Finance and the Good Society

Translated from English by Yu. Kapturovsky; edited by T. Drobyshevskaya, A. Smirnov. – M.: Gaidar Institute Press, 2014. – 504 p. 

ISBN 978-5-93255-389-3 

The financial industry’s reputation has never been worse since the 2008 financial crisis. Robert Shiller, an economics professor and winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in economics, is one of the few people who predicted both the stock market bubble of 2000 and the housing bubble that led to the 2008 crisis. Yet in this important and timely book, Shiller argues that rather than condemning finance, we should make it work for the benefit of society. He shows that, far from being a parasite on society, finance is one of the most powerful tools we have for solving our common problems and increasing shared prosperity. We need more financial innovation, not less, and finance should play a greater role in helping society achieve its goals.