My book needs a subtitle. Can you help?
So, as reported, I turned the book manuscript in Monday. Now I need a subtitle. There are those who think I need a title. I disagree, but I'll get to that. The title of the book is The Myth of the Rational Market. The current subtitle, which is left over from the days that the people at Collins were thinking our best shot was to market the book as something of an investor guide, is Wall Street's Impossible Quest for Predictable Markets. That doesn't really work for me or my editor.
The book is a history of the rise and fall of the idea that financial markets are perfectly rational. It's mostly about finance professors and economists, but I also follow them and their ideas as they migrate from campus to the real world. Here are a few subtitles we've toyed with so far:
A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street
The Story of Free Markets, Modern Finance, and the Delusions of Wall Street
A Theoretical History of Wall Street's Undoing
Then there's the argument that the current title maybe belongs as subtitle to something catchier. "There are idiots," is one possibility that has come up. It's a line from an early paper by Larry Summers about what later came to be called noise traders--market participants who had no idea what they were doing but nonetheless drove prices and sometimes made lots of money. But I dunno. First of all, There Are Idiots: The Myth of the Rational Market, doesn't really work together. Also, I think the current title, while a blunt instrument, is well suited to the times and makes clear what the book is about. It's also already in the catalog.
Although ... I did just think of one I kind of like, a reference to Alan Greenspan's testimony last month when he said that "the whole intellectual edifice … collapsed." I make a big deal out of this in my introduction, so how about The Edifice Collapsed: The Rise and Fall of the Myth of the Rational Market? Or maybe, just because it sounds better, even though he didn't say it: The Edifice Crumbled: The Rise and Fall of the Myth of the Rational Market. Or just The Edifice Crumbled: The Myth of the Rational Market.
Anyway, suggestions are welcome. And a suggestion that is actually used of course gets you a free signed copy of the book when it comes out.
Update: Ezra Klein's commenters are at work on this too.
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1
Unicorns, Leprechauns, and Other Fables: The Myth of the Rational Market
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2
I have 2 suggestions for you:
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The Thing Your Professor Didn't Teach You in Economics Class: There is No Rational Market (This is a take off on an older book about business school)
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Life Outside the Ivory Tower: The Myth of the Rational MarketGood Luck with the book.
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3
So exciting to be in title mode! How about:
The Myth of the Rational Market: The Rise and Fall of Wall Street's Biggest Assumption -
4
1. Urban legend or reality: the myth of rational market
2. New world born: the myth of rational market
3. Disappear of never exist confidence: citizenship in the 21st Century
4. Global collapse: how to reach rational aims by irrational decisions in the free market
5. Survive the storm of the middle of its eye: The myth of rational market
6. Dead of rational market: new world order born
7. The King is dead, The Myth of the Rational Market
8. Rest in Peace 20th Century: The Old Myth of the Rational Market
9. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: The myth of the Rational Market
10. Time to survive: Values of yesterday
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5
DON'T go with "edifice"--that won't sell. How about mixing it up with: Risk, Reward, Delusion: The History and Myth of the Rational Market.
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6
No spoon: The Myth of Rational Market
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7
Wait...edited.
.
Risk, Reward, Delusion: History and the Myth of the Rational Market
.
OR
.
Risk, Reward, Delusion: History of Wall Street and the Myth of the Rational Market. -
8
Free Market Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: How The Academic Quest for a Theory of Rational Markets Drove Wall Street Into the Abyss
Have you read Houdini?
WilliamBanzai7
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9
The myth of the rational market and the cramerization of american finance.
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10
Rational Exorbitance: The Rise and Fall of Free Market Fundamentalism
WilliamBanzai7
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11
I like the "idiots." How about:
Reign of Idiots: The Myth of the Rational Market -
12
Marking to Madness: The Rise and Fall of the Myth of the Rational Market.
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13
Collapsed!: The Myth of the Rational Market
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14
Voodoo Capitalism: Quantitative Quackery and the Myth of Rational Markets
WilliamBanzai7
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15
Feast of Fools: The Myth of the Rational Market. Feast of Fools took place on Jan. 1st in Scotland, presided over by the Lord of Misrule. The Scots angle touches nicely on Adam Smith.
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16
Standard Divination: Quantitative Economics and the Myth of Rational Market Behavior
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17
I agree that "Myth" is better as a subtitle. For the main title, how about:
1. Free to Lose
2. CrAPM
3. Fama and Farse
4. The Modigliani Scandal -
18
Irrational Actors and the Myth of the Rational Market
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probably should be some better word in place of "actors" since economic/business types will get it and everyone else will think of Mel Gibson or Tom Cruise. -
19
The Myth of the Rational Market: Why the Wall Street Crowd Isn't as Smart as You Think.
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20
Illuminating the Opacity of Wall Street: The Myth of the Rational Market.
The Myths Stop Here: Pulling the Curtain off Wall Street's House of Glass
I agree the myth of the rational market is longer, and should be a subtitle to a catchier, 7 word or less leading title. I think in Hollywood they call the brevity of a book's title a "grab."
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21
Or, perhaps you can go for one of those long 18th Century titles.
THE MYTH OF THE RATIONAL MARKET
or
WHY THE WALL STREET CROWD ISN'T AS SMART AS YOU THINK
in which
The Methods of Market Dynamics are deduced from their ORIGINALS,
and
ILLUSTRATED in their DIFFERENT SIGNIFICATIONS
by
EXAMPLES of there INEXACTABILITY.
To which are prefixed,
A HISTORY of MARKETS,
and AN OVERVIEW OF DYNAMICS THEREUPON.
By Justin Fox, A.B.
In One Volume
VOL. I -
22
All very cute but, seriously, you don't need a subtitle. The current title says all you need. Anything subtitle would be random verbiage, randomly generated.
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23
Ideas Have Consequences: The Myth of the Rational Market
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24
THE MYTH OF THE RATIONAL MARKET: In the Era of Irrational Exuberance.
That's the best that I can do Justin. Hope that helps.
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25
KABOOM! : The Myth of the Rational Market
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Because seriously, who wouldn't want to buy a book that had "Kaboom" in the title? Go on, say the word outloud, you can't say it without smiling.
- foxjust Thanks to Bama fans for reminding us we needed to buy TP! (Turns out we're fine on detergent). Oh, and nice game #ironbowl - 19 hours ago
- foxjust 'Myth' is one of the NYT's 100 Notable Books of 2009. Not 'good' or 'best,' mind you. But notable http://bit.ly/4vO2kG - 1 day ago
- foxjust Now that the kind of incisive reporting we expect from the Gapperman! RT @johngapper The Haier factory in Qingdao is very big - 1 week ago
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