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A review by christinefongg
Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism by Robert J. Shiller, George A. Akerlof
3.0
There are a lot of good ideas in this book, but even as someone in finance it was dry and hard to follow. My biggest takeaway was the concept of Money Illusion, and a couple of perspectives the author shared towards the second half of the book.
The book is split in two parts, the first half introduces the components of Animal Spirits and what it constitutes. The latter half is the author's approach to eight questions, "Why do Economies Fall into Depression", "Why Are There People Who Cannot Find a Job", and "Why Is Saving for the Future So Arbitrary?", to name a few. I enjoyed reading most of the ideas, especially the ones focused on real estate and poverty among minorities. It's given me a lot to think about.
My sister, who is not in the industry but interested in the markets, has asked me to leave this book for her after I finish and I intend to do so. However, as the person who willingly picked up an econ book, it's taken me over two months to finish because of its density. There is a decent amount of jargon and financial concepts (Basel I,II/random walk, etc) and I found myself rereading throughout. I'd recommend this to a finance/econ professional but perhaps not to Jane Doe in an unrelated industry exploring her interests in econ - this might scare her away (and quite frankly can find more digestible ways to consume economic concepts).
3.5 stars
The book is split in two parts, the first half introduces the components of Animal Spirits and what it constitutes. The latter half is the author's approach to eight questions, "Why do Economies Fall into Depression", "Why Are There People Who Cannot Find a Job", and "Why Is Saving for the Future So Arbitrary?", to name a few. I enjoyed reading most of the ideas, especially the ones focused on real estate and poverty among minorities. It's given me a lot to think about.
My sister, who is not in the industry but interested in the markets, has asked me to leave this book for her after I finish and I intend to do so. However, as the person who willingly picked up an econ book, it's taken me over two months to finish because of its density. There is a decent amount of jargon and financial concepts (Basel I,II/random walk, etc) and I found myself rereading throughout. I'd recommend this to a finance/econ professional but perhaps not to Jane Doe in an unrelated industry exploring her interests in econ - this might scare her away (and quite frankly can find more digestible ways to consume economic concepts).
3.5 stars