need economic book recommendations

[Locrian]

I would like to learn about economics. The REAL economics. NOT the Milton Friedman Chicago School version but the old school type that believed in classifying things as productive / non-productive.

More important - I want to know why things are F-ed up in terms of how the Friedman cult has brainwashed the whole financial sector. I read Naomi Kleins book (shock doctrine) and it was amazing. But it didnt go into as much financial explanations or into the why.

I mean I just dont get it - why do they think free / uncontrolled / privatize everything / etc - why do they think it WORKS? And its NOT just because they get rich - there is too much missing to it. They HONESTLY believe they are right but WHY?

And why does their economic policies get so much play as being "scientific" and "scholarly"? Isn't there antidotes to this? Where is the old Keynesian, Adam Smith etc side? Or is it all just the billons of $$ in propaganda pushing the side for the rich?


What I want is "common" arguments to counter the "privatize it all" believe of the man in the street. I want arguments against the young 20-somethings who seem to (BTW - not all but a LOT) who just want lower taxes, and "control" over "their" social security. The "lower property taxes" - crowd (who dont get that the lower dollar just increased their "tax" by 40% by making the dollar worth less.

Any ideas???????


I thought this article "The Fictitious Economy, Part 1, An Interview With Dr. Michael Hudson" was a good start.

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=696&Itemid=1

[Lasher]

1. 'The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule' by Thomas Frank

You can watch a Book TV interview here.

And I'll recommend The Economic Populist as a good forum for those of us who believe demand-side economic principles have been sadly neglected in favor of all the supply-side snake oil.

[bananas]

2. "Wizards Of Money" by Smithy

http://www.robinupton.com/people/WizardsOfMoney/
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/3550

[Jim__]

3. Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country by William Greider

Its about 20 years old now. But, it follows the economic history of the US from the Civil War up to Paul Volcker term as chairman of the fed. Great read. Great information. Not really an economics book, but you'll come away understanding an awful lot about money and how it works.

[Locrian]

4. thanks!

Some great stuff thanks. Esp looking at the Wizards of Money....

listening now - I know a lot of this but some of it is blowing my mind. The Wizard of Oz as a commentary on the gold standard!!! Too cool....

[JFreitas]

5. Do you speak french...?

Do you read french? I find that english only speakers miss out on a lot of high level theoretical discussion on economics, due to some sort of.... bias?... a cultural thing in favor of excessive self-reliance? something... which means that non-english speakers are willing to entertain more "crazy" ideas than english speaking when it comes to economical theory.

Jacques Sapir is a french economist who has thought a lot about the theoretical basis of modern neo-classical theory and has made some powerful attacks on it. Unfortunately, a cursory glance through Amazon doesn't yield any book in english. If you can read french I recommend:

Les trous noirs de la science économique. Essai sur l'impossibilité de penser le temps et l'argent.
(The Black Holes of Economic Theory: Essay on the Impossibility of Thinking through Money and time)

Les Economistes contre la démocratie : Pouvoir, mondialisation et démocratie
(Economists against Democracy: Power, globalization and democracy).

His arguments are many and complex, but essentially he rails against the un-demonstrated status of "economic neo classical theory" as a scientific evidence or as in some way embodying some sort of "natural law" in the same sense that thermodynamics, for example, is a law. From here he draws an exceptionally strong argument about the legitimacy of economic theories as applied to politics, and tries to demonstrate that economic arrangements and rules derive their legitimacy from society and people (unless, like Schmidt, you are willing to apply the need for some sort of transcendent origin to those laws (ie. God). He is essentially attacking the fact that the economy is more and more being taken away from the province of politics, whereas he states that nations should in fact be free to arrange their economic organization as a democratic decision.

Here's his take on the subprime mess:
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue46/Sapir46.pdf

For a very good set of arguments against neo-classical theory, albeit from a libertarian point of view, but very intelligently argued, you should read Nasim Taleb's The Black Swan, and even better his earlier Fooled by Randomness (although you need both to get all the stuff). His books are great because they also provide most of the bibliography that demonstrates with experiments, that people CANNOT behave like the agents of neo-classical theory. They take irrational decisions, cannot judge odds, have hardwired biases and so on.

[Locrian]

9. no French

A little spanish....

[idlisambar]

6. "Debunking Economics"

check this out -- http://www.debunking-economics.com/Sample/method.htm

[Locrian]

10. awesome - thanks

Reading this now. Great depth about some of the failing of Friedman's mathematics.

[Joanne98]

7. The Shock Doctrine and The Wrecking Crew

[Locrian]

8. read em - great books

nt

[AdHocSolver]

11. Ninety percent of economics writing is the same as tobacco companies telling you smoking is healthy.

What the right-wing refers to as "free", "uncontrolled" markets are really markets controlled by the multinational corporations through cartel agreements such as NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, etc. These agreements are designed to PREVENT real competition which would reduce their profits.

"Privatization" means the removing of government control for the public benefit and replacing it with corporate control for private benefit.

Economics is NOT rocket science. Find a decently written college-level economics text and read up on supply and demand, the effect of supply and demand on price, what a market is, competition, monopoly, oligopoly, cartels, etc. -- the basics. You have to understand the definitions. Other concepts to learn are inflation, money supply, interest, currency devaluation, etc. Learn how these concepts are interrelated.

The basic concept to understand is that corporations want to increase prices and profits by increasing demand (through advertising, or selling an addictive product like tobacco), and by reducing supply by keeping production low (eg., don't build refineries) and eliminating competition.

Then, learn what a Ponzi scheme is. This is what the stock market is all about. The corporations want to "privatize" Social Security so that they can sucker the young people into giving their savings to the corporations by buying stock which will initially drive up the stock's price, but whose price will eventually tank causing the young people to lose their retirement savings. For an example, read up on Enron.

Warning: Most of what the pundits, stock brokers, bankers, and economists tell you is pure bullsh*t, designed to confuse you, and obfuscate the techniques they use to steal your money. If they leave you more confused than ever, then they have accomplished their goals, and you can be sure they are shoveling manure.