November Classic of the Month: The Art of Money-Getting by P. T. Barnum

As the holiday season quickly approaches, money, budgeting, and overspending will likely be on many minds. The Art of Money-Getting by P. T. Barnum, our November Classic of the Month, can help guide you through this gifting season, savings account intact!

First published in 1880 by P.T. Barnum, The Art of Money-Getting is a short book encouraging the general public to aspire to wealth through proper economic means: building a savings, collecting on interest, operating business with integrity, learning the true value of money, working for what you earn, and foregoing extravagances in order to live a more modest lifestyle where saving money is the goal.

Based on P.T. Barnum's own experiences as a showman and businessman, he outlines a way of life rather than a get-rich-quick scheme. Despite its 19th-century publication date, his advice is remarkably relevant, and will be of interest to young and old readers alike who desire to be more responsible with their finances.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Cosimo!

About the Author
Phineas Taylor ("P.T.") Barnum (1810-1891) is one of the most peculiarly famous personalities in American history. A consummate showman and entrepreneur, Barnum was famous for bringing both high and low culture to American audiences. From the melodious opera singer Jenny Lind to the bizarre hoax of the Feejee Mermaid, from the clever and quite diminutive Tom Thumb to Jumbo the Elephant, Barnum's oddities, spectacles, galas, extravaganzas, and events tickled the fancies of Americans of all ages.

April Classic of the Month: One-Way Pockets by Don Guyon

"The circulation of a mere rumor that the Morgan interests are accumulating Steel or that the Standard Oil crowd is getting out of St. Paul is sure at any time to create a market following. Most of the tips that are hawked about the Street are based on the supposition that somebody-or-other of consequence is buying or selling certain stocks. I do not know of a single case where anyone has been able to make money consistently by following information of this character, even when the information comes to him first hand.

--from A Speculative Decision

In honor of tax refunds coming our way, we are highlighting One-Way Pockets: The Book of Books on Wall Street Speculation by Don Guyon as our April Classic of the Month.

In 1917, an insider at a Wall Street brokerage firm took a close look at his company's most active traders and analyzed their trades to glean the secrets of their success... and what he found is still applicable today.

Writing pseudonymously, he here offers a wide range of sage advice about: 

- buying on the way down

- determining trends

- how a bull market starts 

- the correct use of stop orders

- when and what to sell short 

- and much more

August Book of the Month: Founding a Movement

This August, Cosimo is celebrating women all over the world with our Book of the Month Founding a Movement: Women's World Banking, 1975-1990, a detailed history of the first global women's microfinance organizations, run by women, for women. Its history is told by founder Michaela Walsh, who was president and CEO of the company from its inception at 1975 until 1990. Chock full of interviews from the organization's first board members and participants, it follows the difficult path WWB took to recognize its dream and make small businesses a reality for so many women around the world.

Founding a Movement shows how hard work and perseverance, not to mention a helping hand from fellow entrepreneurs and business owners, can help anyone take control of their economic destinies. In the words of Michaela Walsh, this book "shines a light on the value that women contribute through work, and when they support one another, to become full participants in the economy through access to financial institutions and services, and everything that goes with that access."

About the Author
Michaela Walsh is an activist, scholar, mentor, educator, and author. She has been a pioneer female manager for Merrill Lynch, the first female partner at Boettcher, and the founding president of Women's World Banking. She has taught at Manhattanville College, served on the Boards of several institutions, and was the chairperson of the 59th United Nations DPI/NGO Conference in 2006.She has received numerous awards, including in honor an honor in 2012 from Women's Funding Network for changing the face of philanthropy.

May Book of the Month: Founding a Movement by Michaela Walsh

In celebration of all of those graduating all across the country this month, Cosimo's Book of the Month for May is Founding a Movement: Women's World Banking, 1975-1990, a detailed history of the first global women's microfinance organizations, run by women, for women. Its history is told by founder Michaela Walsh, who was president and CEO of the company from its inception at 1975 until 1990. Chock full of interviews from the organization's first board members and participants, it follows the difficult path WWB took to recognize its dream and make small businesses a reality for so many women around the world.

Founding a Movement shows how hard work and perseverance, not to mention a helping hand from fellow entrepreneurs and business owners, can help anyone take control of their economic destinies. In the words of Michaela Walsh, this book "shines a light on the value that women contribute through work, and when they support one another, to become full participants in the economy through access to financial institutions and services, and everything that goes with that access."

The book has received numerous praises from key business leaders, economists, and international icons. You can read more about it in the official press release, or on the author's website at michaelawalsh.com.

"The power of women teaching one another is profound. Women's World Banking was one of the first movements to realize and trust this truth at a global scale. This is what made it a transforming movement."
-The Honorable Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia and Nobel Laureate

"At last, the full inside story of the founding mothers of microfinance... by one of its key leaders! Indispensable reading!"
-Hazel Henderson, president of Ethical Markets Media and Creator of the Green Transition Scoreboard

"Women's access to finance, including microcredit, is crucial. Michaela Walsh and Women's World Banking have broken new ground. Those who wish to follow in their footsteps should read this story."
-Jan Pronk, former Minister for International Development Cooperation of the Netherlands

About the Author

Michaela Walsh is an activist, scholar, mentor, educator, and author. She has been a pioneer female manager for Merrill Lynch, the first female partner at Boettcher, and the founding president of Women's World Banking. She has taught at Manhattanville College, served on the Boards of several institutions, and was the chairperson of the 59th United Nations DPI/NGO Conference in 2006.She has received numerous awards,including in honor an honor in 2012 from Women's Funding Network for changing the face of philanthropy.

Two UK Events with Dare to Care Author Louis Bohtlingk

Louis Bohtlingk, author of Dare to Care: A Love-Based Foundation for Money and Finance, is thrilled to be a part of two upcoming events for two outstanding organizations.

Wrekin Trust Transforum Two Whole Person - Whole World 

ABOUT: Following the outstanding success of the 2013 event, the Wrekin Trust is pleased to present a further collaborative weekend - Transforum Two. Developing from last year's weekend, this Transforum will be a demonstration of a thriving, caring community. It will be a time to share and deepen our understanding of how a whole person creates a whole world. Speakers will include Roger Orgill, David Karchere, Clive Larsen, Louis Bohtlingk and Tessa Maskell.
WHERE: Charney Manor in Oxfordshire 
WHEN: 10 October 2014 to 12 October 2014
*For more information  please contact The Wrekin Team: office@wrekintrust.org

*You can also go to: http://www.wrekinforum.org/wrekin_forum/events.html

DARE TO CARE: A love based foundation for money and finance - Together we can do it!!

ABOUT: An interactive evening to explore Care First in action
WHERE: St Columba Church, Chantry Rd, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8DJ

WHEN: Friday 17 October 2014, 7.30pm - 9.30pm (doors open at 7pm)

About the Author

Louis Böhtlingk is a trained intuitive and psychic counselor, certified bookkeeper, workshop leader, and founder of the World Finance Initiative and Care First World. He started working as a psychic counselor in 1981 in the Netherlands. After he met his wife Sandra in 1983, she joined his practice, and since then they have traveled extensively to the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands to broaden their network. In the late eighties Louis started addressing issues with money, survival, and work, which led him to develop a vision for a Love Based Economy and Care First World. In 2003 he created a transformational workshop, “Meeting the Mystery of Money,” to address society’s relationship with money and assist people in moving from fear to trust. His book, Dare to Care contains all his experience, insights, and the vision he gained over thirty years of working in finance.

For more information about these events, please contact The Wrekin Team: office@wrekintrust.org

"Dare to Care" Author, Louis Bohtlingk, Interviewed by Hazel Henderson

A newly released video interview, Daring to Care: The Love Economy, two of our very own authors chat about Dare to Care: A Love-Based Foundation for Money and Finance by Louis Bohtlingk. Hazel Henderson deliberate pressing issues in the finance and economic world, the the Myth of Money, as well as how to gain courage in the work world in this fascinating discussion with author Bohtlingk.

"Dare to Care" encourages readers to approach money and finance from this new care-first perspective, and shows steps everyone can start making on their own, together with existing communities or in conjunction with Böhtlingk’s initiatives.


About the Author:
Louis Böhtlingk, a visionary, counselor and creator of the “Meeting the Mystery of Money” workshop offers a different vision on how to run our financial lives and businesses with his book Dare to Care. Böhtlingk has developed a collection of ideas and initiatives to change finance from a money-first to a care-first attitude. He showcases fascinating examples, such as the story of an American kindergarten kid Ryan Hreljac, who raised money for a drinking well for children in Uganda and the business of Guayaki Yerba Mate that works with yerba mate farmers in South America creating living wage jobs and restoring the South American rainforest. He describes the success of European ethical banking pioneer, Triodos Bank and shows the impressive trends in socially responsible investing which now surpasses $3 trillion out of $25 trillion totally invested in the U.S. In all those and many more examples, Böhtlingk shows that by replacing fear with care and love as the main driver behind our approach to money, this can maximize our well-being and the common good, and change our economic system.  

Streaming Radio Interviews with Dare to Care author Louis Bohtlingk

This weekend, Dare to Care author and inventor of the Care First World initiative, Louis Bohtlingk, interviewed with KGNU radio host Duncan Campbell on his show "Living Dialogues." Duncan and Louis delve into Louis's vision for a care-first approach to money and finance and the principles outlined in his book.

The interview can be listened to in full on the KGNU website or downloaded as an MP3 file. Louis will follow-up this interview on Friday, July 21, along with Hazel Henderson (author of The Power of Yin and founder of Ethical Markets Media), on the KGNU show "Connections," at 10:30 am ET. It will be available online after this time.

Author Michaela Walsh Featured in The Next Women Business Magazine

This month, Michaela Walsh gave an interview and we featured on the cover of The Next Women magazine, an award-winning online women's business magazine and networking forum with a focus on start-ups and growing businesses led, founded, or invested in by women.

After many years in the business, Walsh still strives to encourage women entrepreneurs and work with them on a daily basis. She says,

I continue to believe that finding women entrepreneurs and encouraging them in whatever way they need is the key ingredient in moving women forward.  Women improve their communities as they gain assets, and as they have more control over their economic situation they bring more influence into the community.  As women move into markets and create ever-more sophisticated business approaches, they build the local economy and contribute to a worldwide shift in the economic downturn. We still work toward our dreams.

Read the full interview and check out The Next Women magazine to read more about exciting financial and business opportunities and accomplishments for women around the globe.

Bookbuzz Blog Radio with Frans Verhangen: Discussing His New Book on Climate Change and the Financial Crisis

Last week, Frans Verhagen, author of The Tierra Solution (Cosimo's June Book of the Month) had a conversation with Susanna Greenberg on BlogTalk Radio about the book and the state of the climate. Verhagen discussed the current climate crisis and what is currently being done to solve those problems, currency problems and moving toward a standard currency, what a carbon standard is and why it is more beneficial than any other standard, and the benefits of the Tierra Fee and Dividend System.


This book and talk comes on the heels of the Rio+20 conference in Brazil, where "world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, [came] together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet to get to the future we want."

Amid Rio+20 UN Conference and Impending Climate Crisis, The Tierra Solution Delivers Answers

With the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development happening this week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the upcoming presidential election--where there is sure to be at least some focus on climate issues and a lot of focus on financial issues--this month's Book of the Month is both timely and relevant. The Tierra Solution, by sustainability sociologist Dr. Frans Verhagen, offers a solution to climate change through monetary transformation, essentially killing two birds with one stone.

Dr. Verhagen proposes to resolve to the current financial, economic, and monetary problems around the world with a credit-based financial system, governed by a Global Central Bank, that uses a carbon standard for a newly developed international monetary system with the Tierra as the unit of account--hence, the Tierra Solution.

Basically, Verhagen suggests that by simply holding businesses and governments accountable for the carbon-based energy they use, and basing money exchange on that energy, we can create a cleaner environment and solve the global financial crisis. Separated into two distinct parts, The Tierra Solution first describes the current climate crisis and methods of carbon reduction that already exist (and why they are not ideal). He also lays out the history and present structure of the international monetary system. Then, Verhagen describes the Tierra Fee & Dividend System, why it is the best solution for our ravaged economies, how it will improve the climate and monetary systems, and how it should be implemented.

Hazel Henderson, evolutionary economist and president of Ethical Markets Media, commented that The Tierra Solution is, "a visionary and immensely practical approach to reforming today's bubble finance and taming its global casino. Verhagen... illuminates the win-win solutions possible when we combine monetary transformation with low-carbon, renewable resource strategies and equitable approaches to sustainable development."

In his Foreword, Felix Dodds, executive director of the Stakeholder Forum, said, "This book is an important contribution because it provides some serious ideas for how we can ensure that there is international monetary justice that takes account of social, environmental, and procedural justice and intergenerational principles in the international monetary system."

This is not a light-hearted read.

But it is essential for those in finance and governements (or who want to influence those areas) to understand how our current systems are failing and why we need something new. Verhagen describes it as needing to "repair the present global monetary, financial, and economic systems that enrich the few, impoverish the many, and imperil the planet."

If you're interested in the official press release, you can read it here. Dr. Frans Verhagen is a sustainability sociologist with a Ph.D. in the sociology of international development from Columbia University. he founded the Queens Green party, the Riverside Church Ecology Task Force, and the Ecolinguistics Commission. He has worked around the world and online teaching environmental policies and sustainability.He is online at www.timun.net.

Noble Enterprise by Darwin Gillett selected as one of Top 40 Business Books

We thought our readers might enjoy this blog entry from John Spence, a well-known business blogger, author, and recipient of an Honorable Mention from Small Business Influencer in 2011. John chose 40 books out of the more than 2000 business titles he has read to make his "Top 40 Business Books" list--quite an honor for all involved. John says.

“I sit here in my office surrounded by more than 2,000 business books I must admit that it is pretty tough to narrow it down to just a handful of the very best.  However, if I were going to pick the top books that I feel give the best information for how to run a business successfully this would be my list.”

We are proud to announce that Darwin Gillett, author of Noble Enterprise, is on that list, putting him in league with authors Tom Peters, Jim Collins, Warren Bennis, and other luminairies! Noble Enterprise, published in 2008, offers the insights, leadership tools, and inspiration for entrepreneurs to create a business--a noble enterprise-- that will lead employees to new heights of performance. It teaches business owners to:

• Strengthen the organization by awakening and activating the rich array of human energy, wisdom, passion, and purpose in employees;
• Revitalize your company by creating and implementing a plan for turning around (and turning on) even the most "stuck" operation;
• Build sustainable growth and profitability by learning the secrets of corporate revitalization and applying them to achieve sustainable success;
• Expand your leadership impact by building employee morale and commitment and helping employees achieve big performance goals; and
• Inspire your people by increasing employees' enthusiasm and confidence and turning your company into a high-performing noble enterprise

Dare to Care Author Calls for Cooperation on Financial Crises in Online Video

Dare to Care author Louis Bohtlingk calls us to action and presents his ideas about how to transform the financial world in his new online video. You can watch the video below, as well as check out Louis's online platform for Dare to Care. Louis invites us:

LET’S RAISE OUR VOICES, SHARE OUR KNOWLEDGE AND BUILD TOGETHER!“Join the discussion about the state of our financial world and our economies and what we can do to create a better situation for us all. We need to hear everyone and work together. We all can make a contribution.”

You can view more videos from Louis on his website, www.carefirstworld.com.

Cygnus Review in the UK had this to say about Dare to Care:

“Louis Bohtlingk offers an inspiringly simple yet far-reaching idea 
for transforming our economy and the world of finance, so that it support rather than undermines, 
our human needs and those of our planet.”