The Best Business Stories of the Year: 2004 Edition [Paperback]

Andrew Leckey (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2004

“Spend! Spend! Spend! Where Did Tyco’s Money Go?” by James B. Stewart, from The New Yorker

“The Decline and Fall of the Cult of Equity” by Andrew Hill, from the Financial Times

“The Death of One American Dream” by Shirleen Holt, from The Seattle Times

“Shattered Dynasty” by Suzanna Andrews, from Vanity Fair

“For Richer” by Paul Krugman, from The New York Times Magazine

“In Defense of the Boom” by Michael Lewis, from The New York Times Magazine

“The Telecom Boom’s Dark Remnants” by Michael Guillen, from The Oregonian

“Rich Man, Poor Company” by Chris O’Brien and Jack Davis, from the San Jose Mercury News

“Deciding on Executive Pay: Lack of Independence Seen” by Diana B. Henriques and Geraldine Fabrikant, from The New York Times

“How It All Fell Apart” by Johnnie L. Roberts, from Newsweek

“Planet Starbucks” by Stanley Holmes, Drake Bennett, Kate Carlisle, and Chester Dawson, from BusinessWeek

“The Google Gods” by Stefanie Olsen, from CNET News.com

“Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olsson, from Mother Jones

“Is Our Children Learning?” by Julie Landry, from Red Herring

“The Investigation: How Eliot Spitzer Humbled Wall Street” by John Cassidy, from The New Yorker

“Inside the Rock” by Loch Adamson, from Worth

“Unfair Disclosure” by Bob Drummond, from Bloomberg Markets

“Inside McKinsey” by John A. Byrne, from BusinessWeek

“Alliance Capital’s Bad Bets” by Edward Robinson, from Bloomberg Markets

“Where the Money’s Really Made” by Andy Serwer, from Fortune

“The Economics of Empire” by William Finnegan, from Harper’s Magazine

“The Debt Bomb” by Jonathan R. Laing, from Barron’s

“Big Bucks, Small Town, Bond Haven” by Noelle Haner-Dorr, from Orlando Business Journal

“Flight into the Red” by Steve Huettel, from the St. Petersburg Times

“Full Price: A Young Woman, an Appendectomy, and a $19,000 Debt” by Lucette Lagnado, from The Wall Street Journal

“The Fall of Andersen” by Delroy Alexander, Greg Burns, Robert Manor, Flynn McRoberts and E. A. Torriero, from the Chicago Tribune

“Why Good Accountants Do Bad Audits” by Max H. Bazerman, George Loewenstein and Don A. Moore, from Harvard Business Review

“Troubling Options—Inside the Tough Call at Sprint” by Rebecca Blumenstein and Carol Hymowitz, from The Wall Street Journal

“Wild, Wild Qwest” by Lou Kilzer, David Milstead, and Jeff Smith, from the Rocky Mountain News

“The New Face of Shoplifting” by Joanne Kimberlin, from The Virginian-Pilot

“The Year the Music Dies” by Charles C. Mann, from Wired

“Big Battle for a Silly Old Bear: Who Owns the Honey Pot?” by Meg James, from the Los Angeles Times

“The Monopolist” by Connie Bruck, from The New Yorker

“From Heroes to Goats . . . and Back Again?” by Jerry Useem, from Fortune

“A Virtuous Cycle” by James Surowiecki, from Forbes

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For this launch edition of a planned annual collection of best business stories, editors Leckey (The Morningstar Approach to Investing) and Loeb (52 Weeks to Financial Fitness) have selected 25 articles originally published in the "year of the Internet bubble" (July 1, 1999-June 30, 2000) in journals as diverse as the Wall Street Journal and Mother Jones. Alongside reporting from accomplished writers such as Jean Strouse, Barbara Ehrenreich, Ken Auletta, Richard Preston and Michael Lewis stands equally excellent work from less familiar journalists like Charles Graeber, Barry Yeoman and John Byrne. Excerpts from the Detroit Free Press's superlative investigative reporting on the deadly food-borne outbreak of Listeriamonocytogenes, which read like a medical thriller, are worth the price of admission on their own. Hard-hitting, well-researched articles on the franchised maid service industry, the privatization of prisons as seen in Youngstown, Ohio, and the plight of "average" workers in the hyperinflated Silicon Valley testify to the high level of journalism on today's burgeoning business scene. Leckey and Loeb have also found space for a few purely entertaining articles (e.g., the savvy profile of Donald Trump that Chris Byron wrote for George magazine, highlighting Trump's genius at manipulating media). Other crowd-pleasing profiles on financial movers and shakers spotlight Value America's founder Craig Winn, Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaheed and Celera Genomics's Craig Venter. (Mar. 20)Forecast: With its star writers, lively profiles and brilliant reporting on current preoccupations such as Internet millionaires, the commercialization of biomedical research firms and the ongoing WTO controversy this excellent collection should attract legions of business readers through Mother's Day and Father's Day, and beyond.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

For this new anthology series, Leckey and Loeb, two well-known syndicated columnists and business authors, compiled a comprehensive selection of articles that appeared from July 1, 1999 to June 30, 2000 in the print media (business journals such as the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Business Week, and Fortune as well as general publications such as Time, Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, Wired, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone). Some of the authors and topics include Peter Drucker's article on e-commerce and its relationship to the information revolution; Donald Bartlett and James Steele's piece on Carl Lindner Jr., the fruit baron; Ken Auletta's profile of Herb Allen's CEO retreat; and John Byrne's account of the bankruptcy of Value America. This carefully selected arrangement of interesting, well-written, and thought-provoking articles is a good choice for public and academic libraries. Steven J. Mayover, formerly with Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140003146X
• ISBN-13: 978-1400031467
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,623,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great; please continue series, May 21, 2002

By 

D. C. Carrad "augustabookman" (Augusta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Best Business Stories of the Year: 2001 Edition (Paperback)

This is a terrific book. Every article in it is well-written and interesting, unusual for an anthology as they almost always contain at least one or two flawed pieces. Not here. And what a range...from the usual suspects of Fortune, Wall Street Journal, etc. to the Detroit Free Press and even Mother Jones. The next volume for 2002 is also great.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting business stories, January 30, 2005

By 

C. Vandu "Chippla Vandu" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best Business Stories of the Year: 2004 Edition (Paperback)

I picked up this book out of boredom at the airport and read it nonstop for the greater part of an 8-hour transatlantic flight. Very interesting. If you happen to be interested in business stories, scandals, company management and the stock market, you're sure to enjoy this book.

Most of the stories are captivating but in particular, I did enjoy the stories about Tyco, Starbucks and the fall of Anderson.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stories, January 19, 2004

By 

Chris S. Roush (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best Business Stories of the Year: 2004 Edition (Paperback)

I've read all of the editions of this series, and they seem to get better every year. Andrew does a great job of picking out stories that are entertaining reads to anyone as well as great business journalism stories. I found myself going through the book first and picking out the stories that I thought interested me the most, but then we I went back to read the others that I'd skipped, I discovered that all of them captured my attention.

If you're in to reading great business stories that have been painstakingly reported, written and edited, this is what you need to buy.