market-economics

This is a fantastic book and it is too bad it is no longer in print. Excellent explaination of how things work in the stock world, and how to make handsome returns on your money. Logically presented with good explainations of the processes.

Full of information about street markets in London, not only the world famous Portobello Road or Camden Town. When I travelled to England in 2000, I was fed up with fasionable / tourist markets, and then I found this book, which took me to some other streets to spend a ideal Saturday morning in. The author knows the excitement when you stroll down the streets filled with colourful fruit and veg, clothes, bottles of shampoo, cushions and what-you-call bric-a-blac. (Shoppers and traders are there as well as pickpockets!) He says he was led to write about street trade to see the multi-cultural / multi-racial energy at Ridley Road market in East London, and this explains a lot. This book actually guide you down to the core of those traditional street trade. Maps, transport information and where-to-park suggestions --really helpful for drivers-- and some drawings, but no glossy photographs. Thin and small enough to carry about all the time.

Imagine three authors looking at the very basis for a market system of exchange, and finding agreement in sociological, anthropological, and economic literature in defining a universe of exchange structures.

When I mentioned this title to a friend, the first question was what the authors' point of view in terms of political stance (i.e., liberal or conservative, right or left). The question represents the quagmire endemic in economic literature in general; authors and readers obsessing over the political economy with little more contribution than a rehashing of Adam Smith.

Making Markets is not this sort of popularized literature, but an original intellectual discourse on the foundations of the market systems we take for granted. It dispells many of the popular myths of market systems by identifying the true underlying principles at work.

The authors had originally expressed their "perspective" in a technical report "Markets, Distribution, and Exchange after Societal Cataclysm;" a study on recovery scenarios of the United States economy after a nuclear conflict. The authors must have written Making Markets in recognition of the far more reaching contribution of their study than the immediate thesis at hand.

Making Markets does not discuss nuclear conflict. It focuses on the systems of exchange as exemplified by scenarios that are typical in different parts of the world: 1) the Western "business as usual" model, 2) the third world "wasteland," 3) developing nations "fat of the land", and 4) the "bureaucratic nightmare" of the former socialist states.

The text is detailed, and authoratative, with references to both classical and contemporary economic literature. A model of market systems is presented prior to the functionings of the four scenarios that exemplify the elements of this framework. Its lessons are timeless and fundamental. In a word, this is a "classical" work in our time.

As an appraiser that had a career discerning value from economic anamolies, this is the sort of insight required for comprehending market problems and supporting the analytical approach. Imagine an indication of value for public property with uncertain title in terms exceptional of precuniary units (i.e., money). This is the sort of real problems that existed with property after the disestablishment of the Soviet Union. Understanding the fundamentals of Making Markets reveals the analytical solution to these sort of economic problems inherent to massive change.

If I were teaching the introductory courses in Economics this is the book I would use in a final unit to test the students'ability to critically absorb what should have been learnt throught the semester or the year. As the author meant: this is a book to digest the textbooks in much the same way an antiacid works upon an upset stomach. Written at a level that should be understood by anyone with the basic rudiments in economic analysis, it should, at least, expose the reader to an interdisciplinary approach to it.
The author dwells into the contradictions between theory and practice stemming from the ideological and epistemological foundations on which social phenomena is perceived. It is written in an easygoing style in which the author is as comfortable in explaining in three pages and a footnote the complexities of: Marx'labor theory of value, Sraffa's standard commodity, von Neumann's maximum rate of growth and how the Perron-Frobenius theorem relates to equilibrium prices in an exchange economy (mind you, with a minimum of lineal algebra),- as in explaining how Machiavelli's and Hobbes' understanding of human behavior help us understand the workings of the market in a capitalist economy and how it relates to other social institutions.
For the economist this is a book much like - in intent if not in content - to Joan Robinson's Freedom and Necessity through which economic phenomena is seen within the context of historical evolution and social reality. To the layman in Economics it provides the philosophical, historical and sociological framework within which the different issues debated among economists,in the realms of theory and public policy, can be understood.

Ruth Klein makes you ask yourself, what's so important that's keeping you from marketing yourself and your business? If you answer lack of time, this book links them up to show you how one works with the other. It's a good marriage of topics. I bet the most talented personal marketers you know do it without even trying... now you can be one of them.

Though the book is quite pricey, it delivers a wealth of information regarding various treatments of risk and return. This is not the stuff you find in most financial texts, such as outdated modern portfolio theory. In fact, the material is far beyond the old risk/return traditions of yore. Various authors each contribute a chapter including Sortino so one gets a wide range of views (I only found a few chapters irrelevant to my needs). However, the common theme throughout is, "It is high time to view risk/return in a more meaningful and practical light."

This text is not just for portfolio managers. Anyone involved in risk/return assessment will benefit from the material; though much of the book is intended for those with a mathematical slant. The material can easily be applied to discounted cash flow (DCF) financial modeling though this is not discussed in the text. In my opinion, it blows away VAR, Real Options, etc.

If you ever thought T-Bills were riskless assts, you need to read this book or be forever wrong. I also found a wealth of information on Sortino's website that complimented the text. Lastly, each chapter is chocked full of nice reference articles for those desiring to delve deeper into the multitude of ideas presented.

The question of why some companies innovate and prosper, becoming industry giants while others innovate and then watch the creation gobbled up to add profits to an existing larger firm has been answered in Professor Schnaars' book.

Most other books that deal with the innovation/imitation questions have a strong emotional bias toward innovation as the preferred task. It simply bothers them not to put a GeeWhiz flair to their writings. While everyone respects the inventor, it is the organization that gets the working and consistent product to the final customer that creates the value.

Unlike the GeeWhiz books, Professor Schnaars give a brief overview of the other studies of innovation and imitation strategies and then presents 28 cases of pre-empted innovators ranging from ball point pens to paperback books. In these cases, he shows the weaknesses of first movers, the range of mistakes and misfortunes that can put the innovator in a weaker position to the imitator.

Like his book Megamistakes, there is little chortling over the mistakes of the failed efforts. He does not cast them as fools who failed to keep some list, some Schnaars' Fifteen Rules of Innovators (there is some discussion at the end of the book on strategy, but no guarantees), he demonstrates that the first mover, the innovator, is in a very weak position and that it takes good fortune, good management and good market position to grab that industry leader position and hold it.

The book has been invaluable in my work in the electronics industry. I have been able to resist the siren call of promising, but weak, investments in firms that had "the" new product. From Professor Schnaars' work, I knew that even if the product worked, there was guarantee that the firm could keep the profit from the great idea.

Anyone looking to invest or work with firms building their future on innovation should read this book. It will pull the rose-tinted glasses and blinders off your face. At less then $30, Professor Schnaars has not priced this book to its value, the insights are worth thousands to those willing to listen.

Finally, a book that offers real-world information aimed at running a business rather than just building a website. Every chapter is shot-through with practical techniques for managing a sustainable, profitable venture. The author obviously has extensive experience. She gives great examples and tips and she doesn't sugar-coat the realities. She mentions Micorosft technologies, but really, this book is longer on real business information than anything else. Go for it. This book is a real gem.

Even though it is still a bit old for her, my 3.5 year old daughter loves me to read this book to her, the bright pictures and vibrant colors of this illustration are wonderful. I love the diffrent marketplaces of each country. I use it to talk about how dirrent we all Yet in so many ways we are the same. We all have markets! I love reading this book to her right before we go to our public market.

I've read a lot of pharmaceutical market research studies in my life, and anyone in this field could learn a thing or two from reading this study on HA.