| 商家名称 | 信用等级 | 购买信息 | 订购本书 |
 |
 |
The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong with Banking and What to Do About it |  |
 |
|
The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong with Banking and What to Do About it | |
网友对The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong with Banking and What to Do About it的评论
The basic idea of this book is sound.Increase required capital reserves to as high as 10%.However,even if combined with much more financial regulation and financial product transparency,the authors simply seem to be unaware of the immense concentrated political power of the banking industry.This political power was recently on display when $2 trillion strong Citi-group wrote the repeal of the Volcker rule that was passed by Congress as an amendment to the budget bill.It is quite clear that they have successfully bought off majorities in both the House and Senate.The situation is nearly identical to 1900;only the current situation is much worse because the banks today have greater power than J P Morgan ever had .
The only real cure is to both reduce the size of the current behemoths, like Citi-group and Morgan Chase, and bring back a strengthened Glass Steagall Act.
I deducted one star because of the authors' failure to integrate the wisdom of Adam Smith regarding how banks should be dealt with.Smith had the answers back in 1776.Simply prevent the banks from speculating with the public's deposits and do not allow any bank loans to be made to such banks or individuals that seek to make a profit without production through the use of bank financed leveraged buyouts and financial derivatives, which should be banned.
Excellent book written for a general audience explaining why big, highly leveraged banks are bad for the economy. Then they assert that requiring banks to raise more capital by issuing stock and less through borrowing will be extremely beneficial for the financial system.
This seems too simple to be true and the most helpful negative review has called it "overly simple". I strongly disagree. I think it is just simple enough. Simple is good. Complicated rules, such as the Volcker Rule, will be gamed, evaded and lobbied to irrelevance. The presentation in the book is somewhat oversimplified but there are lots of footnotes that go into greater depth and elaborate the point plus references that support them.
Why hasn't such simple logic been followed already? The authors describe how bankers benefit from the current system of extremely high leverage and from the implicit promise of taxpayer bailouts. They also argue that their proposal -- which they have been making academically and to regulators and politicians for a few years -- has been opposed by entrenched banking interest. Also, the general public doesn't understand these issues or of banking in general. They argue that this in part because bankers promote confusion. This book is written to combat that. "We want to encourage people to form and to trust their opinions, to ask questions, to express doubts, and to challenge the flawed arguments that pervade the policy debate. If we are to have a healthier financial system, more people must understand the issues and influence policy."
I think they do a great job of explaining the problem in very clear and understandable terms to people with no prior knowledge without oversimplifying. For readers who want to delve more deeply, they have excellent footnotes and references. I am involved in the field and find the references and excellent compendium of sources, some of which I already knew but some which I am very glad they have pointed me to.
Their central premise is that a simple measure -- requiring banks to raise more funds as equity capital -- issuing stock instead of borrowing -- would greatly improve the stability of the banking system. They also address the "bugbear" that doing so would reduce economic growth. Essentially, we can have our cake and eat it too.
In their words "if banks have much more equity, the financial system will be safer, healthier, and less distorted. From the society's perspective, the benefits are large and the costs are hsrd to find: there are virtually no tradeoffs."
The message is quite strong and they seem quite alarmed about the current state of affairs "Today's banking system, even with the proposed reforms, is as dangerous and fragile as the system that brought us the recent financial crisis." But their writing is quite dry and matter-of-fact. I think they do a wonderful job of explaining the essence of banking and the problems leverage creates to people without a lot of financial knowledge.
I found their message to be quite persuasive and compelling.
Addendum: Many of claims in negative reviews are refuted by the authors in this (fairly short) document.
http://bankersnewclothes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/parade-continues-June-3.pdf
This book summarizes in a non-theoretical, yet direct and succinct manner the duplicity that the banks have foisted on the public and the crooked and ignorant politicians who essentially carry their water. The banks make the absurd claim that carrying more capital would shortchange the economy, and reduce their lending to viable businesses which would otherwise not be able to expand. The hopeless rubes that most people are, we buy into this absurd argument as if lending was a zero-sum game. The bankers don't tell you that more capital on their books means greater safety for themselves and the economy in adverse economic times and a more disciplined lending posture on their part, not the reckless lending that we saw in the 2000s. This reckless lending was progenitor of huge profits that the banks made and the exceedingly high high wages that the bankers "earned" at a great peril to the society. Raising more capital means selling more shares which the bankers are loath to do, because, this dilutes the value of their share holdings, that is, their own, personal wealth.
The writers captured the real underlining problem of modern day banking. Their thesis, also provided sound solutions based on factual research to solve the problem.
It is interesting to note that, whenever bankers create or attempt to destroy our way of life, by acting too intelligent for the "regular Joe", the solution of the problem they create is SOLVED by "regular Joe" (us and the writers. Us being tax payers). In the end, are bankers really as smart as they make us believe? Answer is No.
喜欢The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong with Banking and What to Do About it请与您的朋友分享,由于版权原因，读书人网不提供图书下载服务
