A must have !

A fantastic book, enlightening, thought provoking, a great read. I'm not"a reader", but couldn't put this thing down - a"must have". Have now bought a couple more books related to this one - enjoy.<br />G

A masterpiece of clarity

Well yes, everyone should read this book; after which everyone will probably want to storm down to the City and start hanging bankers from lampost. No, not everyone who works for a bank, but some of the 'masters of the universe' who got us into this mess, clearly feel no remorse or even reflection that their models and prescriptions were wrong, and stand to ride out the storm while the rest of us suffer.<br /><br />This is a very clear, thoughtful, well-written book which sets out the roots of the present crisis and explains lots of the jargon with which the realities of the banking world are shrouded. Buy it, read it, give it as a present.

Panic in the Street.

Amazonian reactions to this book seem to fall into two buckets - on one view it's the definitive account of the investment banking crisis of 2008; on the other it is a slapdash, hastily thrown together, and un-penetrating story that lets itself be distracted by the Herculean egos (are there any other kinds on Wall Street?) and Olympian hubris and therefore fails to get anywhere near the nub of the issue: just how could this car crash ever have happened? There's an element of truth in both views, though I think the complaints of superficiality are - well - a little superficial. <br /><br />Firstly, be under no illusion that this is a quickly bashed-out pot-boiler; to the contrary, it's a book of monstrous scope. It covers an extraordinary series of dislocations in implausible, blow-by-blow, detail - more on this implausibility in a minute - Sorkin wisely includes a Dramatis Personae at the start, for the cast of events and characters and their various interactions here has the byzantine grandeur of a later James Ellroy novel (I just got through Blood's A Rover: the plotting in Too Big To Fail is comparable). Andrew Sorkin's simple achievement in commanding all these unconnected (if highly correlated) events and knitting them into a coherent, linear narrative is remarkable, particularly given the time in which Sorkin achieved this. It might have been fifteen months now, but it only seems like yesterday.<br /><br />As noted (and, elsewhere, complained about) Sorkin's interest is in the personalities behind the thrust and counterthrust rather than the macroeconomic backdrop. Far from being a drawback, that's precisely what is so perceptive about this book: the economic fundamentals"which lead to the crisis" aren't the whole story. Indeed they are *just* a story - and you'll find as many different analyses of precisely how this came about and whose fault it was as you could wish for, and while there is much consensus, there is a lot of disagreement too. But it doesn't matter. Once the balls were in motion, what mattered was who did what, when. Sorkin does assume some knowledge of the financial history of the last 15 years, and assumes you'll have a view by now the whole story, and whether it was Greenspan's free market fundamentalism, the disestablishment of the Glass Steagall Act, the rise of derivatives technology which permitted the securitisation of increasingly whacky assets, the negative feedback loop created by the originate-and-distribute model, the flaws and anomalies in CDO ratings methodologies or some diabolical confection of some or all of the above. (Actually, here's a great spin on the crisis: being as he was, the progenitor of modern whacky-asset securitisation when he securitised his back catalog, it's all David Bowie's fault!). You could, and I think Sorkin does, take the view that that's only the prelude to the story. And indeed, the crisis was in part caused by over-reliance on precisely the sort of fundamental analysis and economic theory (for example, the inappropriate probabilistic assumptions built into option pricing and VAR models that Benoit Mandelbrot and Nassim Nicholas Taleb have been banging on about for years; the laissez faire view held by Ben Bernanke's predecessor in the Federal Reserve) that some suggest is missing here. <br /><br />The rest of the story is that while, these economic theories and fundamental analyses are all well and good, it was the personal and political expedients - the Realpolitik - which actually made the difference. This is what Taleb would call the"intractable reality" of the world which bevils and taunts any neat macro-economic explanation. Black Scholes cannot factor in that Hank Paulson, an incontrovertible Master of the Universe on Wall Street, was a complete ingénue in Washington; that even if he'd wanted to Paulson *couldn't* bail out Lehman, however sensible it may have been, because the Republican majority wouldn't have stood for it; that the Goldman/Wachovia merger was politically impossible because of the multiple Goldman connections at the Fed, Treasury and both firms; that a Presidential election was looming with a grandstanding, flailing republican candidate; that no-one really liked Dick Fuld, Vikram Pandit or Sheila Bair. These things, at the limit (and God only knows, we *were* at the limit) make an enormous difference to the path of history, and macroeconomic hypothesising about why this was happening really misses the point.<br /><br />That said, there is certainly some (acknowledged, I think) implausibility in the level or detail to which the book descends: it is one thing to report the fact of a meeting or call between two protagonists who clearly would not have talked, on or off the record, to the author; it's quite another to construct (i.e., invent) their dialogue and reactions"verbatim". I don't believe for a moment that any of Paulson, Geithner, Bair, Jester, Steele, Bernanke, Dimon, Lewis, Thain, Diamond, Darling, Mack, Fuld, McDade or McGee spoke to Sorkin at all. So the book, explicitly, takes many liberties, and its recounting of conversations can only have been entirely made up by Sorkin. The somewhat hackneyed on monotonous voice through which Sorkin renders all of his characters would tend to validate this suspicion.<br /><br />For all that, the content of the conversations is plausible and the account of the actions, in the round, rings true.<br /><br />So a very good, entertaining, rollicking account. Well recommended.<br /><br />Olly Buxton<br />

Great, concise and honest Book

I loved this book. Very concise and definitive. Especially good as the authour uses real-life police cases where he solved crimes by reading non verbal behaviour. This book will definately prove useful in your everyday life. The best thing about it is the authour shows absolutely no ego in his writing, unlike many experts who write books. 10/10.

Brilliant in so far as it goes

This book provides a lucid explication of the concept of rule of law, including, for good measure, a brutal demolition of the legal case for the 2003 Iraq war. The only failing I found was that Lord Bingham fails to consider how the evolution of trans-national corporations challenges the comprehensivenss of the concept he outlines. Given the proliferation of these entities and the way in which the political economy of the world is globalising this is a critical omission - but I suppose one can't have everything. Aside from this it is an exempliary piece of writing.

Economics of incentives for non-economists.

All in all, it is one of the non-fiction books on economics that is becoming mainstream phenomenon. The success of Freakonomics, Naked economist, Undercover economists, and the like has prompted the need for more of these economics concepts for laypersons. Partly fuelled by the media and headline news about financial crisis and all, people have the curiosity to understand how hard-fact cold-blooded Homo Economicus behave and how Wall Street financiers so successfully plummeted the economies around the world. This book probably serves as a bedside story for everyone to take a look back at how Economics can help explain the concept of incentive (carrot and stick), and how everyone of us, whichever race, gender, age, or even species (Monkey is mentioned in this book, too) strikingly similarly (given the same preferences) respond to the situation and make decision that proves the self-interest serving purpose we always have.<br /><br />It is fun to read. Many stories within the book offer a new and interesting perspective of the world around us and helps remind us that next time we see the doctor, ask the doctors to wash their hands first.<br /><br />Highly recommended for those who want to know about behavioural economics, and everyone who wants to have something interesting and economically proven to read.

The irrational syndrome:viewing impending financial crises through pink-tinted lenses

The book is significant and substantial. The data collated by the authors from other sources or emanating from their own research is impressive. But the book is not simply the product of hard working and meticulous authors but also of intelligent ones. The authors are insightful and incisive. The wealth of data render tables and graphs illustrate the points made in the text with crystalline clarity. The authors certainly do not lack wit but their aim is not to entertain and create pyrotechnics but to inform, provide substance and in this way fulfill the reader in his/her gaining insight into the nature, severity, indicators and sequencing of a wide array of financial crises. The authors are meticulous and explain with professional integrity to the reader the methodologies they employ and the merits but also limitations of these methodologies;they are considerate to the reader to the point of advising which parts to skip without losing continuity. It is true that the book is rigorous and scholarly but accessible to the intelligent layman with elementary knowledge in Statistics and modest exposure to Economics vocabulary.<br /><br />The authors dispel compellingly and conclusively the"this-time-is-different" syndrome. The syndrome simply stated is that the old rules of valuation no longer apply and that the current boom, unlike the many that preceded catastrophic collapses in the past, is built on sound fundamentals, structural reforms, technological innovation, and good policy. The book in detailing crises that have arisen over the past eight centuries exposes this myth and shows that boom-bust cycles recur with relentless regularity, a trend that is likely to continue in the future.<br /><br />But the preceding serves simply as a point of departure and the focus of the book is on the crises themselves while systematic data and Macroeconomic Time Series cover the period 1800-2008.<br /><br />The book examines a wide array of financial crises such as sovereign defaults (foreign and domestic), banking crises, exchange rate crises, hyperinflation while it observes that crises often occur in clusters. The penultimate chapter examines situations such as the Great Depression of the 1930s and the latest world wide financial crisis which it labels the"Second Great Contraction"- in which crises occur in clusters and on a global scale.<br /><br />The book shows that advanced countries and economies may have"graduated" from serial default on sovereign debt and recurrent episodes of very high inflation as the cases of Austria, France, Spain and others illustrate. But History tells us that"graduation" from recurrent banking financial crises is much more elusive and that advanced economies are as vulnerable to them as emerging economies.<br /><br />The literature suggests that markedly rising asset prices, slowing real economic activity, large current account deficits, and sustained debt built ups (whether public, private, or both) are important precursors to financial crisis;also sustained capital inflows are particularly strong markers for financial crises. The preceding were very prevalent and pronounced preceding the subprime crisis in the United States which evolved into a major global financial crisis parallel only to the Great Depression of the 1930s.<br /><br />The aftermath of severe financial crises particularly global are characterized by asset market collapses which are deep and prolonged, profound collapses in output and employment, and government debt that explodes not only due to bail outs but also due to collapse in revenues and soaring interest rates on debt.<br /><br />Serious global financial crises are painful and protracted events extending over several years.<br /><br />In concluding, I cannot recommend the book strongly enough to the serious reader but at the same time I caution that the book is not suited to the casual reader and the faint-hearted.

Fab, highly recommend

Just finished reading this book, and I've got to say it was fantastic. Maybe not all of it was relevent to me but the stuff that was I found really helpful. I have read many"self-help books" and this is one of the first ones I finished, and actually enjoyed it. It is full of examples of the way other people have acheived things by doing the simplist of things. I would definately recommend it and have already told all of my friends to read it.

Nurture over Nature

Malcolm Gladwell is a master of the essay form. He starts by painting a picture of an intriguing character, raises a teasing question, offers some relevant context that may help to answer the question; then he pans back to reveal other similar characters, propose his theme, and identify some implications. What we get is a series of inspiring stories, told in a friendly and engaging tone (as if over a coffee or a beer), peppered with real world detail about real people - whether Joe Flom and the New York takeover lawyers, Korean and Colombian airline pilots, or blood feuds in the Appalachian mountains - which raise as many questions as they answer. This is surely his primary purpose: to inspire us to think, and perhaps to think a little differently. <br /><br />Gladwell does not write scientific papers - his skill is synthesis (he does however provide copious notes on his sources). Nor can he be reduced to soundbites - he demands greater engagement than that. If you will accept him on his terms he enriches. He has found the perfect form and forum for his particular talents; and I believe Outliers contains his most coherent work to date.<br /><br />His theme here is that we have gone too far in overvaluing the role of individual talent above environment / opportunity and sheer hard work - the celebrity 'cult of genius'. Examples could be Tiger Wood's rewards from his talent for golf, Bills Joy and Gates from their talents for computer programming, and how investment bankers justify their rights to enormous salaries and bonuses as deservedly belonging to their individual talents (but implicitly downplaying the roles their societies and companies have played in nurturing these talents and providing an environment that allows them to reap their rewards).<br /><br />From the last example, I would place Outliers within a wider intellectual trend that includes Michael Sandel's writing on Justice and Barack Obama's political philosophy, and seeks to reposition justice and some conception of the common good above individual freedom. Malcolm Gladwell's style can be criticised as exaggerating the contribution of environment / opportunity in telling his stories, but he would surely argue he is deliberately upping the contrast by removing shades of grey to reveal a more dramatic picture in black and white.<br /><br />Gladwell gets into the most contentious territory later in the book where he merges hard work with environment in arguing that some cultures have imbued their offspring with certain cultural advantages and disadvantages. He cites the advantage provided by successive generations of meaningful work to New York's Jewish lawyers and South-East Asia's mathematicians - and the disadvantages of the 'culture of honour' inherited by the people of the US South from their herdsman ancestors, and high power-distance cultures as a driver of plane crashes among Korean and Colombian flight crews. Handled insensitively, this could lead to unconstructive generalisations, but Gladwell is careful accentuate the benefits of such understanding - how identifying the role power-distance helped Korean Air to massively improve its safety record while still using Korean flight crews. Applying the 'culture of honour' insight could also help improve understanding in various regions of conflict around the world...<br /><br />I do, however, find the '10,000-Hour Rule' excessively simplistic. It has to be a general truism that, if sufficient talent and opportunity is there, more practice will increase the changes of success - but I do not think the prominence Gladwell gives to the number 10,000 helps him to make his case.

It is a good text book!

I did not have this text when I started studying for the Life in the UK Test. But I found that I could only have this book for the test. It is also very easy to understand British history, culture and laws.<br />Good luck all of you who need to take the test!!

Inspiring reading

If you like Seth Godin's other books, you will like this one. The main riff throughout the book is about the new world of work - one based on intellect and ideas rather than an ability to move stuff from one place to another. While not necessarily a new idea (see Dan Pink's"A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future"), it is well presented and compelling. Seth develops his argument for how to succeed in this new world and how to make yourself indispensible. Actually, I think"indispensible" might be a little overstated, I think it would be more correct to say"achieving your full potential to a point where you if you are dispensed with, then someone else will always want you!". Either way, a great message. <br /><br />It does read a little like a self help book in places. I am not entirely convinced that this was unintentional or necessarily a bad thing. It depends on what you were looking for.<br /><br />On the downside, some readers might find his"in your face" style a bit evangelical in places, particularly some of us Brits. Undoubtedly, this style has been developed through his blog writing where space is limited to get the point over. However, when the same style is used throughout a book, it can be a bit over powering at times. That said, I read the book cover to cover. Every 2-3 pages I would find a nugget of an idea that would make me carrying on reading. Before long, the book was finished. <br /><br />Like his other books, I enjoyed reading this one. It helped me understand a little more about the complex world I seem to live in and gave me some further insights into how to get more out of work and life. Recommended.<br />

great book

This is such an easy book to read and not to many pages which means ANYBODY can read it even book phobics. Makes you think and very motivational.

Unconvincing narrow view, poorly written

Mr WIlletts may have the expertise to analyse the situation but I regret that his prose style does not match his knowledge of economics. It is riddled with cliches, often crudely edited with naive grammatical errors. Some of the writing would be marked down in a 15-year old's essay. I question too his conclusions. The position of elderly baby-boomers in this country is often pitiful; we have the lowest state pension in the advanced world. Many find it hard to keep themselves warm; they have to sell their houses to pay exorbitant costs of nursing home care. Does he realise that London Weighting-that is the extra payment to civil servants and others for working in the capital-exceeds the basic pension of hundreds of thousands of pensioners who also face the high cost of living in London? Those whose savings and income are just above the poverty level face crippling council tax costs. Mr Willetts should look more closely at the way of life of millions of aging citizens, and not just the fortunate ones who as former public servants or with posts in commerce are enjoying an index-linked pension After twelve years of a Labour government and before the present crisis the UK had the distinction of having the highest number of children living in work-less homes throughout the EU. In the table of elderly poverty we are among the poorest. Willetts has the reputation of having more brains than any other member of the Tory party - he should apply them to more careful research into the condition of baby-boomers below the income level of Tory voters.<br />Disraeli's analysis still stands - two nations, but not the ones he chooses.

An entertaining read for the non-economist

As someone who knows very little about economics or markets or even the daily news, I found it very interesting and easy to read. I read the book cover to cover the day it arrived. It is fun, though-provoking, and humorous all the way through.

A Page Turner

Having read so many books on the financial crisis I thought"Oh No! Not another!" when I was given this book as a gift. BUT once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. All the details of the whole sorry saga leading up to the crisis of 2008 are detailed in this book. A very honest account. Top Marks Hank :-)

Budding Writers' Gem

I borrowed the 2009 version from the library but it was a pain having to keep renewing it so bought the 2010 version. This has got everything the budding writer needs to know - it's virtually the same as the 2009 version, just updated I think - but worth the money especially on how to present your work to an agent. It covers all aspects of writing from poetry to children's books to adult fiction to travel writing and gives pages and pages of useful information plus importantly the names and adddresses of literary agents for whichever genre you hope to get published. Recommended.

Not so good!

I much preferred Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell as it provoked some interesting analysis and thought. I found Blink tedious and repetitive as Gladwell seemed to struggle to find anything interesting to write about the theory he was putting forward.

What it says is what you get

Yes its true this book contains exactly was it says it does, nothing more nothing less. It is an invaluable aid to anybody working in this line of work.

Highly Helpful

Very helpful book, with many questions and answers to help you prepare for the actual test. Best used when accompanied with the official guide book as the answers refer back to the book.

Fascinating, well-written book

This book exceeded expectations by some way. It is very well written and extremely interesting. Highly recommended.