Sound post-Keynesian economic reasoning well argued—a book that one hopes, against the odds, the heads of the Federal...
A financial cri de coeur from a banking insider.
Hoda, an erstwhile derivatives trader with J.P. Morgan and Swiss Re, among other houses too big to fail, offers a variation on the trope that the last great financial crisis was the product of “the greed and deceit of commercial and investment bankers and traders.” There was that, to be sure, but the instability that has followed suggests, she argues, that a more complete truth lies elsewhere. She locates this in the complex interplay of central banks with the larger financial world, serving up a program that encourages investors to borrow even if it leads to more debt, “trying to create economic momentum by intimidating people with a continued reduction in purchasing power.” Tied up in this is an oddly tilted, sometimes paradoxical system that punishes thrift—because too much thrift leads to impoverishment in an economy premised on consumer spending—by lowering interest rates below that of inflation, “effectively taxing our savings.” In a sense, the banks’ bluff is that the game can continue even as people realize that it’s rigged. Hoda examines the evolution of central banks over a long, bumpy history of previous financial panics, offering sidelights on the abandonment of the gold standard. Of more immediate interest is her take on the difficulty of investing in such a climate of uncertainty, with the real winners being the traders who “aim to extract value by anticipating the actions of the central banks.” Writing accessibly and without undue reliance on jargon, Hoda dissects efforts at regulating the financial industry, such as the Dodd-Frank Act, which she considers one that “confused correlation with causality,” and advocates for zero inflation, job creation, and other stability-improving policies. On the present course, writes the author in closing, “investors will stop believing the central banks, even when they should.”
Sound post-Keynesian economic reasoning well argued—a book that one hopes, against the odds, the heads of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England will entertain.Pub Date: July 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-78074-813-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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