Biography
Murad J. Antia, CFA, teaches financial statement analysis and investments at the University of South Florida, Tampa.
This book, which introduces novice investors to Vanguard Group founder John Bogle’s approach to passive investing, is one investment guide that does not intimidate readers into thinking that investing is so complicated they need professional help. On the contrary, it encourages laypeople to oversee their own investments.
According to this provocative book, the US economy is morphing into crony capitalism, a system in which business success is fostered by relationships between business and government. To gain a competitive edge or to limit competition, business interests lobby the government to tilt — rather than level — the playing field by granting their particular companies special favors. The end result is a system in which the few are enriched at the expense of the many.
The United States and many other countries are in the infancy of significant demographic changes. Over the next four decades, the retiree demographic will constitute an increasingly large percentage of the population.
Robert Shiller contends that the recent financial crisis was caused not by greed and dishonesty but by the structural shortcomings of financial institutions. He suggests that the financial industry can serve the common good through financial innovation that creates the kind of inclusive society in which all can benefit.