Off the Shelf

Create Your Own Economy by Tyler Cowan.

Not really about economics or the economy in a macro or micro sense. This is really about trends in knowledge: how we gather it, how we organize it, how we experience it. Cowan's theory is that the web and other social media are changing how we think and how we encounter the world. "Create your own economy" actually means "create your own life" without the mediating hand of corporate and political gatekeepers. This is, alternatively a visionary and eccentric work; eccentric because Cowan has become taken with the idea that autistics and Asperger's people have the most to teach us about organizing the blizzard of information that comes out of a typical Google search. Cowan is quite taken with this idea, and returns to it again and again. Indeed, it is the most unique insight in the book. Not sure if I entirely accept this, especially as many psychologists have begun questioning whether there is even a disorder that you could call "Asperger's Syndrome." Nonetheless, this is a very thought provoking book and well worth your time.

End The Fed by Ron Paul

Pretty good polemic from a guy who has become the right-wing equivalent of Ralph Nader - an elderly radical who appeals to young voters looking for purity in politics and business. Not me, I'm a wizened old cynic. Paul is very good on the history and function of the Federal Reserve. He is excellent on the moral aspects of monetary policy, pointing out that the loose money policies favored by banks and big government is punishing towards the prudent and thrifty. And, Paul is absolutely right that the world won't come to an end if the Fed were to be abolished and the banking system decentralized. Paul is less persuasive in his arguments regarding the Fed's effects on America's domestic and foreign policy. Paul is an isolationist, and repeatedly blames the Fed for America's 20th century's wars, as if there were no other good reasons to fight WW1 or WW2. And, like many from the libertarian world, Paul always seems to be one sentence away from declaring Abraham Lincoln to be a fascist dictator. Paul has a good message, but he can be a problematic messenger.