Ouch! What You Don't Know About Money & Why it Matters


By Paul Knott
December 2012
Pearson Education
Distributed by Trans-Atlantic Publications
ISBN: 9780273772927
252 pages, Illustrated
$37.50 paper original

OUT OF PRINT


It's time to wake up or get wiped out.

We live in a world dominated by a system that most of us aren’t aware of, never mind understand. When it comes to money and how it really works, most of us are too busy, too bored or too bewildered to think about it, despite being at the sharp end of the consequences. We simply don’t recognise the game that is being played out in front of us. Well check your pockets; you’re in for a nasty shock.

OUCH! is your entertaining answer to financial fear, ignorance or confusion. Quintessentially irreverent but with a deadly serious message - ultimately it tells you how to protect your hard earned cash and save yourself from financial meltdown.

You can’t afford to ignore it.

 

Contents:

About the author

Publisher's acknowledgements

Author's acknowledgements

Introduction

CHAPTER 1. SHOW ME THE MONEY - its origins and how it works

Money, that’s what I want

Prehistoric transactions

Origin of faeces

The ultimate confidence trick

Empty promises

How fictional money is created

The most powerful force in the universe

Taking advantage

The stupidity tax

Chequebook vandalism

CHAPTER 2. PARALYTICALLY INCORRECT - Wake up to your reality

Paralytically incorrect

Follow the white rabbit

For richer, for poorer

De-railing the gravy train

A bit of a kerfuffle

CHAPTER 3. FIGHTING INSTINCTS - Understanding human behaviour and risk

Fight, flight and blight

'Oops!' inside your head

The curious case of Phineas Gage

PETs ‘R’ Us

The paradox

Abdication of responsibility

Baaaaaaaa

Probability vs. uncertainty

Out of control

Risk it, for a biscuit

Predictable and irrational?

CHAPTER 4. IGNORE EVERYONE - Stop the press and join the noise abatement society

Porky pies

Why 97 per cent are wrong

Jaw on the floor

Sponge me down

Manufacturing consent

Vested interest

Analyse this

Illusion of knowledge

Seven deadly sins

Exceptions to the rule

CHAPTER 5. RUB MY CRYSTAL BALL - The dismal science partially demystified

Rhyme on time

Three house rules

How much?

Generational Dynamics

Dr Doom and the law of consequences

The orgy

Smack my bitch up

Morton’s Fork

CHAPTER 6. MARKET DNA - Understanding how the market operates

Fancy a coffee?

Meet the sentiments

Smart money vs. dumb money

It’s been emotional

Beauty contest

Time horizons

Asset allocation

Dividend and conquer

Rip off

What’s eating you?

Like sheep to the slaughter

The Chartist movement

Voodoo monthanomics?

Closing the donut

The peasants are revolting

CHAPTER 7. ENTER THE DOJO - Foible combat - retraining your brain

Stop fibbing

Me, myself and I

Can’t be arsed finds the Holy Grail?

Brain rewiring

Fight club

CHAPTER 8. WHO ATE MY MAMMOTH? - Avoiding extinction and riding the money tides

Barking mad

Metal guru

Money tides

Weighing the anchor

Thrown in the stocks

From peer to eternity

Tripwires et al.

Random kindness

Appendix: Schemes

A dollop of source

Index

 

 

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