Crashes and Crises: Lessons from a History of Financial Disasters

BEST explainer out there hits a new high level

When a professor has really done his/her homework, really reached comprehension and then carefully crafted descriptions, and is gifted to begin with, things of astonishing complexity can be explained with great clarity. Such is the case here, non-stop, end to end. Are you curious about John Law's innovations and misadventures crashing the French economy circa 1720? The South Sea Bubble? The US banking system, into and including the genesis of the Fed? On and on it goes, marching right into the present, with not a word out of place. I have read, heard and seen accounts of all these things, and none has come close to this crystal clear, yet complete, yet compact, delivery. My lesson has been, in the world of financial books, often a story (probably because of the economics of book publishing, or mediocre editing) is stretched into the format of a 250-page book which can make the story less clear than it needed to be. Prof. Fullenkamp explains each segment better than many of these books, in a concise way that makes it even more understandable than the big tomes do. I could have saved myself a lot of time and money had I gone straight to this one. But it is a tremendous refresher, meanwhile surpassing the earlier accounts I have seen, or pulling each of the stories together neatly. I was a fan of Fullenkamp already, having never been disappointed by him. But he surprised me, on the upside, here. That is a high bar to start with. (Let me be clear where some raving reviewers aren't: I have no affiliation with Great Courses or this Professor, and have never met him, etc.)
Something that works great here is the very good mix between colorful stories and little tutorials, where needed, at a basic level but crystal-clear, on the nuts and bolts of the deals and financial innovations involved. These are among the best basic explanations I have heard. Learn (with very simple math that does not need video or graphics, the voice works great), the workings (and sometime misfires) of swaps, puts, VAR, convergence trades, actions of rogue traders, etc. A pattern I notice that makes the explanation crystal clear is that the good professor almost always boils everything down (in the course of the story) to its simplest possible view: if Situation A happened the trader would make money, but if Situation B happened the losses would explode -- in ways very readily understood. We see that the crash side of things comes into play most often when some sort of large one-way bet has been made, whether by a single trader or by a whole industry or sector of the economy.
Now, if audible would release Great Courses / Fullenkamp's "Understanding Investments," we could almost call it a day.

66 of 68 people found this review helpful

Entertaining read about financial follies

Entertaining description of the history of financial bubbles. The author is an academic and regulator, so he is very sympathetic of the government, who's only fault is that they sometimes get too cozy with those shysters in the private sector. He quickly brushes past any discussion of how governmental social engineering via the asset markets played a part in the real estate bubble. Too-easy monetary policy is brought up several times, but the cause of that - Congress's dual mandate that requires the Fed to minimize unemployment subject to managing CPI inflation is never mentioned.

If you are a free-market type, you'll roll your eyes at some of his takes, but still it is a very entertaining and well-thought out book.

21 of 21 people found this review helpful

Great but very modern

This was a terrific and interesting series. It does a fantastic job covering the economic stumbles of the late 20th and early 21st century.

I have one complaint and then one warning.

My complaint is that this great course advertises itself as a series on economic pitfalls since 1600. Really the vast majority of it takes place in what I consider very moder times. It's still really good so I give it high praise, but I wish I came away knowing more about things like the economic recession of the late 1840s.

My warning is that, especially in the later lectures, I really wish I was watching this lecture, not listening to it. He goes into detail talking about graphs and charts a few times and I wish I could see them. Again, still really enjoyable and informative, but I just might have gotten 10% more out of this had I seen him on screen.

59 of 62 people found this review helpful

Very Well Done

The author is very easy to listen to. It started slow because he starts so far back in history, but as he got to more recent events it really picked up. By the second half I was enthralled and hanging on every word. Highly recommended. I will get his other books.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

A fine narrative of several "financial disasters"

Professor Fullenkamp strays into "econ-geek" from time to time... for example, relying on a verbal description of a bivariate graphic instead of just explaining his point... so, for someone not fully conversant in the tools, the presentation will be a bit illusive sometimes...
Granted that, he does a fine job of providing a series of narrative histories of financial disasters... interesting and useful -- and he ranges widely making the course more valuable as a result.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Good substance but very dry

The professor is quite knowledgeable. Many of the vignettes are interesting. Overall, his delivery is quite dry.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Very interesting listening, lot of of insights!!!

Very interesting listening, lot of of insights!!! Highly reccomended listening for financiral experts, as for eceryvidy involved in business activities anyhow.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

informational and entertaining if a bit superficia

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. very educational, great narrator. perhaps a bit too superficial but I don't think the goal was to go much deeper anyway

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

it's different this time

same old same old. rich behave badly government bails them out the rest of us have to pay. There's a sucker born every minute and unfortunately that is us.

extremely interesting and concis

each chapter a new disaster. well explained and easy to follow. great if you dont have time to listen to the whole book in one reading