|  | Author: Gerald F. Davis
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $17.42
as of 11/24/2009 15:45 CST details
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Seller: Florida Panhandlers
Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 69260
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0199216614
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.0410973
EAN: 9780199216611
ASIN: 0199216614
Publication Date: June 15, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: brand new hard cover with dust sleeve as arrived from publisher - ships with tracking #
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 26-30 of 38
 The Midas Touch June 17, 2009
takingadayoff (Las Vegas, Nevada)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
For a long time the major business of the United States was producing goods such as cars, steel, electronics. After WWII our main business was producing services such as technology and education. In the 1970s and 1980s, we turned to producing money itself.
It seemed clever to get right to the point and quit wasting time producing goods or services in order to earn money. Why not just make money? Enter mutual funds, options, hedge funds, reverse mortgages, day trading, viatical settlements, derivatives, and a host of even more complicated and exotic financial "products."
Author Gerald F. Davis argues that by "financializing" everything, we inevitably brought on the crisis we are now in. The problem is deep-rooted. Even the main business of companies that appear to make things or provide services turns out to be making money. For instance, until GM sold GMAC, the division that financed their car loans, GM made more money on car loans than they did making cars.
Everyone got into the game. WalMart bought life insurance on its employees without their knowledge, making the employees worth more to them dead than alive (though they appear to have stopped that practice). David Bowie made $55 million for bonds issued on anticipated royalties from his album sales. Flipping houses became a way for average families to make money in their spare time.
Managed By the Markets is full of interesting facts and explanations that illustrate financialization's rise and our fall. As entertaining as the book can be, the story it tells is deadly serious. Two generations ago, a person could hire on with a company as unskilled labor, move up the career ladder, and retire forty years later from the same company with a pension and full health care benefits. This rarely happens anymore. It's every man for himself. Is this really what we wanted?
Davis notes that "corporations used to take on the role of miniature welfare states, providing wage stability, health care coverage, and retirement security. This system largely disappeared with the ... triumph of the shareholder value movement." And don't look to the federal government to bail us out - experienced career bureaucrats are going the way of corporate lifers - freelance consulting and contract work.
Whether you call it financialization, the portfolio society, or the ownership society, it's broken now, and it will be fascinating, if a bit scary, to see what takes its place.
Informative descriptions and thought provoking hypotheses June 16, 2009
Sreeram Ramakrishnan (Salem,MA)
In a very detailed (at times pedantic) and engaging book, Davis makes an argument for a financial markets-driven transformation of the corporate culture and society in general, to what he terms a post-industrial portfolio society. Despite some confirmatory bias that seems to creep into his arguments by stating a fairly broad hypotheses and then viewing the supporting trends/evidence with that lens, Davis manages to put forth a very thought provoking and cogent argument in support of this thesis. Interspersed with some witty observations, short courses in financial market history, detailed examples drawn from the US corporate history, Davis plots what he calls "Copernican" transformations. One might be tempted to argue with his interpretations of efficient markets and other well-accepted economic notions, but Davis clearly presents entertaining and worthwhile arguments that will force a open-minded and discerning reader to re-examine some of established paradigms.
After charting the transformation in 5 chapters, each covering a particular aspect/stage (the ones on securitization and transformation of sovereign state to vendor states are clear stand-outs), the concluding chapter would seem a little disappointing. It merely serves as a summary of the book without any significant insights as to where he thinks the transformation would lead and the consequences of it (though some of this is covered tangentially in the main chapters in a not-so-focussed manner).
Overall, the engaging narration, informative retelling and interpretation of corporate history, and thought provoking hypotheses makes this a book that is a must-read.
 Strong history of the evolution markets, the economy and society June 16, 2009
M. McDonald (Chicago, IL United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Managed by the Markets is a thorough history of the transformation of the modern economy from a focus on industrial companies and systems into market systems. The impact of this change is subtle and Davis does a superb job illustrating these changes. The book is academic in its nature and therefore requires concentrated reading as Davis lays out his ideas and policy prescriptions. It has a decidedly historical approach in laying out its argument.
There are a host of books out discussing economics and the current economic situation. This book is more complete and more studied than Paul Krugman's The return of Depression Era economics. It is less driven by a political system or point of view.
Recommended for those wanting to understand the macro economic, financial and monetary implications of the evolving and integrating economy.
Well Written Explanation of the Shift in the Economy From Manufacturing to Finance June 15, 2009
scesq (New Milford, New Jersey USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I picked up this book because I wanted a better understanding of why my supposedly safe mutual funds lost so much of their value. The book's premise is that today's economic crisis is the result of finance replacing manufacturing as the center of the American economy.
Prior to reading the book my only exposure to economic theory was an economics course I attempted to take in college which I quickly dropped when I looked at the textbook. When I first picked up this book I was a bit intimidated but I found it to be something I was able to understand and it gave me a better understanding of the American economy. I don't consider this to be light reading but you don't have be an economist or have a financial or economic background to learn something from this book.
This book is written in a scholarly tone with thorough footnoting, ten pages of references to texts on the subject and a great index. Yet the author does not focus on complex economic theory but rather gives concrete examples of how corporations, finance companies, stockholders and the government played a part in the current economic crisis.
I don't have the economic background to evaluate the author's premise but he convinced me that the shift from a manufacturing based economy to a finance based economy is the reason for our financial situation and that recognition of this shift is necessary to ensure that the economic crisis ends.
Excellent job explaining a complex topic succinctly June 12, 2009
Tell It Like It Is (good ole USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is very well written, well referenced, and very interesting. Gerald Davis explains his theory about how our current financial crisis has evolved. This book is basically the author's treatise on the effects of finance on society. You may not agree with everything he has to say, but his arguments and well stated. Thought provoking is the least anyone can say about this book.
Showing reviews 26-30 of 38
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