| |
|
A masterful account of today's money culture, showing how the underpricing of risk leads to catastrophe. When it comes to markets, the first deadly sin is greed. Michael Lewis is our jungle guide through five of the most violent and costly upheavals in recent financial history: the crash of '87, the Russian default (and the subsequent collapse of Long-Term Capital Management), the Asian currency crisis of 1999, the Internet bubble, and the current sub-prime mortgage disaster. With his trademark humor and brilliant anecdotes, Lewis paints the mood and market factors leading up to each event, weaves contemporary accounts to show what people thought was happening at the time, and then, with the luxury of hindsight, analyzes what actually happened and what we should have learned from experience. As he proved in Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, and Moneyball, Lewis is without peer in his understanding of market forces and human foibles. He is also, arguably, the funniest serious writer in America.
|
«
great info but hard to follow
»
its a collection of articles written going back 20 years. there very informative, but some are very complicated and since most articles are by different authors and on similar subjects you end up reading the same information a few times.
Rating: 
(3
out of 5) @ 2009-01-06
|
«
Extremely misleading
»
As noted by others, this book is merely edited by Michael Lewis. It is a collection of articles by others. Clearly the author means to take advantage of his name recognition and trade on the economic uncertainty present today with the use of the title PANIC. Don't bother to read this.
Rating: 
(2
out of 5) @ 2009-01-03
|
«
dense read but worth it
»
this book will take you awhile to get thru as its dense reading with alot of detail. i have an advanced engineering degree, work in finance and this book still provided me insight into some basic math i was lacking and more importantly some of the big-picture details behind how we got here.
it was an enjoyable book i found satisfying but remember i have a capacity for detail to things many would find boring and dry.
Rating: 
(5
out of 5) @ 2008-12-28
|
«
Amounts to a marginal blog post
»
That'll teach me to pull the trigger before reading the reviews. I expected a Michael Lewis book and ended up with an interesting but extremely disjointed collection of articles that I could have found in 10 minutes on Google.
They rushed this thing out to capitalize on the ongoing crisis. It reminds me of the paperbacks that are cranked out in 2 weeks to take advantage of a sensational news story...only this one has 0 original content.
Rating: 
(1
out of 5) @ 2008-12-28
|
«
Unless you're an economist.
»
Tedious and boring. Thought this might be helpful in understanding what is happening today. Maybe for academics.
Rating:
(1
out of 5) @ 2008-12-26
|