Daniel Ben-Ami
August 2006
The Smartest Guys in the Room
The explosive growth in risk trading was the result of risk aversion rather than, as the documentary suggests, a gung-ho mentality. The primary impetus for the growth of such financial instruments is as a sophisticated form of insurance rather than straightforward gambling.
• Books
July 2006
The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950
Offer provides a comprehensive examination of the problems associated with economic growth. But he confuses association with causation: it may be true both that affluence has increased and that happiness has not, but it does not necessarily follow that one caused the other.
