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| The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means |  | Author: George Soros
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Rating:  18 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
ISBN: 1921372486
EAN: 9781921372483
ASIN: 1921372486
Publication Date: September 29, 2008
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 He's got the answer October 5, 2008
Frode Alexander Hegland (London, UK.)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Hidden inside the book, towards the end, Mr. Soros points out that when those who create credit are in trouble the government has to bail them out, as credit creation is too important. Therefore they should accept that since they are at government protection and they need to pay a price. And the price is anti-bubble-cycle regulation (my words, he puts it much more elegantly in the book).
With this acceptance on both sides we can work towards minimal effective regulation, not just petty throwing of insults between 'hippies' and 'capitalists'.
This issue is way to important to be left to the extremes to deal with. All of us, in the more moderate middle ground, need to get in on this debate at a finer level of discourse.
And Mr. Soros provides a very useful framework for this.
 Intellectually engaging June 19, 2008
Namuncura (UK)
25 out of 30 found this review helpful
Not sure what the previous reviewer was looking for.
George Soros brings an interesting and quite realistic perspective to how financial markets work and why the current financial downturn has come about. His writing style does not lend itself to light reading and can be heavy going at times. And reading this book requires a degree of inmersion into elements of philosophy as well as financial markets. This does not in itself disqualify the subject matter in it. Soros offers an interesting and timely analysis which I have found worth understanding.
Debunking myths, economy, philosophy November 26, 2008
Tzctlpc (UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I really don't know what the people giving one star only to this book are smoking.
First things first. If you expect to read this book casually like you would read an easy novel, then this certainly is not the book for you.
What Soros is asking from you is to read, take pause, and think.
Soros is not only bringing into question the fundamental paradigms about how capitalism works, he is also bringing into question the whole foundation of enlightened Western thinking since the Renaissance. Another reviewer said Soros was delaing in platitudes. Phwa! He obviously skimmed a bit too much...
That my friends is not a small fish to fry, it is the first book or article I have seen linking the failure of markets to a misconception at the very heart of rational thinking.
Soros makes reference to philosophy in order to explain why economists use mathematics models based on bogus assumptions. This is important and is worth thinking about.
If anything, you get a valuable insight in how a guy that is making tons of money is thinking. That by itself should be enough reason to read this book.
Practical insights and new rules from George Soros August 14, 2008
Rolf Dobelli (Luzern Switzerland)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Legendary financier George Soros is worried. The financial markets face the worst credit crisis since the Depression and their existing paradigm needs to be replaced. The new paradigm Soros recommends is based on what he calls the "theory of reflexivity." This book-length essay provides a crash course in the billionaire investor's philosophy and view of financial markets, the origins and consequences of the current credit crunch, the boom-bust model and the behavior of market participants. Soros intersperses his market analysis with enough personal details from his early life and career to keep the book lively. He is also quite vocal in his political beliefs; Democrats will probably appreciate the case he makes against President George W. Bush's administration and its policies. One weakness of the book, other than its repetitiveness as Soros explains his theory, is that he relies heavily on technical and financial jargon, which makes it tough to penetrate and may prove a barrier to some readers. Ironically, he seems to be fully aware of this shortcoming when he writes that readers may find one of his particularly theoretical chapters to be "somewhat repetitive and hard-going." Nevertheless, his warm personal voice and the depth of his financial experience, which spans more than half a decade, is hard to match. Thus, getAbstract notes that this book has much to offer executives, investors, and students of financial markets and theory. (As is true of every Abstract, the following views are those of the author and not of getAbstract.)
One of the first books on a developing crisis July 21, 2008
Stephen Beer (UK)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Soros has written extensively in the past on capitalism and markets and his words are closely followed, not least by investors who want to discover the philosophy behind his profitable trading strategies.
In this book he does outline again his philosophy, though leaves it up to others to discover how best to apply it. Soros argues for his theory of `reflexivity'. This states that markets do not just reflect changing reality (eg a share price falls if a company looks set to make a loss) but that they change reality too. Recent financial events would seem to demonstrate this. Soros argues that the economic theory that markets tend towards equilibrium (based on perfect information) does not hold in reality even though the financial system is set up as if it does. This is why so many unexpected events occur, surprising investors. Regulators had come to believe the market was essentially self-regulating but this belief has been falsified. Soros believes that reflexivity explains how trends can develop which are self-reinforcing because people make decisions based on an interpretation of the facts and the trends they can perceive. Reality can be manipulated. Investor opinion shifts prices, which give out new signals about assets and the wider economy, which in turn affect investor behaviour. These feedback loops do occur. Soros argues that we must not ignore them. The phenomenon can be seen in other areas of life such as politics, he argues.
Though Soros reproduces some of his diary entries outlining his thoughts as the credit crunch developed, I wanted him to explore this more. However, the events of the past few months give us cause to think through our view on markets and economics afresh, and Soros is one of the voices to which we should listen.
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