What're you reading?

[Like the music thread and similar to the review thread in the 'Library', but for general topics.]



Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse
Thomas E. Woods Jr.

I'm on page 87 (out of only 160 which are prose) and the book has already captivated me. It drew me because it was a free-market perspective on the current economic recession (and, coincidentally, my economics term paper is on the the current economic recession and the government's bailout [and parallels with the Great Depression and New Deal]), but insofar I've gotten more out of it than I thought I would've. Unlike books with a Chicago school or Keynesian perspective Thomas E. Woods Jr. can actually explain what's going on and why it has happened. Like Austrian school economists he doesn't just rely on real factors and on psychological factors, but on a mixture of both (although, he puts weight on real factors, such as the federal reserve).

The book covers the federal reserve and the role of government in today's economy, the housing bubble and the bailout. He also covers the Austrian Business Cycles in a way that the common reader can understand, and refers back to the Japanese bust of the 1980s (and how the government's bailout and interference drew it out, and how it's similar to the current bailout plan) and the dot-com bust. After that Woods covers the myths of the Great Depression. The last two chapters of his book are on money (inflation and deflation; I haven't read this chapter yet, but it seems that his opinion on deflation is similar to early Rothbard's or de Soto's) and what the government should do (a compromise, of course, of sorts).

Meltdown is currently #11 on the New York Times' Bestseller List, which shows how persuasive Wood's writing is. In a country full of interventionist, or people who don't know better, it's a feat within itself that this book, written from the Austrian perspective, can be so widely sold. Even if you disagree with the Austrian school of thought, or that it was the government who created the housing bubble and the consequent bust, I would recommend this book to anybody interested in economics and the current recession. It is certainly a perspective that's worth knowing, and you might be persuaded - you never know (regardless, a good Austrian economists is well read on Keynes, so the opposite applies, as well).

Admittedly, the book was published in 2009 and so does not cover current events (i.e. the progression of the bailout bill). But, it's still a very good reference on what happened between 1990 and 2008 (it's mostly up to date to October 2008, although it was published in early 2009). The information on the Japanese bust is particularly startling (although the book does not really cover what ultimately brought the economy out of the bust, nor does the book really cover the Great Depression and what solved it in depth, either).

You can buy it on the Mises website for $21. The price in a store is $27. Amazon sells it for ~$19 (where I bought it from). It is a worthwhile investment.

http://www.spacevulture.com/
Just finished Space Vulture, a great bit of Pulp Fiction.

Now i am starting over again with:

http://www.amazon.com/Looming-Tower-Al-Qae...1/dp/037541486X
Which I found to be an excellent book very well researched and written with little bias. The research for this book definitely spans several volumes of work and this is an excellent introduction to the MIddle East Radicals for the Neophyte.

The Politics of Greed from 1986 there's no where to buy it and no picture on the internet.

A Kestrel for a Knave about a boy in a 1980s coal mining town. Very depressing.



The Floodgates of Anarchy from 1970 again I don't think you can buy it and I googled pictured it and no result.

also the way of the craftsman

Dante's Inferno.

Fatal Revenant, by Stephen Donaldson. Second book in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - if you ever wanted a hefty yet totally worthwhile series, the Covenant books are definitely the ones to read.

Kes/ A Kestrel for a Knave gets better towards the end.

But i would never have read it if it wasn't for school.

Currently i'm reading Under Enemy Colours by Sean Thomas Russell



So far so Sharpe at sea.

Really it has it all.
A central "outsider" character
A motley crew that needs knocking into shape.
Incompetant senior officers who have nothign better to do than make life miserable for the protagonist
Assorted Cookie cutter freinds (the marine officer with a sharp sense of humor, the old pro sailign amster, the slightly less able best mate whose career is much further along becuase he isn't an outsider and the old former commander, heck even the first Secretary of the Admiralty is apparently the same person as Wellington in the Sharpe series).

Ah but enough moaning its a nice read and a good change of pace from the John Ringo and books about afghanistan I have been reading lately.

The Great Gatsby for school. Need to find The Gulag Archipelago and/or some decent non-Clancy MT warfics.

Great book.

Read Dale Brown his stuff is made of total awesome...




Fail.

Unless you are relaly into bombers, airborne lasers and power suits...

I'm currently researching primarily non-military design in the Third Reich -- product design, architecture, interior design, typography, graphic design, fashion, whatever -- after more reading I'll post something in more detail if anyone's interested.

For school I'm reading 5 books over the history of western civilization to 1660 and 5 more over the history of England. Some of them are textbookish, others arent. My other books are more standard textbooks.

Outside of class I'm reading Bird by Bird (after reccomendation by my graduate hall director).

[Just finished Meltdown.]



New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
Burton Folsom Jr.

Very interested.

Elantris, by Brian Sanderson.