Customer Reviews

Tug of War: Why You Should Care About the Global Currency Crisis

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

A simple yet far reaching book about the "Asian Contagion" and currency crisis of the late '90's. You should first read "The Vandals Crown", then this book, followed by "The Chastening". You'll then have a complete and chronological history of numerous currency crises involving the IMF, World Bank, and the major geopolitical figures. Fascinating foundation of fundamentals in action for anyone interested in trading the FOREX markets.

This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in Foreign Exchange (FX) markets. Although not up-to-date, in discussing the currency crisis of the late '90s, it provides very valuable information about how the international FX markets work in practice and the competing considerations that central banks have to address. In terms of content, I would give the book 5 stars and highly recommend it to finance/banking/macro economics undergraduates, as well as to MBA students interested in markets.

However, this paperback edition (supposedly updated, though it doesn't say in what respects) is an appalling piece of publishing. There are many numbers indicating footnotes in this edition, yet the footnotes have not been reprinted (I can only assume they were there in the original hard-cover edition)! Footnotes are there for a purpose and provide valuable further details of points discussed, as well as references. It is inexcusable that these should have been omitted from this paperback edition. I felt as if I had ben cheated and only received a part of the book. Additionally, this edition was digitally reprinted in 2008, which leaves charts and diagrams somewhat fuzzy. Because of the publishing, I feel I have to reduce the overall star rating to 3 from 5.

If you want to read this book (which I hope you do), I strongly recommend buying a used copy of the hardcover edition, which is likely to be much cheaper too.