Amar Bhidé is Thomas Schmidheiny Professor at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Previously he was Professor of Business at Columbia University. He is a founding member of the Center on Capitalism and editor of its journal, Capitalism and Society.
His latest book "A Call for Judgment"Sensible Finance for a Dynamic Economy clearly explains how bad theories and mis-regulation have caused a dangerous divergence between the real economy and finance. In simple language Bhidé takes apart the so-called advances in modern finance, showing how backward-looking, top-down models were used to mass-produce toxic products.
Thanks to excessively tight securities laws and loose banking laws, anonymous transactions have displaced relationship-based finance. Bhidé offers, tough simple rules for restoring relationships and case-by-case judgment: limit banks-and all deposit taking institutions-to basic lending and nothing else.
In his previous book "The Venturesome Economy":How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World, he uses
extensive field studies on venture-capital-backed businesses to examine how technology really advances in modern economies, Bhidé explains why know-how developed abroad enhances not diminishes prosperity at home, and why trying to maintain the U.S. lead by subsidizing more research or training more scientists will do more harm than good.
When breakthrough ideas have no borders, a nation's capacity to exploit cutting-edge research regardless of where it originates is crucial: "venturesome consumption"--the willingness and ability of businesses and consumers to effectively use products and technologies derived from scientific research--is far more important than having a share of such research. In fact, a venturesome economy benefits from an increase in research produced abroad: the success of Apple's iPod, for instance, owes much to technologies developed in Asia and Europe.
The Venturesome Economy won the Association of American Publishers’ PROSE Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence in Business, Finance, and Management, and was in the “Best of 2008” lists of the Economist, BusinessWeek and Barrons. Bhidé also authored The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses and Of Politics and Economic Reality
Professor Bhidé is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has served on the faculty of Harvard Business School and the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He served on the staff of the Brady Commission, which investigated the 1987 stock market crash.
He is a former Senior Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Co. and VP, E.F. Hutton. He is widely published in both academic and mainstream business media.
He has written numerous articles in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Forbes, the Financial Times and The LA Times.