Unseen Power: How Mutual Funds Threaten the Political and Economic Wealth of Nations

Rating:
Summary: Monetary policy, currency fluctuation, and herd behaviour
Review: This book is not getting the attention it deserves. It is an outstanding book based on Dr. Harmes's PHd thesis from York University. He seems to cover everything: monetary policy, exchange rate fluctuations, capital controls, and herd behaviour. If you have some background in economics even better. Conservatives won't like the arguments but then again conservatives still think markets are 100% efficient!

Rating:
Summary: Understanding the current bust
Review: This is an excellent book on how financial markets work and on why they have become so much more volatile in recent years. It explains how the performance pressures on fund mangers are making markets less efficient and why and how this inefficiency explains recent financial crises and the ups and downs of the stock market. Unlike most economists, Dr. Harmes successfully predicted the collapse of stock prices. He gives a sound explanation for why the Dow, and not just tech stocks, were overvalued and why the current correction and slowdown was so hard to predict - but why it could have been. His explanation builds and expands on Shiller's "Irrational Exuberance" argument and provides useful lessons to help investors in the current period of volatility.