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- Culture and Prosperity : The Truth About Markets - Why Some Nations Are Rich but Most Remain Poor
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Average customer rating:
- history matters
- An Inconvenient Truth
- worth the money
- Full of ideas!
- Capitalism requires much more than just "free"markets
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Culture and Prosperity: The Truth About Markets - Why Some Nations Are Rich but Most Remain Poor
John Kay
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0060587059
Release Date: 2004-05-25 |
Book Description
A witty and accessible tour de force that is immersed in the latest economic thinking, Culture and Prosperity is an indispensable guide to the world around us and destined to become a classic text for understanding the politics of globalization.
Guided by the belief that a combination of lightly regulated capitalism and liberal democracy -- the American business model -- is not just appropriate for America at the dawn of the twenty-first century, but a universal path to freedom and prosperity, the United States is an unrivaled colossus seeking to remake the world in its own image.
After a decade of successive market revolutions around the world, beginning with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and continuing in countries as diverse as Argentina and New Zealand, the effectiveness of the market economy as a route to prosperity and growth is not in question, but a more sophisticated appreciation of the strengths and limits of markets is urgently required.
In this new and illuminating analysis of the nature and evolution of the market economy, John Kay attacks the oversimplified account of its operation, contained in the American business model and favored by politicians and business people. He even questions whether it offers an accurate description of the success of the American economy itself.
In an absorbing argument that rewards close reading, and rereading, Culture and Prosperity examines every assumption we have about economic life from a refreshingly new angle. Taking the reader from the shores of Lake Zurich to the streets of Mumbai, from the flower market of San Remo to the sales rooms at Christie's, John Kay reveals the connection between a nation's social, political, and cultural context and its economic performance.
Customer Reviews:
history matters.......2007-03-14
This book offers an explanation of why some countries did not experience large economic growth since the end of WWII, with an emphasis on South India, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America. The author provides two reasons. First, some countries such as India and Eastern Europe decidedly went the route of central planning, a system that could never master the coordination and communication aspects that free markets naturally achieve. Others such as sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America tried free markets, but did not have the political and social institutions to make it work.
Specifically, the author argues that disciplined pluralism is the key to a successful economy, and free markets are the best starting point to get there. Pluralism means that individuals and units of individuals have choices for nearly all their economic decisions, such as what food to grow, what job to take, where to live, where to invest in, etc, etc... Disciplined means that these choices are offered and made in a common framework that everyone mostly adheres to without second thoughts or asking questions. Not enough discipline or not enough pluralism and free markets can degenerate into either monopolies or anarchy.
The author supports his arguments by looking at the history of nations, states, cities and companies throughout the past 200 years from various places in Western civilization. In doing so, the author also highlights major achievements in economic thought and how they have reflected, interpreted, or sometimes guided the actions of individuals and nations. So the book is two-fold; it serves as a history of economics and a history of economic theory. All in all, a good book and great reading.
An Inconvenient Truth.......2007-02-27
Every year, around about the time of the G8 summit, we're bombarded by dozens of well-intentioned pleas from celebrities and... well, people who listen to them, for the powerful nations of the world to make things better in the poor nations of the world. The assumption is that given enough dollars of aid, we could make the lives of those in the third world better. It's a noble goal, and possibly attainable in small, temporary measures, but ultimately has proven to be untenable. Why is that?
The root of the issue lies deeper than access to resources, which is the thrust of most aid. Financial aid is a band-aid on a leaking dam. The problem lies in the culture of the society.
Kay tackles the problem with the studied eye of an economist, and illustrates how economics, being an artifact of human behavior, is defined by the culture in question. The concepts of markets, rational actors, prices, and demand are formalized observations of the way in which people interact with each other to produce the means of survival (and beyond).
One of the major determinants of individual economic behavior are the rules and rewards of the system. When economic liberties aren't guaranteed (through corruption, extortion, weak law enforcement, excessive taxation), the resulting disincentive hampers the growth of the economy. Accordingly, in most of the impoverished nations of the world, the government is found to be corrupt on multiple levels.
Fair government alone doesn't guarantee a prosperous economy either. While it is a requirement for a prosperous nation, prosperity still requires the initiative of the populace, a nebulous concept that stems from the values and ideals of the culture involved.
Aside from the weighty consideration of poverty, Kay also drops a lot of little nuggets about more quotidian economic concepts, such as why fair trade coffee is more of a benefit to the retailer than the farmer, why generic foods are given lackluster labels, and numerous other backstories on the rationale behind retailing and pricing.
Overall, a very fun book which, though not entirely capable of answering the claim of its title, does as good a job as possible.
worth the money.......2006-01-30
As I read his column in the FT regularly I did have some idea as to the general direction this book would take.
The main point that Mr Kay makes, and one that can be found in all his other writings, is that consumers are not always rational. He believes that a large number of people act adaptively but not rationaly - due to the political issues/corruption of particular countries and firms. (GE is one of his favorite - i.e. the group think, as well as the civil service in mandarin times).
Mr Kay also pokes holes in the efficient market hypothesis rather well - another characteristic that makes him popular in the FT - although not quite a popular as Mr Plender.
While I rate the book as five stars, there are a few issues with this book that detract from the overall experience. The flower market as a perfect example of a competitive market gets tiring but the really annoying feature is the use of fictional individuals (Heidi the Swiss, Sven, etc). I realize this makes things easier to point out differences between countries but it does get tiresome after awhile.
If you are already into micro/macroeconomics this really does not cover anything new - it's just presented in a good format that makes a convincing case to the 'lay man'. Good read.
Full of ideas!.......2005-12-21
Very interesting and engaging book, highly recommended. However, I agree with other reviewers that the author is a bit too indulgent towards the many defects of continental European societies.
I also wonder whether the scintillating intellect of Professor Kay would have flourished in the homogeneous, tranquil and inclusive environment of countries such as Switzerland, Japan or Norway.
Capitalism requires much more than just "free"markets.......2005-06-09
Kay shows that successful capitalistic development over time requires much more than just free markets.Free markets are a necessary,but not sufficient,condition for success.Additional requirements are the provision of significant amounts of public goods and infrastructure(health,education,transportation,communication),the rule of law,legal institutions,and the existence of social,political,and cultural institutions that minimize economic and political corruption.Kay's correct analysis is marred by his ignorance of three important side issues.First,he claims that Keynes provided no mathematical model of his theory of effective demand in the General Theory(Kay,p.179).Keynes's mathematical model is presented in chapters 19-21 of the GT.Keynes presented the major result on pp.261-262 TWICE-Full employment requires that the marginal propensity to spend equals 1.Keynes then presents the technical analysis in the appendix to chapter 19,chapter 20 and chapter 21.The formal result is that w/p=mpl/(mpc+mpi),where mpc is the marginal propensity to consume,mpi is the marginal propensity to invest,and mpl is the marginal product of labor in the aggregate.Unless mpc +mpi=1,labor,as a whole,will be unable to reduce the unemployment rate by cutting their money wage.Second,Kay apears not to understand the difference between uncertainty and risk.He mistakenly associates uncertainty with the work of Allais and Kahneman and Tversky.Uncertainty analysis requires theincorporation of Ellsberg's analysis.Ellsberg appears nowhere in this book.Finally,Kay appears to be completely ignorant of the nearly 50 years of work by Benoit Mandelbrot demonstrating that the foundations for the Black-Scholes equation and the Efficient Market Hypothesis,the existence of a stable normal probability distribution,does not exist.Overwhelming statistical evidence has demonstrated that the relevant probability distributions for price movements in all financial markets are NOT normally distributed.I recommend that Kay seriously consider reading Mandelbrot's 2004 book,"The (Mis)Behavior of Markets"and then revising his book.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Southern Economic Journal, published by Southern Economic Association on January 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1605 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Culture and Prosperity: the Truth about Markets--Why Some Nations Are Rich but Most Remain Poor.(book)(Book Review)
Author: Jonathan B. Wight
Publication: Southern Economic Journal (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2005
Publisher: Southern Economic Association
Volume: 71 Issue: 3 Page: 683(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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