The End of Theory: Financial Crises, the Failure of Economics, and the Sweep of Human Interaction

Richard Bookstaber

An in-depth look at how to account for the human complexities at the heart of today’s financial system

Hardcover

Price:: $19.95/£16.99
ISBN:
Published:: Apr 2, 2019
Copyright:: 2017
Pages:: 240
Size:: 6.13 x 9.25 in.
Illus:: 10 b/w illus.

Paperback

Price:: $19.95/£16.99
ISBN:
Published:: Apr 2, 2019
Copyright:: 2017
Pages:: 240
Size:: 6.13 x 9.25 in.
Illus:: 10 b/w illus.

ebook

Price:: $19.95/£16.99
ISBN:
Published:: Apr 2, 2019
Copyright:: 2017
Pages:: 240
Size:: 6.13 x 9.25 in.
Illus:: 10 b/w illus.

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Our economy may have recovered from the Great Recession—but not our economics. The End of Theory discusses why the human condition and the radical uncertainty of our world renders the standard economic model—and the theory behind it—useless for dealing with financial crises. What model should replace it? None. At least not any version we’ve been using for the past two hundred years. Richard Bookstaber argues for a new approach called agent-based economics, one that takes as a starting point the fact that we are humans, not the optimizing automatons that standard economics assumes we are. Sweeping aside the historic failure of twentieth-century economics, The End of Theory offers a novel perspective and more realistic framework to help prevent today’s financial system from blowing up again.

Awards and Recognition

Selected for Askblog’s Books of the year 2017

Richard Bookstaber has overseen risk management at investment banks Morgan Stanley and Salomon Brothers, as well as major hedge funds such as Moore Capital and Bridgewater. He has held positions at the U.S. Treasury, and is currently at the University of California. He is the author of A Demon of Our Own Design (Wiley).

“Important and elegantly written.”—Jason Zweig, Wall Street Journal

“According to Bookstaber, it’s time to stop tweaking a 150-year-old model that seems to be getting worse, not better, at predicting crises, and embrace something totally new. . . . The End of Theory does hold some important lessons for financial markets today.”—Rana Faroohar, Financial Times

“The analysis is top-notch, and anyone who wants to understand the workings of the financial system will benefit from reading this book.”—Economist

“Bookstaber has done a great job of exposing the flaws in dominant economic theories. For anyone concerned with these issues, his book is well worth reading.”—John Quiggin, Inside Story

“Bookstaber’s cogent and accessible book explains the financial crisis of 2008 in great detail, demonstrating how people’s reactions to events—sometimes emotional, sometimes rational—influenced the behavior of other people, which then reverberated back to the initial actors.”—Foreign Affairs

The End of Theory

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