Reading suggestions

Lindmayer, Karl H., Geldanlage und Steuer 2011 [Investment and tax in 2011]

Gabler Verlag, 486 pp, €59.95, ISBN 978-3-8349-2632-6

Karl H. Lindmayer and his team of writers inform you in their usual competent and comprehensive fashion on all forms of investment and their tax characteristics, from stocks, bonds and mutual funds, insurance and real estate to options and futures. This range is extended to forms of so-called alternative investments, particularly private equity, hedge funds and investment certificates, but also REITs. For the reader, an expanded and improved online service is available:  www.geldanlageundsteuer.de.

Raabe, Nico, Die Mitbestimmung im Aufsichtsrat – Theorie und Wirklichkeit in deutschen Aktiengesellschaften [Codetermination on the Supervisory Board – theory and reality in German companies]

Erich Schmidt Verlag, 383 pp, €49.95, ISBN 978-3-503-12619-4

Codetermination on the Supervisory Boards of German public companies is debated very heatedly, in the light of current corporate-governance requirements. But often opinions rather than objective data are to the fore. This author takes a different approach in this essay: based on extensive interviews with Supervisory Board members representing the capital and employee sides of 26 DAX companies, he records the reality of co-determination exactly and does away with existing prejudices. This leads to some surprising insights into the inner life of German Supervisory Boards, the psychology of codetermination, the impact of the hierarchies in companies and the role perceptions of Supervisory Board actors. The book is worth reading, contains some interesting findings for the debate on control efficiency and the composition of Supervisory Boards, and with its foreword by Professor Kurt Biedenkopf, the politician probably closest to the subject in recent decades, also has his official blessing.

Schirmacher, Albrecht F., Mahlmeister, Frank, Platow Prognose 2011 [Platow Forecast 2011]

Gabler Verlag, 260 pp, €61.00, ISBN 978-3-8349-2779-8

The PLATOW forecast takes special account of the power struggle between the old world power USA and the new growth centres in Asia and Latin America. The changes on our planet have an impact not only on economic growth, but also on the development of capital markets. An investment crunch is emerging in 2011 too, with meager returns on cash and annuities; you can escape it only if you bet on the right stocks and do not leave out emerging markets. So the PLATOW team has again gone on the hunt for 50 interesting securities. Besides the classical triad of Europe/Germany, USA and Japan, PLATOW in an extra chapter illuminates the emerging markets, with the particularly dynamic BRIC countries joined by the boom countries in the South Pacific (Indonesia and Australia).