Official Review: Asia's Financial Industry 1986-2016

[psychopathycathy]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Asia's Financial Industry 1986-2016" by Lawrence Au.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Growing up in the US, I had always felt like a bit of a disconnect from my Asian heritage, because I didn't know much about culture, history, or current events, and to be honest, I never really bothered to try. Until now. When I picked up this book, I hoped that it would help me gain some insight into Asia's financial situation, and I'm happy to say that I got that and a lot more.

Asia's Financial Industry 1986 - 2016 by Lawrence Au begins with a prologue that starts with how the author first came across custody as a financial business line after ten years of being in the banking industry. He describes the ups and downs of the industry over the years, and now it is a vital part of economy banking within society. This book addresses several inventions over the years, such as vaults, cheques, new methods of delivering securities such as bicycle couriers, and the development of market infrastructure and how it affected the region. A chapter that really resonated with me was one about September 11, 2001 and how the attack on the Twin Towers affected the financial industry, even on the other side of the world.

One thing I loved about the book were the chapters throughout that were appendixes and timelines of events, which really simplified the huge amount of information this book provided. There were many black and white photos throughout the book, and as a visual learner, I found that these really enhanced the learning experience. Another aspect of Asia's Financial Industry 1986 - 2016 that I really enjoyed were the prologue and epilogue; because they were written from the author's point of view and described his position within the financial industry, it not only allowed the readers to gain insight into his personal experience, but also illustrated the extensive research the writer did in order to aggregate such a credible collection of information.

Unfortunately, there were some formatting errors, such as incorrect margins in the chapter "Appendix: Timeline of Malaysian Currency Control", which made it a bit hard to read, but this is definitely an error that can be easily fixed. Other than that the book seemed professionally edited to me.

The writing throughout this book was objective, credible, and informative, and as a result of the positives and negatives explained above, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves nonfiction or is interested in economics, social science, and politics, and I hope it gives all of its readers the opportunity to learn more about the world.

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Asia's Financial Industry 1986-2016
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Like psychopathycathy's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Amagine]

This book sounds like one that offers an insightful look into Asia's financial history. I agree that this is a great book for anyone interested in economics. Also it is an intriguing read to anyone interested in the history of other continents and countries.

Great Review! ?

[kandscreeley]

Well, I don't think this is the book for me. Thanks for the review though.

[Chrys Brobbey]

As someone in the financial field, I think this book will be enlightening to me, as well as acquire knowledge about Asia's financial industry. A good review.

[Jaime Lync]

Great review. For some reason I find this types of books really tedious to read though I want to read them.

[Rosemary Okoko]

This book doesn't seem to have the usual annoying errors and also sounds like a good book to read. Thank you for the review.

[Al Chakauya]

I like your review, it makes someone who is not interested in finance and economics like to read the book.

[Paul78]

A very extensive review. It seems that the book gave a clear account on the Asian financial markets.
I would get hold of the book just to read it.

[ReviewerDiksha]

Commerce never really interested me, so this book us not for me. It does sound good for the ones interested in the financial studies.

[IsabelMay]

Even though it's not a book that many will read for pleasure and fun, it will be valuable to anyone working in this field, such as economists and businessmen. A span of thirty years is a lot, so the research must have been hard and took a lot of time. The addition of photos is nice, I hope there are also some charts to represent the data in a more interesting way.

[Dolor]

I am not into this genre. I'm glad you enjoyed reading and gave a perfect rating. Thanks for the review.

[TrishKissane]

Definitely not a book that piques my interest. I think it will appeal to economists and people interested in economics.

[beckijo]

Asias's Financial Industry 1986~2016 was interesting to me because from what I have gathered through out my life, is that Asia basically owns the economy. This book, however, gave me the idea that Asia supplies our economy. It doesnt give me satisfaction to a definte answer, but does give me insight to another idea about our economy and the politics behind it. Leaving me wanting to research more on this topic. I guess I'd say its interesting, but not satisfactory if one would like concrete answers~which is likely impossible, anyway...

[BoyLazy]

I Need to know more about the economy. Will surely read this one n thanks for the nice review.

[Katerina Katapodi]

Yes, this is actually a very intersting book, on a contemporary matter, such as the Financial State of Asia nowadays. We have, according to book, to point out, that this positive financial bust, is due to a long term transformation, of economic and social image of countries of Asia, in many fields. Efforts had been made for more decades obviously, and results appeared later, with the time, but on a steady pace!
This financial phenomena is based on many factors, such as demographic problems and changes with globalization in the last few years. As most of Asian countries, starting from China, are highly populated, and many many people were very poor, then spirit of economy, was developped little by little by focusing to low cost of production, first, and also a bit low, at least at the beginning, salaries and wages, so that Capital was created that was further invested (reinvested) in economy in an accumulative way. Due low value of currencies, there have been entrepreneurs, (busineessmen) that purchased cheap, but created also many posts of work. Due cheap cost commerce progressed, with many imports, thus being able to buy raw materials at a low cost, that afterwards, introduced to the economy of local production and so on.
The proof of this can be seen, in production of substitutes of many medicines, that are very expensive in Europe, this is, in my opinion an example of the actual financial state of Asian countries, by also lowering unemployment, and keeping inflation under control.
Thus , we see also, that entrprises adopted more practical ways, to earm money, for ex. many Translation Companies, with cheap rates, for clients, as well as companies,of all relative workds, such as article writing, editing etc. Thus clients buy at lower rates, this kind of services, (also a kind of investment), while cost of production for this kind of business is the lowest possible: No goods needed to be bought and risk also a bankrupcy later, just P/C, a Fax, a Phone number, and the rest of lowcost equipment, as capital invested...
Al this and much more, are very well analysed in this book, by competent writer in this case, in a more scientific way..