Book of the week: The Fearful Rise of Markets by John Authers

(FT Press, $24.99)

Among all the books about the financial crisis, John Authers’ new one is a standout, said Carmen Reinhart in the Financial 
Times. With its “clarity of design” and jargon-free explanations of the events that led to the crisis—from the advent of index funds to 
a homogeneity of investing styles—the book provides an elegant, if somewhat startling, tour of the economic scene. Not only does Authers shed light on a complex topic, he
 offers “specific recommendations” for both policymakers and investors. The root of the problem, Authers claims, is that “we live in an age of unsurpassed synchronicity in global financial markets,” said Michael Casey in The Wall Street Journal. The global financial meltdown of 2008, as well as the current fiscal crisis in Europe, underscores the danger of “increasing correlations across otherwise unrelated asset classes.” Yet investors continue to have a false sense of security, thinking they’re protected by their supposedly diversified portfolios.

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