Synopses & Reviews
Chronicling the rise and fall of the efficient market theory and the century-long making of the modern financial industry, Justin Fox's
The Myth of the Rational Market is as much an intellectual whodunit as a cultural history of the perils and possibilities of risk. The book 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 calamity of today. It's a tale that features professors who made and lost fortunes, battled fiercely over ideas, beat the house in blackjack, wrote bestselling books, and played major roles on the world stage. It's also a tale of Wall Street's evolution, the power of the market to generate wealth and wreak havoc, and free market capitalism's war with itself.
The efficient market hypothesis—long part of academic folklore but codified in the 1960s at the University of Chicago—has evolved into a powerful myth. It has been the maker and loser of fortunes, the driver of trillions of dollars, the inspiration for index funds and vast new derivatives markets, and the guidepost for thousands of careers. The theory holds that the market is always right, and that the decisions of millions of rational investors, all acting on information to outsmart one another, always provide the best judge of a stock's value. That myth is crumbling.
Celebrated journalist and columnist Fox introduces a new wave of economists and scholars who no longer teach that investors are rational or that the markets are always right. Many of them now agree with Yale professor Robert Shiller that the efficient markets theory “represents one of the most remarkable errors in the history of economic thought.” Today the theory has given way to counterintuitive hypotheses about human behavior, psychological models of decision making, and the irrationality of the markets. Investors overreact, underreact, and make irrational decisions based on imperfect data. In his landmark treatment of the history of the world's markets, Fox uncovers the new ideas that may come to drive the market in the century ahead.
Review
“Superbly accurate and readable... Clearly the result of many years of research and reading,... it is a model of what the popularization of social science can be, but too rarely is, and it will continue to be read when the current crisis is many years behind us.” American Scientist
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“Do we really need yet another book about the financial crisis? Yes, we do because this one is different. Foxs book is not an idle exercise in intellectual history, which makes it a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the mess were in.” Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review
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“His analysis is singularly compelling, and the rare business history that reads like a thriller... A must-read for anyone interested in the markets, our economy or government, this dense but spellbinding work brings modern finance and economics to life.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“Good wonky fun.” Barry Ritholz, The Big Picture blog
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“Impressively broad and richly researched.” Financial Times
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“This wise and witty book is must reading for anyone who wonders what makes financial markets tick. Even those who have wrestled with this question for years will be glad to have read Foxs compelling history.” Peter Bernstein, author of Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
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“A thoughtful, often fascinating, always illuminating history of the idea of market rationality.” Cory Doctorow, boingboing.net
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“A fascinating historical narrative.” Roger Lowenstein, The Washington Post
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“An intellectual tour-de-force...” The Economist
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“Fox makes business history thrilling.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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“...a rich history of the worlds most seductive investing idea...the book chronicles the rise of rational market theory over the decades and captures the sizzle and pop of the intellectual debate ...” Bloomberg
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“A tough, tasty steak of a book.” Dan Neil, Los Angeles Times
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“A lucid, lively and learned account.” Barron's
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“Justin Fox is a truly insightful fellow who can see things with his own eyesa rare, very rare attribute.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan
Synopsis
Do we really need yet another book about the financial crisis? Yes, we do because this one is different .A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the mess we re in. Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review Fox makes business history thrilling. St. Louis Post-DispatchA lively history of ideas, The Myth of the Rational Market by former Time Magazine economics columnist Justin Fox, describes with insight and wit the rise and fall of the world s most influential investing idea: the efficient markets theory. Both a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of the Year longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award and named one of Library Journal Best Business Books of the Year The Myth of the Rational Market carries readers from the earliest days of Wall Street to the current financial crisis, debunking the long-held myth that the stock market is always right in the process while intelligently exploring the replacement theory of behavioral economics."
Synopsis
“Do we really need yet another book about the financial crisis? Yes, we do—because this one is different….A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the mess were in.”
—Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review
“Fox makes business history thrilling.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A lively history of ideas, The Myth of the Rational Market by former Time Magazine economics columnist Justin Fox, describes with insight and wit the rise and fall of the worlds most influential investing idea: the efficient markets theory. Both a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of the Year—longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award and named one of Library Journal Best Business Books of the Year—The Myth of the Rational Market carries readers from the earliest days of Wall Street to the current financial crisis, debunking the long-held myth that the stock market is always right in the process while intelligently exploring the replacement theory of behavioral economics.
About the Author
Justin Fox is the business and economics columnist for Timemagazine and the author of the popular Time.com blog The Curious Capitalist(<>). Previously an editor and writer at Fortune, he appears regularly on CNN, CNBC, and PBS's Nightly Business Report. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.