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This Time Is Different

By: Carmen Reinhart, Kenneth Rogoff
Narrated by: Sean Pratt
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Summary

Throughout history, rich and poor countries alike have been lending, borrowing, crashing--and recovering--their way through an extraordinary range of financial crises. Each time, the experts have chimed, "this time is different"--claiming that the old rules of valuation no longer apply and that the new situation bears little similarity to past disasters. This book proves that premise wrong.

Covering 66 countries across five continents, This Time Is Different presents a comprehensive look at the varieties of financial crises, and guides us through eight astonishing centuries of government defaults, banking panics, and inflationary spikes--from medieval currency debasements to today's subprime catastrophe. Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, leading economists whose work has been influential in the policy debate concerning the current financial crisis, provocatively argue that financial combustions are universal rites of passage for emerging and established market nations. The authors draw important lessons from history to show us how much--or how little--we have learned. Using clear, sharp analysis and comprehensive data, Reinhart and Rogoff document that financial fallouts occur in clusters and strike with surprisingly consistent frequency, duration, and ferocity. They examine the patterns of currency crashes, high and hyperinflation, and government defaults on international and domestic debts--as well as the cycles in housing and equity prices, capital flows, unemployment, and government revenues around these crises.

While countries do weather their financial storms, Reinhart and Rogoff prove that short memories make it all too easy for crises to recur. This Time Is Different exposes centuries of financial missteps.

©2009 Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff (P)2009 Gildan Media Corp
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Critic reviews

This is quite simply the best empirical investigation of financial crises ever published. Covering hundreds of years and bringing together a dizzying array of data, Reinhart and Rogoff have made a truly heroic contribution to financial history. This single marvelous volume is worth a thousand mathematical models.Niall Ferguson, author of "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

What listeners say about This Time Is Different

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not for the general reader

Be warned: this is a good book but very clearly an academic text not intended for the general reader. I get the feeling that the publishers may have rushed this out to cash in on all the post financial crisis books. It is a shame as it has a really interesting story to tell and would have benefited from a different edition - indeed book - aimed at the general reader with far less emphasis on data and statistics. (Underemployed journalists take note!). Another problem is that the book relies on sets of charts and data that can't be read out loud as they would be a nonsense. I do think the audible / publishers need to think about this a bit more, perhaps at least provide a PDF to download of the charts maybe?

However it is a good book and if I were reading the paper version it would have got a better rating!

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A great Economics book, unfortunately without data

Tis is a really interesting, in-depth study of financial, currency and debt crises. It is possible to follow the content in an audiobook, but it is unfortunate that one can only imagine the graphs and tables that are referred to. Would it not be possible to download these as PDFs together with the audiobook?

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing research and analysis

The main point Reinhart and Rogoff make in this book is that high debt levels and repeated defaults are the most deterministic indicators, as far as economic indicators go, for predicting future crises. They have all the data to underline this, which constitutes most of the book. If you are already aware of the role debt plays in an economy this book might not provide you with much new information, except for a lot of data to back up that view.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Very badly narrated

This is the first audible book I've abandoned. Although the content is quite dry I might have persevered but I had finally had enough of Sean Pratt's reading style and gave up. What's with the endless mid-sentence pauses, unsupported by the context or the book's original punctuation? It's left me wondering if he always reads like he did for this book -- I'm off to check some samples of his other work!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Too many tables and figures

Too many tables and figures you need to look and analyse to understand the book. This is just not suitable as an audio book.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

This is not an audiobook

If you compare table 1.2a with 1.2b you will see that the period spent in crisis by developing countries after a sovereign default is comparable to... on the other hand, if you want an audiobook that whiles away the hours of gardening you probably want something more like Malcolm Gladwell.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Very academic

I've got a reasonable knowledge of financial matters, but this book was very academic. To be fair, it's probably my own fault for not knowing enough about the subject matter, so I feel a bit guilty about the low score I gave it.

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