The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, "animal spirits" are driving financial events worldwide. In this book, acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess, and put forward a bold new vision that will transform economics and restore prosperity. Akerlof and Shiller reassert the necessity of an active government role in economic policymaking by recovering the idea of animal spirits, a term John Maynard Keynes used to describe the gloom and despondence that led to the Great Depression and the changing psychology that accompanied recovery. Like Keynes, Akerlof and Shiller know that managing these animal spirits requires the steady hand of government--simply allowing markets to work won't do it. In rebuilding the case for a more robust, behaviorally informed Keynesianism, they detail the most pervasive effects of animal spirits in contemporary economic life--such as confidence, fear, bad faith, corruption, a concern for fairness, and the stories we tell ourselves about our economic fortunes--and show how Reaganomics, Thatcherism, and the rational expectations revolution failed to account for them."Animal Spirits" offers a road map for reversing the financial misfortunes besetting us today. Read it and learn how leaders can channel animal spirits--the powerful forces of human psychology that are afoot in the world economy today. In a new preface, they describe why our economic troubles may linger for some time--unless we are prepared to take further, decisive action.

喬治·阿剋洛夫(George A.Akedof)，1966年獲美國麻省理工學院博士，現為美國伯剋利加州大學經濟學教授，因在分析不對稱信息市場方麵作齣的重要貢獻，於2001年獲諾貝爾經濟學奬。阿剋洛夫的研究藉鑒瞭社會學、心理學、人類學以及其他學科以確定經濟學的影響和結果，他研究領域包括宏觀經濟學、貧睏問題、傢庭問題、犯罪、歧視、貨幣政策等。

羅伯特·希勒(Robert J.Shiller)，1972年獲得麻省理工學院經濟學博士學位，現為美國耶魯大學經濟學教授。希勒在金融市場、行為經濟學、宏觀經濟學、不動産等方麵，著作頗豐。他和另一位經濟學傢Karl E.Case開發的Case-Shiller房價指數是衡量美國住房市場走勢的主要指標。他的《終結次貸危機》、《非理性繁榮》和《金融新秩序》等著作是全球暢銷書。