The New Financial Order:
Risk in the 21st Century

Robert J. Shiller
Princeton University Press, April 2003, 400 pp.

    Winner of the Financial Times/getAbstract Business Book Award, 2003

In his best-selling Irrational Exuberance, Robert Shiller cautioned that society's obsession with the stock market was fueling the volatility that has since made a roller coaster of the financial system. Less noted was Shiller's admonition that our infatuation with the stock market distracts us from more durable economic prospects. These lie in the hidden potential of real assets, such as income from our livelihoods and homes. But these ''ordinary riches,'' so fundamental to our well-being, are increasingly exposed to the pervasive risks of a rapidly changing global economy. This compelling and important new book presents a fresh vision for hedging risk and securing our economic future.

Shiller describes six fundamental ideas for using modern information technology and advanced financial theory to temper basic risks that have been ignored by risk management institutions — risks to the value of our jobs and our homes, to the vitality of our communities, and to the very stability of national economies. Informed by a comprehensive risk information database, this new financial order would include global markets for trading risks and exploiting myriad new financial opportunities, from inequality insurance to intergenerational social security. Just as developments in insuring risks to life, health, and catastrophe have given us a quality of life unimaginable a century ago, so Shiller's plan for securing crucial assets promises to substantially enrich our condition.

Once again providing an enormous service, Shiller gives us a powerful means to convert our ordinary riches into a level of economic security, equity, and growth never before seen. And once again, what Robert Shiller says should be read and heeded by anyone with a stake in the economy.

Robert J. Shiller is the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics at Yale University. He is the author of Macro Markets, which won the first annual Paul A. Samuelson Award of TIAA-CREF, and Irrational Exuberance (Princeton), which was a New York Times bestseller.

Endorsements:

"Robert Shiller's book, The New Financial Order, is an important work on a significant topic." —Joseph E. Stiglitz, author of Globalization and its Discontents, and Nobel Laureate in Economics

"As the worldly philosophers of the past affirmed, the goal of economics is to improve the way society functions. In The New Financial Order, Robert Shiller joins this proud tradition by directing his brilliant economic skills toward the creation of financial institutions designed to reduce the risks an unknown future visits on most members of our society and others. Shiller's imaginative and compelling analysis will appeal to all readers who share his passion for initiating not only a richer, but a better, century." —Peter L. Bernstein, author of Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk

"Bob Shiller has done it again. In The New Financial Order, he tells how innovations in risk management can better the lives not just of the rich, but of the poor and the middle class, insuring against the most serious risks that face us all. There is something for everyone in this brilliant book. It foretells where financial markets are headed in the coming century." —George A. Akerlof, Goldman Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, and Nobel Laureate in Economics

"This is one of those rare books that really captures the imagination by offering fresh ideas, that makes you think and at the same time is rigorous and serious. It's hard to exaggerate how unusual and exciting this is to a reader. One of the book's real joys is the way it captures the passion of economics for making people's lives better." —Diane Coyle, author of The Weightless World and Sex, Drugs, and Economics

"Shiller is a real visionary, and this book will be widely read and discussed. It suggests a remedy for a situation begging to be remedied: we live in an age of great material wealth, but equally great economic insecurity." —Herbert Gintis, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the Santa Fe Institute

Translations:

Chinese simplified characters: Chinese People's University Press/Liang Jing Publishing Studio, China
Chinese complex characters: China Times Publishing Company, Taiwan
German: Campus Verlag, Germany
Italian: Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy
Japanese: Nikkei, Japan
Korean: Min Media, Korea
Spanish: Turner Publications Spain/Oceana Mexico