Other Peoples Money, John Kay
Other Peoples Money, John Kay
2 Rating(s)
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Other People's Money
The Real Business of Finance

Author: John Kay

Narrator: Walter Dixon

Unabridged: 11 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 10/01/2015


Synopsis

The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to the search for new investment opportunities and the stewardship of existing ones, and far too much to secondary-market dealing in existing assets. Regulation has contributed more to the problems than the solutions.

Why? What is finance for? John Kay, with wide practical and academic experience in the world of finance, understands the operation of the financial sector better than most. He believes in good banks and effective asset managers, but good banks and effective asset managers are not what he sees.

In a dazzling and revelatory tour of the financial world as it has emerged from the wreckage of the 2008 crisis, Kay does not flinch in his criticism: we do need some of the things that Citigroup and Goldman Sachs do, but we do not need Citigroup and Goldman to do them. And many of the things done by Citigroup and Goldman do not need to be done at all. The finance sector needs to be reminded of its primary purpose: to manage other people’s money for the benefit of businesses and households. It is an aberration when the some of the finest mathematical and scientific minds are tasked with devising algorithms for the sole purpose of exploiting the weakness of other algorithms for computerized trading in securities. To travel further down that road leads to ruin.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Athan

I never thought I’d say this about John Kay, but he needs to stop writing. He’s no longer current. He’s unnecessarily running the risk of destroying what is a tremendous legacy of contribution. His heart is 100% in the right place. His grasp of the principles is as strong as ever. There are tons of id......more

Goodreads review by Peter

John Kay is a British economist who once taught economics at Oxford and is now a professor at the London Business School and an editorial contributor to the Financial Times. His 2015 book Other People’s Money should be added to the long and sagging bookshelf on how the nature of the financial servic......more

Goodreads review by Marrije

Fantastically angry and informative dissection of how financialisation ruined the economy, and what is to be done. It went a bit over my head at times (this stuff is pretty complicated), but sticking with it paid off. Kay's very British sense of humour also helped.......more

Goodreads review by Meghan

This was a slog for me. I don't think I picked up much that I didn't already know. But I didn't disagree with anything Kay wrote. I think it's an important message and I'd recommend it to anyone trying to learn more about the topic, so I can't bear to give it anything less than a three. It's just ov......more