This herding can lead to sudden reversals as market conditions change, and the tendency of individual investors to pull their money out of under-performing funds can give these laggards an incentive to take bigger risks, the authors argue.
Yet these reversals were, naturally, "sticking to the course".
"Next time you read some grand statement by US officials on [the] campaign against Isis or see a Centcom [US Central Command] map about Isis reversals, just bin it," commented Emile Hokayem, a respected Middle East expert with the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Having little concern for backward-compatibility, Apple has made dramatic reversals in its hardware and software directions before and will doubtless do so again.
There have been several occasions recently when these sharp reversals have taken place on successive days.
Nonetheless, the government's recent reversals have stifled a nascent peace process nurtured by Norway and undermined a search for consensus on the Tamil issue between Sri Lanka's main political parties.Colombo is calm, but grim.
Eventually it fell to Mr Johnson.He has recently worked under Mr Rajan, but he is no particular authority on misaligned exchange rates or capital-flow reversals.
Analysts say the resurrection of his party's electoral fortunes can hardly be credited to him: it stems more from a backlash against the DPJ, which has shown itself to be weak and divided in office, running through three prime ministers, numerous defections and repeated reversals of its promises and policies.In fact the LDP appears to have changed little during its time in opposition.
Humanity all over the world, for the vast majority of its history, has experienced periods of growth followed by reversals which have limited increases in per capita income.Although Africa went through periods of economic growth in the 1950s, 1960s, late-1980s and the 2000s, these growth spurts were off-set by "growth reversals" in the 1970s, early-1980s and the 1990s, when GDP fell.
Above all, the governments will have to avoid policy reversals that pander to their own industries, a tendency that has hitherto stood in the way of a proper common market.
This all seems very hopeful.I wish Mr Obama's drone war and his reversals on executive power weren't smart politics, but they are.
