-
How Markets Fail
- The Logic of Economic Calamities
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $17.90
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Predictably Irrational
- The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
- By: Dan Ariely
- Narrated by: Simon Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a series of illuminating, often surprising experiments, MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities.
-
-
Good lessons, mediocre science?
- By William Stanger on 02-24-09
By: Dan Ariely
-
The Index Card
- Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
- By: Helaine Olen, Harold Pollack
- Narrated by: Helaine Olen, Harold Pollack
- Length: 3 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
TV analysts and money managers would have you believe your finances are enormously complicated, and if you don't follow their guidance, you'll end up in the poorhouse. They're wrong. When University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack interviewed Helaine Olen, an award-winning financial journalist and the author of the best-selling Pound Foolish, he made an offhand suggestion: Everything you need to know about managing your money could fit on an index card.
-
-
Getting your personal finance right? Start here.
- By Alan J on 04-27-18
By: Helaine Olen, and others
-
Fooled by Randomness
- The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work, and its title has entered our vocabulary. In its second edition, Fooled by Randomness is now a cornerstone for anyone interested in random outcomes.
-
-
Pass on this one and read The Black Swan
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
-
Economics for Dummies, 3rd Edition
- By: Sean Masaki Flynn PhD
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The economy is always changing, but some things are eternal! Economics for Dummies, 3rd Edition, gives you everything you need to understand our rapidly evolving economy as well as the basics that never change. What's the best way to fight poverty? How can governments boost employment and wage growth? What can be done to protect endangered species and the environment?
-
-
Great book with broad overview of economics!
- By Asha Sceanca on 11-16-19
-
All the Devils Are Here
- The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis
- By: Bethany McLean, Joe Nocera
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers? According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy.
-
-
Excellent!
- By Euri on 11-19-10
By: Bethany McLean, and others
-
Barbarians at the Gate
- The Fall of RJR Nabisco
- By: Bryan Burrough, John Helyar
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A number-one New York Times best seller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes a new afterword by the authors that brings this remarkable story of greed and double-dealings up to date 20 years after the famed deal.
-
-
Timeless.
- By Jeremy Repanich on 07-22-23
By: Bryan Burrough, and others
-
Predictably Irrational
- The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
- By: Dan Ariely
- Narrated by: Simon Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a series of illuminating, often surprising experiments, MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities.
-
-
Good lessons, mediocre science?
- By William Stanger on 02-24-09
By: Dan Ariely
-
The Index Card
- Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
- By: Helaine Olen, Harold Pollack
- Narrated by: Helaine Olen, Harold Pollack
- Length: 3 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
TV analysts and money managers would have you believe your finances are enormously complicated, and if you don't follow their guidance, you'll end up in the poorhouse. They're wrong. When University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack interviewed Helaine Olen, an award-winning financial journalist and the author of the best-selling Pound Foolish, he made an offhand suggestion: Everything you need to know about managing your money could fit on an index card.
-
-
Getting your personal finance right? Start here.
- By Alan J on 04-27-18
By: Helaine Olen, and others
-
Fooled by Randomness
- The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work, and its title has entered our vocabulary. In its second edition, Fooled by Randomness is now a cornerstone for anyone interested in random outcomes.
-
-
Pass on this one and read The Black Swan
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
-
Economics for Dummies, 3rd Edition
- By: Sean Masaki Flynn PhD
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The economy is always changing, but some things are eternal! Economics for Dummies, 3rd Edition, gives you everything you need to understand our rapidly evolving economy as well as the basics that never change. What's the best way to fight poverty? How can governments boost employment and wage growth? What can be done to protect endangered species and the environment?
-
-
Great book with broad overview of economics!
- By Asha Sceanca on 11-16-19
-
All the Devils Are Here
- The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis
- By: Bethany McLean, Joe Nocera
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers? According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy.
-
-
Excellent!
- By Euri on 11-19-10
By: Bethany McLean, and others
-
Barbarians at the Gate
- The Fall of RJR Nabisco
- By: Bryan Burrough, John Helyar
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A number-one New York Times best seller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes a new afterword by the authors that brings this remarkable story of greed and double-dealings up to date 20 years after the famed deal.
-
-
Timeless.
- By Jeremy Repanich on 07-22-23
By: Bryan Burrough, and others
-
The Bond King
- How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All
- By: Mary Childs
- Narrated by: Mary Childs
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. Ten thousand dollars and countless casino bans later, he was hooked, so he enrolled in business school. The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino.
-
-
Being a good writer does not make you a good narrator
- By John Mallory on 05-14-22
By: Mary Childs
-
Lords of Finance
- The Bankers Who Broke the World
- By: Liaquat Ahamed
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person's or government's control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions made by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades.
-
-
interesting insight into interwar period!
- By Toru on 11-27-09
By: Liaquat Ahamed
-
After the Music Stopped
- The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead
- By: Alan S. Blinder
- Narrated by: Graham Vick
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alan 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.
-
-
Irresponsible, corrupt, and confused book
- By Thomas on 12-22-14
By: Alan S. Blinder
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
- By: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it?
-
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- By orders on 10-07-23
By: Steven Levitsky, and others
-
A Short History of Financial Euphoria
- By: John Kenneth Galbraith
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 2 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With incomparable wisdom, skill, and wit, world-renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith traces the history of the major speculative episodes in our economy over the last three centuries. Exposing the ways in which normally sane people display reckless behavior in pursuit of profit, Galbraith asserts that our "notoriously short" financial memory is what creates the conditions for market collapse. By recognizing these signs and understanding what causes them we can guard against future recessions and have a better hold on our country's (and our own) financial destiny.
-
The Invisible Hand
- By: Ayad Akhtar
- Narrated by: Ayad Akhtar
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In remote Pakistan, Nick Bright awaits his fate. A successful financial trader, Nick is kidnapped by an Islamic militant group, but with no one negotiating his release, he agrees to an unusual plan. He will earn his own ransom by helping his captors manipulate and master the world commodities and currency markets.
-
-
Takes you into two fascinating worlds
- By Julia Livingston on 10-22-20
By: Ayad Akhtar
-
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
- By: Thomas Piketty, Arthur Goldhammer - translator
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 24 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories.
-
-
The Financial Times' Critique Doesn't Detract
- By Madeleine on 05-22-14
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
-
The Great Crash 1929
- By: John Kenneth Galbraith
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Of Galbraith's classic examination of the 1929 financial collapse, the Atlantic Monthly said, "Economic writings are seldom notable for their entertainment value, but this book is. Galbraith's prose has grace and wit, and he distills a good deal of sardonic fun from the whopping errors of the nation's oracles and the wondrous antics of the financial community." Now, with the stock market riding historic highs, the celebrated economist returns with new insights on the legacy of our past and the consequences of blind optimism and power plays within the financial community.
-
Irrational Exuberance
- Revised and Expanded Third Edition
- By: Robert J. Shiller
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With high stock and bond prices and the rising cost of housing, the post-subprime boom may well turn out to be another illustration of Shiller's influential argument that psychologically driven volatility is an inherent characteristic of all asset markets. In other words, Irrational Exuberance is as relevant as ever. Previous editions covered the stock and housing markets - and famously predicted their crashes. This edition expands its coverage to include the bond market, so that the book now addresses all of the major investment markets.
-
-
Still Relevant After 21 Years
- By Tom on 06-08-21
-
The Lords of Easy Money
- How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy
- By: Christopher Leonard
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you asked most people what forces led to today’s unprecedented income inequality and financial crashes, no one would say the Federal Reserve. For most of its history, the Fed has enjoyed the fawning adoration of the press. When the economy grew, it was credited to the Fed. When the economy imploded in 2008, the Fed got credit for rescuing us.
-
-
Pointless book
- By Darrin on 02-23-22
-
Crashed
- How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World
- By: Adam Tooze
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Adam Tooze
- Length: 25 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Current events have deep roots, and the key to navigating today’s roiling policies lies in the events that started it all — the 2008 economic crisis and its aftermath. Despite initial attempts to downplay the crisis as a local incident, what happened on Wall Street beginning in 2008 was, in fact, a dramatic caesura of global significance that spiraled around the world, from the financial markets of the UK and Europe to the factories and dockyards of Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
-
-
A vaccine against substance free deceivers
- By Gary on 08-19-18
By: Adam Tooze
-
The Deficit Myth
- Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy
- By: Stephanie Kelton
- Narrated by: Stephanie Kelton
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephanie Kelton's brilliant exploration of modern monetary theory (MMT) dramatically changes our understanding of how we can best deal with crucial issues ranging from poverty and inequality to creating jobs, expanding health care coverage, climate change, and building resilient infrastructure. Any ambitious proposal, however, inevitably runs into the buzz saw of how to find the money to pay for it, rooted in myths about deficits that are hobbling us as a country.
-
-
Good core idea, ruined by polemics
- By Amaze on 06-25-20
By: Stephanie Kelton
Publisher's summary
In How Markets Fail, John Cassidy describes the rising influence of what he calls utopian economics, thinking that is blind to how real people act and which denies the many ways an unregulated free market can produce disastrous unintended consequences. He then looks to the leading edge of economic theory - including behavioral economics - to offer a new understanding of the economy, one that casts aside the old assumption that people and firms make decisions purely on the basis of rational self-interest.
Taking the global financial crisis and current recession as his starting point, Cassidy explores a world in which everybody is connected and social contagion is the norm. In such an environment, he shows, individual behavioral biases and kinks - such as overconfidence, envy, copy-cat behavior, and myopia - often give rise to troubling macroeconomic phenomena, such as oil-price spikes, CEO greed cycles, and boom-and-bust waves in housing. These are the inevitable outcomes of what Cassidy refers to as "rational irrationality" - self-serving behavior in a modern market setting.
Combining on-the-ground reporting, clear explanations of esoteric economic theories, and even a little crystal-ball gazing, Cassidy warns that in today's economic crisis, conforming to antiquated orthodoxies isn't just misguided - it's downright dangerous. How Markets Fail offers a new, enlightening way to understand the force of the irrational in our volatile global econ...
Critic reviews
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
13 Bankers
- The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown
- By: Simon Johnson, James Kwak
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even after the ruinous financial crisis of 2008, America is still beset by the depredations of an oligarchy that is now bigger, more profitable, and more resistant to regulation than ever. Anchored by six megabanks, which together control assets amounting to more than 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product, these financial institutions (now more emphatically "too big to fail") continue to hold the global economy hostage.
-
-
Easy to Understand and Comprehend
- By Kyle on 04-11-10
By: Simon Johnson, and others
-
The Death of Money
- The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System
- By: James Rickards
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The international monetary system has collapsed three times in the past hundred years, in 1914, 1939, and 1971. Each collapse was followed by a period of tumult: War, civil unrest, or significant damage to the stability of the global economy. Now James Rickards, the acclaimed author of Currency Wars, shows why another collapse is rapidly approaching - and why this time, nothing less than the institution of money itself is at risk.
-
-
A good review of the global financial system
- By Jean on 04-22-14
By: James Rickards
-
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown
- Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: Nick Summers
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sub-prime mortgage crisis is only the beginning; a more profound economic and political restructuring is on its way. According to Charles R. Morris, the astronomical leverage at investment banks, with their hedge-fund and private-equity clients, virtually guarantees massive disruption in global markets.
-
-
Very Illuminating
- By Nelson Alexander on 06-20-08
-
The End of Alchemy
- Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy
- By: Mervyn King
- Narrated by: Greg Wagland
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Something is wrong with our banking system. We all sense that, but Mervyn King knows it firsthand; his 10 years at the helm of the Bank of England, including at the height of the financial crisis, revealed profound truths about the mechanisms of our capitalist society. In The End of Alchemy, he offers us an essential work about the history and future of money and banking, the keys to modern finance.
-
-
Two books in one, both very fine
- By Philo on 07-13-16
By: Mervyn King
-
Fault Lines
- How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World's Economy
- By: Raghuram Rajan
- Narrated by: Richard Davidson
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raghuram Rajan was one of the few economists who warned of the global financial crisis before it hit. Now, as the world struggles to recover, it's tempting to blame what happened on just a few greedy bankers who took irrational risks and left the rest of us to foot the bill. In Fault Lines, Rajan argues that serious flaws in the economy are also to blame, and warns that a potentially more devastating crisis awaits us if they aren't fixed.
-
-
A REAL SNOOZER
- By Frank on 12-02-10
By: Raghuram Rajan
-
A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
-
-
Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
-
13 Bankers
- The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown
- By: Simon Johnson, James Kwak
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even after the ruinous financial crisis of 2008, America is still beset by the depredations of an oligarchy that is now bigger, more profitable, and more resistant to regulation than ever. Anchored by six megabanks, which together control assets amounting to more than 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product, these financial institutions (now more emphatically "too big to fail") continue to hold the global economy hostage.
-
-
Easy to Understand and Comprehend
- By Kyle on 04-11-10
By: Simon Johnson, and others
-
The Death of Money
- The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System
- By: James Rickards
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The international monetary system has collapsed three times in the past hundred years, in 1914, 1939, and 1971. Each collapse was followed by a period of tumult: War, civil unrest, or significant damage to the stability of the global economy. Now James Rickards, the acclaimed author of Currency Wars, shows why another collapse is rapidly approaching - and why this time, nothing less than the institution of money itself is at risk.
-
-
A good review of the global financial system
- By Jean on 04-22-14
By: James Rickards
-
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown
- Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: Nick Summers
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sub-prime mortgage crisis is only the beginning; a more profound economic and political restructuring is on its way. According to Charles R. Morris, the astronomical leverage at investment banks, with their hedge-fund and private-equity clients, virtually guarantees massive disruption in global markets.
-
-
Very Illuminating
- By Nelson Alexander on 06-20-08
-
The End of Alchemy
- Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy
- By: Mervyn King
- Narrated by: Greg Wagland
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Something is wrong with our banking system. We all sense that, but Mervyn King knows it firsthand; his 10 years at the helm of the Bank of England, including at the height of the financial crisis, revealed profound truths about the mechanisms of our capitalist society. In The End of Alchemy, he offers us an essential work about the history and future of money and banking, the keys to modern finance.
-
-
Two books in one, both very fine
- By Philo on 07-13-16
By: Mervyn King
-
Fault Lines
- How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World's Economy
- By: Raghuram Rajan
- Narrated by: Richard Davidson
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raghuram Rajan was one of the few economists who warned of the global financial crisis before it hit. Now, as the world struggles to recover, it's tempting to blame what happened on just a few greedy bankers who took irrational risks and left the rest of us to foot the bill. In Fault Lines, Rajan argues that serious flaws in the economy are also to blame, and warns that a potentially more devastating crisis awaits us if they aren't fixed.
-
-
A REAL SNOOZER
- By Frank on 12-02-10
By: Raghuram Rajan
-
A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
-
-
Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
-
Other People's Money
- The Real Business of Finance
- By: John Kay
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to the search for new investment opportunities and the stewardship of existing ones, and far too much to secondary-market dealing in existing assets. Regulation has contributed more to the problems than the solutions.
-
-
Listened twice. Everyone must read this.
- By Tristan on 01-18-16
By: John Kay
-
Currency Wars
- The Making of the Next Global Crises
- By: James Rickards
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1971, President Nixon imposed national price controls and took the United States off the gold standard, an extreme measure intended to end an ongoing currency war that had destroyed faith in the U.S. dollar. Today we are engaged in a new currency war, and this time the consequences will be far worse than those that confronted Nixon. Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics.
-
-
don't be misled
- By peter on 04-01-12
By: James Rickards
-
The Age of Oversupply
- Overcoming the Greatest Challenge to the Global Economy
- By: Daniel Alpert
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The governments and central banks of the developed world have tried every policy tool imaginable, yet our economies remain sluggish, or worse. How did we get here, and how can we emerge from the longest downturn in recent memory? Daniel Alpert, a progressive Wall Street banker and economist, argues that we are living in the age of oversupply.
-
-
Great book but now out of date
- By emory morsberger on 11-30-17
By: Daniel Alpert
-
The End of Normal
- The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth
- By: James K. Galbraith
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The years since the Great Crisis of 2008 have seen slow growth, high unemployment, falling home values, chronic deficits, a deepening disaster in Europe - and a stale argument between two false solutions, “austerity” on one side and “stimulus” on the other. Both sides and practically all analyses of the crisis so far take for granted that the economic growth from the early 1950s until 2000 - interrupted only by the troubled 1970s - represented a normal performance.
-
After the Music Stopped
- The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead
- By: Alan S. Blinder
- Narrated by: Graham Vick
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alan 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.
-
-
Irresponsible, corrupt, and confused book
- By Thomas on 12-22-14
By: Alan S. Blinder
-
Fool's Gold
- By: Gillian Tett
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gillian Tett brings to life in gripping detail how the Morgan team's bold ideas for a whole new kind of financial alchemy helped to ignite a revolution in banking, and how that revolution escalated wildly out of control. The deeply reported and lively narrative takes readers behind the scenes, to the inner sanctums of elite finance and to the secretive reaches of what came to be known as the "shadow banking" world.
-
-
Outstanding narrative about the financial crisis
- By D. Littman on 07-17-09
By: Gillian Tett
-
Naked Money
- A Revealing Look at What It Is and Why It Matters
- By: Charles Wheelan
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Consider the $20 bill. It has no more value, as a simple slip of paper, than Monopoly money. Yet even children recognize that tearing one into small pieces is an act of inconceivable stupidity. What makes a $20 bill actually worth $20? In the third volume of his best-selling Naked series, Charles Wheelan uses this seemingly simple question to open the door to the surprisingly colorful world of money and banking.
-
-
This is a beautiful audiobook, and well-narrated.
- By Thirsty Mind on 11-10-18
By: Charles Wheelan
-
Economics for the Common Good
- By: Jean Tirole, Steven Rendell - translator
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, he suddenly found himself being stopped in the street by complete strangers and asked to comment on issues of the day, no matter how distant from his own areas of research. His transformation from academic economist to public intellectual prompted him to reflect further on the role economists and their discipline play in society. The result is Economics for the Common Good, a passionate manifesto for a world in which economics, far from being a "dismal science," is a positive force for the common good.
-
-
A Great Overview of the Challenges of Modern Econ
- By Zach Sullivan on 08-06-18
By: Jean Tirole, and others
-
The Shifts and the Shocks
- What We've Learned - and Have Still to Learn - from the Financial Crisis
- By: Martin Wolf
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Shifts and the Shocks is not another detailed history of the crisis, but the most persuasive and complete account yet published of what the crisis should teach us about modern economies and economics. The audiobook identifies the origin of the crisis in the complex interaction between globalization, hugely destabilizing global imbalances and our dangerously fragile financial system.
-
-
Good on Europe's problems, fair global update
- By Philo on 01-08-15
By: Martin Wolf
-
The Instant Economist
- Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works
- By: Timothy Taylor
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Economics isn't just about numbers: It's about politics, psychology, history, and so much more. We are all economists - when we work, save for the future, invest, pay taxes, and buy our groceries. Yet many of us feel lost when the subject arises. Award-winning professor Timothy Taylor here tackles all the key questions and hot topics of both microeconomics and macroeconomics, so you can understand and discuss economics on a personal, national, and global level.
-
-
Timothy Taylor is the best
- By Jake on 02-15-15
By: Timothy Taylor
-
The Myth of the Rational Market
- A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street
- By: Justin Fox
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chronicling the rise and fall of the efficient market theory and the century-long making of the modern financial industry, Justin Fox’s The Myth of the Rational Market is as much an intellectual whodunit as a cultural history of the perils and possibilities of risk. The book brings to life the people and ideas that forged modern finance and investing, from the formative days of Wall Street through the Great Depression and into the financial calamity of today.
-
-
Probably most interesting to economists
- By D. Martin on 06-29-12
By: Justin Fox
-
The Ascent of Money
- A Financial History of the World
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance. Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, it's the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it's the chains of labor. Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress.
-
-
A mostly successful and interesting history
- By A reader on 02-24-09
By: Niall Ferguson
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Manias, Panics, and Crashes (Seventh Edition)
- A History of Financial Crises
- By: Robert Z. Aliber, Charles P. Kindleberger
- Narrated by: Alister Austin
- Length: 19 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Manias, Panics, and Crashes is a scholarly and entertaining account of the way that mismanagement of money and credit has led to financial explosions over the centuries. This seventh edition of an investment classic has been thoroughly revised and expanded following the latest crises to hit international markets. Renowned economist Robert Z. Aliber introduces the concept that global financial crises in recent years are not independent events, but symptomatic of an inherent instability in the international system.
-
-
Lack of theoretical underpinning
- By Dr. Terence M. Dwyer on 09-20-21
By: Robert Z. Aliber, and others
-
Hedge Fund Market Wizards
- How Winning Traders Win
- By: Jack D. Schwager
- Narrated by: Clinton Wade
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From best-selling author, investment expert, and Wall Street theoretician Jack Schwager comes a behind-the-scenes look at the world of hedge funds, from 15 traders who've consistently beaten the markets. Exploring what makes a great trader a great trader, Hedge Fund Market Wizards breaks new ground, giving readers rare insight into the trading philosophy and successful methods employed by some of the most profitable individuals in the hedge fund business.
-
-
So much timeless wisdom
- By Rodney Williams on 08-24-20
By: Jack D. Schwager
-
Red Flags
- Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy
- By: George Magnus
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past four decades, China's remarkable transformation has garnered admiration but also sparked concern. George Magnus draws on his intimate knowledge of this dynamic nation to uncover the origins of its ascent and show why the economic traps it faces at home and the political challenges it faces abroad pose a serious threat to its continued rise.
-
-
A pessimistic vision with western liberal bias
- By Jeronimo L. Jimenez on 10-23-20
By: George Magnus
-
Guide to Financial Markets (6th edition)
- The Economist
- By: Marc Levinson
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive guide to why different financial markets exist and how they operate. This edition brings the listener right up to speed with the latest developments in financial instruments and provides a clear and incisive guide to this complex world that even those who work in it often find hard to understand. With chapters on the markets that deal with money, foreign exchange, equities, bonds, commodities, financial futures, options and other derivatives.
-
-
This sharpened my understanding
- By Philo on 02-05-14
By: Marc Levinson
-
Putinomics
- Money and Power in Resurgent Russia
- By: Chris Miller
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Putinomics, Chris Miller examines the making of Russian economic policy since Vladimir Putin took power in 1999. Miller argues that Putin's economic strategy has functioned far more effectively than most Westerners realize. While acknowledging that part of Putin's successes - above all, quadrupling per capita GDP in just a decade and a half - can be attributed to cashing in on high oil prices, Miller details the government policies that have also been fundamental to Russia's growth.
-
-
Go find something better
- By Anonymous User on 08-04-21
By: Chris Miller
-
A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
-
-
an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
-
Manias, Panics, and Crashes (Seventh Edition)
- A History of Financial Crises
- By: Robert Z. Aliber, Charles P. Kindleberger
- Narrated by: Alister Austin
- Length: 19 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Manias, Panics, and Crashes is a scholarly and entertaining account of the way that mismanagement of money and credit has led to financial explosions over the centuries. This seventh edition of an investment classic has been thoroughly revised and expanded following the latest crises to hit international markets. Renowned economist Robert Z. Aliber introduces the concept that global financial crises in recent years are not independent events, but symptomatic of an inherent instability in the international system.
-
-
Lack of theoretical underpinning
- By Dr. Terence M. Dwyer on 09-20-21
By: Robert Z. Aliber, and others
-
Hedge Fund Market Wizards
- How Winning Traders Win
- By: Jack D. Schwager
- Narrated by: Clinton Wade
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From best-selling author, investment expert, and Wall Street theoretician Jack Schwager comes a behind-the-scenes look at the world of hedge funds, from 15 traders who've consistently beaten the markets. Exploring what makes a great trader a great trader, Hedge Fund Market Wizards breaks new ground, giving readers rare insight into the trading philosophy and successful methods employed by some of the most profitable individuals in the hedge fund business.
-
-
So much timeless wisdom
- By Rodney Williams on 08-24-20
By: Jack D. Schwager
-
Red Flags
- Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy
- By: George Magnus
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past four decades, China's remarkable transformation has garnered admiration but also sparked concern. George Magnus draws on his intimate knowledge of this dynamic nation to uncover the origins of its ascent and show why the economic traps it faces at home and the political challenges it faces abroad pose a serious threat to its continued rise.
-
-
A pessimistic vision with western liberal bias
- By Jeronimo L. Jimenez on 10-23-20
By: George Magnus
-
Guide to Financial Markets (6th edition)
- The Economist
- By: Marc Levinson
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive guide to why different financial markets exist and how they operate. This edition brings the listener right up to speed with the latest developments in financial instruments and provides a clear and incisive guide to this complex world that even those who work in it often find hard to understand. With chapters on the markets that deal with money, foreign exchange, equities, bonds, commodities, financial futures, options and other derivatives.
-
-
This sharpened my understanding
- By Philo on 02-05-14
By: Marc Levinson
-
Putinomics
- Money and Power in Resurgent Russia
- By: Chris Miller
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Putinomics, Chris Miller examines the making of Russian economic policy since Vladimir Putin took power in 1999. Miller argues that Putin's economic strategy has functioned far more effectively than most Westerners realize. While acknowledging that part of Putin's successes - above all, quadrupling per capita GDP in just a decade and a half - can be attributed to cashing in on high oil prices, Miller details the government policies that have also been fundamental to Russia's growth.
-
-
Go find something better
- By Anonymous User on 08-04-21
By: Chris Miller
-
A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
-
-
an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
-
The Invisible Hands
- Top Hedge Fund Traders on Bubbles, Crashes, and Real Money, Revised and Updated
- By: Steven Drobny, Nouriel Roubini, Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In light of the colossal losses and amidst the resulting confusion that still lingers, it is time to rethink money management in the broadest of terms. Drastic changes need to be made, and managers who actually made money during 2008 make for a logical starting place. The Invisible Hands provides investors and traders with the latest thinking from some of the best and the most successful players in money management, highlighting the specific risk and return objectives of each, and discussing the evolution of certain styles and beliefs in money management.
By: Steven Drobny, and others
-
The Fed and Lehman Brothers
- Setting the Record Straight on a Financial Disaster
- By: Laurence M. Ball
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The bankruptcy of the investment bank Lehman Brothers was the pivotal event of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed. Ever since the bankruptcy, there has been heated debate about why the Federal Reserve did not rescue Lehman in the same way it rescued other financial institutions, such as Bear Stearns and AIG. The Fed's leaders from that time, especially former Chairman Ben Bernanke, have strongly asserted that they lacked the legal authority to save Lehman because it did not have adequate collateral for the loan it needed to survive.
By: Laurence M. Ball
-
People, Power, and Profits
- Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent
- By: Joseph E. Stiglitz
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We all have the sense that the American economy - and its government - tilts toward big business, but as Joseph E. Stiglitz explains in his new book, People, Power, and Profits, the situation is dire. A few corporations have come to dominate entire sectors of the economy, contributing to skyrocketing inequality and slow growth.
-
-
Partisan, Pandering & the almighty straw man
- By Sam Griffin on 05-17-19
-
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
- By: John Maynard Keynes
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1936, Keynes’ ideas had evolved during the difficulties following World War 1 in Europe, and the US crash and the Depression of the 1920s-'30s and the misery of mass unemployment. He deplored the situation where a few individuals or companies stored massive wealth while vast numbers experienced poverty and insecurity (his alarm bells ring today!) and sought to promote initiatives where governments could intervene with social projects to keep money fluctuating.
-
-
Get the paperback
- By Brendan Clune on 02-27-19
-
Irrational Exuberance
- Revised and Expanded Third Edition
- By: Robert J. Shiller
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With high stock and bond prices and the rising cost of housing, the post-subprime boom may well turn out to be another illustration of Shiller's influential argument that psychologically driven volatility is an inherent characteristic of all asset markets. In other words, Irrational Exuberance is as relevant as ever. Previous editions covered the stock and housing markets - and famously predicted their crashes. This edition expands its coverage to include the bond market, so that the book now addresses all of the major investment markets.
-
-
Still Relevant After 21 Years
- By Tom on 06-08-21
-
King Icahn
- The Biography of a Renegade Capitalist
- By: Mark Stevens
- Narrated by: Mark Stevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this dramatic portrait of legendary and, until now, secretive financier Carl Icahn, best-selling business writer Mark Stevens takes us behind the scenes of some of the biggest deals in U.S. corporate history. A fascinating tale with a cast of characters that includes Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, T. Boone Pickens, Dennis Levine, and most of the other key players of the '70s and '80s takeover era, King Icahn is the first biography of the business buccaneer who changed the course of corporate America.
-
-
All hail the King!
- By Kenneth on 05-22-13
By: Mark Stevens
-
When Genius Failed
- The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
- By: Roger Lowenstein
- Narrated by: Roger Lowenstein
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roger Lowenstein, the bestselling author of Buffett, captures Long-Term's roller-coaster ride in gripping detail. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein crafts a story that reads like a first-rate thriller from beginning to end. He explains not just how the fund made and lost its money, but what it was about the personalities of Long-Term's partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the late-nineties culture of Wall Street that made it all possible.
-
-
When Genius Failed
- By Sean on 12-17-08
By: Roger Lowenstein
-
Zero-Sum Game
- The Rise of the World's Largest Derivatives Exchange
- By: Erika S. Olson
- Narrated by: Joy Osmanski
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2007, a stranger-than-fiction multibillion-dollar bidding war for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) erupted between the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Atlanta’s Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Zero-Sum Game: The Rise of the World’s Largest Derivatives Exchange takes listeners behind the scenes of this battle to tell the gripping - and often comical - story of how the historic merger between CME and CBOT almost didn’t happen.
-
-
Great story though more about a M&A
- By R. Winchester on 09-12-23
By: Erika S. Olson
-
Boom and Bust
- A Global History of Financial Bubbles
- By: William Quinn, John D. Turner
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why 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. As they do so, they help us understand why bubbles happen and why some have catastrophic economic, social, and political consequences while others have actually benefited society.
-
-
better prepared to spot a bubble
- By Charles P on 09-07-22
By: William Quinn, and others
-
Big Mistakes
- The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments
- By: Michael Batnick
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Investing can be a roller-coaster of highs and lows, and the investors detailed here reveal just how low it can go; stories from Warren Buffet, Bill Ackman, Chris Sacca, Jack Bogle, Mark Twain, John Maynard Keynes, and many more illustrate the simple but overlooked concept that investing is really hard, whether you're managing a few thousand dollars or a few billion. Failures and losses are part of the game. Much more than just anecdotal diversion, these stories set the basis for the book's critical focus: learning from mistakes.
-
-
good content but annoying narrator
- By RY on 03-01-19
By: Michael Batnick
-
Market Mind Games
- A Radical Psychology of Investing, Trading and Risk
- By: Denise Shull
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if the mystery of market crashes stems from a simple but total misunderstanding of our own minds? Could everything we think we know about ourselves - intelligence and rationality versus emotion and irrationality - be wildly off the mark? Simply put: yes. With these words, Denise Shull introduces her radical - and supremely rational - approach to risk. Her vision stems from the indisputable fact that human beings can't make any decision at all without emotion and that emotion gets the first - and last - word when it comes to our perceptions and judgments.
-
-
Awful Narration
- By sia lavender on 05-23-22
By: Denise Shull
-
Citizen Coke
- The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism
- By: Bartow J. Elmore
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Outsourcing and a trim corporate profile enabled Coke to scale up production of a low-price beverage and realize huge profits. But the costs shed by Coke have fallen on the public at large. Coke now uses an annual 79 billion gallons of water, an increasingly precious global resource, and its reliance on corn syrup has helped fuel our obesity crisis. Bartow J. Elmore explores Coke through its ingredients, showing how the company secured massive quantities of coca leaf, caffeine, sugar, and other inputs.
-
-
Highly Recommend
- By Laura on 02-22-20
By: Bartow J. Elmore
What listeners say about How Markets Fail
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Donald
- 02-13-10
Three books in one.
Both this book and Alan Greenspan's book "Age of Turbulence" have some stories that blend economics with politics. However, this author and Alan have different economic views. If you are new to economics then I recommend reading or listening to Alan's book first since it is an easier read. Both books touch on Adam Smith's "invisible hand" and John Maynard Keynes' idea of government spending during recessions.
This book is like reading three books in one. The first four hours covers some economists and how their ideas have influenced economic thinking. The next four hours covers examples like spillovers, the prisoner's dilemma, the market for lemons, and Keynes beauty contest. The rest covers musical chairs, the Millennium Bridge, and some of the major events that surround the current housing bubble. For me, I found the middle to be the most enlightening.
Our government has run between the extremes of de-regulation of the airline industry and the "nationalization" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This book is not a history of bubbles and crashes. While the latest crash is not in tulip bulbs, the ability of governments since then to smooth out the bubbles and crashes appears to be limited.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Ben
- 03-18-10
Way more than I expected
I bought this book thinking it would be another book on the current financial crisis; after all, there are so many. I was pleasantly surprised when after a few chapters I realized that this was not at all what the book was about. It does not chronicle the crisis or even how markets have failed catastrophically in the past. Rather it articulates various ways in which free markets can fail to produce efficient outcomes. If you want a history of the current crisis, read "Too Big to Fail" by Andrew Ross Sorkin. It's essentially a blow by blow chronology and a comprehensive one at that. It's worth reading. But this book very skillfully presents a case for how markets are not always the best solution to economic problems. I've learned more from this book than I have from anything I've read in quite a while. I plan to purchase a physical copy and read it again at least once.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Alexandra
- 02-26-10
Best single volume on the credit crunch
Of all the books that have chronicled the credit crunch, this one is the best overall. As opposed to some other books, it focuses very little on personalities, and mostly on the problems in academic economics, finance, and policy that allowed trillions of dollars to vanish. Although the book is a model of clarity, it might be tough going for someone with no background in economics or finance. Nonetheless, if you really want to understand what happened, this is the best of the bunch!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ryan
- 06-10-12
Rational irrationality explained
How Markets Fail promotes a view that I think ought to be common sense to Americans, but seems to get lost in today's climate of mindless, media-fueled political hysteria: that free markets, while they provide many benefits that can't be achieved through central planning, will malfunction without rules and external guidance. The 2008 housing crisis and subsequent market collapse was nothing less than a textbook failure of government to step in stop lenders and banks from playing a game that everyone paying attention knew was deeply risky, however profitable the bubble was for players in the short term. And the bailouts that followed were proof that allowing irresponsible pursuit of private gains can lead to socialized losses, the opposite of what free markets are supposed to do.
How Markets Fail is a book in three parts, each of which is geared towards readers who haven't had more than superficial exposure to the topics discussed -- if you have, you'll probably want to skip ahead. The first part is a condensed history of modern free market economics, introducing readers to influential figures like Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, Vilfredo Pareto, Milton Friedman, Robert Lucas, Cecil Pigou, and John Kenyes, then connecting them to present day economists like Alan Greenspan and Paul Krugman. If, like me, you lack formal training in economics, you'll find handy explanations of a few terms and ideas you might have heard bandied about before.
The second part of the book focuses on where utopian free market ideology breaks down, in light of game theory, behavioral psychology, and other modern, scientific fields of analysis. Cassidy does an admirable job of keeping his arguments balanced, putting forth sober talking points that don't assume villainous motives on the part of any group of people. Rational self-interest, while it often propels trading relationships that work to the mutual benefit of everyone involved, can also lead to behavior that’s destructive to the best interests of a community. Consider, for example, factory owners who know that installing environmentally-friendly machinery is better for everyone, but can't realistically risk committing to this expense if they don't expect that their competitors will. Or health care markets that incentivize insurance providers to jack up premiums for customers who aren't healthy. Or the tendency of large-scale businesses to overcome smaller ones, thus enabling a few elites to dominate markets and pay themselves exorbitant salaries while driving down wages for those beneath them. At least, Cassidy makes a convincing case that different markets have different patterns, and need to be thought about differently, with a reality-based view towards human needs and behavior.
Part three is an overview of the recent subprime mess, illustrating from a high level the chain of events that led to the meltdown, and the laissez faire policies that enabled them (which Cassidy blames primarily on Alan Greenspan, the one person he really criticizes). I thought this part was well-presented, and did a lot to hammer home the points in part two. Protecting individual foolish home buyers from themselves isn’t the government’s job, but stopping actions that fool a lot of people at once and lead to a national blowout *is* the government’s job.
Where the book fell a little short for me, though, was in its lack of coherent ideas on how to make government intervention effective. I'm rather skeptical of libertarian views and think it's impossible for governments not to intervene in markets and corporate activities that are global, whether ideology makes them do it sooner or later. However, as we know, Washington DC can be about as agile and precise as King Kong swatting at planes (or not, if they're bringing him gifts of bananas), and people determined to make a profit will always find a way to get around regulations, bend them in ways not intended, or even help write them, fooling the public with benevolent-sounding language while craftily selling out the public's best interests. What criteria should DC use to decide when to give economic matters serious attention and when to push issues it doesn't have the fine-grainedness to handle well back to markets? How do we deal with a world where some corporations have more clout than actual cities, states, or even countries? There aren't easy answers.
Acknowledging the problem is the first step, though, and I think that How Markets Fail will help many readers do that.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Christine
- 06-25-10
Best on the fallacies of economic thought
This book is simply the best work I have read (heard) on economic thought and the problems inherent in the basic premises regarding how people behave. This book is best read (heard) after Mark Skousen's "The Making of Modern Economics". This latter book is a thorough introduction to the glory of free-market thinking from Adam Smith up through Milton Friedman. "How Markets Fail" is the antidote to the smugness with which free-marketers often address the rest of us. These two books together should provide the thoughtful person with a great basis for understanding how we come to be where we are today.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Brian
- 03-18-10
Good comprehensive overview
I thought the author did a great job taking a huge amount of information - about the history of economics all the way from Adam Smith to the recent financial crisis - and put it into one overarching context. It is quite clear from his word choices ("Utopian Economics" vs. "Reality-based economics") which side he is going to come down on, but this is a subject that warrants an opinion rather than dry analysis.
What I liked most about the book was that it answered some of the stray questions that I've had when reading other accounts of what happened during the financial crisis, while putting it all into context.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Horace
- 09-14-10
My Pick for Best Book, 2010
The book explains the history of economic though about market stability in significant depth. Like all good histories it is organized around a story, the story of two competing ideas.
The first idea is Keynesian economics which recognized that some markets possess positive feedback, which is inherently unstable. The Keynesian model suggested that a central role for governments was to intervene in order to partially stabilize these markets. However, this failed in part because market participants could adapt to the government intervention far faster than the government could adapt to market changes. The resulting combination of government intervention and a market that anticipates and accounts for government intervention is even more unstable, and has the added problem that wealth is sucked out of the government, to savvy market players.
The narrative suggests that the competing idea has been something that I will call ???Friedmonian??? economics, which argued that markets are nearly perfect information machines. This model leads naturally to a policy of extreme government abstention in all economic matters, which, leads to a kind of lawlessness. Perhaps you can???t (yet) bulldoze your competitor???s factories in the dead of night, but the economic equivalent of this is increasingly endorsed. This had led to a series of bubbles, where a savvy few (often in collusion) have bilked and swindled the economy as a whole. These frauds tend to actually destroy wealth, not just transfer it, so the result is decidedly not good for the whole, even in the statistical sense.
In the shadow of thesub-prime bubble, the two main economics schools are nearly wholly discredited.
The author is clearly somewhat sympathetic to the Keynesian theory; I???m too young to think of Keynesianisum as truly distinct from astrology. But I think that the idea of market efficiency is at least as silly, and I'm glad he's willing to say so.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- James
- 03-23-10
Good explanation of economics
Was very pleased to find this audio book very comprehensive on economics. Going forward from where we are today: This book also makes a valuable point very well - Stop the risky financial behaviors of the past... Make more use of our very knowledgeable economic regulators and ramp-up our overseeing of financial instruments and institution dealings on a much wider scope and in more depth, (a more wise moving forward from our recent financial troubled times). I some how feel this audio book may not be popular with many financial institutions.... (if there were to be many more banking and stock market security regulations created).
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Oldtimer
- 08-30-11
Excellent book
As an unabashed supporter of free markets, I have looked everywhere for a book to provide an argument for alternatives. This is the first book I’ve encountered that provides an intellectually solid and potent argument in favor of limited government interventions where markets have arguably failed to provide optimal solutions, if any at all.
In and of itself, this is a great feat and the reason why everybody should read this book. However, the book does not offer any solution for times when government interventions have gone wrong. In my view, that is a core weakness.
Government policies can arguably influence markets to provide good solutions, even perhaps, for a long time. The issue has always been, once they’re no longer useful, it’s hard to overturn those policies. Constituencies have formed that benefit from them at the expense of general public and fiercely resist any change. Nevertheless, the book is a fun listen and has a great narration. I highly recommend it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Howard
- 07-26-10
A Superb History of Enonomic Thought
This audiobook was a delightful surprise for me. I have read numerous books on economics beginning with Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." I remember suffering through Samuelson's classic text - somehow I was uncomfortable with unrestrained free market capitalism without knowing exactly why. Smith's 'Invisible Hand" has never delivered on its promises. Even today economists such as Murray Rothbard of the Austrian School insist that government intervention has always prevented the "hand" from performing its magic.
Then, we have the Keynesians who recognize the need for some government intervetion to moderate the business and economic cycles. It, too, in its various versions such as the Neokeynesians
have failed to deliver.
To lead up to his main argument about the need for regulating banks, Cassidy has written a clear readable summary and history of economic thought. This, by itself, makes the book a must listen for everyone with interest in such things.
Cassidy goes on to explain why unfettered free market competition in the.financial world cannot work. With the passage of the bloated financial regulatory bill, we'll how things work out. To have some insight into history as it is happening, the book is an essential audit.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful