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Bookshelf It's no secret that corporate greed and mis- management have had a profoundly negative impact on American finance, but Vanguard founder John C. Bogle thinks the whole system is in grave danger. In his urgent and outspoken book, The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, he argues that American business is being dan- gerously undermined by excessive executive compensation, the onset of quarterly earnings reports, the laxness of "gatekeep- ers" like legislators and regulators, and the rise of the mutual fund. He examines each of these factors in close detail to show how they've contributed to today's sad financial state, and then lobbies for reforms that will put the financial system back on track. It's key, he believes, for citi- zens who own stocks to behave like owners. "Only investment America has the power to bend corporate America to its will," he writes. "But demanding that owners again act like owners—working through corporate directors to ensure that their owner- ship interests are honored—is a mul- tilevel challenge that is not for the fainthearted." It's clear that "faint- hearted" is never a word that would apply to Bogle himself. (Yale University Press, $25) Gary Sutton's grandfather was a coal miner who installed canaries in the shafts to detect poisonous gas before it became thick enough to kill a man. A century later, author Sutton has invented five Corporate Canaries that will alert business managers to the fact that their companies are about to sicken and die. The canaries are pretty 54 BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 straightforward and summarized at the end: You can't outgrow loss- es. Debt's a killer. Fools fly blind. Any decision beats no decision. The text itself is colorful, blunt, and always enter- taining. "If your executive team spends more time with bankers than with customers, your canary is wheez- ing," Sutton says in the chapter about debt. "Bankers loan money. That means they'll want it back, plus inter- est. Customers give you money to keep. So where should more time be spent?"His common-sense approach will bring a breath of fresh air to many managers watching their own canaries starting to topple from their perches. (Nelson Business, $19.99) It's notoriously difficult to predict the stock market, and Joseph H. Ellis thinks one reason is that all the experts are basing their predictions on the wrong elements. In Ahead of the Curve, he offers his opinion that consumer spending drives capital spending, which drives corporate profits, which drive the stock market. Analysts who want to predict the next downturn in the market need to pay attention to when consumer spending falters, causing a general slowdown in the economy. He admits this is counterintu- itive; often consumer spending slows when all other indi- cators show a robust mar- ket, and most people see no reason for alarm. To support his thesis, he presents charts that cover 40 years of economic analysis. The charts are multilayered and complex, but his prose is straightforward and easy to absorb. And his overall argu- ments are persuasive. (Harvard Business School Press, $29.95) Business schools in India award approxi- mately 75,000MBA degrees annual- ly—second only to schools in the U.S. The number is impressive, but the variations in quality between schools are troubling to experts who watch the field.Meanwhile, in Africa, studies show that entrepreneurship could be a key ingredient for lifting people out of poverty, but few people understand the basic business principles that would enable them to be successful entrepreneurs. India and Africa are just two of the countries under exami- nation in Business and Management Education in Transitioning and Developing Countries, a handbook edited by John R.McIntyre and Ilan Alon. In 25 essays by dozens of con- tributors, the book examines the cli- mate for management education in India, the Russian federation, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Near East, and China. The editors draw one overarching conclusion: "In transitioning and developing countries, business educa- tion is expected to…contribute to the elusive goal of economic develop- ment." (M.E. Sharpe, $35.95)