The Economics of Integrity: From Dairy Farmers to Toyota, How Wealth Is Built on Trust and What That Means for Our Future

by Anna Bernasek

“Anyone interested in understanding what makes our economy work must have this on their bookshelf.” —Mark Zandi, Chief Economist, Moody's In The Economics of Integrity , acclaimed financial journalist Anna Bernasek presents a deceptively straightforward that the attributes of trust and integrity, beyond being simply virtuous ideals, are actually the bedrocks of a successful economy and culture. Bernasek has written a big-idea book with the readability of Predictably Irrational , and presents a compelling hypothesis that most of the things we take for granted in our lives depend on integrity. In the words of Dan Gross (Senior Editor, Newsweek , and author of Dumb How Our Greatest Financial Minds Bankrupted the Nation ), “in an era of structured finance, nano-technology, and complex business models, Anna Bernasek’s timely, valuable, and highly readable book reminds us that the economy runs on something much more trust.”

Genres: Economics, Business, Sociology

208 pages, Hardcover

First published February 6, 2010

Reviews

[Aifa Radzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this is my first economics-related book. I love the fact that Anna advocates sincerity in transactions, which is what the world is lacking. Some parts of the book feels repetitive but I guess it's for necessary reiterations of main ideas.

[Dea Khumaira · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writer begins her writing by questioning the case of 2008 financial crisis. She, then, emphasizes the important of integrity in building the wealth through few stories of Milk, ATM, gold saving in US, how Toyota build its brand, etc. At last, the writer proposes three steps to investing in the integrity of the financial system; disclosure, norms and accountability.

[Mikayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. Not my favorite book. Was required to purchase it for my graduate seminar class. Enjoyed the stories of the companies that were used as examples.

[Aradweb Aradweb Adil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does ECONOMIC subject made you feel bored? Then why not try to explore and experience the other side of ECONOMIC other than just about profit & loss or a breakeven and also a lot of graph. Actually this is a second book that I have read about ECONOMIC. The first one is The Economic Naturalist and the way Robert H Frank present it make you realised that ECONOMIC is not just about figures.

In this book, Anna Bernasek the author tried to relate why the INTEGRITY have anything to do with ECONOMICS. With about 10 real economics cases discussed in this book, Anna successfuly dig out the value of integrity and trust that somewhat blend into it. Begin with hows integrity and trust being adopted in producing a milk product followed by how many people & trust involved during the process of a single ATM cash withdrawal, then why most country put a trust to US Federal Reserve Bank to store their gold stock. About Toyota with it quality control assurance and kaizen approach of production line up to L.L. Bean's unlimited return policy. eBay and its Feedback system.

All the above real case somehow or rather is about integrity was treated as a value of the economics. Without it our child might end-up in a hospital ward just because the milk is contaminated, or we will not be able to withdraw a cash from other than the issuer of the ATM card and Toyota will not be able to convince their customer to continue using their car if not because of their never ending quality improvement.

All in all, investing in integrity wont happen overnight. It might take centuries but the most important is it should start with the DNA of integrity and from there its evolved.

One question, if INTEGRITY is a must have feature to have in the business then why HAWALAbeing betray just because it being widely used by so called terrorist as said?.Ahh! CAPITALISM

[Erica Scherzer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected this book to be much better than it was. Luckily it was short and a pretty easy read, otherwise I'm not sure I would have finished. Bernasek was very long winded and seemed to be giving more of a history lesson than actually focusing on true integrity issues. She spent very little time discussing problems with integrity and possible solutions. There were some interesting stories about how various companies started, but aside from that I found it dull, repetitive and poorly argued.

[Teri L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting examples of why some products and services are trusted and trustworthy - eBay, the U.S. Treasury that holds gold for various nations and customers, Toyota before the recent problems. Prescriptions for making the U.S. tax, health care, and financial systems more trusted and trustworthy are difficult to implement and probably unrealistic.

[Daars Nada · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title was much much better than the contents. Found it to be quite winded in making a point, didn't retain my interest to continue. Some conclusions were unfortunately much of a let down compared to the hype drawn in the narrations

[Chris H. H. Leeb · Rating 3 out of 5]

The basic idea to have more integrity and trust for making business is clear and true. but then the examples do not show how this really is implemented.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprised by how much I learned and actually enjoyed reading it. Enlightening!

[Rajiv Sondhi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found it a bit long winded in making it's point. Could not retain my interest till the end.

[Tara Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to get you thinking about how invaluable trust is in building a strong economy for business and for your community.

[Ashlie Kendrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the ideas in this book - it read a little bit like a college paper, though--idea, proof, restate idea, repeat. But the ideas themselves were compelling.

[Eve Choong · Rating 4 out of 5]

How many corporate company will share the same view ?