Irrational Exuberance

Revised and Expanded Third Edition

By: Robert J. Shiller

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

In this revised, updated, and expanded edition of his New York Times best seller, Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller, who warned of both the tech and housing bubbles, cautions that signs of irrational exuberance among investors have only increased since the 2008-9 financial crisis. 

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. It also includes updated data throughout, as well as Shiller's 2013 Nobel Prize lecture, which places the book in broader context. 

In addition to diagnosing the causes of asset bubbles, Irrational Exuberance recommends urgent policy changes to lessen their likelihood and severity - and suggests ways that individuals can decrease their risk before the next bubble bursts. No one whose future depends on a retirement account, a house, or other investments can afford not to listen to this book.

©2015 Robert J. Shiller (P)2020 Gildan Media

A must for ayone who invests

Critical to not only read but also to digest the main thoughts based on the most diligent and thought through research one sees in finance. The fact that the bubbles will come and go, and are an ever lasting feature of human psyche is absolutely critical in managing once expectations and bubbles avoidance for individuals and society. Today, more then ever, is this very relevant as the exhuberance has reached new heights and only recently begun to crack. The facts that equty underpeformed bonds for many long periods of time and that ŕeaĺ estate has generally been and underperformer over very long time, are also valuable for today. Such period may be comming, that bonds, after interest rates peak, will be the best investment for next decades (if equity does not crash very deeply ..i.e. addiontal 50%). JP

Informative

Irrational Exuberance is an intensive book that is easy to follow along. There is a lot of information relating to the psychology of the markets during the booms and busts. Great information to have for the near and distant future.

Old news in the 2020s

This is a very slow and laborious criticism of the Efficient Markets hypothesis, and of the ability for most to conveniently beat the market in spite of inefficient markets, and with a dash of why Real is more important than Nominal. Unfortunately most of this knowledge is now commonly accepted and discoverable on the internet. And efficient markets is blatantly false prima facie, which makes the argument against them rather obvious and dull! Shiller's contribution to modern finance can scarcely be overstated, but today a book like this can be safely skipped.

Where is the attached PDF?

This book consistantly refers to figures that the audible version doesn't include. I've contemplated going out and just buying the physical book instead. Please update this.

Still Relevant After 21 Years

I would rate this audiobook at 5 stars if they included a PDF of the charts and graphs. The visual information provided is a critical part of the story which becomes lost in the audio format. I resorted to buying the physical book and making my own PDF of the charts and graphs for reference. Really, it should not be that hard for the publisher to provide this.

The audiobook is a good way to access this material during commute time or other opportunities where listening is easier than reading. The concepts are as important to consider today as they were 20 years ago, especially with the advent of meme stocks and cryptocurrencies where "animal spirits" are far more influential than fundamental value. It is helpful to understand that these behaviors are not new, but have been around since the beginnings of investing.

Robert Shiller makes a good case that the Strong Form of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis is misguided, and that even the Semi-strong and Weak forms have holes.

While it may be difficult to profit from the information, it is clear that markets have periods of excess optimism and excess pessimism that inflate or depress prices for extended periods. It almost seems that the periods of "rational" investing behavior are actually a transition state between periods of increasing optimism or pessimism.

Any serious investor should read this book.

Data intensive book missing PDF Charts!!

This book talks a lot about historical economic and market data with mentions of charts in the book. However in the Audible version, there is no PDF accompaniment of the charts. Recommend to buy the paper version of this book instead and not audible book.