Cassidy's Skepticism on Utopian Economics
Now after finishing the book, how did you like the Cassidy book? Any answer is fine, but just explain your answer.
Questions 2-5 are on “Inside Job”
After watching the film (Inside Job) how angry are you about the events depicted in the film? What specifically made you angry in the film? Which person in the film offended you the most?
Why did the top people at these finance firms take all this risk?
Should Universities have a policy regarding conflict of interest? What did you think of the professors at Columbia and Harvard?
President Obama hired a team of people to deal with the financial crisis who helped cause the crisis (Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke, Gary Gensler, etc) or worked directly for Wall Street. Why do you think he appointed these people? Would you have appointed these people? How do you balance the need for experience with the need for a fresh perspective?
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Now after finishing the book. How did you like the Cassidy book? Any answer is fine but just explain your answer.
Cassidy's skepticism moved me as he boldly critiqued the investors for taking their time planning and developing ways and theories to improve how markets can work; what they can do to improve innovation, mass wealth creation, and efficient allocation of society’s resources instead of asking themselves relevant questions like; what if the market they are developing fails to work? What if the markets they are creating lead to economic bubbles? What if they lead to economic credit and crunches? According to Cassidy, these were important questions for a good investor to help overcome any market failure by any chance.
I loved Cassidy’s assertion in the manner in which he critiqued the rising influence of utopian economics as blind and unrealistic. The way he cautioned investors against the unregulated free markets, and the consequences that could accrue, was to the point. I liked that Cassidy not only critiqued the investors’ actions but also educated them about behavioral economics, among other theories. He intended to help them shift from their old way of operations to a new culture where firms could make decisions free from self-interest but according to what is acceptable.
It was great the way he warned individual investor’s behavioral biases and kinks such as overconfidence, focus on short-term profits, copycats, and envy. Cassidy described these behaviors as precursors to troubling microeconomic phenomena like greed cycles among CEOs, booms, and bursts in waves in the housing markets. He refers to them as rational irrationality in the current market setting.
How angry are you about the events depicted in the film? What specifically made you angry in the film? Which person in the film offended you the most?
I was annoyed about the events depicted in the film. The kind of exposure displayed in the film about the dismaying truth led to the great recession, the financial bubbles, and eventually the 2008 economic crisis. The global financial meltdown led to joblessness and homelessness for so many people. All these traced back to the rise of a rogue financial industry controlling the economy. The film also unveils the corrosive relationships that corrupted politics, regulation, and to a further extent, academia.
The person who offended me the...