Robert Z. Aliber

In the Eighth Edition of this classic text on the financial history of bubbles and crashes, Robert McCauley joins with Robert Aliber in building on Charles Kindleberger's renowned work. McCauley draws on his central banking experience to introduce new chapters on cryptocurrency and the United States as the 21st Century global lender of last resort. He also updates the book's coverage of the recent property bubble in China, as well as providing new perspectives on the US housing bubble of 2003-2006, and the Japanese bubble of the late 1980s. And he gives new attention to the social psychology that leads people to take the risk of investing in Ponzi schemes and asset price bubbles. For the first time in this revised and updated edition, figures highlight key points to ensure that today’s generation of finance and economic researchers, students, practitioners and policy-makers—as well as investors looking to avoid crashes—have access to this panoramic history of financial crisis.

The International Money Game has been fully rewritten to take account of changes in the world economy. It provides a comprehensive overview of international financial developments, including both the structure of payments arrangements and the series of credit and asset bubbles as well as financial crises.

The International Money Game has been fully rewritten to take account of changes in the world economy. It provides a comprehensive overview of international financial developments, including both the structure of payments arrangements and the series of credit and asset bubbles as well as financial crises.

Nontechnical yet analytically rigorous, The Multinational Paradigm represents a new direction in understanding the multinational corporation. Aliber suggests that changes in the relative rates of economic growth of countries lead to changes in exchange rates that have an important impact on the financing, sourcing, and marketing decisions and practices of individual firms. He provides a unique perspective for examining what is different about business in a global context by placing these decisions in the framework of the multinational paradigm - the choice between whether the firm should centralize or decentralize its production, marketing, and finance and the factors involved in this trade-off. Aliber's theory is the first to adequately explain why the flow of direct foreign investment shifted in the 1980s toward the US as a host country. In a framework that Aliber calls "the Andy Warhol view of countries in the world economy" he proposes that every country has a short time span (15, 20, or perhaps even 30 years) during which it grows rapidly; thus individual countries experience growth at different times. He argues that during this growth period real interest rates and profit rates are high, capital flows to the country, and its currency appreciates. New firms are formed at an increasingly rapid rate, and the average age of both the labor force and the industrial plant and equipment of the typical firm decreases. When the growth rate within a country slows, these conditions are reversed. In separate chapters, Aliber discusses the implications of changes in growth rates of individual countries for strategic management and for financing decisions (currency denomination of a firm's debt, cash management practices, capital budgeting). He applies the multinational paradigm to decisions about location of plants and to the trade-offs between global and national marketing. Changes in the pattern of direct foreign investment are analyzed and conflicts between host governments and multinational corporations are evaluated in terms of the paradigm.

Previous editions of Robert Z. Aliber's "The New International Money Game" have been widely acclaimed as the best and most entertaining introduction to the arcane enigmas of international finance. Since its original publication, the book has become a classic primer for beginning students, businesspersons and anyone interested in a clear explanation of international monetary and financial issues. With expert knowledge and a wry sense of humour, Aliber demystifies international finance by breaking through the jargon barrier and presenting technical issues in a clear and concise manner. Aliber takes the reader on a tour of a multiplicity of international finance issues, including fixed and floating exchange rates, devaluations, money markets, monetary policy, and the concepts that lie behind the esoteric language of financial economists. This 6th edition tracks the changes that have taken place in the world economy since the previous editions by exploring financial globalization, postcommunist transition, European integration, and the Asian economic crisis. It is a useful and readable guide to the complex and increasingly fragile system through which the world's business is financed.