Tagged

economics

A collection of 20 posts

5-stars

More from Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources — and What Happens Next

Did you know the world's paper consumption peaked in 2013 and total global paper use has been declining ever since?  Or that since 1982, America has taken an area the size of Washington State out of cultivation while simultaneously increasing total crop tonnage by 35%? Welcome to the power of

4-stars

The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future

2020 Democratic candidate Andrew Yang lays out his universal basic income plan and an optimistic vision for the future.

5-stars

Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel

Treating the global narcotics industry "as if it were a business like any other," Wainwright delves into how drug dealers have to deal with supply chains, HR issues, and digital disruption just like everyone else.

5-stars

The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth

Financial Times reporter Tom Burgis traces the illicit flows of tens of billions of dollars of African natural resource wealth to local dictators, Western corporations and financial elites, and - more recently - massive Chinese enterprises.

4-stars

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

Taleb strikes again with "Skin in the Game". This incendiary book is the source of his notorious "Intellectual Yet Idiot" essay, as well as several other fiery gems, such as "How to Legally Own Another Person."

5-stars

Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens

Reveals the mechanisms that are systematically shifting economic burdens from the wealthy to the poor and how this cheating destroys accountability between governing elites and the population at large, especially in developing nations.

4-stars

The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money

GMU prof Bryan Caplan recoils in horror at the low societal ROI of our trillion-dollar annual investment in education (for comparison, Caplan notes, we spend only $700 billion on the dreaded "military industrial complex" annually)

3-stars

How Economics Shapes Science

Stephan reveals how economic incentives have made American science risk averse and turned our universities into lobbying superpowers and employment pyramid schemes.

3-stars

Timberland Investments: A Portfolio Perspective

"Timberland Investments" is more interesting than useful. Written in 1992 before timberland investing had become as mainstream as it is today among pension funds and endowments, Zinkhan's book offers a perspective from an interesting point in time. However, the landscape has become significantly more crowded and the world

5-stars

The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble over Earth's Future

"The Bet" gave me a new framework for interpreting science/policy debates: Neo-Malthusians vs. Cornucopians. Once you see it, you can't stop seeing it everywhere you look. Sabin elegantly traces the intellectual lineage of this debate through the lens of the Ehrlich/Simon wager.

economics

The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

A conspiracy theory classic! Diving deep into the history of banking, "The Creature from Jekyll Island" claims that the unholy union of politicians and "monetary scientists" is responsible for every major conflict from the Civil War to WWII. And let's not forget the international Fabian cabal

5-stars

How Asia Works

"How Asia Works" rejects the neoliberal Washington consensus on free trade and deregulated financial markets. This book got on my list because Bill Gates said it was one of his top 5 books of the year. Studwell looks at Asian countries that have done well over the last

5-stars

Empire of Cotton: A Global History

"Empire of Cotton" changed how I thought about global economic history. Beckert views the changing relationships between state, industry, capital, and labor through the lens of the cotton industry and its role in sparking the Industrial Revolution and creating our modern, globalized world. The first surprise in this

4-stars

Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

"Poor Charlie's Almanack" got on my list because Drew Houston of Dropbox said it was one of the best books he had ever read. After blasting through it... I can understand why he said so, but I’m not sure I agree with him. This is a book

history

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

"Seeing Like A State" was recommended to me by Yale Cold War historian John Gaddis. At its core, this is a book about the many failures of mankind's attempts to assert order and "legibility" to nature, society, and the economy. Scott takes aim at many of

5-stars

Debt: The First 5,000 Years

A sprawling jeremiad encompassing everything from ancient Sumerian law and African slavery to the conquest of the Aztecs and the US going off the gold standard. A notorious anarchist, Graeber delights in attempting to refute conventional wisdom.

economics

Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy

A great analysis of the current state of affairs in America and an interesting argument against the "meritocracy". The book presents an in-depth examination of the functioning of meritocracies and how they can become corrupted.

4-stars

Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa

To figure out how the world works, you've got to "follow the money," and the gold and diamonds of South Africa have certainly generated more than their fair share of cash - especially for Cecil Rhodes's De Beers diamond company.

5-stars

Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age

I was looking at my highlights for Paul Graham's "Hackers and Painters" and it seems like I basically highlighted the entire book. It's that good. At its core, this is a book about how changes in technology (particularly computer tech) have changed economic and social realities... and the

history

The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World Was Created

"The Birth of Plenty" will blow your mind. The only other book of comparable scope and depth of analysis is "The Discoverers" by Daniel J. Boorstin. In "The Birth of Plenty," Bernstein claims that "...the four factors—property rights, scientific rationalism, capital markets,