Other People's Money: Masters of the Universe or Servants of the People?

讓一流的經濟學家John Kay告訴你，金融體系到底出了什麼錯！2016年喬治．歐威爾獎(Orwell Prize)決選名單。「凡是關心預防下一個危機的讀者都應該唸的一本書…幾乎每一頁都是敏銳的觀察或是精闢的警句。」－－《經濟學人》(Economists)「Kay既是一流的經濟學家也是優秀的作家。」－－《金融時報》(Financial Times)我們每個人都仰賴金融部門，舉凡存款、支付帳單、房貸、修復基礎建設、退休基金以及創業。但是這些活動只佔了金融部門的一小部分，金融體系之內很大的一部份活動是借貸。這個僅限於圈內借貸的活動，其目的到底是什麼？為什麼獲利如此之高？著名經濟學家John Kay在金融部門的經驗非常廣，他認為這個產業的金融獲利，一部份是假象，另一部分是掠奪了從其他地方產生的財富，也就是拿別人的錢當作自己的獲利。他認為金融部門擴張過大，脫離了尋常業務與日常生活，已經變成了大部分都是發生在自己內部的交易、對話、用自己的標準來評斷自己的產業，偏偏金融部門之外的世界，因為貪婪與錯誤的管理，也採用了這些標準，紓困了金融機構，卻導致全民皆輸。2008年金融風暴發生後，檢討金融體系的書越來越多，Johan Kay這本書，以他人無法模仿的風格告訴讀者，金融的黑暗之心到底出了什麼錯。Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2016We all depend on the finance sector. We need it to store our money, manage our payments, finance housing stock, restore infrastructure, fund retirement and support new business. But these roles comprise only a tiny sliver of the sector's activity: the vast majority of lending is within the finance sector. So what is it all for? What is the purpose of this activity? And why is it so profitable?John Kay, a distinguished economist with wide experience of the financial sector, argues that the industry's perceived profitability is partly illusory, and partly an appropriation of wealth created elsewhere - of other people's money. The financial sector, he shows, has grown too large, detached itself from ordinary business and everyday life, and has become an industry that mostly trades with itself, talks to itself, and judges itself by reference to standards which it has itself generated. And the outside world has itself adopted those standards, bailing out financial institutions that have failed all of us through greed and mismanagement.We need finance, but today we have far too much of a good thing. In Other People's Money John Kay shows in his inimitable style what has gone wrong in the dark heart of finance.