Todd Flatt Flatt থেকে Lyubov, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine
The global financial crisis got a lot of people interested in economics, or so the blurb for the book says. It must be true, judging by the sheer numbers of books alone that were published about the economy that enjoyed mass consumption. Some of them were crisis based spin-offs, while others, like this one by Greg Ip, aims to give a broad understanding of economics to the uninitiated. But economics itself, known as the dismal science, and derided as being uncertain by one American president who famously asked for a 'one handed economist' is a mercurial thing. Interpretations can vary, the subject can take on subtle differences when viewed through different perspectives and over-explanations of concepts can sometimes lead to confusion. Many books claiming to give an introduction of the subject to the uninitiated end up exhibiting one or more of the above faults and giving its opinion on what it thinks is good economics. Because inevitably, any discussion on economics, if it is to be kept linear and to the point, must take a side; be it, capitalist, interventionist, welfare, free market oriented or any combination of the above. Here's the part where you expect me to say that this book is miraculously different, that it is objective and gives a really good broad understanding of 'economics'. But really, it isn't. And that is no necessarily a bad thing. The subject is so broad that any author attempting to give a basic understanding of it will inevitably have to take a side or a particular angle. And Greg Ip, a long standing journalist at The Economist magazine, does this with alacrity. The first few chapters are a great introduction into Growth, Business Cycles and Recessions. He then goes on to talk about how effectively these phenomena can be tracked and followed (not very effectively, it turns out). He moves on to other key economic factors like employment inflation and deflation and globalization. These first chapters are objective and i thought gave a balanced understanding of matters. The next few chapters however got a bit jargon ridden and wordy as he began talking more specifically about US government and Federal Reserve involvement of the economy. His writing is engaging and fast paced. And manages to deal with would be boring elements of economic theory with wit and ease. He includes helpful summaries at the end of chapters that lay down in point form the most important things to remember. The book assumes a minimum of economic related knowledge on the part of the reader but i figure anyone who reads a bit of business news now an then will be able to easily grasp most of it. I was familiar with most of the concepts laid out but it was still very refreshing to read. Derivatives are one of the most maligned and least understood part of the financial system. They are the teenage boys of finance—energetic and full of potential but the first to be fingered when someone totals the car. There’s no single definition of a crisis—as a judge said of pornography, you know one when you see one.
Forever changed the way I think about early 20th century prostitutes.