The financial crisis shows that the banking industry requires a transformation, as its business model and practices are no longer sustainable. Even so, such transformation cannot be made without Clearing the Bull moving beyond old and tired orthodoxies in order to properly diagnose the problem. Drawing on more than twenty years of experience in banking, author Jonathan Ledwidge shows how the financial crisis exposed the industry's poor system of values, leaving it mired in conflict with its human environment. Specifically, this includes how poor leadership, virtually unmanageable organizations, dysfunctional suppliers, infuriated customers, alienated employees, and dissatisfied communities all arise from the inability of banks to understand that values are more important than valuations. As a result there is now a total disconnect between banks and their human environment. That disconnect cannot be fully addressed by conventional solutions involving more regulations, more governance, and more controls. Banks have a very human problem, and thus by definition what they require is a human transformation. Clearing the Bull provides both a clear diagnosis as well as a detailed and comprehensive roadmap for the banking industry's human transformation and while doing so it remains totally engaging and accessible to bankers and non-bankers alike.

The former FDIC Chairwoman, and one of the first people to acknowledge the full risk of subprime loans, offers a unique perspective on the greatest crisis the U.S. has faced since the Great Depression.

Pete and Jeff continue their friendship and love of baseball as they progress from ninth grade through high school in their small Wisconsin town.

In 1982, the Dow hovered below 1000. Then, the market rose and rapidly gained speed until it peaked above 11,000. Noted journalist and financial reporter Maggie Mahar has written the first book on the remarkable bull market that began in 1982 and ended just in the early 2000s. For almost two decades, a colorful cast of characters such as Abby Joseph Cohen, Mary Meeker, Henry Blodget, and Alan Greenspan came to dominate the market news. This inside look at that 17-year cycle of growth, built upon interviews and unparalleled access to the most important analysts, market observers, and fund managers who eagerly tell the tales of excesses, presents the period with a historical perspective and explains what really happened and why.

Dave Hitz likes to solve fun problems. He didn’t set out to be a Silicon Valley icon, a business visionary, or even a billionaire. But he became all three. It turns out that business is a mosaic of interesting puzzles like managing risk, developing and reversing strategies, and looking into the future by deconstructing the past. As a founder of NetApp, a data storage firm that began as an idea scribbled on a placemat and now takes in $4 billion a year, Hitz has seen his company go through every major cycle in business—from the Jack-of-All-Trades mentality of a start-up, through the tumultuous period of the IPO and the dot-com bust, and finally to a mature enterprise company. NetApp is one of the fastest-growing computer companies ever, and for six years in a row it has been on Fortune magazine’s list of Best Companies to Work For. Not bad for a high school dropout who began his business career selling his blood for money and typing the names of diseases onto index cards. With colorful examples and anecdotes, How to Castrate a Bull is a story for everyone interested in understanding business, the reasons why companies succeed and fail, and how powerful lessons often come from strange and unexpected places. Dave Hitz co-founded NetApp in 1992 with James Lau and Michael Malcolm. He served as a programmer, marketing evangelist, technical architect, and vice president of engineering. Presently, he is responsible for future strategy and direction for the company. Before his career in Silicon Valley, Dave worked as a cowboy, where he got valuable management experience by herding, branding, and castrating cattle.

An epic tale of ancient Crete that depicts the curse of the Minotaur from its inception to conclusion, as told from the point of view of Ariadne, daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae. Stepping back into this visceral telling of an ancient myth, Crete and the palace of Knossos become vivid with color and life. The royal family, the gods, and Ariadne and the Minotaur are born fully formed, as the goddess Athena from Zeus’ head. It begins when she’s thirteen, on the day she is given by her parents to the shrine of Dionysus, the god of wine, to become his high priestess. Dionysus hears her Call, after generations of neglect, and he comes to her on the altar, promising to bless the island’s vines and grapes, and ignites desperate emotions in powerful people, jealousy, envy, fear—along with her family’s greed, that turn a god’s wrath against them. Thus, the curse of the Minotaur is born, a deformed babe, a monster, and Ariadne’s half-brother. She is the only person who feels the slightest compassion and tenderness towards the poor creature, caring for it when no one else will. He grows into a huge beast with the mind of a child, and the temper of a god, who will only obey Ariadne. Learning the ways of her god Dionysus, and through him the ancient gods of Olympus, Ariadne becomes a powerful force, capable of controlling her beautiful and kind, yet jealous and wrathful god.

Help your child turn trash into treasure with craft and activity expert Jane Bull There's no need for fancy materials: 101 crafty step-by-step projects will have your child turning humble household rubbish into amazing treasures. Create jewellery from paper, flower pots from plastic bottles, and shoulder bags from old jeans! Make It! is packed with facts on earth's natural resources and tips on recycling, too. From picture-frame collages to totally unique shadow boxes, this book has everything a creative child needs to find fun in every corner of his own home. Jane Bull was one of the creators of DK's renowned Eyewitness series, and has written numerous crafts books for children, including Christmas Activity Book, Garden Activity Book, Cooking Activity Book, Halloween Activity Book,and many more.