Animal Spirits

Review Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism 

by GEORGE A. AKERLOF and ROBERT J. SHILLER

Description

In the highly-acclaimed economist and author George A. Akerlof’s book, “Animal Spirits,” he expounds upon the questions he has discovered about the financial and economic situation of the world while unraveling the human psychology that drives it to be so.  In detail, he brings the aspect of animal spirits to the behaviors of those who run the economy and those who live with it. “Animal spirits,” as the book is titled, comes from a term coined by John M. Keynes that described the doom and gloom that settled before the entrance of the Great Depression. 

A fascinating and interesting read that grounds itself in a surreal aspect, “Animal Spirits,” provides readers with the answers to the economy of today and how a different psychological take on the system can change it entirely.

About the Authors

George A. Akerlof is the Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and 2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics. Akerlof is the co-author, with Robert Shiller, of “Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism.”

Table of Contents

• Preface to the Paperback Edition
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
  • Part One – Animal Spirits
    1. Confidence and Its Multipliers
    2. Fairness
    3. Corruption and Bad Faith
    4. Money Illusion
    5. Stories
  • Part Two – Eight Questions and Their Answers

1. Why Do Economies Fall into Depression?
2. Why Do Central Bankers Have Power over the Economy (Insofar as They Do?)
3. Why Are There People Who Cannot Find a Job?
4. Why is There a Trade-Off between Inflation and Unemployment in the Long Run?
5. Why Is Saving for the Future so Arbitrary?
6. Why Are Financial Prices and Corporate Investments So Volatile?
7. Why Do Real Estate Markets Go Through Cycles?
8. Why is There Special Poverty among Minorities?
9. Conclusion

• Notes
• References
• Index

Posted by Anastasia