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karang's review
4.0
This book should be renamed to "How the economic machines of the past worked". Because that's what 80% of the pages are dedicated to - the Great Depression, the German recession, other developing nations' economic stand etc. The actual explanation of how an economy works (mostly in the context of the US) is the first few (~50) pages.
My favorite quote from the book was this: "In booms, everyone's a capitalist. In busts, everyone's a socialist". So true.
The book is mainly structured as follows:
1. How an economy works - Explaining debt cycles, deflation, deleveraging, currency trends etc.
2. Understanding recessions - probably the bulkiest part of the book is a *very detailed* analysis of the US Great Depression and German recession. I don't exaggerate when I say it's very detailed. Ray does a quarter-by-quarter data-backed analysis, and looks at policies that were passed and what the effect was.
3. Modelling futures of emerging economies - Ray proposes a template/formula for computing how much growth various economies will have. It takes worker productivity and country culture into account. (Spoiler alert - India and China are on top).
The book is full of data, tables and graphs - which I love. But the concepts are so macro, that it's not really relevant for me and most of the people who might like the title of the book. I think this book is more useful to those seeking a career in global finance, or economic policy-making.
Regardless, it's a great book that is very easy to consume. The "chapters" are long blog posts, essentially, and you can skip what you don't like. I loved the general explanation of debt cycles, and macro trends in the first few pages (~60 pages or so).
My favorite quote from the book was this: "In booms, everyone's a capitalist. In busts, everyone's a socialist". So true.
The book is mainly structured as follows:
1. How an economy works - Explaining debt cycles, deflation, deleveraging, currency trends etc.
2. Understanding recessions - probably the bulkiest part of the book is a *very detailed* analysis of the US Great Depression and German recession. I don't exaggerate when I say it's very detailed. Ray does a quarter-by-quarter data-backed analysis, and looks at policies that were passed and what the effect was.
3. Modelling futures of emerging economies - Ray proposes a template/formula for computing how much growth various economies will have. It takes worker productivity and country culture into account. (Spoiler alert - India and China are on top).
The book is full of data, tables and graphs - which I love. But the concepts are so macro, that it's not really relevant for me and most of the people who might like the title of the book. I think this book is more useful to those seeking a career in global finance, or economic policy-making.
Regardless, it's a great book that is very easy to consume. The "chapters" are long blog posts, essentially, and you can skip what you don't like. I loved the general explanation of debt cycles, and macro trends in the first few pages (~60 pages or so).
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