As I’ve noted before, “The Curious Capitalist” by Time economics writer Justin Fox (Time writer Barbara Kiviat also contributes) is my favorite economics blog. Fox is sensible, has no ideological ax to grind, doesn’t self-promote or pretend to deep knowledge he doesn’t have (though he does have a lot, particularly about banking), and sincerely wants to communicate with people who aren’t econ geeks.
So his new book is the top of my summer reading list:
• The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street. Um, actually, I’ve already read it. But it’s still on your summer reading list. Because it’s not officially on the market until June 11, I got to read it early, for a review in Delta Air Lines’ estimable in-flight magazine, Delta Sky. (The book, the magazine, its publisher, maybe even the review—all really good, by golly.) Fox isn’t anti-market—financial markets do work fairly well most of the time. But for a variety of reasons, they do blow up. Here’s a brisk, smart look at how some (usually) brilliant types came to believe that the market could be made predictable, or at least manageable—and how their efforts often made things worse.
• The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T. J. Stiles. Just started reading this one—at 500-plus pages, it should last me past Memorial Day, thus qualifying it as summer reading. So far, this biography of this great railroad baron is turning out to be just as much a superb, thought-provoking tale of how American industry developed, and how our nation’s culture was built around it. Wonderful history.
• A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression, by Richard Posner. Haven’t started this one yet, unless you count the excerpt available from the publisher. (Here’s a review.) Posner is a federal judge whose restless curiosity and intelligence ranges far beyond the law. He’s also a political conservative, but one who doesn’t have a dreamy, romanticized fantasy of “the free market.” Markets make mistakes and require regulations (though not overly restrictive ones). This looks like an insightful, important take on the current crisis—whether or not you consider it (as Posner does) a “depression.”
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