Spellbinding, insightful and, perhaps most important, timely.
Erudite, entertaining macroeconomic history of the lead-up to the Great Depression as seen through the careers of the West’s principal bankers.
Investment manager Ahamed sets the stage for his story with Toynbeean sweep. The gold standard, to which the major currencies of the world were tied, was thrown into tumult by World War I. France, Britain and Germany found themselves depleted of gold reserves. The United States, a new economic power holding the bulk of the world’s gold bullion, demanded repayment of loans made to its allies; this forced large, untenable reparation payments on Germany. The main characters of this unfolding drama were a quartet of bankers who saw themselves as “elite tribunes, standing above the fray of politics, national resentments, and amateur nostrums,” and who wielded astonishing, autonomous authority over monetary policy. Eccentric, aristocratic Montagu Norman of the Bank of England dealt with the problem of inadequate gold reserves to support the overvalued pound sterling by convincing Benjamin Strong, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to lower interest rates in America to encourage the flow of gold back to Europe. This directly fueled the U.S. stock-market bubble, Ahamed argues. The crash of 1929 and the worldwide depression that followed were the inevitable results. Other catalysts included the Reichsbank’s irascible, unpredictable Hjalmar Schacht, whose obsession with eliminating reparations led Germany to the brink of default, and vindictive Émile Moreau, whose policy at the Banque de France aimed to destabilize the British pound. Ahamed compares these bankers to the Greek mythological character Sisyphus, condemned to eternal, endless effort. “Their goal is a strong economy and stable prices,” he writes. “This is, however, the very environment that breeds the sort of overoptimism and speculation that eventually ends up destabilizing the economy.” Ahamed soberingly suggests that, “bubbles and crises seem to be deep-rooted in human nature and inherent to the capitalist system.”
Spellbinding, insightful and, perhaps most important, timely.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59420-182-0
Page Count: 546
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
Perceptive perspectives on the organizational order that could characterize successful institutions in the Global Village's high- tech future. Asserting that rigid hierarchies with built-in caste systems will not be able to respond effectively to the postindustrial era's demands, Helgesen (The Female Advantage, 1990, etc.) focuses on an alternative framework she felicitously dubs ``the web of inclusion.'' In the author's persuasively documented view, this flexible, functional, participatory structure affords many advantages, including the ability to evolve by trial and error. In addition to taking individuals previously relegated to the periphery and making them integral to a productive communal whole, she observes, networklike webs can (with a big assist from advanced hardware and software) push power down the traditional chain of command to erstwhile subordinates: in the military, to cite one arresting example, front-line troops able to identify and hit targets of various sorts. At the heart of the author's disquisition are case studies detailing how web arrangements have helped four companies and one medical facility overcome challenges of the sort apt to be commonplace in the next century. Unfortunately for Helgesen, Intel—her marketing paradigm for the fine job it made of appealing to PC users over the heads of equipment manufacturers— has recently suffered through a widely publicized fiasco involving the Pentium chip's shortcomings. On the plus side of the ledger, Anixter Inc., Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, the Miami Herald, and Nickelodeon provide object lessons on ways in which webs can deal fruitfully with problems such as diversity and continuous employee training programs. At the close, the author shares some constructive thoughts on workplace design, the virtual office, and allied instrumentalities that could encourage the best and brightest staffers as well as their less gifted colleagues to assume greater responsibility on the job. A first-rate contribution to organizational theory and practice. (Author tour)
Pub Date: May 15, 1995
ISBN: 0-385-42364-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The former president (Jankowski) and senior vice president (Fuchs) of CBS consider television's future and find the corporate networks in great shape despite cable TV's rise. The authors argue that the networks possess inherent strengths that will keep them powerful for many years to come. These include: tremendous concentrations of money, talent, and experience with long-established methods of creating popular entertainment; alliances with affiliates that pool news and other resources; and enormous audiences that will continue to lure advertisers. The virtues of the network concept explain Rupert Murdoch's recent success in building Fox and Ted Turner's attempted takeover of CBS, which occurred even as the media was sounding the networks' death knell. Meanwhile, a growing number of cable channels and emerging alternatives, though hobbled by a scarcity of money and talent, must fight for ever tinier slices of the viewer pie. This argument may be seen as self-serving, given the authors' backgrounds, and much of the rest of the book is little more than an apologia for TV. Sections on violence fail to consider important evidence of links between television and real-world violence. Other arguments- -that Americans want lowest common denominator entertainment, and that TV can't provide more balanced electoral coverage—also fail to persuade. But there's a strong dose of common sense in the authors' skepticism about the threat posed by cable and by developments like high-definition television, pay-per-view, and home shopping. The book also offers a solid overview of how networks function, of government regulation of TV, and of public television. Anyone betting heavily on the ``information superhighway'' should consider this bottom-line view. Take the rest with a grain of salt.
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-507487-4
Page Count: 165
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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