It argues compellingly that everything is not only going to be OK in the future, it is surely going to be Fucking Great. The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley – a bit of a mind-blowing summary of the evolution of trade and human prosperity, from primates to iPhones. An entertaining and mind-expanding book that will change the way you look at cities and, really, all of modern human life. It brings both advantages and disadvantages to society, and it’s useful to know the difference. I expected this book to be just a values-based smackdown of how sucky we’ve all become, but luckily it was not, and instead it taught me some new things about the debt and financial industry. But it is a very nice book for understanding the market forces that can allow us to fix the ecological bind we’re in, without crashing the whole capitalist system that allows us to get things done so efficiently.īorrow: The American Way of Debt by Louis HymanĪ historical perspective on how the use of debt has changed over the centuries and decades, most recently becoming a fast-moving tradable commodity. If I had to offer a criticism for the book, I’d say that Plenitude sounds an awful lot like Mustachianism, except with much more academic language and fewer bossy but useful directives for improving your own life. The idea of Plenitude is that we can all end up happier and with more free time, while maintaining a fully functioning and efficient economy. In this book, she combines sound economic theory and explanations, with a model for shifting the world to a sustainable level of natural resource consumption. Juliet Schor is a pretty clever economist. Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet B. The Millionaire Next Doorby Thomas Stanley/William Danko – see book review Your Money or Your Life – Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez and others – one of the Founding Documents of Mustachianism – explains that money is not for buying shit, it is for the purpose of attaining freedom. I Will Teach You To Be Rich– Ramit Sethi – see book review It’s really just a complicated form of value investing.Įarly Retirement Extreme by Jacob Fisker – see book review The Little Book that Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt – describes a method of stock picking which has historically performed much better than the stock market as a whole. I understand the points he makes, but I think he misses some fundamental counterpoints, so I don’t share at all in his predictions of doom and gloom. The author also believes “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”, and predicts a total collapse of the US dollar in the future, followed by hyperinflation in our country. Mark Smith – a well written history of the stock market dating back to the 1800s, which describes the old corrupt capitalists and mustachian heroes of old, the forming of the Federal reserve to stabilize the financial system, the conditions that led up to the great crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, the New Deal and securities act of 1932, and everything since then.Ĭrash Proof 2.0by Peter Schiff – an explanation of what caused the US financial and housing sector crash in 2008, which caused the Great Recession, the unemployment from which we are still stamping out here in 2012. Explains that with very little effort, you can drastically reduce the volatility of your investments, even while maintaining the same level of overall returns. The Intelligent Asset Allocator – by William J Bernstein – examines the effects of mixing stocks, bonds, and other assets into your portfolio in different proportions. Collins – a favorite among MMM readers because it teaches everything you really need to be a successful lifetime investor, yet it’s ridiculously simple.Ī Random Walk Down Wall Streetby Burton Malkiel – a great explanation of why index investing rules, written by a very wise professor/investor guy who has personally researched and debunked most of the common “wisdom” that exists about stock trading today. Charles Wheelan is a regular writer for The Economist magazine, which I really like. This book’s claim to fame is that it uses absolutely no graphs or numbers when explaining economics. Similar to Economics Explained, but with a more modern (and perhaps fiscally conservative) slant. Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science (Fully Revised and Updated) by Charles J. I especially like how they sneak lessons on classic economic principles into stories about current world markets. Instead of 30 days of casual browsing of the news, you can spend 1-2 hours per week enjoying Economist articles and end up light years ahead in financial and world knowledge. The Economist: For almost 20 years I’ve tuned into this advanced little magazine, because it has an intelligent, concise style of writing and a worldwide perspective.
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