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Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics (Agora Series)
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.473
EAN: 9780470112328
ISBN: 0470112328
Label: Wiley
Manufacturer: Wiley
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: August 31, 2007
Publisher: Wiley
Studio: Wiley
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Editorial Review:
Why Going Against the Grain Pays.
Bestselling author Bill Bonner has long been a maverick observer of the financial and political world, sharpening his sardonic wit, in particular, on the vagaries of the investing public. Market booms and busts, tulip manias and dotcom bubbles, venture capitalists and vulture funds, he lets you know, are best explained not by dry statistics and obscure theories but by the metaphors and analogies of literature.
Now, in Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, Bonner and freelance journalist Lila Rajiva use literary economics to offer broader insights into mass behavior and its devastating effects on society. Why is it, they ask, that perfectly sane and responsible individuals can get together, and by some bizarre alchemy turn into an irrational mob? What makes them trust charlatans and demagogues who manipulate their worst instincts? Why do they abandon good sense, good behavior and good taste when an empty slogan is waved in front of them. Why is the road to hell paved with so many sterling intentions? Why is there a fool on every corner and a knave in every public office?
In attempting an answer, the authors weave a light-hearted journey through history, politics and finance to show group think at work in an improbable array of instances, from medieval crusades to the architectural follies of hedge-fund managers. Their journey takes them ultimately to the desk of the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank and to a cautionary tale of the current bubble economy. They warn that the gush of credit let loose by Alan Greenspan and multiplied by the sophisticated number games of Wall Street whizzes is fraught with perils for the unwary. Boom without end, pronounces The Street. But Bonner and Rajiva are more cynical. When the higher math and the greater greed come together, watch out below!
Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets ends by giving concrete advice on how readers can avoid what the authors call the public spectacle of modern finance, and become, instead, private investors - knowing their own mind and following their own intuitions. The authors have no gimmicks to offer here - but instead give a better understanding of the dynamics of market behavior, allowing prudent investors to protect themselves from the fads and follies of the investment markets.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Entertaining, insightful and very timely
As the debt ridden economy of the U.S. crumbles at an accelerating pace, "Mobs, Messiah, and Markets" helps you laugh to keep from crying by at least explaining how we got here and why. Without being too apocalyptic it also offers some avenues of escape from financial ruin as the house of cards built on Federal Reserve Notes begins to topple.
Rating: - The Daily Reckoning
Bill Bonner is my favorite market/trading on-line newspaper "The Daily Reckoning" author. This is the reason the book was purchased. The central message of the book is how to avoid getting caught up in the public spectacle of money. The "public spectacle" may be not Bonner's invention but for me it is the first time I am get faced with the term and I like it very much. In fact it is almost the first time that in clear and sensible form I find not the explanation but at least a sympthomatic description ... Read More
Rating:  - I Want My Money Back
As someone who frequently purchases books about history, markets, and politics, I was appalled.
This is the first book I have read in years that made me want to get my money back. Since that isn't possible I have decided to try to save others.
This is a grossly inadequate book.
Save your money. You'd get better insight from your local bartender( and less smugness as well).
Rating:  - Too many jokes
This book espouses a variety of important free market ideas with healthy doses of skepticism throughout. Unfortunately, the authors seem to be more concerned with making jokes than with their subject matter. They also engage in outright name-calling, which further discredits their arguments, often supported with completely unrelated anecdotes.
Free markets and individualism deserve better representation.
Rating:  - If you like The Daily Reckoning, you'll like this book.
I read Bonner's Daily Reckoning e-letter every now and then and I enjoy it for his commentary and often accurate economic predictions. This book is similar in writing style, but with fewer of the useful bits the e-letter delivers. It is also not, as one reader mentioned, a strictly financial book, but more of a sociological survey.
The best parts of the book are in the latter chapters, where he gives us his plan (buy gold) and gets back into his usual (but useful for its predictive potential) ... Read More
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