Recently Mentioned Books

1. David Davidson and Knut Wicksell debated the natural rate of interest concept very early in the twentieth century, in Swedish I might add (see Carl Uhr’s books on Davidson and Wicksell ).  Most people believe Davidson won those debates and even Wicksell seemed to concede.  Whether a given rate of interest both maintains full employment and stable inflation depends on the rate of productivity growth, for one thing.  It can be that no single rate of interest can perform both functions.

1. David Davidson and Knut Wicksell debated the natural rate of interest concept very early in the twentieth century, in Swedish I might add (see Carl Uhr’s books on Davidson and Wicksell ).  Most people believe Davidson won those debates and even Wicksell seemed to concede.  Whether a given rate of interest both maintains full employment and stable inflation depends on the rate of productivity growth, for one thing.  It can be that no single rate of interest can perform both functions.

2. Jim Baker, Crossroads: A Popular History of Malaysia and Singapore. I loved this book and found every page gripping, it is hard to see how it could be better than it is.  One of the best books of last year, it turns out.

Definitely recommended, you can buy the book here .

The author is Scott Sumner and the subtitle is Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression .  Here is part of the Amazon summary:

Strongly recommended, you can buy the book here .

Jim Baggott, Origins: The Scientific Story of Creation (both life and the universe) trods a familiar path but does it much better than most, recommended.

Also arrived is Eric Rauchway, The Money Makers: How Roosevelt and Keynes Ended the Depression, Defeated Fascism, and Secured a Prosperous Peace .  I haven’t read it but Eric is always smart.

Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island is nicely done but didn’t inspire me.  It’s already out in the UK.

Roger Lowenstein’s America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve covers a poorly understood topic.

The title says it all.  That is the new book by Shane Greenstein of Harvard Business School, the subtitle is Innovation, Privatization, and the Birth of a New Network .  This extensive history is the best counter I know to the view that the internet as we know it was most of all a government project.  Definitely recommended.

That new book has the subtitle Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must be Stopped .  In addition to its critique of Putin, there is a good deal of political economy in this book, including some hypotheses which are worthy of further investigation.  For instance:

That is a classic and beautifully written nature book by J.A. Baker , here is my favorite passage:

That is from Merrill’s Hume and the Politics of Enlightenment , and the passage was sent to me by Daniel Klein, who describes the book as “new and highly recommended.”

4. Eka Kurniawan, Beauty is a Wound .  It’s been called the Garcia Marquez of Indonesia, and it is one of the country’s classic novels, newly translated into English.  Here is a good NYT review .

3. Pallavi Aiyar, New Old World: An Indian Journalist Discovers the Changing Face of Europe .  I’ve been waiting for a book like this to be written, and now it exists.  It’s fun, and full of good humor.

2. James Shapiro, The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 .  What was the political and social setting in which Lear was composed?  Recommended, substantive throughout with hardly a wasted page.

1. Andrea Wulf, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World .  Haven’t I read too many recent books about him already?  Well, this is the best one and will make my “best of the year” list.  Now if we could only have a renaissance of interest in his brother, Wilhelm von Humboldt…

Recommended, due out in January .

Here is Martin Sandbu of the FT in his new book Europe’s Orphan: The Future of the Euro and the Politics of Debt on that topic:

I had to order my copy from UK , in the US it comes out in December and can be pre-ordered .

Little Rice: Smartphones, Xiaomi, and the Chinese Dream , and here is a piece derived from the book .

That is from Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik, The World That Trade Created , second edition, p.56.  And here is Alex’s earlier post on textbooks and slavery .

That is from his 1940 book The Dynamics of War and Revolution , p.53.  It’s an ever so slightly fascistic version of a common critique of neoclassical economics.  Is it entirely wrong?

Definitely recommended, buy it here .