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|  | |  | | | Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises (Wiley Investment Classics) | | | | | SKU:
9780471467144 | | In Stock | | Availability:
Usually ships in 1-2 business days | | Only 1 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | Manias, Panics, and Crashes, Fifth Edition is an engaging and entertaining account of the way that mismanagement of money and credit has led to financial explosions over the centuries. Covering such topics as the history and anatomy of crises, speculative manias, and the lender of last resort, this book puts the turbulence of the financial world in perspective. The updated fifth edition expands upon each chapter, and includes two new chapters focusing on significant financial crises of the last fifteen years. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Charles P. Kindleberger | | Paperback: | 355 pages | | Publisher: | Wiley | | Publication Date: | October 04, 2005 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0471467146 | | Product Length: | 8.71 inches | | Product Width: | 5.3 inches | | Product Height: | 1.0 inches | | Product Weight: | 0.83 pounds | | Package Length: | 8.8 inches | | Package Width: | 6.1 inches | | Package Height: | 0.8 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.95 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 34 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 34 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 42 found the following review helpful:
Economic history Apr 16, 2007
By Atherton Reader
History always has lessons to teach us. In addition to comments by Golden Lion from Utah, I believed this book really spoke poignantly about the "adjustment process" of global or local market imbalances and the possible causes.
The causes are elaborated in many different examples from the Dutch Tulip crash to the dot-com crash. Signs of the excess liquidity, overly generous expectations of future demand, and other general characteristics are drawn from these events.
In the economic case where A has caused B, then B has caused C, and so on. If Z is a market crash, one cannot blame Y for losses. The book writes that its the cumulative effects of A-Y that has caused this, and more likely the pin-prick that pops a "bubble" is normally from a totally unexcepted source. To me, this was the greatest take away point -- naturally after every market crash we attempt to learn from our follies. However, the market has also learned and adapted, such that the next market failure is caused by a different set, but the same symptoms are similar to A-Y.
On the negative side, I wished that the latest version did a little better job at editing down the redundancies. For example, the Japanese real estate collapse in the early 1990's was used 5-7 times in different parts of the book -- in many cases, the underlying story was retold, even verbatim. I would disagree with one of the reviewers, that one needs an advanced degree to understand this book, however, an appreciation for economic theory is helpful, particularly monetary policies and capital markets. It does not require up-to-date knowledge of the stock, currencies, or bond markets.
Nevertheless, a good book to keep and re-read every few years. Always worth remembering our past mistakes and trying to create an edge.
52 of 56 found the following review helpful:
 Relevant but hard to read Oct 01, 2008
By Evelyn Uyemura
I am no economist and just an interested general reader. I expected to read narratives about past financial crises and how they played out. But this book is not organized that way. It doesn't tell any story from start to finish. Instead it references lots of different crises in a kind of shorthand way, without giving the background or the overall narrative.
Many of the references are pretty darn obscure, at least to me. So fine, if he's talking about how a certain phenomenon works and he says, "as in 1932," or "as in the S&L crisis," I'm with him. But when he says, "just as in the 1762 case in Belgium" (made up example)--well, my eyes start to glaze over, because he hasn't told me the story of 1762 Belgium, but referenced it as if it should be as familiar to me as the Great Depression in the US.
I also think there's something wrong with the writing style. He seems not to start out with topic sentences that show us where he's going, or to end with a summing up of the significance of what he's just said. Certain details recur within a few pages of each other. The effect is pretty scatter-shot, as if it was not carefully edited and made to flow.
There is plenty of raw material here for anyone watching our current economic crisis and wondering how it happened, but you have to work for it. What I get from it is that in certain circumstances, if everyone does what seems best to him or her in the market, the end result will be disaster for all. It's not really irrational to buy when prices are increasing by the day, because huge profits can indeed be made. But the more people that make that individually rational choice, the more irrational the whole thing becomes.
Maybe I could compare it to a stampede to an exit door in a fire. Each person's individual best choice is to get out as quickly as possible. But if you allow that psychological reality to play out, you might have people trampled to death at the door who then block everyone else from escaping.
Reading this was like listening to a rather elderly professor of history who is intimately familiar with many obscure incidents, but doesn't provide the context for his young students to follow his train of thought.
22 of 24 found the following review helpful:
 A classic book on financial bubbles from an exceptional scholar Sep 30, 2007
By Integrity Reviews
Kindleberger was a professor of economics at MIT, and a deep scholar of the history of financial bubbles and subsequent crashes. He proves with many examples that growth in the supply of credit is a fundamental factor in bubble development, stengthening associations of this type categorized by Hyman Minsky. While Kindleberger's writing is sometimes redundant, his amazing grasp of the details of financial history, numerous examples, and deep understanding more than compensate for this minor limitation of style. This book has been through 5 editions and is an indispensable reference; it is also a fascinating read. It should not to be missed by any serious investor, nor any student of financial manias and panics.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Relevant, but difficult to read Nov 19, 2008
By ed
There is a wealth of great information and insight in this book, but it is organized in a manner that reduces interest and readability. The authors make points and then provide examples from several financial crises, with the result that almost every single page covers multiple events but you never really get a full picture of those events. It is incredibly relevant to the current (2008) crisis, so it is unfortunate the book isn't organized better.
14 of 16 found the following review helpful:
 Overrated Dec 28, 2007
By Willy Lee
Where are the "hilarious anecdotes, the elegant epigrams, and the graceful turns of phrase" promised on the back cover? There are valuable insights and ideas, but they are buried in more historical information than needed, and are somewhat disconnected and undeveloped. The material is not particularly well organized, and,like history, the author repeats himself a lot. The writing is awkward and difficult to read in places. However, I did pick up a good many insights and bits and pieces of historical information that are relevant to the current problems in the credit markets. History does repeat itself. Although I think this book is over-rated, if you are a patient reader and a serious student of financial markets, I would recommend it.
See all 34 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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