Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, Seventh Edition

This book offers a perspective on global economics that I had not heard before. If rating this book purely on “does it make you see the world differently” I may give it five stars.It is certainly not easy material, at least for me. In the sense that this is not a “pop finance” book, it was exactly what I was looking for. The writing is a bit dense, and I found myself asking “wait, why did that happen?” somewhat frequently during the author’s discussions of currency interactions (which is a hefty part of the book).Overall, it offered me a new perspective and was worth the (somewhat challenging) read.

My favorite review of this book was "If you have ADD you will enjoy the way this book is organized." In particular, there are dozens of multi-paragraph entries, each enclosed in a box, with no hint in the book as to whether those are throwaway stories, or stories to be read if one would like to, or stories that give necessary background to the body of the text.Reading this book is very much like life: it comes at you in random bits, and fits and starts, very much unlike a book.And there are LOTS of things to be dealt with here. There are thousands of stories and illustrations simply strung together, but the authors don't seem to have read their own writing. One example stands out in memory. On Page 143 we read that "Madoff differed from Ponzi in one important way -- his investors earned rates of return of ten to twelve percent a year." On Page 144, there's a mention of Madoff's strategy, followed by "Madoff's scheme differed from Ponzi's in one other important dimension -- the rate of return on the funds entrusted to Madoff was in the range of 10 to 12 percent a year...." Was there one important way in which the schemes differed, or more than one? Contradictions abound in the book.Perhaps the book has the unconscious mission of convincing us that we should never trust financial information, or even information about financial information, because it won't be presented in a neutral and comprehensible way. The authors' goal may be to inform, but we're left thinkgin it's simply to sell books... and financiers have the mission of thinning your wallet. We are left to try to squeeze the nectar out of this stone.

I'm really like the information in this book its definitely a good read for anyone that want to understand markets. I highly recommend it!

The book provides a very interesting and enlightening account about the inner workings of global financial crises over the last 400 years.

This book is very difficult to get through. The majority of the book simply bludgeons you with facts and numbers that bounce around from decade to decade. In many cases, one paragraph has no relevance on the next, in fact, the same can be said of many sentences. Every chapter seems to drag you through the same process of dumping a truckload of facts at your feet. The excess of data might be useful if the book did a sufficient job of providing a clear analysis of the events. Instead the reader is generally left to sort out if there is any possible meaning to it all. I am a financial planner who has read many books on investing and financial markets. I was hoping to find a history of various bubbles and crashes by reading this book, but that was not the case. Other than a handful of interesting quotes, I did not find this book to be very valuable. I gave it 2 stars simply because I know it must have been difficult to compile so much information.

there are interesting facts in the book, but it's very chaotic. jumping between events of different centuries at times in the same sentence. often giving fragmented facts. also factual errors, like in 2008 crisis american wealth declined from 77 billion to 66 bilion - really?? TARP alone was 800 billion.

My favorite parts were about the history of fraud and scams. Other than that, I could care less about how the lenders were loaning less when the prices of assets began to decline.

I read Kindleberger's classic 20 years ago or so and loved it. I advise sticking to the 4th edition or before, as the later editions have been re-written by Robert Aliber and IMO have turned a classic into a bait and switch disaster. The newer editions are not really Kindleberger's. It's as if I repainted the Mona Lisa and called it a collaboration between me and da Vinci. Extremely poor.

The book provides an understanding of the internal contradictions in capitalism and its tendency towards crises. Based on Minsky’s financial instability theory, the author extends the idea to look more broadly at the global financial system through the an examination of case studies, the most recent of which is the 2008 crisis.

Discovered quite a bit about why countries and organisations go into recession. Good historical accounts. Easy to understand.

An important history of financial markets and investor behaviour. Recommended for any investor, especially one waiting for the next market trauma.

fascinating, emphasizes human nature does not change, does not learn from previous mistakes, and keeps repeating previous mistakes and always with the mantra "it will be different this time!"

Bought as a xmas present and husband has started reading it and says very interesting.