Book description
How do economists reconcile their expertise with their failures to predict and manage the 2008 financial crisis? This book goes a long way toward an answer by using systems theory to reveal the complex interdependence of factors and forces behind the crisis. In her fully integrated view of the economy, how it works, and how the economic crisis burst, Karen Higgins combines human psychology, cultural values, and belief formation with descriptions of the ways banks and markets succeed and fail. In each chapter she introduces themes from financial crisis literature and brings a systems-theory treatment of them. Her methodology and visual presentations both develop the tools of systems theory and apply these tools to the financial crisis. Not just another volume about the crisis, this book challenges the status quo through its unique multidisciplinary approach.
- Presents a broad global view of international economic health and international corporate health
- Describes how policies, regulations, and trends dating to the 1950s influenced the crisis
- Assumes readers possess a general familiarity of economics and finance
Table of contents
- Cover image
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- Preface
- List of Figures and Tables
- Biography
- Dedication
- Introduction: Systems Thinking and the Great Global Recession
-
Part I: Foundations
-
Chapter 1. Lines or Circles: The Basics of Systems Thinking
- 1.1 A Brief History of Systems Thinking
- 1.2 Application and Relevance of Systems Thinking
- 1.3 Linear Thinking and Systems Thinking
- 1.4 Complexity Economics and Systems Thinking
- 1.5 Systems Thinking Concepts
- 1.6 Loops
- 1.7 Lags: Time Delays
- 1.8 Limits to Growth
- 1.9 Levers: Points of Power
- 1.10 Visualization Tools
- 1.11 System Boundaries
- 1.12 Systems Thinking Philosophy
- 1.13 Summary
- Chapter 2. As the Gears Turn: Policies, Practices, Markets, and Risk
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Chapter 1. Lines or Circles: The Basics of Systems Thinking
-
Part II: The Yin: Human Behaviors
- Chapter 3. Where Can I Buy One? Humans and the Economy
- Chapter 4. Who Are You Anyway? Values, Beliefs, Norms, and Behaviors
- Chapter 5. Visions of Grandeur: Expectations and Behaviors
- Chapter 6. A Crisis of Human Proportions: Ethics and Behaviors
-
Chapter 7. Self Speaks Loudly and Carries a Big Stick: Sources of Unethical Behavior
- 7.1 Ethics and its Purpose
- 7.2 Ethical Issue: Self-Interest Versus Social Interest
- 7.3 Human Nature Traits of Self-Interest
- 7.4 Societal Needs
- 7.5 Economic Environment
- 7.6 Repositories of Moral Grounding
- 7.7 Concern about Consequences
- 7.8 Greed and Hubris
- 7.9 Short-Term Narrow-Focused Rewards
- 7.10 Historic Precedence
- 7.11 Systems Thinking Interpretation
- 7.12 Summary
- Part III: The Yang: Economic Mechanisms
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Part IV: Yin and Yang: Integration
- Chapter 11. Human Roots Are Deep: Yin Meets Yang
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Chapter 12. It’s a Small World After All: Global Implications and the Road Ahead
- 12.1 Economic Truths about the Crisis
- 12.2 Summary of Crisis Dynamics
- 12.3 An Expanded Systems Perspective
- 12.4 Conclusions from the Expanded Systems View
- 12.5 Systems Thinking as a Tool
- 12.6 Effectiveness of Current Economic Policies
- 12.7 Yin and Yang Reprise
- 12.8 Implications for the Future
- 12.9 Concluding Remarks
- Appendix
- References
- Glossary
- Index
Product information
- Title: Financial Whirlpools
- Author(s):
- Release date: March 2013
- Publisher(s): Academic Press
- ISBN: 9780124059214
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