Book Presentation

“Animal spirits” are those elements in the economy that are difficult to measure and quantify – elements like confidence and trust, fairness and corruption, and the role of stories. The authors assert that conventional economic theory has ignored the role of animal spirits to its detriment, for animal spirits help to explain much of what has caused our dire current economic conditions.

Taking animal spirits into consideration on a personal and institutional level will allow people to make better economic decisions, and lead to necessary reform and regulations of the financial institutions.

George A. Akerlof is the 2001 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. He is also the Daniel E. Koshland Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Robert J. Schiller is the author of Irrational Exuberance and The Subprime Solution. He is also the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University.

This is a summary and not a critique or a review of the book. It does not offer judgment or opinion on the content of the book.  This summary may not be organized chapter-wise but is an overview of the main ideas, viewpoints and arguments from the book as a whole. This means that the organization of this summary is not a representation of the book.