World Commodities & World Currency

by Benjamin Graham

2010 Reprint of 1944 First Edition. In World Commodities and World Currency, Graham offers a global analysis of the systems that could reduce dangerous cycles of price instability in order to achieve stability in a postwar economy. Graham, in an astonishing display of foresight, shows how commodity reserves should play an important part in any economic policy. Throughout the book, Graham maintains that stabilization of commodities offers a comparatively simple technique by which the world could achieve the fourfold objective of foreign-exchange stability, reasonable price stability, protective stockpiles, and -- most importantly -- a balanced expansion of the world's output and consumption of useful goods. Readers today will discover that this landmark book has timely interest. In the aftermath of the Asian currencies collapse, and in the face of the organization of the European Common Union and the merging of European banks into a European Central Bank with one common currency, Graham's warnings about the dangers of a floating currency and his trenchant corrective prescriptions bear even greater relevance than ever.

Genres: Finance, Business

194 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 1998

About the author

Benjamin Graham was a British-born American financial analyst, investor and professor. He is widely known as the "father of value investing", and wrote two of the discipline's founding texts: Security Analysis (1934) with David L. Dodd, and The Intelligent Investor (1949). His investment philosophy stressed independent thinking, emotional detachment, and careful security analysis, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing the price of a stock from the value of its underlying business.
After graduating from Columbia University at age 20, Graham started his career on Wall Street, eventually founding Graham–Newman Corp., a successful mutual fund. He also taught investing for many years at Columbia Business School, where one of his students was Warren Buffett. Graham later taught at UCLA Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Graham laid the groundwork for value investing at mutual funds, hedge funds, diversified holding companies, and other investment vehicles. He was the driving force behind the establishment of the profession of security analysis and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He also advocated the creation of index funds decades before they were introduced. Throughout his career, Graham had many notable disciples who went on to earn substantial success as investors, including Irving Kahn and Warren Buffett, who described Graham as the second most influential person in his life after his own father. Among other well-known investors influenced by Graham were Charles D. Ellis, Mario Gabelli, Seth A. Klarman, Howard Marks, John Neff and John Marks Templeton.

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Within this book is the answer to the boom bust cycle, if there is one.

[Denise DeRocher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for historical purposes, not so much for current understanding of the financial environment.