The Irwin Guide to Using the Wall Street Journal (ISBN 0070371199)

Amazon.com Review:
It's quaint that in this day of search engines to help us find more search engines, some old-fashioned reference books are still perennial sellers. When The Irwin Guide to Using The Wall Street Journal premiered in 1984, the future day traders of the world weren't trading much more than Atari cartridges. So, the advent of this sixth edition--penned, as ever, by Michael B. Lehmann, a University of San Francisco economics professor who has developed a popular seminar class around it--receives a round of well-deserved kudos. Even if, that is, its title remains a bit of a misnomer. For this is not, nor has ever it been, so much a guide to using the WSJas it is a tidy primer on the fundamental workings of the U.S. economy and stock markets, intended not just to help readers enjoy the WSJ more, but to help them more fully comprehend what they read there. Lehmann covers just about everything, like a rigorous-but-not-draconian year of Economics 101: from how and why interest rates affect markets and when to expect the next recession to the Federal Reserve's impact on your investment portfolio and which fixed-income market is right for you. The guided tour Lehmann gives is well organized and accessible to the average financial layperson who can handle sentences slightly longer than those in USA Today and doesn't think "Federal Reserve" refers to an early 19th-century architectural style. A certain amount of patience may be called for, too: though no opaque academic text, The Irwin Guide is far from one of those Dummies/Idiots books that somehow crams the greatest matters of civilization into what generally look like coloring books for adults. Lehmann's text is dense, relieved only occasionally by various charts or articles previously published in the WSJ. Curious is the near-total absence of terms you would have expected to see in an update from the 1996 edition--terms like "Internet," "dot-com," and "WWW." But after six editions you have to think that Lehmann's a sly one--maybe he speaks most eloquently of how the current dot-com/IPO mania will play in the long term by saying absolutely nothing. --Timothy Murphy

ON Target:
The problem with too many people who have some extra money to invest is that they listen too much to too many who know too little. Everyone is always looking for the fast money. Often the investment money goes down the tubes with the bad advice promising quick reward. Michael Lehmann has written a book that takes any investor through a thoughtful, fact filled series of lessons on how to use data to make well informed decisions. Listening to Uncle Bob pontificate about his "Big dollar investment tip" for the day should go right out the window. Lehmann's "Using the Wall Street Journal" should become the primer for anyone who is serious about investing with knowledge. A little reading of the right material pays off. Michael Lehmann's book IS the right material and has paid off for me over and over again.

really useful:
As someone who never set foot into an economics classroom, Michael Lehmann's book is a huge relief. His book clearly walks the reader through the process of how the economy actually works and demystifies economic indicators. This book gave me a seat at the table of my own financial management.

Basic Information and not all in the WSJ:
The book is a light introduction to economics. As such, it is interesting and it does lead you to some of the more obscure corners of the WSJ online (for which even print subscribers must pay a subscription fee, plus another for Barron's online). A big problem, however, is that a majority of the interesting charts with historical data are drawn from sources other than the WSJ. In addition, these sources (such as the US Census Bureau) provide only the raw data, not the charts.

The best economics book ever:
I used this book in my Internet Data Sources class at the University of San Francisco in the Spring of 2005. The course was taught by the author of the book, Michael B Lehmann. He is the greatest professor ever and this book helped through the whole course, which was the most useful I took in college.

American Economic System Made Easier:
Michael Lehmann proves that you don't have to get a college degree in Economics to be able to understand the American economic system. Using the multifold economic data regularly published by the Wall Street Journal as his his focus, Professor Lehmann goes about explaining the background and meaning of the data and how to interpret it for your own advantage. He covers subjects which would be includedin a variety of college courses and does so in a clear and understandable narative. He provides a rich background and explanation on subjects such as the Business Cycle, Role of consumer demand, the role of the Federal Reserve System, Fiscal Policy, International Transactions, and the Leading Economic Indicators. He also provides information on how to keep up with the data using internet and computer access. A must have for any person interested in understanding the American economy.