average customer rating:

Principles of Instrumental Analysis
Douglas A.; West, Donald M. Skoog
Manufacturer: Saunders College
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O95MS2

Book Description

An Introduction to Geological Structures and Maps 6/e is a concise text that leads the student from the simplest ideas on geological structures right through a first on geological mapping. It is designed to help students working with little or no supervision. Each new topic is explained and illustrated by figures, and exercises are set on succeeding maps. The sixth edition has been completely revised and updated. It includes more problems to make the progression from the simplest maps to the most advanced even more gradual, and the maps and figures have been redrawn throughout. A new chapter on planetary geology can be used to interpret geological information being obtained from elsewhere in the solar system.

AN INTRODUCTION TO GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURES AND MAPS - FIFTH EDITION

Average customer rating:

AN INTRODUCTION TO GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURES AND MAPS - FIFTH EDITION

Manufacturer: Edward Arnold
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H487TU

Book Description

The late Professor Ming-Po Chen was instrumental in making the Third International Conference on Difference Equations a great success. Dedicated to his memory, these proceedings feature papers presented by many of the most prominent mathematicians in the field. It is a comprehensive collection of the latest developments in topics including stability theory, combinatorics, asymptotics, partial difference equations, as well as applications to biological, social, and natural sciences. This volume is an indispensable reference for academic and applied mathematicians, theoretical physicists, systems engineers, and computer and information scientists.

Average customer rating:

A museum director's midsummer's nightmare

"Museums are just extensions of the marketplace"

Laugh Out Loud

Delightful book

Political correctness unmasked with wit and verve

The Hound in the Left-hand Corner: A Novel
Giles Waterfield
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Markham Thorpe

Fundraising: Hands-On Tactics for Nonprofit Groups

Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts

ASIN: 0743475534

Book Description

In this brilliantly witty satire -- a bestseller in the UK -- a prestigious British museum launches an ambitious new exhibit...which quickly becomes a seasonal nightmare. Think that a day in the life of a London museum director is cold, quiet, and austere? Think again. Giles Waterfield brings a combination of intellectual comedy and knockabout farce to the subject in this story of one long day in a museum full of scandals, screw-ups?and more than a few scalawags. At the beginning of The Hound in the Left-hand Corner, Auberon, the brilliant but troubled director of the Museum of British History, is preparing one midsummer's day for the opening of the most spectacular exhibition his museum has ever staged. The centerpiece is a painting of the intriguing Lady St. John strikingly attired as Puck, which hasn't been shown in London in a hundred years. As the day passes, the portrait arouses disquieting questions, jealousies, rivalries -- and more than a few strange affections -- in the minds of the museum staff. As guests and employees pour in, the tension rises -- and Auberon himself has the hilariously ridiculous task of keeping the peace, without losing his own sense of reality as well. For everyone who loves the farce of David Lodge and Michael Frayn, or even the Antiques Roadshow, the fast-paced, hilarious satire of The Hound in the Left-hand Corner is sure to delight and entertain.

Customer Reviews:

A museum director's midsummer's nightmare.......2005-02-07

"We're thinking out of the box, looking at a new museum concept, a museum about people, not objects," boasts Sir Lewis Burslem, the chairman of the board of the Museum of British History (trendily renamed BRIT), one of the villains of Waterfield's tart and hilarious satire at the politics and commercialism that hinder a museum's ultimate goals of preservation and education.

BRIT is about to host a new blockbuster of an exhibit called, simply, "Elegance," and Burslem, with advertising opportunities in mind, is proposing an extension to the museum for "showcasing material culture, popular music, sport, shopping..." A gala dinner and party will open the exhibit later that day, and members of the royal family will be in attendance, providing the museum with a perfect public relations opportunity for announcing the expansion.

At the center of the show is a newly discovered Gainsborough portrait, graciously donated by the chairman himself yet unexamined by the museum staff before its display. When Jane Vaughan, the chief curator, finally sees the painting mounted the night before the exhibit, she begins to think that something is not quite right. And therein lies a midsummer's nightmare for Auberon Booth, the museum's harried director.

Waterfield is a former curator and gallery director himself, so his heroes and targets are certainly no surprise, nor is the frenzied finale all that unexpected. Yet, in spite of its predictability, there are laughs aplenty, and the mirth mushrooms as the plot progresses. Along the way, the author skewers scholars, high-society donors, picture restorers, art dealers, journalists, security guards, and even caterers (who provide the most over-the-top hilarity).

But something is missing. As one of the scholars on the institution's board of directors argues, "The only thing that makes museums special is their collections," and Waterfield's underlying message is that museums are, at heart, about art. Yet the art itself is mostly absent from this book. All we really learn about the mysterious "Lady St. John Impersonating Puck" is that it is a portrait of a noblewoman and a hound. Gainsborough's biography and artistic qualities and technique are beside the point; the painting could just as easily have been a missing Hogarth or Reynolds--or any other English artist. In the end, even in this clever and wicked satire, politics and commercialism overshadow the art itself.

"Museums are just extensions of the marketplace".......2004-11-23

Anyone who has ever worked in a large State Library or Art Gallery that has big exhibition or preservation departments is going to find a lot to identify with in this whimsical, fun, and totally satirical novel by Giles Waterfield. Waterfield obviously knows his subject well, as he recounts over a twenty-four hour period, the office politics, the snobbery, the workaholic mentality, and the class machinations of the (fictional) Museum of British History in London. With a simple, direct narrative that is almost journalistic in style, the book may put some off as it literally has a cast of thousands. Still, it's marvelously effective as a cutting, rambunctious satire on the world of museums where quality exhibitions that reflect the integrity of history and scholarship have become secondary to making money and being commercially viable.

The novel opens with the museum staff preparing to hold a gala dinner in the Great Hall for the premier of its latest blockbuster, an exhibition called Elegance. A certain royal presence will be attending, so everyone from the hospital administrators, to curatorial staff, to security is in a state of controlled alarm. Most panicked is the museum's young, maverick director Dr. Auberon Booth, who is engaged in a bitter power struggle over the future direction of the Museum with Sir Lewis Burslem, a overbearing property tycoon and the museum's chairman. Sir Lewis has just loaned to the exhibition a painting from his own private collection - the Lady St John as Puck, a little known painting by Gainsborough.

Dr. Jane Vaughan the museum's chief curator becomes convinced that not all is, as it seems with the painting. Jane tries to uncover the curious history behind the painting, and in the process she finds some devious shenanigans going on which not only implicate Sir Lewis but also dubious figures from the stylish art world, a Japanese tycoon, and the scheming Lucian Bankes, the museum's head of exhibitions. Running concurrently with this, is the behind the scenes story of Angel Cooks, the catering company run by Mr. Rupert and their disastrous preparations for the ambitious gala dinner.

The action is divided up into short episodes throughout the day, as the narrative jumps from person to person, but at the heart of the story is the true provenance of the Gainsborough and Jane's inimitable efforts to find out the truth behind the painting. The astute reader will probably guess quite early on what the scam is, but this shouldn't detract you from finishing the story. When evening arrives and the ambitious ball is underway, the reader is in for a real treat as the snotty guests get unadulteratingly drunk and are forced to eat a cold dinner of crab and vegetables when the power to the portable ovens accidentally goes out. The conclusion is wonderfully ludicrous with the rich gallery of absurd, self-obsessed, and neurotic characters, all coming together for the final, glamorous showdown underneath the Lady St. John as Puck. The Hound in the Left Hand Corner is de-rigor entertainment for lovers of fine art, and probably for lovers of art in general. Mike Leonard November 04.

Laugh Out Loud.......2004-07-01

Waterfield's fantastic farce leads you through a rollicking day in the life of BRIT--the fictional museum of British History. While this piece of fiction is definitely a satire, one suspects that perhaps it is not too far fetched in its descriptions of the cast of characters involved in the opening of the exhibition "Elegance". The star of the exhibition is an almost unknown Gainsborough painting, which also happens to be the property of Sir Lewis Burslem, chairman of BRIT. The painting is to be unveiled that evening at a gala dinner of 400 people, including the Duke of Clarence and other "very important people." However, as the day goes by, things begin to go very wrong, and you will find yourself laughing out loud at this unique and thoroughly entertaining novel. For museum buffs, this is a must read! And, if you're not a museum buff, read it anyways! You'll love it.

Delightful book.......2004-05-01

Witty, literate and quotable - I missed the Midsummers Night connection also but didn't find it diminshed my enjoyment at all.

Interesting insight into the world of museums; certainly nothing dry about it or its inhabitants. As the author has extensive experience in that venue, he would know the truth of it....

Read it!

Political correctness unmasked with wit and verve.......2004-03-06

26 February, 2004
Reviewer: Ronald Haak from Cork, Ireland
I'm grateful to Mary Whipple's analysis (below) for exposing the Shakesperian depths that will add to my enjoyment of this book when I reread it. I admit my own reading was far more superficial and I enjoyed it none the less for that. I found it simply ravishing on its simplest level and revelled in its unmasking of the pretensions of so many varieties of political correctness. ("You have to hand it to him. He took his wife's name on marrying. A very effective move.") The book is replete with gambits like this, oozing in PC-one upmanship, but these are shown to be affectations. For all their fashionable utterances of making musuems more nitwit, more accessible, less elitist, less historical, less scholarship-and-research oriented, the big musuem banquet at the book's climax is as snobbish and haughty as any GENUINE aristo banquet of the 18th century (the theme of of the banquet is "elegance"). The politically correct staff are positively reeking with status envy and the chapter on these people getting dressed for the royal bash shows them trying to alleviate their status-anxiety by designer gowns, lavish jewellry and order of precedence to the extent they are almost literally sick at the thought of being humiliated by the absence of some bauble or the lack of a trendy remark. To me, these insecurities and hypocritical maneuveurings were THE deliciously major, wicked theme of the book and I had one whale of a ride, demanding of it no more than that. The treatment is wonderfully multi-faceted and witty, and readers will engage it on many levels, with no single monolithic interpretation of the book possible. Definitely the product of a wicked and perceptive intelligence.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books