Animal Spirits

How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism

By: George A. Akerlof, Robert J. Shiller

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, "animal spirits" are driving financial events worldwide. In this book, acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess, and put forward a bold new vision that will transform economics and restore prosperity.

Akerlof and Shiller reassert the necessity of an active government role in economic policymaking by recovering the idea of animal spirits, a term John Maynard Keynes used to describe the gloom and despondence that led to the Great Depression and the changing psychology that accompanied recovery. Like Keynes, Akerlof and Shiller know that managing these animal spirits requires the steady hand of government--simply allowing markets to work won't do it. In rebuilding the case for a more robust, behaviorally informed Keynesianism, they detail the most pervasive effects of animal spirits in contemporary economic life--such as confidence, fear, bad faith, corruption, a concern for fairness, and the stories we tell ourselves about our economic fortunes--and show how Reaganomics, Thatcherism, and the rational expectations revolution failed to account for them.

Animal Spirits offers a road map for reversing the financial misfortunes besetting us today. Read it and learn how leaders can channel animal spirits--the powerful forces of human psychology that are afoot in the world economy today.

©2009 George Akerlof and Robert Shiller (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Influential

Apparently influential in the Obama administration. Good to see the basics of behavioral economics being applied to a macro-economic book. Helped me get a better sense of why I paid too much for my house, why some folks are still poor, why jobs seem harder to come by, and why the folks making economic policy often seem like dumb apes. Well written and informative. Makes a good argument for the benefits and limits of capitalism and the necessity of regulation to protect our investments and jobs.

Great reading

Good articulation. Very clear and understandable. I liked his voice fluctuations. It allows me to stay awake

A Relevant Portrayal of Behavioral Economics

If you've ever read a book on Behavioral Economics and wondered why PHd candidates spend so much time formulating theories on the obvious, this book is for you. This book is applied Behavioral Economics as it relates to the crisis of 2007 and it is a mostly brilliant work at that.

If you are a capitalist, you might want to stop at the end of Chapter 12 as the authors take off their lab coats and get up on their social apologist soap box in an inexplicable departure from an otherwise coherent book.

One nagging point that the authors might not agree with is what I percieved to be an interchangeable use of "Economies" and "Markets". That strikes me as particularly egregious in a book on behavioral econ.

Absolutely don't agree w conclusion that Animal Spirits can or should be regulated away. Still, well worth a read.

Concerned for the Narrators health

The Narrator was gasping for air after every sentence. It ruined an otherwise good book.

An Amazing Surprise

I really wasn't sure what I was getting into with this book. Some weird philosophy? Spirit world influence? Another conspiracy book?

None of the above.

Brilliant insights into the ills of our economy. Ethics? Amen.

Whatever you think this book is, it's not. Try it. You'll like it.

Chris Reich