Confidence Games: Money and Markets in a World without Redemption (Religion and Postmodernism Series)

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Money & Markets from Diverse Perspectives

How Wall Street became Main Street and what comes next...

Confidence Games: Money and Markets in a World without Redemption (Religion and Postmodernism Series)
Mark C. Taylor
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0226791661

Book Description

Awash in a sea of data that seems to have no meaning and bombarded by images and sounds transmitted from around the globe 24/7, people are no longer sure what is real and what is fake. Artists recycle ads in their paintings and businesses use images of artists in their ads; politicians mount campaigns based on hit films; and bankers make billions trading incomprehensible financial products backed by nothing more than abstract figures and signs.

In Confidence Games, Mark C. Taylor considers the implications of these developments for our digital and increasingly virtual economy. According to Taylor, money and markets do not exist in a vacuum but grow in a profoundly cultural medium, reflecting and in turn shaping their world. To understand the recent changes in our economy, it is not enough to analyze the impact of politics and technology—one must consider the influence of art, philosophy, and religion as well.

Bringing John Calvin, G. W. F. Hegel, and Adam Smith to Wall Street by way of Las Vegas, Taylor first explores the historical and psychological origins of money, the importance of religious beliefs and practices for the emergence of markets, and the unexpected role of religion and art in the classical understanding of economics. He then moves to an account of economic developments during the past four decades, exploring the dawn of our new information age, the growing virtuality of money and markets, and the complexity of the networks by which monetary value is now negotiated.

Returning full circle to a version of the market first proposed by Adam Smith when he used theology and aesthetics to rethink economics, Confidence Games closes with a plea for a conception of life that embraces uncertainty and insecurity as signs of the openness of the future. Like religion and economics, life is a confidence game in which the challenge is not to find redemption but to learn to live without it.

Customer Reviews:

Money & Markets from Diverse Perspectives.......2005-04-07

What gives money its value? Are financial markets truly linked to the "real" world? Professor Mark Taylor, who has been praised as an "awe-inspiring theorist of everything," explores these and related issues in this interdisciplinary book. Taylor attempts to show the links between economics, financial markets, money, postmodernism, complexity theory, media, art and religion. It's quite an audacious task, and although one might debate if he was successful, Taylor takes the reader on a thrilling intellectual journey.

Taylor claims you can't study markets in isolation. Markets are embedded in society, so to fully understand them you must understand politics, culture, science, religion, sociology, and psychology. To do so, Taylor takes us on a tour of not only various academic fields, but also of places from Las Vegas to Times Square. Stops on this tour support his thesis, which is that money and markets are essentially artful confidence games.

For example, he notes that in the 1987 movie "Wall Street," the character Gordon Gekko says "Money...is transferred from one perception to another." Taylor then recounts how Wall Street fueled the public's perceptions of Internet stocks during the late 1990s stock bubble. Financial journalists, stock analysts, traders, advisors, and company officials all promoted fledgling Internet companies with skyrocketing stock prices. Ambitious teenagers talked up the price of small stocks in Internet bulletin boards and then sold them at a profit. The NASDAQ market opened a glitzy new TV studio for business reports in the media saturated & neon-lit Times Square. Using these examples, Taylor makes the point that the financial markets and the media are clearly intertwined, and that just some misplaced trust in them can bring financial markets through a boom & bust cycle.

Taylor also discusses money and how it gets its value. Prior to 1971, the value of the US dollar was backed by gold held by the US Treasury. Generally, a gold standard prevents governments from arbitrarily running the presses to pay debts, which reduces the threat of inflation & boosts investor confidence. But what backs the value of gold? In short, only our collective confidence in it. Gold's value is not intrinsic to the metal; it's purely mental, and based on communal faith and trust. Because of that, going off the gold standard was difficult mental and emotional step for some in 1971.

Taylor also discusses the sociologist Georg Simmel and his work on the philosophy of money. Simmel's view was that economic exchanges are a form of social interaction, albeit interactions that are turned into quantitative, rational, impersonal ones. He thought that the flow of money shows the relationships between people. Thus, money derives its value from to what one can exchange for it in these social interactions, and its value is just socially constructed.

Taylor goes on to discuss multiple views of the economy. He cites Friedrich Hayek's view that the economy is a vast, distributed, complex information processing system, in which prices are used as signals to coordinate peoples' actions. He also discusses modern complexity theory, which views the economy as a dynamic, complex, adaptive system, with self-organized emergent group behavior that transcends any individual person. In both these views, the economic "invisible hand" guides peoples' actions worldwide, and is seemingly omnipresent and omnipotent. This description, Taylor poignantly notes, is very similar to descriptions of God; in fact, Adam Smith's original view of the "invisible hand" was influenced by Calvinism and had God in mind. Thus, God is not dead as some have claimed; he has simply been reborn as the market.

These are just a sampling of topics discussed. Overall, I thought the book had many thought-provoking ideas (& a few bad ones, honestly). It was rich in detail and well researched. But also I thought it could have been structured better to bring out the main points - it was easy to lose the main points amongst the thicket of details about Babbage, Bauhaus and the bond market. Nevertheless, I thought the good outweighed the bad, so I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in viewing financial markets and the economy from a new perspective, that of a humanities professor and cultural critic.

How Wall Street became Main Street and what comes next..........2004-10-07

Having read-or having attempted to read-a few of Mark C. Taylor's recent books, I was delighted to discover that this one, "Confidence Games" was both entirely different and more of the same. Where his always lucidly written, often provocative and sometimes esoteric reviews of contemporary science, art, architecture and fashion have often left me grasping for a conclusion, this book, "Confidence Games" delivers-BIG.

If writing about the meaning of it all were a physical sport, I would hazard that this fleet-footed journey from the birth of money to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center is Taylor's marathon: a long, fast ride that covers as much ground as an old school Hollywood epic without the tin-eared dialogue.

Throughout, Taylor deftly summarizes insights from celebrated economic and cultural thinkers of the last several centuries without getting bogged down in the dense foliage of history, all the while reminding readers that what paths may look today like a straight line are almost always a zig zag.

What can you expect to get from this book? For many, it will be a pithy introduction to the incredibly complex financial world we have inherited. Others will likely nod their head as Taylor provides intriguing evidence for the parallels and connections between high finance and high art, God and Mammon, computers and contemporary culture.

Like the best music, this book finds a deep groove early on and smoothly segues from pleasant chords to surprising riffs, never missing a beat even as the drummer gets wicked. This is clearly not summer or beach reading. But, given the often-cited consensus that 9/11 changed everything, a book like "Confidence Games" gives readers an unabashedly pleasurable opportunity to struggle with the very complicated questions that define the world in which we have found ourselves.

Taylor's tenacity in pursuing "the meaning of it all" through the lens of money and markets provides us with the rare opportunity to see the big picture in sharp focus.

Disclosure: Over a decade ago, I was a student of Mr. Taylor's and continue to correspond with the author on current affairs.

Product Description

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a Hollywood cult film classic from the 1950s. Its a story about humans being taken over by Seed Pods from outer space. Zombies who look like the humans emerge from the Pods but the replacements have no souls, hearts, emotions or the ability to love. They all follow the same order, have no imagination and become products of an inter-galactic conspiracy to take over the world.

Return of the Body Snatchers is a satiric and penetrating book about the same but very real horror happening today among the people who are being consumed by gadgets, gizmos, devices and machines that render them weak, complacent, tedious, predictable, boring, loutish, anti-social, changeless and risk averse. They are everywhereeven in some of the worlds best corporations; they are in government, labor unions, academe, health care, professional and trade organizations, and in organized religions. Return of the Body Snatchers tells us how we can escape the Pod life, have some fun again, try new concepts, embrace change and stop being such wretched dolts and device-driven idiots.

Book Description

Sea lice are serious pests of commercially farmed fish and this book provides the first detailed overview of their biology and existing methods of control. It deals comprehensively with both the pure and applied aspects of sea lice biology and covers a wide range of topics to make it invaluable to practitioners and researchers alike.

Book Description

Many men and women today are experiencing a crisis of meaninglessness. Religion has traditionally supplied the framework for the individual's quest for meaning, but the institutional church seems unable to perform this function for many twentieth century people.

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Jung and Christianity.......2000-06-23

Carl Jung has facinated me since I first encountered his ideas in "Man and his Symbols" as an art student in the early 70s. Jung, of all the author/psychiatrists, recognizes and articulates the beauty and mystery of what it means to be human. The concept of Christianity, like the concept of being human, has been an ongoing brooding omnipresence in my life. Both concepts hovered as important but beyond my ability to rationally articulate to myself or others. Wallace Clift's book is simply brillant. He writes with an elegant intelligence that is a joy to read. I found myself rereading paragraphs in objective admiration at the economy of words; sharpness of insight;and ability to reduce complex ideas, which are not subject to easy assimilation, to understandable and enlightening prose. Thoughtful Christians and admirers of Carl Jung will thrill at the experience of reading this book. It is a beautiful reading experience incorporating all that we read for-ideas,inspiration, understanding, and love of language. Clift makes me glad to be a sentient being.

Book Description

Improved food security, led by increased productivity among Africa's many small-scale farmers, has been the aim of significant national and international effort in recent decades. It has proved to be one of the most critical challenges facing humankind. This book grew out of a two-year exploration conducted by the food security theme of The Rockefeller Foundation focusing on the potential for crop genetic improvement to contribute to food security among rural populations in Africa. It provides a critical assessment of the ways in which recent breakthroughs in biotechnology, participatory plant breeding, and seed systems can be broadly employed in developing and delivering more productive crop varieties in Africa's diverse agricultural environments. It also presents an analysis of current plant breeding and biotechnology strategies for the key crops in Africa including: maize, sorghum, cowpea, rice, and cassava. The book will appeal to plant breeders, biotechnologists, and seed distributors as well as policy-makers in the area of agricultural development.

Agamospermous seed production of the invasive tussock grass Nardus stricta L. (Poaceae) in New Zealand - evidence from pollination experiments [An article from: Flora]

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Agamospermous seed production of the invasive tussock grass Nardus stricta L. (Poaceae) in New Zealand - evidence from pollination experiments [An article from: Flora]
W.D. Kissling , J.M. Lord , and M. Schnittler
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B000RR5A9W

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Flora, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The breeding system of the European tussock grass Nardus stricta L. (Poaceae) was investigated with pollination experiments. Plants were sampled from two populations at Lake Pukaki, Canterbury, New Zealand, where the species is recognised as an alien invader. Bagging of flowers with king-sized cigarette paper and hand-pollination were used to test for three modes of reproduction in the greenhouse: (1) agamospermy (apomixis), (2) autogamy and self-compatibility, and (3) allogamy (outcrossing). Two control groups without experimental treatments were further tested for seed set under (1) greenhouse and (2) field conditions. The success or failure of all experimental treatments was assessed with seed set and germination trials. All agamospermy treatments showed high seed set and germination proportions arguing for an apomictic mode of reproduction in Nardus stricta. Cross-pollination treatments were also successful making it difficult to estimate the degree of outcrossing, selfing, and agamospermous seed production in Nardus stricta. Fecundity in field populations was considerably reduced, possibly due to environmental factors acting upon seed development during maturation. The reproductive strategy of Nardus stricta might be particularly beneficial during invasion because single tussocks can form reproducing colonies and high reproductive output is ensured even in the absence of pollination. Genetic studies in combination with pollination experiments would be necessary to gain deeper insights into the breeding strategy of Nardus stricta.

The impacts of patent protection on the U.S. seed industry and public plant breeding (Studies of the organization and control of the U.S. food system)

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The impacts of patent protection on the U.S. seed industry and public plant breeding (Studies of the organization and control of the U.S. food system)
L. J Butler
Manufacturer: Research Division, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00070X942

Book Description

Climb aboard for a delightful cruise in the runabouts, cabin cruisers, and luxury yachts of the 50s. Unprecedented growth spawned a record number of Chris-Craft creations, including Rivieras, Cobras, Sportsmans, and Constellations, plus Cavaliers and Kit Boats, the Sea Skiffs, and Roamers. Dozens of incredible color photographs put you at the helm for a high seas tour through the popular boats of this prolific powerboat company.

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For the boat enthusiast.......2006-02-21

This book was a real hit with the boat enthusiast who received it as a gift for his birthday. The photography is stunning, the history is vividly explored, and the resulting book makes a great gift for anyone who has a passion for boats.

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There Are Few Books Like It

A Must-Have for any New/Student Writer!

Not for every writer

Overcome Your Writing Fears

And I thought I was in a minority!

The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear
Ralph Keyes
Manufacturer: Owl Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805074678

Book Description

Katherine Anne Porter called courage "the first essential" for a writer. "I have to talk myself into bravery with every sentence," agreed Cynthia Ozick, "sometimes every syllable." E. B. White said he admired anyone who "has the guts to write anything at all."An author who has taught writing for more than thirty years, Ralph Keyes assures readers that anxiety is felt by writers at every level and can be harnessed to produce honest and disciplined work., Keyes offers specifics on how to make the best use of writers' workshops and conferences and how to handle criticism of works in progress; he also exposes the most common "false fear busters" (needing new equipment, a better setting, a new agent). Throughout, he includes the comments of many accomplished writers--Pat Conroy, Amy Tan, Rita Dove, Isabel Allende, and others--on how they transcended their own anxieties to produce great works.

Customer Reviews:

There Are Few Books Like It.......2007-05-24

If you're a writer, want to be a writer, or know and love a writer and want to better understand what a writer faces and how you can help - this book is for you.

This is one of the best books I've read about the heart of a writer and how to face the fears - big and little - that all writers face, whether they're crafting their first story or their fiftieth novel.

Fear of a blank page. Fear of being exposed as a fake. ("I'm not a real writer, not like so-and-so.") Fear of what family or friends will think about you and what you've written. Fear of getting started. Fear of finishing. Fear of submission. Fear of rejection.

It takes a great deal of courage to write. There are a hundred reasons not to, and only a few reasons to do so. This book explores those fears and talks about how other writers cope with them. Fear is also the writer's friend, and this book offers plenty of practical advice on how to turn those fears into excellent fiction.

I've had one novel published which went on to win a couple of national awards and was a finalist for a couple more. I've had about 60 short stories published in mass market anthologies, magazines, and a few small presses. I read this book as I was tackling the rewrite of a troublesome third act in my second novel. It was just the inspiration I needed at the time I needed it most. I've already begun to apply many of the suggestions found in the book.

A Must-Have for any New/Student Writer!.......2006-07-13

I read The Courage to Write and The Writer's Book of Hope. Both are WONDERFUL and I highly recommend them! I am a grad student enrolled in an MFA in Creative Writing and I find Keyes' books to be very insightful. They will stay on my shelf forever. Another great one is Brenda Ueland's book, If You Want To Write.

Not for every writer.......2006-06-19

This is a great book for "any writer who aspires to publish on a regular basis" (p. 149). It has less to offer those who do not intend to make a living of it (like me), although the discussion of self-revelation should be valuable to all. The reader also has to be tolerant of Keyes's examination of EVERYTHING through the lens of anxiety. At points it feels like he's pushing his theme too hard. As others have said, the stories about well-known authors are enjoyable. I also agree with those who have said that the first part of the book is relatively slow. I think Keyes is confused about his audience at that point. When he also misuses the word "panache" on page 8 (He means "cachet."), I was afraid this book was just too amateurish. However, from about Chapter 3 he hits his stride, and I was pretty well engaged, except when I felt he was speaking to full-time aspirants and that I was not part of his truely anxious audience.

Overcome Your Writing Fears .......2006-05-28

One of the more interesting aspects of this book is Keyes' collection of stories and quotes. It's worth reading just for this wonderful collection. Discussions of fear, rejections, and the usual negative litany of writer complaints are discussed in colorful detail.

The first half of the book, "The Elements of Courage" is a little tough to get through at times, from a style standpoint. The second half, "Coming to Terms with Fear," is better written; it flows and reads easier. Part II really feels like Mr. Keyes found some inner voice and he shares that voice openly.

And I thought I was in a minority!.......2006-04-18

I have been a writer since I got my first diary in [...] As I get older, I put more and more importance on my writing, whether it is on the inside of a birthday card to a friend, or a final essay that will make or break my grade for a class. And this is where the fear comes in. This book really opened my eyes to the fact that it is actually normal to feel this way, and that the anxiety that comes with the writing process can be used as a tool to improve your writing. The book was fun to read, I carried it with me everywhere while I was reading it. And most of all it really reassured me that I not only COULD write, but that I actually SHOULD. Very powerful, very motiviating and encouraging.

Book Description

Kira Salak is a young woman with a history of seeking impossible challenges. She grew up relishing the exploits of the great Scottish explorer Mungo Park and set herself the daunting goal of retracing his fatal journey down West Africa's Niger river for 600 miles to Timbuktu. In so doing she became the first person to travel alone from Mali's Old Segou to "the golden city of the Middle Ages," and, legend has it, the doorway to the end of the world. In the face of the hardships she knew were to come, it is amazing that she could have been so sanguine about her journey's beginning: "I have the peace and silence of the wide river, the sun on me, a breeze licking my toes, the current as negligible as a faint breath. Timbuktu seems distant and unimaginable." Enduring tropical storms, hippos, rapids, the unrelenting heat of the Sahara desert and the mercurial moods of this notorious river, she traveled solo through one of the most desolate regions in Africa where little had changed since Mungo Park was taken captive by Moors in 1797. Dependent on locals for food and shelter, each night she came ashore to stay in remote mud-hut villages on the banks of the Niger, meeting Dogan sorceresses and tribes who alternately revered and reviled her- so remarkable was the sight of an unaccompanied white woman paddling all the way to Timbuktu. Indeed, on one harrowing stretch she barely escaped harm from men who chased her in wooden canoes, but she finally arrived, weak with dysentery, but triumphant, at her destination. There, she fulfilled her ultimate goal by buying the freedom of two Bella slaves with gold. This unputdownable story is also a meditation on self-mastery by a young adventuress without equal, whose writing is as thrilling as her life.

Customer Reviews:

Plus ca change...........2007-01-14

Salak does a beautiful job of meshing her on-the-spot adventures with those of her mentor, Mungo Park. Although he died mysteriously on the journey after passing Timbuktu, the power of his experiences call to her out of the gap of 400 years through his writings. After reading this excellent travel account, I see that many things too often remain the same along the Niger: hatred by the Moor towards the non-Muslim to the point of physical torture and robbery, clitorodectomy for 90% of the women, slavery in Mali (where it is officially outlawed). Of course the Niger itself remains the same, too, and Salak has to contend with its gods the way Park did: they send unbearable heat, rain unlike any she has experienced, hunger....Because of her extraordinary sensitivity, the reader learns to absorb it all. Caroline Alexander's account of her retracing of Mary Kingsley's W. African journey in "One Dry Season" would be a good book to follow this account on one's bedside table.

VERY interesting journey through Mali, Africa by kayak.......2006-10-17

This book was very interesting and hard to put down because I was anxious to see what adventures lie ahead on the Niger River. The only thing I was disappointed in is that the author continued to hand out money perpetuating the problem of the locals thinking they can beg for money from anyone white. I just returned from South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe and, after reading this book, I can say I am EXTREMELY glad I did not travel to Mali! The hostilities, extreme poverty, slavery, and human mutilation she witnessed in Mali would've been depressing but at the same time I think it's something we should all learn about. I enjoyed the book so much I'm ordering her "Four Corners" book today. There are no photos in the book except for a small one of the author on the book cover. If you want to see the photos of her journey, you'll have to go onto the National Geographic site or do an internet search for Kira Salak.

I Couldn't Put It Down,.......2006-03-26

This book is many things. It's an adventure story. It's a geography lesson. It's a study in anthropology. It's an exposition on the mindset of an explorer.

Mostly, it's a well-written tale of an American woman, Kira Salak, and her quest to continue living an extraordinary life. "If a journey doesn't have something to teach you about yourself, then what kind of journey is it?" she writes. This book takes us along for the ride. The tone is conversational, very readable, honest, and refreshing.

The Cruelest Journey is aptly named. Indeed, Salak recounts a grueling journey inside an inflatable red kyak, 600 miles along the Niger River in the West African country, Mali. She encounters both friendly and hostile villagers, calm and stormy weather, hunger, injury, sickness, potentially dangerous hippos, and incredible uncertainty. Using the Scottish explorer, Mungo Park, as a mentor of sorts, she attempts to reenact his adventure some 200 years earlier. She finds that not a lot has changed from what she read in his memoirs, which she holds close throughout the trip and quotes often.

Before I picked up this book, I didn't know where to point on a map to tell anyone the location of Timbuktu. It's a mysterious place, often used to describe the outskirts of the world. Salak's journey doesn't dispel this myth.

I found this story fascinating and highly recommend it.

From the author of "I'm Living Your Dream Life" and "The Things I Wish I'd Said," McKenna Publishing Group.

In a kayak!.......2006-03-17

Salak not only takes the reader on a journey into the interior of Africa, but also into the jungles of the mind as she deals with her own feelings and impressions of what she sees and experiences during these many miles. Such writing - and sharing - is what makes for a travelogue more revealing and pleasurable than just words and pictures.

While in this instance, the publisher chose not to include pictures, photos were taken and can be found at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0301/photo_1.html

The National Geographic photographer, Rémi Bénali, had this to say about the experience:

"Kira and I made a deal that I would not interfere with her adventure-I had a big boat, with a crew. She had to experience Africa by herself. So we would only meet for a few hours every four days.

"As you can see, everybody's on the banks of the river, looking at her leaving. It's so interesting for them-it's the first time they've seen such a kayak. The first time I saw it, I thought, She's not going to make it! It's too small, like a toy."

*********

I'm glad Kira Salak made it.
And I'm glad National Geographic at least made those photos available on-line, if not in the book. It was nice to be able to glimpse some of the scenes she described in her compelling writing.

A good dose of hype.......2006-03-02

This book was hyped hard by reviewers and jacket comments---(do they pay these guys or are they all with the same publisher or what?) as a SOLO first descent. I picked up the book at the library (fortunately), because I like to read about solo canoe/kayak travel.
Come to find out, a few pages into the story--the author admits to being shadowed by a photographer!!I couldn't believe it. It felt like a betrayal. That's as far as I read. This is not a solo adventure book in the sense that it reflects the same perils and exposure, physically and psychologically--as the archtypical "solo" adventurer is exposed to. That aspect of experiencing the perils and paying the inexorable dues for errors and lack of judgement is what makes adventure real. This book does not reflect that philosophy.

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