Putting the humanity back into finance by looking at the profession's core principles through the prism of art, literature and film.
Mihir Desai was born in India and raised in Hong Kong and New Jersey. As a professor and award-winning teacher at Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, Desai teaches finance, tax law, entrepreneurship and has recently developed an online finance course for the HBX platform. His scholarship on corporate finance, international finance and tax policy has prompted several invitations to testify before the U.S. Congress and serves as the basis of his advisory role to leading global companies and organizations.
A charming, provocative and readable book.
*Financial Times*
Those familiar with the world of finance will have their
perspective shifted, and for the rest of us, Desai provides a
welcome entry.
*The Boston Globe*
A fascinating new perspective on modern finance
*Oliver Hart, 2016 Nobel Laureate in Economics*
Lucid, witty and delightfully erudite...From the French revolution
to film noir, from the history of probability to Jane Austen and
The Simpsons, this is an astonishing intellectual feast.
*Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times
of Alan Greenspan*
This book is startling, a stunning, erudite, fascinating look at
the world as we think we know it, but it's a world where all roads
lead to finance, and in particular, insurance. Highly
recommended.
*Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow*
A fascinating romp through history and Desai is to be commended for
finding fresh examples away from the obvious reference points ...
highly original.
*Money Week*
Desai skilfully makes his subject accessible without dumbing it
down.
*Director magazine*
Desai's approach will broaden and enrich any perspective.
*Publishers Weekly*
For those of us who have long believed that the field of finance
was more than a way to make a good living, Mihir Desai has written
a liberating book. He shows us how an understanding of the
humanities can increase our effectiveness as financial
practitioners and add a dimension of joy to process.
*Byron R. Wien, Vice Chairman, Multi-Asset Investments, Blackstone
Group*
The Wisdom of Finance offers a thoughtful explanation of how money
works that recognises how perverted the industry can be, but which
also argues that "there is great value - and there are great values
- in finance" ... This is a charming, provocative and readable
book. For non-financiers, it can be a great teaching tool; for
financiers, it is a badly needed rap on the knuckles, and perhaps
an inspiration.
*Financial Times*
Mihir Desai is a fortunate person: he is an expert economist who is
also well-read. In this book he uses his skills to provide a
fascinating new perspective on modern finance, showing how the main
concepts have parallels in literature and the arts. Students of
finance will learn literature, students of literature will learn
finance, and everybody will learn something.
*Oliver Hart, 2016 Nobel Laureate in Economics*
The Wisdom of Finance is fascinating and delightful throughout.
Desai explains the world of economics to those who love literature
and the world of literature to those who are passionate about
economics. And if you enjoy both - well, then you are in for an
extra-special treat. I kept shouting aloud: "I get it, I finally
get it!" Here is a book that will make you richer in spirit - and
maybe in money, too.
*Will Schwalbe, New York Times bestselling author of The End of
Your Life Book Club and Books for Living*
The Wisdom of Finance is required reading for anyone interested in
finance or in pursuing a career in the industry. Mihir eloquently
traces the products, practices, and services of our modern
financial system to their roots while providing literary context
and illustration. It's a refreshing approach to what can be a
turgid topic, and it can provide practitioners with a new
appreciation (and understanding) of their role in their companies,
the industry, and in the broader economy.
*Vikram Pandit, Chairman and CEO of The Orogen Group and former CEO
of Citigroup.*
In The Wisdom of Finance, Mihir Desai masterfully achieves two
goals - bringing great clarity to how finance works and why it is
important, and shining a bright light on how the humanities helps
us to better understand our lives and world.
*Clayton Rose, president of Bowdoin College*
Mihir Desai brilliantly applies original lessons drawn from the
world of finance to enable all of us to lead more secure,
fulfilling and happier lives. Using myriad examples from historical
sources and current experiences, Desai takes essential financial
theories and translates them into easily understood ways to enrich
and improve our lives.
*Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic and author of
Discover Your True North*
The Wisdom of Finance does for the global economy what Alain de
Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life did for French literature:
it expands our idea of an obscure topic and illuminates its
centrality to your everyday. This is a work of true philosophy and
passion, incorporating thinkers and artists from E. O. Wilson to
Jeff Koons elegantly into our understanding of how we make choices.
In a chaotic world, everyone should read Mihir Desai's
extraordinary debut.
*Lea Carpenter, author of Eleven Days*
The Wisdom of Finance is that rare book that manages to be both
illuminating and truly fun to read. It puts in deeply human terms
ideas that have so often become caricatured and one-dimensional.
You will be glad you spent time with Mihir Desai, and you will
think of several people to whom you will send this book once you've
finished.
*Gayle Lemmon, author of Ashley’s War*
Mihir Desai has written a thoughtful and remarkable book. It takes
us not only on a functional journey about the role of finance in
society, but also an ethical and social one.
*Rakesh Khurana, dean of Harvard College*
A scholar who is equally at home with art, literature, contemporary
culture and financial theory, Mihir Desai improbably brings these
worlds together in an absorbing, personal narrative that has much
to teach us about how they are deeply connected.
*Will Goetzmann, author of Money Changes Everything; Edwin J.
Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies; Director,
International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management*
This slender but erudite treatise...does valuable work toward
demystifying finance for laypeople and deepening the art for
practitioners. Desai's approach will broaden and enrich any
perspective.
*Publishers Weekly*
Mihir has written a remarkable book - he uses the humanities to
demystify and humanize finance. It is a remarkable intellectual
accomplishment that those within finance - and those curious about
it - will enjoy deeply.
*Deepak S Parekh, Chairman, HDFC Ltd*
Desai takes a real step towards creating a dialogue of disciplines
... if only more people - whether financiers or academics - could
combine with such finesse economic knowledge and an appreciation of
the human condition.
*Times Higher Education Supplement*
A beautiful book for everyone.
*Drapers*
By linking to literature, history and philosophy, [Desai] tries to
build deeper resonance. It is a daring, intriguing work, offbeat
and fascinating, something both practitioners of finance and the
general public can learn from.
*The Globe and Mail*
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