Squandering Aimlessly: On the Road with the Host of Public Radio's "Marketplace"

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David Brancaccio's Squandering Aimlessly is a rare treat--an insightful look at economic matters that is also a terrific read. Through his award-winning Marketplace radio program, Brancaccio has become a popular commentator with a distinctive take on financial issues. In his first book, he smoothly transfers this perspective to the description of an entertaining literary pilgrimage designed to answer the eternal question "How should one spend an unexpected windfall?" It was, after all, a query Brancaccio felt compelled to explore. "As host of a public radio program about money, I am asked all the time about what to do with it," he writes. "I needed to answer that question for myself before I could have anything meaningful to say about other people's money."

In a journey as personal as it is universal, Brancaccio crisscrosses America to examine possible responses to a monetary bolt from the blue: "spend it on a shopping spree, do good, start a business, gamble with it, give it away, invest it in the markets, buy a house, go back to school, retire early, save it for a rainy day." Hooking up with an array of savvy individuals who are focused upon these divergent alternatives, he ultimately discovers that true fiscal fulfillment is achieved only when individual needs and wants are really understood and successfully balanced. More to the immediate point, however, he also uncovers a perfect way to judge the expenditure of any honest-to-goodness surplus: the ability to answer yes when asked if the money's use, whatever it is, will have a lasting, positive impact on your life. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

What would you do if you received a sudden financial windfall? David Brancaccio, whose ability to clarify economic matters has made public radio's Marketplace a hit, set out to discover where, why, and how people are spending their riches -- whether it's proceeds from stock options, profits from the sale of a house, or an unexpected inheritance or bonus.

His journey takes readers from Minnesota's Mall of America to the
financial caverns of Wall Street, to a college set among the oil wells of West Texas. He gathers wisdom on money and its uses from California entrepreneurs, a drifter in the desert, a U.S. treasury secretary, and many others from all walks of life. The result is at once a delightful adventure and an eye-opening report on America's attitudes about spending, saving, and investing.

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The host of public radio's enormously popular, award-winning show "Marketplace" brings his clever, inventive approach to all matters--financial and otherwise--in an irreverent, humor-filled, cross-country adventure that explores America as only Brancaccio can.

Customer Reviews:

Writing aimlessly.......2002-01-05

A serious candidate for worst book of the year. How did this thing ever find a publisher? It says a lot about the NPR mentality that the author, their chief financial and business correspondent, cannot distinguish between investing in the stock market and going to Las Vegas. The author has no background in economics or finance, no experience in the financial world, no respect for free markets, and no clue about what is going on in the world around him. Alas, ignorance is not bliss in this case. This book is a grotesquely overinflated ego trip in which we learn a lot about what the author thinks, feels, did after college and had for breakfast but nothing more. A colossal waste of money; avoid.

Meandering about Money.......2001-05-27

In Squandering Aimlessly, David Brancaccio allows us to accompany him on his personal finance pilgrimage. While there was no surplus in question at the moment, there had been a surplus of money in the past and he didn't know what to make of it at that time. Brancaccio is the host of the public radio program, Marketplace and wanted to have more answers handy when asked about money.

"I didn't start out with a surplus, but I came back richer and no longer breaking out in hives if I found myself in the clutches of a bonus payment, a severance check, a capital gain of one sort or another, an inheritance, a lottery win, a tax refund, or simply the realization that the passbook savings account finally contains some serious money."

While some of those situations may not be your money issue, it is that time of year for many of us to have a tax refund pop into our hands. His travels take us from a nudist village in France to the Mall of America to a discussion with Vicki Robin(co-author of Your Money or Your Life) in Seattle to a music college in Texas. I savored this book. This book is to money the way Calvin Trillin's Alice, Let's Eat is to food. There are very few books that that have made me laugh out loud and this is one of them. Beware reading while eating or drinking lest liquid exit through your nostrils.

Let me state up front that I was utterly jealous of a fellow human being who managed to have this pilgrimage supported by someone else's surplus. While the book allows us to share and enjoy Brancaccio's experiences, the subtle lessons about money and life are there in all their glory. In the Mall of America, I want to shout, "Go ahead, have a Cinnabon !" Each chapter ends with a souvenir, a to-do list and calculations relating to the chapter.

Brancaccio considers socially responsible investing while attending a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. One of his conclusions is that: "Trying too diligently to come up with a really groovy portfolio runs the danger of turning you into one of those obsessive-compulsive hand washers. You keep trying to sanitize your holdings, but you keep turning up more dirt." His wife has endeared herself to me forever with her comments before Brancaccio heads out to research charity in Hawthorne, Nevada. "On the way out the door very early this morning, my wife cast a protective spell around me. `If you run across a place called the Mustang Ranch,' she said matter-of-factly from her pillow, her eyes still closed, `keep in mind those women wear stretch pants and fuzzy slippers in their off hours.' "

This book covers the gamut of financial choices one might make with a sense of humor and wonderful storytelling. I highly recommend it.

Money vs. the Good Life.......2000-05-08

Despite its light and fun tone, this book is thought-provoking. Almost everyone in America's upper middle class or higher receives would be by any world standard a "windfall" (earned or unearned) as an ongoing part of everyday life. Our choices in what to do with it, outside a very narrow range, are largely unexamined. What are the real, practical links between money and a good life, and which of them can be broken if one chooses? This is the underlying theme that unfolds as Brancaccio shares his journey with us. And the good part is, it does "unfold," rather than being declared, because Brancaccio never preaches; he is learning as he goes. He maintains the same irreverent, amusing tone that makes his radio program so enjoyable. In a couple of the early chapters the messages tend toward the obvious (the Mall of America shows that pure consumerism is shallow, and Las Vegas is, well, Las Vegas) but the style is clever enough to carry things there, and the book gets better as it goes on. It's a great read!

The Savvy Traveler in the Marketplace.......2000-04-23

This book was a delightful trip around the US, exploring how people spend money. He confirmed all that I feel about places such as The Mall of America and Las Vegas. His visit to a planned retirement community in Tucson proved that what these people really want is to be surrounded by their peers, socially,economically,age range, and ethnicity, which is to deny the wonderful diversity of our country. He includes the usual tips for investing and I was really surprised that one of David's resolutions was to pay off credit card debt..he shouldn't have any! The style of writing is humorous, yet thoughtful. I dont know if David knows that Levittown is still highly segregated, or that many of the homeowners convert their cape style houses to two families, called "mother daughter" so that they can afford to live in Long Island. I found the most interesting interview to be the one with Wayne, the drifter, and David compares what he might spend in a day to what Wayne is living on. Wayne has a truly minimalist lifestyle! Probably this book will be another preaching to the choir, but I hope it inspires some to look at their values and goals.

writes as good as he talks.......2000-03-18

Good talkers don't necessarily produce good books--other Radio and TV interviewers ("journalists")often try to foist off as book what are little more than pastiches of transcripts. Broncaccio writes in the "show, don't tell" style that has the reader with him in every town, roadstop, meeting, casino, flophouse and in on every epiphany. He also knows how to crunch the numbers to learn the truth: how much will it take if a late 30-something like himself wants to retire in an "active" community (millions). Is buying a house really the biggest economic plus you can tally? For such a public figure, Broncaccio gives a lot of himself away in this fast, fun informative book. His premise for this one was right on, and I hope he thinks up some more.

Squandering Aimlessly: On the Road With the Host of Public Radios Marketplace

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Squandering Aimlessly: On the Road With the Host of Public Radios Marketplace
David Brancaccio
Manufacturer: Touchstone Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OWALQM

Book Description

"A one-volume reference that covers every imaginable interaction of atmosphere and light . . . This definitive book is once again available." SKY & TELESCOPE

"A change-your-life classic . . . This deeply perceptive book changes our own perceptions of all kinds of light and color events in the outdoors. You will never see the same way again outdoors. Some examples involve elementary optics (which explain the visual phenomena) but nearly all the 278 short chapters can be appreciated by the visually alert reader. My favorite examples include dappled light, rainbows (there are always two), and differences between reflected and transmitted light in seeing leaves and grass. The Dover edition is fine; the Springer-Verlag edition is better with its excellent color photographs." EDWARD R. TUFTE, Author of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

All of science springs from the observations of nature. In this classic book, the late Marcel Minnaert accompanies the reader on a tour of nature's light and color and reveals the myriad phenomena that may be observed outdoors with no more than a pair of sharp eyes and an enquiring mind. From the intriguing shape of the dapples beneath a tree on a sunny day, to rainbows, mirages, and haloes, to the colors of liquid, ice, and the sky, to the appearance of the sun, moon, planets, and stars - Minnaert describes and explains them all in a clear language accessible to the general reader. The author's enthusiasm inspires the reader, who is encouraged and given abundant opportunity to make his or her own observations and perform simple experiments. Yet the phototgrapher, astronomer, or physicist will also find a wealth of detailed information, much available elsewhere, on more exotic phenomena assembled by Minnaert over many years. Among them are Sun dogs, the fata morgana, coronae, glories, noctilucent and iridescent clouds, and haloes. This volume includes 80 new photographs, over half in color, illustrating many of the phenomena - ordinary and exotic - discussed in the book. Most of the new photos are by Pekka Parviainen, the renowned Finnish nature photographer.

Customer Reviews:

Best left unexamined?...think again.......2006-08-05

Prior to reading this book, communicating a love of and appreciation for the outdoor experience of natural phenomena was often frustrating. This book has provided me with a new lexicon that helps me bridge the gap between intuition and the elementary physics of the first-hand viewing perspective. At times there are sections that are a bit of a slog (e.g. the revelation of the nuances of viewing a scene through pane vs. plate glass) but that criticism is more than balanced by many excellent observations and curious examinations of the changing relationships between the observer and the scene viewed. After reading this book, I have embarked on reviewing many of the photos that I have taken in my travels. I have been astonished by the number details that had escaped me (and for which I had zero appreciation) prior to reading Minnaert's book. One of the techniques I have used extensively is viewing inverted digital photographs of panoramic scenes reflected in water using image editing software. The fact that the reflected scene is viewed from the perspective of an underwater observer (buy the book for a full explanation) is a relevation that provided me with some good natured fun at the expense of disorienting a friend when I inverted a photograph of lake scene from a hiking (or SCUBA diving?) trip to Alaska.

A Change-Your-Life Classic.......2000-08-27

This deeply perceptive book changes our own perceptions of all kinds of light and color events in the outdoors. You will never see the same way again outdoors. Some examples involve elementary optics (which explain the visual phenomena) but nearly all the 278 short chapters can be appreciated by the visually alert reader. My favorite examples include dappled light, rainbows (there are always two), and differences between relected and transmitted light in seeing leaves and grass. The Dover edition is fine; the Springer-Verlag edition is better with its excellent color photographs.

Eye Pleasure.......2000-01-06

One of the most phenomenal books I've ever seen. This book describes and explains in very easily read prose, the complex visual phenomena of the natural world. It is almost a meditation on the natural world outdoors. I read it often not just as a reference. Be sure to read the introduction to the work. An excellent buy--I have purchased five copies over the years as gifts.

Great, great, great. Lives up to its promise........1996-09-27

Had the Dover edition (still available) for years, it's wonderful. Saw the updatedhardbound edition and shelled out fifty bucks on the spot, it's even better.If you have any interest in shadows, rainbows, halos, mirages, etc. you will find this book enormously satisfying. I've never seen such a wealth of phenomena so well observed, analyzed, and described. You will see more and notice more after you read this book. What is it? It's not quite optics, not quite natural history, not quite psychophysics or perceptual psychology. Unique. Reading Jack London and wonder what sun-dogs are? Reach for this book. Reading Hersey's "The War Lover" and wonder about the glory around airplane shadows? Reach for this book.

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Light and Color in the Outdoors
Marcel; Seymour, Len Trn Minnaert
Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OM8F7Y

Book Description

Barrier, reservoir, target site - those are but some of the possible functions of biological lipid membranes in the complex interplay of drugs with the organism. A detailed knowledge of lipid membranes and of the various modes of drug-membrane interaction is therefore the prerequisite for a better understanding of drug action. Many of today's pharmaceuticals are amphiphilic or catamphiphilic, enabling them to interact with biological membranes.
Crucial membrane properties are surveyed and techniques to elucidate drug-membrane interactions presented, including computer-aided predictions. Effects of membrane interaction on drug action and drug distribution are discussed, and numerous examples are given.
This unique reference volume builds on the authors' long experience in the study of drug-membrane interaction. Recommended reading for everyone involved in pharmaceutical research.

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The Restless Earth: Nobel Conference Xxiv (Nobel Conference//(Proceedings))
Nobel Conference 1988 (Gustavus Adolphus College) , and J. E. Oliver
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0062501488

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Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences: 1988 (Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences)

Manufacturer: Annual Reviews
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Geology | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0824320166

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ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION - Volume 12, number 5 - May 1988: Many Mansions; The Hob; King of Morning Queen of Day; The Earth Doth Like a Snake Renew; Sir John Mandeville's Report on the Griffin; Flight of Fancy; After the Master

Manufacturer: Davis Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ICJ3TO

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Bulletin of the Institute of Earth Sciences: Academia Sinica: Vol. 8, December 1988
Yeong Tein; (ed.) Yu
Manufacturer: Institute of Earth Sciences
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KGNOM0

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Chico mendes-Not worth it!

Chico Mendes: Fight for the Forest (Earth Keepers)
Susan Destefano
Manufacturer: Twenty First Century Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

Science & Technology | Biographies | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Nonfiction | Environment | Nature | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0805028870

Customer Reviews:

Chico mendes-Not worth it!.......2000-03-24

I could not get into the book at all. I found the start quite interesting but in the end Chico was killed which made it a very upsetting book for me. I like happy endings. Long may we honour Chico Mendes.

Egbert Havinga: Enjoying Organic Chemistry 1927-1987 (Profiles, Pathways, and Dreams)

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Egbert Havinga: Enjoying Organic Chemistry 1927-1987 (Profiles, Pathways, and Dreams)
Egbert Havinga
Manufacturer: An American Chemical Society Publication
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Egbert Havinga was a pioneer in understanding organic photochemistry who made creative and original contributions to the structure and photochemical mechanisms in the Vitamin D System. This Dutch chemist also made significant contributions to peptide and protein chemistry and stereochemistry.

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Geography 1988-89

Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Geoscience Student Enrollment Survey, 1987-1988, United States and Canada

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Geoscience Student Enrollment Survey, 1987-1988, United States and Canada
Marilyn Suiter , Nicholas H. Claudy , and Marvin E. Kauffman
Manufacturer: Amer Geological Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Investigation of the Ionosphere by Means of Beacon Satellite Measurement: Proceedings of the International Beacon Satellite Symposium, April 18-21, 1

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Investigation of the Ionosphere by Means of Beacon Satellite Measurement: Proceedings of the International Beacon Satellite Symposium, April 18-21, 1
China) International Beacon Satellite Symposium (1988 Beijing , and Chong Cao
Manufacturer: International Academic Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Journal of African Earth Sciences - Volume 7 #3 1988

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Journal of African Earth Sciences - Volume 7 #3 1988
C A (ed) Kogbe
Manufacturer: Pergamon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RE4KIC

Customer Reviews:

a valiant effort to rehabilitate Whitehead.......2006-12-30

I sympathize with the intense effort and noble intentions invested in this work. I appreciate the scholarship evident in it. But I cannot accept the muddle of Whitehead, and I don't accept Athearn's Whiteheadian bias.

If you are a Whitehead fan, then you will enjoy this book immensely.

Book Description

A young man's riotous introduction to his family's Cuban heritage

In the sequel to Yglesias' comic novel, Home Again, Pinpin's grandson Tristan goes to Ybor City after Pinpin's death, only to be engulfed by the madcap and offbeat Cuban-American family once again led by Tristan's great uncle, Tom-tom.

Yale Freshman Tristan Granados is sent by his bourgeouis Boston family to Tampa, Florida to resolve his grandfather's estate as quickly as possible. Like his grandfather before him, Tristan's plans are undermined at every turn by the bevy of Latino cousins who try to impress him even as they try to connive him out of his¾and his family's¾inheritance. As he watches the antics of his fiery and hilarious family, Tristan is forced to confront his own identity and his heritage.

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