Reuven Brenner
Encyclopedia
Reuven Brenner is an economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 professor, holding the REPAP Chair of Economics at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

's Desautels Faculty of Management
Desautels Faculty of Management
The Desautels Faculty of Management is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. The Faculty has been host to the McGill Management International Case Competition since 2001...

.

Career

Over the last thirty years he has consulted for companies including Bank of America, Knowledge Universe, Bell Canada. The son of concentration camp survivors, he was born in 1947 in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, and immigrated to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 where he served in the Israeli Army during both the Six Day War and Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...

.

At the core of his economic model is the view that the metaphysical trumps the physical, with human capital the source of true wealth creation around the world. Physical wealth, as in wealth that comes from the ground is not portable, which means it can easily be taxed, or worse, expropriated. His most recent book, A World of Chance argues that at one time gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

 fulfilled roles performed by venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

 and bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...

ing do today, and that modern financial institutions retain a strong gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

 core. The book shows how people dealt with uncertainty and risk since Antiquity, how they rationalized a variety of beliefs and institutions that made it appear that decisions had some solid backing; how people in fact made decisions on a variety of issues linked to finance, gambling, insurance, religion and politics, and , last but not least, he offers his own view of human nature, linking risk taking to trial and error, and venturing into the uncertain. His views have not much in common with either economists' orthodox views of 'risk aversion, or the so-called behavioral approach. Brenner confronts with view with a wide range of facts and events - and no laboratory experiments. As he puts it, people can neither make nor lose millions in laboratories

In his 2002 book, Force of Finance, Brenner notes that economic success in certain countries often results from "political blunders of other nations," that lead "to the rapid outflow of both capital and talented people." Brenner cites Hong Kong as one beneficiary of a talented human inflow, a city with notably nothing in the way of natural wealth to redistribute. To prosper there, "one must use one's brains for a living", and as "brains are mobile, you can't tax them too much." This was also the reason Amsterdam, Singapore, Israel and Florida prospered and why post World War II Germany was able to rebuild.On the capital side of the ledger, Brenner writes that these countries have prospered because they have kept their capital markets open, something they did in part because they happened not to have natural resources on which they could collect rents. The book also discusses the various monetary policy options, pointing out the flaws in inflation rate targeting and floating exchange rates, and suggests that economists have misunderstood the proper role of gold, and reaches the conclusion that it should be serve as an alarm signal. Brenner also integrates his views about democratization of capital markets and entrepreneurship with issues such as nationalism and tolerance, as well as with details about political institutions that can best maintain accountability, illustrating the latter with Swiss' unique "direct democracy."

In addition to Force of Finance, Reuven Brenner is the author of seven other books. Labyrinths of Prosperity helps to explain among other things why the Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 are seen as frugal
Frugality
Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the use of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance....

, why education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 spending rose in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 after 1958, and why Russians refrained from buying apartments there after the U.S.S.R.'s collapse. For the macro-focused, he points out that statistics such as GDP sustain "the illusion that prosperity is necessarily linked with territory, national units, and government spending in general." For those skeptical about government measures of inflation, his discussion of the inherent flaws of CPI is particularly eye-opening. It's about why the Keynesian get it completely wrong, that the paradox of savings is not at all what they capture in their models, and, since none ever discusses that in the last Chapter of the General Theory, where Keynes says that his views are in fact those of Bernard de Mandeville's Fable of the Bees (quoting from it extensively, and which has little to do with what now passes for his framework), it is not clear if they even really read the book.

In Gambling and Speculation Brenner makes a cogent argument for gambling legalization. He uses history and theory to cover all measures of risk taking, noting that risk-taking that is a daily part our lives.

In Educating Economists, Brenner and co-author David Colander discuss ways to improve the training of future economists. In the chapter Making Sense out of Nonsense, Brenner discusses what's wrong with the social sciences and academia today, and in two other chapters focusing on the main courses being taught in economics either being empty of content, or wrong.Rivalry: In Business, Science, Among Nations posits a theory of business enterprise that suggests risks are taken as a way to be outranked by one's peers in the hierarchical sense. The book also deals with antitrust, state owned enterprises, and advertising, showing how the latter saves significant search costs, and how recommendations of family and friends (the non-digital ones of the 1980s) were a good substitute for advertising.

His first two books, History - the Human Gamble and Betting on Ideas present his views on "history," by looking at facts and sequence of events that other historians and social scientists have not, and integrates Brenner's views of human nature, of experimenting with innovations in business, science, politics, with demographic changes. All combined in an entirely jargon-free text, lead to Brenner's view - and the title of his concluding chapter in the first book - that "Happy People Do Not Have a History."

In addition to his books, Brenner's articles have been published in The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

, National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...

 (Canada), Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....

, The Straits Times
The Straits Times
The Straits Times is an English language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore currently owned by Singapore Press Holdings . It is the country's highest-selling paper, with a current daily circulation of nearly 400,000...

 (Singapore), Asia Times
Asia Times
Asia Times was a newspaper launched in Thailand by Thai tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul in 1995. The newspaper hired talent from around the world to produce a regional English-language newspaper....

, Dow Jones and Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...

 (Paris). He also has a column at Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

.

Books

  • Brenner, R., Brenner, G.A., and Brown, A., A World of Chance, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

  • The Force of Finance, New York, Texere Publishing, April 2002, 224 pages (US version of The Financial Century, 2001).

  • The Financial Century: From Turmoils to Triumphs, Stoddart Publishers, March 2001, 224 pages

  • Labyrinths of Prosperity: Economic Follies, Democratic Remedies, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1994.

  • In Pursuit of Canadian Prosperity, Montreal: McGill Faculty of Management, 1994

  • Brenner, R. et Brenner, G.,Spéculation et jeux de hasard – Une histoire de l’homme par le jeu, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1993.

  • Brenner, R. and Brenner, G., Gambling and Speculation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. vii-286, published in French in Paris by Presses Universitaires de France, 1993.

  • Educating Economists, Brenner, R. and Colander, D. (eds.), Ann Arbor, Michigan University Press, March 1992, pp. 1–294.

  • History - The Human Gamble, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1983, Spanish Edition under the title La Historia, Albur del Hombre, published by Fondo de Cultura Economica, Mexico - Spain, Fall 1989

  • Rivalry, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. vii-244, (paperback edition of book first published in 1985).

  • Betting on Ideas, Chicago, Chicago University Press, (paperback edition of book first published in 1985), 1989, pp. ix-247.

Articles

  • "Swiss Direct Democracy: Good; Now What About California's?," (with Stephen Shipman),Forbes, November 2010, http://www.forbes.com/2010/11/01/california-switzerland-direct-democracy-opinions-columnists-reuven-brenner.html?boxes=Homepagechannels

  • "To Stabilize The Economy, Fix The U.S. Dollar," Forbes, October 2010, http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/28/dollar-china-gold-opinions-contributors-reuven-brenner.html

  • "The Vanishing Middle Class--And The Lasting Remedies," Forbes, October 2010, http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/19/employment-economics-middle-class-opinions-contributors-reuven-brenner.html

  • "The Keynes Conundrum," (with David Goldman), First Things, October 2010.

  • "Venture Capital in Canada: Lessons for Building (or Restoring) National Wealth," (with Gabrielle A. Brenner), Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Vol. 22, Issue 1:86-98, Winter 2010, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1581818

  • "Our Muddled Masses ," First Things, December 2009.

  • "We need a stable monetary anchor," Financial Post, December 3, 2009, http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/tags/Reuven+Brenner/default.aspx

  • " The Needle’s Eye: Why America’s Economic Recovery Needs the Global South ," (with David Goldman), First Things, November 2009.

  • "As the world float," Financial Post, November 24, 2009, http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/11/24/as-the-world-floats.aspx

  • "The only solution," Financial Post, September 24, 2009, http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2008/09/24/the-only-solution.aspx

  • "The Right Solution--For Right Now," Forbes, October 14, 2008, http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/14/banks-lending-dollar-oped-cx_rb_1014brenner.html

  • "Back To Basics," Forbes, September 17, 2008, http://www.forbes.com/2008/09/17/market-ratings-accountability-oped-cx_rb_0917brenner.html

  • "Dollar Bears," Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2008, http://poorbuthappy.com/yourthing/post/dollar-bears--wsj-march-18-2008/

  • "Gambling has been falsely demonised for centuries," (with Ira Terk) Financial Times, October 4, 2006, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8c4d85b0-53ce-11db-8a2a-0000779e2340.html

  • "The Phoenix Will Rise," National Review Online, September 12, 2006, http://article.nationalreview.com/290667/the-phoenix-will-rise/reuven-brenner

  • "The Fed’s CPI Target Has Gotta Go," National Review Online, September 1, 2006, http://article.nationalreview.com/289777/the-feds-cpi-target-has-gotta-go/reuven-brenner

  • "What’s Wrong with Fed Policy?" (with Martin Fridson), National Review Online, July 17, 2006, http://article.nationalreview.com/285653/whats-wrong-with-fed-policy/reuven-brenner-and-martin-fridson

  • "Demographic Self-Indulgence and Its Remedy," American Spectator, May 4, 2006, http://spectator.org/people/reuven-brenner/article.xml

  • "The Three Year Plan," American Spectator, September 13, 2005, http://spectator.org/archives/2005/09/13/the-three-year-plan

  • "US dollar: Accidents Waiting to Happen," Cato Journal, May 2005: 316-32, http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj26n2/cj26n2-10.pdf

  • "Unsettled civilizations: How the US can handle Iraq," Asia Times, June 23, 2004, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FF23Aa01.html

  • "Oiling the wheels of a tribal society ", Asia Times, November 20, 2003, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EK20Ak01.html

  • "Betting On Ideas (Terror Futures Markets)," Blackelectorate.com, August 30, 2003, http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?ID=937

  • "Perception and Reality: Oiling the wheels of a tribal society," Asia Times Online, 2003, URL: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EK20Ak01.html

  • " Gambling And Religion ," (with Gabrielle A. Brenner), Blackelectorate.com, January 9, 2003, http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?ID=779

  • "Patents, Tort And Antitrust- A Deal? ," Blackelectorate.com, November 27, 2002, http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?ID=749

  • "Another Option on Options," (with Donald L. Luskin), Wall Street Journal, September 3, 2002, http://www.trendmacro.com/luskin/pdf/20020903TrendMacroLuskinBrennerWSJ.pdf

  • "Prosperity and the democratization of capital," Forbes, April 16, 2001, http://www.forbes.com/global/2001/0416/090.html

  • "Why society needs "irrational exuberance" - and what this implies about valuations and monetary policy," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Volume 15, Number 2, Summer 2000, pp. 112-117.

  • "La taxe sur les gains de capital :un énorme fardeau social," Institut économique de Montréal, December 1999, http://www.iedm.org/uploaded/pdf/brenner1.pdf

  • "Camdessus never got it," Forbes, November 29, 1999, http://www.forbes.com/global/1999/1129/0224087a.html

  • "Unlocking Canadian Capital," testimony before the standing Senate committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce, Evidence,Ottawa, Wednesday, November 24, 1999, http://oldfraser.lexi.net/publications/books/capital_gains/section_13.html

  • "Depressing Krugnorance: Review of Krugman's The Return of Depression Economics", International Economy, July/August 1999.The version linked reprinted in National Post (Canada); Straits Times (Singapore). The article is integrated in Brenner's Force of Finance (2002). http://www.brookesnews.com/102806krugman.html

  • "Getting out while the getting is good," Forbes, July 26, 1999, http://www.forbes.com/global/1999/0726/0214109a.html

  • "The road to freedom," Forbes, May 17, 1999, http://www.forbes.com/global/1999/0517/0210090a.html

  • "Where else will capital flow, if not to America?," Forbes, April 19, 1999, http://www.forbes.com/global/1999/0419/0208085a.html

  • "Currencies don't lie," Forbes, March 8, 1999, http://www.forbes.com/global/1999/0308/0205059a.html

  • "Review of Krugman's Depression Economics, 1999, originally published in International Economy, Financial Post, Strait Times etc, http://www.brookesnews.com/102806krugman.html

  • "Canadian lessons for Euroland," Forbes, February 22, 1999, http://www.forbes.com/global/1999/0222/0204025a.html

  • "A modest proposal," Forbes, November 16, 1998, http://www.forbes.com/global/1998/1116/0117025a.html

  • "Land of opportunity," Forbes, October 12, 1998, http://www.forbes.com/global/1998/1012/0114022a.html

  • "Canada: Failure of Promised Land," Polyconomics, June 1998, 22 pages, http://www.cagecanada.ca/Business_vs_Government.php

  • "The Causes Economic Growth?" Lead Article, Cato Policy Report, May/June, 1998: 1-12, http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v20n3/econgrowth.pdf

  • "Asian Currency Crisis," Lead Article, Jobs and Capital, Spring 1998, 1-9

  • "Gambling, Speculation and Insurance", Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, v. 9, no. 3, Fall 1996, pp. 118–28.

  • "An Overlooked Explanation of the Declining Saving Rate", Empirical Economics, (with M. Dagenais and C. Montmarquette) v. 19, (1994), pp. 629–34.

  • "Referenda and Initiatives: the Cure for Democracy's Spending Problem," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, v. 7, no. 2, (1994), pp. 108–116.

  • "Dealing With Creativity, but Avoiding Disciplinary Metaphors: A response to tubenson and runco", New Ideas in Psychology, v. 10, no. 2 (1992), pp. 149–55.

  • "Entrepreneurship in the New Commonwealth", Executive Forum, Journal of Business Venturing, v. 7, no. 2 (1992), pp. 431–40.

  • "Extracting Sunbeams Out of Cucumbers: Or, what is bad social science and why is it practiced?", Queen's Quarterly, v. 99 (Fall 1991), pp. 519–53.

  • "From Envy and Distrust to Trust and Ambition", Rivista Economica, v. LXXXI, serie 3 (June 1991), pp. 31–59. (in English and Italian).

  • "Why is Opera More Exciting in Post-Communist Societies?", Queen's Quarterly, v. 99 (Winter 1991), pp. 1011–1016.

  • (and Brenner, G.) "Gambling: Shaping an opinion", Journal of Gambling Studies, v. 6, no. 4 (1990), pp. 297–311.

  • "Pays de L'est: d'abord les réformes légales, ensuite les politiques monétaires et macroéconomiques", Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines: Bilingual Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, v. 1, no. 3 (1990), pp. 253–77.

  • "The Long Road From Serfdom and How to Shorten It", Canadian Business Law Journal, v. 17, no. 2 (1990), pp. 195–226.

  • (and Brenner, G.) "Les Innovations et La Loi Sur la Concurrence", Actualité Economique, v. 65, no.1 (1989), pp. 146–63.

  • (G. Brenner), "Intrepreneurship - Le nouveau nom d'un vieux phénomène", Revue internationale de gestion, September 1988.

Published interviews

  • "The Earth was created 5770 years ago at 6.00 PM," interview with Krzysztof Nędzyński of Obserwator Finansowy, Obserwatorfinansowy, August 8, 2010, http://www.obserwatorfinansowy.pl/2010/08/02/the-earth-was-created-5770-years-ago-at-6-00-pm/

  • "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," interview with Krzysztof Nędzyński of Obserwator Finansowy, Obserwatorfinansowy, July 12, 2010, http://www.obserwatorfinansowy.pl/2010/07/12/the-road-to-hell-is-paved-with-good-intentions/

  • "20 pytań do ... Reuvena Brennera ," Forbes Poland, March 24, 2009, http://www.respectindex.pl/artykuly/sekcje/wydarzenia-archiwalne/20-pytan-do-----reuvena-brennera,2754,1

  • "Talking Management, Reuven Brenner,"Globe and Mail, November 4, 2008, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/article720719.ece

  • Interview with the American Creativity Association, August 26, 2004, http://www.amcreativityassoc.org/Articles/Barnes_interview_with_Brenner.pdf

  • Questions and answers with Blackelectorate.com, Part II, September 26, 2002, http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?ID=706

  • Questions and answers with Blackelectorate.com, Part I, September 25, 2002, http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?ID=705

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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