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El-Erian's book is very usefull in grasping the enormous changes that have occurred in the investment landscape recently. It gives good practical advise on how to structure you portfolio for the future. This is especially important since most of the past strategies will not work for the future. It's a totally different ballgame now.
disappointing book that reads like a collection of memos sent by senior management for quarterly town hall meetings with junior staff. full of clichés, not a single original thought. this is sell-side research as read and poorly regurgitated by a career manager. as unimpressive as the writer's performance record.
It is difficult to understand why the Financial Times would select this book for special recognition. It is also difficult to add anything significant to the many reviews which have already been posted.The book is self-serving and so full of jargon that it is almost impossible to read. There are probably insights here, El-Erian is undoubtedly a wise and clever man, but the lack of a strong editorial hand has kept the insights well hidden.This is not the book to read to understand today's financial problems.
Like others I read (skimmed) this book (a library copy) because of the hype and endorsements and found it lacking because of (1) lack of focus and generalities and (2) serious lack of actionable advice to individual investors.I give it 2 stars only because I think it makes a decent case for a greater allocation to non US stocks than most people adopt. Even though the lack of correlation rationale for investing abroad has weakened (as shown in this bear market), there is still a strong diversification case for investment in foreign developed and emerging market companies, and this extends to hedging of currency risk given the probable long term decline of the dollar.But there is absolutely no insight into factors affecting various allocation strategies for different types of investors or risk profiles, nor any advice about how/when/with whom to ever place money with active managers rather than indexing vehicles.Perhaps the author will grace the market with a book that addresses these issues for the individual investor at some point.
(None other than the great Greenspan wrote the above supportive quote, the same Greenspan who keep interest rates low for too long, inflaming the credit crunch, the same one El-Erian apparently discusses). And with every word that follows, I began screaming "wrong wrong wrong". There's endless name dropping that in some cases extends up to 3 lines at a time. Moreover, El-Erian's egotistical writing style jars the serious reader with constant references to a previous or upcoming chapter. "This book is an essential read for those who wish to understand the modern world of investing." Only someone who has an interest in having his friend sell as many books as he can would say something as blatantly false as this. Finally, the most important thing he learned at his very important time at the International Monetary Fund was how to manage time by defining the difference between urgent and important. He figures the emerging worlds will lead the developed countries out of the current fiasco. Turns out he's just as hoi polloi: around page 110, he conjectures what might happen next (assuming publication in Spring 08).
"For investors, this means capturing risk-adjusted returns." Really, now that's an original thought. The first 3 chapters are devoted to recapitulation of what happened in the markets during 2007. There's nothing new in this book. Chapter 6 promises to advise on how to navigate the journey. There's plenty of references to other books, speeches, theories and very little thought. He describes, rather than explains, what happens, and the tone implies that everyone is a bungling idiot for not having seen what was coming. And another, "Nation policy makers have to figure out how to make a debitor nation a creditor one." Wow. It's quite important that potential buyers urgently ignore the impulse to buy this book.
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