Recently Mentioned Books

The editor is David Beckworth and the subtitle is The Causes and Cures of the Great Recession .  Contributors include Lawrence H. White, Scott Sumner, George Selgin, Jeff Rogers Hummel, Bill Woolsey, Nicholas Rowe, and Beckworth himself, with a strong representation from market monetarism.  My blurb reads: “David Beckworth rapidly has become one of the most influential writers in monetary economics and his wonderful book…offers some of the most important new ideas in the field.”

7. Gary B. Gorton, Misunderstanding Financial Crises: Why We Don’t See Them Coming .

6. Political Arithmetic: Simon Kuznets and the Empirical Tradition in Economics , by Robert Fogel, Enid Fogel, Mark Guglielmo, and Nathaniel Grotte.

5. Roger Scruton, How to Think Seriously About the Planet: The Case for an Environmental Conservatism .  I like Elinor Ostrom as much as the next guy, and this book is well-written, but I am not persuaded by the argument that environmental issues fundamentally can be handled on a local level.  At least a few important ones cannot.

4. Derek S. Hoff, The State and the Stork: The Population Debate and Policy Making in US History .  Good survey of early 20th century debates on population and birth rates and eugenics; these topics are making a comeback.

3. James C. Scott, Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, Meaningful Work and Play .  He really is an anarchist, left-wing at that, but I couldn’t quite find a central core here, much as I admire his other books.

2. Frances Ashcroft, The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body .  One of the remaining popular science topics which has not been exhausted by popular books and so this volume is both instructive and entertaining and comes across as fresh.

1. Among Others , by Jo Walton.  I loved this book.  It won a Nebula Award, but is more about the power of books than being a work of science fiction per se.

The subtitle is A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars and according to Paglia “The format of the book is based on Catholic breviaries of devotional images, like Mass cards of the saints.”

That is from Seoul: A Window into Korean Culture , a very good book by Choi Joon-sik.

I put this one in the jaw hits floor category, and for more than one reason.  (Sheila ran the FDIC during the financial crisis and her book is titled Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself ).

You also should read the new (short) book out by Nicholas Eberstadt, A Nation of Takers: America’s Entitlement Epidemic , which came to my attention quite recently.

I am a big fan of this book.  The Amazon link is here , and the Kindle edition should be coming in less than a week.

That is from Nate Silver’s new and excellent The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — But Some Don’t .  The profile of Robin Hanson appears on p.201.

Paglia’s new book is here .  For the pointer I thank Alex T.

10. Painter : Contemporary art is a rich vein for South Korea. This catalog is one good place to start.

1. Movie .  If I had to pick one, I might opt for Old Boy .  The deeper point is that you should watch them all.  If it is a Korean movie, and you can get your hands on it (as a non-Korean), it is probably excellent.  This is a remarkable regularity and a good selection filter for exploring. This list is one place to start but not to stop. The Host is a fun spoof of monster movies and Shiri is a gripping thriller.  Watch any Korean movie which Scott Sumner recommends.  Even some of the clunkier ...

1. Movie .  If I had to pick one, I might opt for Old Boy .  The deeper point is that you should watch them all.  If it is a Korean movie, and you can get your hands on it (as a non-Korean), it is probably excellent.  This is a remarkable regularity and a good selection filter for exploring. This list is one place to start but not to stop. The Host is a fun spoof of monster movies and Shiri is a gripping thriller.  Watch any Korean movie which Scott Sumner recommends.  Even some of the clunkier ...

1. Movie .  If I had to pick one, I might opt for Old Boy .  The deeper point is that you should watch them all.  If it is a Korean movie, and you can get your hands on it (as a non-Korean), it is probably excellent.  This is a remarkable regularity and a good selection filter for exploring. This list is one place to start but not to stop. The Host is a fun spoof of monster movies and Shiri is a gripping thriller.  Watch any Korean movie which Scott Sumner recommends.  Even some of the clunkier ...

1. Movie .  If I had to pick one, I might opt for Old Boy .  The deeper point is that you should watch them all.  If it is a Korean movie, and you can get your hands on it (as a non-Korean), it is probably excellent.  This is a remarkable regularity and a good selection filter for exploring. This list is one place to start but not to stop. The Host is a fun spoof of monster movies and Shiri is a gripping thriller.  Watch any Korean movie which Scott Sumner recommends.  Even some of the clunkier ...

That is the new Harvard Business Review Press book by Joshua Gans , Amazon link here, $3.99, recommended.  Here is Joshua’s blog .

You can buy the book here .

As you may know, the Supreme Court starts hearing oral arguments on affirmative action on October 9th.  I have not much followed the empirical debate on affirmative action, but it seems to me this is likely the best recent book on the “anti” side.  On the pro side, you can read The Shape of the River, by William Bowen and Derek Bok .

The authors are Richard H. Sander and Stuart Taylor, Jr., and the subtitle is How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won’t Admit It .

1. New BBC show on Hayek (Friedrich) , and the new Camille Paglia book on art and images .