Book Review: Daze Exchange

The mass Shock Exchange: How Inner-City Kids From Brooklyn Predicted the Great Recession as well as the Pain Ahead, yesteryear Ralph W. Baker Jr., is an interesting blend of a personal memoir as well as an analysis of the defects of modern capitalism every bit was uncovered yesteryear the Financial Crisis. Ralph Baker worked every bit an investment banker, as well as formed the "Shock Exchange," a travelling youth basketball game team/mentorship programme based inwards Brooklyn (web site: www.newyorkshockexchange.com)  . In add-on to teaching the kids basketball game skills, the programme too taught them the fundamentals of investing. Interestingly enough, the players inwards the programme had a amend thought of how the American economic scheme was unravelling than the diverse "experts" on television. "If a bunch of 12-year-olds from the inner metropolis could come across it as well as then why couldn't they?"

Book Description

The mass was published inwards 2012, as well as is 346 pages. The mass is self-published, as well as the economic science of pocket-size impress runs way that the paperback version is somewhat expensive, but a to a greater extent than competitively priced ebook version (Kindle) is available.

It needs to endure kept inwards take away heed that this is essentially the combination of 2 books, partially a memoir, as well as partially an analysis of the Financial Crisis. Unfortunately, the impression conveyed yesteryear the mass championship as well as packaging is that the focus is on the Shock Exchange programme itself. I produce non persuasion this necessarily every bit a employment of the mass text, rather the mass championship should cause got been adjusted to jibe the contents. Additionally, the menses of the text is uneven at times, every bit it jumping betwixt the 2 narrative modes.

About The Author

The kickoff of the mass covers the life story of the writer from his early on years. Since my reading audience is presumably mainly interested inwards the financial/economic analysis of the book, I would banking company complaint that he afterwards became an investment banker at GE Capital. The description of the occupation concern footing is quite entertaining, every bit it is much closer to my express experiences than the airbrushed footing of the occupation concern press, where management consists of "leaders" creating "synergies" as well as edifice the "core competencies" of their firms. Instead, it's component politics amongst roughly the same ethos every bit playing basketball. (The writer played college basketball, as well as it provides a running thread throughout the book.)

For example, i department was entertainingly titled: "For Mistakes, Position Yourself So Someone Else Takes The Fall." The leading sentences:

From the exterior it appears every bit if people rising through the ranks inwards corporate America based on talent, crusade as well as occupation concern acumen. The truthful ground is due to their mastery of component politics. The firstly stride inwards this mastery is to accept credit for the ideas of others. The instant stride is to lay yourself thence that others accept the blame for your mistakes. (Page 120.)

The writer recounts examples of his ain component trench warfare. I establish this to endure entertaining, but it is admittedly a distraction from what is supposed to endure the theme of the mass (the Shock Exchange as well as the Financial Crisis).

From an analytical perspective, I follow an extreme top-down macro viewpoint, as well as I cause got e'er been allergic to company-level analysis. Correspondingly, I would non approach the fiscal crisis inwards the same way every bit discussed inwards the book. That said, the analysis is reasonable, as well as belike would brand a lot to a greater extent than sense to most readers than the to a greater extent than theoretical approach that I would use. Since the bulk of people working inwards finance are biased to human face at the economic scheme through the prism of corporate finance, his views should endure straightforward for most readers.

Although I volition non endure discussing the "memoir" aspect of this book, I viewed it to endure the most interesting as well as educational part. For example, every bit a Canadian, I had heard virtually the "Brown v. Board of Education" U.S. Supreme Court ruling of 1954, but I knew null of the context. It turns out that that ruling was based on the weather condition at iv counties, i of which was Price Edward County, where Ralph Baker Jr. was born. Although the ruling was merely over a decade earlier he was born, the events were all the same fresh when he was growing up. Additionally, his abode town of Farmville, Virginia was odd inwards that it was a bulk African-American, as well as was the discipline of the 1898 mass yesteryear W.E.B. Du Bois. However, these topics powerfulness endure less novel to American readers.

Analysis

The mass covers many of the big scandals as well as stupidities that were uncovered yesteryear the Financial Crisis. Although this powerfulness endure somewhat familiar, it is perhaps a useful reference to cause got them covered inwards i place. As I noted before, I would accept a top-down macro persuasion every bit to the roots of the crisis, his give-and-take of the item actors shows the weaknesses created inside the fiscal sector every bit a number of the lack of adult supervision yesteryear regulators. He offered merely about technical fixes amongst regards to fixing diverse regulatory problems, but I lack the sense to comment upon them.

He too covers diverse personalities. Even Donald Trump made it into the book. The writer offers a somewhat ambivalent assessment of Trump:

For customers. the "Trump" cite carries a for certain cache[t] as well as an expectation of quality. For lenders, it connotes that project's debt volition eventually cause got to endure restructured. (Page 250.) 

He ends amongst a department "The Pain Ahead," which discusses merely about underlying trends, along amongst his suggestions to create diverse ills.

• Re-institute Glass-Steagall, as well as prosecute diverse crimes uncovered yesteryear the crisis. (Although the statute of limitations may brand that moot.) He argues that previous fiscal frauds were successfully penalised inwards the 1990s nether the rubric of fraudulent conveyance. He too noted the success of "Neutron Jack" Welch at GE for punishing a rogue trader.
• He has a give-and-take of trends inwards China. I produce non follow Red People's Republic of China plenty to comment on his analysis.
• He discusses the spiral of rising costs inwards healthcare as well as higher pedagogy (although the mass is pre-"Obamacare.")
• The problems that volition endure uncovered yesteryear the adjacent recession. He analyses the Treasury marketplace similar it is a marketplace for corporate issuers, which I persuasion to endure a mutual error yesteryear those amongst a preparation inwards corporate finance.

Although the final sections are interesting, they are undermined yesteryear a lack of construction inwards the text. Within non-fiction, the typical blueprint of writing is every bit follows:

1. You cause got an introductory department that tells the reader what you lot are going to tell them.
2. You tell the reader something.
3. You cause got a final department that tells the reader what you lot told them.

Although repeating points appears inefficient or boring, it is needed to aid the reader. In practice, readers skim or tin forcefulness out endure distracted. You demand to telephone telephone out as well as repeat key points thence that they produce non lose the thread of your argument. In this case, the final department needed a to a greater extent than comprehensive introduction as well as conclusion, thence every bit to necktie the text together.

Concluding Remarks

The ideas as well as stories inwards Shock Exchange are both informative as well as entertaining. However, the text needs to comprise to a greater extent than sections outlining the logical threads tying the mass together. The best way to approach the books is that it is a grouping of linked essays, amongst the linkage provided yesteryear the footing persuasion of Ralph Baker.

Note: As a disclaimer, I received a review re-create of the book.

(c) Brian Romanchuk 2015