4/3/2023 0 Comments Startup panic review![]() ![]() All the country would need to do is fire up its printing presses. I had always just assumed that it had debts in foreign currencies and didn’t have any of those currencies to be able to meet its obligations – but how a country can’t meet its obligations in its own currency really is a mystery. I think the thing I was most surprised at learning was that when Russia defaulted on its debt in the late 1990s that it did so in debts it had run up in Russian Rubbles. The causes of each crisis have been quite different and each has caused its own special kind of disillusionment. This is a book about a series of financial crises since the mid-1980s and as someone says of them, not only do they never repeat, they don't even rhyme. The parts where this book was particularly good were when an article illuminated things to do with the various crises that I’d never thought of before or never in that particular way. ![]() The ‘how to make money in real estate’ piece by Dave Barry also suffered from the same ‘rich people laughing at poor people’ problem and therefore had the same ‘yuck’ factor. I know it is hard to spot the difference between these at times, but there is a difference and it is one that should be respected. So, jokes about how the poor have hurt your stock portfolio by loosing their houses aren’t so much satire as, well, obnoxious. The problem is that, for it to be funny, satire needs to be the powerless laughing at the powerful. And over the years I’ve really enjoyed some very funny pieces of satire(I miss you Max Gillies). Obviously, there is nothing funnier than a good bit of satire. The parts of this I liked the least were the parts where people, including the editor, decided it was time to do some satire. If you want a survey from a bunch of good financial writers on recent panics, well ok, this one will do it and the money does go to a good place. If you want great writing on panics, I'd just go read some of Lewis' original long-form pieces, books ( Liar's Poker, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt), etc. The book's proceeds would go to 826 National to fund relief in New Orleans (you can't strike a bargain with Eggers without it ending up benefiting someone) and boom! Book.Īnyway, if I was reading it as a textbook, I'd give it four stars, but it just seems a bit too easy, too forced, not enough original Lewis material to really give it much beyond the three stars I gave it. Dave offered up a "McSweeney's Intern" to compile and I'd assume edit and get permissions, Lewis would contribute an introduction and some transition writing, and obviously, some of his own pieces from each of these four panics. Lewis, apparently, got the idea of this anthology from a discussion with Dave Eggers. ![]() It is just a a collection of stories written by the author and many other financial writers divided into Four major parts/panics: I'm just giving it three stars because it technically is only an anthology edited by Michael Lewis. I'm not giving this book 3 stars because the writing is bad. John Seo, Fermat Capital, Quoted in 'Panic' by Michael Lewis It's hard to believe that anyone- yes, including me- ever believed it." "No one believes the original assumptions anymore. ![]()
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