Books Bankers Live By: Bankers Draw on Books of War, Books of Peace, Books of People, and Books of Business for Ideas and Inspiration (2009)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 2008, William Grant joined the board of directors of the Baltimore branch of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank. Not having an extensive background in economics, he looked for a book to help him understand the role of the Fed. What he found was Robert L. Hetzel's Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve: A History (Cambridge University Press, 2008). In his book, Hetzel-a senior economist and research advisor at the Richmond Fed-clarified much that Grant hadn't understood. With this background, I have been much better equipped to understand the actions of the Federal Reserve in 2008, and to have an appreciation for their workings in a very difficult and politically charged environment, says Grant. Dr. Hetzel's book serves well the old maxim that 'those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it'. Bankers go many places in search of answers, and for some the solutions lie in the written word. Grant, chairman and CEO, $1.6 billion-assets First United Bank & Trust, Oakland, Md., was one of the 22 bankers who answered our third annual call for those books that they have found most helpful to read in the last year or so. variety of books cited was impressive--indeed, only two pairs of bankers cited the same works. One of these doubles is the Bible, treated separately in this report. reviews appearing here are only a sampling. All are excerpts in order to give a sense of the variety of the total response in the space available. For the full set of reviews, in their entirety, see The Books Bankers Live By at www.ababj.com. There you can also find out who won the Amazon Kindle provided as an entry drawing by m.rae resources, inc., Bethlehem, Pa.--Steve Cocheo, executive editor Hidden Forces [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tim Procita, president, MVB Bank-East, Martinsburg, W.Va., $245.9 million. I read Predictably Irrational: Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely (HarperCollins, 2008). I love books that combine psychology with business principles. I believe a successful banker needs to be good at sales. To be good at sales, you need to understand the psychology of the human mind. This book presents interesting, and sometimes humorous, examples of experiments that show how humans behave. One chapter that helped our bank was called The Fallacy of Supply and Demand. premise is that people really do not know what something is worth, but rather compare it to other things to determine a value. At our bank, we marketed a new product alongside other things people knew cost $100. When we then asked $100 for our new product, the mind was led to believe that must be the correct price. There is also a chapter called The Cost of Free! that would be a good read for banks thinking about giving any of their services away. Broken Trust [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kim Fowler, vice-president and manager, trust compliance, Carolina First Bank, Greenville, S.C., $13.7 billion. Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement, and Political Manipulation at America's Largest Charitable Trust by Samuel P. King and Randall W. Roth (University of Hawaii Press, 2006) is a fascinating book with equal parts suspense, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and front-page news. story begins with a history of Hawaii, its royal family, its discovery by Europeans, and the ultimate struggle between the two groups. main focus, however, is on Princess Beatrice Pauahi Bishop and her love for Hawaii's children. In 1884, Princess Beatrice's will established a trust for indigenous children to attend the Kamehameha Schools. Over the next 100 years, the estate grew to possess a full tenth of Hawaii's land mass. However, with time and tourism, the trustees' focus mutated and the dream of the Princess was lost. …