Recently Mentioned Books

You can order it here .  My previous coverage of Carl T. Bogus is here .

Here is a 2009 paper of mine with Sam Papenfuss (pdf), a later version of which was published in this book edited by Joshua Hall .  The paper deliberately sidesteps the recent scandals and focuses on fundamentalist explanations of why higher education might be provided on a non-profit or for-profit basis.

That is from Aaron Bobrow-Strain , interesting throughout, I just pre-ordered his new book White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf .  For the pointer I thank Michael Rosenwald .

Krugman defines “potential GDP is a measure of how much the economy can produce” but keep in mind that this quite possibly won’t be a unique number.  With what risk premium?  With what enthusiasm of supply?  See my Risk and Business Cycles for an extended discussion and also numerous citations.

That is the new book by Ben Casnocha and Reid Hoffman and the subtitle is Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career .  if you are starting a career, it is an excellent book for thinking through the practical issues you will face in branding yourself in what is becoming a more volatile and very different labor market.  The book’s home page is here .

You can pre-order the book on Amazon here .  For Barnes & Noble here .  For Indiebound.org here .

I recommend Michael Grabell, Money Well-Spent?: The Truth Behind the Trillion-Dollar Stimulus, The Biggest Economic Recovery Plan in History .  It is a very good journalistic account of how the money was spent, and less scandal-mongering than the title might indicate.  I found it to be quite an objective account.  There should be more books like this, looking at the nuts and bolts of economic legislation.

There is The Southern Tiger: Chile’s Fight for a Democratic and Prosperous Future , by Ricardo Lagos, Elizabeth Dickinson, and Blake Hounshell, next up on my Kindle.

I loved Arthur Schnitzler’s Casanova’s Homecoming, free on Kindle , which I never had read before. Alice James: A Biography , by Jean Strouse, is a very good look at her life (she is the sister) and the life of the James family.

I loved Arthur Schnitzler’s Casanova’s Homecoming, free on Kindle , which I never had read before. Alice James: A Biography , by Jean Strouse, is a very good look at her life (she is the sister) and the life of the James family.

Jo Guldi, Roads to Power: Britain Invents the Infrastructure State is a good and also conceptual history of 19th century road building.

Christopher Balding, Sovereign Wealth Funds: The New Intersection of Wealth and Politics is a useful overview.

Alessandra Casella, Storable Votes: Protecting the Minority Voice , calls for a system where you can abstain from voting on one measure and receive an extra vote on something else.

I reviewed Ruth Grant’s new Strings Attached: When do Incentives Corrupt ? here , for Science , university readers can get through the gate.

There is Ruchir Sharma, Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles , due out in April.

Larry Kotlikoff and Scott Burns have their new The Clash of Generations: Saving Ourselves, Our Kids, and Our Economy , due out in March.  I believe they are still fiscal pessimists.

Timothy Taylor, The Instant Economist: Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works is too elementary for most MR readers but it is well executed and would make a good gift for anyone needing an introduction to economic reasoning.

If you are seeking to “normalize” this review, I consider Judt’s Past Imperfect to be one of the best books of the last few decades, his Postwar to be one of my favorite books ever, and his late essays to be some of the best writing, in any genre, in a long time.  (Though I didn’t like Ill Fares the Land .)  I can recommend this too, as something worth consuming and pondering and spending money on, but I still have a slightly queasy feeling in my stomach.

If you are seeking to “normalize” this review, I consider Judt’s Past Imperfect to be one of the best books of the last few decades, his Postwar to be one of my favorite books ever, and his late essays to be some of the best writing, in any genre, in a long time.  (Though I didn’t like Ill Fares the Land .)  I can recommend this too, as something worth consuming and pondering and spending money on, but I still have a slightly queasy feeling in my stomach.

If you are seeking to “normalize” this review, I consider Judt’s Past Imperfect to be one of the best books of the last few decades, his Postwar to be one of my favorite books ever, and his late essays to be some of the best writing, in any genre, in a long time.  (Though I didn’t like Ill Fares the Land .)  I can recommend this too, as something worth consuming and pondering and spending money on, but I still have a slightly queasy feeling in my stomach.

It is a wide-ranging dialogue with Timothy Snyder, you can buy it here .  I will gladly recommend this book, but I have mixed feelings about it.  It is Judt’s “deathbed conversations” with Snyder, when he was paralyzed.

The longer story is here , and of course Manhattan has done fine over this same period of time.  Ryan’s eBook is here , I believe Matt’s is due out soon, I look forward to reading it.  Here is my earlier column on minimum parking requirements .  Here is Matt on Donald Shoup .

Remember when “rage” used to mean “Radical Alternatives to Government Enterprise”? Murray’s book will bring rage of a different kind, because it strikes rather directly at how political views are based on emotional feelings about the deserved status of various social groups (RH: “Politics isn’t about policy.”)  Here is more .  If you are wondering, my copy of the book arrives today.  Perhaps my review will consider whether economic forces are driving the social ones, or vice versa.

In my forthcoming An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies you will find a more extensive discussion of the economics and ethics of boycotts.

The author is Daniel Klein and you can buy it here .  My blurb reads: