Overview

Full Product Details

9780226523422

Table of Contents

Reviews

Leins opens up a bedeviling puzzle. Why do financial analysts exist? Their job is to create forecasts, but economic theory calls such prognostications voodoo. Leins takes readers inside the Swiss banking world and shows how, despite their failings in theory, financial predictions play a critical role. Their reports mitigate uncertainty and allow the engines of finance to roll forward. -- Caitlin Zaloom, author of Out of the Pits This is a terrific short book. In just 160 pages of text, Leins provides readers with a clear understanding of the difference between fundamental analysis and technical analysis, the efficient markets hypothesis, behavioral economics, and new institutional economics. It also gives readers a behind the curtain look at the culture of financial analysts. (The book focuses on analysts in Switzerland, but it is certainly applicable for readers who want a general understanding of this culture in the US or Britain.) But the book's most important (and controversial) contribution stems from its discussion and analysis of the 'need' for investment narratives and for financial analysts. Stories of Capitalism is very well written and worth reading regardless of one's background. However, it is absolutely essential reading for anyone who is interested in investment banking and financial analysis and who has little knowledge of these areas. Essential. -- CHOICE Stories of Capitalism makes an important contribution to the growing field of the anthropology of finance by looking closely at the narrative economy surrounding financial analysts. It also offers a close ethnographic analysis of how the Swiss banks changed their image from that of secretive gnomes to one of swashbuckling risk-takers in less than a decade. It should be read by all social scientists interested in financial actors and institutions. -- Arjun Appadurai, author of Banking on Words

Leins opens up a bedeviling puzzle. Why do financial analysts exist? Their job is to create forecasts, but economic theory calls such prognostications voodoo. Leins takes readers inside the Swiss banking world and shows how, despite their failings in theory, financial predictions play a critical role. Their reports mitigate uncertainty and allow the engines of finance to roll forward. --Caitlin Zaloom, author of Out of the Pits Stories of Capitalism makes an important contribution to the growing field of the anthropology of finance by looking closely at the narrative economy surrounding financial analysts. It also offers a close ethnographic analysis of how the Swiss banks changed their image from that of secretive gnomes to one of swashbuckling risk-takers in less than a decade. It should be read by all social scientists interested in financial actors and institutions. --Arjun Appadurai, author of Banking on Words

Leins opens up a bedeviling puzzle. Why do financial analysts exist? Their job is to create forecasts, but economic theory calls such prognostications voodoo. Leins takes readers inside the Swiss banking world and shows how, despite their failings in theory, financial predictions play a critical role. Their reports mitigate uncertainty and allow the engines of finance to roll forward. --Caitlin Zaloom, author of Out of the Pits This is a terrific short book. In just 160 pages of text, Leins provides readers with a clear understanding of the difference between fundamental analysis and technical analysis, the efficient markets hypothesis, behavioral economics, and new institutional economics. It also gives readers a behind the curtain look at the culture of financial analysts. (The book focuses on analysts in Switzerland, but it is certainly applicable for readers who want a general understanding of this culture in the US or Britain.) But the book's most important (and controversial) contribution stems from its discussion and analysis of the 'need' for investment narratives and for financial analysts. Stories of Capitalism is very well written and worth reading regardless of one's background. However, it is absolutely essential reading for anyone who is interested in investment banking and financial analysis and who has little knowledge of these areas. Essential. --CHOICE Stories of Capitalism makes an important contribution to the growing field of the anthropology of finance by looking closely at the narrative economy surrounding financial analysts. It also offers a close ethnographic analysis of how the Swiss banks changed their image from that of secretive gnomes to one of swashbuckling risk-takers in less than a decade. It should be read by all social scientists interested in financial actors and institutions. --Arjun Appadurai, author of Banking on Words

Author Information

Stefan Leins is a senior lecturer of social anthropology and cultural studies at the University of Zurich and a member of the research program Anthropology of the Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available