The jargon of economics and finance contains numerous colorful terms for market-asset prices at odds with any reasonable economic explanation. Examples include "bubble," "tulipmania," "chain letter," "Ponzi scheme," "panic," "crash," "herding," and "irrational exuberance." Although such a term suggests that an event is inexplicably crowd-driven, what it really means, claims Peter Garber, is that we have grasped a near-empty explanation rather than expend the effort to understand the event.In this book Garber offers market-fundamental explanations for the three most famous bubbles: the Dutch Tulipmania (1634-1637), the Mississippi Bubble (1719-1720), and the closely connected South Sea Bubble (1720). He focuses most closely on the Tulipmania because it is the event that most modern observers view as clearly crazy. Comparing the pattern of price declines for initially rare eighteenth-century bulbs to that of seventeenth-century bulbs, he concludes that the extremely high prices for rare bulbs and their rapid decline reflects normal pricing behavior. In the cases of the Mississippi and South Sea Bubbles, he describes the asset markets and financial manipulations involved in these episodes and casts them as market fundamentals.

企业是否应当，以及何时投资于新资本设备，增加工作组，或者开发新产品?为什么投资的传统经济模型未能解释美国和其他国家的投资开支活动？在本书中，阿维纳什·迪克西特和罗怕特·平迪克提供了一种关于企业资本投资决策的新理论，强调了大多数投资决策中的不可逆性，以及作出这些决策时经济环境中的不确定性。利用这种方法，他们回答了投资决策和投资支出出行为中的上述问题以及其他重要问题。
关于投资的这种新方法认识到了等待更好(但永远不完全)信息的期权价值。它利用了金融市场期权理论的一种类推，这使它比传统投资理论拥有一种更丰富的动态框架。作者以一种清晰而且系统的方式阐述了这种新理论，而且还巩固、综合并拓展了从这种理论中发展出来的各种研究领域。
本书揭示了理解企业投资行为的重要性。它阐述了这种理论在投资的产业动态均衡和政府政策方面的影响，还揭示了这种理论如何应用到特定产业及各种更宽泛的商业问题。

作者简介：
罗伯特·平迪克 麻省理工学院斯隆管理学院三菱银行经济学讲座教授。他的著作包括《世界能源需求结构》(麻省理工学院出版社)，与丹尼尔·鲁宾菲尔德(Danel L.Lubinfeld)合著的《计量经济模型与经济预测》(麦吉尔出版社)(中译本由机械工业出版社出版)，以及《微观经济学》(麦克米伦出版公司)(中译本由中国人民大学出版社出版)等。
阿维纳什·迪克西特，普林斯顿大学约翰·J·F·谢勒德(Jolm J.F.Sherrerd')第52任大学经济学讲座教授。他的著作包括与维克多·诺曼(Victor Norman)合著的《国际贸易理论》（剑桥大学出版社），与巴利·内拉巴夫(Barry Nalebuff)合著的《战略性思考》(诺顿出版公司)。

Peter Bevelin begins his fascinating book with Confucius' great wisdom: "A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it, is committing another mistake." Seeking Wisdom is the result of Bevelin's learning about attaining wisdom. His quest for wisdom originated partly from making mistakes himself and observing those of others but also from the philosophy of super-investor and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charles Munger. A man whose simplicity and clarity of thought was unequal to anything Bevelin had seen.
In addition to naturalist Charles Darwin and Munger, Bevelin cites an encyclopedic range of thinkers: from first-century BCE Roman poet Publius Terentius to Mark Twain—from Albert Einstein to Richard Feynman—from 16th Century French essayist Michel de Montaigne to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett. In the book, he describes ideas and research findings from many different fields.
This book is for those who love the constant search for knowledge. It is in the spirit of Charles Munger, who says, "All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there." There are roads that lead to unhappiness. An understanding of how and why we can "die" should help us avoid them. We can't eliminate mistakes, but we can prevent those that can really hurt us.
Using exemplars of clear thinking and attained wisdom, Bevelin focuses on how our thoughts are influenced, why we make misjudgments and tools to improve our thinking. Bevelin tackles such eternal questions as: Why do we behave like we do? What do we want out of life? What interferes with our goals?
Read and study this wonderful multidisciplinary exploration of wisdom. It may change the way you think and act in business and in life.