2008-06-29 Rushed, and not much new

As a previous reviewer states, this book seems as if it has been rushed into print. In addition to the poor quality of the graphs (they look like they have been photocopied) the short section where Soros provides a chronology of his recent trading decisions just read like a few pages of his diary have been added to the book to fill it out.

In addition, if you have read any of Soros' other books prepare to go over some familiar ground. As he fairly explicitly acknowledges a large motivation for him to write is to promote his conception of relexivity. If you are expecting and wanting to read this and discover trading tips, or very specific economic predictions you might as well save your money. Almost by its nature the concept of reflexivity does not lend itself to precision.

Having said that, the concept itself is an interesting one and can be applied widely, not just in markets, if only as a way to understand how views can affect the reality they seek to explain. One could argue for example that the War on Terror legitimised and reinforced the very thing it sought to oppose, and then in turn in doing so gave more strength to the argument that terrorism needed to be fought. On this point there is an excellent quote included in the book (can't remember if it is from Rummy or Rove) arguing that the US administration creates its own reality, which its critics are constantly struggling to catch up with an understand.

So personally I enjoyed the book more as a sort of scrapbook of what Soros is thinking right now, built around his concept of relexivity, rather than as anything particularly specific to the credit crisis.