Wall Street revalued
Subtitle: imperfect markets and inept central bankers
By: Andrew Smithers.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Chichester, West Sussex; Hoboken, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 246
ISBN-13: 9780470750056
Subjects: Capital market -- United States; Monetary policy -- United States; Finance -- United States; Banks and banking, Central -- United States
Description: In Wall Street revalued, leading analyst and bestselling author of Valuing Wall Street, Andrew Smithers presents a new way to value asset prices. Indifference to overvalued asset prices by investors, central banks and much of the financial press is the root cause of the current crisis. Bubbles in stock markets, house prices and financial assets cause huge damage when they fall, not only to their owners, but also to the world economy. An understanding of how to value assets is thus vital for managing the economy as well as for investors. This book explains how assets can be valued and shows how much incorrect and inaccurate information is published on the subject and how to spot this. Among investment bankers and financial journalists the two most common claims to value are, as Andrew shows, unadulterated lies. One of these is that "Shares are cheap given the level of current (or forecast) PE multiples" and the other is that "Shares are cheap relative to interest rates." Andrew also explains how asset prices affect the economy and how central banks lose their ability to stabilise it when bubbles collapse. The denial that markets can be valued has caused great damage. Markets are not perfectly efficient, nor are they are irrational casinos. This book sets out a new model for understanding the limited efficiency of financial markets, which is the key condition for improving investment and economic management today.