Monetary-policy

As it often happens with books editing the contents of a Conference, this is also a very heterogeneous book, with some very good chapters/papers and others not so qualified. But since all articles come with a "comment" made by another conference participant, the reader's life is made easier, as most of the problems are already pointed out in the comments. The book is also very heterogeneous in its topics, so any reader will likely find 3-4 of the papers very useful, but not all of them.

If only if you are an investor, and enjoy such books. This is the place to get it and read about this excellent book to help with Monetary Economic Thought.

The book has a lot of detailed historical information about the financial systems. Unfortunatly the author pay too much attention to history and not enough on practical fundementals. There are several errors and steps deleted in the book. Plus not enough examples are provided in comparrison to the problems assigned. Even my professor stated that the 7th edition had plenty of problems that won't be resolved until the 12-13th edition.

This could have been a really good book, but this interesting and readable treatment of South Korea's economic history is marred by wild polemics. Ultimately, it is a descriptive, not analytical, work, and hence of questionable utility in understanding the present or future.

Abundant of data, charts and historical records, this book can be a good resource for interested economists, government officials and historians about the longest and still ongoing deflation period of the last century. The exceptionally long 26 page foreword by the Chicago U Professor Robert Aliber also gives any green reader a good summary of the existing economic structure of Japan.

However, as a professional trader with heavy trading in dollar yen for nearly a decade, I dont find the book useful. The so claimed original hypotheses which link the periodic sharp upswings of the yen to poor economic performance and the arrogance of BOJ governors, are definitely nothing new. Contrary to what printed in the back cover, no practical advice had been offered to investors at all. The future of yen is still at the mercy of the BOJ governor, if not God, when no fundamental change of the existing bureaucracy is within sight.

In short, if you want a resource book, this is okay. If you want a trading or investment book, look somewhere else.

This book is well written which makes it a usefull tool to improve my English.The content is OK, but nothing worth it to rave about.(Perhaps,the author need to visit Continent of Asia little more often.)

This is a good book -- it tells what we already know. Too bad that the author could not predict any of these events -- but then of course hindsight is always 20/20! I do not think this book helps one to do business in Asia. One major drawback - the author seems to have no understanding of Asian business and seems not to have sullied his conclusions by speaking with any Asians. Read this book for a glimpse of perfect hindsight -- but read also "New Asian Emperors: the Overseas Chinese their Strategies and Competitive Advantages" by George T. Haley for a more fair appraisal of the Asian situation and a terrific understanding of Asian business.

The Auther explain the underlining historical events ( e.g. the ups and down of dollar Yen exchange rate) that lead to the boom and bust of the Asian economics. He also account for the 1994 Mexico financial crisis in similar manner. Useful for understanding events shaping the world's economics.

Professor Handa's graduate course, the notes of which he compiled into this text, is dry, dated, off-topic, and in most cases downright irrelevant. The text itself is much, much worse. What it lacks in style, it makes up for in tediousness. On the bright side for those of the classical school of thought, its obvious bias combines seamlessly with a reliance on dubious logical manipulations to discredit Keynesian theory far better than even the most eloquent neoclassical author could. Also, for an economics text it is very reasonably priced.

First off, the focus of this book is NOT monetary economics. This is a text on Keynesian macroeconomics. Not neo-Keynesian macroeconomics, either, but good old-fashioned Keynesianism from the 60's and 70's (the author got his PhD in the mid-60's, and the vast majority of the sources cited in the book are pre-1980). It is compendious, but dated (rather like professor Handa, himself). Because the text is 750 pages long, there is a fair amount of monetary material, but if a professor tried to use this book as a basis for a class, 1) it would take two or three semesters to teach, and 2) after the first semester there would be very few students left in the class. Curiously (or not), this is exactly how things work in McGill University's graduate-level courses in monetary economics, where the book was born.

Surprisingly, Professor Handa wrote this 750-page monstrosity of a text without managing to make it comprehensive. Take, for example, gold. One would think that a multi-semester course on money would cover the gold standard, its pros and cons, how it developed, how it was moved away from in modern economies, and why it was able to function with such success over thousands of years and hundreds of vastly differing cultures and governments. Well, in this case you'd be wrong. Look in the index of Handa's Monetary Economics and you will find gold referenced ONCE. Flip to that page and you will see that in Handa's view the sole importance of gold with respect to money and monetary theory was that the gold standard system used under Bretton Woods necessitated the formation of the IMF.

Okay, so there is no gold, but what is there? In short, Keynes-and lots of him. In fact, the old guy even pops up where you would least expect him. Take, for example, this line from the chapter on "Expectations in Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy":

"Many economists have, in fact, speculated that the rational expectations hypothesis been available in Keynes' days, he would have incorporated it into his work."

This may in fact be true (the book has no footnote naming the economists who allegedly speculated such things). It may also be true that Adam Smith would have incorporated REH into his work, but I hardly see the point making such a statement in a textbook.

What else do you get? How about a smoke-and-mirrors "disproof" of Walras' Law? Just how do you "disprove" Walras' Law, you might ask? And why would you want to? And what would that accomplish, anyway? Trust me, you have to read it to believe it.

So, is there anything worthwhile in this book? Surprisingly, yes. The text is actually designed a lot like a general historical account of macroeconomic theory, complete with short and concise summaries of some rather important papers and theories that many students would probably rather read in abbreviated summary form. What is the Baumol-Tobin transactions demand for money and how does it work? What is the Lucas Supply Rule and how does it compare to the Friedman Supply Rule? What authors and papers deal with sticky prices, efficiency wages, or labor hoarding? What is the proof behind the idea of Ricardian equivalence? Check the index, its all here.

In summary, this is text is poorly organized, strongly biased, incredibly boring, and mostly only tangentially relevant to monetary economics. It may possibly be useful to novice graduate students looking for a summary of many broad macroeconomic ideas (particularly old ones) and/or papers who don't want to plow through the equally tedious primary sources. In good conscience, however, I can only recommend it as a highly effective sleep aid, and not a tool of economic learning.

This book is comprehensive in covering all of the conventional, albeit dated, topics in monetary economics. However, it lacks the clarity and consistency of modern textbooks. By the end of the book you will have trouble differentiating one theory from another, as many key arguments are vague or self-contradictory. In addition, very little will be presented to spark your enthusiasm for the material. If you are a professor looking for a course text, this book may be a good guide for forming a curriculum, but please do not subject your students to its dull, meandering style of presentation. Advanced students deserve a book that is more cutting edge.

I am currently using the book for my Master Degree level class in money and banking. The book is EXCELLENT. It is up-to-date with current issues, comprehensive and complete. My students love it. The presentation at the beginning of each chapter is outstanding. One of very few books that presents money at both the micro and macro levels. The discussions of money in Walrasian general equilibrium models and overlapping generation models are exceptional. The review and discussion questions at the end of each chapter are very helpful to students.

This book has nothing new in spite of being released in 2003. Many key issues receive inadequate explanations, and the sections written by different authors do not merge well. If you have no experience with the market, this is not a good book to start you off. If you have experience with the market, there is no reason to buy this book.

This is yet another of Fabozzi's contributed works that ends up with poor flow. I'm not sure why this book was written, since it isn't nearly as good or as comprehensive as previous works, and doesn't represent the best writers in this field. For instance, Schonbucher's work on pricing is far superior to anything presented here.

This book brings together some high quality talent and it shows - a good buy and a useful reference on credit derivatives.

I bought this book in a bookstore, thinking it looked interesting. The testimonials seemed convincing. I wish I'd read these reviews first. Although the book clearly offers a wealth of information, I found it annoying to read. The author repeatedly interjects long parenthetical expressions in the middle of his sentences. By the time you reach the end of the sentence, it's hard to remember what he was trying to say. At times, it struck me as a stream-of-consciousness approach, or just laziness on the part of his editor. The problem isn't that the material is challenging. I have an MBA and expect to be challenged in books about banking and finance. But I expect far better writing than this. Mr. Mayer likely is a superb reporter and researcher, but in my view, his writing needs a heavier hand from an editor. I only read about 30 pages before tossing the book in the trash can. I hope to remember not to buy any more of his books by accident.

My money is wasted in buying this book!

My main problem with this book is that the title really should have been "A Detailed History of The Fed." I think I was looking more for what the title implied, a book with a focus almost exclusively on modern times, and concentrating on the relationship between Fed actions and economic reactions. If this is what you, too, are seeking, don't read this book.

A secondary problem is that the recitation of Fed history that comprises nearly the entire book is almost unbearably dry.

This book's main (only?) good point is its detail. I personally found the amount of detail excessive and boring, but I can't fault the author for completion: the history that this book contains is broad and well-researched.

This is an exact reprint of his earlier book, do not waste your time or money. (...). There are many other books more worthwile of your time and money than this one.

This book appeared first in 1996 under the title "Witch Doctor of Wall Street" and it turns out to be exactly the same book with an "epilogue" added yet neither the book nor the advertising suggest this. The book forms the basis of Professor Parks' course in Capital Markets and Investment at Pace University. The tone of the book is critical and curmudgeonly yet some interesting points are made and it makes a useful accompaniment to the standard finance text book (Sharpe, Brealy & Meyers, etc.). The first edition was full of misprints and errors which, I hope, have been corrected in this second edition.

As a student of Dr. Parks at Pace University, Lubin School of Business, this book has changed the way I view and analyze various financial topics. This books covers many current,complex,controversial and critical issues and examines the reasons and theories behind them as well as disproving many commonly held beliefs. Topics include: 1.The Gold Standard. 2. Passing an Amendment to have a balanced budget every year. (Why we don't need it!) 3. The fallacy with regards to the "Double Tax" on Corporate Shareholders and the "Double Tax Shield". 4. Reasons behind our nine post WWII recessions. 5. Linking Monetary policy with Fiscal Policy and its importance. 6.Discussing Supply side economics. 7. Explaining the MM Dividend Irrelevancy Theorm,(Why investing in a company that pays dividends or re-invests earnings will eventually result in equal gains.) 8.In-depth examination of our (US) economic history and the reasons why we've had booms and busts. etc.. This book covers a wide array of financial topics and explains difficult concepts in an easy to understand manner. Dr. Parks also examines the "herd" mentality on Wall Street and exposes the "parrots" and "hucksters" that work on the street. Essential reading for students of finance and anybody interested in broadening their financial knowledge.