The planned economy has long been a desired outcome by the men of system, and arrangers of the human chess pieces have long pointed to large businesses, making comparisons of their sales with the gross domestic products of small countries.  That thinking got Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski to write People's Republic of Walmart: How the World's ( Read more... )

Francis Spufford opens his Red Plenty with "This is not a novel.   It has too much to explain, to be one of those.  But it is not a history either, for it does its explaining in the form of a story ... The idea is the hero. ... Best to call this a fairytale, then - though it really happened, or something like it."  A blurb on the cover of my ( Read more... )

On the lighter side, Book Review No. 8 features Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World.  Although authors Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell are academic economists, with degrees from Florida State and George Mason, and, as of 2019, institutional affiliations with Southern Methodist and Texas Tech, theirs is ( Read more... )

I purchased Donald Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking in order to get a better understanding of the effect of parking requirements on land rents.  Four years ago, I conjectured, "Parking requirements, which constrain land use to include parking spaces to go with the eateries, dwellings, offices, and server farms, raise the effective rent on the ( Read more... )

Book 4: Prisoners of Geography: Ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics by Tim Marshall - 291 pages

Description from bookdepository.co.uk:All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to understand world events you need to understand people, ideas ( Read more... )

Book 21: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - 435 pages

Description from bookdepository.co.uk:The Black Swan is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don't ( Read more... )

Book 3: The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman - 382 pages

Description from bookdepository.co.uk:In this vivid portrait of the new business world, Thomas L. Friedman shows how technology, capital, and information are transforming the global marketplace, leveling old geographic and geopolitical boundaries. With bold reporting and acute ( Read more... )

Four months ago, I professed to be less than impressed with Yale's Daniel Markovits, who apparently clawed his way to the top of the status hierarchy only to complain about the struggles to get there.  I've subsequently acquired and read his The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and ( Read more... )

At first blush, it seems so simple.  Put yourself in the place of the Kaiser's shipbuilder.  It's a lot of trouble to sort out the tall timbers suitable for masts from among the wild growth of the boreal forests.  Wouldn't it be simpler, you muse (OK, in German) to set aside some land to plant and cultivate precisely the kind of tall timbers you ( Read more... )

Book 27: The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A guide to spending less while enjoying everything more by Annie Raser-Rowland with Adam Grubb - 226 pages

Description from bookdepository.co.uk:It sounds too good to be true. You can save money and the world, inoculate yourself against many of the ills of modern life, and enjoy everything more on both the ( Read more... )