“No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks…”
No more books!? Heaven forbid! What about Kindles? Well, at least now that summer is right around the corner, you’ll have time to do some reading of your choice, so allow me to present some recommendations – a mixed (book) bag of old and new, with an emphasis on the cataclysmic events of today. You’ve probably found yourself overwhelmed by the number of new economics titles, which, more often than not, are looking to blame someone or something. Hence I suggest the agenda-free “The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street As We Know It.” Dave Kansas lays out what can be a mind-boggling tale in a clear, well-organized way.
Now that putting a small dog in a bag and traipsing about in public has begun to fall out of fashion, it appears that capitalism-bashing is the new “dog in the bag.” But Robert Reich’s “Supercapitalism,” written on the cusp of today’s economic upheaval, is not a condemnation of capitalism, but a harkening back to the era he calls the “not quite golden age,” which ran from the end of World War II to the late 70s, when democracy and capitalism worked hand in hand.
But for those still unconvinced of the virtues of capitalism, you can always crack open anything written by THE champion of the free market, the late Milton Friedman. For example, when doubt begins to seep in, I retreat to my Schwarzenegger-autographed copy of “Free to Choose,” which Milton wrote with his wife Rose. While Friedman’s words and influence are waning, there are those whose words and influence have made quite a comeback. One is the recently deceased liberal Canadian/American economist, John Kenneth Galbraith. Probably the funniest economist of all time, his “The Great Crash 1929” is a thoroughly enjoyable read, detailing what led up to and followed the event that triggered the Great Depression. And how could I not mention the rebirth of John Maynard Keynes and his 1936 publication, “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”?
Quick takes: Speaking of Krugman, his updated “Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008” is the definitive text on recent currency crises. Richard Thaler’s “The Winner’s Curse” is a fine collection of writings on the sexy new subfield of behavioral economics, and George Akerlof and Robert Shiller’s “Animal Spirits” extends behavioral economics to macroeconomics and the current upheaval.
For the history of financial crises, check out Charles Kindleberger’s “Manias, Panics, and Crashes,” and for the history of economic thought, “New Ideas From Dead Economists,” by Todd Buchholz is actually pretty darn funny. If you’ve tackled Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics,” you might want to check out his “Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One.” And though Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson’s 2008 “Where Does the Money Go?” needs an update, it is nevertheless a great primer on the ins and outs of the federal debt.
That should be enough to keep you occupied while you hang out at the park, the beach, the pool or, in my case, the neighbor’s pool while they’re at work (I have to be careful not to fall asleep – I don’t think “I thought this was someone else’s house” will fly two years in a row). And granted, though having one of these titles in your grasp might not make you feel any cooler as you swelter in the summer sun, they will surely make you look cooler.
