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Mr. Market Miscalculates: The Bubble Years and Beyond |  | Author: James Grant
Publisher: Axios Press
List Price: $22.00
Buy New: $11.25
as of 11/22/2009 02:20 CST details
You Save: $10.75 (49%)
New (27) Used (12) from $10.00
Seller: burtybooks
Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 24091
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 430
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.4
ISBN: 1604190086
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.64273
EAN: 9781604190083
ASIN: 1604190086
Publication Date: November 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Why is America in financial crisis today? This book, better than any to date, explains it all-how we got here and where we are going. The how we got here is brilliantly described in a collection of pieces from Grant's Interest Rate Observer, the Wall Street insider's Bible. The where we are going is treated in Jim Grant's up-to-the-minute introduction. No fan of Greenspan or Bernanke, Grant tells the unvarnished truth about America.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
 The Missing Credit Chapter in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds October 16, 2009
James East (Orlando, FL)
James Grant can not write a bad financial credit sentence. Mr. Market Miscalculates takes one on a real time basis of the nearly 9 year episode of the delusions of the ".com" bomb run up, the real estate bomb run up, and their subsequent bursts. Much like reading Charles Mackay's "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds", which saved many from the hyperbole of the ".com" phenomenon, maybe this book will save you from the next episode of the Madness of Crowds in the credit world.
If you're a regular and paid in full subscriber of Grant's Interest Rate Observer over the time frame from '99-`08, then this may not be for you as it is a collection of past observations, but with some updates. I on the other hand have been an on again, off again, subscriber to the detriment of my own pocket (i.e. I could have learned more). This book provides one not only with much history dating back on some essays to the 1800s, but in addition provides one with the credit history of the markets and the psychological episodes and lapses of historical judgments.
All in a very historical and insightful review of the Credit Bubble and post-Bubble years. I would also recommend "Speculative Contagion: An Antidote for Speculative Epidemics", by Frank Martin which also covers this period but more from an equity perspective.
 Grant's Interest Rate Observer October 15, 2009
Carl F. Mclaren Jr. (Haines City, Florida USA)
I've been a subscriber to Grant's for several years. This book gives you a flavor of what it's about, economic lessons and unbiased investment suggestions. Investment oriented newsletters fall into two basic catagories, inexpensive ones that are of questionable value and very expensive ones that most individual investors can't afford. Grant's, at around $850 per year, isn't cheap but imo it's well worth it. I have learned a lot of economics from Grant's but the real important thing to me is his analysis of value stocks and bonds. It's a real shame that most people invest in mutual funds since many fund managers are not always doing things in your best interest. Yesterday the DOW Industrial Average got back to 10,000 where it was 10 years ago, parties were planned on TV. If you had invested in a fund that tracked that average you would now be even, NOT. Consider inflation and the fees that funds rake off everyday and you would be lucky to have 75% in inflation adjusted dollars. Instead if you opened a brokerage account at a broker like Etrade or Scottrade and bought the stocks that Grant's is bullish on you would have done well, real well. I want to make it clear that I'm a paying subscriber to Grant's and have never met Jim Grant or any of his staff.
Mr. Market does it again August 15, 2009
Mariusz Skonieczny (ClassicValueInvestors.blogspot.com)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Mr. Market always miscalculates and the author of this book predicted the housing bubble that burst last year. This book is a collection of Grant's Interest Rate Observer letters from 1990s to the present economic crisis. He mainly blames human nature for leading us to where we are today. He says that the cause that led to the housing and stock market bubble was the lenders' willingness to loan money to speculators or house flippers. It was not the low interest rate policies of the Fed as many might believe. However, our regulators are not without fault. They set the stage in the 1970s with the deregulation of financial markets.
I really liked the author's description of the financial instruments, especially CDS derivatives. Even if you are not a financial expert, you should be able to understand it because the author has described it in simple terms. Although there is so much evidence supporting the idea that Mr. Market miscalculates, I am amazed at how many institutional investors believe in efficient market theory and have managed their investments through indexing.
- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market
Eerily prescient June 15, 2009
Glenn Corey (Canton, OH, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
James Grant is pretty well known in the financial newsletter industry, and this book shows why. Grant is very insightful and understands the big picture. Most of the pieces in this book were written several years ago, yet what is happening now is exactly what Grant said eventually would happen. The writing style is fluid and polished. All in all a great read.
Mr. Grant Delivers! May 15, 2009
Scott Allen (New York)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is not a single book, but rather a collection of essays from Jim Grant's Interest Rate Observer. Many financial professionals at hedge funds and other institutions subscribe to Jim Grant for his witty, intellectual approach and macro views on the market. He often finds a bond, stock, or other investment that is over- or under-priced and explains why. He is a value investor, capitalist, and gold bug at heart. A subscription to his newsletter costs nearly $2000 per year, so this book is a bargain if you want to get a taste of his own favorite essays for only $9.99.
Many of these essays are fascinating, especially the ones foretelling certain doom in mortgages, CDOs, CDSs and other derivatives. I found the "book" to be intellectually stimulating and refreshing for the first two-thirds, until at that point I wanted to relax my mind. I found myself saying "I got it, Jim, you like Gold instead of Paper Money!"
If you are looking for an explanation of value investing or a breezy read on the markets, this is not the book for you. If you're the type of reader that relishes the long essays in the New York Times Weekend magazine focused on a specific topic, this book will give you great joy.
For financial professionals, this book is worth the price for the articles on CDS derivatives alone.
One of my favorite quotes:
"How convenient it would be now if mansions and subdivisions could be exported, to improve our foreign trade balance. Since they cannot be exported, perhaps the foreigners who own our massive debts can be repaid by coming to live in our McMansions, with homeowners serving as houseboys and house maids to the visiting Japanese and Chinese owners of our debt"
A typical passage from an essay on CDOs:
"Synthetic CDOs are different. They don't buy actual mortgages, or mortgage slices, as their cash-flow cousins do. Rather, they sell credit protection against such loans and slices. That is, they gain exposure to the subprime market by writing credit-default swaps on it."
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
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