Finance and Philosophy: Why We're Always Surprised

by Alex J. Pollock

Overview

"Pollock tells us all we need to know about money and banking, risk and uncertainty, debt and temptation, and science and economics. He delights as he instructs.”—James Grant, founder and editor, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer

Finance and Philosophy provides a concise and witty account of how bankers and financial regulators think, of the alleged causes of the cycles of booms and busts, of the implicit and often un-thought-out assumptions shaping retirement finance, fiat money, corporate governance. Pollock deftly shows how poorly bankers have measured the risk their banks have been exposed to. With candor and clarity, he uncovers the persistent and unavoidable uncertainty inherent in the business of banking. We learn that a banker’s confidence in his ability to measure banking risk accurately is the lure which has repeatedly led to bank failures. Pollock has a modest and compelling suggestion: Acknowledge the unavoidability of ignorance with respect to financial risk, and, in the light of this ignorance of the future, act moderately.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589881303
Publisher:	Dry, Paul Books, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/23/2018
Pages:	183
Sales rank:	605,548
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alex J. Pollock is a distinguished senior fellow at the R Street Institute in Washington, DC. Before joining R Street, he was a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute from 2004 to 2015, and President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago from 1991 to 2004. Mr. Pollock focuses on financial policy issues, including financial cycles, housing finance, banking systems, central banking, government-sponsored enterprises, uncertainty and risk, retirement finance, corporate governance, and financial crises with their ensuing political responses. He is the author of Boom and Bust: Financial Cycles and Human Prosperity, as well as numerous articles and Congressional testimony. Mr. Pollock is a director of CME Group; Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation; and the Great Books Foundation, where he was Chairman of the Board 2006-2014; and is a past-president of the International Union for Housing Finance. He is a graduate of Williams College, the University of Chicago, and Princeton University.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 Fundamental Uncertainty

Chapter 2 Inevitable Mistakes

Chapter 3 Bubbles and “Liquidity”

Chapter 4 Temptation

Chapter 5 Economics is Not a Science

Chapter 6 Usually a Banking Crisis Somewhere

Chapter 7 Governments’ Dilemma

Chapter 8 Remember the 1980s!

Chapter 9 The Most Dangerous Financial Institution in the World

Chapter 10 Silver, Gold and Money

Chapter 11 Faith vs. Skepticism

Chapter 12 National Governments and Debt

Chapter 13 Municipal Governments and Debt

Chapter 14 Finance and the Life Cycle

Chapter 15 Wonderful Trend and Troublesome Cycle

Chapter 16 The Cincinnatian Doctrine

Chapter 17 Philosophers vs. Philosopher-Kings

Chapter 18 Virtue and Finance

Compendium of Aphorisms

Editorial Reviews

"Why can’t human beings take the lessons of boom and bust, bubbles and crashes that are clearly described in history books—and learn from experience? That’s where Mr. Pollock’s wry humor and philosophic bent help understand the hubris that makes every generation believe that not only can it predict the markets, but control them . . . [Finance and Philosophy] should be required reading in economics classes, or before opening an investment account—and by every member of Congress."— The Washington Times

“At the height of the 2008 financial panic, Queen Elizabeth plaintively asked why nobody saw it coming. In the winning pages of Finance and Philosophy, Her Majesty can find the answer. With a lightness of touch that belies the complexity of his subject, Alex Pollock shows why the financial future is now, why it has been and always must be a closed book. A successful banker and gifted writer, Pollock tells us all we need to know about money and banking, risk and uncertainty, debt and temptation, and science and economics. He delights as he instructs.”— James Grant, founder and editor, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer

"Pollock’s observations and historical examples are compelling, and his wide-ranging discussion of banking and financial crises is not only accessible, but a pleasure to read."— Real Clear Markets

"An intellectually penetrating and thought-provoking book.”— Central Banking

“ Finance and Philosophy is a short, brilliant book . . . [Alex Pollock] knows what he is talking about. And he asks good questions.”— Law & Liberty

“Alex Pollock shows how financial jargon obscures simple realities, how very smart people are prone to spectacular financial mistakes, and how government efforts to make finance smarter and more stable have made it much worse on both scores. Drawing on Pollock’s highly successful career in banking and scholarship, Finance and Philosophy is a fount of sharp insight and high wisdom.”— Chris DeMuth, President, American Enterprise Institute, 1986–2008

“There is a lot of common sense and good home truths in the book. It should be widely read by all those in the finance market and its regulators.”— Housing Finance International

“As in all of Alex Pollock’s writings, Finance and Philosophy combines the author’s subtle but caustic wit with brilliant insights grounded in his long experience analyzing America’s financial fads and foibles. No one does a better job of pointing out the philosophical and historical fallacies underlying the portentous pronouncements by our leading economic and fiscal ‘experts’ on everything from the future of interest rates and the national debt to the tech bubble of the 1990s and the 2007–09 financial meltdown. This book needs to be read by every present and future Secretary of the Treasury and chairman of the Federal Reserve.”— Arthur Herman, author of 1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder

From the Publisher