Book review: why aren’t they shouting? A banker’s tale of change, computers and perpetual crisis by Kevin Rodgers

In Why Aren’t They Shouting? A Banker’s Tale of Change, Computers and Perpetual Crisis, Kevin Rodgers, former global head of Deutsche Bank’s foreign exchange, offers a lively account of the transformations to the financial sector over the last thirty years, drawing on personal anecdotes, interviews and news articles to give the reader an engaging insight into the realities of contemporary banking, writes Maria Zhivitskaya

Book review: doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist by Kate Raworth

In Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, Kate Raworth offers a new model for economics, based around the ‘doughnut’, which values human well-being and advocates for a ‘regenerative and distributive economy’. While the book holds multidisciplinary promise and Raworth draws upon appealing and evocative metaphors and examples to convey economic concepts in accessible terms, Maria Zhivitskaya remains unconvinced of the doughnut’s transformative potential

Book review: the fix: how bankers lied, cheated and colluded to rig the world’s most important number by Liam Vaughan and Gavin Finch

In The Fix: How Bankers Lied, Cheated and Colluded to Rig the World’s Most Important Number, Liam Vaughan and Gavin Finch offer a multidimensional journalistic account of the Libor scandal, drawing on interviews, court testimony and legal evidence. With the book unravelling like an engaging detective story and full of lively portraits of key characters, Maria Zhivitskaya only wishes that it was longer

Book review: Trillions: how a band of Wall Street renegades invented the index fund and changed finance forever by Robin Wigglesworth

In Trillions: How a Band of Wall Street Renegades Invented the Index Fund and Changed Finance Forever, Robin Wigglesworth explores the emergence of the index fund as an unrivalled invention in recent financial history. Taking the reader on a road trip through the history of financial markets, this readable book will be enjoyed by those who have studied economics and are interested in connecting familiar concepts, writes Maria Zhivitskaya. Trillions: How a Band of Wall Street Renegades Invented the Index Fund and Changed Finance Forever. Robin Wigglesworth. Penguin Business. 2020

LSE lit fest 2016 book review: you don’t have to live like this by Benjamin Markovits

In You Don’t Have to Live Like This, a novel by Benjamin Markovits, disenchanted academic Greg Marnier is given the opportunity to participate in a regeneration project focused on several abandoned neighbourhoods in Detroit. As Marnier finds himself torn between the racial and class tensions that the gentrification experiment exacerbates, Markovits’s novel offers a timely engagement with issues facing the USA post-financial crisis. However, while the book is relatable and highly readable, it fails to probe as deeply into the overarching socioeconomic conditions of the US Rust Belt as Maria Zhivitskaya would have hoped

Book review: managing risk and opportunity: the governance of strategic risk taking by Torben Juul Andersen et al.

This volume focuses on contemporary risk leadership issues based on recent research insights, but aims to avoid excessive technical language and mathematical formulas. Maria Zhivitskaya believes that the thoroughly researched and well-structured chapters mean this book should be mandatory reading for Risk Officers and Regulators

Book review: Trillions: how a band of Wall Street renegades invented the index fund and changed finance forever by Robin Wigglesworth

In Trillions: How a Band of Wall Street Renegades Invented the Index Fund and Changed Finance Forever, Robin Wigglesworth explores the emergence of the index fund as an unrivalled invention in recent financial history. Taking the reader on a road trip through the history of financial markets, this readable book will be enjoyed by those who have studied economics and are interested in connecting familiar concepts, writes Maria Zhivitskaya. Trillions: How a Band of Wall Street Renegades Invented the Index Fund and Changed Finance Forever. Robin Wigglesworth. Penguin Business. 2020

The practice of risk oversight since the global financial crisis: closing the stable door?

This thesis examines the emergence of risk oversight since the global financial crisis, considering how different actors construct the idea of oversight and examining multi-level accountabilities that make it an organisational reality. The practice of oversight is assessed by 61 interviews and 17 weeks of field immersion in major financial institutions in London. The research questions are: ‘How does the practice of risk oversight differ from management?’, ‘How has the concept of oversight evolved?’, ‘Where exactly within financial organisations does risk oversight happen?’, and ‘How do Risk Committee members operationalise their risk oversight role?’ Tentative conclusions are also drawn on the extent to which enhancements in risk oversight since the crisis have strengthened financial institutions’ ability to manage risk. The first empirical chapter considers the evolution of regulatory attitudes to risk oversight before and after the financial crisis, and discusses the changing role of non-executives. The second empirical chapter on board risk committees discusses their accountability and relationships, both within and outside the firm. It shows board risk committee members to be an important part of the fabric of oversight who are still ‘feeling their way’ towards a stable definition of their roles and functions. The third empirical chapter discusses how oversight is organised within financial institutions. This is now commonly done through the ‘Three Lines of Defence’ framework. This is an idealised framework for risk governance that delineates how three layers of risk involvement (production, risk management and internal audit) are differentiated and also defined by their relations of oversight to each other. The last chapter discusses information intermediaries: the people within firms who create information flows within the oversight structures. Information is at the core of any oversight practice and this chapter shows that providing it to risk overseers, accurately and comprehensively, is a continuous struggle for the various parties involved

Book review: Risk: a study of its origins, history and politics by Matthias Beck and Beth Kewell

"Risk: A Study of its Origins, History and Politics." Matthias Beck and Beth Kewell. World Scientific Publishing. March 2014. --- Over a period of several centuries, the academic study of risk has evolved as a distinct body of thought, which continues to influence conceptual developments in fields such as economics, management, politics and sociology. Risk: A Study of its Origins, History and Politics aims to provide a detailed study of key turning points in the evolution of society’s understanding of risk. Matthias Beck and Beth Kewell map the political origins and moral reach of some of the most influential ideas associated with risk and uncertainty at specific periods of time. Political historians will find much of interest, writes Maria Zhivitskaya. This book has the potential to make a prominent contribution in its field, for the reason that others can work to fill the gaps the authors leave