Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 53
 Best heard on CNBC or Bloomberg January 16, 2009
Gadget Freak (Chicago, IL, USA)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I LOVE well written books on current finance and have such a voracious appetite for financial news that my Tivo only records business related suggestions.
Having seen El-Erian a few times on CNBC and Bloomberg, and being impressed with his pithy comments, I decided to read this book. I wish I had read the reviews before I did. The book can be summarized to less than 20 pages. He is great on CNBC, but his editor ought to be fired.
Save your money on this one.
 Systemic Change - Helping Identify some of the Potenial Winners or Losers January 14, 2009
James East (Orlando, FL)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
When the author was penning this book in late 2007, the markets were surely colliding. However, as we look into late 2008 and early 2009, it would appear that the markets and governments around the world are doing unprecedented things like actually cooperating with each other on many levels. There are many reasons to why and with many of them explained quite nicely throughout the book.
This does not take away from the theme of colliding markets as we truly have had a systemic change with all this cooperation. We have also been rewriting the rules with respect to what a business contract is as TARP's outcome ripples thru the system and whether banks can or should honor a loan. There will be both winners and losers in this new system with the increasing influence of Sovereign Wealth Funds and the once Emerging Market central banks now with coffers full of foreign reserves.
As Mohamed describes in the preface, " The outcome will be nothing less than a regime change in which the next stage in globalization and integration." If you want or need help in potentially identifying some of the probable winners or losers, When Markets Collide is a highly recommended read.
The emperor has no clothes January 10, 2009
John Ferreira (Toronto, Ontario Canada)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Other reviewers have commented here well-enough on the complete failure of this book.
I am writing because I feel seduced and cheated, not so much by the author himself (he is not expected to be objective), but by the journalists who gave it credibility with laudatory reviews that were either unapologetically dishonest or incomprehensibly wrong.
How did so respected a publication as the FT choose it as their best business book of the year? Did they simply rely on El-Erian's otherwise impeccable pedigree, or did they read so few paragraphs as to be impressed by the poseur eco-prose?
 NOT YOUR FATHER'S MARKET-A NEW WORLD ORDER December 29, 2008
Michael A. Robertson (Greensboro,NC USA)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
El Erian lays out in sophisticated format his understanding of the changes that have come about in today's global economy and capital markets. He challenges us to examine what we write off as background noise which just may be a sea change in market fundamentals. He reminds us that " Black Swan" events may be more prevalent going forward than previously thought and to prepare for such events. He states that emerging markets are going to be prominent in capital flows going forward and that we should embrace sovreign wealth funds as permanent sources of investment capital with long term investment objectives. This thought provoking work gives us a new working asset allocation on page 198 that should challenge our thinking in this business.
Financial genius is before the fall. December 24, 2008
Canuck (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
I was so disapointed with this book that I decided to write a review. But I must confess that there is not much else to add after reading the reviews of Bojko and David Harper. They hit the nail on the head: if you have some basic understanding of finance and economics and if you follow the news with some regularity then there is nothing to learn from this book. Coincidentally Mr El-Erian worked at Harvard not long ago managing Harvard's endowment fund before joining PIMCO. Just recently Harvard announced some staggering losses at its endowment fund due to the financial crisis. Apparently Harvard did not see the collision described by Mr El-Erian in his book. As Galbraith once remarked "financial genius is before the fall".
Showing reviews 11-15 of 53
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