Masters of the universe, slaves of the market /

In this account of the financial crisis of 2008-2009, two distinguished professors of politics, Bell (Univ. of Queensland, Australia) and Hindmoor (Univ. of Sheffield, UK), compare banking systems in the US and UK to those of Canada and Australia. Two important contributions lead this reviewer to recommend the book over the numerous volumes about the global financial crisis that have already surfaced. First, the authors elaborate on and attempt to explain the contrast between the unstable financial institutional systems in the US and UK versus the far more stable banking environments in Canada and Australia. Second, the authors document and try to clarify why some financial institutions, even in the US and the UK, managed to survive reasonably well, while a few in Canada and Australia ran into trouble. The authors attribute the relative success of some financial institutions to their superior management culture and differences in bankers' beliefs and incentives. This reviewer would suggest that luck also played an inordinate role. A welcome addition to the literature. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Jonas Prager, New York University