Understanding financial crises /

This book is definitely not for the neophyte. The specialist will find some gems in this idiosyncratic work by Yilmaz, who teaches economics at Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul. However, the book's value is much diminished by the paucity of references or endnotes--though there are a few at the end of each chapter. For example (and this is typical), "in fact, there is a great deal of evidence that contradicts the efficient markets hypothesis and this has been increasing in recent years." True. But no citation? Equally disturbing: the 10-page bibliography leaves one chagrined about the omission of references to the works of some of the leading scholars of financial crises, such as Brunnermeier, Shin, Blinder, Gorton, and Acharya. And there's virtually nothing on the 2008-9 global financial crisis from the vast resources of the Fed, the Bank for International Settlements, or the International Monetary Fund. The reader looking for an overarching analysis of financial crises would be better served by the work of Carmen Rinehart and Kenneth Rogoff, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (CH, Feb'10, 47-3289). Summing Up: Optional. Faculty and professionals. --Jonas Prager, New York University