A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation @ richardeward.com

A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation
by Richard Bookstaber
from Wiley

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Prescient in Description but Unimaginative in Prevention
  At the time this book was published, the Wall Street Journal noted that things had changed since the time of the "problems" Bookstaber wrote about and that they were extremely unlikely to occur again. Rick Bookstaber has proved to be remarkably prescient. "A Demon of Our Own Design" provides the best perspective to date (06/08) on the credit crisis. The book's gossipy style doesn't detract from it. What does is Bookstabler's lack of imagination in prescribing the cure of blocking innovation. Yet, here too,... more info

• Most cogent explanation for today's financial crises
  This is one of the few books that explains the reasons for much of today's financial crises (as it relates to the banks, anyways), in a way that transcends sanctimony and overgeneralizations. Bookstaber has seen how the incentives to take risks permeate in an organization, and why that's generally acceptable. He is one of the few that highlights the importance of the tight interconnectedness of financial counterparties that spreads financial infection.

• An excellent Book
  This is an excellent book for understanding the nature of and pitfalls in financial innovation. It is the first coherent account of I have read of the nature, the purpose, and the inherent risks of hedge funds. Anyone risking their money in financial markets should read it.

• Good read? Yes. Practical? No
  This book will be a great read if you want to know someone's way into the Wall Street's biggest companies and his experiences working in those companies, but you will not find anywhere in the book practical recommendations on how to manage risk of a fund. The author says that he was behind the October 1987 crash, because it's him who started the program trading at Morgan Stanley and then other firms started doing the same thing. By accumulating the hedge from the short side in S&P 500 futures they... more info

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