Multinational Financial Management

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Summary: International Finance
Review: Excellent book for anybody that want to have an introduction to understand international finance

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Summary: verbosity should be verboten
Review: I am really impressed with the good ratings this book has gotten so far. I hate it.

The authors incapability to explain the multinational context in simple terms, his approach to pack every little, tiny detail that somehow might correlate to the overall subject into each chapter, and his inability to use formulas and graphs in an understandable way, makes me wonder if the author actually knows what he is talking about. I find this financial book the worst I had to deal with so far. As an honor student with a finance major I feel like Shapiro is trying to hard to create a book that covers all. His examples and illustrations are somewhat interesting since they provide some information on how things work in the real world, but they lack something really important that I personally find essential for demonstration purposes: clarity and comprehensiveness.
Additionally, I find his approach to verbally describe his calculations in huge paragraphs disturbing. As disturbing is his way to create his own symbols and acronyms and not using those other financial books use. When studying you therefore need so much time in figuring out, what his symbols actually mean, that you would rather read another book.
I personally doubt that Shapiro has actually understood the subject himself. He is using the trick I always use when I do not want my professors to notice my lack of understanding: verbosity. Quantity is not always good.

I would definitely simplify the book and use clearer formulas, a more mathematical approach, better graphs, more information on how these formulas could be derived, less words, fewer sub-chapters, more interesting case studies at the end of the chapters, more problems for self-evaluation at the end of the chapters, clearer examples and illustrations....

There is so much room to improve that it might be better to rewrite the whole book using a better author.


Rating:
Summary: Quick shipping! great seller.
Review: Quick shipping! great seller.

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Summary: Good Introduction to the Subject, in Some Parts too Brief
Review: The book "Multinational Financial Management" is a good introduction to this rather complex subject. It is written well and contains a lot of examples and historical references. Some of the chapters in the second part are kept a tad too short though.

The book covers the main topics of international financial management, the environment of international financial management, foreign exchange and derivatives market and risk management, financing of multinational corporations, foreign investment analysis and multinational working capital management in 5 main sections.

I found most parts of the text to be very well readable and easy to understand. All concepts are backed up by examples and separate illustrations discussing a real event in more or less detail. This works especially well in the first chapters of the text covering the simpler concepts. Subjects like international monetary systems or country risk analysis (to just mention a few) are covered in great detail, and the required math, e.g. the formulas used for the parity conditions and the Fisher Effect, are illustrated with enough examples even for someone with little or no mathematical background.

The parts of the book covering derivatives is too short and the theory provided does not go deep enough in order to comprehend the more complex examples easily. Trying to figure out the mechanics of Kodak's Zero Coupon Australian Dollar Interest Rate/Currency Swap involving 11 parties, multiple swaps and currencies was no easy task after a mere 2 1/2 page theoretical introduction to currency swaps. There are better books for understanding currency swaps.

Other parts not covered deep enough were the chapters on international project and firm evaluation (covering subject like WACC and CAPM). With just this book, it is impossible to get an idea of the real meaning of these models and techniques. Too many details are omitted that should have been covered. Granted, these are more complex subjects, but maybe the author should have either keep the book focused on the main topics or split the content over two books.

Overall, the first part of the book is very useful, but the more complex subjects are not covered with the depth they require.

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Summary: The sixth edition is currently available.
Review: The sixth edition of Multinational Financial Management is currently available. It contains a review of the Asian financial crisis and several new cases, including ones dealing with the Indonesian on whether to establish a currency board and the Brazilian real crisis. It also contains additional sections on risk management and the use of interest rate derivatives to manage interest rate risk.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Finance Text
Review: This book covers a comprehensive range of topics regarding international finance and economics. A good deal of the material covers macroeconomic issues that a country will face but there is even more infomration relevant to decisions and situations that companies must deal with when entering foreign markets. The breadth of information makes this book appropriate whether you want a blueprint for doing business overseas or just want to better understand the impact of global trade.

Shapiro is very well respected as an economist and this book is a good example why. I was fortunate enough to have him as a professor in an MBA program and can say he has an amazing command of the issues as well as the ability to communicate his knowledge very effectively. The writing in this book is clear and concise with a ton of info packed into each chapter. Buy it, you won't find a better text on this subject.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Finance Text
Review: This book covers a comprehensive range of topics regarding international finance and economics. A good deal of the material covers macroeconomic issues that a country will face but there is even more infomration relevant to decisions and situations that companies must deal with when entering foreign markets. The breadth of information makes this book appropriate whether you want a blueprint for doing business overseas or just want to better understand the impact of global trade.

Shapiro is very well respected as an economist and this book is a good example why. I was fortunate enough to have him as a professor in an MBA program and can say he has an amazing command of the issues as well as the ability to communicate his knowledge very effectively. The writing in this book is clear and concise with a ton of info packed into each chapter. Buy it, you won't find a better text on this subject.

Rating:
Summary: It does not get any better than this
Review: This is a comprehensive and masterfully written book; all MBA students and anybody doing business in or curious about the global economy will benefit from reading this work. All the fundamental principles of the field are clearly described and extensive real-world examples and case studies are given in which principles are synthesized and analyzed to create a very understandable and thorough learning framework. The result is one of the best textbooks I have ever read. The complex subjects of exchange rates, international monetary system, currency forecasting, country risk, foreign exchange rates, currency futures and options, swaps and interest rate derivatives, translation and transaction exposure, measuring and managing economic exposure, corporate strategy and capital budgeting for the multinational corporation, and more are covered.