Paper Promises

Philip Coggan was a Financial Times journalist for over twenty years including spells as a Lex columnist personal finance editor and economics correspondent and is now the Capital Markets Editor of the Economist. In 2009 he was awarded the title of Senior Financial Journalist in the Harold Wincott awards and was voted Best Communicator at the Business Journalist of the Year Awards. Paper Promises is his fourth book and has been shortlisted for the Spears Business Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Financial Times Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. Bold and confident ... Coggan covers the terrain with characteristic calmness and objectivity avoids over-simplification and laces his arguments with his trademark erudition ... The alphabet soup of acronyms from SIVs to CDO Squareds is blissfully lacking ... Finally the book is free from the shrieking ideology that afflicts virtually all contemporary debates over money. Indeed it offers a clear explanation of the fresh ideological divisions that have arisen over how to deal with the crisis ... the book should be taken very seriously This book stands way above anything written on the present economic crisis The most illuminating account of the financial crisis to appear to date ... [written] with a lucidity that enables him to convey deep insights without a trace of jargon ... [a] thought-stirring book A remarkable book from one of the most respected economics journalists on the planet. Every page brings a fresh insight or a new surprise. A delight Fascinating and authoritative with the rigour and depth to satisfy an economist and the accessibility and pace to engage the layperson ... If everyone read Coggan's book we might just be a little more circumspect if and when the next burst of irrational exuberance overtakes the economy A masterful history of financial crises By far the best analysis of the new normal An excellent book ... a smart and witty analysis of the current economic storm set in the context of the history of money Coggan is ... an exceptional banking and economic historian Coggan traces 'history's tug of war between monetary shortage and excess' in this engaging and timely book about the current financial crisis.... Thoughtful and thorough Intriguing Coggan ... deserves his Best Communicator award: he moves the story along at a fast and flowing pace combined with the ability to find the short phrase that summarizes in simple language the kernel of many complex economic ideas ... demonstrates a comprehensive awareness of the major academic debates in economics and economic history ... deserves to be one of the three books you read from the vast literature spawned by the recent crisis A very good and sensible introduction to the history of the recent economic crisis with an emphasis on debt and also historical perspective <p><b>Winner of the Spears Business Book of the Year Award<br></b><br><b>Longlisted for the Financial Times Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award</b><br><br>In today's financial climate we are all naturally obsessed by debt. In almost every aspect of our life we experience it - on our credit cards mortgages bank loans and student loans. But where has this debt come from? How does it work? What is any money really worth? And what promises do we need to believe to keep the whole system afloat?<br><br>In this fascinating look at money through the ages - including our own unstable future - award-winning financial journalist Philip Coggan examines the flawed structure of the global finance systems as they exist today and asks with deeper imbalances that the world is currently facing what's actually at stake.</p> <p><b>Winner of the Spears Business Book of the Year Award<br></b><br><b>Longlisted for the Financial Times Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award</b><br><br>In today's financial climate we are all naturally obsessed by debt. In almost every aspect of our life we experience it - on our credit cards mortgages bank loans and student loans. But where has this debt come from? How does it work? What is any money really worth? And what promises do we need to believe to keep the whole system afloat?<br><br>In this fascinating look at money through the ages - including our own unstable future - award-winning financial journalist Philip Coggan examines the flawed structure of the global finance systems as they exist today and asks with deeper imbalances that the world is currently facing what's actually at stake.</p>