RFI: recent books i should, nay MUST read about globalisation, capitalism and other socio-political issues

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i still have not read 'No Logo' or 'Stupid White Men' (pauses for mild gasps of astonishment) - what else should i add to the list?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 10 March 2003 19:19 (twenty-three years ago)

empire by hardt and negri

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 10 March 2003 19:23 (twenty-three years ago)

then you can explain the bits i don't understand

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 10 March 2003 19:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Ant and Bee and the IBRD!

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 10 March 2003 19:26 (twenty-three years ago)

is that yr two friends who are having problems n?

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 10 March 2003 19:29 (twenty-three years ago)

They are both now being exploited by a third party who claimed to be kind.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 10 March 2003 19:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Natural Capitalism. Solutions rather than problems.

Fast Food Nation

Edge CityTime for a new edition but still an insight into how the car has change how cities are put together. The glossary is a real eye opener.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 10 March 2003 19:46 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm sure a few hataz will turn up on this thread, but do actually read No Logo. It's popular because Naomi Klein understands the enemy and its ways, and admits to still feeling the call of advertisement.

Don't read Kalle Lasn's book. It's dull and preachy.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:07 (twenty-three years ago)

i avoided No Logo because it felt like such a token accessory more than a book and a cliche, which is pretty dumb i guess - a book is a book after all. i also felt like it wasnt going to tell me anything i didnt know which was clearly a moment of mad delusion

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:13 (twenty-three years ago)

No Logo is well researched, well written, and well constructed. It documents the problem and the movemnet but doesn't really offer solutions. Next on my pile in this vein is 'One No Many Yesses' which suzy thinks is good. In the main though I prefer books that offer solutions or tackle single, or at least narrower issues.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:17 (twenty-three years ago)

there are a lot of great books...
i second empire, though I dont understand it either!
also, there is a GREAT book that i have never seen mentioned... Egotopia: Narcissism and the New American Landscape. This book takes a look at America from a number of different perspectives, and utilizes a number of different disciplines in the analyses. There are some especially good critiques of the environmental movement (from a liberal perspective), and he dedicates a whole chapter to billboards! Just thinking about it makes me want to read it again.

also, others worth reading: Government's End by jonathan rauch, which argues that the biggest problem the American government faces is the fact that so much of its spending is already accounted for, and there is little freedom for large policy initiatives.

there are more, so i will be back ;-)

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Monday, 10 March 2003 21:06 (twenty-three years ago)

i avoided no logo for much the same reasons,stevem,but recently read a chapter from it about reclaim the streets without knowing where it was from,and i was surprised to find it was no logo
it was very well written and persuaded me to add it to my list of books i hope to get around to reading
what i've read (not enough,though)of chomksy's writing has been very good,he's excellent at explaining fairly complex situations very clearly,and has a huge amount of knowledge to back up his points with...
there's loads of articles by him online...

― robin (robin), Monday, 10 March 2003 21:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Chomsky has about 123,042 books out which are basically just long interviews: they're much easier going than his actual books, which are quite a slog in my experience.

you should probably read some Marx, too, since most of these books reference him in some way.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 00:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Justyn, I've never found that the interview books have the same impact on me as Chomsky "proper" books. I miss the quietly enraged and one half page footnotes. No doubt, his books are dense, but I think they are worth it. (I admit that I've only read a few myself.)

I still haven't read Capital, alas.

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 01:01 (twenty-three years ago)

There's no need to torture yourself w/ Capital. That's like his attempt to prove that capitalism is structurally bound to fail. Better to read some of the shorter earlier works and just get his main ideas.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 02:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I have to admit, I have never been tempted to read No Logo. Every snippet and every summation from it I've encountered feels like something I've already heard five different ways until Sunday.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 03:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Globalization and its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz. He's very smart and a very interesting economist. The problem with most of these books about global capitalism etc is (I know this is what all the conservatives say but it's so true) that Naomi Klein and Michael Moore and all those chumps know/care squat about economic reality. for them it all comes down to the human issue and suffering and justice. It's tiresome and has very little basis in motivating positive governmental/economic action (b/c god knows angry hippies will never accomplish anything). I would even say Naomi Klein etc's hogging of the media spotlight is counterproductive--it draws attention away from people with realistic ideas for productive change and gives the rightwing ammo to use against us.

I had a different problem with Hardt and Negri--all that abstraction is kind of ostentatious. Like, if you've got something to say, say it, don't couch it in impenetrable pomo jargon. I don't understand how Marxism has gone from being (ostensibly) a people's movement to the plaything of overeducated middle-class theory-dilletantes.

Anyway, more good books: Howard Zinn is good. He has mad historian skillz and sticks with hard evidence more than the aforementioned Klein/Moore. Check A People's History of the United States if you're American--if not the bubble-popping probably won't be as fun. Also most everything written by Robert Heilbroner. You can also go old-school and read Keynes--his ideas are still all kinds of relevant, especially in these twisted days of free-market/superprotectionist-subsidizing Bizarro economics. The Economist has a bad rap but they are more balanced than their critics will let on.

Fast Food Nation is yellow journalism of the worst kind but very entertaining.

― adam (adam), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 04:51 (twenty-three years ago)

plaything of overeducated middle-class theory-dilletantes

I regret writing this already. I don't mean to imply that middle-class types (like me) have no right to meddle in left-wing politics, nor do I mean to imply that all modern theory is dilletantish. It just seems that that kind of highfalutin' stuff can seem very smug, like Hardt/Negri/Jameson/etc are just pissing on those proletariat guys they're always talking about--how many people outside of a university setting give a crap about subjectivity and biopolitics?

― adam (adam), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 04:58 (twenty-three years ago)

that's a bit unfair on negri (who was after all on the lam from the ital cops for 20 years, b4 he gave himself up) (possibly to allow himself to finish some books: perhaps i shd try this!!)

i agree abt the language of empire a bit (tho it's only much like that in the earlier sections i think): i don't in fact think empire IS smug, exactly the opposite - i found some of it terrifically exciting, like you could at last feel the sclerotic tectonic plates moving

(i think chomsky is smug, though i also think everyone shd read him: i think his unassailed position as Guru of All Western Dissent had become a Bad Thing by 9-11, though i think things are totally on the move again)

as for "giving a fuck abt biopolitics and subjectivity", the argt is surely that these are things that EVERYONE gives a fuck abt, just not under those somewhat forbidding names (neither of which i'm that keen on): that noth elements in politics ended up being the right's secret weapons after the 60s, and that the left did itself (and the world) a massive and stupid disservice by ignoring them

"I don't understand how Marxism has gone from being (ostensibly) a people's movement to the plaything of overeducated middle-class theory-dilletantes." The dominant wing of the left b4 1968 treated "the people" as dull plasticine to be animated when necessary by brilliant rhetoric; the dominant wing of the left after 1968 treated "the people" as uncool crumblies to be ignored, while Youth Set the World To Rights.

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:25 (twenty-three years ago)

(everyone shd read capital btw: the long detailed bits tell you much more abt the dynamics of why yr job is rubbish than the short-order high octane stuff)

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:26 (twenty-three years ago)

noth = both

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:28 (twenty-three years ago)

what chomsky would you recommend for a start?

''(everyone shd read capital btw: the long detailed bits tell you much more abt the dynamics of why yr job is rubbish than the short-order high octane stuff)''

heh...i have a colleague who tried but I think he found the economics difficult. I did ask this on another thread (diamond replied with the shorter books on marx) but how do you read something like capital?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:35 (twenty-three years ago)

slowly!!

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:37 (twenty-three years ago)

see you in a year or two ;-)

chomsky?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:39 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/20/oct01/empire.htm

This review makes Empire sound like the last book on earth I'd want to read.

― andy, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:47 (twenty-three years ago)

That review makes the New Criterion sound like the last magazine on Earth I'd want to read.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:48 (twenty-three years ago)

kimball has always been a moron

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:50 (twenty-three years ago)

David Korten has written some good stuff

http://www.pcdf.org/About_PCDF/korten.htm

I have these two books

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1887208046/qid=1047383186/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2_2/202-3217983-7824626

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576750515/qid=1047383186/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/202-3217983-7824626

one of which I bought in the bookshop of the UN building!

― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:50 (twenty-three years ago)

PJ O'Rourke

― dave q, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:50 (twenty-three years ago)

I got about a quarter of the way through No logo and threw it aside, wanting to rid the world of that preachy cow.

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 11:55 (twenty-three years ago)

hehe, i can imagine doing the same

PJ O' Rourke? isnt he the smug git doing all the ad voiceovers at the moment (Honda etc.)

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 12:05 (twenty-three years ago)

pj o'rourke = smug git, that's part of his charm i believe

i second the stiglitz recommendation

― geeta (geeta), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 12:08 (twenty-three years ago)

i found some of it terrifically exciting, like you could at last feel the sclerotic tectonic plates moving - Mark S re: Empire

Yeah, I got that too (though I had to look up 'sclerotic'). The parts relating to the actual political formation of empire and its reaction when hurt--localized crisis management, etc etc--were great. It changed the way I think about government (especially mine--Empire should be req. reading for the Bush administration*). Giving the Empire concept a solid philosophical background makes it easier to confront (a la Arundhati Roy's piece in this week's Nation). My objection is: with all this good stuff to be mined from this book and its ideas, why hide it behind all the goofy stuff? It's like Godspeed You! Black Emperor**, making "revolutionary" music that no one will hear.

*The idea of GW Bush, Ari Fleischer et al running around the White House, trying to figure out Fukuyama and rhizomes and stuff is kind of entertaining--GW eventually giving up and returning to the latest Lemomy Snicket novel.

** Except not terrible.

― adam (adam), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 13:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Which reminds me of the front cover of The Economist, which has Uncle Sam surrounded by a mountain of books that he's reading quickly (iraq for dummies etc). One of the books is "The End of History - Revised Edition".

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 13:41 (twenty-three years ago)

adam, i have decided to consider the goofy stuff as basically a terrific hoik-up of long-sedimented phelgm, throat-clearing b4 the actual lecture

fukuyama = standard panglossian reading of hegel = "we have established secure life in this the best of all possible worlds (or will have when this tiny new irritating local difficulty is sorted)"

(local difficulty subsequently eats pangloss's children)

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 14:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I always thought Pangloss was gay. As long as we're on this tip, has anyone here read John Rawls? I bought a book of his--Political Liberalism--and it seems interesting but it's really SO VERY BORING.

Oh, and I just remembered more authors: William Greider! He's great. I'm stalled about halfway through Secrets of the Temple--I will finish it next time I get curious about central banking (the first 375 pages answered all my really pressing questions). Greider may be irrelevant to non-Americans. George P Brockway has several interesting collections of essays. Robert Wright wrote a book called Non-Zero that is so preposterous I actually hurled it across the projection booth in frustration--good for summoning the determination necessary for reading some of this other silliness. Milton Friedman and Thomas Friedman are also good for this--you gotta know your enemy, just like Rage Against the Machine said*.

Speaking of Rage Against the Machine, does anyone see the Nation's music issue last month? It was beyond lame.

*Not that Rage Against the Machine are good sources of left wing thought.

― adam (adam), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:02 (twenty-three years ago)

i read rawls at college

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:06 (twenty-three years ago)

ie in 1612

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Not that Rage Against the Machine are good sources of left wing thought.

Quite.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 15:42 (twenty-three years ago)

i am adding:
David Harvey The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change
and Zygmunt Baumat Postmodernity and its Discontents

also, when I am drunk on a train thinking to myself, I wonder if it might be possible to understand the whole of the 20th century by reading:
Robert Caro The Power Broker and
Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities

It may be strange to think that so much could be summed up by two books, but, from Caro, you get an understanding of: the process of modernization, the interplay between private companies, public-private hybrid organizations, and all the levels (local, state, federal) of american government. also, Robert Moses, the subject of the book, was somewhat of a racist and classist. Jacobs' book can we seen as the reaction to the experience of Moses and those like him, and calls for the same pluralism and intimate/local concerns (as opposed to modern grand narratives) that are the hallmarks of post-modernity (in a ver general sense).

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 17:39 (twenty-three years ago)

This thread is so left-heavy my monitor just rolled off the desk.

― Stuart (Stuart), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 17:58 (twenty-three years ago)

What did you expect? This place is full of pinko commie stooges.

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 18:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well I don't think that, and I didn't mean for my last post to come across as a dismissal of the suggestions made.

― Stuart (Stuart), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 18:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Don't worry, the R4ndr0ids will come...

― n3aL p3ar7, Tuesday, 11 March 2003 18:19 (twenty-three years ago)

to placate stuart:
1. The End of History and the Last Man by Fukuyama
2. The End of Racism by Dinesh D'Souza
3. Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 18:30 (twenty-three years ago)

The problem with the friedmans is he never really gets his way (chile excepted) coz he takes the econ etc. assumptions that everyone else spouts too seriously -- a good critique of him is almost a better way to approach it. The best I read -- like one or two sentences in a chapter on Chile in a book which said. "But they never promised a productive market, or an increase in wealth -- just an efficient market, which is something entirely different"

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 18:33 (twenty-three years ago)

It's funny how it was difficult to come up with obv arguments against Fukuyama when I was in college (that would defeat the book on its own terms), but now it's beyond easy. I dislike Fukuyama, but that makes me sad.

I'm glad to have been reminded of Chomsky's virtues, because what with his overexposure of late, his asinine commentary w/r/t 9/11, and the horrifying previews for the movie about him making the rounds, I'd nearly decided he was worthless.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 18:36 (twenty-three years ago)

that's a bit unfair on negri (who was after all on the lam from the ital cops for 20 years, b4 he gave himself up) (possibly to allow himself to finish some books: perhaps i shd try this!!)

Well it's hard getting the shelves put up when you're on the run.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 23:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Start from the source, Asa Briggs' The Age of Improvement 1783-1867.
I also recomend that book for anyone having difficulties sleeping.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:08 (twenty-three years ago)

mark s, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what "noth" meant before your correction.

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:19 (twenty-three years ago)

This thread is so left-heavy my monitor just rolled off the desk.

So then start a right-heavy one.

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I miss the quietly enraged and one half page footnotes.

I miss the quietly enraged one and a half page footnotes.

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Just noticed there hasn't been any media studies books listed yet, so I'll throw out Ben Bagdikian's The Media Monopoly, which details how the concentration of media subverts democracy.

Although flawed in places and terribly smug, Thomas Frank's One Market Under God is worth a read.

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what "noth" meant before your correction.

So did I!

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 00:39 (twenty-three years ago)

I forget if this is the one Im thinking of as counterbalance to Briggs but Hobsbawm's Industry and Empire is another one of those books they make every undergrad buy and maybe read.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 01:11 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

"Naomi Klein and Michael Moore and all those chumps know/care squat about economic reality. for them it all comes down to the human issue and suffering and justice."

haha how dare they!

no seriously tho this is a good thread. i am reading lots of books by niall ferguson.

i've wanted some good left-econ books; western (?) economics is a really depressing field if you care about, you know, "suffering", and "justice".

what do you guys think of galbraith?

― jj, Friday, 4 March 2005 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

erm..revive?

― j.r. reed, Monday, 7 March 2005 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

'empire' by hardt and negri.

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 7 March 2005 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

i am having a hard time imagining niall's 'tood towards suffering and justice here.

― NRQ, Monday, 7 March 2005 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

and their new one, though it may be bad. I haven't got round to reading it myself yet.

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 7 March 2005 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm not a fan, nrq!

― jr, Monday, 7 March 2005 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i ordered empire btw, and the 'balanced' one adam recc'd.

"what do you guys think of galbraith?" (sorry)

― JR, Monday, 7 March 2005 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

dude, bad news, you can get empire fr free on the internet. in pdf and text. :/

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 7 March 2005 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

take the world, it's taken.

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 7 March 2005 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

are there any books as solid as 'capital' about the development of the world economy *since* 1867?

i bought 'late capitalism' by ernst mandel but will probably never read it.

― NRQ, Monday, 7 March 2005 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

i like galbraith, he's funny

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 7 March 2005 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

WHAT ABOUT THE NEW INDUSTRIAL STATE.

I BOUGHT AFFLUENT SOCIETY BUT HAVE NOT STARTED IT YET.

― JR REEEED, Monday, 7 March 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

BUY AFFLUENT SOCIETY!! SELL THE NEW INDUSTRIAL STATE!!!!

― NRQ, Monday, 7 March 2005 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

galbraith i know well: "money: whence it came and where it went" and the wall street crash excerpts in the "galbraith reader"

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 7 March 2005 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

that money one looks really good!

― jrrrr, Monday, 7 March 2005 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Find a library copy of One World, Ready Or Not by William Greider.

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 7 March 2005 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

In Defence of Global Capitalism by Johan Norberg.

― David Merryweather (DavidM), Monday, 7 March 2005 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/9175665034.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― hmm, Monday, 7 March 2005 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Open World: The Truth About Globalization by Philippe Legrain

― Uncledoj, Monday, 7 March 2005 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

revive!

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 24 August 2008 23:53 (seventeen years ago)

I am deeply suspicious of these books and the people who read them

― bernard snowy, Sunday, 24 August 2008 23:55 (seventeen years ago)

For what reason.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 24 August 2008 23:56 (seventeen years ago)

hes a detective and hes trying to solve a murder involving globalization, capitalism and other socio-political issues

― max, Sunday, 24 August 2008 23:58 (seventeen years ago)

the readers of these books look swarthy

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 25 August 2008 00:06 (seventeen years ago)

it just seems like a weird thing to spend your free time and brain activity on. but I'm sure the people who read these books would probably feel the same way about me, so whatevs.

― bernard snowy, Monday, 25 August 2008 00:08 (seventeen years ago)

How is Friedman's new one?

― Abbott, Monday, 25 August 2008 00:13 (seventeen years ago)

the first half of no logo was pretty good although i am suspicious of graphs and statistics in a book aimed at the general audience. the second half covering protesting, subversive graffiti, etc was laughably bad.

― abanana, Monday, 25 August 2008 00:24 (seventeen years ago)

has anyone read The Undercover Economist? I've just started and want to know what I'm in for

― kingfish, Monday, 25 August 2008 00:30 (seventeen years ago)

It's a fun and fairly simple little book. Straightforward about econ & how it does/doesn't apply IRL. Not like Freakonomics-style "how Granny Smith apples are correlated to pregnant 12-year-olds."

― Abbott, Monday, 25 August 2008 00:35 (seventeen years ago)

I'm curious if anyone has thoughts on "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 25 August 2008 00:35 (seventeen years ago)

I did finally listen to freakanomics, which was plenty interesting, even if it drukenly swerved between correlation and causation moreso than I will when I finally leave this bar.

― kingfish, Monday, 25 August 2008 00:50 (seventeen years ago)

you're posting from a bar?

does it have free wi-fi?

― bernard snowy, Monday, 25 August 2008 01:13 (seventeen years ago)

not as such. I gots an iPhone, which reqs me to purchase unlimited data from AT&T, so the effect is similar.

Fun fact: this thing just auto-corrected 'at&t'

― kingfish, Monday, 25 August 2008 02:00 (seventeen years ago)

kingfish you must have ninja thumbs, it always takes me forever to text more than a few words

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 25 August 2008 02:13 (seventeen years ago)

I haven't read it in years, but I remember "When Corporations Rule the World" by David Korten being a fascinating read.

― Eric H., Monday, 25 August 2008 02:19 (seventeen years ago)

"has anyone read The Undercover Economist? I've just started and want to know what I'm in for

-- kingfish, Monday, 25 August 2008 00:30 (2 hours ago) Link"

i started reading it after i finished freakonomics and wanted a more general introduction to the subject. i couldn't really get into it,and ended up reading "naked economics" instead,which i can't recommend highly enough,it was a fascinating book which explained a lot of concepts i'd previously heard of but never understood,and i found while i was reading it that i couldn't put it down,its exactly the sort of thing you want if you're looking for an introduction to a subject you don't know much about.

― robin l, Monday, 25 August 2008 03:12 (seventeen years ago)

haha also its funny how five years ago in this thread i was posting about chomsky and no logo and now i'm recommending an orthodox economics book,i wonder how much of that is a function of my growing older and how much is a
reflection of economics' newly found status as the layman's acedemic subject of choice when it comes to breezy,anecdotal books that crossover to become almost pop culture?

― robin l, Monday, 25 August 2008 03:15 (seventeen years ago)

are there any books as solid as 'capital' about the development of the world economy *since* 1867?

-- NRQ, Monday, March 7, 2005 4:29 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

loooooooooooooooooool

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 25 August 2008 03:17 (seventeen years ago)

also lol @ everybody going "empire even though it's gibberish and i'm not sure i get it"

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 25 August 2008 03:29 (seventeen years ago)

My brother is currently writing one of these books. I mean, quite seriously, he's got a publisher and everything.

Which resulted in a bizarre conversation where he rang me to tell me "Ha ha, I'm spending the weekend in the Catskills with a Marxist Convention giving a presentation and doing research." Which is pretty much the funniest thing - and least likely thing - I've ever heard in my life.

Still, I will recommend it through sheer nepotism when it comes out.

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 25 August 2008 09:27 (seventeen years ago)

I'm curious if anyone has thoughts on "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"

If you pay even vague attention to what's been reported on Democracy Now and/or Expert Witness then you've basically read everything that's in here. USA + World Bank = global loan sharking as a way to augment foreign meddling. Shocking! We've only heard this several zillion times over again. Perkins has also written several dubious new age shaman books and had I known that ahead of time I probably would have skipped it.

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 25 August 2008 18:40 (seventeen years ago)

The three best and most relevant books to read (and are far superior to most of the buzzword books mentioned here)

The Prize - The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
A Full Service Bank - How BCCI Stole Billions Around the World
The Power Elite (written in 1956 and even more important today)

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 25 August 2008 18:45 (seventeen years ago)

Have read Power Elite, v good.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 25 August 2008 18:48 (seventeen years ago)

not strictly about "economics" but indispensable enemies by walter karp -- for my money the best book on american politics there is -- has a great chapter called "the monopoly economy" that explores the connection between the two-party oligarchy and the power of american corporations.

― J.D., Monday, 25 August 2008 21:19 (seventeen years ago)

how soccer explains the world
infotopia

― dan m, Monday, 25 August 2008 21:19 (seventeen years ago)

not strictly about "economics" but indispensable enemies by walter karp

Ha... I've got that book sitting here next to me - I've been a fan of Karp's since reading The Politics Of War

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 25 August 2008 23:19 (seventeen years ago)

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