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Fragile by Design
- The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit
- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 20 hrs and 21 mins
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Why are banking systems unstable in so many countries--but not in others? The United States has had 12 systemic banking crises since 1840, while Canada has had none. The banking systems of Mexico and Brazil have not only been crisis prone but have provided miniscule amounts of credit to business enterprises and households. Analyzing the political and banking history of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil through several centuries, Fragile by Design demonstrates that chronic banking crises and scarce credit are not accidents due to unforeseen circumstances. Rather, these fluctuations result from the complex bargains made between politicians, bankers, bank shareholders, depositors, debtors, and taxpayers. The well-being of banking systems depends on the abilities of political institutions to balance and limit how coalitions of these various groups influence government regulations.
Fragile by Design is a revealing exploration of the ways that politics inevitably intrudes into bank regulation. Charles Calomiris and Stephen Haber combine political history and economics to examine how coalitions of politicians, bankers, and other interest groups form, why some endure while others are undermined, and how they generate policies that determine who gets to be a banker, who has access to credit, and who pays for bank bailouts and rescues.
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- By: Joseph E. Stiglitz
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This powerful, unsettling book gives us a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of global financial institutions by the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. When it was first published, this national best-seller quickly became a touchstone in the globalization debate. Renowned economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz had a ringside seat for most of the major economic events of the last decade, including stints as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist at the World Bank.
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Plea
- By Asma on 10-13-20
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The Shifts and the Shocks
- What We've Learned - and Have Still to Learn - from the Financial Crisis
- By: Martin Wolf
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The Shifts and the Shocks is not another detailed history of the crisis, but the most persuasive and complete account yet published of what the crisis should teach us about modern economies and economics. The audiobook identifies the origin of the crisis in the complex interaction between globalization, hugely destabilizing global imbalances and our dangerously fragile financial system.
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Good on Europe's problems, fair global update
- By Philo on 01-08-15
By: Martin Wolf
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A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
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Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
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The Age of Oversupply
- Overcoming the Greatest Challenge to the Global Economy
- By: Daniel Alpert
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The governments and central banks of the developed world have tried every policy tool imaginable, yet our economies remain sluggish, or worse. How did we get here, and how can we emerge from the longest downturn in recent memory? Daniel Alpert, a progressive Wall Street banker and economist, argues that we are living in the age of oversupply.
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Great book but now out of date
- By emory morsberger on 11-30-17
By: Daniel Alpert
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Dead Aid
- Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa
- By: Dambisa Moyo, Niall Ferguson - foreword
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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A national best-seller, Dead Aid unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined - and millions continue to suffer. Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Dambisa Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing the development of the world's poorest countries.
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Dangerous / Right Wing US view
- By David O'Donovan on 03-05-19
By: Dambisa Moyo, and others
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A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II
- By: Murray N. Rothbard
- Narrated by: Matthew Mezinskis
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In what is sure to become the standard account, Rothbard traces inflations, banking panics, and money meltdowns from the colonial period through the mid-20th century to show how government's systematic war on sound money is the hidden force behind nearly all major economic calamities in American history. Never has the story of money and banking been told with such rhetorical power and theoretical vigor. You will treasure this volume.
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Great facts (if selective); ideological rigidity
- By Philo on 02-04-16
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The End of Normal
- The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth
- By: James K. Galbraith
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The years since the Great Crisis of 2008 have seen slow growth, high unemployment, falling home values, chronic deficits, a deepening disaster in Europe - and a stale argument between two false solutions, “austerity” on one side and “stimulus” on the other. Both sides and practically all analyses of the crisis so far take for granted that the economic growth from the early 1950s until 2000 - interrupted only by the troubled 1970s - represented a normal performance.
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Currency Wars
- The Making of the Next Global Crises
- By: James Rickards
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1971, President Nixon imposed national price controls and took the United States off the gold standard, an extreme measure intended to end an ongoing currency war that had destroyed faith in the U.S. dollar. Today we are engaged in a new currency war, and this time the consequences will be far worse than those that confronted Nixon. Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics.
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don't be misled
- By peter on 04-01-12
By: James Rickards
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The Instant Economist
- Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works
- By: Timothy Taylor
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Economics isn't just about numbers: It's about politics, psychology, history, and so much more. We are all economists - when we work, save for the future, invest, pay taxes, and buy our groceries. Yet many of us feel lost when the subject arises. Award-winning professor Timothy Taylor here tackles all the key questions and hot topics of both microeconomics and macroeconomics, so you can understand and discuss economics on a personal, national, and global level.
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Timothy Taylor is the best
- By Jake on 02-15-15
By: Timothy Taylor
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The Ascent of Money
- A Financial History of the World
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance. Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, it's the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it's the chains of labor. Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress.
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A mostly successful and interesting history
- By A reader on 02-24-09
By: Niall Ferguson
What listeners say about Fragile by Design
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Karel
- 08-28-21
Good book
Very good book, I really like it. Interesting to listen to recommend it if you are in finance
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- Alex Syvorotka
- 12-04-18
Best suitable as study book for Universities
Although I loved the book, having a semi-economic schooling background and working in banking environment, I must admit that the narration is overly saturated with facts and is most suitable as a study book for Universities, and for regular users it's hard to listen to.
Other than that, I liked the content a lot. Especially the history of entanglement of economy and politics. Very insightful.
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- Spokane Book Suppliers
- 09-30-14
Best work of political econ I have ever read!
Would you consider the audio edition of Fragile by Design to be better than the print version?
I have read dozens of books on political economics over an 18 year time period. Most are ideological in nature. This work is a work of descriptive political economics. In our partisan era most people will not recognize the value of making advanced political economic theory palatable to ordinary people in relatively simple language. Politics is always approached from a rights, morals, principles, or social justice perspective. That is like objecting to the law of gravity on the basis of its immorality or inequality. This book comes as close as any ever written to spelling out the NATURAL laws that govern political economics.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Olli Tuomikoski
- 05-08-17
Historical focus
Heavily focused on history, thus interesting if you are interested in the history of financial systems. Five countries thoroughly discussed as examples. The book is very long and could have been formatted in a more interesting way by better connecting the historical examples to modern systems.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-08-23
Pretty decent book
This was a solid 4 stars. Good and interesting information. A good read but not a reread.
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- Derick
- 11-07-16
All Politicians & Financiers should read this book
What made the experience of listening to Fragile by Design the most enjoyable?
This book is extremely academic but still very relevant. It illustrates wonderfully how the government somewhat unwittingly illustrated the ’08 financial crisis through various policy changes and incentives.
I would not suggest this book to anyone who isn’t truly interested in government policy and its relationship to financial markets, specifically banking. However, it’s very enjoyable to any history buffs with more than a basic understanding of economics.
You learn how banks formed and why their lending is so important to the State and vice versa. Once they get into each country case study, they begin with the Bank of England and how England’s wars with Louis XIV led to its formation. From there it goes over in depth the unique agrarian makeup of the US banking system and how national banks came into being during the Civil War. It then dives into the Canadian banking system and its appeared stability. From there historically authoritarian states are explored like Mexico and Brazil. Their implementation of inflation taxes and state controlled banks causes all sorts of unrest. I learned more about Brazil than I ever thought I would, specifically with demographics.
While history is a huge part of the book, it does a wonderful job showing how certain policies really affect banks and lending practices. The writers make a concerted effort to be as fair and non-biased as possible which I believe does show. If there was anything they were really trying to prove it’s that macro-prudential regulation is far more effective than micro-prudential regulation in creating a healthy stable banking system. I enjoyed the book and will probably come back to it in the near future.
Would you be willing to try another one of Basil Sands’s performances?
Unfortunately I thought Basil was not ready for this book. He was not only very dry and robotic but mispronounced quite a bit including Monaco, Curacao, and Econometrics. Those were examples just off the top of my head. I know there were more.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Philo
- 05-20-14
An all-time favorite in banking, history, politics
All my main interests converge in this book. The authors' labors came to great fruit in a thorough, eye-opening tour of banking in several countries and centuries. I learned more about the histories of Brazil and Mexico (despite having read other books, and traveled extensively in Mexico) than I ever knew, in a few hours.
The narratives frame banking systems and their impacts on nations as the products of a "game of bank bargains" in each nation, and in each time-frame, between various interest groups. This makes enormous sense, and is a refreshing departure from partisan screeds that lazily serve up the same pre-set heroes and villains. I like the authors' approach of blending disciplined narratives showing particular nations' contexts and nuances, in easy-to-follow stories, with some telling numbers. Various institutional weaknesses are highlighted, or flawed bargains, as sources of trouble: opposing groups can be, at best, powerful checks and balances on each other, and often these balances have become too lopsided, and banking crises are sure to follow. In this light, the collapse of banking systems, currencies, and governments makes clear sense. The result of this approach: deeper knowledge of history and sharper thinking and analysis. And all this is delivered in an accessible, listenable form.
Some with a brittle partisan pre-loaded set of desired answers (on either side) may be perturbed at turns. Some on the left will be uncomfortable when a microscope is turned onto the banker-urban-populist bargains in the runup to USA's 2008 subprime credit bust. But by the time this story is detailed, we are already well briefed on a history of unstable banking bargains in US history, among various players. This made me look with a more appraising and cynical eye at the smooth cartoons of rosy all-around public benefit and skillful crisis management produced by politicians (on either side) as their self-serving draft of history, and as an apologia for their various manipulations of banking systems.
USA's set of bank bargains, and their outcomes and present state, can be compared, apples-to-apples, with Britain, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Germany, and more. (This is, however, primarily a history book, not specifically an update of very current events.) This book stands alongside any I've ever read in these various sub-fields. I agree with the likes of Niall Ferguson that finance gives key understandings of history, when done with smarts and disciplined scholarship. This book tells me more about why nations are where they are, than any other I can think of.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Yasir Ali
- 03-16-16
A Banking lens to Why Nations Fail
Good for understanding the Gorilla in the room that is overlooked in socio political history books. Cannot underestimate importance of $.
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1 person found this helpful
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- bob smith
- 11-28-22
not a history book, all academic lecture
the academic authors skim over the history and talk about politics and economics, there are only few chapters on historical topics or themes and there is so much theory
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