The Myth of the Rational Market: Wall Street's Impossible Quest for Predictable Markets

Overview

Just what makes stock prices go up and down? Justin Fox, a senior editor and journalist, describes how and why this happens and the likely consequences for market behaviour.

Editorial Reviews

At the core of the current financial crisis has been the widely held assumption that markets behave rationally. Fox, Time magazine editor-at-large, isn't the first to bring scrutiny-or censure-to the conceit, but his analysis is singularly compelling, and the rare business history that reads like a thriller. Fox leads us on a chronological journey of modern economic theory, featuring the cast of scholars who constructed the 20th- and 21st-century financial landscape, from Irving Fisher to such post-WWII figures as Milton Friedman, Harry Markowitz, Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller, Jack Treynor and William Sharpe. Fox offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at academia's finest, complete with amusing anecdotes about the players and their theories, and illustrates how our economic behaviors and markets have been shaped by a gradually refined theory holding that the stock market prices are both random and perfectly rational. A must-read for anyone interested in the markets, our economy or government, this dense but spellbinding work brings modern finance and economics to life. (July) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Author Information

Bio of Justin Fox

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Additional Info

Imprint

HarperCollins Publishers

Filesize

1.21 MB

Number of Pages

400

eBook ISBN

9780061885761