Read Beat (...and repeat)
If you're like me, you like to know things but how much time to invest? That's the question. Here's the answer: Read Beat--Interviews with authors of new releases. These aren't book reviews but short (about 25-30 minutes on the average) chats with folks that usually have taken a lot of time to research a topic, enough to write a book about it. Hopefully, there's a topic or two that interests you. I try to come up with subjects that fascinate me or I need to know more about. Hopefully, listeners will agree. I'm Steve Tarter, former reporter for the Peoria Journal Star and a contributor to WCBU-FM, the Peoria public radio outlet, from 20202 to 2024. I post regularly on stevetarter.substack.com.
Read Beat (...and repeat)
“The Uncomfortable Truth About Money” by Paul Podolsky
Books that seek to help you understand the world of finance probably aren’t viewed as the most engaging of literary categories. Consumers, after all, hold that book in their hands for a specific reason: to understand policy rates better or inflation-linked bonds not for a ripsnorting reading adventure.
Paul Podolsky, a former equity partner at Bridgewater Associates and the founder and CIO of Kate Capital, an investment management firm, however, has tried to make his advice on the subject accessible. The Uncomfortable Truth About Money carries a subtitle: How to live with uncertainty and think for yourself.
Uncertainty may be the order of the day, after all. “As I write this, it is less than 100 years since a hyper-developed country, Germany, lined up behind a maniac. He created hell on earth, obliterating lives and wealth. Millions of people enthusiastically followed him, both in Germany and elsewhere. In the years since, People haven’t changed. If it can happen in Germany, it can happen anywhere and it has—Chile (1970s), Rwanda (1990s), Italy (1930s) and Russia (1930s and 2020s),” wrote Podolsky in his first chapter.
On that cheery note, we’re off and running. “If you don’t want to get wiped out, study how things work,” Podolsky suggests. But the author isn’t coming at his subject from on high. A former newspaper reporter, he’s also served as a bartender, carpenter, teacher, and even a mountain guide in addition to serving as a banker and investor.
“I got my money education in real time, out of necessity, piece by piece,” stated Podolsky who lived in Moscow in his twenties working as a journalist. The Soviet Union (as it was known then) taught him a lesson about pricing. “The Soviet Union sought to pay a doctor roughly the same as a coal miner,” he said. Supply and demand—you knew that you’d be hearing the importance of that sooner or later.
Podolsky doesn’t try to steer readers in a specific direction other than to get a better understanding of terms and options that are out there. “If you decide to learn how to invest, recognize that there are sharply different approaches about how to do so, almost like different religions,” he stated.
Podolsky concludes his 200-page book with two slogans: Health is wealth; Be wary of sages--there aren’t any (including me).
