Fixing Global Finance (Forum on Constructive Capitalism) | 
| Author: Martin Wolf
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.40
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 6726
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 248
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0801890489
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.042
EAN: 9780801890482
Publication Date: September 23, 2008
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Product Description
The latest book from Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf explains why global imbalances cause financial crises -- including the one ravaging the United States right now -- and outlines the steps for ending this destructive cycle. Reviewing global financial crises since 1980, Wolf lays bare the links between the microeconomics of finance and the macroeconomics of the balance of payments, demonstrating how the subprime lending crisis in the United States fits into a pattern that includes the economic shocks of 1997, 1998, and early 1999 in Latin America, Russia, and Asia. He explains why the United States is now the "borrower and spender of last resort," makes the case that this is an untenable arrangement, and argues that global economic security depends on the ability of emerging economies to develop robust financial systems based on domestic currencies. Sharply and clearly argued, Wolf's prescription for fixing global finance illustrates why he has been described as "the world's preeminent financial journalist."
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| Customer Reviews:
 Nobody does global flows better October 29, 2008
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
This version (i.e., Forum on Constructive Capitalism) might be different than Mr. Wolf's yet-to-be-released book of the same name. I don't know. But, regardless this an eye-opening book. Previously, I have studied the US credit crunch from a retail/Wall Street perspective: that is, subprime loan originations and securitizations. Before Mr. Wolf, I understood the crisis as an utterly avoidable debacle triggered by greed and enabled by certain financial instruments.
But the book opened my eyes to larger forces at work in global finance. Sort of like, if i before saw the crisis as an inept swimmer drowning, now I see the swimmer as more of a victim caught up inexorably in a powerful undertow beyond his control. To see it his way, there was a degree of inevitability due to unsustainable imbalances. Mr. Wolf is absolutely expert on the dynamics of international capital flows. A good portion of the book makes vivid something he covers in his columns: the U.S. has been the world's "spender and borrower of last resort;" okay, you knew that, but the breakdown between government, companies and households is where it gets scary. While the US government used deficits to spur demand (and absorb other countries, like China's, excess savings), US households went into an unprecedented deficit. Our problem is that our current account deficit is met with excess spending rather than investment. Mr. Wolf has great charts in the book to illustrate this perfectly; a few of his simple line charts elicited a visceral reaction for me (fear, specifically).
Also, for those who haven't read Mr. Wolf before, he is the consumate professional giving counter-arguments their just due. You learn just as much while he's weighing the idea he doesn't agree with. But by the time I was done with it, he had convinced me formally around a nagging suspicion: that the U.S. has been reacting to global patterns as much as instigating them (i.e., that our Fed and policy makers aren't all powerful - he even dubs them "victims" in some respects).
I gave it four stars only because the book was tough work for me. For a trained economist (not me, I am a financial analyst), probably it deserves five stars. I needed extra time and a macroeconomic reference to sort through some of it. (that's why i remove one star. If you are going to make me break out Mankiw's macroecon text to keep pace, i am going to have to ding you!). It looks harmless, without equations and such, but it's way dense. This is one of those that books that is easy to buy but hard to read all the way through. So, the four stars is only for the time it required on my part. I would not exactly call it accessible. But Mr. Wolf is a national treasure.
 Must read October 14, 2008
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
Must read given the state of today's economy. Incredibly thoughtful yet accesible piece of work that puts today's economic crisis in its historical and economic context from one of the World's leading economists.
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