1 comments about Debt Defaults and Lessons from a Decade of Crises.

1. You, Amazon, didn't keep the delivery day(20-march).
   
   Your service disappointed me.
   
   

1 comments about Public Finance and Public Choice: Two Contrasting Visions of the State (CESifo Book Series).

1. I had high hopes for this book; the transcript of a symposium featuring a back-and-forth dialogue of sorts by two leading thinkers in the area of public choice and finance would seem ideal, and as an introduction to the field, it was quite good. Where it fell short is in offering an analysis of the ideas on which the differences between the participants' views lay. Rather, one tended to offer his outlook on, say, the proper redistributive function of a government, or whether brakes on power are best set at the constitutional level, and the other would offer his views. So there was very little in the way of attacking the weak points of each other's arguments directly. Put simply, Buchanan does not trust people in positions of power, while Musgrave does. Buchanan's work usually involves modeling how things work, while Musgrave looks at how he thinks things should be. But there is little exploration of the basis for, for instance, Musgrave's frequent assertions that, well, things tend to be this way and we aren't happy with that so you see we need government intervention. He just goes on, and then when it is Buchanan's turn, he goes on. And the book is rather philosophical in nature; while there is a lot of economics jargon throughout, the overall level is general. It all just seemed a bit too civil. A good enough book, but perhaps a subscription to Critical Review would be a better place to look for more penetrating discussions of the topics at hand.

1 comments about IPO and Equity Offerings (Securities Institute Global Capital Markets).

1. I wanted to learn in detail about the process of the IPOs and secondary public offerings. This book gave me pretty much everything I wanted to know and then some. I found it to be easy to read and engaging. It was just a great, eye-opening book. It's totally up to date even though some research findings are a bit dated because things don't really change that much in the IPO world.
   
   The book is international in scope, and should satisfy those interested in US-only, international-only, or a combination IPOs.
   
   You will learn some things that you probably didn't even now existed. Did you know banks allocate part of their fees to stabilazation, which means they will buy shares when the market opens in case there is a downward pressure on the stock. They are allowed to stabilize the price for 30 days.
   
   Also, did you know that the difference between IPO price and the opening price is risk premium? I always thought that IPOs rise so much on the first day BECAUSE they are so great. In fact, the reason for the rise is the opposite: it's because the company is considered risky by IPO investors and they will only pay enough for it to allow for a nice upside to compensate for their risk. That partially explained the huge run-ups in the first day of trading during the bubble. It's hard to admit that I had all this wrong.
   
   You will learn everything about the process from company valuation, to roadshow and marketing, to the way syndicates work and the associated politics, to the fee allocation among various managers and underwriters. You will also learn about ADRs and the way international companies chose listing on various international (US-including) stock exchanges.
   
   Overall, just a superb book for somebody who wants to completely understand the process of equity offerings. The author uses sufficient examples, but I feel that for those wanting even more detail, the author could have included more war stories and easily increased the size of the book by 50-100%. I am not sure whether that would have made it a better book, though. Right now, it's short and sweet. Easily 4.5 stars.

No comments about The Long Default: New York City and the Urban Fiscal Crisis.

4 comments about Political Economy in Macroeconomics.

1. Though politics and economics continue to be the two most influential forces in our society, the discussion relating the two is often lofty and incomprehensible to common men. Drazen eases the burden of confusion by providing distinct discussion and wonderfully elaborated points of concern. A great tool for understanding politicla economy.



2. Numerous issues concerning conflict of interest and strategic behavior are involved in political matters and economic policy decisions in particular, and in macroeconomic outcomes in general. Allan Drazen presents the most complete analysis of the literature concerning these issues, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective. I think this book is the Blanchard and Fischer's of Political Economy. Superb.



3. The book covers several topics on political economics and macroeconomics including (but not limited to) inconsistency in government policies, voting, election and political cycles. The first chapters get into a better discussion of topics. But as the book proceeds, the coverage of book from each topic or model becomes brief, leaving the reader to seek the related paper in journals to understand the topic in depth. The models are simplified and normally the result follows, the book refers you for complete discussion to the papers.
   
   Another big problem with the book is lack of an introductory chapter that goes through some mathematical tools or concepts that will be used later in the book, such as game theory or "single crossing property", etc. Though these may be commonly used, but a reiteration of definitions will be useful. This book leaves you to look it up somewhere else.
   
   Though the book can be a basis for understanding political economics, I wouldn't rank that as a reference or complete book in this field. Instead I would recommend the book by Tabellini, et.al .



4. The review below ("Lacking enough depth and details") was written by a disgruntled student of mine soon after he finished my course, presumably because he was dissatisfied with his grade. Take it for what you will. My view is that Persson and Tabellini's book is nicely complementary with mine (it covers different things and has a different focus). I use both in teaching, as well as a number of other books.

No comments about French Finances 1770-1795: From Business to Bureaucracy (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History).

No comments about The United States as a Debtor Nation: Risks and Policy Reform.

1 comments about Inflation-indexed Securities: Bonds, Swaps and Other Derivatives (The Wiley Finance Series).

1. wow, incredible improvement to the first edition. coverage of all important aspects (i can think of) on inflation. history, example issues, purpose of use from investor & issuer as well as technical points regarding calculation and pricings.

No comments about The Marginal Cost of Public Funds: Theory and Applications.

No comments about Principle and Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt (Jeffersonian America).