Economic and financial crises and disasters Books
Simon & Schuster Ltd Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises
Book SynopsisRay Dalio, the legendary investor and international bestselling author of Principles - whose books have sold more than five million copies worldwide - shares his unique template for how debt crises work and principles for dealing with them well. This template allowed his firm, Bridgewater Associates, to anticipate 2008’s events and navigate them well while others struggled badly. As he explained in his international bestseller Principles, Ray Dalio believes that almost everything happens over and over again through time, so that by studying patterns one can understand the cause-effect relationships behind events and develop principles for dealing with them well. In this three-part research series, he does just that for big debt crises and shares his template in the hopes of reducing the chances of big debt crises happening and helping them be better managed in the future. The template comes in three
£40.50
HarperCollins Publishers When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long
Book SynopsisPicking up where Liar’s Poker left off (literally, in the bond dealer’s desks of Salomon Brothers) the story of Long-Term Capital Management is of a group of elite investors who believed they could beat the market and, like alchemists, create limitless wealth for themselves and their partners. Founded by John Meriweather, a notoriously confident bond dealer, along with two Nobel prize winners and a floor of Wall Street’s brightest and best, Long-Term Captial Management was from the beginning hailed as a new gold standard in investing. It was to be the hedge fund to end all other hedge funds: a discreet private investment club limited to those rich enough to pony up millions. It became the banks’ own favourite fund and from its inception achieved a run of dizzyingly spectacular returns. New investors barged each other aside to get their investment money into LTCM’s hands. But as competitors began to mimic Meriweather’s fund, he altered strategy to maintain the fund’s performance, leveraging capital with credit on a scale not fully understood and never seen before. When the markets in Indonesia, South America and Russia crashed in 1998 LCTM’s investments crashed with them and mountainous debts accumulated. The fund was in melt-down, and threatening to bring down into its trillion-dollar black hole a host of financial instiutions from New York to Switzerland. It’s a tale of vivid characters, overwheening ambition, and perilous drama told, in Roger Lowenstein’s hands, with brilliant style and panache.Trade Review'A must-read thriller for anyone who works, or invests in markets. It is a story of how arrogance can drive greed and fear to extremes.' Scotsman 'Richly textured and lucid…A riveting account that reaches beyond the market landscape to say something universal about risk and triumph, about hubris and failure.' New York Times 'Lowenstein has written a squalid and fascinating tale of world-class greed and, above all, hubris.' Business Week 'This book is story-telling journalism at its best' The Economist
£9.89
Simon & Schuster These Are the Plunderers
Book SynopsisA Wall Street Journal Bestseller Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling financial journalist Gretchen Morgenson and financial policy analyst Joshua Rosner investigate the insidious world of private equity in this “masterpiece of investigative journalism” (Christopher Leonard, bestselling author of Kochland)—revealing how it puts our entire economy and us at risk.Much has been written about the widening gulf between rich and poor and how our style of capitalism has failed to provide a living wage for so many Americans. But nothing has fully detailed the outsized role a small cohort of elite financiers has played in this inequality. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Gretchen Morgenson, with coauthor Joshua Rosner, unmask the small group of celebrated Wall Street financiers, and their government enablers, who use excessive debt and dubious practices to undermi
£11.69
Cambridge University Press Boom and Bust
Book SynopsisWhy do stock and housing markets sometimes experience amazing booms followed by massive busts and why is this happening more and more frequently? In order to answer these questions, William Quinn and John D. Turner take us on a riveting ride through the history of financial bubbles, visiting, among other places, Paris and London in 1720, Latin America in the 1820s, Melbourne in the 1880s, New York in the 1920s, Tokyo in the 1980s, Silicon Valley in the 1990s and Shanghai in the 2000s. As they do so, they help us understand why bubbles happen, and why some have catastrophic economic, social and political consequences whilst others have actually benefited society. They reveal that bubbles start when investors and speculators react to new technology or political initiatives, showing that our ability to predict future bubbles will ultimately come down to being able to predict these sparks.Trade Review'Where do financial bubbles come from? Can – and should – policy makers always try to stop them? Can investors avoid them? Quinn and Turner take us on an informative, engaging tour of the last three hundred years of bubbles and, using history as their guide, provide intriguing answers.' Richard S. Grossman, author of WRONG: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them.'Quinn and Turner argue that the essential elements of capital markets: money, credit and speculation are also the necessary ingredients of financial bubbles. Can we have one without the other?' William Goetzmann, author of Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible'Quinn and Turner have made a major contribution to the literature on financial speculation and the bubbles to which they contribute. Not only do they provide an analytical dissection of ten salient episodes over some 300 years, they embed these narratives in an explanatory framework – the 'bubble triangle' – that links the relative marketability of financial assets and the supply of credit to speculative excess. Thus, Boom and Bust shows how to mine history for meaning, with lessons relevant today for investors and policy-makers alike.' Bill Janeway, author of Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy: Reconfiguring the Three-Player Game between Markets, Speculators and the State'For anyone interested in financial history, Boom and Bust is essential reading.' John Plender, Financial Times'An action-packed romp through ten of the biggest bubbles and busts of the past three centuries … Some (most) finance books are arid and hard-going; this one I couldn't put down.' Alistair Haimes, The Critic'A lovely book. It describes and draws lessons from ten financial manias, from the South Sea Bubble to 'Casino Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics'. It also explains bubbles with what the authors call 'the bubble triangle'. Its three sides consists of oxygen, which is the 'marketability' of assets, fuel, which is 'money and credit' and heat, which is 'speculation'. This combination recurs repeatedly and so do bubbles. Just like fires, financial manias and crashes are destructive, but they can also be useful, by clearing out dead wood.' Martin Wolf, Financial Times, Best Books of 2020'A readable and impressively researched title to be enjoyed by the generalist or specialist.' Niall McGarrigle, Irish Times'Written with exquisite concision and packing a wealth of detail and citation into each chapter, Boom and Bust is an instant classic.' Rebecca L. Spang, Times Literary Supplement'This wonderful book is interesting, informative, and insightful … Highly recommended.' R. M. Whaples, ChoiceTable of ContentsList of figures; List of tables; 1. The bubble triangle; 2. 1720 and the invention of the bubble; 3. Marketability revived: the first emerging market bubble; 4. Democratising speculation: the great railway mania; 5. Other people's money: the Australian land boom; 6. Wheeler-dealers: the British bicycle mania; 7. The roaring twenties and the Wall Street Crash; 8. Blowing bubbles for political purposes: Japan in the 1980s; 9. The dot-com bubble; 10. 'No more boom and bust': the subprime bubble; 11. Casino capitalism with Chinese characteristics; 12. Predicting bubbles; Acknowledgements; Endnotes; Bibliography; Index.
£14.24
Faber & Faber Sunset Park
Book SynopsisAuster''s novel of love and forgiveness from the author of contemporary classic The New York Trilogy: ''a literary voice for the ages'' (Guardian) Sunset Park is set in the sprawling flatlands of Florida, where twenty-eight-year-old Miles is photographing the last lingering traces of families who have abandoned their houses due to debt or foreclosure. Miles is haunted by guilt for having inadvertently caused the death of his step-brother, a situation that caused him to flee his father and step-mother in New York seven years ago.What keeps him in Florida is his relationship with a teenage high-school girl, Pilar, but when her family threatens to expose their relationship, Miles decides to protect Pilar by going back to Brooklyn, where he settles in a squat to prepare himself to face the inevitable confrontation with his father - a confrontation he has been avoiding for years.Set against the backdrop of the devastating global rece
£9.49
Oxford University Press Inc Austerity
Book SynopsisSelected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2013Governments today in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that has made the economy worse. In contrast, they have advanced a policy of draconian budget cuts--austerity--to solve the financial crisis. We are told that we have all lived beyond our means and now need to tighten our belts. This view conveniently forgets where all that debt came from. Not from an orgy of government spending, but as the direct result of bailing out, recapitalizing, and adding liquidity to the broken banking system. Through these actions private debt was rechristened as government debt while those responsible for generating it walked away scot free, placing the blame on the state, and the burden on the taxpayer. That burden now takes the form of a global turn to austerity, the policy of reducing domestic wages and prices to restore competitiveness and balance the budget. The problem, according toTrade Reviewexcellent... timely... illuminating * Political Studies Review, Liam Stanley *A must-read * ACEMAXX-ANALYTICS *One of the especially good things in Mark Blyth's Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea is the way he traces the rise and fall of the idea of 'expansionary austerity', the proposition that cutting spending would actually lead to higher output. As Blyth documents, this idea 'spread like wildfire.' * Paul Krugman, The New York Review of Books *An important polemic... valid and compelling. * Lawrence Summers, Financial Times *Mark Blyth has written a clever, well-argued book that we should all read. * The Friend *Essential reading... The economy is much too important to leave to economists. We need to understand how ideas shape it, and Blyth's new book provides an excellent starting point. * Washington Monthly *Splendid new book. * Martin Wolf, Financial Times *Austerity is an economic policy strategy, but is also an ideology and an approach to economic management freighted with politics. In this book Mark Blyth uncovers these successive strata. In doing so he wields his spade in a way that shows no patience for fools and foolishness. * Barry Eichengreen, George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science University of California, Berkeley *Of all the zombie ideas that have been reanimated in the wake of the global financial crisis, austerity is the most dangerous. Mark Blyth shows how austerity created the disasters of the 1930s, and contributed to the descent of the world into global war. He shows how European austerity policies have prevented any recovery from the crisis of 2009, while rescuing and protecting the banks and financial institutions that created the crisis. An essential guide for anyone who wants to understand the current depression. * John Quiggin, author of Zombie Economics *Most fascinating is the author's discussion of the historical underpinnings of austerity, first formulated by Enlightenment thinkers Locke, Hume and Adam Smith, around the (good) idea of parsimony and the (bad) idea of debt. Ultimately, writes Blyth, austerity is a 'zombie economic idea because it has been disproven time and again, but it just keeps coming. A clear explanation of a complicated, and severely flawed, idea. * Kirkus Reviews *Informed, passionate. * Dissent Magazine *Mark Blyth's fascinating analysis guides the reader through 'the historical ideology which has classified debt as problematic.' In doing so he outlines the relevance of century-old debates between the advocates and opponents of laissez faire, and explains why, after a brief reemergence in 2008-09, and despite the lack of evidence supporting austerity, the world turned its back on Keynesian policies. * Robert Skidelsky, author of Keynes: The Return of the Master *Among all the calamities spawned by the global financial crisis, none was as easily avoidable as the idea that austerity policies were the only way out. In this feisty book, noted political scientist Mark Blyth covers new territory by recounting the intellectual history of this failed idea and how it came to exert a hold on the imagination of economists and politicians. It is an indication of the sorry state of macroeconomics that it takes a political scientist to expose so thoroughly one of the economics profession's most dangerous delusions. * Dani Rodrik, Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy, The John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University *Table of ContentsPreface ; Austerity, a Personal History ; 1 A Primer on Austerity, Debt, and Morality Plays ; Part One Why We All Need to Be Austere ; 2 America: Too Big to Fail? ; Bankers, Bailouts, and Blaming the State ; 3 Europe-Too Big to Bail ; The Politics of Permanent Austerity ; Part Two Austerity's Twin Histories ; Introduction to Chapters 4, 5, and 6 ; Austerity's Intellectual and Natural Histories ; 4 The Intellectual History of a Dangerous Idea, 1692-1942 ; 5 The Intellectual History of a Dangerous Idea, 1942-2012 ; 6 Austerity's Natural History, 1914-2012 ; Part Three Conclusion ; 7 The End of Banking, New Tales, and a Taxing ; Time Ahead ; Notes ; Index
£13.29
Harriman House Publishing Icelands Secret
Book SynopsisBorn in Massachusetts, Jared Bibler relocated to Iceland in 2004 only to find himself in the middle of an unprecedented financial crisis a handful of years later.Personally wiped out and seeking to uncover the truth about a collapse that brought the pastoral country to its knees, he became the lead investigator into some of the largest financial crimes in the world. This work helped Iceland to famously become the only country to jail its bank CEOs in the wake of the 2008 crisis.But the real story behind that headline is far more complex and sinister.A decade after the investigations, the story can be told at last and in full. The crisis, barely understood inside or outside of Iceland even today, is a cautionary tale for the world: an inside look at the high crimes that inevitably follow Wild West capitalism.With the next global financial meltdown just around the corner, this untold tale is as timely as ever.
£19.54
Cambridge University Press Financial Markets and Institutions
Book SynopsisWritten for undergraduate and graduate students of finance, economics and business, the fourth edition of Financial Markets and Institutions provides a fresh analysis of the European financial system. Combining theory, data and policy, this successful textbook examines and explains financial markets, financial infrastructures, financial institutions, and the challenges of financial supervision and competition policy. The fourth edition features not only greater discussion of the financial and euro crises and post-crisis reforms, but also new market developments like FinTech, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and shadow banking. On the policy side, new material covers unconventional monetary policies, the Banking Union, the Capital Markets Union, Brexit, the Basel III capital adequacy framework for banking supervision and macroprudential policies. The new edition also features wider international coverage, with greater emphasis on comparisons with countries outside the European Union, including the United States, China and Japan.Table of ContentsPart I. Setting the Stage: 1. Functions of the financial system; 2. Financial crises; 3. European financial integration: origins and history; 4. Monetary policy of the European Central Bank; Part II. Financial Markets: 5. European financial markets; 6. The economics of financial integration; 7. Financial infrastructures; 8. Financial innovation; Part III. Financial Institutions: 9. The role of institutional investors; 10. European banks; 11. European insurers and financial conglomerates; Part IV. Policies for the Financial Sector: 12. Financial regulation and supervision; 13. Financial stability; 14. European competition policy; Index.
£45.59
HarperCollins Publishers Kleptopia
Book SynopsisSUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERIf you think the UK isn''t corrupt, you haven''t looked hard enough This terrifying book follows a global current of dirty money, and the murders and kidnappings required to sustain it' GEORGE MONBIOT, GUARDIANAN ECONOMIST AND WASHINGTON POST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020When you pick this book up, you won't be able to put it down' MISHA GLENNY, author of MCMAFIAGripping, disturbing and deeply reported' BEN RHODES, bestselling author of THE WORLD AS IT ISIn this real-life thriller packed with jaw-dropping revelations, award-winning investigative journalist Tom Burgis reveals a terrifying global web of kleptocracy and corruption.Kleptopia follows the dirty money that is flooding the global economy, emboldening dictators, enriching oligarchs and poisoning democracies. From the Kremlin to Beijing, Harare to Riyadh, London to the Trump White House, it shows how the thieves are uniting and the terrible human cost.A body in a burned-out Audi. Workers riddled with bullets in the Kazakh desert. A rigged election in Zimbabwe. A British banker silenced and humiliated for trying to expose the truth about the City of London the world's piggy bank for blood money.Riveting, horrifying and written like fiction, this book shows that while we are looking the other way, all that we hold most dear is being stolen.Trade Review‘A ghastly and very important story’Guardian ‘A meticulously reported piece of investigative journalism written in the style of a fast-paced thriller … Gripping … Kleptopia is not a far away republic in central Asia; it is all around us’The Times ‘I don’t do book reviews. But I am reading Kleptopia very slowly as I have to keep picking my jaw up off the floor … Fascinating. Terrifying’Paul Lewis ‘I might not have read, or even heard of Tom Burgis if ENRC hadn’t sued. Now I’m in. #Kleptopia’ Hugh Laurie ‘A must-read… A magisterial account of the money and violence behind the world’s most powerful dictatorships … Meticulously reported’Washington Post ‘The architects of our national security would do well to bring to their meetings a well-thumbed copy … It unpicks the filthy flipside of globalisation … Incendiary’Edward Lucas, The Times ‘Does the job brilliantly … with a hero straight out of a John le Carré novel … Wonderfully if grimly entertaining’Economist ‘His landmark book he lays bare what we need to know, and act upon … Burgis provides us with the terrifying evidence. Read it and act’Jon Snow ‘Read Kleptopia now. There is no time to lose … Tom Burgis demonstrates that money does indeed stink — and shows how to follow its scent’Roberto Saviano ‘A powerful, appalling, and stunningly reported exposé … It reads like fiction, but unfortunately is all too true: Burgis names names, and follows the money, right into the Trump White House … Shows how dark money has grown from a national problem into an international scourge’Jane Mayer ‘Reveals exactly why in the last thirty years organised crime and financial capitalism have fused to create a force of such power that no government or leader is free from the pressure it is able to apply … When you pick this book up, you won't be able to put it down’Misha Glenny
£10.44
University of Pennsylvania Press A Brief History of Doom
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Just when U.S. regulators and lenders are showing signs of forgetting the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis, Richard Vague comes out with this timely treatise on the dangers of excessive private debt. Deeply researched yet easily understandable, it's must-reading for anyone who wants to understand the financial crises of the past-and anticipate the catastrophes of the future." * Rich Miller, Bloomberg News *"Richard Vague unmasks a very important insight that financial crises throughout history have originated in bubble formation in the private sector. This diagnosis presents a huge challenge to the political system regarding how to implement the preventative medicine to impede bubbles. The stakes are high for preventing prolonged economic downturns, and the impotence of the public sector is devastating to the reputation of experts and governance, not only in the financial sector but across every division of government. The demoralization on both the left and right after the Great Financial Crisis remains a major contributor to the politics of today. Vague challenges us to face up to these costs." * Robert Johnson, Institute for New Economic Thinking *"Debt is always the biggest indicator of where financial crises will strike next. But while most people focus on government debt, private debt has been overlooked as a risk factor. Richard Vague rectifies that problem-and given that corporate debt is now at record highs-there couldn't be a better time to read his book." * Rana Foroohar, Financial Times *"Debt booms are the Achilles heel of modern economies, and nobody understands this better than Richard Vague. It takes a former banker to expose the folly of lenders in fueling credit booms that lead to devastating financial crises. In his sweeping account of 200 years of financial history, Vague builds on his intimate understanding of banking to explain how private debt booms put economic and social prosperity at risk. This is a must read for anyone who wants to see the next crisis coming." * Moritz Schularick, University of Bonn *
£25.19
John Wiley & Sons Inc The Greatest Trades of All Time
Book SynopsisHow top traders made huge profits during the most momentous market events of the past century Financial and commodity markets are characterized by periodic crashes and upside explosions. In retrospect, the reasons behind these abrupt movements often seem very clear, but generally few people understand what''s happening at the time. Top traders and investors like George Soros or Jesse Livermore have stood apart from the crowd and capitalized on their unique insights to capture huge profits. Engaging and informative, The Greatest Trades of All Time chronicles how a select few traders anticipated market eruptions?from the 1929 stock market crash to the 2008 subprime mortgage meltdown?and positioned themselves to excel while a majority of others failed. Along the way, author Vincent Veneziani describes the economic and financial forces that led to each market cataclysm and how theseindividuals perceived what was happening beforehand and why they decided to place big bets, Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xiii About the Author xv Introduction xvii Chapter 1 J. Kyle Bass: Timing is Everything 1 The Back Story 1 A Few Definitions 2 Bass Asks Why 4 Learning from the Past 6 Shorting Subprime Loans 7 The Best Position 8 The Effects of Abuse 11 Who Was Watching? 13 Re-creating Bass’s Trading Strategies 17 Bass’s Top Traits 17 Chapter 2 James Chanos: The Real King of Enron 21 Enter Enron 21 Really Looking at Enron 23 The Best Position 26 Recreating Chanos’s Trading Strategies 28 A More Recent Example 28 Chanos’s Top Traits 30 Chapter 3 Paul Tudor Jones II: Legendary Global Macro Trader 31 Following a Genius 31 The Path of Greatness 32 Starting Out 33 Knowing All the Markets 35 Global Macro Trading 36 Elliot Wave Theory 38 More Keys to Jones’s Success 40 Success beyond Trading 43 Recreating Jones’s Trading Strategies 43 Jones’s Top Traits 44 Chapter 4 John Templeton: Legendary Mutual Fund Manager 47 What Made Templeton Famous 47 Templeton’s Life before Investing 49 Educational Aspirations 50 The Married Life 52 Templeton’s Big Move 53 Back to New York 54 Looking to the Future, and the Templeton Growth Fund 55 Templeton’s Second Marriage and Fund 56 The Bahamas 57 Recreating Templeton’s Trading Strategies 58 Templeton’s Top Traits 59 Chapter 5 Jesse Livermore: Legendary Speculator 61 Livermore’s History 61 At Home in New York 63 Fame and Fortune 63 The Panic of 1907 64 The Crash of 1929 65 Livermore’s Tragic End 66 An Example of Livermore’s Influence Today 68 Recreating Livermore’s Trading Strategies 69 Livermore’s Top Traits 69 Chapter 6 John Paulson: The Greatest Trade of All Time 73 Paulson’s Early Career 73 Paulson & Co. 74 The Greatest Trade 74 Recreating Paulson’s Trading Strategies 79 Paulson’s Top Traits 81 Chapter 7 George Soros: From Humble Beginnings to World Trader 83 Soros’s Famous Trades 84 The Hardships of a Trading Genius 87 Going to School in London 88 Work in New York 90 Joining the Big Leagues 91 Finding Himself 93 Crashing from Success 95 A New Protégé 97 Onto the World Stage 98 The Backlash 100 A Conflicted Mind 101 A New Era 101 Recreating Soros’s Trading Strategies 102 Soros’s Top Traits 103 Chapter 8 David Einhorn: A Company’s Worst Nightmare 105 Allied is Not an Ally 105 Lucky Lehman 108 The Great Beyond 110 Recreating Einhorn’s Trading Strategies 111 Einhorn’s Top Traits 112 Chapter 9 Martin Schwartz: From Amateur to Superstar 115 Start Small, Go Big 115 Trading Like a Rock Star 117 Winding Down 118 Recreating Schwartz’s Trading Strategies 120 Schwartz’s Top Traits 121 Chapter 10 John Arnold: Master of Energy 123 Success at Enron 123 Centaurus Energy 124 The Explosion 126 Recreating Arnold’s Trading Strategies 127 Crude Oil 127 Natural Gas 128 Arnold’s Top Traits 130 Chapter 11 More Great Trades: Phillip Falcone, David Tepper, Andrew Hall, Greg Lippmann 131 Phillip Falcone 131 Recreating Falcone’s Trading Strategies 134 David Tepper 135 Recreating Tepper’s Trading Strategies 136 Andrew Hall 138 Recreating Hall’s Trading Strategies 139 Greg Lippmann 141 Recreating Lippmann’s Trading Strategies 143 In Summary 144 Notes 147 Glossary 149 References 151 Helpful Web Sites 157 Index 161
£26.24
Little, Brown Book Group The End of Alchemy
Book Synopsis''A fearless and important book . . . The End of Alchemy isn''t just an elegant guide to the history of economic ideas. It also gives a genuine insider''s account'' TelegraphThe past twenty years saw unprecedented growth and stability followed by the worst financial crisis the industrialised world has ever witnessed. In the space of little more than a year what had been seen as the age of wisdom was viewed as the age of foolishness. Almost overnight, belief turned into incredulity. Most accounts of the recent crisis focus on the symptoms and not the underlying causes of what went wrong. But those events, vivid though they remain in our memories, comprised only the latest in a long series of financial crises since our present system of commerce became the cornerstone of modern capitalism. Alchemy explains why, ultimately, this was and remains a crisis not of banking - even if we need to reform the banking system - nor of policy-making - even if mistakes were made - but of ideas. In this refreshing and vitally important book, former governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King - an actor in this drama - proposes revolutionary new concepts to answer the central question: are money and banking a form of Alchemy or are they the Achilles heel of a modern capitalist economy?Trade ReviewI have read umpteen books about the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and its lessons. This is the cleverest one, brimming over with new ideas. While other "lords of finance" publish memoirs, King has produced a brilliant analysis not only of what went wrong in the global financial system, but also of what went wrong in economics itself -- Niall FergusonAn outstandingly lucid account of postwar economic policymaking and the dilemmas we now face. [King] is a master of the well-turned phrase, the apposite quote and the pungent boutade. It is rare to encounter a book on economics quite as intellectually exhilarating as The End of Alchemy - a dazzling performance indeed * Financial Times *Mervyn King may well have written the most important book to come out of the financial crisis. From his extraordinary perspective as a brilliant economist who made policy at the highest level, he issues a clarion call for new ideas and new policies, and then delivers. Agree or disagree, King's arguments deserve the attention of everyone from economics students to heads of state -- Lawrence H. SummersDrawing on years of scholarly study of banking history and his real world experience in fighting financial panic, Mervyn King has set out a new framework for monetary and financial reform. Seemingly simple in concept, it challenges prevailing banking and market practice. The End of Alchemy demands debate and a well-reasoned response -- Paul A. VolckerMervyn King asks, "Why has almost every industrialised country found it difficult to overcome the stagnation that followed the financial crisis in 2007-2008, and why did money and banking, the alchemists of a market economy, turn into its Achilles heel?" He addresses these questions, and much more. For those endeavouring to understand the greatest financial crisis of our time and the future of finance, this highly provocative book is a must read -- Alan GreenspanA sophisticated and highly approachable study of how modern finance has lost its way. Few individuals are more qualified than Lord Mervyn King to imagine the banking of the future. His book should be required reading -- Henry KissingerThe likes of Larry Summers, Paul Krugman, Robert Gordon, John Kay, Richard Koo and Adair Turner all need to read this book because King has something bracing to say about each of their big arguments . . . The depth of King's thinking is impressive, and he makes a powerful case for putting "radical uncertainty" at the heart of any formal attempt to model economies . . . an exceptionally thought-provoking book - and might even become a modern landmark once its many fresh ideas have percolated * Independent *This book is by turns invigorating, terrifying and occasionally even inspiring. Its analysis is stark, its conclusions bold -- Ed Conway * The Times *An exceptionally thought-provoking book and might even become a modern landmark once its many fresh ideas have percolated -- Ben Chu * Independent *Wide ranging, historically informed and elegantly written . . . Like Keynes he is well aware that economics is in the end about people . . . Life is an art, not a science, and this richly rewarding treatise confirms that truth -- David Kynaston * Guardian *A fearless and important book . . . The End of Alchemy isn't just an elegant guide to the history of economic ideas. It also gives a genuine insider's account * Telegraph *This book might just save the world -- Michael Lewis * Bloomberg *Fearlessly honest . . . will be read for decades to come * Telegraph *
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd Too Big To Fail
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE BBC SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 2010They were masters of the financial universe, flying in private jets and raking in billions. They thought they were too big to fail. Yet they would bring the world to its knees.Andrew Ross Sorkin, the news-breaking New York Times journalist, delivers the first true in-the-room account of the most powerful men and women at the eye of the financial storm - from reviled Lehman Brothers CEO Dick ''the gorilla'' Fuld, to banking whiz Jamie Dimon, from bullish Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to AIG''s Joseph Cassano, dubbed ''The Man Who Crashed the World''.Through unprecedented access to the key players, Sorkin meticulously re-creates frantic phone calls, foul-mouthed rows and white-knuckle panic, as Wall Street fought to save itself.Trade ReviewHe has done a remarkable job in producing a lively account that will be hard for subsequent authors to beat * Gillian Tett, FT *As close to a definitive account as we are likely to get * Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times *Andrew Ross Sorkin has written a fascinating, scene-by-scene saga of the eyeless trying to march the clueless through Great Depression II * Tom Wolfe *Andrew Ross Sorkin pens what may be the definitive history of the banking crisis * The Atlantic Monthly *Sorkin has succeeded in writing the book of the crisis, with amazing levels of detail and access * Reuters *Too good to put down . . . It is the story of the actors in the most extraordinary financial spectacle in 80 years, and it is told brilliantly . . . It is hard to imagine them being this riveting * Economist *Sorkin can write. His storytelling makes Liar's Poker look like a children's book * SNL Financial *The most readable and exciting report of the events surrounding the Lehman collapse that we have seen . . . impeccably sourced * Edmund Conway, Daily Telegraph *The sense of being in the meeting rooms as hitherto all-conquering alpha male egos fight for their reputations, as their and our world judders, is palpable * Chris Blackhurst, Evening Standard *Surpassed its rivals with its depth, range of reporting and high quality analysis * Stefan Stern, FT *A superbly researched and sobering take on the events surrounding the meltdown on Wall Street * Sam Mendes *With Too Big to Fail , Andrew Ross Sorkin has broken the Barbarians [At The Gate] curse ... Ross Sorkin's ... astonishing narrative of the epic financial crisis of 2008 is an extraordinary achievement that will be hard to surpass as the definitive account * John Gapper, FT *The heir to Barbarians at the Gate * FT *
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd Panic The Story of Modern Financial Insanity
Book SynopsisFrom Black Monday to the Asian financial crisis, from the internet bubble to mortgage meltdown, our lives are ruled by crazy cycles of euphoria and hysteria that manage to grip the world but are all-too-soon forgotten. In this unique collection of articles Michael Lewis - ex-trader and bestselling chronicler of greed and frenzy in the markets - casts a sceptical eye back over the most panicked-about panics of recent decades. He tells a story of boom and bust, deranged greed, outsized egos and over-inflated salaries, where the only thing that can ever be predicted is our constant inability to predict anything. Using contemporary accounts from commentators such as Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs and Paul Krugman, plus many of his own best writings, Lewis conveys the mood before each catastrophe, what it was like in the heat of the moment, how, afterwards, we tried to explain away the chaos - and then failed to learn from it before the whole process started all over agai
£10.44
C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd Crisis in Greece
Book SynopsisFew countries experienced the period of turbulence surrounding the global financial crisis as intensely as Greece. The country topped the global news agenda as images of mass protests in Athens jostled for space with reports of torturous negotiations between political leaders struggling to agree support packages. Dramatic headlines proclaimed not only Greek bankruptcy and a possible exit from the euro, but the collapse of the single currency itself. This book offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the lengthy crisis that beset Greece and the wider Eurozone. Written for the general reader, it explores the passage of events from different perspectives as it probes the story behind the headlines to reveal the full complexity of the crisis. Were its causes to be found in the prevailing international financial environment or in the economic and political system which evolved in Greece since the early 1970s? Did the choices made by both domestic and international actors such as the IMF and the EU exacerbate the crisis? Most importantly, what has been the impact of the crisis on the daily lives of the country’s inhabitants?Trade Review‘Thorough and readable, this blow-by-blow account of how Greece got itself into a seemingly interminable crisis of gigantic proportions, will appeal to readers wishing to move beyond the usual clichés. An essential reference.' -- Stathis Kaylvas, Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science, Yale University'This is an important book. Siani-Davies provides an insightful account of the toxic interaction between the Greece and its creditors over the past decade. Few foreign observers can produce such a perceptive analysis of the domestic complexities that conditioned Greece’s journey through the desert of austerity.' -- Dimitris Papadimitriou, Professor of Politics, University of Manchester'This book is certainly the most penetrating effort in English to describe the way Greece reached an economic and political dead-end. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the book helps us to understand the role played by Greeks, Europeans, Americans and the IMF in forming an extremely complicated and confusing situation, which for the author has its origins in an incomplete process of modernisation.' -- Kostas Kostis, Professor of Economics, University of Athens, and author of 'History’s Spoiled Children: The Formation of the Modern Greek State'
£16.14
Random House USA Inc Griftopia
Book SynopsisA brilliantly illuminating and darkly comic tale of the ongoing financial and political crisis in America. The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn’t past but prologue. The grifter class—made up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding—has been growing in power, and the crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how they’ve hijacked America’s political and economic life.Matt Taibbi has combined deep sources, trailblazing reportage, and provocative analysis to create the most lucid, emotionally galvanizing account yet written of this ongoing American crisis. He offers fresh reporting on the backroom deals of the bailout; tells the story of Goldman Sachs, the “vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity”; and uncovers the hidden commodities bubble that transferred billions of dollars to Wall Street while creating food shortages around the world.
£13.49
Little, Brown & Company The Man Who Walked Backward
Book SynopsisSet against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the story of a Texas man who, in 1931, set out to walk backwards around the world.
£22.50
Princeton University Press American Default
Book SynopsisThe untold story of how FDR did the unthinkable to save the American economy.Trade Review"Brilliantly told."—Steve Hanke, Forbes“A superb history.”—David Frum“The story is fascinating and the lessons eternal.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times“American Default is the history of that mighty legal, moral, political and monetary controversy, the effects of which are with us still.”—James Grant, Wall Street Journal“A magnificent piece of scholarship . . . [that] illustrates the benefits of historical distance in evaluating major events.”—Kenneth Rogoff, Project Syndicate“Admirably accessible and illuminating.”—Benn Steil, Financial World
£15.29
Encounter Books,USA Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the
Book SynopsisThe 2008 financial crisis--like the Great Depression--was a world-historical event. What caused it will be debated for years, if not generations. The conventional narrative is that the financial crisis was caused by Wall Street greed and insufficient regulation of the financial system. That narrative produced the Dodd-Frank Act, the most comprehensive financial-system regulation since the New Deal. There is evidence, however, that the Dodd-Frank Act has slowed the recovery from the recession. If insufficient regulation caused the financial crisis, then the Dodd-Frank Act will never be modified or repealed; proponents will argue that doing so will cause another crisis. A competing narrative about what caused the financial crisis has received little attention. This view, which is accepted by almost all Republicans in Congress and most conservatives, contends that the crisis was caused by government housing policies. This book extensively documents this view. For example, it shows that in June 2008, before the crisis, 58 percent of all US mortgages were subprime or other low-quality mortgages. Of these, 76 percent were on the books of government agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. When these mortgages defaulted in 2007 and 2008, they drove down housing prices and weakened banks and other mortgage holders, causing the crisis. After this book is published, no one will be able to claim that the financial crisis was caused by insufficient regulation, or defend Dodd-Frank, without coming to terms with the data this book contains.
£12.34
John Wiley & Sons Inc Boombustology
Book SynopsisThe new, fully-updated edition of the respected guide to understanding financial extremes, evaluating investment opportunities, and identifying future bubbles Now in its second edition, Boombustology is an authoritative, up-to-date guide on the history of booms, busts, and financial cycles. Engaging and accessible, this popular book helps investors, policymakers, and analysts navigate the radical uncertainty that plagues today's uncertain investing and economic environment. Author Vikram Mansharamani, an experienced global equity investor and prominent Harvard University lecturer, presents his multi-disciplinary framework for identifying financial bubbles before they burst. Moving beyond the typical view of booms and busts as primarily economic occurrences, this innovative book offers a multidisciplinary approach that utilizes microeconomic, macroeconomic, psychological, political, and biological lenses to spot unsustainable dynamics. It gives the reader insights into the dynamics thaTable of ContentsForeword Foreword to the First Edition Preface Is There a Bubble in Boom–Bust Books? Acknowledgments Introduction The Study of Financial Extremes: One-Armed Analysts, Secrets, and Mysteries Part I Five Lenses Chapter 1 Microeconomic Perspectives: To Equilibrium or Not? Chapter 2 Macroeconomic Perspectives: The Impact of Debt, Deflation, and Mispriced Money on Asset Markets Chapter 3 The Psychology Lens: Homo Economicus Meets Homo Sapiens Chapter 4 Political Foundations: Evaluating Property Rights, Price Mechanisms, and Political Distortions Chapter 5 Biological Frameworks: Epidemiology and Emergence Part II Historical Case Studies Chapter 6 Tulipomania: A Bubble in Seventeenth-Century Holland Chapter 7 The Great Depression: From Roaring Twenties to Yawning Thirties Chapter 8 The Japanese Boom and Bust: A Credit-Fueled Bubble Economy Chapter 9 The Asian Financial Crisis: The Mirage of a Miracle Chapter 10 The U.S. Housing Boom and Bust: The Homeowner’s Society Creates the People’s Panic Chapter 11 China’s Credit-Fueled Investment Boom Part III Looking Ahead Chapter 12 Spotting Bubbles Before They Burst: A Method for Identifying Unsustainable Booms Chapter 13 Boombustology in Action: Is India Next? Conclusion Hedgehogs, Foxes, and the Dangers of Making Predictions Addendum A Passive Investing Bubble? About the Author Index
£18.39
Profile Books Ltd Firefighting: The Financial Crisis and its
Book Synopsis"I learned much from this book I had not previously known. Its cautions for the future should be required reading for all policy makers." - Warren Buffett 2008 saw one of the worst financial crises in generations, the global implications of which are still being felt today. Ten years later Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner and Hank Paulson reflect on the causes of the crisis, why it was so damaging, and what it ultimately took to prevent a second Great Depression. All three had crucial roles in the government's response- Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve; Henry M. Paulson, Jr., as secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush; Timothy F. Geithner as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York during the Bush years and then Treasury secretary under President Barack Obama. A powerful, warts and all account told with unprecedented clarity; from the flawed human response to the necessity to learn from the past and help firefighters of the future protect economies from the ravages of financial crises. Firefighting is a vital account of a defining moment in modern history and an inspiring lesson on leadership through crisis.Trade ReviewI'm glad I didn't have to do the job that these three 'fire chiefs' did. I learned much from this book I had not previously known. Its cautions for the future should be required reading for all policy makers. -- Warren Buffett
£9.99
Process Media Depression 2.0: Creative Strategies for Tough
Book SynopsisThe fourth title of Process's Self-Reliance series, this is a practical, empowering guide that addresses the questions and anxieties of these turbulent economic times.
£14.39
London Publishing Partnership The Tyranny of Nostalgia: Half a Century of
Book SynopsisThe performance of the British economy over the past fifty-odd years does not make for comforting reading. Indeed, the story is a depressing catalogue of misapprehensions, missteps, wasted opportunities, crises and humiliations, with all-too-familiar problems arising time and again and yet never being satisfactorily addressed. All nations and their economic policymakers are to a certain extent prisoners of their history, but this seems to apply more to the UK than to other countries. Nostalgia for the great days of the past has become tyrannical – and is in some sense embodied in the form of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s famous ‘budget box’, made for William Gladstone in the 1850s and only passed over to a museum in 2010. Nostalgia has led to wishful thinking, and this has been the underlying sentiment driving poorly thought through – sometimes even panicky – initiatives that were blindly borrowed from elsewhere, that flew in the face of experience, or that were drawn from theoretical and political extremes. The Tyranny of Nostalgia describes and interprets the economic and political history of the past half a century, examining the challenges confronted by successive governments and their Chancellors, the policies employed for good or ill, and – running through it all – the desperate search for a panacea that could arrest the nation’s relative decline and return the country to its supposed former glories.Trade Review“This powerful and elegant account of the twists and turns in British macroeconomic policy should be essential reading for students and practitioners alike. Russell Jones’s analysis of the past half a century of British economic life – and particularly of the run-up to Brexit and of its subsequent implementation and its disastrous consequences – is absolutely stunning.” (William Keegan, senior economics commentator for The Observer); “For at least half a century, British economic policy has been inept and capricious, with politicians of all parties labouring under the delusion that the country is still a major economic power. For much of that time Russell Jones has had a ringside seat observing their many mistakes and misfortunes. It is hard to read his clear-sighted and highly readable account and remain optimistic about the UK economy’s next 50 years.” (Professor Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and author of GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History); “The complex and persistent woes of British economic developments over the past fifty years are covered in fascinating detail by Russell Jones in this joyously readable book. The book works brilliantly both for those that have, like me, shared Jones’s path through the world of high finance and for those that haven’t but want to try and understand the role of individual politicians and policymakers, and the circumstances surrounding their vain attempts to steer the UK to a more fruitful pasture.” (Lord O’Neill, Chairman of the Council of the Royal Institute of International Affairs)
£22.49
BenBella Books The Power of Money: How Governments and Banks
Book Synopsis
£22.50
Princeton University Press A Crash Course on Crises
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Financial Times Best Book of the Year: Economics""'Economies sometimes go through macro-financial crises.' Indeed, they do, as we have so painfully learned in recent decades. In this excellent and blessedly brief book, two distinguished scholars bring students and busy professionals up to date on the best thinking about how these crises originate and unfold and how policymakers need to respond. A valuable guide for those who need to understand what contemporary economics has to say on this vital topic."---Martin Wolf, Financial Times"A must-read."---Ashoka Mody, Project Syndicate"A Crash Course on Crises packs a serious punch, covering a substantial amount of theoretical ground illustrated by real-world examples drawn from four continents and almost 100 years."---Anjalika Badalai, Society of Professional Economists"Designed as both a complement to existing macroeconomic textbooks and a present-day primer for policymakers, [A Crash Course on Crises] is brief, direct and accessible. It will likely adorn the reading lists of financial economics courses for years to come."---Rémi Meehan, International Affairs
£25.50
HarperCollins Publishers Race for Tomorrow
Book SynopsisAs featured on CNN's Amanpour & Company and BBC Radio 4's Start the Week with Andrew MarrOne of the Financial Times' best books of 2021In this compelling journey through twenty-six countries, Simon Mundy traces how the struggle to respond to the climate crisis is rapidly reshaping the modern world shattering communities, shaking global business and propelling waves of cutting-edge innovation.Telling unforgettable human stories, meeting scientists and business tycoons, activists and political leaders, this is an account of disaster and survival, of frantic adaptation and groundbreaking innovation, of hope, and of the forces that will define our future.More praiseUrgent reading A truly global journey' SOPHY ROBERTSVivid and informed' ADAM NICOLSONI took a great sense of hope' RICHARD POWERSReads like a thriller' MARK LYNASAn inspiring piece of work' MICHAEL E. MANNUtterly unlike any book yet written in this field' ANAND MAHINDRAGripping A must-read for every concerned global citizen' Trade Review‘Contains a lot of really, really interesting hard science and market-based solutions, [and] some extraordinary examples of technology … Very useful indeed’Andrew Marr ‘It’s a brilliant book! An optimistic, unpatronising account of what humankind CAN do to address climate change’Rob Rinder, Talk Radio ‘He takes it down from this 30,000-foot view to people on the ground … I took a great sense of hope’Richard Powers, author of The Overstory ‘An inspiring piece of work that deserves a broad audience … Read this book both to understand the urgency of climate action, and to recognise, too, the agency we still have’Michael E. Mann, author of The New Climate War ‘[Puts] a human face on the most important story of our times. This book is eloquent and humane – a vital work of storytelling’Henry Mance, author of How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World ‘Simon Mundy’s vivid and informed despatches from the front line of climate change reveal not only the catastrophes imposed by global warming (which are hidden from most of us) but the best and brightest of responses to them … Don’t wait. Read it now before the race is lost’Adam Nicolson, author of The Sea is Not Made of Water ‘Mundy’s book reads like a thriller’Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees and Our Final Warning ‘Utterly unlike any book yet written in this field. Packed with vivid human stories, from the most desperately challenged communities to the highest levels of global business and politics, it’s an essential guide to how the climate crisis is transforming the modern world’Anand Mahindra ‘A gripping story of individuals, communities and societies who are grappling with the myriad challenges of climate change. A must read for every concerned global citizen’Nandan Nilekani ‘A pacy, riveting global tour of our fracturing planet; completely fascinating’Ben Rawlence
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Gaffs
Book SynopsisThe book that has been waiting to be written how Ireland's housing policy has locked an entire generation out of the housing market and what we should do about it.Clear, cogent and persuasive Fintan O'TooleMillennials are the first generation in Ireland to be worse off than their parents. Trapped in a game of rental roulette, stuck living at home as adults, and many on the brink of homelessness, the Irish housing crisis has defined the lives of an entire generation and it is set to continue.With housing costs in Ireland the highest in the EU, the property ladder has been kicked from under thousands. So how did we get here and how do we break the cycle?In Gaffs, housing expert Rory Hearne urges us to think about the people behind the statistics, and shows us that there is a way towards a future where everyone has access to a home.Trade Review‘The heart of the book is a clear, cogent and persuasive account of how this crisis was created. Showing that it is, indeed, a deliberate creation is the strength of Hearne’s argument. And while this is a source of anger, it might also be a source of hope: what bad public policy has wrought, better policy can undo.’ Fintan O’Toole The Irish Times
£13.49
HarperCollins Publishers Gaffs
Book SynopsisThe book that has been waiting to be written how Ireland's housing policy has locked an entire generation out of the housing market and what we should do about it.Millennials are the first generation in Ireland to be worse off than their parents. Trapped in a game of rental roulette, stuck living at home as adults, and many on the brink of homelessness, the Irish housing crisis has defined the lives of an entire generation and it is set to continue.With housing costs in Ireland the highest in the EU, the property ladder has been kicked from under thousands. So how did we get here and how do we break the cycle?In Gaffs, housing expert Rory Hearne urges us to think about the people behind the statistics, and shows us that there is a way towards a future where everyone has access to a home.Trade Review‘The heart of the book is a clear, cogent and persuasive account of how this crisis was created. Showing that it is, indeed, a deliberate creation is the strength of Hearne’s argument. And while this is a source of anger, it might also be a source of hope: what bad public policy has wrought, better policy can undo.’ Fintan O’Toole The Irish Times
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Price of Prosperity Why Rich Nations Fail and
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewSure, The Price of Prosperity is about economics--sort of. But that's just a jumping-off point for this fascinating romp through sociology, anthropology, politics, and above all history. Buchholz's big lesson is that prosperity is not enough to hold a country together; we need culture, community, patriotism--and babies! But he draws readers to that conclusion with a crackling good read--a tour de force that leaps through time and space and is as entertaining as it is educational. -- Alan S. Blinder, former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve Board and professor of economics at Princeton University A 'must read' for anyone searching for a path to American economic renewal. The elephant in the room in the 2016 presidential campaign is the question of whether America is in decline. In this powerful and provocative book, Todd Buchholz recalls stumbles of other rich nations in history, and he offers a clear roadmap for America to regain her footing today. -- Glenn Hubbard, former chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Business A lively, well-documented and important book. For at least a century, intellectuals have been heralding the death of the nation state, and often applauding it. But Todd Buchholz thinks it would be a disaster. He explains that the economic successes of our nations in some ways undermine them from within. But rather than regretting the past or lamenting the present, this book suggests important things we can do - above all by strengthening the symbols and histories that create identity and help us face the future together -- Lawrence H. Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and President Emeritus of Harvard University A lively, well-documented and important book. For at least a century, intellectuals have been heralding the death of the nation state, and often applauding it. But Todd Buchholz thinks it would be a disaster. He explains that the economic successes of our nations in some ways undermine them from within. But rather than regretting the past or lamenting the present, this book suggests important things we can do - above all by strengthening the symbols and histories that create identity and help us face the future together -- Robert Tombs, professor of history at Cambridge University and author of The English and Their History Todd Buchholz's The Price of Prosperity is loaded with witty and provocative insight into the vexing question of our era: where do the prosperous nations go from here? Inevitable collapse, perpetual stagnation, or renewed purpose and prosperity? -- Michael J. Boskin, former chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and professor of economics at Stanford University A refreshing book that offers an alternative to the failing shibboleths of the day. -- Kirkus Reviews ... An interesting view on what makes-and breaks-a wealthy nation. -- Publishers Weekly Targeting a general audience with clarity and humor, Buchholz's insights will interest readers concerned about sustaining national unity. -- Library Journal In sum, this isn't your typical economics tome. But it is typical of Buchholz. His books are always entertaining, often insightful, and sometimes downright scary. What they never are is boring. -- Weekly Standard "highly entertaining, far-sighted, and enjoyably acerbic". -- Sunday Times (London) Buchholz is surely right that fostering a stronger sense of common identity is likely to be part of the answer to sustaining public support for open trade and borders. -- Financial Times
£19.00
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Power of Nothing to Lose
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Silber is a charming narrator, and the stories in this book range from the Montgomery bus boycott to the mating habits of spiders to the sinking of the Lusitania. The insight linking these episodes is both simple and profound: when people (or spiders) have nothing to lose, caution deserts them. Refugees seeking asylum, presidents facing term limits, patients with terminal illnesses, Adolf Hitler in December 1944: all illustrate how desperate people will rationally gamble for redemption. Read Silber for the pleasure of his prose. But also read him for his wisdom." — Sebastian Mallaby, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and author of More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite "Silber has a great eye for forces that have driven important decisions in history. This book weaves together gripping accounts of risky behavior by politicians, generals, and business leaders, and how they impacted society in surprising ways. I couldn't put this book down." — Thomas J. Sargent, Nobel Laureate in Economics “Silber uses specific examples of how ‘the power of nothing to lose’ has benefited many people who have changed the course of history, from Rosa Parks to star athletes such as Venus Williams.” — Sofia Pitt, CNBC "A brisk look at times when it pays off to take a chance." — Kirkus Reviews "'As Bill Silber shows in this enthralling and entertaining book--which I devoured in a single sitting--all kinds of people through history have acted recklessly in the belief that they had nothing to lose, from second-term presidents pardoning crooked cronies to quarter-backs throwing Hail Mary passes. One of the world's most brilliant teachers of finance, Bill Silber knows that the best way to teach the tricky math of options-pricing is to wrap it in good yarns from sports, politics and history. The Power of Nothing to Lose brings together some of his best stories--and kindly omits the math." — Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, and author of The Ascent of Money "What do Rosa Parks, Mohamed Atta, Aaron Rodgers, George Washington,and Adolf Hitler, have in common...Silber has the answer." — Keen On Podcast "Fascinating." — Tobias Carlisle, The Acquirers Podcast "[William L. Silber's] comments are pertinent in the present day of cryptocurrencies, the ‘retailization’ of options trading, NFTs, and meme stocks, among others." — The Contrarian Investor Podcast
£19.00
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Davos Man How the Billionaires Devoured the World
Book SynopsisTrade Review“A meticulously researched, clearly reported and truly infuriating history of the way the top 1% of the world has systematically arranged the way societies operate in order to become even richer, all to the detriment of the rest of us. … The book serves as a call to arms and an invitation to fight back against the continued unabashed pillaging of all economies by those who least need it.” — San Francisco Chronicle “Powerful. … Goodman’s reporting is biting and bitterly funny. … Davos Man shows us that today’s extreme wealth is inextricably linked to a great crime, perhaps the greatest one of this century: the hijacking of our democracy.” — Washington Post “Excellent. ... An angry, powerful look at the economic inequality that's been brought into sharp relief by the COVID-19 pandemic. … A powerful, fiery book, and it could well be an essential one.” — NPR.org "The Times’s global economics correspondent profiles five billionaires (along with workers and migrants across the world) to show how their exploitation of the pandemic has exacerbated inequality across the globe." — New York Times Book Review “Well-written and well-reported. … A passionate denunciation of the mega-rich.” — The Economist "A biting, uproarious yet vital and deadly serious account of the profound damage the billionaire class is inflicting on the world. Peter S. Goodman guides the reader through the hidden stories and twisted beliefs of some of the titans of finance and industry, who continually rationalize their bad behavior to themselves." — JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics "Unflinching and authoritative, Peter Goodman’s Davos Man will be read a hundred years from now as a warning, bellowed from the blessed side of the velvet rope, about a slow-motion scandal that spans the globe. Deliciously rich with searing detail, the clarity is reminiscent of Tom Wolfe, let loose in the Alps, in search of hypocrisies and vanities." — EVAN OSNOS, National Book Award-winning author of Age of Ambition and Wildland “One of the great financial investigative journalists, Peter S. Goodman delivers a meticulously detailed account of how the billionaire class has hijacked the world’s economy, feasting on calamity, shirking taxes, all the while spouting bromides about compassionate capitalism. I so wish this tale of limitless greed and hypocrisy was a novel or a mini-series and not the truth about the world in which we live. Reader, prepare to be enraged.” — BARBARA DEMICK, author of Nothing to Envy and Eat the Buddha “New York Times global economics correspondent Goodman mounts a scathing critique of the greed, narcissism, and hypocrisy that characterize those in ‘the stratosphere of the globe-trotting class’… An urgent, timely, and compelling message with nearly limitless implications.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Impressively detailed. … Very readable, extensively reported. … A well-researched and lively explanation of how the global economy works, and the turning points that have enabled profiteering by the ultra-rich while undermining societal and democratic institutions.” — Charter “Goodman is a skilled reporter whose stories of private affluence and public squalor are filled with detail and human interest.” — Wall Street Journal
£24.28
Penguin Books Ltd How Markets Fail
Book SynopsisHow did we get to where we are? John Cassidy shows that the roots of our most recent financial failure lie not with individuals, but with an idea - the idea that markets are inherently rational. He gives us the big picture behind the financial headlines, tracing the rise and fall of free market ideology from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan. Full of wit, sense and, above all, a deeper understanding, How Markets Fail argues for the end of ''utopian'' economics, and the beginning of a pragmatic, reality-based way of thinking.Trade ReviewA very good history of economic thought * Economist *How Markets Fail offers a brilliant intellectual framework . . . fine work * New York Times *An essential, grittily intellectual, yet compelling guide to the financial debacle of 2009 * Geordie Greig, Evening Standard *A powerful argument . . . Cassidy makes a compelling case that a return to hands-off economics would be a disaster * BusinessWeek *This book is a well constructed, thoughtful and cogent account of how capitalism evolved to its current form * Telegraph Books of the Year recommendation *John Cassidy ... describe[s] that mix of insight and madness that brought the world's system to its knees * FT, Book of the Year recommendation *Anyone who enjoys a good read can safely embark on this tour with Cassidy as their guide . . . Like his colleague Malcolm Gladwell [at the New Yorker], Cassidy is able to lead us with beguiling lucidity through unfamiliar territory * New Statesman *
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd House of Cards
Book SynopsisFrom the author of The Last Tycoons, William D. Cohan''s international bestseller House of Cards: How Wall Street''s Gamblers Broke Capitalism dissects the collapse of Bear Stearns and the beginning of the financial crisis. It was Wall Street''s toughest investment bank, taking risks where others feared to tread, run by testosterone-fuelled gamblers who hung a sign saying ''let''s make nothing but money'' over the trading floor. Yet in March 2008 the 85-year-old firm Bear Stearns was brought to its knees - and global economic meltdown began. With unprecedented access to the people at the eye of the financial storm, William Cohan tells the outrageous story of how Wall Street''s entire house of cards came crashing down. ''A page-turner ... hard to put down, especially thanks to its dishy, often profane, quotes from insiders ... Read it, learn - and weep'' Observer ''A fly-on-the-wall record ... Trade ReviewIt is too early to say who will emerge as the definitive chroniclers of this crisis, but this book by William Cohan ... seems likely to end up as one of the key texts * The Observer *A riveting, blow-by-blow account * Economist *Read it, learn and weep * Businessweek *First drafts of history don't get much better than this * Bloomberg *A fly-on-the-wall record ... Cohan is a master of this genre. He perfectly captures the raw voice of Wall Street ... like Damon Runyon updated by Martin Scorsese -- Martin Vander Weyer * Spectator Business *
£16.19
Penguin Books Ltd The Big Short
Book SynopsisTHE OUTRAGEOUS NO.1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER, NOW AN OSCAR- AND BAFTA-WINNING FILM From the jungles of the trading floor to the casinos of Las Vegas, The Big Short, Michael Lewis''s No.1 bestseller, tells the story of the misfits, renegades and visionaries who saw that the biggest credit bubble of all time was about to burst, bet against the banking system - and made a killing. ''In the hands of Michael Lewis, anything is possible ... if you want to know how a nation lost its financial mind - and have a good laugh finding out - this is the book to read'' Sunday Times ''Magnificent ... a perfect storm of brilliant writer meeting big subject'' Guardian ''A triumph ... riveting ... The Big Short reads like a thriller'' The Times''A terrifying story, superbly well told'' Daily Telegraph''A rollicking good yarn'' Financial Times ''Probably the single best piece of financial joTrade ReviewIt's time to throw another tank of petrol on the Wall Street pyre, as only Lewis can * Financial Times *He is so good everyone else may as well pack up * Evening Standard *No one writes with more narrative panache about money and finance than Mr. Lewis -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *Probably the single best piece of financial journalism ever written * Reuters *Hugely entertaining * Economist *Terrifying and superbly told * Daily Telegraph *Genius * Sunday Times *Compelling and horrifying -- GQA more than worthy successor to Liar's Poker ... if you want to know about the origins of the credit crunch, and the extraordinary cast of misfits, visionaries and chancers who made money from the crash, there's no more readable account * Daily Telegraph *A triumph ... riveting ... a genuine page-turner * Times *The very best book about this whole affair -- John Lanchester, author of 'Whoops!'If you read only one book about the causes of the recent financial crisis, let it be Michael Lewis's The Big Short * Washington Post *In the hands of Michael Lewis, anything is possible ... if you want to know how a nation lost its financial mind - and have a good laugh finding out - this is the book to read. * The Sunday Times *Magnificent ... a perfect storm of brilliant writer meeting big subject. * The Guardian *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Whoops
Book SynopsisJohn Lanchester''s Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay is the unbelievable true story of the economic crisis. We are, to use a technical economic term, screwed. The cowboy capitalists had a party with everyone''s money and now we''re all paying for it. What went wrong? And will we learn our lesson - or just carry on as before, like celebrating surviving a heart attack with a packet of Rothmans? John Lanchester travels with a cast of characters - including reckless banksters, snoozing regulators, complacent politicians, predatory lenders, credit-drunk spendthrifts, and innocent bystanders to understand deeply and genuinely what is happening and why we feel the way we do. ''Devastatingly funny ... the route map to the crazed world of contemporary finance we have all been waiting for'' Will Self ''Bang on the money'' Independent ''Explains the crisis in a way that actuTrade ReviewThis is what George Bernard Shaw might have called An Intelligent Person's Guide to the Crisis of Modern Capitalism, and everyone ought to read it * Robert Harris, Sunday Times *Original . . . beautifully written . . . both entertaining and profoundly anger-inducing * Chris Blackhurst, Evening Standard *The route map to the crazed world of contemporary finance we have all been waiting for. John Lanchester's superb book is everything its subject - the 2008 crash - was not: namely lucid, beautifully contrived, comprehensible to the reader with no specialist knowledge - and most of all devastatingly funny -- Will SelfWickedly funny . . . Good humor and good company will be the things that'll get us through * Dwight Garner, New York Times *Endlessly witty, but the wit is underpinned by a tremendous, unembarrassed anger and moral lucidity. A superb guide which will turn any reader into an expert within the space of 200 pages. * Jonathan Coe *Explains the madness of modern capitalism with razor-sharp insight, brilliant clarity and a refreshing dose of humour. A great book. * John O'Farrell *Scarier than Thomas Harris * Nicci French *John Lanchester's newfound mission: to explain the world of finance to the general public . . . The result is the perfect read for anyone still wondering what went wrong and why. Unless you'd rather they didn't know * Bloomberg *Literary and profound . . . a master explainer with an excellent grasp of sophisticated finance * Christopher Caldwell, The Daily Beast *Acidic, frightening, and sharply funny . . . a better book about the global meltdown than any other to date * EW.com *[A] sober message lurking among Lanchester's delightful wordplay, and it deserves attention by everyone who cares to understand where we are, how we got here and who is responsible * John Lawrence Reynolds, Globe and Mail *This is a piece of genius . . . It tells a proper story, like a novel, and we're all part of it - which means it is *gripping*. Yes! Gripping! A book about money! I know! But it's true. It is necessary, particularly - but not exclusively - if you're somebody who thinks, 'Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Iceland, um, mortgages, er...' and doesn't want to keep thinking it until the end of time, amoeba-stylee. I humbly posit that it is a masterpiece * India Knight *Lanchester has turned that fascination - coupled with a kind of astonished anger - into a lucid, conversational account of the crisis designed for non-financial types and helpfully leavened with jokes, swearing and interesting asides * Quentin Webb, Reuters *An excellent book for anyone wondering what the hell is going on. Triple A, as the credit rating agencies might say * Irish Times *Or you could simply borrow the book from someone. If they've read it, even better - they won't be expecting you to return it * The Telegraph *For anyone still wondering what the hell those bankers did with our money, try John Lanchester's deliciously escoriating Whoops! Even someone who can't remember their eight times tables comes away feeling wonderfully well informed -- Allison Pearson * summer reading recommendation, Psychologies *This account is by far the most lucid and entertaining explanation of the world banking crisis of 2008 -- Megan Walsh * summer reading recommendation, Times *A lively lay reader's guide to the financial crisis, written by a novelist who sought to educates himself about banking and its failures. Funny and pointed, it exposes the gulf between the two cultures of modern Britain: financial and non-financial -- Ed Crooks * summer reading recommendation, Financial Times *If you want to look like a rock of good sense, a person who is deep and wise and worried, then I suggest Whoops! by John Lanchester ... If only the Queen Mother were still alive, it would make sense even to her -- Colm Toibin * summer reading recommendation, Guardian *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Crisis Economics
Book SynopsisIn this myth-busting book Nouriel Roubini shows that everything we think about economics is wrong. Financial crises are not unpredictable ''black swans'', but an inherent part of capitalism. Only by remaking our financial systems to acknowledge this, can we get out of the mess we''re in. Will there be another recession, and if so what shape? When will the next bubble occur? What can we do about it? Here Roubini gives the answers, and lists his commandments for the future.Trade ReviewSuccinct, lucid and compelling ... essential reading -- Michiko Kakutani * The New York Times *His was one of the few voices in the economics profession to have correctly predicted the crisis ... broad, well-argued and easy to digest * Independent *This is a wake-up call * Observer *Nouriel Roubini was right -- Paul Krugman * Time *The seer who saw it coming * The New York Times *The man known as "Dr Doom" has been hailed as a prophet * Financial Times *The only professional economist who really predicted the crisis, and perhaps the only independent thinker in that business -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd The Value of Everything
Book SynopsisMariana Mazzucato is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is also Founder and Director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Her widely published research focuses on the relationship between public policy, innovation, and economic growth and she advises policymakers around the world on how to steer innovation so that it produces growth that is more inclusive and sustainable. She is author of the highly acclaimed book The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths and co-editor of Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. She is winner of the 2014 New Statesman SPERI Prize in Political Economy, the 2015 Hans-Matthöfer-Preis and the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. She was named as one of the 'three most important thinkers about innovation' in New Republic.Trade ReviewA stimulating analysis of the underlying causes of inequality and growth which forces us to confront long-held beliefs about how economies work and who benefits. ... The book itself adds value by forcing us to confront these points. -- Martin Wolf * Financial Times *Someone should make a musical out of this book. That is quite unlikely, I grant you, but not as unlikely as it sounds. In 1893 the Savoy theatre staged Gilbert and Sullivan's penultimate operetta, Utopia, Limited ... It is time to rework the idea and Mariana Mazzucato is a candidate to write the libretto. -- Philip Collins * The Times *As Mariana Mazzucuto's new book, published today, explains, our economy has been financialised and no longer rewards real value creation. -- Chi Onwurah * New Statesman *Mariana Mazzucato ... argues that we urgently need to rethink where wealth comes from to heal a sick system. -- Richard Kilgarriff * Management Today *Mariana Mazzucato offers an exposé of how value extractors and rent-seekers have been masquerading as value creators in the global economy. And, furthermore, how the conventional wisdom has indulged them in this. -- Fran Boait * Prospect *In The Value of Everything, published last week, Mazzucato sharpens her focus, not only lauding the role of 'mission-oriented' public investment, but honing her critique of the private sector too. -- Liam Halligan * The Spectator *Some economists merely interpret the world in various ways; others seek to change it. Mariana Mazzucato is an exemplar of the latter kind. The Italian-American is a restless thinker drawn to transformative, disruptive projects. ... Mazzucato's mission is to overturn the now dominant neoclassical theory of value. In the mid-19th century, she explained, an intellectual revolution occurred: rather than value determining price, price began to determine value. -- George Eaton * New Statesman *The Value of Everything is receiving accolades on Twitter from finance ministers and student idealists alike, and is clearly set to be essential summer reading for civil servants. -- Delphine Strauss * Financial Times *Praise for The Entrepreneurial State: Conventional economics offers abstract models; conventional wisdom insists that the answer lies with private entrepreneurship. In this brilliant book, Mariana Mazzucato...argues that the former is useless and the latter incomplete. -- Martin Wolf * Financial Times *One of the most incisive economic books in years. -- Jeffery Madrick * New York Review of Books *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd The Square and the Tower
Book Synopsis
£15.29
Penguin Publishing Group Oil and Ice A Story of Arctic Disaster and the Rise and Fall of Americas Last Whaling Dynasty
Book SynopsisPeter Nichols has crafted a terrifyingly relevant historical narrative...A terrific read. -Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In The Heart of the Sea In 1871, America's last fleet of whaling ships was destroyed in an arctic ice storm. Miraculously, 1,218 men, women and children survived, but the disaster was catastrophic at home. Oil and Ice is the story of one fateful whaling season that illuminates the unprecedented rise and devastating fall of America's first oil economy, and the fate of today's petroleum industry.
£16.97
Penguin Books Ltd After the Music Stopped
Book SynopsisAlan S. Blinder-esteemed Princeton professor, Wall Street Journal columnist, and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board under Alan Greenspan-is one of our wisest and most clear-eyed economic thinkers. In After the Music Stopped, he delivers a masterful narrative of how the worst economic crisis in postwar American history happened, what the government did to fight it, and what we must do to recover from it. With bracing clarity, Blinder chronicles the perfect storm of events beginning in 2007, from the bursting of the housing bubble to the implosion of the bond bubble, and how events in the U.S. spread throughout the interconnected global economy. Truly comprehensive and eminently readable, After the Music Stopped is the essential book about the financial crisis.Trade ReviewThe Wall Street Journal:"[Blinder] is a master storyteller... [After the Music Stopped] is one of the best books yet about the financial crisis."Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times:"Highly readable... Mr. Blinder draws on the work of many... reporters in his account. But if large portions of After the Music Stopped feel familiar, the book nonetheless benefits from its wide-angle perspective, as well as from its vantage point in time, now that it's possible to assess the fallout of decisions that were being made on the run by White House and Treasury officials under extraordinary pressures. It also benefits from Mr. Blinder's clear-eyed prose and nimble gifts as an explainer — gifts that sometimes approach those of Bill Clinton, when it comes to making complicated economic issues and policies understandable to the lay reader. Direct and concise, Mr. Blinder tells it as he sees it."Financial Times:"Blinder's book deserves its likely place near the top of reading lists about the crisis. It is the best comprehensive history of the episode... A riveting tale."The New Republic:"For a reader wondering how we got here, and why the people in charge have seemed, often, to be so chary of stringing up the culprits, or tearing down the system, Blinder's book - not least because his fair-minded approach and pragmatic mindset evokes that of America's current regulators - gives us an invaluable insight."USA Today:"What does all the knowledge mean to generalist readers? A lot, actually. Blinder is no defender of his economist colleagues or other former and current insiders who caused so much damage - or, at minimum, failed to see the collapse on the horizon. He writes clearly - as well as lots of journalists. That combination makes the book a worthy addition to the literature."Seattle Times:“If you want to get between the covers with your favorite econ nerd this season, I recommend Alan Blinder’s After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response and the Work Ahead. Written by the former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, this deserves a place among the top reads on the Great Panic and its aftermath.”Cleveland Plain Dealer:"A prodigiously detailed yet generally accessible investigation of the roots of the meltdown, its multiple and continuing reverberations in the United States and globally, and the short-term fixes and long-term remedies required to treat, and then heal, the patient."President William J. Clinton:"If you want to understand every aspect of our economic crisis—how we got into it, how we escaped a depression, why we haven't fully recovered, and what we have to do now—read this book. It's a masterpiece—simple, straightforward and wise."Paul A. Volcker:"True to his scholarly roots and informed by his practical insights, Alan Blinder has produced in After the Music Stopped both a comprehensive and, mirabile dictu, engagingly readable analysis of the great financial crisis. Whether or not one agrees with every particular judgment, the force of the argument is clear: here we are, four years later, still short of reforms that are needed."Bob Woodward:"Alan Blinder is one of the world's best informed and most balanced, sensible economists. His credentials include years as a senior adviser in the Clinton White House, then as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve and as regular op-ed contributor to the Wall Street Journal. After the Music Stopped is the best account available of what really happened in the 2008 financial crisis, why and what it now means for the future."Mohamed A. El-Erian:"Of all the books that I have read on the topic—and I have read quite a few—After the Music Stopped provides the most authoritative account of the why, how and what of the global financial crisis. This highly readable analysis takes you brilliantly through the construction of America's fragile house of financial cards, its sudden and dramatic collapse and, as important, the difficult reconstruction and rehabilitation work that must still be done. Whether you are interested in current affairs or in history, read this book if you want an expert and well-written analysis of how economics and politics interacted to create one big mess, not just for America but also for the global economy."
£10.44
Oxford University Press The Economics of the Stock Market
Book SynopsisThe current consensus economic model, the neoclassical synthesis, depends on aprioristic assumptions that are shown to be invalid when tested against the data and fails to include finance. Economic policy based on this consensus has led to the financial crisis of 2008, the ''Great Recession'' that followed, and the slow subsequent rate of growth. In The Economics of the Stock Market, Andrew Smithers proposes a model that is robust when tested, and by including the impact of the stock market on the economy, overcomes both these defects. The faults of the current consensus model are shown to result typically from an unscientific methodology in which assumptions are held to be valid despite their incompatibility with data evidence. Smithers demonstrates examples of these faults: the Miller/Modigliani Theorem (the assumption that leverage does not affect the value of produced capital assets); the assumption that short-term and long-term interest rates, and the cost of equity capital, are co-determined; and the assumption that the decisions of corporate managements aim to maximise the present value of corporate assets (''profit maximisation'') rather than the value determined by the stock market. The Economics of the Stock Market proposes a model that includes and explains the stationarity of real returns on equity, based on the interaction of the differing utility preferences of the managers of companies and the owners of financial capital. These claims are highly controversial, and Smithers proposes that the relative merits of the neoclassical synthesis and this proposed alternative can only be properly considered through public debate.Trade ReviewSmithers was one of the few economists to warn about the internet bubble and the dangers posed by the ensuing global credit boom. His current concerns shouldn't be dismissed lightly. * Edward Chancellor, Reuters Breakingviews *While comparisons with Keynes might seem overly grand, it is possible to feel a similar sense of freshness at the approach taken by Andrew Smithers in his new book. He ostensibly focuses on the stock market but the treatment is wide ranging. The book sets out to challenge a number of assumptions and results in neoclassical models... * Sunil Krishnan, Society of Professional Economists *Awe-inspring, encompassing, convention-flouting analysis, hard stick-your-neck out empirical discoveries, and counter-intuitive hypotheses. Endlessly stimulating and intensely useful. * Avner Offer, Chichele Professor Emeritus of Economic History, University of Oxford *This is a bold book that questions virtually all the assumptions of prevailing neoclassical theory. By rejecting the concept of the "representative agent", proposing instead that households and corporate management have totally different motivations, Smithers shows how finance plays a crucial role in explaining developments in the real economy * William White, Senior Fellow at the CD Howe Institute and Former Economic Adviser Bank of International Settlements *The book poses a substantial and important challenge to financial economics. It is therefore important that the book should be published and the author's views debated. * Martin Weale, Professor of Economics, Kings College London. *The scope of The Economics of the Stock Market is ambitious and its tone quite provocative; both practitioners and academics will find this book relevant and stimulating. * Javier López Bernardo, PhD, CFA *Table of ContentsForeword by Andy Haldane 1: Introduction 2: Surprising Features of the Model 3: The Model in Summary 4: Management Behaviour, Investment, Debt, and Pay-out Ratios 5: Corporate Leverage and Household Portfolio Preference 6: The Growth of Corporate Equity 7: The Yield Curve 8: The Risk-Free Short-term Rate of Interest 9: Equity, Bond, and Cash Relative Returns 10: Stock Market Returns Do Not Follow a Random Walk 11: The Risks of Equities at Different Time Horizons 12: The Time Horizon at Which Investors Will Prefer Equities to Bonds 13: Changes in Aggregate Risk Aversion 14: Monetary Policy, Leverage, and Portfolio Preferences 15: Valuing the US Stock Market 16: The Real Return on Equity Capital Worldwide 17: Money and Time Weighted Returns 18: The Behaviour of The Firm 19: Corporate Investment and the Miller-Modigliani Theorem 20: Land, Inventories, and Trade Credit 21: How the Market Returns to Fair Value 22: Fluctuations in the Hurdle Rate 23: Tangibles and Intangibles 24: Other Problems from Labelling IP Expenditure as Investment 25: Inflation, Leverage, Growth, and Financial Stability. 26: Tax 27: Portfolio Preference and Retirement Savings 28: Life Cycle Savings Hypothesis (LCSH) 29: Depreciation, Capital Consumption, and Maintenance 30: Comparison with Other Approaches 31: The Efficient Market Hypothesis 32: Summary 33: Comments in Conclusion Appendices Appendix 1. The Duration of Bonds and Equities Appendix 2. The Valuation of Unquoted Companies in The Financial Accounts of the United States - Z1 Appendix 3. Measurement of the Net Capital Stock and Depreciation in the US Appendix 4. Data Sources, Use, and Methods of Calculation
£42.14
Oxford University Press The Affluent Society Revisited
Book SynopsisThis book revisits John Kenneth Galbraith''s classic text The Affluent Society in the context of the background to, and causes of, the global economic crisis that erupted in 2008. Each chapter takes a major theme of Galbraith''s book, distils his arguments, and then discusses to what extent they cast light on current developments, both in developed economies and in the economics discipline. The themes include: inequality, insecurity, inflation, debt, consumer behaviour, financialization, the economic role of government (''social balance''), the power of ideas, the role of power in the economy, and the nature of the good society. It considers the current problems of capitalism and the huge challenges facing democratic governments in tackling them. Written in non-technical language, this book is accessible to students of economics and the social sciences as well as to those who would have read The Affluent Society and the general reader interested in contemporary affairs and public policy.Trade ReviewStudents of economic history will find this a particularly useful volume as it is written in an exceptionally readable manner. This volume makes an important contribution to the literature on the economic history of advanced capitalism and its effects on the distribution of wealth within Western democracies. I have no hesitation in recommending this text to anyone, whether or not they are familiar with economics, with an interest in recent economic history and/or in the effects of changing economic policies on the structure of societies. Furthermore, anyone seeking an overview of the causes and consequences of the GFC will find The Affluent Society Revisited a useful reference. * Jenny Chesters, Economic Record *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Why Revisit The Affluent Society? ; 2. The Power of Ideas: Reflections on the Conventional Wisdom ; 3. The Central Tradition ; 4. Inequality ; 5. Economic Security ; 6. The Ambiguities of Production ; 7. The Dethroned Consumer ; 8. Inflation ; 9. Debt ; 10. The Theory of Social Balance ; 11. Switching Tracks ; 12. The Idea of Power ; 13. The Moral Order ; 14. Concluding Thoughts ; A Reader's Guide
£29.49
Oxford University Press Liquidity Lost The Governance of the Global Financial Crisis
Book SynopsisThe interventions of crisis management during the 2007 to 2011 financial crisis were not simply responses to a set of given developments in markets, banking or neo-liberal capitalism. Nor can those interventions be adequately explained as the actions of sovereign state officials and institutions. Instead, Langley argues, processes of crisis governance are shown to have established six principal technical problems to be acted upon: liquidity, toxicity, solvency, risk, regulation, and debt and that the governance of these technical problems, is shown to have been strategically assembled in order to secure the continuation of a particular, financialized way of life that depends upon global financial circulations. Contributing to interdisciplinary debates in cultural economy and the social studies of finance, and grounded in extensive empirical research, this book offers an innovative analysis of how the contemporary global financial crisis was governed. Through an exploration of the interTable of Contents1: Introduction 2: Financial Crisis Governance 3: Liquidity 4: Toxicity 5: Solvency 6: Risk 7: Regulation 8: Debt 9: Conclusion
£32.99
Oxford University Press The Architecture of Collapse The Global System in
Book SynopsisUsing a variety of economic, financial, and political indicators, this book demonstrates that the global system has become an 'architecture of collapse'. The global financial crisis of 2008, the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China, and the European sovereign debt crisis illustrate the causes and the consequences of global instabilityTrade ReviewFew social scientists have the urbane vision and capacious intellect of Mauro Guillén. His dissection of the shock inducing and absorbing features of our interconnected world system vividly details the risks we presently face, but also paves the way for steps that could cushion the present volatility. * Walter W. Powell, Stanford University *A brilliant critical engagement with different interpretations of what makes a system prone to failure. The author develops a multi-level and multi-nodal analysis that allows him to single out strategic sources of systemic instability and to demonstrate what can be done. * Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, author of Expulsions *A fascinating perspective on the sources of instability in the global system. Professor Guillén brings to bear powerful concepts from the study of system complexity. A must read for anyone interested in financial markets, international migration, and the rise or fall of nations. * Simon Johnson, MIT Sloan School of Management and former IMF Chief Economist *This book offers a sobering analysis of the risks facing the global economy, from population aging to financial inter-connections. The policy recommendations are important and timely. * Lady Barbara Judge, CBE *A careful conceptual construction of complexity and coupling... [providing] new insights into why countries are likely to experience more frequent crises. Guillén skillfully navigates a multidisciplinary interrogation of the increasing fragility of the global economic system. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPreface 1: The Global System 2: Complexity 3: Coupling 4: Complexity, Coupling, and the Great Recession 5: The U.S./China Relationship 6: The Euro Zone as a Complex, Tightly-Coupled System 7: The Future of the Global System
£26.72
Oxford University Press, USA Austerity and Recovery in Ireland Europes Poster Child and the Great Recession
Book SynopsisIn international commentary and debate on the effects of the Great Recession and austerity, Ireland has been hailed as the poster child for economic recovery and regeneration out of deep economic and fiscal contraction. While the genesis of Ireland''s financial, economic, and fiscal crisis has been covered in the literature, no systematic analysis has yet been devoted to the period of austerity, to the impact of austerity on institutions and people, or to the roots of economic recovery. In this book a group of Ireland''s leading social scientists present a multidisciplinary analysis of recession and austerity and their effects on economic, business, political, and social life. Individual chapters discuss the fiscal and economic policies implemented, the role of international, and, in particular, of EU institutions, and the effects on businesses, consumption, work, the labour market, migration, political and financial institutions, social inequality and cohesion, housing, and cultural expression. The book shows that Ireland cannot be viewed uncritically as a poster child for austerity. While fiscal contraction provided a basis for stabilizing the perilous finances of the state, economic recovery was due in the main to the long-established structure of Irish economic and business activity, to the importance of foreign direct investment and the dynamic export sector, and to recovery in the international economy. The restructuring and recovery of the financial system was aided by favourable international developments, including historically low interest rates and quantitative easing. Migration flows, nominal wage stability, the protection of social transfer payments, and the involvement of trade unions in severe public sector retrenchment - long-established features of Irish political economy - were of critical importance in the maintenance of social cohesion.Trade ReviewThe many strands of ruin and gradual but not complete recovery are dealt with in a style that is both scholarly and accessible. This richness makes it the best overall single-volume assessment of our recent political and social experience. * Paschal Donohoe, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, The Irish Times *Table of Contents1: William K. Roche, Philip O'Connell, and Andrea Prothero: Introduction 'Poster Child' or 'Beautiful Freak'?: Austerity and Recovery in Ireland 2: Seán Ó Riain: The Road to Austerity 3: Stephen Kinsella: Economic and Fiscal Policy 4: Frank Barry and Adele Bergin: Business 5: Gregory Connor, Thomas Flavin, and Brian O'Kelly: The Financial Sector 6: Blanaid Clarke: Banking Regulation 7: Marius C. Claudy, Andrew Keating, and Andrea Prothero: Consumption 8: Paul Teague: Ireland and the 'GIPS' Countries 9: David M. Farrell: Political Reform 10: Brigid Laffan: International Actors and Agencies 11: William K. Roche: Workplaces 12: Richard Boyle: Public Service Reform 13: Philip J. O'Connell: Unemployment and Labour Market Policy 14: Kathleen Lynch, Sarah Cantillon, and Margaret Crean: Inequality 15: Rob Kitchin, Rory Hearne, and Cian O'Callaghan: Housing 16: Irial Glynn and Philip J. O'Connell: Migration 17: Donald Taylor Black: Culture Index
£33.99
Oxford University Press Risk and Liquidity
Book SynopsisThis book presents the Clarendon Lectures in Finance by one of the leading exponents of financial booms and crises. Hyun Song Shin''s work has shed light on the global financial crisis and he has been a central figure in the policy debates. The paradox of the global financial crisis is that it erupted in an era when risk management was at the core of the management of the most sophisticated financial institutions. This book explains why. The severity of the crisis is explained by financial development that put marketable assets at the heart of the financial system, and the increased sophistication of financial institutions that held and traded the assets. Step by step, the lectures build an analytical framework that take the reader through the economics behind the fluctuations in the price of risk and the boom-bust dynamics that follow. The book examines the role played by market-to-market accounting rules and securitisation in amplifying the crisis, and draws lessons for financial arcTrade ReviewIn the Great Recession, the world has looked for leading economists to offer a new and better understanding of macroeconomic instability, as Keynes did in the Great Depression. In this book, Hyun Song Shin delivers what was needed. Step by step, he develops a new comprehensive understanding of how macroeconomic booms and busts can be derived from microeconomic forces in the banking system. This book should be recognized as a major contribution to macroeconomic theory * Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate in Economics 2007, Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor Department of Economics, University of Chicago *This book is a must-read for students, scholars and policy makers who would like to decipher the subprime crisis. Hyun Shin has an extraordinary talent for designing simple models that explain complicated phenomena. * Jean Charles Rochet, Professor of Economics, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) *Hyun Song Shin is one of the leading scholars on financial stability in the world. This book provides a very accessible summary of this work. It is essential reading for all academics and practitioners interested in financial crises. * Franklin Allen, Professor of Finance and Economics and Executive Director of the Brevan Howard Centre at Imperial College London *Table of Contents1: Nature of Financial Risk 2: Value-at-Risk Capital 3: Boom and Bust Driven by Value-at-Risk 4: Dynamic Hedging 5: Asset-Liability Management 6: Financial System 7: Lending Booms 8: The Case of Northern Rock 9: Securitisation and the Financial System 10: A Fresh Start
£37.27
Oxford University Press The Politics of Bad Options Why the Eurozones
Book SynopsisThis is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Why was the Eurozone crisis so difficult to resolve? Why was it resolved in a manner in which some countries bore a much larger share of the pain than other countries? Why did no country leave the Eurozone rather than implement unprecedented austerity? Who supported and opposed the different policy options in the crisis domestically, and how did the distributive struggles among these groups shape crisis politics? Building on macro-level statistical data, original survey data from interest groups, and qualitative comparative case studies, this book argues and shows that the answers to these questions revolve around distributive struggles about how the costs of the Eurozone crisis should be divided among countries, and within countries, among different socioeconomic groups. Together with divergent but strongly held ideas about the ''right way'' to conduct economic policy and asymmetries in the distribution of power among actors, severe distributive concerns of important actors lie at the root of the difficulties of resolving the Eurozone crisis as well as the difficulties to substantially reform EMU. The book provides new insights into the politics of the Eurozone crisis by emphasizing three perspectives that have received scant attention in existing research: a comparative perspective on the Eurozone crisis by systematically comparing it to previous financial crises, an analysis of the whole range of policy options, including the ones not chosen, and a unified framework that examines crisis politics not just in deficit-debtor, but also in surplus-creditor countries.Trade ReviewIn a new book by Stefanie Walter, Ari Ray, and Nils Redeker, The Politics of Bad Options: Why the Eurozone's Problems Have Been So Hard to Resolve (Oxford University Press 2020), the authors argue that the costs of resolution in the Eurozone crisis were borne almost exclusively by indebted deficit countries, whereas the creditor-surplus states did little to share the burden. While debtor states were forced to implement austerity measures and structural reforms that were almost unprecedented in scale, surplus countries—their argument goes—did not significantly adjust their economic policies. * Nils Karlson, Professor of Political Science and President of the Ratio Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, The Library of Economics and Liberty *The Euro crisis was a defining moment in European integration that continues to shape the trajectory of the EU. In this theoretically innovative and empirically rigorous book, Walter, Ray, and Redeker present new insights into the political dynamics and constraints shaping the policy responses to the Euro crisis. Importantly, they study all the available options and trade-offs to explain why specific policies were chosen. The book is an invaluable contribution to understanding the politics of the Euro crisis. * Sara Hobolt, LSE *The Eurozone crisis has been the greatest failure in the history of European integration. The European Union's member states were patently unable to negotiate their way to an economically, politically, and socially sensible resolution of the crisis. The Politics of Bad Options explains the course and results of the Eurozone crisis with theoretical and empirical clarity. Walter, Ray, and Redeker analyze the sources of the conflicts between creditor/surplus and debtor/deficit countries. They explain the domestic political economies of debtor and creditor nations, and the disastrous course of their attempts to resolve the crisis. The Politics of Bad Options is required reading for anyone interested in the European Union, international debt, and more broadly and comparative and international political economy. * Jeffry Frieden, Harvard University *I found this is an exciting and very thought provoking book, making me think both more and differently about the Eurozone's crises. First, thinking seriously about the surplus countries (after being so focussed on the pathologies of Southern Europe) is a great and illuminating discipline. Second, and based on distributional conflicts, it provides a carefully thought out and original analytic framework. And third it is seriously - hence really usefully - comprehensive and reliable. Based on Walter's major research programme, it represents the high level of intellectual results which can come from intense and coordinated collaboration. * David Soskice, LSE *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Bad Options and Difficult Choices in the Eurozone Crisis 2: Putting the Eurozone Crisis Experience in Perspective 3: Distributive Conflict and Interest Group Preferences in Deficit Countries 4: Crisis Politics in Deficit Countries 5: Surplus Country Vulnerability to Rebalancing: A Comparative Analysis 6: Distributive Conflict and Interest Group Preferences in Surplus Countries 7: Crisis Politics in Surplus Countries: Caught between Voter Pressure and Interest Group Stalemate 8: Conclusion
£38.64
Oxford University Press Understanding Financial Crises
Book SynopsisWhat causes a financial crisis? Can financial crises be anticipated or even avoided? What can be done to lessen their impact? Should governments and international institutions intervene? Or should financial crises be left to run their course? In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, many blamed international institutions, corruption, governments, and flawed macro and microeconomic policies not only for causing the crisis but also unnecessarily lengthening and deepening it. Based on ten years of research, the authors develop a theoretical approach to analyzing financial crises. Beginning with a review of the history of financial crises and providing readers with the basic economic tools needed to understand the literature, the authors construct a series of increasingly sophisticated models. Throughout, the authors guide the reader through the existing theoretical and empirical literature while also building on their own theoretical approach. The text presents the modern theory ofTrade ReviewReview from previous edition Allen and Gale have been at the frontier of theoretical thinking about crises for over a decade ... a one-stop-shop for the many important contributions made to the theoretical modelling of financial crises by these two prominent authors * Central Banking Vol 18 No 1 *This is, for me, the book's real selling point: it is accessible to a graduate level audience - indeed, would make an excellent lecture series - but at the same time easily contains enough state-of-the-art modelling to be of interest to the academic or policymaker. * Andrew G. Haldane *Table of Contents1. History and institutions ; 2. Time, uncertainty and liquidity ; 3. Intermediation ; 4. Asset markets ; 5. Financial fragility ; 6. Intermediation and markets ; 7. Optimal regulation ; 8. Money and the prices ; 9. Bubbles and crises ; 10. Contagion
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