Central Banking in Theory and Practice (Lionel Robbins Lectures)

Book Description

Alan S. Blinder offers the dual perspective of a leading academic macroeconomist who served a stint as Vice-Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board--one who practiced what he had long preached and then returned to academia to write about it. He tells central bankers how they might better incorporate academic knowledge and thinking into the conduct of monetary policy, and he tells scholars how they might reorient their research to be more attuned to reality and thus more useful to central bankers.

Based on the 1996 Lionel Robbins Lectures, this readable book deals succinctly, in a nontechnical manner, with a wide variety of issues in monetary policy. The book also includes the author's suggested solution to an age-old problem in monetary theory: what it means for monetary policy to be "neutral."

Customer Reviews:

the Master Economist at his Finest.......2007-04-18

Mr R. S. Ritterman (San Mateo, CA) beat me to it... I had logged on to describe just how clear and understandable (not to mention brilliant and profound) this book is. Case in point: instead of simply telling us in words how central bankers evaluate their objectives before making policy decisions, Mr Blinder uses beautifully contructed clever-clogs math to make his point concise. Greenspan gets all the credit, but I assure you it was Blinder who was the real brains behind the operation. I thought about deducting one star because they didn't get the fed funds rate right - by his own admission - in 1990, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Students of philosophy will be talking about this gem for hundreds of years.

Verdict: Add to Cart!

Well Done.......2000-08-04

After having taken Macroeconomic Theory, Alan Blinder's book was extremely clear and understandable. His comments about Central Banking behavior make wonderful sense as he takes into account both academic and real world theaters. He was especially clairvoyant in his reasoning about why a Central Bank needs to establish credibility. A definite recommendation for those interested in the Federal Reserve and what they do.

Sensible.......2000-01-13

Nothing fancy, but a good testimony from a real central banker about how real central banking has been carried out in recent US history. It is much less glamorous than all the theories, models and arguments would have it. Logical, sensible and even-tempered, like a central banker. A small book easily read in an evening that brings a lot down to earth. Only four stars because nothing this reasonable deserves five.

Safeguarding Financial Stability: Theory And Practice

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Safeguarding Financial Stability: Theory And Practice
Garry J. Schinasi
Manufacturer: International Monetary Fund
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Banks & Banking | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1589064402

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Cambridge studies in economic history
E. Victor Morgan
Manufacturer: The University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Banks & Banking | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Central Banking in Theory and Practice: A Small State Perspective (Monograph (Special Studies) Series, Number 26)

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Central Banking in Theory and Practice: A Small State Perspective (Monograph (Special Studies) Series, Number 26)

Manufacturer: Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 9766201013

Product Description

A collection of fifteen essays by Courtney Blackman. He has been an economist, associate Professor of Management at Hofstra University, and ambassor to the United Nations. He served three terms as founding governor of the Central BAnk of Barbados and was Barbados' alternate Governor to the IMF.

Central Banking, Monetary Theory And Practice: Essays In Honour Of Charles Goodhart

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Central Banking, Monetary Theory And Practice: Essays In Honour Of Charles Goodhart

Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Money & Monetary Policy | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Banks & Banking | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Commenting on the quality of the contributors when opening the conference on which these books are based, the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Edward George, said "I cannot remember ever before having had such a galaxy of academic economist and central banking superstars gathered together under one roof!''

Celebrating the contribution that Charles Goodhart has made to monetary economics and policy, this unique compendium of original papers draws together a highly respected group of international academics, central bankers and financial market regulators covering a broad range of issues in modern monetary economics. Topics discussed include:

• central bank independence
• credibility and transparency
• the inflation forecast and the loss function
• monetary policy experiences in the US and the UK
• the implications of Goodhart's Law
• the benefits of single versus multiple currencies
• money, near monies and credit.

Each chapter of the volume relates to subjects that have been research projects in Charles Goodhart's wide-ranging portfolio, and all are interconnected. Through these, the book offers a summary of current thinking and insights into monetary controversies.

Covering recent scholarship on monetary theory, central banking, financial regulation and international finance, academic and professional economists alike will find this book an invaluable source of information.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Finance & Development, published by International Monetary Fund on December 1, 2000. The length of the article is 739 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Central Banking in Theory and Practice.(Review) (book review)
Author: Simon Cueva
Publication: Finance & Development (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2000
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Volume: 37 Issue: 4 Page: 63

Article Type: Book Review

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Central Banking in Theory and Practice
Alan S. (Author) Blinder
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQW0GC

Book Description

Spiritual Capital presents a new vision of capitalist society that transcends the greed, materialism, and meaninglessness so rampant today. It offers an idea of wealth, profit, and capital that's about more than simply money. "Profit," under this system, would be not merely for private gain but would be used in part for public good. "Wealth" would be that which enriches the deeper aspects of our lives, gained by drawing upon our most fundamental purposes and highest motivations and finding a way to embed these in our work. "Capital" is amassed by serving - in corporate philosophy and practice - the pressing concerns of our world. The author's dream of getting a critical mass of people and organizations to act for what's right rather than for self-serving reasons. Ideally, spiritual capital would reflect a values-based business culture. Instead of emphasizing shareholder value, it would promote "stakeholder value," where stakeholders include the whole human race and the planet itself.

Customer Reviews:

A Wealth of Good Ideas.......2005-09-11

This review is an adaptation of my review published in Personnel Psychology, Summer Issue, 2005.
Zohar is broadly trained and thus taps into diverse resources such as classical literature, physics, religion, and psychology. Marshall is a Jungian-oriented psychiatrist and psychotherapist. Married to each other, the authors would make, I think, engaging conversationalists at my imaginary dinner party, provided that at the table they didn't repeat from their book the following tale by Ovid.
The Greek poet's tale is about Erisychthon, pronounced Erisyathon for any name droppers, a mythological character who, because he was so greedy, was cursed to eat everything in sight including him self after all else had been consumed. He symbolizes, the authors believe, the essence of materialistic capitalism, an insatiable "monster devouring itself."
The authors' main theme is that a "critical mass" of individuals can make a positive difference. This theme seems to have been influenced by Jung's philosophy that "great transformations" in history are a summation of positive changes in individuals.
The authors argue that material capitalism, the kind that predominates in Corporate America and Wall Street, is unsustainable and thus "in a state of crisis." It's depleting our natural resources, creating political and social instability, eroding our moral standards, and degrading the very meaning of life in terms of its deepest values and aspirations. Rather than reject this conventional capitalism altogether, however, the authors advocate transforming it into a more positive, sustainable economic system that they call "spiritual capitalism" in the secular, non-religious sense.
It's defined as the amount of knowledge and expertise available about "meaning, values, and fundamental purposes." It produces not material wealth that ultimately consumes itself but a self-sustaining wealth "that enriches the deeper aspects of our lives." The authors list 12 qualities that companies "high in spiritual capital" would possess. For example, they would be "self-aware," "vision and value-led," and "compassionate" and would "have a sense of vocation."
Are there any companies high in spiritual capital? The authors don't cite any companies that possess all 12 qualities or even most of them, which is an opportunity missed because they developed a set of descriptors that could have been built into a good survey instrument.
The auhors argue that material capitalism is in a state of crisis, which they say is one of negative motivations, with the four primary ones being self assertion or competitiveness, anger, craving or greed, and fear. Most of the book, therefore, is devoted to explaining Marshall's "Scale of Motivations" and in speculating on how it, along with emotional and spiritual intelligence, can be used to raise motivation to a sufficient level among a sufficient number of business leaders to produce a "great transformation" first in their own companies and then for capitalism as a whole.
For his scale, which he has been using in his clinical practice for some 40 years, Marshall expanded Maslow's hierarchy of six needs to eight positive and eight negative motivations. The highest positive motivation is "enlightment," and the lowest negative one is "depersonalization." A person needs to be emotionally intelligent enough, the authors say, to be aware of their own motivational level. This is necessary in order to be able to raise motivations to a higher level. When two persons interact, the authors contend that if one is at a higher level on the scale, then that person can raise the level of the other person. The authors speculate that 2-5 percent of the leadership of any company need to be "knights" at Level 6 and an additional 10 percent need to be "masters" at Levels 4 and 5 in order for the company to start acquiring spiritual capital. It would be rare and impractical to expect anyone to reach the two highest levels, the authors say. This, I have just given you, is a small sample of the authors' very elaborate speculations.
There is much about this book that appeals to me. I agree with their view that the capitalism prevailing today is unsustainable and thus needs to be transformed, not totally dismantled. The authors are creative thinkers who forced me repeatedly to think outside my own relatively narrow paradigms. Some of their ideas are interesting enough to warrant further exploring their possible application throughout business. I've already mentioned the missed opportunity. Another possibility, for instance, would be to do more applied research on their measure of spiritual intelligence beyond a small pilot test that the authors conducted.
Now that I've read the book, I would like to learn more from the authors over a glass of wine and gourmet dinner.

Reconnecting our needs and business imperatives.......2005-02-23

Danah Zohar is still probably best known as an author for her 1990 book The Quantum Self. She is also very well-known as a speaker and is one of the select group of people who has driven forward our understanding of ourselves, our organizations and our society as complex adaptive systems. With her holistic view of the world, she is very sensitive to the connections or failures of connection that have such an impact on society and the lives of individuals. This book has as its primary focus the disconnection between the deepest needs and aspirations of humans and acceptance of the single-minded pursuit of profit as the sole imperative on business other than staying within the law.

She argues that maintenance of this disconnect is ultimately unsustainable both for society and for business. She sets out to show why, and how it is possible to move toward sustainability by accepting the creation of 'spiritual capital' as a parallel goal with building material capital.

The basic concepts on which the book rests include:

People, society and business form a system made up of interconnected sub-systems. For such a system to be sustainable requires that the elements cooperate in producing a balanced environment that nourishes the whole. They are holistic ... self-organizing, and exploratory.

Sustainable capitalism and a sustainable society depend on recognition and nurture of higher motivations:
* We need a sense of meaning and values and a sense of fundamental purpose (spiritual intelligence) in order to build the wealth that these can generate (spiritual capital).
* People, organizations and cultures that have spiritual capital will be more sustainable because they will have developed qualities that include wider, values-based vision, global concern and compassion, long-term thinking, spontaneity (and hence flexibility), an ability to act from their own deepest convictions, an ability to thrive on diversity, and an ability to learn from and make positive use of adversity.

She identifies three forms of wealth and three kinds of associated intelligence:

* Material capital, associated with thinking and rational intelligence, the wealth expressed in money;

* Social capital, associated with feeling and emotional intelligence, the wealth that makes our communities and organizations function effectively for the common good;

* Spiritual capital, associated with being and spiritual intelligence, the wealth contained in our shared meanings, values and ultimate purposes.

Much of the book is concerned with identifying the states of being in which a person or an organization can find itself and the principles required for transformation to a state in which higher values can be met and higher needs satisfied and the system remains sustainable. The principles are based on observation of the behavior of (non-human) complex adaptive systems plus principles for human sustainability taken from spiritual thought through the ages.

The qualities that the author identifies as central to a sustainable organization will be familiar to most readers - self aware, vision and value led, holistic, celebrating diversity and similar qualities. She argues that these are the qualities necessary to maintain a system in the dynamic but self-sustaining state we describe as a complex adaptive system - neither stuck in steady-state inflexibility nor falling over the edge into chaos.

Maintenance of this state requires particular behaviors on the part of enough individuals acting as leaders to induce the organization as a whole to behave in that way. Her belief is that, in spite of the system pressures (such as those from the financial markets) to behave otherwise, a sufficient minority of aware people can bring about the necessary changes.

Presented charge for people to make a difference.......2004-08-08

The collaboration of Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, Spiritual Capital: Wealth We Can Live By offers a highly critical view of the business and ethical practices of capitalism as it is practiced today, with its amorality vested in short-term self-interest, reaping profits, obsession with shareholder value, isolationist thinking, and reckless disregard of long-term consquences. Arguing for the need for a radical new philosophy for corporate governance that adjusts the meaning and purpose of wealth creation, and using the principles of "spiritual capital" and "spiritual intelligence" to define the needs of humanity and human government, Spiritual Capital is a passionately presented charge for people to make a difference

Book Description

Aiming to improve work efficiency in such areas as tillage in agriculture, earth-moving in civil engineering, and tunnel-making in sea-bed operations, this work offers an introduction to Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis of soil-machine systems. It explains the advantage of FEM's numerical approach over traditional analytical and empirical methods of dealing with complex factors from nonlinear mechanical behaviour to geometric configurations.

Testing and constitutive modelling for interface behavior in dynamic soil-structure interaction

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Testing and constitutive modelling for interface behavior in dynamic soil-structure interaction
E. C Drumm
Manufacturer: Dept. of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of Arizona
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

Cognitive behaviour therapy is now established as the leading psychological treatment for many psychiatric conditions. This innovative book gives a guide to practising the therapy with patients suffering from a wide range of emotional disorders. Unlike other handbooks which extensively review research findings, this concentrates on showing the reader how to perform the therapy in practice. Acknowledged experts in the practice, teaching, and empirical investigation of cognitive behaviour therapy contribute to the book. It provides a summary of the cognitive behavioural principles on which the therapy is based, followed by a detailed account of how to carry out a cognitive-behavioural assessment. Subsequent chapters provide self-contained descriptions of how to use the therapy to treat particular conditions: panic and generalized anxiety, phobic disorders, depression, obsessional disorders, somatic problems, eating disorders, chronic psychiatric handicaps, marital problems, and sexual dysfunctions. A final chapter provides a description of problem-solving training. Each chapter describes the condition, assessment procedures, factors likely to be important in formulating the problem, and then the treatment, step-by-step. Particular attention is paid to overcoming difficulties encountered during treatment, and extensive use is made of clinical material and case illustrations. This is an excellent guide to the practice of cognitive behaviour therapy for all those beginning to use the technique.

Customer Reviews:

Book review.......2007-03-10

I have borrowed this book from collegues and found it emmensley useful and felt I needed my own copy to aid my practice

Knowlege is Power.......2000-07-11

This particular work is flowing with useable and believable knowlege! You don't have to be a rocket-scientist to comprehend it, but you must have a passion for the deep. This book takes you on a mind-boggling trail as you see how your reactions are all linked to a substantiated incident. Take for instance the bell theory that is mentioned in the very first paragraph. Your mind is triggerd and tricked so easily! I highly recommend this work in its entirity. It soaks into your thought pattern!

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Psychiatric Problems: A Practical Guide

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Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Psychiatric Problems: A Practical Guide
Keith Hawton
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJR31Q

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Psychiatric Problems: a Practical Guide (Oxford Medical Publications)

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Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Psychiatric Problems: a Practical Guide (Oxford Medical Publications)
Editor-Keith Hawton; Editor-Paul. M. Salkovskis; Editor-Joan Kirk; Editor-David M. Clark
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KHFAQ2

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