The Sages

Charles R .Morris, Black Inc., $29.95

Morris draws on interviews with Buffet, Soros and Volcker to provide an insight into some of the most powerful men of our era.

Buffet is renowned as a canny stock-market investor (the third wealthiest person on earth), Soros as astute reader of shifting global tides (who can claim that he’s almost single-handedly devalued the British pound), and Volcker as a regulator and policy maker (who’s credited with breaking the back of inflation), all with more than 50 years of deep involvement with the markets … the markets that plunged the world into crisis.

Some of the more fascinating topics covered are:

• Soros’ foray into “open society” investing;
• understanding Buffet’s friendship with Bill Gates;
• summarising Volcker’s economic policy: “Use common sense …”

This is a thought-provoking book that challenges the reader’s comfort zone of a world that is regulated and orderly by revealing one that is uncertain and often very unpredictable.

My main criticism is that this is not really a lay person’s book. You need to be interested and willing to invest the time to grapple with the underlying philosophies and follow the arguments flowing through the whole text.

For those willing to commit to the journey, however, it is very rewarding.

Chris Crause