Against the Gods : the remarkable story of risk (Bog)

Human existence is based upon risk. This text charts the adventures of a group of thinkers who embarked on a voyage of intellectual discovery, transforming primeval superstition into the powerful tools of risk control employed today.One of the foremost financial writers of his generation, Peter Bernstein has the unique ability to synthesize intellectual history and economics with the theory and practice of investment management

With the stock market breaking records almost daily, leaving longtime market analysts shaking their heads and revising their forecasts, a study of the concept of risk seems quite timely. Peter Bernstein has written a comprehensive history of man's efforts to understand risk and probability, beginning with early gamblers in ancient Greece, continuing through the 17th-century French mathematicians Pascal and Fermat and up to modern chaos theory. Along the way he demonstrates that understanding risk underlies everything from game theory to bridge-building to winemaking.

In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today.".

Indhold

TO 1200: BEGINNINGS Chapter 1: The Winds of the Greeks and the Role of the Dice -- Chapter 2: As Easy as I, II, III -- 1200–1700: A THOUSAND OUTSTANDING FACTS Chapter 3: The Renaissance Gambler -- Chapter 4: The French Connection -- Chapter 5: The Remarkable Notions of the Remarkable Notions Man -- 1700–1900: MEASUREMENT UNLIMITED Chapter 6: Considering the Nature of Man -- Chapter 7: The Search for Moral Certainty -- Chapter 8: The Supreme Law of Unreason -- Chapter 9: The Man with the Sprained Brain -- Chapter 10: Peapods and Perils -- Chapter 11: The Fabric of Felicity -- 1900–1960: CLOUDS OF VAGUENESS AND THE DEMAND FOR PRECISION Chapter 12: The Measure of Our Ignorance -- Chapter 13: The Radically Distinct Notion -- Chapter 14: The Man Who Counted Everything Except Calories -- Chapter 15: The Strange Case of the Anonymous Stockbroker -- DEGREES OF BELIEF: EXPLORING UNCERTAINTY Chapter 16: The Failure of Invariance -- Chapter 17: The Theory Police -- Chapter 18: The Fantastic System of Side Bets -- Chapter 19: Awaiting the Wildness

Titel: Against the Gods : the remarkable story of risk

Forlag: Wiley

Udgivelsesår: 1996

Sider: 400

Sprog: Engelsk