Best books on business, personal finance, and economics.

Gerber, Michael E.; The EMyth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do about It

This book is a must read for anyone who owns a small business or who has contemplated starting one.

The EMyth (the "Entrepreneur myth") is the idea that most small businesses are started by entrepreneurs. This, in fact, is not the case. Most small businesses are started by technicians who think that by starting a business they can find freedom, but too soon they discover that they have only obtained a new job, and a worse one than the previous one they held. 40% of small businesses fail within the first year, and 96% fail within 10 years. This book will help you to think like an entrepreneur and actually build a business system that works for you.

Aguayo, Rafael; Dr. Deming: The American who Taught the Japanese about Quality

An insightful, enlightening, easy-to-read description of Deming's teachings by one of his leading American students.

This book will open your eyes to what is wrong with American business and institutions and provide a roadmap to change. Highly recommended for executives, CEOs, entrepreneurs, board members, department heads, government administrators, and investors.

Sowell, Thomas; Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

This book by one of the leading conservative thinkers of our time explains how a failure to understand and apply basic economic principles has caused vast and needless human tragedies, from New York to Moscow, from centuries past until today. It demonstrates how misguided economic policies often backfire and hurt those they were intended to help.

In this book, basic economic principles are explained for the general public in lay terms that any educated person can understand.

Prechter, Robert, & A.J. Frost; Elliott Wave Principle: Key to Market Behavior

Written for those who are serious about understanding or making a living in the financial markets, this book outlines Ralph Elliott's theory that all market movements are fractal in nature and thus can be described by a simple set of rules. Simple and elegant in nature, Elliott's work predated (and probably was a partial basis for) modern fractal theory.

Although it requires a lot of experience to apply as a predictive tool, the Elliott Wave Principle's description of market behavior is much too accurate for the serious investor to ignore.