This Time Is Different

Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

By: Carmen Reinhart, Kenneth Rogoff

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Throughout history, rich and poor countries alike have been lending, borrowing, crashing - and recovering - their way through an extraordinary range of financial crises. Each time, the experts have chimed, "this time is different" - claiming that the old rules of valuation no longer apply and that the new situation bears little similarity to past disasters. This book proves that premise wrong.

Covering 66 countries across five continents, This Time Is Different presents a comprehensive look at the varieties of financial crises, and guides us through eight astonishing centuries of government defaults, banking panics, and inflationary spikes - from medieval currency debasements to today's subprime catastrophe.

Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, leading economists whose work has been influential in the policy debate concerning the current financial crisis, provocatively argue that financial combustions are universal rites of passage for emerging and established market nations. The authors draw important lessons from history to show us how much - or how little - we have learned. Using clear, sharp analysis and comprehensive data, Reinhart and Rogoff document that financial fallouts occur in clusters and strike with surprisingly consistent frequency, duration, and ferocity. They examine the patterns of currency crashes, high and hyperinflation, and government defaults on international and domestic debts - as well as the cycles in housing and equity prices, capital flows, unemployment, and government revenues around these crises.

While countries do weather their financial storms, Reinhart and Rogoff prove that short memories make it all too easy for crises to recur. This Time Is Different exposes centuries of financial missteps.Download the accompanying reference guide.©2009 Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff (P)2009 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

" This Time Is Different doesn't simply explain what went wrong in our most recent crisis. This book also provides a roadmap of how things are likely to pan out in the years to come.... This Time Is Different is an important addition to the literature of financial history." ( Wall Street Journal)

Good Material; Bad Format - 3 1/2 Stars

This material is 5-star excellent with good narration, but you should buy the physical book as there are many references to charts and tables, so the format gets 2 stars. I listen to audiobooks during my daily commute, so I did not get to see the material referenced.

Research Paper

This is really a research paper put into book form. It is filled with important information. But this is very difficult to present as an audio book.

Long on Data, Short on Conclusions

This book is essentially a description of the massive data set these two researchers have compiled that will serve as the basis of hundreds of papers and inquiries. If you expect more, you'll be disappointed.

I need the charts!!!!

Any additional comments?

Great book but have to have the charts and tables in hand to be able to follow.

Not *that* bad as an audiobook

I have read the negative comments about the audiobook and although I can understand them I don't entirely agree. The audio is quite sufficient to present the main points of the author's arguments and these are very interesting. I will probably buy the paper book also, but the audio is no waste of money. For me it was a relatively cheap and quick way to sample the book.