Best International Economics
A perennial best seller, the book has sold 400,000 copies in the United States alone and has been translated into more than twenty languages, along the way becoming one of the most important and influential books of the century. Supplemented with an appendix of related materials ranging from prepublication reports on the initial manuscript to forewords to earlier editions by John Chamberlain, Milton Friedman, and Hayek himself, this new edition of The Road to Serfdom will be the definitive version of Hayek's enduring masterwork. F. A. Hayek (1899–1992), recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, was a pioneer in monetary theory and a leading proponent of classical liberalism in the twentieth century.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Like many young, intelligent, concerned people, Hayek started his adult life as a democratic socialist, the trendy thing for young people then and now. Keynes won these debates in the short run and held sway over mid-century world economic policy, but lost to history with the supply-side revolution of Freedman, Reagan and Thatcher who all acknowledged their great debt to Fredrick Hayek. This book is not Hayek’s crowning achievement in academic economics (for that work he won a Nobel Prize) nevertheless, it is his most famous and influential work. All of these politicians believed they could organize the world into a scientifically created Eden sans deity through extensive economic planning by a central governing authority vested in academic experts. This authority would have the power to distribute goods and services in such a way that people would be freed from want and from mundane economic decisions. So the Road to Serfdom is analysis of this intense human desire to organize the world around us through planning in order to achieve some always ill-defined optimum for all. That the complex system of interrelated activities, if it is to be consciously directed at all, must be directed by a single staff of experts, and that ultimate responsibility and power must rest in the hands of a commander-in-chief whose actions must not be fettered by democratic procedure .........[planners believe that] by giving up freedom in what are, or ought to be, the less important aspects of our lives, we shall obtain greater freedom in the pursuit of higher values.”. But by giving up economic control do we attain that greater freedom? For a planned society to work, people eventually must surrender complete control of their lives, even their leisure, to the planners for the sake of the whole. He argues for consistency and democracy where the playing field is level for everyone and we are all free economic entities making our own economic decisions based on our own desires, our own resources and our own conscience. Unfortunately, over 70 years after its completion, Hayek’s description of planners and his warning about their cynical attitude toward personal competence and responsibility can be seen hard at work within our own supposedly free democratic government. William F. Buckley Jr. said it best, following Hayek, “I am obliged to confess I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.” Or MIT. After the implosion of the former Soviet mega-dictatorship, numerous influential people threw off that yoke and immerged from the economic morass of Socialism to lead the Eastern bloc back toward prosperity on the model of the modern Western democracies and Capitalism based on knowledge they had gained from smuggled copies of this book and those of Hayek’s successor, Milton Friedman. Hayek showed these oppressed people as he has shown the ages that to allow people who strive through Plato’s supreme creation of societal hubris to plan and design and control our society for our own good is “The Road to Serfdom.”."
"More people should read this because there's way too much economic coming from the media."
"A fantastic book!"
"Very good book."
"very cheap price and very interesting information."
"I know understand why invoking Hayek brings scorn from the progressive Left."
Haskel and Westlake bring together a decade of research on how to measure intangible investment and its impact on national accounts, showing the amount different countries invest in intangibles, how this has changed over time, and the latest thinking on how to assess this. Capitalism without Capital concludes by presenting three possible scenarios for what the future of an intangible world might be like, and by outlining how managers, investors, and policymakers can exploit the characteristics of an intangible age to grow their businesses, portfolios, and economies. Selected for Askblog’s Books of the year 2017, chosen by Arnold Kling. "Haskel and Westlake’s book focuses on the rise of the intangible economy. They are not trying to make any statement on the EU, but in one chapter of their book they plot tangible and intangible investment against an OECD measure of employment strictness. In their own words: 'countries with more restrictive hiring and firing invest more in tangibles and less in intangibles'." "And before anyone starts talking about 'the pettiness of arguing over symbols', let me point you to an amazing new book by an ex-colleague of mine, Stian Westlake, called Capitalism Without Capital: the Rise of the Intangible Economy ." Perhaps the most surprising facts in a book full of surprises is how large investments in intangible assets--in research and development, software, databases, artistic creations, designs, branding and business processes--now are. Messrs Haskel and Westlake have mapped the economics of a challenging new economy."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Capitalism without Capital investigates the increased investment in intangible assets and their place in the modern economy. The authors propose that the increasing proportion of intangible investment can partially explain many of the economic issues that have been the center of attention of late and in addition need to be focused on more directly as we have so far not understood how to better capitalize and promote intangible investment as well as deal with various inequality effects that might come from them. The authors go through various accounting identities and show over the last 20 years how intangible capital investment has been growing and has closed in substantially on tangible forms of capital if not exceeded it. The authors then spend time on discussing the challenges of accounting for intangible investing and their return potential distributions are substantially wider than tangible investments. The arguments are reasonable but to a certain extent the arguments are also arguments of how intangible investments can lead to monopoly capital and the consequence of a world with increasing returns to scale and barriers to entry is facilitated by intangible investing, it seemed a bit odd to argue about the second order effects of secular stagnation rather than the first order (consolidation of industry, increased margins and worse labor/capital dynamics). The authors also discuss how intangible investments require more equity and how policies that promote debt funding make it harder to invest in intangible despite them being currently demanded. The authors also discuss how business which use intangible investment vs create intangible investments might be structured differently, the former more authority based the latter more egalitarian."
"A comprehensive look into the shifting nature of the economy as a whole."
"What Haskel and Westlake do here is to take this reality and project it forward for its widespread and often unforeseen effects on business and industry structure, sort of a Ronald Coates “Theory of the Firm” through the lens and pivot point of intangible capital."
"This is the best book I've read about new trends in intangible assets and intellectual property in business."
"The social, political and economic implications of this change are already profound and promise to become more so as the computer revolution progresses from its current early stage."
The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge. Lewis 's rare gift as a guide through the world of credit default swaps and sovereign debt doesn t come simply from his deep understanding of how the global financial system works . --Chuck Leddy. Michael Lewis possesses the rare storyteller 's ability to make virtually any subject both lucid and compelling. Combining his easy familiarity with finance and the talents of a travel writer, Mr. Lewis sets off in these pages to give the reader a guided tour through some of the disparate places hard hit by the fiscal tsunami of 2008, like Greece, Iceland and Ireland, tracing how very different people for very different reasons gorged on the cheap credit available in the prelude to that disaster. And in this book he weaves their stories into a sharp-edged narrative that leaves readers with a visceral understanding of the fiscal recklessness that lies behind today 's headlines about Europe 's growing debt problems and the risk of contagion they now pose to the world. Lewis's rare gift as a guide through the world of credit default swaps and sovereign debt doesn't come simply from his deep understanding of how the global financial system works . Michael Lewis possesses the rare storyteller's ability to make virtually any subject both lucid and compelling. Combining his easy familiarity with finance and the talents of a travel writer, Mr. Lewis sets off in these pages to give the reader a guided tour through some of the disparate places hard hit by the fiscal tsunami of 2008, like Greece, Iceland and Ireland, tracing how very different people for very different reasons gorged on the cheap credit available in the prelude to that disaster. And in this book he weaves their stories into a sharp-edged narrative that leaves readers with a visceral understanding of the fiscal recklessness that lies behind today's headlines about Europe's growing debt problems and the risk of contagion they now pose to the world. Combining his easy familiarity with finance and the talents of a travel writer, Mr. Lewis sets off in these pages to give the reader a guided tour through some of the disparate places hard hit by the fiscal tsunami of 2008, like Greece, Iceland and Ireland, tracing how very different people for very different reasons gorged on the cheap credit available in the prelude to that disaster. And in this book he weaves their stories into a sharp-edged narrative that leaves readers with a visceral understanding of the fiscal recklessness that lies behind today s headlines about Europe s growing debt problems and the risk of contagion they now pose to the world. Lewis s rare gift as a guide through the world of credit default swaps and sovereign debt doesn t come simply from his deep understanding of how the global financial system works .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"He's talking about European countries that drank the elixir of seemingly endless and cheap credit prior to the bursting of the recent financial bubble. What would you call a man who owns a 40,000 square foot ranch located on thousands of acres in the middle of nowhere with its own water supply and an arsenal of automatic weapons? to various governments, to the point that eventually markets would question the credibility of these governments. Just as Bass bought credit default swaps on subprime mortgages prior to the financial crisis, Bass later bought credit default swaps on Greek government bonds, because he was convinced that Greece would be one of the first countries to experience real problems. Ireland: "But while the Icelandic male used foreign money to conquer foreign places--trophy companies in Britain, chunks of Scandinavia--the Irish male used foreign money to conquer Ireland. Germany: "Either Germans must agree to integrate Europe fiscally, so that Germany and Greece bear the same relationship to each other as, say, Indiana and Mississippi (the tax dollars of ordinary Germans would go into a common coffer and be used to pay for the lifestyles of ordinary Greeks) or the Greeks (and probably, eventually, every non-German) must introduce `structural reforms,' a euphemism for magically and radically transforming themselves into a people as efficient and productive as the Germans." We've got the core of the average lizard.'. Wrapped around this reptilian core is a mammalian layer (associated with maternal concern and social interaction), and around that is wrapped a third layer, which enables feats of memory and the capacity for abstract thought. 'The only problem is our passions are still driven by the lizard core.'."
"Just like all Michael Lewis books, a good read."
"the most engrossing 20/20 hindsight of the year."
"While this is NOT Michael Lewis' most recent book, it is right on point with today's frustrating economic issues (and causes)."
"I found the discussion riveting on how each country, state, or city adjusts to the problems of unfunded retirement accounts, out of control deficits and the greed that drives us all."
""Boomerang" transfers that unique ability fromthe world of individual cut throats on Wall Street to the world of short sighted politicians in small countries."
"Just a quick reading review of what happened the last time our economies went belly up... Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat and all that...."
"From Iceland and Greece to Ireland, Germany and California, Michael Lewis takes the reader on an entertaining, irreverent and insightful ride through the international debt crisis and the sociologies of the places he examines. Economics 101 or a little time in front of CNN will give the reader enough financial knowledge to enjoy "Boomerang," so don't let the lack of a PhD keep you from tackling it."
Best Life Insurance
Now authors. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with more iconoclastic insights and observations in SuperFreakonomics —the long awaited follow-up to their New York Times Notable blockbuster. The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling over four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world. Now, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first. Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else, whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky. The spread of cable and satellite television. C. Projects that pay women to not abort female babies. D. Condoms made specially for the Indian market Question 2: 3 points. Among Chicago street prostitutes, which night of the week is the most profitable? A. Saturday. B. Monday. C. Wednesday. D. Friday Question 3: 5 points. You land in an emergency room with a serious condition and your fate lies in the hands of the doctor you draw. Is female. C. Gets high ratings from peers. D. Spends more money on treatment Question 4: 3 points. Which cancer is chemotherapy more likely to be effective for? A. Public-awareness campaigns to discourage consumption. B. Cap-and-trade agreements on carbon emissions. C. Volcanic explosions. D. Planting lots of trees Question 9: 5 points. In the 19th century, one of the gravest threats of childbearing was puerperal fever, which was often fatal to mother and child. C. The psychological effects of the attacks caused people to cut back on their consumption of alcohol, which led to a decrease in traffic accidents. D. The increase in border security was a boon to some California farmers, who, as Mexican and Canadian imports declined, sold so much marijuana that it became one of the states most valuable crops. While Friday nights are the busiest, the single greatest determinant of a prostitute’s price is the specific trick she is hired to perform. Expensive medical procedures, while technologically dazzling, are responsible for a remarkably small share of the improvement in heart disease. Question 7. B, Shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more greenhouse-gas reduction than buying all locally sourced food, according to a recent study by Christopher Weber and H. Scott Matthews, two Carnegie Mellon researchers. Every time a Prius or other hybrid owner drives to the grocery store, she may be cancelling out its emissions-reducing benefit, at least if she shops in the meat section. Emission from cows, as well as sheep and other ruminants, are 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than the carbon dioxide released by cars and humans.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In a few areas it kind of moves off in a tangent but brings itself back by the end of the chapter..... if a little abruptly."
"If folks would just open their minds to the possibilities of what actual data will reveal they might find what they believe to be true because of gut feelings is really false thinking."
"It contains a few pieces data now discredited, but it is a fountain of thought provoking data."
"The reasons people act as they do in activities is interesting."
"A new insight to how societies interact."
"Good perspective on things."
"Great follow up to Freakonomics."
"While I loved the Freakonomics I was disappointed by the sequel."
Best Business Travel Reference
The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge. Lewis 's rare gift as a guide through the world of credit default swaps and sovereign debt doesn t come simply from his deep understanding of how the global financial system works . Combining his easy familiarity with finance and the talents of a travel writer, Mr. Lewis sets off in these pages to give the reader a guided tour through some of the disparate places hard hit by the fiscal tsunami of 2008, like Greece, Iceland and Ireland, tracing how very different people for very different reasons gorged on the cheap credit available in the prelude to that disaster. Mr. Lewis 's ability to find people who can see what is obvious to others only in retrospect or who somehow embody something larger going on in the financial world is uncanny. And in this book he weaves their stories into a sharp-edged narrative that leaves readers with a visceral understanding of the fiscal recklessness that lies behind today 's headlines about Europe 's growing debt problems and the risk of contagion they now pose to the world. Lewis's rare gift as a guide through the world of credit default swaps and sovereign debt doesn't come simply from his deep understanding of how the global financial system works . Combining his easy familiarity with finance and the talents of a travel writer, Mr. Lewis sets off in these pages to give the reader a guided tour through some of the disparate places hard hit by the fiscal tsunami of 2008, like Greece, Iceland and Ireland, tracing how very different people for very different reasons gorged on the cheap credit available in the prelude to that disaster. Mr. Lewis's ability to find people who can see what is obvious to others only in retrospect or who somehow embody something larger going on in the financial world is uncanny. And in this book he weaves their stories into a sharp-edged narrative that leaves readers with a visceral understanding of the fiscal recklessness that lies behind today's headlines about Europe's growing debt problems and the risk of contagion they now pose to the world. Combining his easy familiarity with finance and the talents of a travel writer, Mr. Lewis sets off in these pages to give the reader a guided tour through some of the disparate places hard hit by the fiscal tsunami of 2008, like Greece, Iceland and Ireland, tracing how very different people for very different reasons gorged on the cheap credit available in the prelude to that disaster. And in this book he weaves their stories into a sharp-edged narrative that leaves readers with a visceral understanding of the fiscal recklessness that lies behind today s headlines about Europe s growing debt problems and the risk of contagion they now pose to the world. Lewis s rare gift as a guide through the world of credit default swaps and sovereign debt doesn t come simply from his deep understanding of how the global financial system works .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"He's talking about European countries that drank the elixir of seemingly endless and cheap credit prior to the bursting of the recent financial bubble. What would you call a man who owns a 40,000 square foot ranch located on thousands of acres in the middle of nowhere with its own water supply and an arsenal of automatic weapons? to various governments, to the point that eventually markets would question the credibility of these governments. Just as Bass bought credit default swaps on subprime mortgages prior to the financial crisis, Bass later bought credit default swaps on Greek government bonds, because he was convinced that Greece would be one of the first countries to experience real problems. Ireland: "But while the Icelandic male used foreign money to conquer foreign places--trophy companies in Britain, chunks of Scandinavia--the Irish male used foreign money to conquer Ireland. Germany: "Either Germans must agree to integrate Europe fiscally, so that Germany and Greece bear the same relationship to each other as, say, Indiana and Mississippi (the tax dollars of ordinary Germans would go into a common coffer and be used to pay for the lifestyles of ordinary Greeks) or the Greeks (and probably, eventually, every non-German) must introduce `structural reforms,' a euphemism for magically and radically transforming themselves into a people as efficient and productive as the Germans." We've got the core of the average lizard.'. Wrapped around this reptilian core is a mammalian layer (associated with maternal concern and social interaction), and around that is wrapped a third layer, which enables feats of memory and the capacity for abstract thought. 'The only problem is our passions are still driven by the lizard core.'."
"Just like all Michael Lewis books, a good read."
"the most engrossing 20/20 hindsight of the year."
"I found the discussion riveting on how each country, state, or city adjusts to the problems of unfunded retirement accounts, out of control deficits and the greed that drives us all."
""Boomerang" transfers that unique ability fromthe world of individual cut throats on Wall Street to the world of short sighted politicians in small countries."
"Just a quick reading review of what happened the last time our economies went belly up... Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat and all that...."
"From Iceland and Greece to Ireland, Germany and California, Michael Lewis takes the reader on an entertaining, irreverent and insightful ride through the international debt crisis and the sociologies of the places he examines. Economics 101 or a little time in front of CNN will give the reader enough financial knowledge to enjoy "Boomerang," so don't let the lack of a PhD keep you from tackling it."
"Item is exactly as described."
Best Macroeconomics
Since 2014, international monetary agencies have been issuing warnings to a small group of finance ministers, banks, and private equity funds: the U.S. government’s cowardly choices not to prosecute J.P. Morgan and its ilk, and to bloat the economy with a $4 trillion injection of easy credit, are driving us headlong toward a cliff. "If you are curious about what the financial Götterdämmerung might look like you’ve certainly come to the right place... Rickards believes -- and provides tantalizing snippets of private conversations with those who dwell in the very eye-in-the-pyramid -- that the current world monetary and financial system is on the verge of insolvency and that the world financial elites already have a successor system for which they are laying the groundwork." An adviser on international economics and financial threats to the Department of Defense and the U.S. intelligence community, he served as a facilitator of the first-ever financial war games conducted by the Pentagon.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I find Jim Rickards to be a gifted teacher - he successfully explains numerous complicated concepts in layman terms. Thanks to his writings in this particular book, I feel I have a basic working knowledge of some troubling issues that may very well threaten the long term success of not just my own family, but America in general. I found his suggestions to be tersely worded and lacking the "fleshing out" helpfulness characteristic in Rickards previous chapters. When I finished this much anticipated section I sensed Rickards had deliberately withheld information the average reader needed to understand and apply his suggestions and ideas."
"Rickards speaks of "elites," but as an amorphous group bound together by shared goals rather than as a dark organization dedicated to evil. The typical free trade policies have led to the gutting of US manufacturing, and the loss of the jobs on which the middle class used to depend. If President Trump can shift our trade policies so that a certain amount of manufacturing returns to the US, he will have done generations of Americans a great favor."
"It does paint a frightening picture of how both political parties are fostering the dangers with their greed and thirst for corporate graft."
"Also, does it bother anyone else that someone who previously worked for the CIA and has all this present day high level clearance, is just allowed to tell everything he knows without being offed?"
"If you really want to buy his book - Go Ahead - but order off Amazon - and save yourself the trouble of additional scammer charges for bogus info."
Best Insurance
Now authors. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with more iconoclastic insights and observations in SuperFreakonomics —the long awaited follow-up to their New York Times Notable blockbuster. The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling over four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world. Now, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first. Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else, whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky. The spread of cable and satellite television. C. Projects that pay women to not abort female babies. D. Condoms made specially for the Indian market Question 2: 3 points. Among Chicago street prostitutes, which night of the week is the most profitable? A. Saturday. B. Monday. C. Wednesday. D. Friday Question 3: 5 points. You land in an emergency room with a serious condition and your fate lies in the hands of the doctor you draw. Is female. C. Gets high ratings from peers. D. Spends more money on treatment Question 4: 3 points. Which cancer is chemotherapy more likely to be effective for? A. Public-awareness campaigns to discourage consumption. B. Cap-and-trade agreements on carbon emissions. C. Volcanic explosions. D. Planting lots of trees Question 9: 5 points. In the 19th century, one of the gravest threats of childbearing was puerperal fever, which was often fatal to mother and child. C. The psychological effects of the attacks caused people to cut back on their consumption of alcohol, which led to a decrease in traffic accidents. D. The increase in border security was a boon to some California farmers, who, as Mexican and Canadian imports declined, sold so much marijuana that it became one of the states most valuable crops. While Friday nights are the busiest, the single greatest determinant of a prostitute’s price is the specific trick she is hired to perform. Expensive medical procedures, while technologically dazzling, are responsible for a remarkably small share of the improvement in heart disease. Question 7. B, Shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more greenhouse-gas reduction than buying all locally sourced food, according to a recent study by Christopher Weber and H. Scott Matthews, two Carnegie Mellon researchers. Every time a Prius or other hybrid owner drives to the grocery store, she may be cancelling out its emissions-reducing benefit, at least if she shops in the meat section. Emission from cows, as well as sheep and other ruminants, are 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than the carbon dioxide released by cars and humans.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In a few areas it kind of moves off in a tangent but brings itself back by the end of the chapter..... if a little abruptly."
"If folks would just open their minds to the possibilities of what actual data will reveal they might find what they believe to be true because of gut feelings is really false thinking."
"It contains a few pieces data now discredited, but it is a fountain of thought provoking data."
"The reasons people act as they do in activities is interesting."
"A new insight to how societies interact."
"Good perspective on things."
"Great follow up to Freakonomics."
"While I loved the Freakonomics I was disappointed by the sequel."
Best Business Encyclopedias
A perennial best seller, the book has sold 400,000 copies in the United States alone and has been translated into more than twenty languages, along the way becoming one of the most important and influential books of the century. Supplemented with an appendix of related materials ranging from prepublication reports on the initial manuscript to forewords to earlier editions by John Chamberlain, Milton Friedman, and Hayek himself, this new edition of The Road to Serfdom will be the definitive version of Hayek's enduring masterwork. F. A. Hayek (1899–1992), recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, was a pioneer in monetary theory and a leading proponent of classical liberalism in the twentieth century.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Like many young, intelligent, concerned people, Hayek started his adult life as a democratic socialist, the trendy thing for young people then and now. Keynes won these debates in the short run and held sway over mid-century world economic policy, but lost to history with the supply-side revolution of Freedman, Reagan and Thatcher who all acknowledged their great debt to Fredrick Hayek. This book is not Hayek’s crowning achievement in academic economics (for that work he won a Nobel Prize) nevertheless, it is his most famous and influential work. All of these politicians believed they could organize the world into a scientifically created Eden sans deity through extensive economic planning by a central governing authority vested in academic experts. This authority would have the power to distribute goods and services in such a way that people would be freed from want and from mundane economic decisions. So the Road to Serfdom is analysis of this intense human desire to organize the world around us through planning in order to achieve some always ill-defined optimum for all. That the complex system of interrelated activities, if it is to be consciously directed at all, must be directed by a single staff of experts, and that ultimate responsibility and power must rest in the hands of a commander-in-chief whose actions must not be fettered by democratic procedure .........[planners believe that] by giving up freedom in what are, or ought to be, the less important aspects of our lives, we shall obtain greater freedom in the pursuit of higher values.”. But by giving up economic control do we attain that greater freedom? For a planned society to work, people eventually must surrender complete control of their lives, even their leisure, to the planners for the sake of the whole. He argues for consistency and democracy where the playing field is level for everyone and we are all free economic entities making our own economic decisions based on our own desires, our own resources and our own conscience. Unfortunately, over 70 years after its completion, Hayek’s description of planners and his warning about their cynical attitude toward personal competence and responsibility can be seen hard at work within our own supposedly free democratic government. William F. Buckley Jr. said it best, following Hayek, “I am obliged to confess I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.” Or MIT. After the implosion of the former Soviet mega-dictatorship, numerous influential people threw off that yoke and immerged from the economic morass of Socialism to lead the Eastern bloc back toward prosperity on the model of the modern Western democracies and Capitalism based on knowledge they had gained from smuggled copies of this book and those of Hayek’s successor, Milton Friedman. Hayek showed these oppressed people as he has shown the ages that to allow people who strive through Plato’s supreme creation of societal hubris to plan and design and control our society for our own good is “The Road to Serfdom.”."
"More people should read this because there's way too much economic coming from the media."
"A fantastic book!"
"Very good book."
"very cheap price and very interesting information."
"I know understand why invoking Hayek brings scorn from the progressive Left."
Best Public Finance
William Bernstein’s commonsense approach to portfolio construction has served investors well during the past turbulent decade―and it’s what made The Four Pillars of Investing an instant classic when it was first published nearly a decade ago. The art and science of mixing different asset classes into an effective blend The dangers of actively picking stocks, as opposed to investing in the whole market Behavioral finance and how state of mind can adversely affect decision making Reasons the mutual fund and brokerage industries, rather than your partners, are often your most direct competitors Strategies for managing all of your assets―savings, 401(k)s, home equity―as one portfolio. From the essential soundness of classic portfolio theory through the inherent wisdom of investing in multiple asset classes, The Four Pillars of Investing provides a distinctive blend of market history, investing theory, and behavioral finance to help you become a successful, self-sufficient investor.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Money and time are the two things we struggle to manage."
"Bernstein takes extra effort to simplify the intimidating jargon of investing."
"Best investing book on the planet."
"I would recommend this book as a must read for anyone with a 401(k) or brokerage account."
"I consider this to be one of the top 4 books that every investor should read - including (perhaps especially) people who save via an IRA, 401(k) or any other long-term savings/investment plan."
"Best book on investing for the masses."
"A great book!"
"Insightful and well structured."
Best Commodities Trading
From how to read charts to understanding indicators and the crucial role technical analysis plays in investing, readers gain a thorough and accessible overview of the field of technical analysis, with a special emphasis on futures markets. He is the author of The Visual Investor and Intermarket Technical Analysis .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The real Bull Trap is covered in Chapter 5 and can also be dangerous."
"What the book book contains about the psychological underpinnings of technical analysis is intriguing, but there ain't much -- just a couple of paragraphs!"
"This book has some boring stuff, but if you want iformation about how the markets work and some good tips on what to look out for when trying to invest, along with detailed information on charts, then this book has it."
"if you want to know about technical analysis, i preferred to use this book."
"Very comprehensive book."
"After reading this book my curiosity to technical analysis went up big time and I started reading a lot about technical analysis, you can see the rest my books in my reviews."
"See the comments on the Study Guide....."
"I was looking for a book that would give me a solid foundation in technical analysis and after having read it I now understand why it is a classic."