The Economics of the Stock Market

By: Andrew Smithers

Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman

The current consensus economic model, the neoclassical synthesis, depends on aprioristic assumptions that are shown to be invalid when tested against the data and fails to include finance. Economic policy based on this consensus has led to the financial crisis of 2008, the "Great Recession" that followed, and the slow subsequent rate of growth. In The Economics of the Stock Market, Andrew Smithers proposes a model that is robust when tested, and by including the impact of the stock market on the economy, overcomes both these defects.

The faults of the current consensus model are shown to result typically from an unscientific methodology in which assumptions are held to be valid despite their incompatibility with data evidence. Smithers demonstrates examples of these faults: the assumption that leverage does not affect the value of produced capital assets; the assumption that short-term and long-term interest rates, and the cost of equity capital, are codetermined; and the assumption that the decisions of corporate managements aim to maximize the present value of corporate assets rather than the value determined by the stock market. The Economics of the Stock Market proposes a model that includes and explains the stationarity of real returns on equity, based on the interaction of the differing utility preferences of the managers of companies and the owners of financial capital.

©2022 Andrew Smithers; Foreword copyright 2022 by Andy Haldane (P)2023 Ascent Audio

Needs accompanying PDF

Nearly worthless without the accompanying PDF to show the figures the author mentions to support his theories.

Halfway finished

Riveting content and the Narrator is proper. Well worth the price of admission.

Smithers supplant's stale models/interpretations that merit re-reading this eloquent audiobook a second or third time.