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I’ve been attending the Western Academy of Management conference this weekend, organized this year by Brayden’s department chair Paul Hirsch.  I haven’t attended the conference for a long time, but I must say that the conference is great: it has a very unique and fun culture, and it’s nice and small.  Consider attending next year, the conference will be in Kona, Hawaii.

Tonight’s keynote address was given by Jerry Davis, the talk was based on his forthcoming Oxford University Press book Managed by the Markets: How Finance Re-Shaped America.  The presentation was excellent—full of interesting charts related to how the US economy has evolved from a corporate- centric model to a market-centric one. Not sure I agreed with everything (though, the history of finance certainly isn’t my research area either, so what do I know)—but the arguments certainly are interesting and provocative; I look forward to reading the book.    The book is sure to get lots and lots of attention in the next couple months, it’s extremely timely.

Davis also gave an admirable Jimmy Stewart impression of the strikingly relevant bank run scene from It’s a Wonderful Life (here’s the short 20 second scene from the movie).

The book’s full description can be found here, on the publisher’s web site.

And, an online copy of the book’s preface.

Here’s some advance praise for the book by Jeff Pfeffer:

In this intellectual tour de force, Jerry Davis describes the evolution of the American economy to where we are now—where everything is a security or an option and, therefore, tradable in some sort of market. He also details the profound costs we have paid for this evolution. Timely, engaging, and filled with facts and analysis, Managed by the Markets explains how we got to where we are and maybe, just maybe, where we need to go next.