A Crisis of Beliefs – Investor Psychology and Financial Fragility
Authors: Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer – Bocconi University, Harvard University
Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer carefully walk readers through the unraveling of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing meltdown of the US financial system, and then present new evidence to illustrate the destabilizing role played by the beliefs of home buyers, investors, and regulators. Using the latest research in psychology and behavioral economics, they present a new theory of belief formation that explains why the financial crisis came as such a shock to so many people—and how financial and economic instability persist.
Economists have long needed a theory of why we are so often caught totally off guard by financial crises—here it is. This is a book that shakes our economic presumptions to the very core.
Robert J. Shiller, Yale University
Money and Government
Author: Robert Skidelsky – Warwick University
The dominant view in economics is that money and government should play only a minor role in economic life. Money, it is claimed, is nothing more than a medium of exchange; and economic outcomes are best left to the ‘invisible hand’ of the market. The view taken in this important new book is that the omnipresence of uncertainty make money and government essential features of any market economy. One reason we need money is because we don’t know what the future will bring. Government – good government – makes the future more predictable and therefore reduces this kind of demand for money.
Unfinished Business
Author: Tamim Bayoumi – IMF
Starting in the 1980s, Bayoumi outlines the cumulative policy errors that undermined the stability of both the European and U.S. financial sectors, highlighting the catalytic role played by European mega banks that exploited lax regulation to expand into the U.S. market and financed unsustainable bubbles on both continents. U.S. banks increasingly sold sub-par loans to under-regulated European and U.S. shadow banks and, when the bubbles burst, the losses whipsawed back to the core of the European banking system. A much-needed, fresh look at the origins of the crisis, Bayoumi’s analysis concludes that policy makers are ignorant of what still needs to be done both to complete the cleanup and to prevent future crises.
EuroTragedy – A Drama in Nine Acts
Author: Ashoka Modi – Princeton University
Blending economic analysis with political drama, EuroTragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts is a groundbreaking account of the euro’s history and tragic consequences. In this vivid and compelling chronicle, Ashoka Mody describes how the euro improbably emerged through a narrow historical window as a flawed compromise wrapped in a false pro-European rhetoric of peace and unity. Drawing on his frontline experience, Mody situates the tragedy in a fast-paced global context and guides the reader through forced–and unforced–errors eurozone authorities committed during their long financial crisis.
One does not have to share Ashoka Mody’s view that the German government should admit guilt for the Euro crisis to recognize that this book is fascinating reading, full of insight into the history of the euro and its ultimate failure. Written by a leading scholar and former senior IMF official, there is much to be learnt from this extremely well-written and important work. We need books like this to enter a frank and open debate.
Hans-Werner Sinn, Ifo
