Recently Mentioned Books

Remember when Bob Dylan was DJ for those XM satellite radio shows , spinning a melange of blues, folk songs, vaudeville, gospel, and general bizarreness, with generally American themes, in the process proving himself one of the world's great musical infovres ?  Some of those shows are collected on CD, in Germany, vol. I, II, and III, four discs a box, twelve discs in total.  The Amazon.de listings are here (they will ship to the US), or in German stores for about six dollars a disc, thank you Gr...

Here is one obituary .  Of his works, I find Blindness the most compelling, Ricardo Reis the deepest and most lyrical, and The Double as the most fun and the easiest.  Most of the others I do not like at all (if you've tried only the others I say try again), but those three I recommend very highly.

Here is one obituary .  Of his works, I find Blindness the most compelling, Ricardo Reis the deepest and most lyrical, and The Double as the most fun and the easiest.  Most of the others I do not like at all (if you've tried only the others I say try again), but those three I recommend very highly.

Here is one obituary .  Of his works, I find Blindness the most compelling, Ricardo Reis the deepest and most lyrical, and The Double as the most fun and the easiest.  Most of the others I do not like at all (if you've tried only the others I say try again), but those three I recommend very highly.

Edmund Silberner's classic treatment of trade and war remains relevant and of course he was also a prominent Zionist, albeit a mostly forgotten one today.

Living here feels natural.  I am happy but oddly unfascinated.  Most of all, I notice the changed routines of my life.  Every day I take mass transit and have cheese for breakfast, rather than the car and cereal.  I am more likely to take in information by walking around different parts of town than by reading.  I have only five CDs, a Kindle, and a few paperbacks, including the new (and good) David Mitchell novel .

For extensions of my argument, see my book Create Your Own Economy , soon to be released in paperback with the new and superior title The Age of the Infovore .

Kurt Weill belongs somewhere, as does Christopher Isherwood, Gustav Grundgens , or for that matter E.T.A. Hoffmann.  In popular music there is Ricardo Villalobos (born in Chile, but a Berliner), Einst ü rzende Neubauten (start with Halber Mensch ), and Peter and also Casper Br ö tzmann.  I confess that most Mendelssohn bores me.

11. Non-fiction book, about : Two that come to mind are Richard Grunberger's The 12-Year Reich and Anthony Beevor's The Fall of Berlin 1945 .  I do like books about the rise and fall of the Nazis; I just don't think the topic lends itself well to film.

11. Non-fiction book, about : Two that come to mind are Richard Grunberger's The 12-Year Reich and Anthony Beevor's The Fall of Berlin 1945 .  I do like books about the rise and fall of the Nazis; I just don't think the topic lends itself well to film.

10. Film director : Ernst Lubitsch was born there, and filmed silents there, though he later had to leave.  His Trouble in Paradise (1932) is today an under-viewed movie, plus his later romantic features, such as The Shop Around the Corner , Heaven Can Wait , and To Be Or Not To Be , all merit attention.

10. Film director : Ernst Lubitsch was born there, and filmed silents there, though he later had to leave.  His Trouble in Paradise (1932) is today an under-viewed movie, plus his later romantic features, such as The Shop Around the Corner , Heaven Can Wait , and To Be Or Not To Be , all merit attention.

10. Film director : Ernst Lubitsch was born there, and filmed silents there, though he later had to leave.  His Trouble in Paradise (1932) is today an under-viewed movie, plus his later romantic features, such as The Shop Around the Corner , Heaven Can Wait , and To Be Or Not To Be , all merit attention.

10. Film director : Ernst Lubitsch was born there, and filmed silents there, though he later had to leave.  His Trouble in Paradise (1932) is today an under-viewed movie, plus his later romantic features, such as The Shop Around the Corner , Heaven Can Wait , and To Be Or Not To Be , all merit attention.

7. Playwrigh t: Lessing's Nathan the Wise is a beautiful plea for tolerance.  Bertolt Brecht was a compelling writer despite his communist politics.

6. Political philosopher : Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action , which to this day remains one of the best statements of libertarian political philosophy.

4. Symphonic performance : Furtw ä ngler's 1942 performance of Beethoven's 9th , recorded live.  Has to be heard to be believed.  Obviously there was a lot at stake and furthermore Hitler was in the audience.  This performance will terrify you.

1. Movie, set in : One, Two, Three captures a bit of comedy from the Cold War and shows Jimmy Cagney to be a surprisingly versatile actor. Wings of Desire has stunning moments, most of all in the Staatsbibliothek with the angels and in the indie music club. Goodbye, Lenin! shows German movies can be funny, as does Run, Lola, Run !.  I don't like films about either the rise or fall of the Nazis and I couldn't get through Berlin Alexanderplatz .

1. Movie, set in : One, Two, Three captures a bit of comedy from the Cold War and shows Jimmy Cagney to be a surprisingly versatile actor. Wings of Desire has stunning moments, most of all in the Staatsbibliothek with the angels and in the indie music club. Goodbye, Lenin! shows German movies can be funny, as does Run, Lola, Run !.  I don't like films about either the rise or fall of the Nazis and I couldn't get through Berlin Alexanderplatz .

1. Movie, set in : One, Two, Three captures a bit of comedy from the Cold War and shows Jimmy Cagney to be a surprisingly versatile actor. Wings of Desire has stunning moments, most of all in the Staatsbibliothek with the angels and in the indie music club. Goodbye, Lenin! shows German movies can be funny, as does Run, Lola, Run !.  I don't like films about either the rise or fall of the Nazis and I couldn't get through Berlin Alexanderplatz .

1. Movie, set in : One, Two, Three captures a bit of comedy from the Cold War and shows Jimmy Cagney to be a surprisingly versatile actor. Wings of Desire has stunning moments, most of all in the Staatsbibliothek with the angels and in the indie music club. Goodbye, Lenin! shows German movies can be funny, as does Run, Lola, Run !.  I don't like films about either the rise or fall of the Nazis and I couldn't get through Berlin Alexanderplatz .

6. Interview with Paul Seabright (older but still good); hail Paul Seabright!  (And here is the new edition of his book .)

Originally published in 1938, it just came out in English for the first time in complete form .  I'm only on p.200 (of about 800), but so far it is a gripping albeit slightly schlocky Continental novel of ideas, set in 1923 Berlin, and pitched roughly at the level of a John Forsythe novel.  It's also notable for its incorporation of monetary theory throughout the narrative.  Fallada had a good grasp of the costs of hyperinflation, the associated accounting problems, the difficulty of personal ec...

That is from Rajan's Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy .  Most of this book is on the financial crisis — and not health care — and it is one of the two or three best books on that topic.