It’s hard to overstate the impact of the Morgan family & their legacy firms on global business. The story is a deep dive from the family’s beginnings when Junius Morgan became the partner of George Peabody in US-British trade through the fracturing of JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Morgan Guarantee, etc. (View on Amazon)
I drank the Elon Musk kool-aid. This guy is amazing, and the biographer (Ashlee Vance) does a great job of telling his story. (View on Amazon)
A true rags-to-riches story. Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune in the steel business, and then worked for many years to “give it away”. After he sold out (to JP Morgan), he was having trouble giving his money away fast enough, due to the effects of compound interest. (View on Amazon)
Vanderbilt was another remarkable titan of industry. Making his original fortune in steamships, he switched gears and went all-in on railroads once he caught wind of the opportunity. Fun fact from the author - at the time of his death he was so rich that he effectively controlled $1 out of every $20 in circulation. (View on Amazon)
Russians are crazy! This book details what happened through the transition from communism to capitalism, and how that resulted in a few newly-minted Billionaires taking the lion’s share of property for themselves. (View on Amazon)
Regardless of your view of Ayn Rand’s politics, it’s hard not to enjoy this book. It’s a really amazing story that tugs at a variety of human emotions. And if you also believe in some or all of her philosophy, there’s obviously plenty of that in this 63 hours of audio! (View on Amazon)
The Koch family is relatively well known for their political involvement in the last couple decades. There’s a lot more to the story of this remarkably successful and yet ridiculously dysfunctional family. (View on Amazon)