This review is from:  History of Greed: Financial Fraud from Tulip Mania to Bernie Madoff (Hardcover)

History of Greed: Financial Fraud from Tulip Mania to Bernie Madoff by David Sarna is a comprehensive history of financial fraud through the centuries and the author aims at teaching the readers lessons on how to spot attempted financial fraud and how to wisely invest, avoiding such fraud.

Madoff, as becomes clear in this book, was not the first financial adviser that used the naivete of investors to defraud them and put more money that most of us can comprehend into his pockets and Madoff will likely not be the last. This book is a series of more than thirty chapters that guide the reader through the history of financial fraud. In between the history lessons, the author includes additional lessons dealing with principles of finance such as insider trading. The reader gets a chance to analyze the various situations and decide how they would act and what is considered legal and when the line is crossed and financial fraud starts.

And while this book is a history of financial fraud, it is firstly intended to be a means to teach the reader the lesson on how to spot financial fraud and to apply the law of investing to situations he may encounter when talking with advisers about investing.

This is an excellent book, both as a history of financial fraud and as a how-to book on aiding the reader in spotting financial fraud.

  we should have learned from history, so Madoff did not have to happen , August 21, 2010

This review is from:  History of Greed: Financial Fraud from Tulip Mania to Bernie Madoff (Hardcover)

History of Greed: Financial Fraud from Tulip Mania to Bernie Madoff is a tour de force on the history of financial fraud by David Sarna.

The author in brief, on topic and focused chapters lays out the history of financial fraud over the last three centuries.

The author draws heavily in his lessons on his family and culture, but that makes this book highly readible. It is not a dry, overly scientific business treatise. But an easy to read, carefully researched and well organized chronology on how financial fraud did not originate with Madoff, but has a history and successful history at that.

Besides a history lesson, every reader of this outstanding book should in keep in mind the lessons it teaches. Foremost, if it sounds to good to be true, do not invest, but take your money and run. Because of you do not, the so-called financial wizard that promises these sure bet investment will run with your money.

I highly recommend this book to any reader who is planning to invest in the stock market and may play with the idea of seeking advice from third parties on investments. It has been a booming business for three centuries, why should financial fraud stop now. So investor, better watch out.