Here are the December additions to our DVD collection:
Atomic Blonde
Cars 3
The Glass Castle
The Hitman’s Bodyguard
Jungle
Leap!
The Limehouse Golem
Logan Lucky
The Secret Scripture
Unlocked
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
The Villainess
Wind River
Your Name
You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.
Steinmetz, Greg. The richest man who ever lived : the life and times of Jacob Fugger. Simon & Schuster, 2015.
The November issue of Money magazine features “The 10 Richest People of All Time.” Bill Gates is #9, the only living super-rich person on the list, his net worth totaling $87 billion. Two other Americans are on the list — Andrew Carnegie, #6 with an inflation-adjusted net worth of $404 billion, and John Rockefeller #7 with $385 billion. Several names on the list are unfamiliar, including Money’s #1 richest man of all time, Mansa Musa, the king of Timbuktu, a West African kingdom.
Nowhere on Money’s list is Jacob Fugger who, according to journalist Greg Steinmetz’s calculations, was truly the richest man who ever lived. Fugger lived in the dawning days of international trade, banking and capitalism, of mining and industry. It was the time of Columbus, Isabella and Ferdinand; of Machiavelli, Martin Luther and King Henry VIII. Fugger financed Magellan’s iconic voyage around the globe. He financed the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I and the Habsburgs’ rise to power. As “God’s Banker,” he financed the Vatican. His shady deals provoked Martin Luther to write his 95 Theses, triggering the Protestant Reformation.
Jacob Fugger is the subject of Steinmetz’s book, The Richest Man Who Ever Lived. Fugger started life in 15th century Germany as a commoner and ended up the preeminent financier in Europe. His family lived in Augsburg (now in Austria) and were prosperous textile traders. When he was a teenager, Fugger’s mother arranged an apprenticeship in Venice, at the time the most commercial city in Europe, where banking and accounting were new inventions. He returned to Austria to expand into the profitable new industry of the era – mining – and he developed into an aggressive businessman with a talent for managing customers, a tolerance for risk and a genius for negotiation.
Fugger’s approach to business was modern. He understood monopoly power and tried to corner the market in precious metals. Investing in research and development, he pioneered new technology. He knew the power of market-sensitive information and created a news service, couriers who raced between cities with market tips and political updates. He maintained special relationships with kings and emperors and bought political favors. He surrounded himself with lawyers and accountants. By monitoring his accounts closely, he understood his financial exposure at every moment.
Greg Steinmetz is a gifted storyteller. Characters and events in the book come alive. His Jacob Fugger is a champion of private property and unfettered markets, the first modern businessman to pursue wealth for its own sake. But he also shows Fugger as a ruthless capitalist, who squeezes his workers and bullies his family. Fugger’s life illustrates the founding of today’s world economy.
© Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
All rights reserved.
If you look for market research via a search engine; you’re going to miss sources already available to you via Ford Library!
Here is a quick list of our databases that provide outstanding market research.
BCC Market Research – BCC’s market research reports explore major economic, scientific, and technological developments in industrial, pharmaceutical, and high technology organizations. Duke currently subscribes to all report categories. Select a topic under the “My Categories” section after connecting to browse reports.
eMarketer Total Access – eMarketer Total Access aggregates and analyzes e-business and high tech market research from over 1600 sources worldwide. Includes charts, tables, statistics & articles for download in PDF, PPT, and Excel format.
Forrester Research – Contains market research reports and data for the online economy with a focus on the impact of IT developments on businesses and consumers.
IBISWorld – Provides an extensive collection of industry market research and industry risk ratings on U.S. industries. Reports focus on industry performance, outlook, products & markets, competitive landscape, major companies, operating conditions, and key statistics. Duke’s subscribed content includes: Core NAICS US Industry Market Research Reports, iExpert Summary Reports, US Specialized Super Niche Industry Reports (Current & Future), and China Industry Reports.
MarketLine Advantage – Contains full text market research reports focusing on companies and broad industry sectors: consumer goods, energy, finance, healthcare, and technology. Market analysis and forecasting looks at major issues and threats for each sector with analytical commentary and data.
MarketResearch.com Academic – Includes full-text market research reports on : Consumer Goods, Heavy Industry, Service Industries, the Public Sector, Life Sciences, Technology & Media, and Demographics. Our subscription includes reports from the following publishers: Packaged Facts, Kalorama Information, Simba, Freedonia, and Mind Commerce.
Mintel Academic – Adds over 600 market research reports into European, UK-specific and US consumer markets every year. more details here
Passport (fka Euromonitor GMID) – A source of demographic, economic, and marketing statistics and research reports for over 200 countries. Provides volume and value market size data for 330 consumer products across 49 countries.
SimplyAnalytics (fka SimplyMap) – a web-based data mapping application that lets users quickly create professional-quality thematic maps and reports using powerful demographic, business, and marketing data.
Statista – Provides access to downloadable statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries.
You can also find these resources listed in the Library catalog and on our web site’s A-Z Database List. And don’t miss our Database Subject Finder, either!