How markets fail : the logic of economic calamities

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Title:

How markets fail : the logic of economic calamities

Author:

Cassidy, John, 1963-

ISBN:

9781846143007

Personal Author:

Cassidy, John, 1963-

Publication Information:

London : Allen Lane, 2009.

Physical Description:

390 p. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

Pt. One. Utopian economics -- 1. Warnings ignored and the conventional wisdom -- 2. Adam Smith's invisible hand -- 3. Friedrich Hayek's telecommunications system -- 4. The perfect markets of Lausanne -- 5. The mathematics of bliss -- 6. The evangelist -- 7. The coin-tossing view of finance -- 8. The triumph of Utopian economics -- Pt. Two. Reality-based economics -- 9. The prof and the polar bears -- 10. A taxonomy of failure -- 11. The prisoner's dilemma and rational irrationality -- 12. Hidden information and the market for lemons -- 13. Keynes's beauty contest -- 14. The rational herd -- 15. Psychology returns to economics -- 16. Hyman Minsky and Ponzi finance -- Pt. Three. The great crunch -- 17. Greenspan shrugs -- 18. The lure of real estate -- 19. The subprime chain -- 20. In the alphabet soup -- 21. A matter of incentives -- 22. London Bridge is falling down -- 23. Socialism in our time.

Abstract:

This is the book that both explains the current moment and explains past and future such moments. We will continue to get things wrong. But at least now we will be having the right conversation.

Subject Term:

Economics.

Economics -- Psychological aspects.

Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025490000	330.01 C345H 2009	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Why are financial markets and housing markets so prone to bubbles? Why doesn't rising prosperity make people happier? Why do many people contribute generously to charity but fail to save for their own retirement? What is the economic answer to global warming? These questions all involve behaviour that many would regard as irrational - and market outcomes that are far from ideal.

Standard economics has been dominated by rational choice models, which regard the free market as a giant super-computer that magically coordinates the activities of consumers and firms, to the benefit of all. Using fascinating new insights from behavioural economics, and vivid contemporary and historical examples, Cassidy shows how people's myopia, gullibility, copycat behaviour, overconfidence, loss aversion, and sense of altruism and fairness all help us understand the world in ways that rational choice economics does not.

This is the book that both explains the current moment and explains past and future such moments. We will continue to get things wrong. But at least now we will be having the right conversation.