The Wisdom of Finance (eBook)

Desai's approach will broaden and enrich any perspective.

A charming, provocative and readable book.

Those familiar with the world of finance will have their perspective shifted, and for the rest of us, Desai provides a welcome entry.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Desai skilfully makes his subject accessible without dumbing it down.

A fascinating new perspective on modern finance

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.

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.

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.

A fascinating romp through history and Desai is to be commended for finding fresh examples away from the obvious reference points ... highly original.

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.

Fascinating ... [Desai] regrets the chasm between finance and the rest of society, and he sets out to bridge it with a warm-hearted and engaging set of stories

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.

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.

A beautiful book for everyone.