| Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics (Agora Series) | 
 enlarge | Authors: William Bonner, Lila Rajiva
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  84 reviews
Sales Rank: 16940
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0470112328
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.473
EAN: 9780470112328
ASIN: 0470112328
Publication Date: August 31, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
Why Going Against the Grain Pays. Bestselling author Bill Bonner has long been a maverick observer of the financial and political world, sharpening his sardonic wit, in particular, on the vagaries of the investing public. Market booms and busts, tulip manias and dotcom bubbles, venture capitalists and vulture funds, he lets you know, are best explained not by dry statistics and obscure theories but by the metaphors and analogies of literature. Now, in Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, Bonner and freelance journalist Lila Rajiva use literary economics to offer broader insights into mass behavior and its devastating effects on society. Why is it, they ask, that perfectly sane and responsible individuals can get together, and by some bizarre alchemy turn into an irrational mob? What makes them trust charlatans and demagogues who manipulate their worst instincts? Why do they abandon good sense, good behavior and good taste when an empty slogan is waved in front of them. Why is the road to hell paved with so many sterling intentions? Why is there a fool on every corner and a knave in every public office? In attempting an answer, the authors weave a light-hearted journey through history, politics and finance to show group think at work in an improbable array of instances, from medieval crusades to the architectural follies of hedge-fund managers. Their journey takes them ultimately to the desk of the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank and to a cautionary tale of the current bubble economy. They warn that the gush of credit let loose by Alan Greenspan and multiplied by the sophisticated number games of Wall Street whizzes is fraught with perils for the unwary. Boom without end, pronounces The Street. But Bonner and Rajiva are more cynical. When the higher math and the greater greed come together, watch out below! Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets ends by giving concrete advice on how readers can avoid what the authors call the public spectacle of modern finance, and become, instead, private investors - knowing their own mind and following their own intuitions. The authors have no gimmicks to offer here - but instead give a better understanding of the dynamics of market behavior, allowing prudent investors to protect themselves from the fads and follies of the investment markets.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 79 more reviews...
Mobs, Messiahs and Markets. November 3, 2008
A very entertaining book but unfortunately very true. The crowd goes for a supremely confident demagogue who, when everything comes crashing down, is unable to recognize his culpability. Obama anyone?
Very Informative Read... October 24, 2008
I liked the writing style of any of Bonner's books and this one book, the subject is very appropriate for today's markets. I'd advice anyone concerned about where to invest their money right now to take a read.
 Sweeping assertions and poorly researched. September 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As i read this book, it felt more and more like a heavily opinionated diatribe that belonged on an editorial page of your local newspaper. By the time i got to chapter 6, War and Rememberance, it was more than i could take. For example, "And thus though the history of warfare is a history of appalling spectacles, though in every chapter of it the bodies are pressed like flies between the pages, almost nowhere will you find any explaination for why they are there. Who can find a single reason for World War I that justifies the inconvenience of even a single person, let alone the deaths of nine million of them?" The cause of WWI specifically is complex and subject to debate. However, to generalize this to all wars is inaccurate. Prepare youself there are numerous claims like this through out the text in different historical contexts. There are few footnotes to justify assertions or statements. The authors present themselves as historians, psychologists, economists, and i do not know what else as the text proceeds. That people could swallow this whole only affirms maybe their only central premise that people are like lemmings who accept doctrine without critical analysis. There are many books written and much cogent historical analysis of wars and their causes. The authors seem to conveniently forget that periodically tyrants rouse their populations into aggressive wars to spread their ideologies. Am i to think that those being attacked have no good reason to defend themselves? For example, am i to think that the world should have just accepted Hitler's super race program and their fate? I am sorry but this book is nonsense for the most part and it is not even worth finishing. If you desire to read a decent book on mob psychology or market psychology I recommend the following books as far superior - The Devil Take the Hindmost, Manias, Panics, and Crashes by Kindleberger, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841) by Charles Mackay, or for the Psychology Perspective on Crowds and Mass Movements The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. I am sorry but this book is drivel.
 Ignorance is bliss; pursuing truth carries the risk that revelations will not be pleasant. September 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mobs, Messiahs and Markets doesn't take an in depth look at just one aspect of public life. Instead, it provides the reader with a variety of topics that stimulate questions about why we do or don't do what we do. I don't care to read about historical do-gooders so the first chapter was worrisome, don't worry! I'm glad Bonner and Rajiva touch on so many subjects, not just a few. The powerful simple introduction to the Group Think phenomenon sold me on the rest of the book! William Bonner and Lila Rajiva are Patriots who provide comfort to those waking up to the skewed world we live in. Why are people so easily lead down the destructive paths politicians and bankers create and promote? How is it that Republican cross-dressers for over 80 years covet abstinence until marriage but in a short 24 hours are suddenly feigning and defending their nominee whose daughter is pregnant out of wedlock? How is it that the socialist cross-dressing democrats can suddenly covet marriage and in a short 24 hours suddenly have contempt for a child having a child out of wedlock? Read this book and get a clue.
After reading about group-think in this book, I discussed it with friends and family and surprisingly few had heard of it. Those who did recognize the term didn't realize the power it has. Group Think grants astonishing Power to the so-called leaders we elect. The authors do us all a favor by making us aware of an important phenomenon. At a time when politicians openly ignore the constitution and spend fiat money beyond their means and when main stream media outlets, i.e. radio, television and newspapers, don't provide solutions but distractions, Bonner & Rajiva, brilliantly, stimulate the reader to ask questions. One question I recently asked as result of reading this book: Why does the GOP presidential nominee promote Country First vs. America First? We all assume he means America but why not just say it? They don't give you a complete course on the Federal Reserve Bank, like "Secrets of the Temple" does; but, obviously, they didn't set out to do that. When 66% of the reviews are positive and 14% are neutral, the logical conclusion is that this book is worth buying. If you have expectations of this book and this book doesn't meet them; don't lambast the authors or the book, it's not their fault, it's your expectations fault.
Mobs, Messiahs and Markets doesn't solve anything perse, so if that's what you're looking for you won't find solutions that stand on their own. What you will discover is an awareness that stimulates thought. Are you an American striving to take back your country? This book provides you, among many things, with references to make you aware of political, financial & media trickery. The Media in collusion with
Government & Wall Street spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop slogans and graphics that captivate a viewer and serve an agenda. And what of the 24-hour news station that uses dramatic music, moving graphics and the word ALERT colored bright red to announce that a potential vice-presidential nominee is getting off a plane. You would think a dramatic alert of that nature would be something like a 10.0 earthquake in California. An aware viewer would see through their games and listen only to realize that their slogans and information are fake, taken out of context, dramatized for effect with an intention to distract and control the viewer's awareness. Mobs, Messiahs and Markets will slap party followers in the face; hopefully they stay awake and come out swinging. You can Google The Bankers Manifesto of 1896 as it is not illustrated in the book. The manifesto clearly shows how a small powerful group of bankers over 112 years ago had knowledge of how to control a herd or mob. They were brilliant then and proof of their brilliance is evidenced by current events. The authors brilliantly expose the do-gooder power mongers of the world and cast light on the shadows they are used to lurking in. I doubt the authors ever intended on comparing Martin Luther King to Hitler types. If your reading reviews of scorned readers keep in mind this book touches on many facets that have bankrupted investors and kept people ignorant. It appeals to the masses, so these negative reviews, in my opinion, are shallow, subjective and did not deter my interest in the book. I never got the impression I was buying an in depth book about Mobs, Messiahs, or Markets.
Expect to be stimulated with this book. What you do with that stimulation is up to you. This reader hopes you discuss the subjects of public life with a lot of people to enliven a revolution away from party politics and inflation. You might read another book to gain more depth on a subject like group think. Then you can better recognize whether you're blindly following or not. Ignorance is bliss; pursuing truth carries the risk that revelations will not be pleasant.
You must read this book August 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a brilliant and very funny take down of the "system".
Rajiva and Bonner know their stuff. They take the 'lies, damn lies and statistics' put out by the financial system and put them together into a narrative that reads like fiction (that's what it is anyway). What you end up with is a fascinating read with quotable lines on every page.
The book has too many interesting angles to tackle here but it is really outstanding in dealing with the propaganda-controlled world we live in and with the whole globalist agenda, culminating in the credit and housing crises of today. Most important, the authors explain the mentality behind it all - the mindset of the politically correct elitists and corporate crooks who run this country.
You won't agree with everything they say. It doesn't matter, you should still do do yourself a favor and read this book before the elections so you will know that there is only one party in the US - Wall Street and that there is only one language it does business in - PR.
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