Reinventing the Bazaar – The Natural History of Markets - Hardcover

Mcmillan, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393050211 ISBN 13: 9780393050219

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002

Synopsis

Clear, insightful, and nondogmatic, this book gives us a new appreciation for one of our most ubiquitous institutions. From the wild swings of the stock market to the online auctions of eBay to the unexpected twists of the world's post-Communist economies, markets have suddenly become quite visible. We now have occasion to ask, "What makes these institutions work? How important are they? How can we improve them?" Taking us on a lively tour of a world we once took for granted, John McMillan offers examples ranging from a camel trading fair in India to the $20 million per day Aalsmeer flower market in the Netherlands to the global trade in AIDS drugs. Eschewing ideology, he shows us that markets are neither magical nor immoral. Rather, they are powerful if imperfect tools, the best we've found for improving our living standards. Peter Bernstein's Against the Gods enabled us to see risk in a whole new light. McMillan's book will do the same for markets.

About this title

Review

"An illuminating refresher course in how economics really work."

The perfect book for the Age of Enron.

You may have heard that economics is the dismal science. Not in McMillan's hands. Here economics is fun, fascinating, ... fruitful. --Peter L. Bernstein, author of Against the Gods"

Lively [and] instructive... A colorful and authoritative look at how markets work and don't work in today's economy. --Hal R. Varian, author of Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy"

Required reading for anyone who wants to understand the "magic" of markets... Lucidly explained, brilliantly analyzed, and delightfully explored. --Reed E. Hundt, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission"

McMillan's rich knowledge of ... current economic theory and ... economies in transition is well embodied in this ... sophisticated survey. --Kenneth J. Arrow, 1972 Nobel Prize winner in Economics"

McMillan's prose resembles single malt, going down easy as it stimulates. "

The perfect book for the Age of Enron. "

An illuminating refresher course in how economies really work. "

An insightful, common-sense, jargon-free tour of all sorts of markets. "

About the Author

John McMillan (1951-2007) was the Jonathan B. Lovelace Professor of Economics at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393050211
• ISBN 13: 9780393050219
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256