Broken Markets: A User's Guide to the Post-Finance Economy

by Kevin Mellyn

" I would sleep better if I knew that Bernanke, Geithner, Bachus, Sen. Tim Johnson, Obama and Romney all kept dog-eared copies of Kevin Mellyn's Broken Markets on their nightstands. . . . Mellyn's work is a fascinating, important, and eminently good read and should inform the debate on overhauling the U.S. and global financial regulatory systems and sustainable macro fiscal and monetary policy. " --Eric Grover, in his review of Broken Markets in The American Banker Broken Markets allows the intelligent non-specialist to understand and navigate the ongoing worldwide aftermath of the 2008 financial market meltdown. The key theme of the book is how the leading financial institutions and the political leadership of the U.S. and European Union have failed us and set the stage for continued market turmoil. It explains what this means for investors, borrowers, society in general, and the financial-services industry. Former banker Kevin Mellyn focuses on providing readers with clear and simple explanations of the forces at work and the potential consequences for their future prosperity. As this book makes clear, what’s coming is a world in which high structural unemployment and flat or declining real income is likely―not to mention a diminished retirement financial safety net. The book therefore provides actionable information for protecting wealth and making prudent investment decisions in an economy that is nothing like the one that has sustained us for decades. As a forward-looking narrative about rapidly changing events and volatile markets and politics,  Broken Markets  will provide no single prediction about the future but rather describe alternative scenarios and provide the reader with signposts to watch out for in deciding which reality is actually unfolding. Unlike most books written by journalists on global finance, the scenarios and signposts described will be largely based on the lessons of financial and political history rather than breaking news. This

203 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Ken]

Now I was rather excited for this book, after reading it's claims. But as soon As I got to reading it, I soon found out it was stuffed with a bunch of "Intellectual Diarrhoea" . At first I thought it was fine, but the book carries on like this throughout the whole journey. Kevin Would constantly talk outside the level of the typical layman by using fancy financial wording and even historical financial events and other things with no explanation. as if he assumed the reader would know all of this stuff. Now speaking based off every day interactions with the average joe I would doubt most laymans even know the role of a central bank to an economy and even the difference between fiscal and monetary policy/ Now this is fine with some books, God knows i've read some pretty intensive intellectual books, but if you take a look at the blurb, he clearly states that the target audience for this book is the "Intelligent layman". The blurb would say things like "Impress your friends with your friends and family with your new financial insight" Now even the most intelligent layman would have a hard time reading through this book

But I would argue that this book is not compatible with the audience he is targeting, the language in which he writes is not universally accessible. You will indeed have allot of "Let me look this up" moments And I mean allot! Perhaps some readers would appreciate this by seeing this in a way that pushes them to learn new things. But other readers may not take it the same way, other readers may prefer for the information to already to be in the book with light but healthy amount of personal research required

this book will result

The Verdict:
The book makes the same points other books do in this category, but with alot more unnecessarily abstruse wording.If you are the type of layman who cannot explain things like the role of central banking, the way GDP is calculated, the difference between nominal and real GDP then will be spending an awful amount of time on search engines. My reccomendation is to not buy this, Try another book such as "End Game" by maudlin, you can see my review on that aswell

Physical Quality:
The Book is produced by Apress, I found the quality of the book slightly poorer than usual. The quality of the cover looked half-attempted, the pages were ok. And the ink used was slightly less than usual. This is my first book from Apress, and I must say that I am not pleased on the physical Quality of it

Hoped my review was of some help

[David]

As the effects of the 2008 financial meltdown continue to resonate around the world, Kevin Mellyn’s book offers a lucid explanation of what happened and what is continuing to go wrong. Political leaders and financial institutions, Mellyn argues, haven’t done what they need to do to avert future market turmoil. Without oversimplification, Broken Markets offers a clear and insightful look at where our current financial systems may be taking us.