ERIC J. WEINER

El autor traza un itinerario geográfico de aquellos lugares donde puede hallarse la felicidad, o su total ausencia. Un divertido, ingenioso y sorprendente recorrido que nos llevará desde Holanda a Butan, desde Quatar a Islandia, y que nos invita a reflexionar sobre nuestra verdadera idea de la felicidad desde una perspectiva completamente distinta.

When a health scare puts him in the hospital, Eric Weiner-an agnostic by default-finds himself tangling with an unexpected question, posed to him by a well-meaning nurse. "Have you found your God yet?" The thought of it nags him, and prods him-and ultimately launches him on a far-flung journey to do just that. Weiner, a longtime "spiritual voyeur" and inveterate traveler, realizes that while he has been privy to a wide range of religious practices, he's never seriously considered these concepts in his own life. Face to face with his own mortality, and spurred on by the question of what spiritual principles to impart to his young daughter, he decides to correct this omission, undertaking a worldwide exploration of religions and hoping to come, if he can, to a personal understanding of the divine.

Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Singapore benefit psychologically by having their options limited by the government? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.

Acclaimed financial journalist Eric J. Weiner reveals how foreign countries and private investors are increasingly controlling the global economy and secretly wresting power from the United States in ways that our government cannot reverse and about which the average American knows nothing.The most potent force in global commerce today is not the Federal Reserve, not the international banks, not the governments of the G7 countries, and certainly not the European Union. Rather, it is the multi-trillion-dollar network of super-rich, secretive, and largely unregulated investment vehiclesforeign sovereign wealth funds, government-run corporations, private equity funds, and hedge fundsthat are quietly buying up the world, piece by valuable piece. As Weiners groundbreaking account shows, the shadow market doesnt have a physical headquarters such as Wall Street. It doesnt have a formal leadership or an index to track or a single zone of exchange. Rather, it comprises an invisible and ever-shifting global nexus where money mixes with geopolitical power, often with great speed and secrecy. Led by cash-flush nations such as China, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and even Norway, the shadow market is hiring the brightest international financial talent money can buy and is now assembling the gigantic investment portfolios that will form the power structure of tomorrows economy. Taking advantage of the Great Recession and subsequent liquidity problems in the United States and Europe, the major players of the shadow market are deploying staggering amounts of cash, controlling the capital markets, and securing not only major stakes in multinational companies but huge tracts of farmland and natural resources across the world. Yet thats not all; theyre also pursuing political agendas made possible by their massive wealth and are becoming increasingly aggressive with the United States and other governments. Highly informative and genuinely startling, The Shadow Market moves the conversation from international competition to global financial warfare, and stands as an urgent must-read for anyone interested in the future of the global economy, Americas position in the world, or how and where to invest money today.

Bestselling author of Geography of Bliss returns with this funny, illuminating chronicle of a globe-spanning spiritual quest to find a faith that fits. When a health scare puts him in the hospital, Eric Weiner-an agnostic by default-finds himself tangling with an unexpected question, posed to him by a well-meaning nurse. "Have you found your God yet?" The thought of it nags him, and prods him-and ultimately launches him on a far-flung journey to do just that. Weiner, a longtime "spiritual voyeur" and inveterate traveler, realizes that while he has been privy to a wide range of religious practices, hes never seriously considered these concepts in his own life. Face to face with his own mortality, and spurred on by the question of what spiritual principles to impart to his young daughter, he decides to correct this omission, undertaking a worldwide exploration of religions and hoping to come, if he can, to a personal understanding of the divine. The journey that results is rich in insight, humor, and heart. Willing to do anything to better understand faith, and to find the god or gods that speak to him, he travels to Nepal, where he meditates with Tibetan lamas and a guy named Wayne. He sojourns to Turkey, where he whirls (not so well, as it turns out) with Sufi dervishes. He heads to China, where he attempts to unblock his chi; to Israel, where he studies Kabbalah, sans Madonna; and to Las Vegas, where he has a close encounter with Raelians (followers of the worlds largest UFO-based religion). At each stop along the way, Weiner tackles our most pressing spiritual questions: Where do we come from? What happens when we die? How should we live our lives? Where do all the missing socks go? With his trademark wit and warmth, he leaves no stone unturned. At a time when more Americans than ever are choosing a new faith, and when spiritual questions loom large in the modern age, Man Seeks God presents a perspective on religion that is sure to delight, inspire, and entertain.

Inside the super-rich, super-secretive, unregulated funds that are wresting control of world financeThe most potent force in global commerce today isnt Wall Street, the multinational banks, or the governments of the G7 countries. In this brilliant and startling investigation, acclaimed business reporter Eric J. Weiner uncovers the real powers guiding our shaky recovery from the worldwide financial crisis and shaping the economy of our future. Taking advantage of the current recession and the liquidity problems in the United States and Europe, cash-flush nations such as China, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and even Norway are using sovereign wealth funds and other investment vehicles to secure major holdings in multinational corporations as well as massive tracts of farmland and natural resources. This is the Shadow Market, quietly controlling political agendas as well as the flow of capital in the West and assembling gigantic investment portfolios that will form the power structure of tomorrows economy.

The ups and downs, the schemes and scams, the IPOs and hostile takeovers, the egos, the brilliance, the greed and the glory-this is the story of Wall Street, told by the men and women who made it happen. Once upon a time, Wall Street was just a footpath near the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Today it is the center of the financial world, the pivot point on which economies turn, companies rise and fall, and daring men and women go from rags to unbelievable riches, and sometimes back again. Along the way, Wall Street also has transformed itself and society, growing from an exclusive gentlemens club to the place that millions of people now trust with their financial futures. Never has it been more important to understand how modern Wall Street truly works. And never before has the story of modern Wall Street been told by those who were there, personally, in their own words, uncensored, unfiltered, unbound. Now, in What Goes Up, acclaimed financial journalist Eric J. Weiner gives us the unvarnished, first-person truth in a riveting story based on hundreds of interviews with Wall Street insiders that captures the booms and busts of the past half century in Americas financial capital in gripping detail. From Warren Buffett to Michael Milken, Sandy Weill to Henry Kravis, Peter Lynch to Alan Greenspan, from the birth of the mutual fund to the Internet bubble, from trading scandals to global meltdowns, from the rise of tycoons to the fall of giants. What Goes Up is a remarkable weaving together of larger-than-life characters and insider accounts. Eric J. Weiner has spoken to just about everybody-from CEOs to the barber in the basement of the stock exchange. For anyone who wants to understand how Wall Street became what it is, who wants to know how the biggest deals really happened, who wishes they had been a fly on the wall when it all went down, this is the book.