"This marvelous book by Frydman and Goldberg documents . . . invaluable insights of the 'early modern' theory of capitalism that were lost when the profession endorsed rational expectations equilibrium. . . . Happily for me and, I believe, for the profession of economics, this deeply original and important book gives signs of bringing us back on track--on a road toward an economics possessing a genuine microfoundation and at the same time a capacity to illuminate some of the many aspects of the modern economy that the rational expectations approach cannot by its nature explain."--from the foreword by Edmund S. Phelps, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in economics

"Anyone who has ever studied markets for financial assets such as currencies knows that it is very difficult to explain, much less predict, short to medium term fluctuations. In their innovative new work, "Imperfect Knowledge Economics," Roman Frydman and Michael Goldberg make a strong case that it would be particularly helpful to improve our understanding of how financial markets process new knowledge and information. In addition, the book offers a useful guide to understanding existing empirical exchange rate models."--Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University

"The centrality of expectations in understanding economic fluctuations has long been recognized, but their formation has not been adequately described. The rational expectation hypothesis was a bold and ingenious attempt, but it has proved empirically very far from satisfactory, most strikingly, in the field of foreign exchange markets, where the good documentation makes the failure easier to establish. Frydman and Goldberg open new doors by a more realistic understandingof the process of forming expectations; by recognizing that universal rules are intrinsically impossible, they exhibit a more creative understanding of the recent history of foreign exchange spot and futures markets."--Kenneth J. Arrow, Nobel Prize-winning economist

"If you are looking for a way to escape from the Procrustean bed of rational expectations equilibrium--and, if you pay attention to real-world data, you should be--try reading this imaginative and intelligent book. It will amply repay your efforts."--Alan S. Blinder, Princeton University

"If you have been puzzled by the difficulty of reconciling uncertainty with the equilibrium models that economists use to explain market outcomes, this is the right book to read and reread. It launches a new approach, "Imperfect Knowledge Economics," which highlights the long-recognized failure of prespecified general equilibrium modeling to account for the behavior of agents under changing conditions. Frydman and Goldberg are thus proposing models that are able to generate robust qualitative predictions, leading to a better understanding of short- and long-term swings in economic variables. In macroeconomics, there will undoubtedly be a 'before' and 'after' this book."--Jean-Paul Fitoussi, president, l'Observatoire francais des conjonctures economiques, Paris

"The record of contemporary economics in explaining the behavior of exchange rates is a sorry one. Frydman and Goldberg make the foreign exchange rate problem the particular object of a searching critique of current macroeconomics and use it also as the vehicle for demonstrating how they would break its methodological 'stranglehold.' Their own alternative, imperfect knowledgeeconomics, is systematically worked out and persuasively argued. It is my hope that the book will be widely read and debated."--Axel Leijonhufvud, UCLA and the University of Trento

"This is a major and controversial contribution to macroeconomics that cannot fail to make an impact in several areas. Academics will read it for the comprehensive critique of much macroeconomic theory. More empirically motivated economists will look carefully at the rich scope for empirical analysis that the book opens up. Policymakers too will want to look at it--and will be relieved to see that they come off much better than the main authors of the rational expectations school."--Niels Thygesen, University of Copenhagen

In the wake of the global financial crisis that began in 2007, faith in the rationality of markets has lost ground to a new faith in their irrationality. The problem, Roman Frydman and Michael Goldberg argue, is that both the rational and behavioral theories of the market rest on the same fatal assumption--that markets act mechanically and economic change is fully predictable. In "Beyond Mechanical Markets," Frydman and Goldberg show how the failure to abandon this assumption hinders our understanding of how markets work, why price swings help allocate capital to worthy companies, and what role government can and can't play.

The financial crisis, Frydman and Goldberg argue, was made more likely, if not inevitable, by contemporary economic theory, yet its core tenets remain unchanged today. In response, the authors show how imperfect knowledge economics, an approach they pioneered, provides a better understanding of markets and the financial crisis. Frydman and Goldberg deliver a withering critique of the widely accepted view that the boom in equity prices that ended in 2007 was a bubble fueled by herd psychology. They argue, instead, that price swings are driven by individuals' ever-imperfect interpretations of the significance of economic fundamentals for future prices and risk. Because swings are at the heart of a dynamic economy, reforms should aim only to curb their excesses.

Showing why we are being dangerously led astray by thinking of markets as predictably rational or irrational, "Beyond Mechanical Markets" presents a powerful challenge to conventional economic wisdom that we can't afford to ignore.