Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten The World Economy - Hardcover

An absolute must read for those who have interest in economics and how it governs the world. Rajan has taken special care for novice readers like me and explained his reasons in a simplistic manner. Flipkart was prompt with its commitment too. --Abhigyan Chatterjee Sep 6, 2014

An eye opener and itself a course in Economics if fully understood. Requires a prompt knowledge of economics or otherwise a readers should be curious to understand and search for the answers themselves. --Nikhil Rathi Jan 30, 2015

This is by far the best book on global financial crisis I have read including the ones written by Nobel laureates such as Stiglitz and Krugman. The book is comprehensive in coverage and masterful in its treatment of various issues that bedevil economic policy and finance globally. Dr Rajan has handled a multitude of themes and sub-themes in the book, each logically woven with the other, effortlessly gliding the reader from one topic to another. --Arnab Chowdhury Feb 6, 2015

Raghuram Rajan was one of the few economists who warned of the global financial crisis before it hit. Now, as the world struggles to recover, it is tempting to blame just a few greedy bankers who took irrational risks and left the rest of the world to foot the bill. In Fault Lines, Rajan argues that serious flaws in the global economy are also to blame, and warns that a potentially more devastating crisis awaits if they are not fixed. Rajan shows how the individual choices - made by bankers, government officials, and ordinary homeowners - that collectively brought about the economic meltdown were rational responses to a flawed global financial order in which the incentives to take on risk are incredibly out of step with the dangers those risks pose. He traces the deepening fault lines in a world overly dependent on the indebted American consumer to power economic growth and stave off global downturns. Alongside, America's growing inequality and thin social safety net create tremendous political pressure to encourage easy credit and keep job creation robust. In the process these put the rest of the world in deeper financial peril, even as the economic choices of countries like Germany, Japan, and China place undue burden on America to get its policies right. In Fault Lines, Rajan outlines the hard choices that the world needs to make to ensure greater stability and restore lasting prosperity. Importantly, he shows how India's development experience is different from that of other recent fast-growing economies. Despite India's recent successes, however, he argues that India has to act decisively in certain areas to maintain its people-oriented growth. If India does so and continues on its unique development path, it will be a compelling role model, demonstrating how it is possible to grow rapidly even while having a flourishing democracy