5 comments about Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy.

1. I love Jay Inslee and I think he is a great politician, BUT, solving the global warming climate crises ISN'T Rocket Science! It is within our grasp today. American waste twice as much energy as Europeans to achieve the same lifestyle and per-capita GDP. That's just stupid. Fixing much of this is trivial: I bought CFLs, turn off the lights when not in the room, saved 50% on my electrical bill, and applied 10% of that savings to sign up for my electrical utilities "100% green" option to make sure my electricity is coming only from solar and windmills. And I saved myself money. That ISN'T Rocket Science. Rather it is common sense -- something that has been conspicuously absent from American Politics for the last 30 years! And for God's Sake Buy A Prius!



2. The thing I like about this book is that it was a great crossover book for both my boyfriend and I. I don't follow energy issues nearly as closely as he does. I need a book that isn't too dry and keeps my interest, but provides the information I need to come up to speed on solutions to global warming and energy independence. This book accomplishes that by relaying that information through personal stories of individuals throughout the country, and contrasting their efforts with national policy. At the same time, judging from my partner's perspective, he was very happy with the book providing him with the latest on this fast moving subject and offering insights into the best investment opportunities in the clean energy space. The book also had some interesting anecdotes about interactions with politicians like Bill Clinton.
   
   The only thing that I think can be considered a down side for the book is that it could have given the status of its policy proposals in Congress. However, I do recognize that doing this could make the whole book outdated when new laws are finally passed.
   
   I think I speak for my partner and I when I say that it was inspiring. Finally, a proposed solution (or plan at least) to this problem!



3. On page 188, Rep. Inslee states: "A wind turbine's output rises exponentially with the length of its blades." Actually, the relationship is not exponential; it is polynomial. If the relationship were exponential, it would be possible to connect several sequential wind turbines to create a perpetual motion machine.
   
   Rep. Inslee's home state of Washington has a math requirement for graduating high school students. This standard clearly states that high school graduates should understand the difference between exponential and polynomial relationships. Perhaps Rep. Inslee should repeat high school math before he expounds on "solutions" for the nations energy crisis.



4. Congressman Jay Inslee puts forth his view toward a solution to fuel prices and climate change. The field is rather crowded right now for books on this topic. Inslee approaches the angle of the economy and jobs more fully than his competitors. He remains more neutral on hydrogen, nuclear, and clean coal, while encouraging wind, solar, and tidal energy.
   
   Inslee puts forth Ten Energy Enlightenments.
   
   1. Opportunity Is Best Found in Crisis
   2. Boldness Is Required - Tinkering at the Edges Didn't Put a Man on the Moon
   3. We Must Reject the Tyranny of the Present
   4. There Are No Silver Bullets
   5. Everybody Needs to Get on the Bus
   6. If Government Sets the Road Signs, the Market Will Drive
   7. Failure Is an Option
   8. Prejudices Are Best Left at the Door
   9. Clean Energy Will Be Powered by New Politics
   10. No More Free Lunches
   
   "Failure Is an Option" is one that has been forgotten. As a nation it seems that fear of risk in the short-term is setting America up for absolute failure in the long-term. Like Apollo 13, failure is a necessary part of exploration.
   
   Inslee sizes up energy situation and climate change well, and does thorough descriptions of energy alternatives - solar, wind, biofuels, clean coal, nuclear, tidal. His description of the "Four Horsemen of the Energy Apocalypse" is memorable.
   
   1. Inertia - ideas can represent change in investments, policies and behavior. Inertia wears down efforts to change the status quo.
   
   2. Special interests
   
   3. Miasma of ideology - issues are viewed through an ideological prism rather than a scientific, pragmatic one.
   
   4. Fear - we cannot adopt policies that can succeed.
   
   I would add one more. Fashion. Once ideas sit for too long the media will migrate back to other things, such as Britney, Paris or Lindsay.



5. Clean, fairly priced, non monopolized energy sources and distribution are so important for the present and future. Lots of great ideas but why name the book after a pagan deity that with a simple wikipedia search reveals more than I wanted to know about Apollo as a demonic entity and his works. If you really wanted to get the message out, pull the title and rename it with out religious conitations (unless intentional). Please stop shooting yourself, and every one else who believes strongly in this issue, in the foot and lets get on with the task at hand.

5 comments about Unstoppable: Finding Hidden Assets to Renew the Core and Fuel Profitable Growth.

1. 
   In two previously published books, Profit from the Core (2001) and then Beyond the Core (2004), Chris Zook shares what several years of extensive and intensive research revealed about "how companies fail to recognize the potential of their core business and, as a result, prematurely abandon it in pursuit of hot markets or sexy new ideas, only to realize their error - often, when it is too late." He suggests a systematic way for organizations to assess their full potential and to make certain, also, that they do not fall into "this common, and typically human, trap."
   
   In this volume, Zook draws upon an even wider and deeper wealth of research sources that include about fifty interviews, mostly of CEOs. The title is explained by the fact that he and his associates chose to study most closely those companies "that beat the odds. We also analyzed patterns of failure and estimated the odds of success offered by various paths in various situations." He goes on to observe that all of the success stories built their renewal on their "hidden assets" that had been previously been undervalued, unrecognized, and/or underutilized. "These assets were not central to the strategy of the past, but they held the key to the future. Furthermore, the older and more complex the company, the greater was the likelihood of finding promising hidden assets." In other words, many companies already "hold most of the cards for "a winning hand" but do not realize it.
   
   I highly recommend all three of Zook's books because, together, they answer three separate but related, and critically important questions:
   
   1. How to define and grow an organization's core assets? (Profit from the Core)
   2. How to expand its boundaries into new territory? (Beyond the Core)
   3. How to redefine and renew its core? (Unstoppable)
   
   No company is forever "unstoppable" but most (if not all) companies can take full advantage of the information and counsel Zook provides in this book to find correct answers to all three of these questions achieve core renewal without "leaps to distant and hot new markets, ...being the first adopter of a pioneering new strategy,...[or making] as `big bang' acquisition." In fact, unless a given organization has "beaten the odds" by sustaining profitable growth, it should first define or redefine its core assets and then grow or renew them, before committing any resources to organizational and/or territorial expansion.
   
   Zook is to be commended on the care with which he defines various terms. For example, undervalued business platforms "that might have once been secondary in importance but now have the potential to be the foundation for a new major core business"(e.g. IBM's Global Services Group). Also unexploited customer assets that tend to exist in three primary forms: "knowledge gathered as part of serving the customer but that, over time, accumulates an inherently greater value of its own...a unique position of trust of relationship with a set of customers [that gives] much more access and influence than has been recognized (e.g. American Express and Harman International). And finally, underutilized capabilities ("the most difficult hidden asset to discern but no less powerful") that result in losses of position to competitors in terms of cost, speed, logistics, design, and quality of customer service (e.g. the United States Postal Service's inability to invest as much as FedEx and UPS in system upgrades). "At the root of such competitive reversals we often find a yawning capability gap that was undetected, dismissed, or ignored."
   
   I especially appreciate Zook's skillful use of various reader-friendly devices such as check-lists that focus on key points covered within a chapter: "Seven Steps to Redefining Your Core" (pages 24-25), a "State of the Core Diagnostic" (Figure 2-3 on Page 44), "Detecting Undervalued Business Platforms" (Pages 82 and 83), "Identifying Hidden Customer Assets" (Page 115), "Defining Your Core Capabilities" (Page 140), and "Ten Principles of Core Growth and Redefinition" (Page158). These and other check-lists facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key points later.
   
   Although hidden assets are the "real key" to redefinition and capabilities are "the building blocks of renewal," and I agree with Zook that they are, it is important to keep in mind that transformation and renewal initiatives should never end. Zook asserts that "the real focus of business should be external - on competitors, shifts in technology, and customer dynamics." However, ironically, for many companies now searching for profitable growth, some "of their most challenging demons are internal" and their "most difficult foes" are often themselves. Unless they identify and then leverage the hidden assets they already have or to which they have easy access, they will either be out-of-business or acquired by another company within the next ten years.



2. In an age of ever-shortening corporate life-cycles, Chris Zook examines the way in which some companies have successfully adapted to a harsher and more investor and public conscious corporate environment by expanding, redefining and reinventing their core businesses. As the future of large successful corporate conglomerates becomes increasingly uncertain in the wake of market forces, such as private equity buyouts, hostile or activist shareholder activity and other evolving market forces, which threaten to undermine long-standing successful market strategies, some companies somehow emerge from the shark-infested waters with little resemblance of their former selves and do so with greater vitality, profitability and vigor than ever before. Never before has one author caused a reader to re-examine the strategies that have shaped the global corporate atmosphere for so many years. Companies can no longer simply search for traditional market synergies among affordable competitors, or simply aim to lower production costs or hope to engineer a new product or discover a new market. Instead, these companies will be forced to seek out lesser known `hidden assets' in order to shift their core profit structure. They will also be forced to focus and refine that core and defend it vehemently against emerging low-cost competitors who seek to steal or infringe upon their core. Companies today will be forced to take actions such as these in their aim to become unstoppable, or they will inevitably suffer the consequences which more and more companies find themselves succumbing to.



3. Chris Zook has written two previous books about paying attention to the core of your business and how to mine it for every dollar it will yield. This book talks about what to do when your core is beginning to falter. Rather than letting the rapid changing marketplace stop your company he suggests redefining your core. However, rather than leaping onto some popular bandwagon that has nothing to do with your present core, he advocates finding hidden assets within your company. He offers a process for understanding where you are in your strategic cycle, the Focus-Expand-Redefine (FER) growth cycle. Using this structure, he shows you how to know when it is time to redefine your core and the dangers of getting it wrong.
   
   Zook shows you what to look for in the way of platforms that you could promote from secondary status to become primary areas for your business. These might be technologies you acquired along with the purchase of a company, but it wasn't why you bought the company. It could be adjacent geographic areas, or markets that you could expand into without having to completely recast your company. Or it might be orphan products that you can use to exploit changing market conditions and the new opportunities they often create.
   
   I also agree with and enjoyed the author's emphasis on paying attention to the things your customers can teach you. If long term customers are leaving you they are being served by new competitors, new technologies, or are going out of business. You need to find out exactly what is happening. This also includes learning to segment your customer base as finely as possible. If you can learn to serve micro-segments of your customer base rather than having to treat them as if they were all the same kind of person, you will be able to develop those markets more fully. Your customers will also offer suggestions for improvements to your existing products and services, so pay attention. If you don't meet their needs, your competitors will. When they suggest new products to you, listen even more closely.
   
   The other place to find hidden assets are in your capacities. That is the ability your company has to execute and repeat value creating tasks at a high level of quality. You should inventory the dozens to hundreds of capacities your company has and then figure out which are the most critical. Those are your core capabilities. Are there other things you could use them for? Are there capacities that are important in supporting the core that could be recast to become core capabilities in their own right?
   
   I think this book offers some important food for thought. When you can work the FER cycle of growth you can become unstoppable, not because the old core doesn't burn out, but because you kindle and ignite a new fire to run your company's engine before it does.
   
   reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI



4. Normally the third book in a series either rehashes the prior two books, or requires that you read all three to understand the authors points. Unstoppable is unique in this regard as the book stands on its own and does not require you to read the other books.
   
   Zook talks in depth about how enterprises can find source of growth from the core of their company either by finding hidden assets, customers or capabilities. The strength of this book is its detailed discussion of each of these sources of growth from the core and extending the core. Zook also provides detailed tools to help the reader apply these ideas to their company. This is particularly unique in a book that addresses issues of growth and growth strategy.
   
   In some ways, Zook's book should be used as a companion to the book "BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY" which talks about identifying opportunities where there are no competitors. Used in combination, Blue Ocean will open up new possibilities, while Unstoppable will provide a way to execute on these opportunities and build off of your core to achieve them.
   
   The book is clearly written with detailed case studies and verbatims form actual companies going through their growth processes. This is unique for any business book and Zook's use of extensive interview comments makes the book seem real and actionable rather than academic.
   
   While Zook's book is well researched, there is a subtle and important bias in the research. Zook's results and statistics are largely based on analyzing projects that he and his company have conducted, rather than looking at the general marketplace. This is strength in that the book can talk about implementation details because they did the work. However, it is a subtle weakness in that the cases suffer from selection bias that has a tendency to color the results and conclusions. Zook's attention to detail, pragmatism, and exposing tools do compensate for this research weakness and for most it will not matter, but recognize that it is there.
   
   Overall, I would recommend this book for any executive who is looking to change their enterprise or recognize the need to do more in order to grow. This is one of the top 10 business books I have read so far this year so highly recommended.



5. This is the concluding volume in Chris Zook's trilogy on the business core. The previous two books focused on supporting, exploiting and expanding your current core, whereas this book shows what you can do when your current core falters. Zook points out the high risks of defending your core until your company dies, or of jumping to the next new thing and getting it wrong. Then he shows you how to find and exploit your hidden assets. He uses many examples to illustrate his points in a compelling way. The approach is action-oriented and he provides many good questions to ask, lists to use in working things through, and some useful charts and graphs (but not too many). We recommend this book if you are thinking of taking on such a project: It will whet your appetite and motivate your team for what you are going to do. However, before you undertake something this complex and risky, you may want to enlist somebody like Zook who has the expertise to help you.

5 comments about Microeconomic Analysis, Third Edition.

1. Varian did well at his Intermediate Microeconomic Theory book but the Microeconomic Analysis is really a scaring product.I have studied Mathematical Economics by Alpha C. Chiang and also Vairan's Intermediate Micoeconomics but still I am not able to understand This book. I wish varian could be a little sympathetic towards a great number of readers like me who are not mathematics nerds and add some more pages to the book so that he does not have to consistently skip steps ( sometimes 3 steps in a go)while explaining the theory mathematically.

   In short there is a complete book missing between Varian's Intermediate and Analysis books.
   Hope Varian reads my comments and produces an in between book for me and a lot of my weeping class fellows.




2. My graduate micro text was Mas-Colell,Whinston, and Green, and I bought Varian hoping it would help fill in some of the gaps since micro wasn't my thing. But Varian didn't help me at all. It explained the very basic content, but those aren't too bad to get from MWG. As for anything not surface level, it didn't help at all. If you're looking for help with MWG, try Kreps or Sundaram.



3. I have read three graduate level Microeconomic Thoery texts: Mas-Colell, et al. Microeconomic Theory, Varian's Microeconomic Analysis, and Krep's A Course in Microeconomic Theory.
   
   Mas-Colell is generally the most detailed, inclusive book that must be on the shelf of any serious economist. It has its weak points; however, it is the best that there is for learning the microeconomic theory. Note that this book is generally the text of choice for the first year of graduate study at most all of the top econ programs.
   
   The math requirements for getting the most out of this book are fairly heavy. With out a good math for economists course, this book is very difficult to use.
   
   Kreps book takes on more of the game theory approach. This is very interesting for the game/decision theorist, and is a highly recommended in addition to Mas-Colell for those with these interests.
   
   Varian is often used in masters degree level graduate programs, non-econ graduate programs, and lower-level econ phd programs.
   
   It is not as intense as Mas-Colell. However, it is often very helpful in its own right. For students who are using Mas-Colell in their courses, but are struggling to grasp all of the concepts, Varian presents the information in a more "user-friendly" way. He spends more time explaining the concepts using english rather than math, which can be very helpful to someone just starting out.
   
   At Cornell, Varian was helpful during the first semester of my microeconomic theory course, but provided virtually no help after that.
   
   Additionally, I found the practice problems and examples in Varian very helpful when studying for exams.
   
   In summary, all serious economists usually have Mas-Colell. Other than that, choose your additional books based on your needs and interests.



4. Great book if you want to learn Micro. Don't expect any pretty pictures or intersting inserts, though.



5. Hal Varian's MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS is a widely used textbook for graduate studies in economics. I recall it being the standard reference guide for my first year microeconomic classes in graduate school. The chapters are presented clearly and coherently for the reader to follow and to comprehend without missing the key concepts. The book emphasizes quantitative analysis and assumes that the student using the text has a sufficient background in quantitative methods to be able to understand the applications of microeconomic theory. Without having this background, one would probably be at a disadvantage in trying to decipher the material presented in each chapter.
   
   Varian's approach is reader friendly and makes numerous references to the the continuously dynamic world of economics. The math applications are quite practical and provide for a useful learning tool to understand the quantitative aspects of microeconomic theory. It is not surprising that the most of the top graduate economic programs require this text for their first year graduate microeconomic classes. This book is a valuable foundation for more advanced graduate economic training, where both quantitative analysis and critical thinking are necessary to formulate viable research projects and to write substantive policy analyses.

5 comments about Economics of Strategy.

1. Actually, this book is used as a text book in Competitive Strategy courses at U. of Chicago. Kudos to Dr. Besanko for writing such an interesting well-grounded book. Kellogg may not appreciate his writing and use this book and his other book as textbook, however, here at U. of Chicago, we do.
   
   I have enjoyed reading this book and his other book of Economics.



2. I teach strategic management to undergraduates at an Australian university and have used the 2nd and 3rd editions of this book in the past three years to supplement the theory from our prescribed texts. It is heavy going in some places for the students but I like the book's rigour. The only criticism I have is that the 4th edition I just received has some minor errors. For example, pages 20-21 in the "Economic Profit versus Acccounting Profit" section has errors in the figures quoted for economic profit for McDonalds and Starbucks. I think this has occured because the 3rd edition figures have been carried over to the 4th edition without a proper proof-reading. Another minor mistake is that Table 10.2 (page 329) should read "Five-Forces Analysis of the Commercial Aciation Industry" and not "Five-Forces Analysis of the Chicago Hospital Market". Sorry to be pedantic but I guess these things can detract from the perceived quality of an otherwise top-quality text. Please note I will be buying your next edition in a couple of years. Cheers from "DownUnder Australia!"



3. The reviewer L. Skoufa is correct; there's an error on pages 20-21 of the first printing of this text. We're fixing it in subsequent printings. Sorry for the mistake, and thanks for pointing it out. The paragraph should read as follows:
   
   As discussed earlier, an important cost excluded from a firm's
   accounting costs is the opportunity cost of its capital assets, such
   as its plant and equipment. When a firm's accounting earnings do not
   cover this opportunity cost, the firm will earn a positive accounting
   profit but a negative economic profit. For example, in 2002
   McDonald's had a positive accounting income of more than $2 billion,
   but it had a negative economic profit of $124 million. (Table
   P.3. shows McDonald's economic profit, and that for other selected
   food and beverage chains, between 1997 and 2004.) What does this
   negative $124 million mean? Just as with the owner of our software
   firm, a negative accounting profit indicates that McDonald's assets,
   when liquidated and deployed elsewhere, would have earned $124 million
   more in income for its owners than McDonald's earned in 2002. In this
   sense, in 2002 McDonald's "destroyed" $124 million of its owners'
   wealth because its owners could have earned $124 million more that
   year by deploying the funds they had invested in Starbucks in their
   best alternative use. Not all firms, of course, make a negative
   economic profit. In 2004, Starbucks earned an accounting profit of
   slightly over $390 million and a positive economic profit of $151
   million. This positive econoimc profit means Starbucks created $151
   million more in income for its owners than its sources would have
   created for themselves if they liquidated Starbucks assets and
   invested them in their best alternative use. In this sense,
   Starbucks "created" an additional $151 million in wealth for its
   owners that they could not have gotten elsewhere.



4. This was the text used in a graduate Economic Strategy course I took. The text provides a decent overview of economic strategy and is only slightly more advanced than what I learned as an undergraduate. The math involved was elementary.
   
   The text attempts to cover a very broad range of topics and does not go into any single topic very deeply. For example, only 3-4 pages are used to cover Game Theory; pricing is another area that's covered at a very high level, with not much at all about price optimization, an area growing in importance in industry.
   
   I did think Porter's Five Forces were covered sufficiently, and the watch-outs of such an approach were reviewed which is important in a class where the students were asked to test many of the topics empirically.
   
   In all, a good text to provide a broad overview of many sub-topics, but don't count on it for a rigorous review.



5. This is an excellent MBA first book through strategy. It covers not only the classic facts on competition, markets and so forth but also the economics of gambling, acquisitions and marketing strategy.
   
   It is ever full of examples, and very easy to read.
   
   It is used in most of the best MBA courses in US.

1 comments about Schaum's Outline of Microeconomics, 4th edition (Schaum's Outline Series).

1. I used this book to study for the Microeconomics CLEP test. It was a great study guide and I passed the test with no problem despite having no background in micro econ.

1 comments about Microeconomics (MyEconLab Series).

1. This is a really good book if you want to learn the basics of micro economics. The topics are split up nicely into sections, the definitions are clear and concise, and the material is backed up with plenty of graphs and diagrams.
   
   The reason this book only gets 3 stars:
   
   1) It's expensive for a paperback. After being hauled around in my backpack for a semester, some of the pages started falling out. Good luck selling this book after the bindings go out.
   
   2) The supplemental MyEconLab, the only testing and quizzing portion, has problems. It only works in Internet Explorer when you install the necessary plugins. Tough luck for those of us who use Linux and/or Firefox.
   
   On top of that, MyEconLab is finicky. Many of the graphing problems will be counted wrong if you graph a line one unit too long, even though it is still a correct solution. At other times, a missing negative sign or a rounding error will lose you credit on the entire, multi-part question. Sometimes, MyEconLab will count an answer wrong for no reason. Pearson Education has supposedly been fixing the bugs so they may or may not be a problem anymore.
   
   My final gripe with MyEconLab is that if you buy the book used, you have to shell out more cash to gain access to the online supplement.
   
   Overall, if you want a good textbook to learn micro economics, this book is not bad. You can probably find books with similar information and a hard cover for about the same price. As long as you buy it used and don't use the online portion, I recommend this book. If you are counting on using MyEconLab, you may be in for a disappointment.

5 comments about Microeconomics the Easy Way.

1. I bought this book to study of the CLEP exam. I have never had an economics class nor did I read any other study guides and I passed with a 74 out of 80 (you only need 50 points to pass). So I would say this taught me the fundamentals of economics. It was very dry at first, but then it got better as I started understanding the material better. The last chapter review questions were funny.
   Some people overated it a bit, but it really is a good book. Not an extremely easy book, but very understandable.



2. I bought this book as a refresher. The author goes through the material very quickly. His writing isn't very clear and I'm frustrated by the format of the book -- too much text, not enough examples or summaries. I'm sticking to my old college textbook.



3. The author really breaks down the basic concepts and principals of economics so that it is easy to follow. In addition to being able to effectively explain and convey concepts the author is very humorous and witty and the book does not read like so many boring textbooks. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn the basics of economics.



4. The basics are all there, but the book gets heavily into the equations of economics, which can leave you feeling a bit overwhelmed. This is a good starter book for those interested in pursuing a career in economics.



5. This book is an amazingly helpful book for those of us who may be preparing to, or are currently in an economics class. Although it is probably one of the more amusing and easier read microeconomics texts I have read it did get rather confusing in some chapters. For example, elasticity in the market. I'm still confused by it, I had to use wikipedia to get a better grasp on that one. But I do commend it for taking a pretty bland and dry subject matter and making it easy to understand for most of us.

2 comments about Microeconomics with MyEconLab plus eBook 1-semester Student Access Kit (8th Edition) (MyEconLab Series).

1. I have never had a worse experience with a seller. This is the reason that people are told not to shop online. First of all, the seller forgot to ship my order. I contacted them and then they sent it out. The book finally arrived very late. The package was dirty and beaten up. I open up the package with dust spilling out and I don't even see a book. It's just a mess of unbinded pages of the book. What a waste! Do not trust this sellers conditions. In fact, do not buy anything from this seller.



2. This book is well written but to fully understand the concepts you should use the online addition, MyEconLab. MyEconLab has the homework solutions and more complete tutorials/problems. This wouldn't usually be a problem, but Myeconlab isn't very accessible. If you buy the book new you have access to it for only 6 months, which makes this useless for referencing. If you buy a book used (which I did) you have to buy it separately. Unfortunately this process isn't easy and the company, Pearsons, was very difficult to work with. After 2 weeks of e-mailing and calling customer service I never got a useful answer how to buy just MyEconLab (customer service over the phone said I couldn't and would have to buy a new book). Finally my 5th e-mail from the company, directed me online where I could buy it for $30, but I had already returned my used book by that time.
   
   Also, the my econlab plugins only work on windows systems. If you are a mac user and probably a windows vista user you are out of luck.
   
   If you are planning on teaching this class, please find another book for you students. This would give them an option of not having to buy a new book and having a complete reference book that isn't dependent on something that expires very quickly. Also, most students will not have the time and patience to deal with Pearsons if they have any issues with MyEconLab.

5 comments about The Economics of Microfinance.

1. After reading "Banker to the Poor," I was interested in getting a bit more of an unbiased view of the subject of microfinance. The authors' views are clear and concise about each topic, plus they offer lots of other sources for the information. While it is obviously intended as s textbook, this book is a great way to teach yourself about the theory and empirical studies about microfinance.
   I could not have chosen a better book than this one.



2. To those that, as i am, have an Economics background and are just grasping the all immense universe that microfinance is becoming, this book opens perspectives and clears some very important issues. Issues such as the value of interest charging or the many different ways there actually are to build a microfinance initiative or the value of professional dedication to make it an effective and efficient working and sustainable intervention ... A must have!



3. This book provides a splendid overview of what economists have learned so far about micro-finance. The book requires some knowledge of economics and econometrics, but most of it can be read and understood even with just the kind of background a good econ undergraduate will have.
   
   The field is developing quickly, and so there are already several contributions which are not covered (see e.g. work that folks such as Dean Karlan and coauthors are doing), but overall the coverage is excellent for what had been done until the publication date.
   
   Those who think that micro-finance is "clearly" the way ahead, and that its history has been only a history of great successes, will find some surprises here. I do love the idea underlying micro-finance, but it turns out that some of the media hype is not supported by careful studies.
   
   Still the field deserves to be studied, and this book is a highly recommended overview, which will also give you plenty of references to deepen your knowledge and to identify area that need research.



4. Microfinance is most famous as microlending, whose most famous representative is Bangladesh's Grameen Bank. Grameen, and its founder Mohammad Yunus, won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for their aid to the poor. The idea, with which most people are probably familiar, is that the bank loans some of the world's most destitute people small amounts of money -- $100 or less, typically -- for some vital bit of capital. Borrowers might use the money to buy a sewing machine, for instance, which they can then use to produce far more clothing than they had produced by hand. Grameen's default rate has been remarkably low -- "the poor always pay back", to use the phrase from Grameen II.
   
   The economic logic here is actually revealing as a study of what's unspoken in economic logic, hence how misleading economic postulates are. "All else being equal" (such a magical phrase), the first bit of capital that I get will yield more benefits to me than the second bit. Assuming I'm rational, I will spend the first money I get on more-productive capital, then spend subsequent bits on less productive capital. That is, the marginal returns to capital are decreasing (or at least nonincreasing). Hence, if I'm a rational bank and all else is equal, I should be more willing to lend to the poor than to the wealthy: I'll get a greater return from lending that little bit of capital.
   
   Needless to say, that's not how it works: Citibank is in no rush to lend to Bangladeshi farmers. Why not? Obviously it's because all else is not equal. Among many other things, Citibank relies on the vast infrastructure provided by advanced capitalist economies: before they loan to me, they check with credit-reporting agencies that have a special competence validating people's reputations. Those credit-reporting agencies can follow me around because I was born with a number, namely a Social Security Number, which I can't escape from without some work. Hence the infrastructure beneath me makes it hard for me to default on a loan without other banks noticing. This infrastructure is missing from Bangladesh. Consequently, the cost of gathering all the necessary information about a loan applicant is much higher -- transaction costs per dollar of loan are astronomical if the loans are administered in the way that Citibank specializes in.
   
   Grameen handles this in a novel way, for which they're justly famous. It's called "group lending": in Classic Grameen, they loan to groups of five people. If any one of the applicants defaults, the others are forbidden from ever receiving loans again. The informational burden is transferred from the bank onto the applicants.
   
   Can't those five people conspire to default on loans together? Yes, they surely can, and here we run into another difficulty of the classic economic picture. If they cut and run on a loan, they could run to another microlender and get another loan -- and so on for as long as they want, so long as the microlenders don't share information. The more microlenders that service a given area, the more challenging this problem becomes. So competition actually works against microlenders here, by making collusion possible. To solve this problem, microlenders need a set of institutions that make validating reputations less costly. Credit-reporting agencies would help, as would the whole arsenal of Western identity policies. Which isn't to say that those are the only systems that will solve microlenders' problems, by any means; just as group lending is a novel approach to the developing world's specific problems, so we might expect them to land on different solutions to the reputation problem.
   
   The Economics of Microfinance is filled with interesting discoveries like this. It starts with a less-developed form of microlending, namely the Rotating Savings and Credit Association, evolves through group lending, and discusses where Grameen and its ilk (BRAC et al.) are today. Most interesting for me was microsaving, as opposed to microlending. The poor often need savings accounts more than they need loans. Indeed, they are willing to receive negative interest rates on their money, just to ensure that the money stays in a safe place. Armendáriz and Morduch give a remarkable example: in certain rural villages, savings collectors will offer to take money out of the villagers' hands, hold it for a time, take a fee, and return the now-smaller pile of money. Presumably this negative interest rate is less negative than the alternative, namely theft or neighbors begging for a loan. Microsaving is most often used to keep money away from husbands, according to Armendáriz and Morduch. Indeed, microfinance generally is most associated with rural women; they constitute an overwhelming percentage of Grameen's (and other microbanks') client base.
   
   By the end of the book, however, it's not clear that anyone can quantify the value of microfinance programs. Would those who participate in microfinance have done just as well without it? To gauge the actual impact of microfinance, one needs to answer that sort of counterfactual -- which is, for obvious reasons, difficult if not impossible. There's also a problem of what we're modeling: if we're trying to quantify, say, small-business growth before and after the introduction of a microfinance program, that's one thing, and is relatively easy to answer. If we're trying to measure empowerment of women, that's quite another, and it's not at all clear that we even know how to start measuring that. Should we measure it, for instance, by the rate of reported domestic violence? Empowerment may increase reporting rates. It may also cause a shift in the balance of power at home, which may increase violence.
   
   The difficulties are manifest, as Armendáriz and Morduch are well aware. The great virtue of this book is that it doesn't shy away from pointing out areas of ignorance and future challenges. Anyone interested in how microfinance actually works -- and how one would actually measure its success -- cannot avoid reading this book.



5. It is well-written in a way that it present the materials clearly in words and in mathematical formula. If you don't have much apetite for quant, you can still skip those formula and won't get lost in between chapters.
   
   The questions raised at the end of the chapter is inspiring. It really let you think beyond what you've just read.

5 comments about The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History.

1. this was one of the most captivating books I have ever read. Mr. Fischer tells the story of western history in a completely new and fascinating way; he tells the story of modern western history in the language of price fluctuations and inflation. I found this to be fresh way of looking at the live of people from our past.
   
   Mr. Fischer is not only a thourough researcher, but a good storyteller as well.
   
   I did not, however, agree with some of his opinions of modern economic theory, but respect his work and enjoys his writings.



2. DHF outlines the various collapses of currenices (manifested in price increases) over the past 1,000 years or so. Since the introduction of specie and the idea of intermediate value, there have been wild swings in their percieved values. This is a view of relatively "modern" usage of money and other intermediate specie.
   
   The over-arching concept is that these debasements take place over long swings of time, and create their own economic externalities.
   
   You can argue about DHF's validity with respect to economic theory, but as a great trader said, "If Jesus invested US$0.02 at 3%, he would now have all the money in the world" i.e. no "currency" last forever. There is nothing inherently more sound about the current system - if confidence is eroded through debasement (and it always is), then the system eventually collapses over a long period.
   
   The Roman denari took 500 years to lose 99% of its original value, the US$, Yen etc took 100 years. So where do we go from here?



3. Economics is a sub-set of history, with exactly the predictive power of other forms of historiography, no more no less. When economics is morphed into an operating ideology, societies suffer. David Hackett Fischer is a historian, one of the most consistently interesting historians of the American Colonial and early Federal periods, and one of the few historians these days willing to stick his neck out and venture big hypotheses in answer to big questions. "The Great Wave" is such a risk-taking book, an attempt to correlate 'waves' in prices of basic necessities with huge social upheavals. Academic economists, and simple readers familiar with notions of economic cycles such as Kondratieff waves, have tended to treat this book with skepticism and disdain. Full-time historians likewise have looked askance at even the attempt to write such an out-sized study of virtually everything. I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that the general reading public, as reflected in amazon reviews, finds The Great Wave to be a worthwhile and thought-provoking book.
   
   Fischer maintains that there have been four great waves of inflation, in the thirteenth, sixteenth, eightteenth, and twentieth centuries. The four waves "shared many qualities... All had the same movements of prices and price-relatives, falling real wages, rising returns to capital, and growing gaps between the rich and the poor. Each... developed increasing instability, and ended in a shattering crisis that combined social disorder, political upheaval, economic collapse, and demographic contraction." Well, friends, you'll have to read the book to find out where we are surfing on the fourth wave.
   
   Unlike some reviewers, I find Fischer's writing style cumbersome and repetitious, and certainly NOT the main attraction of his work. Rather it's a lot like skiing through wet sticky slush when you expected to be telemarking. But long uncomfortable journeys often make the best tales, and difficult books often leave the best afterthoughts. The Great Wave is such a book. (Note that used hardcovers are available for very modest prices.)



4. Almost every day reading the news headlines in 2007-2008, I see more confirmation of the Hackett Fisher's thesis. Runaway inflation led by energy prices, profiteering and hoarding of commodities, increasing gap between rich and poor, rising crime rates. These have all been seen in each great wave, each price revolution.
   
   We're at the culmination of the fourth such wave in the last 800 years. Chaos, severe social dislocation, and war followed the previous three instances. Can we beat the odds this time?



5. Well written and detailed analysis of a recurring pattern the author has identified across the last 6 centuries. The book is quite thick, but most of it are bibliographical and reference notes (very detailed) and a lot of charts, so reading is easy and smooth.
   The theory is well presented and clear to understand. Of course the conclusion cannot be definitive, as we are in the midst of the pattern and as usual patterns are easily recognizable only once they're complete. But the author does a good work of presenting the recurring and probable elements that would help identify what phase of the cycle (or wave) we are currently into. Please bear in mind that secular trends play out over many years although our consciousness tends to be stricken by shorter term events.
   In any case, a very relevant book for current times...