A timely study that will help readers interpret the headlines, though it offers little comfort to those hoping for a quick...
Should we feel better that the chairman of the Federal Reserve is an authority on the Great Depression?
Perhaps so, suggests Belgium-based economist Van Overtveldt (The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business, 2007)—if only because Ben Bernanke is more sensitive to market movements and trends and more forthright in his assessments of them than his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, whose gnomic public utterances were “usually vague and restrained.” The central bank that both headed is, at least as ideally conceived, responsible for helping maintain the overall health of financial conditions that drive the economy. Yet the power of the Fed has grown, perhaps unintentionally, and it has become less accountable, more secretive and obscure, and perhaps less effective. Van Overtveldt examines this evolution in light of the current financial crisis, noting provocatively that whereas Greenspan was once viewed as something of an economic magician and an exemplary manager of money, “recently…there has been a considerable re-evaluation of some of his decisions.” As a regulator, the author writes, Greenspan was mediocre. But previous efforts to regulate diligently, guided by Keynesian views that neglected the supply side, were none too successful either, impeded by the politics of self-interest and greed. Van Overtveldt’s enumeration of the succession of crises that Greenspan oversaw will make the reader wonder why anyone ever held him in esteem; this account also does much to explain the actions that Bernanke has been taking of late. The author’s analysis of savings rates, deficits, monetary contraction and other matters, backed by ample graphs and plenty of hard data, is not for the numerically faint of heart, but it is accessible. Van Overtveldt is particularly clear when he examines pronouncements on the part of both Bernanke and Greenspan that he considers “spectacularly wrong.”
A timely study that will help readers interpret the headlines, though it offers little comfort to those hoping for a quick solution to the present mess.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-932841-37-4
Page Count: 264
Publisher: B2 Books/Agate
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2009
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
IN THE NEWS
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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