"Recent Reading"

[Feanor]

Two books I'm reading at the moment:

• Gene Wolfe: The Book of the Short Sun trilogy:

Ahoy sci-fi fans! Gene Wolfe is the best writer in this genre ever, (IMO). His quadrology, The Book of the New Sun, is his best & most popular & acclaimed novel: I can't recommend it too strong. (The present series pretty darn good too.)

• Michael Lewis: Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

About how various countries have dealt with debt crisis according to their cultural predispostions. Good so far, but I'm still reading.

[Feanor]

Currently I'm reading ...

Paul Krugman: End this Depression Now!



Another book everybody should read. Actually, I'm only about 1/2 way through at the moment, but I can still reach that conclusion.

If you know beans about Krugman, you'll know he's an unabashed Keynesian. So you'll know that he believes that the stimulus should have been much larger and longer sustained; you'll know that he would have preferred supporting states to keep public service workers on the payroll. And you'll know that he would have preferred much tougher conditions on the banks when the bailouts were handed out. (With hindsight, he says that the banks should have been placed in formal receivership.)

But if you're an anarcho-capitalist Ayn Rand devotee this book won't convince you. Likewise if you're Neo-classical a.k.a. "freshwater" economist, you'll be in a state of full denial about the causes as well as the solutions to the current recession -- or depression, as Krugman identifies it based on account of what will happen if effective action isn't taken.

[bobsticks]

I've read and heard many, many good things about Krugman's book. Your mini-review has pushed me even closer toward buying this. Thanks, Bill, well written.