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This Time Is Different

Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

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About this listen

 Throughout history, rich and poor countries alike have been lending, borrowing, crashing - and recovering - their way through an extraordinary range of financial crises. Each time, the experts have chimed, "this time is different" - claiming that the old rules of valuation no longer apply and that the new situation bears little similarity to past disasters. This book proves that premise wrong. Covering 66 countries across five continents, This Time Is Different presents a comprehensive look at the varieties of financial crises, and guides us through eight astonishing centuries of government defaults, banking panics, and inflationary spikes - from medieval currency debasements to today's subprime catastrophe. Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, leading economists whose work has been influential in the policy debate concerning the current financial crisis, provocatively argue that financial combustions are universal rites of passage for emerging and established market nations. The authors draw important lessons from history to show us how much - or how little - we have learned. Using clear, sharp analysis and comprehensive data, Reinhart and Rogoff document that financial fallouts occur in clusters and strike with surprisingly consistent frequency, duration, and ferocity. They examine the patterns of currency crashes, high and hyperinflation, and government defaults on international and domestic debts - as well as the cycles in housing and equity prices, capital flows, unemployment, and government revenues around these crises. While countries do weather their financial storms, Reinhart and Rogoff prove that short memories make it all too easy for crises to recur. This Time Is Different exposes centuries of financial missteps.©2009 Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff (P)2009 Gildan Media Corp Economic History Economics Taxation Government Banking Global Financial Crisis Capitalism Great Recession Thought-Provoking US Economy Export Economic Inequality Economic disparity Deflation Socialism Latin American Africa

Critic reviews

" This Time Is Different doesn't simply explain what went wrong in our most recent crisis. This book also provides a roadmap of how things are likely to pan out in the years to come.... This Time Is Different is an important addition to the literature of financial history." ( Wall Street Journal)
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Most relevant
The main point Reinhart and Rogoff make in this book is that high debt levels and repeated defaults are the most deterministic indicators, as far as economic indicators go, for predicting future crises. They have all the data to underline this, which constitutes most of the book. If you are already aware of the role debt plays in an economy this book might not provide you with much new information, except for a lot of data to back up that view.

Amazing research and analysis

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Be warned: this is a good book but very clearly an academic text not intended for the general reader. I get the feeling that the publishers may have rushed this out to cash in on all the post financial crisis books. It is a shame as it has a really interesting story to tell and would have benefited from a different edition - indeed book - aimed at the general reader with far less emphasis on data and statistics. (Underemployed journalists take note!). Another problem is that the book relies on sets of charts and data that can't be read out loud as they would be a nonsense. I do think the audible / publishers need to think about this a bit more, perhaps at least provide a PDF to download of the charts maybe?

However it is a good book and if I were reading the paper version it would have got a better rating!

Not for the general reader

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Tis is a really interesting, in-depth study of financial, currency and debt crises. It is possible to follow the content in an audiobook, but it is unfortunate that one can only imagine the graphs and tables that are referred to. Would it not be possible to download these as PDFs together with the audiobook?

A great Economics book, unfortunately without data

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I've got a reasonable knowledge of financial matters, but this book was very academic. To be fair, it's probably my own fault for not knowing enough about the subject matter, so I feel a bit guilty about the low score I gave it.

Very academic

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This is the first audible book I've abandoned. Although the content is quite dry I might have persevered but I had finally had enough of Sean Pratt's reading style and gave up. What's with the endless mid-sentence pauses, unsupported by the context or the book's original punctuation? It's left me wondering if he always reads like he did for this book -- I'm off to check some samples of his other work!

Very badly narrated

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