Product Description
"Isms" help to inform us, educate us and sometimes even amuse us. What would life be like without altrusim or cynicism, dogmatism or optimism? Below are just some of the "isms" explained in this collection of more than 400.

• Absolutism
• Albigensianism
• Aphorism
• Atavism
• Behaviouralism
• Bolshevism
• Buddhism
• Butskellism
• Calvinism
• Capitalism
• Communism
• Confucianism
• Dadaism
• Deontologism
• Dystopianism
• Eclecticism
• Empiricism
• Euphemism
• Existentialism
• Fascism
• Fauvism
• Fourierism
• Frotteurism
• Gaullism
• Geophagism
• Globalism
• Gnosticism
• Hedonism
• Hermeticism
• Hypopituitarism
• Idealism
• Ignosticism
• Irredentism
• Isomorphism
• Jansenism
• Jingoism
• Journalism
• Judaism
• Kabbalism
• Keynesianism
• Know-nothingism
• Lacanianism
• Leninism
• Lollardism
• Malthusianism
• Manichaeism
• Maoism
• Marxism
• Masochism
• Narcissism
• Neologism
• Nestorianism
• Obscurantism
• Onanism
• Orphism
• Ostracism
• Paganism
• Phallocentrism
• Poststructuralism
• Quakerism
• Quietism
• Quixotism
• Racism
• Reaganism
• Reductionism
• Romanticism
• Sacerdotalism
• Sadism
• Sapphism
• Solipsism
• Stoicism
• Sufism
• Tantrism
• Taoism
• Thatcherism
• Transvestism
• Trotskyism
• Ultramontanism
• Unilateralism
• Utilitarianism
• Utopianism
• Valetudinarianism
• Vorticism
• Voyeurism
• Wahhabism
• Zeism
• Zionism
• Zoomorphism

Customer Reviews (2)

Great gift, great browsing
I find myself casually browsing my copy at those in-between moments during the day, and enjoy these perfectly formed, erudite little morsels of learning. At its best, the Econ is both enlightening and witty, in a great juxtaposition. This book is the Econ's style at its best (I have other Econ books on business that are definitely more of a slog to work through). I concur with the previous reviewer: it's tailor made for gifting--just got one for a colleague.

TJ

A very fun book, makes a great gift for anyone!
I love this little book! Not only is it full of interesting information, but it is a lot of fun too. There is a very subtly, wry, witty sense of humor that peers out at you with a wink and a nod from behind every "ism". Did not expect that from a book published by the Economist! Well organized, well written, and I ordered two more to give as gifts. Highly recommended! ... Read more

Product Description
When firms need to fill management positions, when experienced managers want a new challenge, or when MBA graduates are looking for their first senior management role, they often turn to headhunters, or, more formally, executive search consultants.

This guide provides a clear overview of the executive search market, with specific guidelines on using headhunters effectively, both for individuals looking for a job and organizations looking for to fill a role. Headhunters offers advice on what’s important in the selection of an executive search firm and provides invaluable networking tips on getting the best search consultants interested in you as a candidate.

With the global job market more uncertain than ever, the need for quality career guidance has grown considerably. This new addition to The Economist series helps fill the void for all of those looking for a new job—or a new employee. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Professional guide to using headhunters to hire the perfect executive
When you want to hire an executive, you need a specialized headhunter or recruiter. And if you are an executive job candidate, you may want one, too. These people are the matchmakers of the corporate world. Companies seek their expertise and global reach, and anyone who wants to fill a key position or move up the corporate ladder can benefit from their connections. Author Nancy Garrison Jenn's book serves two distinct purposes. The first section, which is about one-quarter of the book, deals with recruiters. Jenn explains how they work, and what they do for both employers and candidates. The second section is an extensive list of top headhunters worldwide, including contact information, sector specialists and some observations on what each firm does. Jenn's approach makes this manual very practical for anyone who needs executive search services. getAbstract recommends this book to corporations who are seeking executives, and to executives who are seeking corporations.

Excellent guide for recruiters and job seekers
Nancy Garrison Jenn is an authority on executive search, and her newest "Headhunters and How to Use Them" book contains extensive research and comments from executives at leading retained-search firms. Jenn has her finger on the pulse of the search industry. She describes best practices for recruiters, and provides specific contact information for retained-search firms in the appendices. Definitely worth the money. ... Read more

Product Description

The present collection of formulas has been composed for students of economics or management science at universities, colleges and trade schools. It contains basic knowledge in mathematics, financial mathematics and statistics in a compact and clearly arranged form. This volume is meant to be a reference work to be used by students of undergraduate courses together with a textbook, and by researchers in need of exact statements of mathematical results. People dealing with practical or applied problems will also find this collection to be an efficient and easy-to-use work of reference.

Product Description
An intelligent and accessible overview of one of the world's fastest growing and most important stock markets.

Sixteen years after the first shares were traded in Shanghai, China's stock market is now recognized as the developing world's most important market and is already the third largest in Asia. All the large Western banks and investment firms have a strong presence in Shanghai. Now that China has become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the growth of the Chinese stock market is being eagerly watched.

This is an informative and accessible guide to China's stock market. It will explain the creation of the market and how it has developed since the 1980s. Key policies will be examined; major scandals recounted; and the different types of investors, institutional and individuals, analysed. Finally, the book will map out the likely development of China's stock market over the next 10 years, and examine the opportunities and risks involved for foreign investors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting book
This isn't an easy read and you'll be checking the list of acronymns in the back of the book frequently. Still, this is the only book that discusses the evolution of the financial markets in China. It was published in 2003, so many things have changed. ... Read more

Product Description
One of the foremost financial writers of his generation, Peter Bernstein has the unique ability to synthesize intellectual history and economics with the theory and practice of investment management. Now, with classic titles such as Economist on Wall Street, A Primer on Money, Banking, and Gold, and The Price of Prosperity—which have forewords by financial luminaries and new introductions by the author—you can enjoy some of the best of Bernstein in his earlier Wall Street days.

Peter Bernstein's Economist on Wall Street is a collection of writings from 1955 to 1970. The book is especially interesting because so many of Bernstein's observations reflect the most important issues of the present—the outlook for inflation and its control, the intricacies of monetary policy, the future of the dollar, and the dilemmas of household finances. Bernstein was also concerned with developments in portfolio management, including the new influence of institutional investors and rules for optimal asset mixes. He provides light touches, too, as he indulges in fantasies and philosophical musings over a wide variety of topics.

With so many years of hindsight, we should not be surprised to find some of Bernstein's predictions running awry. But why? In each instance, these forecasts were biased by memories of the past. There is a big lesson to be learned there.

Economist on Wall Street is a remarkable book, with lasting relevance and keen insights into the art of investment management, the capital markets, gold and the dollar, and the fun of being alive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

bernstein is the best
This book is a gem. I have been reading all bernstein books. Just a class act to tell his secrets to small investors.

An Interesting Read
Bernstein is an erudite author of finance and financial markets. The book offers prescient commentary on financial events that continue to challenge modern governments and financial institutions.

I am the author!so what do you expect I would think about my book!!!!!PLB
I am the author.Natch, it's five stars!But this is hardly an objective review.

PLB

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Product Description
Full of fascinating facts and figures, this book is a highly entertaining look at all aspects of business, including:

• The biggest firms
• The biggest bankruptcies
• Business blunders
• Bad boys
• Leading management thinkers
• Past business giants
• Inventors and inventions
• Famous patents

A great many questions, including the following, are answered:

• How many billion spam e-mails are sent each day?
• Who said, "Business is a combination of war and sport"?
• Which are the world's most valuable brands?
• When and what was the Mississippi Bubble?
• Which company "exists to benefit and refresh everyone it touches"?
• How much do the best-paid hedge fund managers earn?

The editors of The Economist have culled these facts and figures to inform and to amuse anyone interested in the changing world of business.

This is an ideal gift for anyone interested in the business world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Business World's Good, Bad & Ugly
In a refreshing and highly engaging manner, the good folks at the Economist have produced this very informative resource, detailing much of the world's business leaders' accomplishments, along with some of the notoriously bad business behavior, throughout the wild and wooley world of modern business.It's a fascinating guide and one that will surely be enjoyed by anyone interested in big business; how we got here and where we're likely heading.

With its very wide scope, it's a bit short on details; it isn't short on relevence, however.It offers many good examples of international businesses' best and worst moments over the decades, and perhaps offers just enough insight into what we've done, from abusiness standpoint, to help guide us in the right direction, going forward; if we'll only pay attention to history.

For any student of business, this is a fascinating and most enjoyable analysis; a must read for anyone serious about learning from our business highlights, and our lowlights.It's all right here for our careful inspection or leisurely perusal.

An invaluable source of essential and often entertaining information

A total of six contributors are identified and presumably dozens of others were also involved in the selection, organization, and discussion of a full range of business topics that begin with "When firms started"(Page 2) and conclude with "Business etiquette tips" (Pages 254-261). Think of this as an anthology of generally brief (i.e. one-page) items (approximately 120 in number) rather than as a dictionary, encyclopedia, "history of...." etc.There is a British flavor to phrasing and spelling but the geographic scope is definitely international. As I worked my way from one entry to the next, I occasionally responded with comments such as "I didn't know that" or "Oh yes, I had forgotten that." Here are a few of the items that caught my eye:

"Some business giants of the past" (Pages 83-91): Andrew Carnegie, Walt Elias Disney, Henry Ford, William Gibbs (previously unfamiliar to me), Ray Kroc, Alfred Krup, William Hesketh Lever, John Pierpont Morgan, Akio Morita, John Davison Rockefeller, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Sam Walton, and Frank Woolworth.

"Leading management thinkers" (Pages 120-137). A total of 20 are discussed and most are very prominent; two others (Henry Faol and Sumantra Ghoshal) deserve to be, at least in the United States.

"Bubbles that burst" (Pages 164-170). Eight are discussed, including the current "credit crunch" that that has squeezed millions of individuals as well as companies, industries, and even countries. Of special interest to me (because I knew little, if anything about them) are "The Mississippi Bubble" (with a Scottish businessman, ironically bearing the name of John Law, playing a prominent role) and "Railway mania" in the UK (in the 1840s) and in the US (up to 1873). "The railway bubble burst in the `Panic of 1873,' the same year as America's first successful train robbery."

"Six rules of good writing" (Page 216). Six are recommended and briefly discussed: Do not be stuffy, Do not be hectoring or arrogant, Do not be too pleased with yourself, Do not be too chatty, Do not be too didactic, and Do your best to be lucid. All are eminently sensible but frequently ignored.

One word of caution about this delightful as well as informative book: Do not place it in what the English refer to as the "loo" because those who begin to examine it may not reappear for quite some time.

Those who share my high regard for The World of Business are urged to check out Art Kleiner's The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management, The Story of American Business edited by Nancy Koehn, and In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century co-authored by Anthony J. May and Nitin Nohria as well as Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership co-authored by May, Nohria, and Laura G. Singleton. ... Read more

Product Description
The second edition of this successful Economist guide covers everything that businesses need to know in order to be successful in emerging markets. It uses real experiences of companies to illustrate how emerging markets work, how important they are, and the investing opportunities they have to offer. It shows the reader how to detect weaknesses in current emerging-market strategies and how to account for risk, corruption, and cultural boundaries.

Extensively updated and revised, the second edition is invaluable both for managers who are entering emerging markets for the first time and for those who are already operating in them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent practical guide for real world managers in emerging markets
Highly recomended for "western" managers and anyone interested as to how emerging markets really work, how important they are in the scheme of things and the magnitude of the opportunity- whether from a multinational perspective or a start-up operation. Very well written and well- rounded, it covers the functional areas - like manufacturing and distribution and HR. It covers the cross-functional areas such as risk, corruption and cultural interfaces. Finally it takes a top-down and botom up approach. Most importantly it's not boring! A lively read. Hat's off to Pacek and Thorniley. ... Read more

Product Description
Most projects fail to reach their desired results when an organization views a project as the responsibility of only one individual: the project manager. Experience demonstrates that significant ventures require a great number of people—including those who commission the project, those who finance it, those who carry it out, and even those who use the end product—to be successful. This guide offers an in-depth approach to getting project management right.

Guide to Project Management shows why projects of any scale require that an entire organization contribute to achieving results. It focuses on the steps essential for successful management: initiation, planning, delegation, and closing.

Author Roberts has successfully managed projects at major companies such as Pfizer and British Airways. In this book, he details how all stakeholders can manage a project properly and successfully. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

only reference, doesn't teach you to be one
This book is good as a reference and a guide. PM can not be so complicated as it is in the book so don't worry about it

A comprehensive guide to project management
In 1994, after much ballyhoo and two decades of effort, Japan's Kansai International Airport opened on an artificial island in Osaka Bay. To create the island, the Japanese excavated three mountains and moved 21 million cubic meters of landfill. Ten thousand workers spent 10 million work hours on the enormous project, the most expensive civil works project in modern history. Just one problem: The island and the airport are sinking into the sea. Whoops! There goes more than $20 billion in construction costs. Those in charge could have benefited from professional project management of their island and airport project. Now, instead, they may need boats at the airport. To ensure that your organization's next big project doesn't turn into a giant boondoggle, read Paul Roberts' comprehensive, masterful and highly detailed book on project management. He thoroughly outlines many of these vital professional discipline's proven techniques and procedures. getAbstract appreciates this compact guide to the best practices in project management. ... Read more

Product Description
In the last three decades of the 20th century the management consultancy industry grew at a cracking pace but increased scepticism about the value that consultants genuinely add, combined with the economic slowdown, has made life much tougher for the consulting industry. As firms have cut back on consulting services and begun to review the way they use consultants, consulting firms themselves are looking at how they need to change. People are now talking about business consulting rather than management consulting.

Using real examples from a range of private sector firms, public sector organisations and from the consultants themselves, this book explores the new business consulting world and looks at every element of it with the aim of both helping firms make better use of consultants and showing consultants how they need to adapt and provide their clients a better service. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent on describing the post-2000 world of consulting
I have taught Strategic Consulting to MBAs since 1998. I agree completely with the other review but regret that some people may fail to buy the book because the reviewer only gave it three stars.
Some of the authors' strategic frameworks are less than compelling. They do an excellent job,however, of describing the dramatic changes in the practice of consulting since the tech crash of 2000-01.
The book provides value to clients as well as current and prospective consultants.

A good start for a promising book
I use this book in my master course on consultancy at our university. It provides an accessible and critical description of what the consulting business presently looks like and what its future may hold. I use this book to complement the more classical academic articles and books students are expected to read on organizational change and consultancy. As such it provdes great added value. One major drawback is, that the authors are so involved in the industry that they sometimes assume too much inside knowledge (terminology, trends) from readers that are relative outsiders. Thus, the book could do with another harsh round of editing by a non-industry expert. The same goes for a number of figures and classifications in the book that seem somewhat immature, are intuitively hard to grasp and deserve much more explanation and elaboration. Again, more editing is needed. ... Read more

Product Description
Obama's vital speechAmerica's bank plan misses the targetBritain's anaemic economyHow Bihar got betterSri Lanka's president triumphs ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting -
This article features Apple and its new products, pointing out that rather than introducing new products, the company excels at reintroducing half-baked products and showing how they should have been done.

The first was the Macintosh - not the first graphical, mouse-driven computer, but the first to be useful. Then it brought out the iPod in 2001 - again, not the first digital-music player, but it was simple and elegant, and soon accompanied by iTunes that allowed legal, cheap music downloading. Six years later brought the iPhone - also not the first smart-phone, but Apple's product was easier to use, and accompanied by innumerable down-loadable applications.

Now its the iPad, a thin, tablet-shaped device with a ten-inch touch-screen, and more attractive with wider uses (color screen that permits graphic displays, video downloads, user interface) than products that have preceeded it (eg. Amazon's Kindle). Apple hopes many will use it instead of a laptop - web-browsing, e-mail, etc.
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Product Description
Economic Thought Since Keynes provides a concise overview of changing economic thought in the latter part of the twentieth century. Part I is an historical account of economic thought. Part II is an analysis of their contribution to economic thought and a guide to the secondary literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Nice History of Economic Thought Book
This book begins with the observation that most history of economic thought books usually stop at the Keynesian Revolution.This book breaks with this tradition and writes a much needed history of economic thought since Keynes.I really enjoyed this book.The greatest thing about the book is that it puts the economic debates in the context of political economic policies.We learn about Keynesian interventionism in the 1940's and 1950's, the monetarist and supply side counter-revolutions of the 1960's and 1970's, the more sophisticated models of the new classical macroeconomics at roughly the same time, and the New Keynesian Macroeconomics of the 1980's.Each new contribution is therefore a response to recent developments that have influenced in some measure the "pressure of events."The authors even devote a chapter to heterodox economics (Marxism, post-Keynesianism, and Institutionalism).The authors cover a lot of ground in only a few pages (150).The authors are even careful to note the important contributions of the Swedish school in anticipating a lot of Keynes's insights.

The perceptive reader will also note that the book reads as a sort of economic historiography text.The authors make the point in several places that one's political commitments often guide one's theorizing.Therefore, the arguments one is likely to make depends on whether he believes that the market is fundamentally orderly and self-adjusting or if market mechanisms, in the absence of government intervention, do not lead to relatively efficient outcomes.The position one adopts on this question (and its policy implications) will determine in large part the sort of theorizing one is likely to contribute to.

This is a great book that covers very broadly the main "currents" in economic thinking since Keynes.The authors believe very strongly in the separation of Keynesian economics and Keynes's ecomomics; the latter being a theory of market instability and disequilbrium while the former is one of market equilibrium with temporary disequilibrium in the labor market due to wage rigidities.With this view, one can then re-appraise the context in which the reactionary contributions to economic thought (i.e. Monetarism and other liberal "currents) were made.Friedman, for example, in drawing attention to the importance of money, was simply repeating Keynes's original argument.The entire history of economic thought since Keynes has been a gradual distancing away from equilibrium (maximizing) analysis with increasing resistance from several quarters (mainly neoclassical rationality quarters) to this phenomenon.

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Product Description

In this valuable resource, more than thirty of the world's top economists offer innovative policy ideas and insightful commentary on our most pressing economic issues, such as global warming, the global economy, government spending, Social Security, tax reform, real estate, and political and social policy, including an extensive look at the economics of capital punishment, welfare reform, and the recent presidential elections.

Contributors are Nobel Prize winners, former presidential advisers, well-respected columnists, academics, and practitioners from across the political spectrum. Joseph E. Stiglitz takes a hard look at the high cost of the Iraq War; Nobel Laureates Kenneth Arrow, Thomas Schelling, and Stiglitz provide insight and advice on global warming; Paul Krugman demystifies Social Security; Bradford DeLong presents divergent views on the coming dollar crisis; Diana Farrell reconsiders the impact of U.S. offshoring; Michael J. Boskin distinguishes what is "sense" and what is "nonsense" in discussions of federal deficits and debt; and Ronald I. McKinnon points out the consequences of the deindustrialization of America.

Additional essays question whether welfare reform was successful and explore the economic consequences of global warming and the rebuilding of New Orleans. They describe how a simple switch in auto insurance policy could benefit the environment; unravel the dangers of an unchecked housing bubble; and investigate the mishandling of the lending institutions Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Balancing empirical data with economic theory,The Economists' Voice proves that the unique perspective of the economist is a vital one for understanding today's world.

To learn more about the electronic journals published by The Berkeley Electronic Press, please visit http://www.bepress.com/ev.

Customer Reviews (1)

This should be the first of many informative policy volumes
The authors of The Economists' Voice are all fine economists with extensive policy experience in economic policy and a dedication to bringing serious economic analysis to the public. Stiglitz, who holds a Nobel prize in Economics, was the driving force behind the Journal of Economic Perspectives, which specializes in informing economists of the current state of research in the many highly specialized areas of economics of which the typical economists knows only one or two in any depth. The authors collaborate in editing the Berkeley Electronic Press policy-oriented journal, The Economists Voice, which also tends to outreach rather than in-depth, highly technical analyses.

This book is a real tour-de-force, bringing serious and compelling economic analysis to those not trained in economic theory, but who recognize the centrality of economic analysis to many social policy problems. In my ideal world, a new edition of this book would appear every few months, and it would be widely read by the interested public, as well as policy-makers in the public sector.

The volume, published early in 2008, has thirty-five chapters, varying from about seven to twelve pages in length. Some contributions, like the four chapters on global warming and the six chapters on the death penalty, the six chapters on the American welfare system, and the four chapters on social security reform, are of perennial interest and are highly informative without being in any sense definitive. Other contributions, including discussions of fiscal policy, the international economy, the cost of the war in Iraq, and tax reform, are highly enlightening, although somewhat out of date in light of the dramatic fluctuation of oil prices and the stock market in recent months.

Perhaps the most eye-catching topic in the book is the housing price bubble and its implications. I continually read in the newspaper that economists are to blame for not having predicted the collapse of the housing bubble and failing to comprehend the extent of the subprime housing stock in the United States. This is simply not true. Economists, including Robert J. Shiller and Dean Baker, who are included in this volume, have been issuing warnings since at least the year 2002, and Edward Gramlich published a full analysis of the problem shortly before his death, in a volume entitled Subprime Mortgages: America's Latest Boom and Bust (Urban Institute Press, 2007).

Here are the words of Dean Baker (p. 288), written at least a year before the bubble burst in October, 2008: "An unprecedented run-up in house prices is propelling the current recovery. Like the stock bubble, the housing bubble with eventually burst. Eventually, it must. When it does, the economy will be thrown into a severe recession, and tens of millions of homeowners, who never imagined house prices could fall, likely will face serious hardships."

Edward L. Glaeser and Dwight M. Jaffe address the future of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac (F&F), which have since collapsed and have been taken over by the government. They note (p. 296) that the Office of Federal House Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) in May 2006 published a paper warning of grave problems with F&F. "During the period covered by this report--1998 to middle 2004," they report, "--Fannie Mae reported extremely smooth profit growth and hit announced targets for earnings per share precisely each quarter. Those achievements were illusions deliberately and systematically created by the Enterprise's senior management with the aid of inappropriate accounting and improper earnings management."

Of course, these warnings were not heeded by many investors and financial sector decision-makers, but this is no fault of the economists involved. I don't know of a single knowledgeable economist who did not have deep reservations about the housing market and incentive structure of the finance sector. Many level-headed firms and individual investors did quite well by abandoning the housing sector after the year 2005.

The situation leading to the collapse of the subprime housing bubble was one of (a) excessively short-term incentives for top management in the financial sector, (b) poorly constructed financial regulatory mechanisms, such as the implicit government guarantee extended to F&F investors; and (c) the web of special interest influence which was exercised by F&F, as well as other financial firms, who blocked all financial regulation reform over the period 2002-2008. Behind all of this was the general hubris concerning the operation of free markets promoted by conservative Republicans over the past two decades. The truth is that markets (including financial markets) work well when properly regulated, but not otherwise.

Even so astute an analyst of financial markets as Alan Greenspan was taken in by free market bromides. In Congressional testimony he recently confessed "Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief." In fact, I am in no less shocked disbelief at his confession. Nowhere in economic theory does it say that self-interest is sufficient to achieve Pareto-optimality, except under the most arid and unrealistic of conditions.

The bottom line is that this book is a very fine instrument for disseminating economic information, and I hope it is only the first of many.
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Product Description
In a clear, lively and non-technical style, the author explains and assesses the way in which micro, welfare and benefit-cost economists view the world of public policy. The work of these economists has significantly influenced scholarship in political science, law, philosophy, sociology and psychology, and it has led to important changes in government policy concerning the environment, housing and the regulation of industry. The author explains why Democratic and Republican economists so often agree about micro-policy issues and why they are so often at odds with many politicians, consumer advocates and business and union leaders. He argues that even an elementary knowledge of resource economics could help us avoid many current public policy blunders. The book will be of interest to students and teachers of public policy, public administration, business and law and to the educated lay reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Interesting but difficult read
I am in the process of reading the Economist's View of the World by Stephen E. Rhoads and I have mixed feelings regarding this book. First off, this text is required reading for my graduate program in public administration. As I enter chapter nine, I felt a desire to pause for a moment and review this book. I must say that I sharply disagree with the other reviews that this is an excellent book.

First, the text was originally written in 1983 with no further editions or updates. Not only are the political references severely dated, the economic prospectus are lagging as well. This however, is not the major shortfall of this book. I find the author's writing style to be very difficult to comprehend. I find myself reading an re-reading the same material in order to properly digest his concepts. Perhaps it is me that is at fault and not the author as my undergraduate work is unrelated to the field of economics.

I will admit once you can understand the author's intent, the subject matter is relevant although dated. Rhoads spends far too much time quoting others than giving his own opinion. Furthermore, his style of writing is riddled with fragments, run-ons, and words only fellow Ph.D. candidates would possibly understand. I found myself spending half of my time looking up the words he chose to fully understand his intentions.

Getting back to the content of the book; Rhoads does provide for an eye opening interpretation of the economy or better stated the economist's viewpoint of policy issues both private and public. Simply stated, if you can stomach the writing style and comprehend the content, this is a valuable read. However, I must state that there has to be a more up to date simplistic approach to the world of economics, especially as it pertains to non-economists majors.

Great book for non-economy majors
It's a good book if you're not too familiar with economics. The author does a great job of making it very user friendly and supports each comment with several detailed analogies that help to drive the point home. I recommend it for anyone that wants to really see how the concepts from economics class apply to the real world.

Must read for our elected officials
The Economist's View of the World by Steven E. Rhoads reads like a textbook as it explains and assesses how economists view the world of public policy from various economic viewpoints.Rhoads provides a sound framework for understanding opportunity costs and marginalism as important concepts and economic considerations in making public policy decisions.He also analyzes some basic economic assumptions such as the principle of consumer sovereignty.He then uses these concepts in exploring and debating key issues that the government must deal with in setting policy.The issue of welfare economics and equity is a particularly interesting debate over the right economic distribution of wealth versus the right socially responsible distribution of wealth.Are the economist's view of the right answer and the sociologist's view of the right answer consistent with the public policy maker's view of the right answer? What should guide the public administrator's decision in the debate?The issue of how the government should deal with the economic concept of externalities and cost-benefit analysis is exposed.The issue of how to compensate losers in a policy decision is also exposed and debated.Again, these are important economic concepts that can guide, but not always dictate, the direction of public policy.Throughout the book, Rhoads compares the political way of thinking and the human way of thinking about public issues with the economic way of thinking about those same issues.What may often be controversial politically is not always controversial economically and vice versa.

Rhoads raises an issue about how the lack of microeconomic knowledge among politicians adversely affects the orientation and impact of public policy.He uses a number of meaningful examples to demonstrate his assertions.For example, politicians have established rent control to help the poor afford housing; but we ended up with the unintended consequence of slums, as the rent was not enough for landlords to maintain their property.It is clear that the public would benefit if politicians had a greater knowledge of economic theory when setting public policy.Rhoads, however, does not just single out politicians for their lack of economic knowledge.He also addresses the limits of economics and economic models in guiding public policy decisions.The concept of consumer sovereignty is largely a myth in the face of advertising and other producer influences.The ability to deal with the economics of externalities is not simple when attempting to identify and allocate public costs.Rhoads points out through his discussion that economists could learn more about public policy perspectives to temper their economic models, thinking, and prescriptions.Rhoads is credible in writing about public policy because he is a political scientist by training who is also knowledgeable about economics and objectively critical about its weaknesses.

Rhoads's work is significant because it shines a light on the need to integrate economic theory, sociology, and political science into the understanding and development of public policy.Would politicians make the same public policy decisions if they had at least a basic understanding of marginalism and opportunity costs?Would economists make the same recommendations if they had an appreciation for sociology, political science, and the myth of consumer sovereignty?Many issues that public administrators deal with today are economic issues wrapped up in a political debate.If politicians really understood externalities, would the nature of the political debate change from what actions to regulate to what material incentives would create the desired outcomes?If you assume that one role of a public administrator is to develop good public policy, then you have to agree that politicians need an economic base combined with their social and political experience to write good policy.Rhoads is uniquely qualified to argue this position and does so effectively.

For Economists and Noneconomists
Rhoads is an effective promoter of the economic way of thinking. He quotes Kenneth Arrow: "the economist's frequent job is to say 'this or that, not both. You can't do both.'" Perhaps owing to his outsider's perspective as a political scientist, he is able to usefully contrast the economic way of thinking with various alternatives. Whereas engineers concentrate on making equipment safer in order to reduce the number of accidents in the workplace, economists would tax each firm based on the number of accidents in its workplace.
Rhoads understands the economic way of thinking well. On regulations aimed at saving lives, he states: "We must weigh in our own minds, using our own standards, the gains forgone elsewhere when money is spent on such programs." On marginalism: "Many doctors will want to use scarce resources to the point where the marginal utility of further expenditures equals zero (`everything possible for my patients'), not to the point where it equals the opportunity cost." He explains the economist's approach to reducing (not eliminating) pollution through taxes on pollution and licenses to pollute. "With the incentive schemes", the advantage is that "the possibility of increasing profits by reducing pollutants remains as long as any taxes are paid or capital is tied up in the marketable effluent licenses, that is, as long as any pollutant remains." The author's knowledge of the literature on the microeconomics of public policy and his explication of it impress this reader.
Although Rhoads proves to be a clear believer in the benefits of a price system, his philosophy is not free market or libertarian. He justifies subsidies for science and art on grounds that appreciation and fondness for those subjects "are higher, more distinctively human, pleasures, but also harder and less enticing initially." A good sentence that describes Rhoads's perspective and why economists and noneconomists might find the book interesting is this: "I think economists should read more outside of economics, but most people should read more within it."

Sophisticated analysis but lucid reading
This is an excellent book.I first read it while doing graduate work in public administration and then read it again as I worked towards a Ph.D. in political science.For the student of public policy, an understanding ofeconomics is critical to understanding the underlying rationale behind manyfailed as well a succesful governmental initiatives.Further, for thepublic servant, it casts light on policy design in one's professional work. This book is helpful in both arenas.

The book clealry describes thetraditional justifications for government in a market economy, marketfailure; but also delves into government failure, and the limitations ofdemocratic processes in shaping rational policy.

The book describesother economic concepts; marginalism, opportunity costs, welfare economics,pareto optimality in such a manner as to make their policy relevance veryclear.

Underlying this non-technical and jargon free discussion is awell intended (and on-target) critique of the academic discipline ofeconomics.Juxtaposing early economic thinkers with today's calculusdriven analysts, Rhoades sees a dearth of span of vision.Technicalexpertise has overwhelmed broad understanding and mathematical brilliancehas driven out a wide breadth of learning.

This is an great book forthe serious reader and a must for graduate students in policy, PA orpolitics. ... Read more

Product Description
Risk is an intrinsic component of finance that both dictates and complicates investments and companies. This book offers an exceptionally thorough and ambitious introduction to financial risk and risk management—direct from the capital markets editor of The Economist.

Dealing with Financial Risk presents key concepts in a simple and entertaining way by explaining the endeavors, mistakes, and successes of others as they tried to identify, measure, and simplify risk and make it work for them. It includes analysis of some of the recent corporate disasters and what each has added to the understanding of financial risk, including Baring Brothers in 1995, Long-Term Capital Management in 1998, and Enron in 2001. In addition, the book explores the risks of the financial system as a whole and analyzes recent attempts to ensure greater stability within the system.

This book will become a standard introduction to the concept of financial risk and the realities of financial risk management. Written for the intelligent layman as well as for a company or bank executive or a student who needs an introduction or refresher course on risk, Dealing with Financial Risk capitalizes on the pervasiveness and persistence of the topic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Best expose of the nonsense that led finance over a cliff.
If this book had been widely read, understood and believed when it came out, we could have skipped the final insanity that led to the collapse.The author is very skeptical of mathematical risk management, and proves that he has good reasons.If you have even the slightest confidence that it works, read this book and you will change your mind.

Very clear and requires no background in economics or mathematics.Technical terms are defined in a glossary at the back.

Great Publication - A- for the book!
There are more words and concepts than bone-crunching figures. Without analyzing figures it is hard to decide whether learning Financial Risk would be as useful. Plain Flat text books still prevails this arena.

Great book, excellent overview on Financial Risk history
Dealing with Financial Risk offers a great overview of the history of financial errors. The book includes Long-Term Capital Management errors, among a number of other hedge funds.

Lucid book in a sharp and concise style
David Shirreff was one of the first and remains one of the few journalists to tackle the challenging subject of financial risk. In this book, he collects material from articles he published during the 1990s (a period of astonishing innovation in the field), supplemented by interviews with some of the true luminaries in the areas of financial engineering and financial risk management. Shirreff is a lucid writer with a sharp and concise style. He has the rare gift of making the complexities of finance accessible to a general readership. Therefore, we recommend this book both to financial professionals and to general readers who have an interest in the subject.

Good for finance and non-finance professionals
Everything we do with a purpose is necessarily effected by risk. Think of purpose as a benefit or return, and the uncertainty of realizing any such return as risk. We conduct risk versus return assessments in everything we do then. This book, therefore, could interest nearly anyone.

For the street-smart, non-academic business person, I recommend this book as an informative, instructional primer on financial risk. And for the technical professional, it provides refreshing and entertaining insights. Shirreff's writing is easy to understand and enjoyable to read.

Shirreff contends that financial risk was traditionally treated as a measurable, calculable, and manageable factor. Policy makers and business leaders eventually learned that the art and science of risk management are inseparable. Like games of chance, however, risk management is a simple concept to grasp but difficult or impossible to master in all its manifestations. Shirreff clearly, concisely, and in an often colorful way, guides the reader through many of the key concepts as well as specific techniques of risk assessment and management.

I think anyone, whether a financial type or not, would benefit significantly from reading this book - but then that's just my speculation.

... Read more

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Customer Reviews (10)

Decent, but don't believe the title
This book provides a nice overview of economic theory, with an emphasis on how it has been changing recently. The style is eloquent, but the author is too nerdy to appeal to as wide an audience as she hopes. How many critics of economics will put up with quips such as "my Hamiltonian is bigger than yours!"?

The most thought-provoking part of the book, where she argues that economics has a soul, convinced me she convinced me she's rather confused about why economics makes people uncomfortable.
One of her few good analogies mentions the similarities between critics of evolution and critics of economics. I wished she had learned more about the motives of her critics from this. Both sciences disturb people because their soulless autistic features destroy cherished illusions.
Evolutionary theory tells us that the world is crueler than we want it to be, and weakens beliefs about humans having something special and immaterial that makes us noble.
Likewise, economics tells us that people aren't as altruistic as we want them to be, and encourages a mechanistic view of people that interferes with attempts to see mystical virtues in humans.

Some of her defenses of mainstream economics from "post-autistic" criticism deals with archaic uses of the word autistic (abnormal subjectivity, acceptance of fantasy). These disputes seem to be a disorganized mix of good and bad criticisms of mainstream economics that don't suggest any wholesale rejection of mainstream economics. It's the uses of autistic that resemble modern medical uses of the term that generate important debates.

She repeats the misleading claim that Malthusian gloom caused Carlyle to call economics the dismal science. This suggests she hasn't studied critics of economics as well as she thinks. Carlyle's real reason (defending racism from an assault by economists) shows the benefits of economists' autistic tendencies. Economists' mechanistic models and lack of empathy for slaveowners foster a worldview in which having different rules for slaves seemed unnatural (even to economists who viewed slaves as subhuman).

I just happened to run across this thought from an economist describing his autistic child (A Different Kind of Boy by Daniel Mont): "his utter inability to comprehend why Jackie Robinson wasn't welcomed by every major league team".

She tries to address specific complaints about what economists teach without seeing a broad enough picture to see when those are just symptoms of a broader pattern of discomfort. Hardly anyone criticizes physics courses that teach Newtonian mechanics for their less-accurate-than-Einstein simplifications. When people criticize economics for simplifications in ways that resemble creationists' complaints about simplifications made in teaching evolution, it seems unwise (and autistic) to avoid modeling deeper reasons that would explain the broad pattern of complaints.
She points to all the effort that economists devote to analyzing empirical data as evidence that economists are in touch with the real world. I'll bet that analyzing people as numbers confirms critics' suspicions about how cold and mechanistic economists are.

She seems overconfident about the influence economists have had on monetary and antitrust policies. Anyone familiar with public choice economics would look harder for signs that the agencies in question aren't following economists' advice as carefully as they want economists to think.

I'm puzzled by this claim:
"The straightforward policy implication [of happiness research] is that to increase national well-being, more people need to have more sex. This doesn't sound like a reasonable economic policy prescription"
She provides no explanation of why we shouldn't conclude that sex should replace some other leisure activities. It's not obvious that there are policies which would accomplish this goal, but it sure looks like economists aren't paying as much attention to this issue as they ought to.

She appears wrong when she claims that it's reasonable to assume prediction market traders are risk neutral, and that that is sufficient to make prediction market prices reflect probabilities. Anyone interested in this should instead follow her reference to Manski's discussion and see the response by Justin Wolfers and Eric Zitzewitz ("Interpreting Prediction Market Prices as Probabilities").

Great book, wrong conclusion
First let me say that I approached this book with trepidation, based on the reviews of certain economists, fearing that it would be a smug apologetic for mainstream economics.

It is not a smug apologetic, it is an up-to-date, superbly well-written and entertaining survey of interesting recent trends in economics.However - I agree with John Wenzler here - the argument does not support the conclusion, which is that mainstream economics is basically healthy.

Why is this? It starts by profiling an economic historian.Great. But economic history is generally shunned by mainstream economists, and widely deleted from curricula.It emphasises that empirical work is important in economics - excellent - but you won't learn solid, painstaking empirical work as a foundation for a career in the best economics departments.It cites Keynes several times; but Keynes's books are labelled "obscure" by prominent mainstream economists.And it emphasises growth as an important issue - brilliant - but scarcity is the foundation for neoclassical economics, not growth.

One reads with amazement that "culture, institutions and technology interact subtly", hardly daring to think that this could be a brilliant insight into the kind of reconciliation that is needed in the human sciences.And one's caution is ultimately warranted. Because lurking at the end of this work is an all-too-familiar conclusion, that if "rational choice and the use of equilibrium... are limitations, so be it"; and the same old assertion of the "power" of neoclassical models.

Whenever I hear an economist talk about the "power" of mainstream modelling, I can't help but recall the phrase "the violence of abstraction".Coyle even cites recent sociological research (p 252), to the effect that individuals learn to use financial economic theorems, as evidence of the power of the model!That's not the power of the model, it's the power of the ideology.I feel Michael Brady's review is right in this regard - Nassim Taleb's critique of mainstream economics and finance is relevant, and is underplayed.Furthermore, Coyle cites Holander's recent research on graduate economics students as support for her thesis that economics is changing - without mentioning the much more pessimistic view of his colleage Klamer, on the basis of the same evidence, and included in the same book.It would also have been interesting to see a reference to Steve Keen's work, also, which is a good, thorough critique of the internal inconsistencies of mainstream economics.

I do appreciate Coyle's concession that not all critics of mainstream economics must be derided for not wanting to learn mathematics - that is a concession that should be accepted by some other reviewers of this book.As the French students have pointed out, there is no general objection to learning mathematics, providing it is an aid to understanding actually existing economies.

Ultimately, mainstream economics has retarded understanding of economies for too long - the new areas of research that Coyle reveals are based on insights generally well known to other social scientists, and to institutionally minded economists such as Galbraith (who is insultingly labelled a non-economist).They could have been absorbed much earlier if economists were not so blinkered.

Ultimately, economics will for many people not be worth serious study in universities until it is recognised that maximizing behaviour and equilibrium are limited "tools".There is indeed a place for theory. I recommend Edward Nell's theory of "transformational growth".When that is awarded a Nobel (assuming the author would accept that currency), it may be generally safe to return to the professional study of economics. Until then it will be generally safer to rely on the insights of those working outside the mainstream, and to resist attempts by orthodox economists to ram reality into their image.

read it
Perhaps the most important thing to know, if you want to be a good citizen, is some basic economics.This book is a good way to learn it.

Economics is no more a science,soulful or otherwise, than Ptolemaicastronomy
Coyle has written a defense of the economics profession.She wants to hold on to the basic core position of neoclassical economics,which is the "rational economic man",Benthamite utilitarian ,theoretical decision making approach . Its 20th century extension is the Subjective Expected Utility(SEU) approach ,which is based on the Ramsey,De Finetti,and Savage Bayesian,subjective probability approach.See below . This is then combined with the application of some type of normal probability distribution(joint,bivariate,multivariate,log)when econometric " empirical " work is done by an economist .The foundation of the modern day version of Benthamite utilitarianism is the subjectivist,Bayesian theory about probability set forth by Ramsey,de Finetti,and Savage between 1926 and 1954.This is a very special theory that can only be applied when the mathematical laws of multiplicationand addition apply.These purely mathematical laws hold only in the special ,limiting case where the decision maker knows for certain what the sample space will be in the present andthe future or,equivalently,knows for certain what the particular probability distribution is now and for allfuture time.J M Keynes,F Knight ,and D Ellsberg pointed out the general inapplicability of this approach.In general,the probabilities facing decision makers in the real world are not the point estimates of subjective probability theory or subjective expected utility but the intervals of J M Keynes or the multiple sets of different probabilty distributions of D Ellsberg.These are the crucial constraints on rational decision makers in a world of uncertainty and ambiguity,as opposed to theworld of risk postulated by the Bayesian subjectivist approach ,which inevitably leads them to restrict their choice of probability distributions to the normal.The behaviorist approach of Kahneman-Tversky and Thaler or the experimantal approach of V Smith do not deviate from the standard ,neoclassical,subjectivist story supported by Coyle ,since the rules of thumb,heuristics ,and other anomolous behavioral shortcuts are defined as being irrational.Tversky-Kahneman and Smith do not deviate in their support for the application of the subjectivist- normal probability distribution approach,although there is practically no economist who ever does any goodness of fit testsbefore assuming a normal distribution .The fields of macroeconomics,monetary economics,econometrics,money and banking,and financial economics continue to apply normal probability distributions to data sets where no goodness of fit test supports the use of the Normal.
Another severe problem with Coyle's book is her attempt to downplay the work of Benoit Mandelbrot and Nassim Taleb.A careful reading of Mandelbrot and Taleb requiresthe complete abandonment of an economic "science " based on the presumption that you can just assume a normal distribution.Mandelbrot is famous for much more than the Mandelbrot set.Mandelbrot has demonstrated,for over 50 years,that the data sets in all(national and international) financial markets fall a long way short of being even approximately normal.The data can be represented by either a Cauchy or power law distribution.A decision maker in these markets faces the " wild " risk of the Cauchy and not the " mild" risk of the Normal.Mandelbrot completely rejects the corpus of economic theory that is based on the assumption of normality.Economic theory has no goodness of fit tests to support it.The assumption of normality is equivalent to the assumption of epicycles in Ptolemaic astronomy .Coyle's references to Mandelbrot(p.145,201) and Taleb(pp.30-35,etc.),who similarly rejects the standard model that Coyle is,like the Ptolemaic opponents of Galileo,desperately trying to save,are disingenuous and misleading.
Coyle's book can be summed up in her own words: " The grand unified theory of the economics mainstream offends those who feel the assumptions of rationality psychologically unrealistic,but it works extremely well,with just a bit of reasoning from the psychologists when it comes to how we predict the future"(Coyle,p.145) or "However,the applicability of the results is narrow,and economics as a whole doesn't need the psychological research to restore its worth as a subject"(Coyle,p.124).

Instead of this book I recommend Hudson and Mandelbrot's 2004 book " The (Mis)behavior of Markets " or Nassim Taleb's 2007 book " The Black Swan " or D Ellsberg's 2001 book," Risk,Ambiguity and Decision ".For the truly daring reader I recommend Keynes's 1921 " A Treatise on Probability ",which Taleb,correctly ,views as the best book ever written on probability,as opposed to numerous treatises written on mathematical probability.Economics needs alot more than just a "...bit of reasoning from the psychologists...".It needs a complete house cleaning before it ends up in the dustbin of history along side Ptolemaic astronomy.

This is economics?
The author seems to have difficulty reaching a conclusion and moving on.
I doubt that I will be interested in reading other similar books. Graphs and tables
are scarce in a subject area that requires them. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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'This volume is an excellent outcome of an American Economic Association Committee for Economic Education project aimed at advancing the teaching of economics within a liberal arts context. Dave Colander and KimMarie McGoldrick assembled a most able panel of contributors for this effort that includes dialogue on what should be taught, how it should be taught, and how that teaching and learning should be assessed and rewarded. To the editors' credit, they have not attempted to dictate policy but to stimulate debate on the topics. This volume is a must read for anyone seriously interested in the teaching of economics at the tertiary level.'
- William E. Becker, Indiana University, Bloomington, US

The economics major is a central part of a college education. But is that economics major doing what it is meant to do? And if not, how should it be changed? This book raises a set of provocative questions that encourage readers to look at the economics major in a different light than it is typically considered and provides a series of recommendations for change.

Responding to a Teagle Foundation initiative on the role of majors in higher education, the contributors -- eminent economists and administrators -- consider the relationship between the goals and objectives of the economics major and those of a liberal education. They address questions such as: What is the appropriate training for a person who will be teaching in a liberal arts school? What incentives would motivate the creation of institutional value through teaching and not simply research? They also explore whether the disciplinary nature of undergraduate education is squeezing out the 'big-think' questions, and replacing them with 'little-think' questions, and whether we should change graduate training of economists to better prepare them to be teachers, rather than researchers.

Providing a stimulating discussion of the economics major by many of the leaders in US economic education, this book will prove a thought provoking read for those with a special interest in economics and economics education, particularly academics, lecturers, course administrators, students and researchers. ... Read more