The Myth of the Rational Market

The Myth of the Rational Market
Author: Justin Fox
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2011-02-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0060599030

The financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent Great Recession demolished many cherished beliefs—most significantly, the theory that financial markets always get things right. Justin Fox's The Myth of the Rational Market explains where that idea came from, and where it went wrong. As much an intellectual whodunit as a cultural history of the perils and possibilities of risk, it also brings to life the people and ideas that forged modern finance and investing—from the formative days of Wall Street through the Great Depression and into the financial calamities of today. It's a tale featuring professors who made and lost fortunes, battled fiercely over ideas, beat the house at blackjack, wrote bestselling books, and played major roles on the world stage. It's also a story of free-market capitalism's war with itself.

The Myth of the Rational Market

The Myth of the Rational Market
Author: Justin Fox
Publisher: Harriman House Limited
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2010
Genre: Economics
ISBN: 9781906659691

"TIME" economics columnist Fox describes the rise and fall of the world's most influential investing idea--the efficient markets theory--and its replacement with behavioral economics in a lively history of ideas.

Summary of Justin Fox's The Myth of the Rational Market

Summary of Justin Fox's The Myth of the Rational Market
Author: Everest Media
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2022-03-01T21:00:00Z
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1669348474

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 After the theft of his manuscript, Yale University economics professor Irving Fisher went right back to work. He had a habit of overcoming setbacks that might cause a lesser person to despair. His ideas began to have an impact in his lifetime, and after his death, they took off. #2 The idea that the stock market is a place of pure rationality was first put forward by Irving Fisher in the 1920s. However, this idea was not unique to him. In Paris, mathematics student Louis Bachelier studied the price fluctuations on the Paris Bourse in a similar spirit. #3 Bachelier used the assumptions of the bell curve to depict price movements on the Paris exchange. He began with the insight that the mathematical expectation of the speculator is zero, and that price changes in an instant are unpredictable in direction but predictably small. #4 When he died in 1946, one year before Irving Fisher, no one on the trading floor was making use of his ideas. His colleagues were nonplussed by his interest in markets.

The Myth of Democratic Failure

The Myth of Democratic Failure
Author: Donald A. Wittman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1995
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780226904238

In The Myth of Democratic Failure, Donald A. Wittman refutes one of the cornerstone beliefs of economics and political science: that economic markets are more efficient than the processes and institutions of democratic government.

The Myth of the Closed Mind

The Myth of the Closed Mind
Author: Ray Scott Percival
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2012
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0812696859

Religious zeal, suicide terrorism, passionate commitment to ideologies, and the results of various psychological tests are often cited to show that humans are fundamentally irrational. The author examines all such supposed examples of irrationality and argues that they are compatible with rationality. Rationality does not mean absence of error, but the possibility of correcting error in the light of criticism. In this sense, all human beliefs are rational: they are all vulnerable to being abandoned when shown to be faulty.

Capital Ideas Evolving

Capital Ideas Evolving
Author: Peter L. Bernstein
Publisher: Wiley + ORM
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2011-01-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 111804620X

"A lot has happened in the financial markets since 1992, when Peter Bernstein wrote his seminal Capital Ideas. Happily, Peter has taken up his facile pen again to describe these changes, a virtual revolution in the practice of investing that relies heavily on complex mathematics, derivatives, hedging, and hyperactive trading. This fine and eminently readable book is unlikely to be surpassed as the definitive chronicle of a truly historic era." John C. Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group and author, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing "Just as Dante could not have understood or survived the perils of the Inferno without Virgil to guide him, investors today need Peter Bernstein to help find their way across dark and shifting ground. No one alive understands Wall Street's intellectual history better, and that makes Bernstein our best and wisest guide to the future. He is the only person who could have written this book; thank goodness he did." Jason Zweig, Investing Columnist, Money magazine "Another must-read from Peter Bernstein! This well-written and thought-provoking book provides valuable insights on how key finance theories have evolved from their ivory tower formulation to profitable application by portfolio managers. This book will certainly be read with keen interest by, and undoubtedly influence, a wide range of participants in international finance." Dr. Mohamed A. El-Erian, President and CEO of Harvard Management Company, Deputy Treasurer of Harvard University, and member of the faculty of the Harvard Business School "Reading Capital Ideas Evolving is an experience not to be missed. Peter Bernstein's knowledge of the principal characters-the giants in the development of investment theory and practice-brings this subject to life." Linda B. Strumpf, Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, The Ford Foundation "With great clarity, Peter Bernstein introduces us to the insights of investment giants, and explains how they transformed financial theory into portfolio practice. This is not just a tale of money and models; it is a fascinating and contemporary story about people and the power of their ideas." Elroy Dimson, BGI Professor of Investment Management, London Business School "Capital Ideas Evolving provides us with a unique appreciation for the pervasive impact that the theory of modern finance has had on the development of our capital markets. Peter Bernstein once again has produced a masterpiece that is must reading for practitioners, educators and students of finance." Andr F. Perold, Professor of Finance, Harvard Business School

Dreaming the Rational City

Dreaming the Rational City
Author: M. Christine Boyer
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 1986
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780262521116

Dreaming the Rational City is both a history of the city planning profession in the United States and a major polemical statement about the effort to plan and reform the American city. Boyer shows why city planning, which had so much promise at the outset for making cities more liveable, largely failed. She reveals planning's real responsibilities and goals, including the kind of "rational order" that was actually forseen by the planning mentality, and concludes that the planners have continuously served the needs of the dominant capitalist economy.

How Markets Fail

How Markets Fail
Author: Cassidy John
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 485
Release: 2013-01-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0141939427

How did we get to where we are? John Cassidy shows that the roots of our most recent financial failure lie not with individuals, but with an idea - the idea that markets are inherently rational. He gives us the big picture behind the financial headlines, tracing the rise and fall of free market ideology from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan. Full of wit, sense and, above all, a deeper understanding, How Markets Fail argues for the end of 'utopian' economics, and the beginning of a pragmatic, reality-based way of thinking. A very good history of economic thought Economist How Markets Fail offers a brilliant intellectual framework . . . fine work New York Times An essential, grittily intellectual, yet compelling guide to the financial debacle of 2009 Geordie Greig, Evening Standard A powerful argument . . . Cassidy makes a compelling case that a return to hands-off economics would be a disaster BusinessWeek This book is a well constructed, thoughtful and cogent account of how capitalism evolved to its current form Telegraph Books of the Year recommendation John Cassidy ... describe[s] that mix of insight and madness that brought the world's system to its knees FT, Book of the Year recommendation Anyone who enjoys a good read can safely embark on this tour with Cassidy as their guide . . . Like his colleague Malcolm Gladwell [at the New Yorker], Cassidy is able to lead us with beguiling lucidity through unfamiliar territory New Statesman John Cassidy has covered economics and finance at The New Yorker magazine since 1995, writing on topics ranging from Alan Greenspan to the Iraqi oil industry and English journalism. He is also now a Contributing Editor at Portfolio where he writes the monthly Economics column. Two of his articles have been nominated for National Magazine Awards: an essay on Karl Marx, which appeared in October, 1997, and an account of the death of the British weapons scientist David Kelly, which was published in December, 2003. He has previously written for Sunday Times in as well as the New York Post, where he edited the Business section and then served as the deputy editor. In 2002, Cassidy published his first book, Dot.Con. He lives in New York.

Imperfect Knowledge Economics

Imperfect Knowledge Economics
Author: Roman Frydman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2023-09-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0691261156

Posing a major challenge to economic orthodoxy, Imperfect Knowledge Economics asserts that exact models of purposeful human behavior are beyond the reach of economic analysis. Roman Frydman and Michael Goldberg argue that the longstanding empirical failures of conventional economic models stem from their futile efforts to make exact predictions about the consequences of rational, self-interested behavior. Such predictions, based on mechanistic models of human behavior, disregard the importance of individual creativity and unforeseeable sociopolitical change. Scientific though these explanations may appear, they usually fail to predict how markets behave. And, the authors contend, recent behavioral models of the market are no less mechanistic than their conventional counterparts: they aim to generate exact predictions of "irrational" human behavior. Frydman and Goldberg offer a long-overdue response to the shortcomings of conventional economic models. Drawing attention to the inherent limits of economists' knowledge, they introduce a new approach to economic analysis: Imperfect Knowledge Economics (IKE). IKE rejects exact quantitative predictions of individual decisions and market outcomes in favor of mathematical models that generate only qualitative predictions of economic change. Using the foreign exchange market as a testing ground for IKE, this book sheds new light on exchange-rate and risk-premium movements, which have confounded conventional models for decades. Offering a fresh way to think about markets and representing a potential turning point in economics, Imperfect Knowledge Economics will be essential reading for economists, policymakers, and professional investors.