Finance Just in Time: Understanding the Key to Business and Investment Before It's Too Late

This is a wonderful book. Don't be fooled by the chatty tone and examples. The author knows what he is talking about as a former editor of the Lex column in the Financial Times, which should be daily, essential reading for staying up-to-date with market events, and would make an excellent follow-on to this book. I have often recommended this book to people beginning a study of Finance (e.g., starting an MBA) and the feedback has always been superb. Reading this book carefully will give the reader an excellent base from which to acquire more detials later on. Even for more experienced professionals (particularly in corporate finance), sometimes the forest can get lost for the trees and this book will re-orient you. Well done, Hugo Dixon - I do hope this book can be kept in-print and current. Possibly also, it would be wonderful to expand coverage of markets topics on the investor side (perhaps a criterion for what to include would be to be able to read and understand anything in the Lex column).

Hugo Dixon describes virtually every aspect of finance that the average individual needs to know to live in the world and survive, and he does it in such a way that even the most uninitiated can understand. This is truly a one of a kind book. I know of no other that covers the range in such an elementary manner. I constantly refer to it in addition to my more advanced books on finance.