May 25, 2005
Book Questions
Tim Sandefur is shutting down his blog Freespace. I'm sad to see it go. In one of his last few posts he asked that I answer these questions on books. As a parting farewell I'll oblige him with this chainmail type post.
1. Total Number of Books I’ve Owned:
No idea. One thing I do know is I haven't come close to reading all of them. I've also read several books I've never owned so I don't know that this is the best question.
2. Last Book I Bought:
Running Money by Andy Kessler (I am also on the verge of ordering Liberty for Latin America by Alvaro Vargas Llosa)
3. Last Book I Read:
Human Action by Ludwig von Mises
4. Five Books That Mean A Lot to Me:
1) Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics by George Reisman
2) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
3) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
4) A Soldier of The Great War by Mark Helprin
5) Eat the Rich by P.J. O'Rourke
5. Tag five people and have them do this on their blog.
I'll do three from my Daily 15 blogroll: Alfonso Trujillo, Patrick Finucane, and Trey Givens. All are my age, but come from different ends of the political spectrum. I think the responses to question 4 make this worthwhile so hopefully they'll find some time to do it. If anyone else is interested, give it a shot and let me know.
Update: Adding two more to make it five. The Eclectic Econoclast and Bloxy-Moron. You guys are up. I'm done.
Update II: I've changed the links above to go directly to the book posts once people complete them. Easier to follow the chain that way.
Posted by Peter Mork at 8:53 AM | Comments | TrackBack
January 3, 2005
Reading, Reading, and More Reading
Here's a list of books and essays (mainly on economics but a few on history as well) that I plan on reading before we depart on our trip around the world starting in July. Most of the works are off George Reisman's bibliography from Capitalism. As I get done with them I'll post short reviews of each...
The Wealth of Nations---Adam Smith
For the New Intellectual---Ayn Rand
The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution --- Ayn Rand
Principles of Economics --- Carl Menger
Principles of Political Economy and Taxation --- David Ricardo
Capital and Interest --- Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk
Shorther Classics of Bohm-Bawerk --- Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk
Capitalism and the Historians --- F.A. Hayek
The Constitution of Liberty --- F.A. Hayek
Economic Sophisms --- Frederic Bastiat
Selected Essays on Political Economy --- Frederic Bastiat
The Russians --- Hedrick Smith
Time Will Run Back --- Henry Hazlitt
The Failure of the "New" Economics --- Henry Hazlitt
The Critics of Keynesian Economics --- Henry Hazlitt
An Essay on Capital --- Israil Kirzner
The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money --- J.M. Keynes
A Short History of the World --- J.M. Roberts
The Consequences of Mr. Keynes --- James Buchanan
James Mill Selected Economic Writings --- James Mill
A Treatise on Political Economy --- Jean-Baptiste Say
Second Treatise on Civil Government --- John Locke
The Communist Manifesto --- Karl Marx
Das Kapital --- Karl Marx
Human Action --- Ludwig von Mises
Socialism --- Ludwig von Mises
The Theory of Money and Credit --- Ludwig von Mises
A monetary History of the United States --- Milton Friedman
Man, Economy, and State --- Murray Rothbard
What Has Government Done to Our Money --- Murray Rothbard
The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History --- Thomas E. Woods Jr.
The State Against Blacks --- Walter Williams
Is Government the Source of Monopoly" --- Yale Brozen
That's 33 in all. If blogging is a little lighter over the next few months that's your reason.
Posted by Peter Mork at 8:04 PM | Comments | TrackBack
November 17, 2004
Cowboy Capitalism
This weekend I finished Cowboy Capitalism: European Myths, American Realities by Olaf Gersemann. As the title suggests, Gersemann, a German financial reporter, takes on many misconceptions relating to comparisons between the U.S. and European economies.
The book was informative and well worth the read, but it's also the type of book that makes me wish I had a photographic memory. While it's impossible to remember all the statistics put forth, I'll definitely have it on the shelf and ready to go as a reference.
Here is an example which was one of many that was surprising when I first read it. On page 59 Gersemann writes:
An American entrepreneur setting up a new business faces a one-time regulatory cost that amounts to 1.7 percent of the annual U.S. per capita income. In Germany the corresponding number is 32.5 percent. In France and Italy it is even higher at 35.6 and 44.8 percent respectively. Those numbers represent significant barriers to establishing new business enterprises
The magnitude of those numbers is shocking and is clearly part of the reason for higher unemployment rates in these countries relative to the U.S.
One other note, while the inside flap of the dust jacket states that the book is a "devastating rebuttal to the stereotypes promoted by the likes of Paul Krugman and Michael Moore", it is not a partisan attack on the American Left. In fact, when economist like Krugman or Joseph Stiglitz are quoted it's done in a positive way, using their expertise to backup the books' assertions.
Posted by Peter Mork at 6:48 AM | Comments | TrackBack
September 30, 2004
The Reality of Cambodia
Here is an informative but depressing audio slide show by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.
While Kristof does a great job at dispelling some of the myths regarding factory labor in poor nations, the next question that logically follows is why are such horrid factory jobs the best that are available?
Lack of democracy, property rights, the rule of law, and excessive government regulation all play a part. Two excellent books on the subject are Eat the Rich by P.J. O'Rourke and The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando de Soto.