George a Akerlof

Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism George a Akerlof

Publisher Marketing: The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, animal spirits are driving financial events worldwide. In this audiobook, acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess, and put forward a bold new vision that will transform economics and restore prosperity. Akerlof and Shiller reassert the necessity of an active government role in economic policy-making by recovering the idea of animal spirits, a term John Maynard Keynes used to describe the gloom and despondence that led to the Great Depression and the changing psychology that accompanied recovery. Like Keynes, Akerlof and Shiller know that managing these animal spirits requires the steady hand of government simply allowing markets to work won t do it. In rebuilding the case for a more robust, behaviorally informed Keynesianism, they detail the most pervasive effects of animal spirits in contemporary economic life such as confidence, fear, bad faith, corruption, a concern for fairness, and the stories we tell ourselves about our economic fortunes and show how Reaganomics, Thatcherism, and the rational expectations revolution failed to account for them. "Animal Spirits" offers a road map for reversing the financial misfortunes besetting us today. Read it and learn how leaders can channel animal spirits the powerful forces of human psychology that are afoot in the world economy today." Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 04/04/2010 pg. 24 (EAN 9780691145921, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Akerlof, George A George Akerlof, a 2001 Nobel Laureate, is Guest Scholar at the International Monetary Fund. Contributor Bio:  Schilling, Robert J Robert J. Schilling is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Clarkson University. Dr. Schilling's teaching interests include digital signal processing, control systems, robotics, nonlinear systems, computer graphics, and C++ and MATLAB programming. His research interests include adaptive signal processing, nonlinear system identification, active noise control, and control of robotic manipulators. Contributor Bio:  Shiller, Robert J Robert J. Shiller is Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University. He is the author of "Finance and the Good Society" and other books.