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Author:
Mohamed El-Erian
By
McGraw-Hill Professional
 A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 2008-11-16
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.
In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.
The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.
Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.
The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.
Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.
This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.
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List Price: £15.99
Our Price: £8.77
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Author:
Stephen Barker,
Rob Cole
By
Prentice Hall
I agree with the 5 stars for the other reviews!, 2008-01-15
Just to say, I've done my Prince2, read up on Scrum and Agile methods etc etc, but this book filled in the gaps - not just theory, but *practice* !!!
Practical, concise, and in my view essential.
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £3.48
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Author:
John Kenneth Galbraith
By
Penguin
Rampant speculation. Record trading volumes. Assets bought not because of their value but because the buyer believes he can sell them for more in a day or two, or an hour or two. Welcome to the late 1920s in the US. There are obvious and absolute parallels to the great bull market of the late 1990s, writes Galbraith in a new introduction dated 1997. Of course, Galbraith notes, every financial bubble since 1929 has been compared to the Great Crash, which is why this book has never been out of print since it became a bestseller in 1955. Galbraith writes with great wit and erudition about the perilous actions of investors and the curious inaction of the government. He notes that the problem wasn't a scarcity of securities to buy and sell: "The ingenuity and zeal with which companies were devised in which securities might be sold was as remarkable as anything." Those words become strikingly relevant in light of revenue-negative start-up companies coming into the market each week in the 1990s, along with fragmented pieces of established companies, like real estate and bottling plants. Of course, the 1920s were different from the 1990s. There was no safety net below citizens, no unemployment insurance or Social Security. And today we don't have the creepy investment trusts--in which shares of companies that held some stocks and bonds were sold for several times the assets' market value. But, boy, are the similarities spooky, particularly the prevailing trend at the time toward corporate mergers and industry consolidations--not to mention all the partially informed people who imagined themselves to be financial geniuses because the shares of stock they bought kept going up. --Lou Schuler, Amazon.com
An excellent book and highly recommended to anyone with any interest whatsoever in economics or the dark days of 1929. , 2007-01-04
One of the most surprising and delightful things that I found about the book, particularly in view of the potentially heavy subject matter, was how wonderfully readable Professor Galbraith is. There are not that many world renowned experts in any field who can write as well as they can understand their subject. It's a bit like finding that a world class footballer can also play first violin. This book reads like the work of a top drawer professional writer who has immersed him/herself in the subject for a period and, with ongoing expert guidance and hands-on editing, has brought the subject home in fine style. It reads to me a bit like Tom Wolfe (of the Right Stuff etc), wonderfully literate, sardonic prose. It really is quite unexpected. Marvellous. You will have more than one chuckle out loud which may raise one of the live-in's eyebrows. Chuckling at economics now? Hmmm.
Anyway, the stock market fell, measured by the Times Industrial Average, from 542 down to 224, from October through Nov 1929, and then more gradually to only 58, basically a tenth of its peak 1929 value, by July 1932. Drastic times indeed. This residual value that the market held, 58, in 1932, was roughly the same amount by which the market fell, in only one day, 28/10/1929, Black Thursday. The Professor's contention seems to be that the Depression and the Crash, while not totally unrelated, were less connected than popular opinion held then, or holds now. The contention is that prior to the crash, that the economy was not fundamentally sound. Although there were no glaring warning signs in the economic indicators reported in the first half of 1929, there were some red lights flickering. The Professor goes on to detail and explain those. Of course I am still no expert on what happened in 1929 and why. But due to this book I have a better idea. And it has encouraged me to read more about it. Which I intend to do shortly. And further works by the extremely readable Professor Galbraith will most certainly be on my list.
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £5.13
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Author:
Paul Krugman
By
Allen Lane
What do babysitting coops and liquidity traps have in common? Lots, according to Paul Krugman. In The Return of Depression Economics, the MIT professor looks at the alarming string of financial crises that plagued various economies around the globe in the 1990s, especially the Asian contagion, and sees an "eerie resemblance to the Great Depression." Instead of the "new world order" promised by the triumph of capitalism over socialism, "the world economy has turned out to be a much more dangerous place than we imagined." Krugman uses the example of a Washington, D.C., babysitting coop to explain the dynamics of recession and inflation. He examines the remarkable emergence of Asia and the precursors to the Asian mess--the Tequila Effect of the mid-'90s that began in Mexico and Japan's fall in the early '90s into an economic malaise. He then analyses the underlying reasons for the collapse of the Thai baht and other Asian currencies as well as the subsequent actions of the IMF and the murky role of hedge funds. In the end, Krugman sees the return of depression economics, which "means that for the first time in two generations, failures on the demand side of the economy--insufficient private spending to make use of the available productive capacity--have become the clear and present limitation on prosperity for a large part of the world." It's the same problem that was at the root of the 1930s depression. And while it took a world war to solve that problem, Krugman sees solutions that are far less dramatic but that do require a willingness to chuck obsolete doctrines and think about old problems in new ways. Over the years, Krugman has earned a well-deserved reputation for translating the jargon that economists speak into something that anyone with an interest--not necessarily a Ph.D.--can understand. The Return of Depression Economics is another timely testament to Krugman's ability to read and interpret the tea leaves of today's global economy. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards, Amazon.com
Clear, concise analysis of the Asian currency crises, 1999-09-06
Not as comprehensive as Peddling Prosperity, and significantly shorter, this book has a much more focused kernal and tackles some complex exchange rate issues in an admirably lucid style. Krugman also explodes the myth of crony capitalism as the immediate cause of the crises in a clear and intuitive fashion, while also explaining the probably mechanism of contagion and the risks hedge funds create. Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in Asian contagion and financial crises in general (one of Krugman's specialist subjects). In my opinion, because of the complexity of the subjects intuitively tackled, this is his best book since Peddling Prosperity.
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £6.64
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Author:
Steven D. Levitt,
Stephen J. Dubner
By
Penguin
A look at things through the eyes of an economist., 2008-10-08
This book is a general interest book- and it certainly is interesting. The book, for anyone looking for an entertaining read, will like it. In a nutshell, the book takes a look at all sorts of things in society, from crack gangs to parenting, and then attempts to make sense of them by applying econonmic principles. According to the book, economics is really the study of incentives, and so using this kind of angle, the book comes up with answers to why things work the way they do.
A book that's hard to put down, I'm sure many readers will enjoy it. Also recommend The Sixty-Second Motivator for a more simplistic explanation of what motivates people and gives them incentives to do what they do.
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £3.00
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Author:
Alice Schroeder
By
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Alice Schroeder’s The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life might well be one of the most important books you will ever read -- particularly in a period when the world's various economies appear to be entering freefall. This arm-straining (at nearly a thousand pages) but utterly fascinating book has already -- against all the odds -- achieved an astonishing level of success, given its initially daunting appearance. But it will only take a chapter or so for most readers to see just why this book is enjoying such an unprecedented level of acclaim.The subject is the life and career of one of the most revered men in the western hemisphere, Warren Buffett (an advisor to new US President Barack Obama) – despite the fact that his name may not be known to most of the general public. Buffett’s story is one that currently has resonances for all of us: a remarkable financial success story. The name of this investor from Omaha is spoken of with admiration by all who know him, despite the fact that he has never written a book on his career or the secrets of his business success. However, he has been persuaded to allow Alice Schroeder to spend time with him and those with whom he works to investigate his business triumphs, his opinions, his mistakes (Buffett is rather winning in admitting to several of the latter – how common is that in his profession?) -- and what emerges is a totally comprehensive biography of the man known throughout the world as âThe Oracle of Omaha’. What is most revealing about the picture of the man that emerges from these pages (and Schroeder had access not just to her subject and his business associates but also his wife, children and friends) is that we meet a man of intellect – of course – but also of humanity and understanding, with a philosphy and worldview that is both judicious and principled. In an era in which those in Buffet’s profession are more prone to excoriation than praise, the man we encounter here has a sane and clear-eyed philosophy of life and an attitude to business success that is generously instructive -- and inspiring. --Barry Forshaw
best insight into buffetts life so far, 2008-10-18
This is the best insight into the sages life that you will probably ever get. I think i have read every book written about buffett so far. This one tells you more about what makes up this truely amazing value investor.
Its a long read but worth every bit. I think alice schroeder has done an excellent job.
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List Price: £25.00
Our Price: £13.60
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Author:
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
By
Penguin
Fascinating, 2008-12-29
There are already a number of reviews that analyse this book in more detail than I could hope to do so myself, so I shall not write a long review. However, I personally found this book to be a fascinating insight into certain aspects of economics and even wider human behaviour. Whether the author is entirely right seems hardly the point -- there are clearly so many others and so many other systems which are fundamentally flawed. A fascinating read for anybody interested in economics in a wider sense and the human interpretation or quantification of risk.
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £4.50
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Author:
Naomi Klein
By
Penguin
Yuck, 2008-10-03
Even though it was valuable for me to learn what is really going on, I read this book with a mixture of revulsion and horror. I was certainly shocked to learn about the tripartite economic recipe - privatisation, deregulation, and cutbacks in social welfare spending - repeatedly used around the world by a so-called democracy via highly non-democratic means.
In the early years, the primary shock vehicle was dictatorial military force and accompanying fear of - and actual mass use of - arrest, torture, disappearance, or death. Over time, new organisations such as the IMF and the World Bank were employed instead, deliberately creating impossible debt burdens to force governments to accept privatisation, removal of trade barriers and tariffs, and widespread layoffs. In more recent years, these policies have been used on peoples already shocked by terrroism or natural disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis.
And more and more information along the lines revealed by this book continues to show up - only recently, for example, "New Scientist" (23 July 2008) carried an article stating that, for each year of a country's involvement with the IMF, the TB death rate increased by four per cent on average. This was not because countries with worsening TB attract more IMF attention since the TB rates had been falling, or at least steady, before receiving IMF "help".
Finally, for a more personal view of the same story, read "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man".
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £4.31
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Author:
Niall Ferguson
By
Allen Lane
This is how we got to where we are; so, how do we get out of here?, 2008-12-28
Niall Ferguson again here brings us a history that is informative, entertaining and sobering. Being published in the midst of a global economic meltdown, for a book such as this, is a mixed blessing, as a step too far on the bearish side may make the author look like a doommonger, whilst being even slightly bullish might look blinkered. Ferguson, though, seems to manage to pull it off, though that equally is a spot evaluation. However, though it's clear where his loyalties lie in the pro/anti capitalism debate, the balance of the narrative tends nevertheless towards the various shocks delivered to the system rather than towards the prosperity delivered, albeit still strictly speaking to a relative minority of humanity, by markets and their lubricant, money.
As it turned out, some of the ground covered was familiar territory to me, bringing together strands of other books I've read recently, including Findlay and O'Rourke's Power And Plenty, Bentley's A Book Of Numbers, Schama's The American Future and even Lonely Planet Andalucia.
But some of it was new. He gives the origins of ghetto (a geto was a casting, and the original ghetto was in Venice's foundry district); explains that a consol gets its name from "consolidated fund"; and confirms that "dollar" comes from the German "thaler", on which the Spanish based the piece of eight, the world's first truly global currency.
Ferguson is also adept at telling stories: his account of the First Opium War, for example, is probably the clearest I've come across, and in the chapter on housing there is an excellent explanation of how the development of securitisation by Salomons ultimately led to the sub-prime meltdown.
He's not always right. In a description of segregation in Detroit and the 1967 riots he describes Aretha Franklin as a Motown star, which she almost, but never quite, was. And the final chapter begins with speculation that the rest of the world has decoupled from the United States economically. Unfortunately time has not been kind to this notion, with only Brazil, it appears, unaffected so far (December 2008), oil down by over $100 a barrel from its mid-08 peak, and even China's growth looking very shaky. But if there are any signs that "His pages are hot with proof-stage tyremarks", as one newspaper review alleged, then Ferguson is not alone in his revisionism: after all, even the German finance minister got it wrong. And in mitigation, this is the man who ended a previous television series (Colossus) warning that the United States was "heading for a credit crunch".
This is not, to be sure, a technical book. Readers seeking more detail of some of the principles described should go to the likes of Brealey and Myers's Principles of Corporate Finance. However, Ferguson more than succeeds in achieving his objective of providing a foundation of financial awareness for the general reader, providing plenty of food for thought. Amongst the morsels on offer: in better days for Argentina, the other Harrods was in Buenos Aires; the birth of stock markets was in 17th Century Netherlands, a country now often reduced to two letters in "Benelux"; and he ultimately really hits the button marked Panic by reminding us of the consequences of al-Qaeda's effecting a nuclear strike, of a further Katrina-like event, or of inundation courtesy of global warming.
So, great book, and so much for the past, but what of the future? Ferguson describes himself as a "liberal fundamentalist", and certainly descriptions of him as "rightwing" look overdone. Nevertheless, there seems to be a faith implicit that capitalism can cure itself, counter to the standard Marxist analysis of a bankrupt and inevitably doomed system. So where, as Larry Elliott has asked, is the intellectually endorsed social democratic alternative? It is implicit, ironically, in the response of the US government, but the measures being taken by that and several other governments has the appearance of a huge geoeconomic experiment unsupported by any clear theory other than it is the opposite of what was done in the 1930s. What is needed is a Keynes for the noughties. I'm looking forward to reading Krugman's new work to see if that is where the gap is filled.
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List Price: £25.00
Our Price: £12.49
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Author:
Robert Peston
By
Hodder Paperbacks
A clear explanation of why the financial crisis has happened , 2008-12-23
I liked this book a lot because it does not treat the reader like an idiot
What is also good is that he evidently has talked to the people involved and so it includes a huge amount of personal views from some of the main protagonists. His explanation of the greed of the finacial wizards, the wrong headed approach of the government and the effects on you and I is very clear - the only problem after reading this is that the depths of the problems in the financial sector look a lot worse and its clear that we as individuals will pay for this collective failure.
I did not give it five stars because of a style issue is that certain things were repeated a number of times so that it read a bit like a collection of essays but overall if you want to understand why we have the problems in the financial sector and now the real world economy then I can recommend this. Think of the plus when someone asks you what a Structured Investment Vehicle (SIV) is - and thanks to this you will know. You'll be bemused was to why it was ever thought a good idea, but you will know what it was and why valuing them became such a problem.
And finally it comprehensively shows the failings of the Prime Minister when he was chancellor - he may not have caused all the problems but the policies he pursued have made the problem worse for us all - and our grandchildren as well. Read this and I suspect that you will not see him as 'Super Gordon' after this.
Damm good read - making financial economics interesting !
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List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £3.98
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