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  • The Wisdom of Finance

  • Discovering Humanity in the World of Risk and Return
  • By: Mihir Desai
  • Narrated by: Mihir Desai
  • Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (28 ratings)
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The Wisdom of Finance cover art

The Wisdom of Finance

By: Mihir Desai
Narrated by: Mihir Desai
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Summary

Finance is shrouded in mystery for outsiders, while many insiders are uneasy with the disrepute of their profession. How can finance become more accessible and also recover its nobility?

Harvard Business School professor Mihir Desai takes up the cause of restoring humanity to finance. With deft wit, he draws upon a rich knowledge of literature, film, history, and philosophy to explain finance's inner workings.

Through this creative approach, he shows that outsiders can easily access the underlying ideas and insiders can reacquaint themselves with the core values of their profession. This combination of finance and the humanities creates unusual and illuminating pairings: Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope are guides to risk management; Jeff Koons becomes an advocate of leverage; and Mel Brooks' The Producers teaches us about fiduciary responsibility.

In Desai's vision, the principles of finance also provide answers to critical questions in our lives: bankruptcy teaches us how to react to failure, the lessons of mergers apply to marriages, and the Capital Asset Pricing Model demonstrates the true value of relationships. The Wisdom of Finance is a wholly unique book, offering an enlivening new perspective on one of the world's most complex and misunderstood professions.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2017 Mihir Desai (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc

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  • 05-02-24

Charming, but a bit. . . . . . .pointless?

Desai's appeal for a re-connection of the behind modern finance with the human, is a pleasant and eloquent treatise, based on analogies drawn from literature and parable. It's an amiable and genteel ramble through history and culture, told by a man who is clearly educated, refined and thoughtful. I enjoyed listening to it, but at the end of it, I couldn't really think what the *point* of it all was. There isn't really an actionable proposal for reforming the excesses of modern capitalism, or enough detail to be satisfying as a study of finance's role in history or cultural output.

You won't regret the six and a half hours you'll spend with this book, and you'll certainly get some food for thought. But you might also find yourself struggling to remember much of it.

The author does a competent job as his own narrator.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Magnificent and never more crucial than now

I wrote a long thread on Twitter this morning describing the impact this book has had on me. Whether you are in finance or not, this book is equally crucial. The world ahead has never been more uncertain. Do you understand this? This is not a time for fear. It is a time to respect the time and tools we have at our disposal to transform the lives of present and future generations. It is a time when empathy must be practiced with peak sophistication and mathematical logic recognised for its limitations and yes, its incredible value. After reading this, contemplating it, and discussing it, you will attain a sophistication that will make you greedier than ever, for the right things. Buy this. Listen. Think. And discuss.

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Anecdotal and disappointing

The author tries to change how people see the world of finance by casting it in a new light but fails to do this.

The book is full of anecdotal overly Christian stories that are cherry picked to fit a certain narrative. There is very little discussion on actually financial concepts.

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