Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts

Sunday, April 01, 2012

My blogging is 300 posts old - in 7 years

Well, when I noticed few weeks ago that I'm close to 300 posts here, I planned to write a good, lengthy review of some of  the recent books I read (e.g. like this one). No way ... My life is periodically getting so busy that all me dreams to have time for a next good review are just dreams :-)

So in celebration of this 300 posts record, let me first thank to you, my readers and specially to you all who commented on my posts.

Second, let me list where am I with my reading (and thinking) now. I just finished Jaron Lanier's great book „You are not a gadget”. On the surface, he could be classified as Web2.0 pessimist, but in fact he is not. He is a true and deep thinker, and I still hope to write the review. To explore the fundamentals deeper, I now started reading James Surowicki'sWisdom of Crowds” - the classic book in the dialog between those who believe in the collective wisdom and those who seems to oppose it.

So, thematically, I returned to the circles where I started from - my blog adventure started when I found the blog of David Weinberger — incorrigible Web optimist !

Third, let me tell you about the virtual stockpile of my books-to-read, or books I started and could not finish yet. On top is still Iain Banks „Use of Weapons” (second reading), whom I hope to meet in Edinburgh on coming Thursday, then comes „The Emperor of Lies” by Steve Sem-Sandberg (specifically close to my heart as it is the book about my hometown - Lodz's Ghetto). There is also „All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age” by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Kelly , and ... many others...


Friday, August 08, 2008

The New Paradigm for Financial Markets - conclusions

The book itself is not very long, so I could finish it while coming back from Paris.
In the later part of the book Soros elaborates on his theory of reflexivity and how it helps in the understanding of the current financial crisis. The theory replaces traditional "equilibrium" theories that laid ground to strong market fundamentalisms - that claim that market are always right. He proves that sometimes they are not.....
The book concludes with interesting suggestions, addressed particularly toward market regulators. One of his propositions says that regulators should care more about credit expansions and not just about monetary face of financial system.

The book is great - a year ago I read Alchemy of Finance, but for me it was more technical, so I even did not dare to post a review here. The "New Paradigm" is different. It is intriguing and breathtaking.....

Last but not least - it's nice to hear Soros talking about the ideas and about the size of the crisis.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june08/soros_05-13.html

The Tragedy of Ideas: How intellectuals lead history astray ...

It is often assumed that philosophical, psychological, sociological, and literary works cannot be held responsible for what later unfolds in...