Moods And Markets

"With foreword by Robert R. Prechter"--Cover. - "Minyanville"--Cover

“Economists, it is said, suffer from ‘physics envy’. Like physicists who model the behaviour of the universe with exactitude through complex mathematical formulations, economists believed that they could model human behaviour with similar exactitude deploying similar complex formulations. Central to this pursuit was the assumption that humans are rational. But that assumption does not hold. The history of economics is replete with examples of how the discipline has repeatedly been wrong footed in predicting or explaining real world outcomes because a completely rational human being simply does not exist. This book by Ramasastri and his daughter, Aparajitha, is grounded on that basic understanding. Drawing from their shared interest in probability theory, artificial intelligence, human behaviour and casinos, they focus on how irrational behaviour leads people into flawed decisions in financial markets. Their endeavour is not so much to help the reader play the stock market with greater finesse, but a larger one – of helping the reader understand the roots of irrationality in herself. That’s a daunting challenge. But Ramasastri and Aparajitha approach the task with remarkable aptitude and enthusiasm pulling together concepts and ideas from a variety of disciplines and varied human experiences”

The Socionomic Theory of Finance is a 13-year-long effort by Robert Prechter. It includes supporting chapters from twelve other scholars, writers, researchers and analysts. In contrast to the dismal science of economics, Prechter's theory is original, exciting and intellectually fulfilling. Every chapter rebuts conventions and offers ground-breaking insights in presenting a cohesive model with real-world application. The book draws a crucial distinction between finance and economics and ties both fields to human social behavior. Top reviewers from multiple disciplines have offered acclaim. Professor Terry Burnham calls it "the best book ever written on financial markets." In time, STF will transform the thinking of every individual in the world of finance. Read it and be among the first.

Emerging Markets and the Global Economy investigates analytical techniques suited to emerging market economies, which are typically prone to policy shocks. Despite the large body of emerging market finance literature, their underlying dynamics and interactions with other economies remain challenging and mysterious because standard financial models measure them imprecisely. Describing the linkages between emerging and developed markets, this collection systematically explores several crucial issues in asset valuation and risk management. Contributors present new theoretical constructions and empirical methods for handling cross-country volatility and sudden regime shifts. Usually attractive for investors because of the superior growth they can deliver, emerging markets can have a low correlation with developed markets. This collection advances your knowledge about their inherent characteristics. Foreword by Ali M. Kutan Concentrates on post-crisis roles of emerging markets in the global economy Reports on key theoretical and technical developments in emerging financial markets Forecasts future developments in linkages among developed and emerging economies

Tuckett argues that most economists' explanations of the financial crisis miss its essence; they ignore critical components of human psychology. He offers a deeper understanding of financial market behaviour and investment processes by recognizing the role played by unconscious needs and fears in all investment activity.

Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award From one of the most important economic thinkers of our time, a brilliant and far-seeing analysis of the current populist backlash against globalization. Raghuram Rajan, distinguished University of Chicago professor, former IMF chief economist, head of India's central bank, and author of the 2010 FT-Goldman-Sachs Book of the Year Fault Lines, has an unparalleled vantage point onto the social and economic consequences of globalization and their ultimate effect on our politics. In The Third Pillar he offers up a magnificent big-picture framework for understanding how these three forces--the state, markets, and our communities--interact, why things begin to break down, and how we can find our way back to a more secure and stable plane. The "third pillar" of the title is the community we live in. Economists all too often understand their field as the relationship between markets and the state, and they leave squishy social issues for other people. That's not just myopic, Rajan argues; it's dangerous. All economics is actually socioeconomics - all markets are embedded in a web of human relations, values and norms. As he shows, throughout history, technological phase shifts have ripped the market out of those old webs and led to violent backlashes, and to what we now call populism. Eventually, a new equilibrium is reached, but it can be ugly and messy, especially if done wrong. Right now, we're doing it wrong. As markets scale up, the state scales up with it, concentrating economic and political power in flourishing central hubs and leaving the periphery to decompose, figuratively and even literally. Instead, Rajan offers a way to rethink the relationship between the market and civil society and argues for a return to strengthening and empowering local communities as an antidote to growing despair and unrest. Rajan is not a doctrinaire conservative, so his ultimate argument that decision-making has to be devolved to the grass roots or our democracy will continue to wither, is sure to be provocative. But even setting aside its solutions, The Third Pillar is a masterpiece of explication, a book that will be a classic of its kind for its offering of a wise, authoritative and humane explanation of the forces that have wrought such a sea change in our lives.

This book is the first that describes the practices of any stock exchange; it makes evident a high development of practices, with puts, calls, pools, and manipulations; and it appeared as early as the seventeenth century. Not inappropriately the stock exchange described is that of Amsterdam, a city which at the date of the volume’s publication —1688 — was still the leading financial center of the world. The book, to be sure, is hardly a systematic account of the institution; the author pursued moral, philosophical, and rhetorical objectives, and, while saying a lot that seems now to be of little value, manages somehow to leave unsaid a great deal that would be of interest for us. Nevertheless, it represents, even in its peculiar form, a really important source of information about the stock exchange, and indeed about the Dutch business world of that period.

For fans of Wreck This Journal and Calm the F*ck Down comes a hilarious fill-in activity book that encourages you to unleash your inner rage, chronicle your deepest annoyances, and creatively detail every person who has ever done you wrong. Let’s face it: we’re sick of staying positive. Meditating. Doing yoga. Those things are so boring. How about finding a new and more engaging way to relieve your stress and get you through the hell that is your life? The Little Book of Bad Moods, an irreverent adult activity book, lets you unleash all that anger and say the things that you can’t say out loud. With lots of fun and easy fill-in activities perfect for all the minor annoyances in life, this is the only kind of meditation you’ll ever need. Hilarious, fun, and shockingly cathartic, this is a bad little book that encourages you to complain, moan, and embrace your inner a**hole. So put that pen to paper, let your cranky flag fly, and be sure to hide this book from anyone you care about.