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Dr Philippa Malmgren
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Signals: The Breakdown of the Social Contract and the Rise of Geopolitics Hardcover – January 20, 2015

by Dr. Philippa Malmgren (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 304 ratings
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Economic signals are everywhere, from fashion magazine covers to grocery stores to military events. Malmgren empowers the public by revealing the story of the world economy in plain English. Central banks are trying hard to create inflation but say there is little chance it will happen, yet many feel their cost of living is already rising, especially in emerging markets. Who can fail to notice the rising cost of a steak, of chocolates, of apartments, of education, of healthcare or that prices are simply more volatile than in the past? The public should be more welcomed into the most important questions of the day: Is deflation or inflation the greater risk? Does inflation “fix” deflation? Both forces are now locked in an epic struggle. The conflicting pressures are now stressing and breaking the vital social contracts that exist between citizens and their states, setting in motion many seemingly unrelated outcomes: social unrest, the movement of manufacturing from emerging markets back to the US and the West, and even the near misses between the spy planes, fighter jets and naval vessels of the US, NATO, Japan, Russia and China. The one thing that can fix all this is innovation; acts of calculated risk taking that people undertake. Are governments hostile or hospitable to these already impressive efforts to build tomorrow’s economy today? Prediction, Malmgren says, is impossible, but, by being alert to the many signals around us, anyone can be better prepared to navigate through the troubles to the treasures of the world economy.
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  1. Print length
    364 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Grosvenor House Publishing Limited
  4. Publication date
    January 20, 2015
  5. Dimensions
    5.98 x 0.94 x 9.02 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1781487405
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1781487402
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grosvenor House Publishing Limited (January 20, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 364 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1781487405
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1781487402
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.52 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.98 x 0.94 x 9.02 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 304 ratings

About the author

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Dr Philippa Malmgren

Dr Philippa Malmgren

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@DrPippaM is sensemaker who explains what is going on in the world economy. She an author who writes about economic megatrends and leadership. She's a former US Presidential Advisor, the writer of award-winning and bestselling books and someone who co-founded an award-winning robotics company.

She believes that the economy and technology innovation should be made more accessible through better storytelling which is why she attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in 2018.

Pippa is a regular guest on CNBC and Bloomberg and often on the BBC including on The Today Program, Newsnight and Hard Talk.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
304 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book important, interesting, and well-written. They say it provides a great framework for thinking through issues pertinent for today and the future. Readers also describe the book as brilliant and excellent.

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15 customers mention "Reading quality"15 positive0 negative

Customers find the book important, interesting, and well-documented. They say it provides a useful framework for understanding social, economic, and political realities facing everyone today.

"...These trends are important to understand whether you are an investor, business owner, government official, or just someone thinking about their..." Read more

"Dr. Pippa Malmgren has written a wise and worldly assessment of the geopolitical and economic environment in the aftermath of the 2008 financial..." Read more

"...Dr. Pippa writes clearly and covers very current issues, with tios on spotting "signals" that the economy gives us...." Read more

"Very interesting topic. Well documented. Easy reading" Read more

8 customers mention "Writing quality"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-written, easy to read, and understandable for the average Joe. They also say it's stimulating reading about a topic often perceived as boring.

"...Dr. Pippa writes clearly and covers very current issues, with tios on spotting "signals" that the economy gives us...." Read more

"Very interesting topic. Well documented. Easy reading" Read more

"...is it packed with examples of disturbing "signals", it's very well written, exciting and funny." Read more

"...Easy and stimulating reading about a topic often perceived as difficult." Read more

7 customers mention "Readability"6 positive1 negative

Customers find the book brilliant, excellent, and highly recommended for enjoyment. They also say the cover is creepy but the content is fantastic.

"Good book" Read more

"...Great read" Read more

"A brilliant read. The cover is creepy but the content is fantastic. I will read this book more than once as it is that good." Read more

"Well, clearly written. Makes the topic of economics approachable and understandable for the average Joe, like me." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Mark Stys
5.0 out of 5 stars A rare and readable book on economics
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2015
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Disclosure: I know Dr Malmgren and have had the chance to discuss numerous economic and market subjects with her. I respect her for her intelligence and integrity, even when I disagree with her.

Dr Malmgren’s treatment of everyday ‘signals’ that describe economic activity and attitudes is a refreshing change from the normal economic sleep aids that most academicians write. Malmgren takes technical economic subjects and presents them for the average reader in such a way that requires little education in classic economics. Maybe one of the best things that can be said about the book is that economic curiosity is enough to make the book enjoyable.

"Signals" in many ways reminds me of Gladwell’s books, ‘Tipping Point’ and ‘Outliers’. It takes the reader through series of observations and allows them to ‘see’ the environment more clearly. The use of real world examples helps to frame the discussion and make serious points while at the same time grounding the subject in reality.

Whether one approaches economics from the Keynes or Hayek perspective, “Signals” provides the reader with a means of observation that can help determine both local and global economic trends. These trends are important to understand whether you are an investor, business owner, government official, or just someone thinking about their economic well-being.

As another reviewer wrote, I believe that Dr Malmgren should consider an annual update either in print or through a website presence that would allow for both observation and discussion.
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J.G. Collins
4.0 out of 5 stars "Signals", is a Guidebook to Interpreting the Current State of the World; It Should be a Perennial..
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2015
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Dr. Pippa Malmgren has written a wise and worldly assessment of the geopolitical and economic environment in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

I, for one, hope that it will earn a place as a perennial, akin to Theodore H. White's "The Making of the President" series. Such a series -- one, apparently, not considered by the author in this volume -- would work to inform those of us who are engaged in our day-to-day lives of the earth-shaking and even life-altering events - "Signals" - that happen all around us but that few of us notice.

Unlike pundits and prognosticators, Dr. Malmgren mostly doesn't presume to tell us what to think about these signals, or even what they may be, other than by example. Instead, she encourages us to find and assess the signals we encounter from our own unique perspective, and to act on them. These different views, she illustrates, create the buyers and sellers that make the market and the economy.

Dr. Malmgren asks us to adopt a perspective: are we "freshwater" (leaning toward little or no government intervention in the economy) or "saltwater" observers (who think government should intervene to save the marketplace from itself)? Are we somewhere in the middle? Do we like USDA meat inspectors but loathe the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency? Do we cheer for bank regulators or cry when those same regulators impose rules that choke off lending?

After we have adopted a perspective, Dr. Malmgren asks if we can balance our appetite for risk, our "hubris", with our fear of disaster, our "nemesis". That balance, she writes, is the midwife of the innovation that she calls "edgework", the ultimate driver of the growth we so sorely need.

Dr. Malmgren is not without opinion, of course. Government statistics notwithstanding, it's clear she thinks that we're in an inflationary economy or, at least, a "biflationary" economy, where the price of "apples" that you eat soar and the price of an "Apple" computer falls. She seems to be of the view that the "genie" of a "little bit of inflation" that central bankers have unleashed to combat the "ogre" of deflation may not be controllable, once unleashed. (The book likely went to press before the Fed's October announcement of its new and proposed measures to rein in inflationary surges, like reverse repos and segregated deposit accounts; they are not addressed.)

One can assume, too, that as a former Bush Administration economic policy official, Dr. Malmgren leans toward "freshwater" economics. She calls redistribution of wealth a "mug's game" that, ultimately, serves no long-term interest in generating the innovation she prefers as the ultimate cure for our debt woes. (The alternatives, she believes, are most likely inflation and default.)

Those expecting some run-of-the-mill "Strike it Rich in the Stock Market" tome, or even a book on economics, will find "Signals" to be much, much, more than either of those. "Signals" spans economics, politics, defense policy and even anthropology to define a framework by which we might perform our own analysis of events in the world and make appropriate choices in our own lives. "Signals" will help you to see what matters, whether you're shorting a security or stretching your vacation dollars by choosing a destination where the currency is cheap relative to the dollar. It can even help you assess your career choice or your choice to change it.

Perhaps the best part of the book is Dr. Malmgren's assessment of the motivations of state and non-state actors in the morass of seemingly unrelated events that have occurred in recent years. People, she says, fear that they will "grow old before they grow rich". They ask why wealth accrues to others but not to them.

Geopolitical events in Ukraine, the Pacific, the Middle East, the Eastern Mediterranean and along the border of India and China can all be attributed to the need for countries and non-state actors to try to fulfill their social contract with the people living under their jurisdiction or control. Will the people have sufficient food, fuel, water and other necessities to ensure not just their survival, but their prosperity? Or will they be plagued by shortages of essential commodities and crippling inflation? The Arab Spring, Russia's incursions into Ukraine, the growing popularity of France's right-wing National Front, and the victory of Syriza in the February elections in Greece, all speak to popular discontent and long-term concerns about personal security and political stability; that is, the "social contract" in the book's title. Incumbent leaders that fail to address those concerns, history has shown, usually find themselves on the losing side of an election or the wrong side of a coup.

Dr. Malmgren allows that she has engaged in a bit of "edgework" herself in publishing this book. She used crowd-funding and contracted with a small publisher to get it into print instead of following the more traditional (and less profitable) route of securing a literary agent and having the agent shop the work to a major publisher. Dr. Malmgren's "hubris" -- obviously successful, given that this book is now a best-seller in three Amazon categories -- is offset by nemesis: the manuscript escaped the kind of painstaking editorial review that such works receive when vetted by major publishing houses.

But the editorial errors are more distracting than substantive. Currencies are capitalized (as in "Euro" instead of "euro") and there is an occasional redundancy (like "fellow comrades") as well as a missing word here and there. Some paragraphs should have been combined and others bifurcated.

Dr. Malmgren also quotes authors and others in multiple instances in the body of the text and in ways that are inconsistent (some quotes show the birth and death dates of their authors, others do not, even though they are long dead.) The quotes are too many and rarely necessary to advance the author's underlying thesis; her own insights are more thought-provoking than those she has quoted. A more nuanced editor would have deleted most of them and consigned the survivors to footnotes.

An index and a more detailed table of contents -- standard fare for the big publishers of books of this nature -- would have been useful, too. An index would be helpful to reference both while reading the book and when one later refers to it. A more detailed table of contents might have helped to tighten the narrative, which meanders somewhat in the early few chapters.

But these shortcomings -- common with smaller publishers -- are notable only because they detract from an otherwise outstanding work.

Overall, anyone who takes more than a passing interest in politics, economics, the markets or global affairs -- or their own welfare -- cannot consider themselves fully informed without having read "Signals". It is a much-needed guidebook for how to go about assessing the state of the world, one's nation, one's life and the events that change them all.

Required reading. Five stars, but for the unfortunate editorial errors.
13 people found this helpful
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Bruce B. Lawrence
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended for enjoyment and enlightenment
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2015
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This book is accessible to the non-quant with an interest in economic and geo-political affairs. Dr. Pippa writes clearly and covers very current issues, with tios on spotting "signals" that the economy gives us. Highly recommended for enjoyment and enlightenment.
One person found this helpful
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George Ruben
3.0 out of 5 stars Closer Reading Disappoints
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2015
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Changed review: I was prematurely infatuated with interesting concepts and name-dropping. If a writer suggests an integration of facts and theories, it doesn't make it so. Concepts such as "edgework" and "saltwater" and "freshwater" and "quality vs. quantity" were quite interesting, but failed to be fleshed out or summarized. I became aware of the old saw that 'if you put all of the economists together head to toe, they will stretch around the world without making a conclusion.' Hope this book was not an experiment in emotional wrangling to see if mental and social equilibrium can be constructed by mixing a dressing of facts with theoretical confusion. This could have been a better book if more work was done. I would write a better review if some of these issues were addressed. Signals seems a clever way to say the same as indicators. This is old stuff it seems to me. Gold bugs vs. Keynesians--I got tricked again. Could have spent my time better reading the classics.
9 people found this helpful
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stan
5.0 out of 5 stars Signals
Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2024
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Outstanding book
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RICARDO URIEN
4.0 out of 5 stars Easy
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2015
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Very interesting topic. Well documented. Easy reading
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Top reviews from other countries

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Conor Devine
5.0 out of 5 stars Courage, Energy, Dissent and Eccentricity Matters
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2023
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Outstanding book, giving the reader an excellent insight into business, economics, geo politics and also the great mind of a wonderful author. Easy to read, follow and understand ✅️🌟
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Amazon Kunde
4.0 out of 5 stars Inflation is a tax
Reviewed in Germany on June 5, 2021
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World economic politics explained by an outspoken expert.
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Karl
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on June 16, 2017
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Must read.
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AndrewT
2.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing book, but misleading subtitle
Reviewed in France on May 2, 2018
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The idea of looking for signals to assess the state of the economy is interesting, but the argument of the author is not altogether convincing: how does one separate the signals from the surrounding noise? Dr Malmgren does not answer this question. Instead, she invites the readers to follow their jugement based on their observations and accept to take the corresponding risks. This piece of advice is sketched in chapter two and repeated in the concluding pages of the book. In between, several examples of successful applications of this approach but, for lack any indication on the proportion of unsuccessful outcomes, one is allowed to suspect that the sample presented might be biased.
However, what she has to say about the evolving commercial relationship between the US and the People's Republic of China, the impact of quantitative easing in the US on inflation in the developing world and on the arms race of China and Russia is extremely interesting and well worth bearing in mind when reading the daily news.
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Ugo Mendes Donelli
5.0 out of 5 stars Become an outlier by listening to the real world
Reviewed in Italy on December 22, 2017
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Dr. Pippa Malmgern book will help you understand why listening to real world signals matters. Given expert forecasting has proved to fail when it really matters, as in the 2007 crisis, then you should start to make your own judgements, to protect yourself and your family from economic environment changes. Dr. Pippa Malgren gives you her view of the world evolution and explains why it matters for your life and why you should take care of listening to signals to take care of your future.
Very well written, it treats economical and geopolitical matters in a fresh and friendly language.
This book is for everyone.
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