by Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Mihm ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 11, 2010
An impressive, timely argument on behalf of transparency and stability for a financial system conspicuously lacking both.
Two professors explain how we got into the current economic mess and offer a prescription for the way out.
Roubini (Economics/New York Univ.; co-author, New International Financial Architecture, 2006, etc.) and Mihm (History/Univ. of Georgia; A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States, 2007, etc.) define crisis economics as “the study of how and why markets fail.” The origins of the current upheaval, they contend, are deeply structural—far more severe than simply a housing bubble and the securitization of bad loans—and the storms will persist. They preface their proposed remedies with a whirlwind tour of past crises, a survey of economic thinkers who offer insights into why markets collapse, an analysis of how today’s unstable moment compares with past market traumas and a look at the special dangers posed by our integrated global economy. Critiquing the unprecedented emergency measures taken recently to right the economic ship, they warn of the unintended consequences likely to flow from hasty decisions made under extreme pressure. We should use this moment of relative calm, they argue, to institute necessary changes. These range from the fundamental—reform of Wall Street’s compensation system, the securitization process and private ratings agencies, and a crackdown on derivatives and bank supervision—to the radical—thoroughly rethinking the nature and composition of regulatory agencies, tackling the problem of financial institutions currently deemed “too big to fail” and using the government’s tools to discourage predictable and disastrous economic bubbles. Notwithstanding their argument’s scholarly scaffolding, Roubini and Mihm manage a smooth translation of the dismal science. Their challenging yet accessible narrative will reward general readers, many of whom are stunned by recent developments and suddenly seized with questions about how our economy works—and doesn’t.
An impressive, timely argument on behalf of transparency and stability for a financial system conspicuously lacking both.Pub Date: May 11, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59420-250-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
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by Erin Meyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2014
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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by Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2019
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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