Book Description
The international bestseller on the extent to which personal freedom has been eroded by government regulations and agencies while personal prosperity has been undermined by government spending and economic controls. New Foreword by the Authors; Index.
Customer Reviews:
The principles of economic freedom are found in this book. A must read!.......2007-10-14
The relationship between freedom and economics is undeniable. Also undeniable is the relationship between government and freedom. Milton Friedman brilliantly makes a clear persuasive case for the perpetuation of free markets and the elimination of big government, as a means of augmenting freedom worldwide and as a result expand prosperity. Although this book is over 27 years old, the economic principles of this book are as timeless as Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations".
The book covers topics, such as socialized medicine, which is even more popular today, due in large part to the propaganda promulgated by the sensationalist media circuits. Of course, Americans do not want socialized medicine so proponents are euphemistically calling it "universal healthcare". Mr. Friedman expressed that "in our opinion there is no use whatsoever for socialized medicine. On the contrary, government already plays too large a role in medical care. Any further expansion of its role would very much against the interest of patients, physicians, and health care personnel." This, of course, was written almost 3 decades ago when the expenditure of healthcare was huge, however, not as appalling as it is now at close to 15% of the country's GDP. There are many factors involved in the rising healthcare costs, not the least of which is the government's inability to operate any activity cheaper and more efficiently than the private sector. There are no exceptions to this. None! Unfortunately, the tendency of government is to increase funding for programs that don't work. If it isn't working, then it must mean it needs more funding, is the philosophy of government. This of course, goes counter to the much more efficient private sector where costs are controlled in order to attain a dirty little concept called profits. It is in the self-interest of people and companies and not their benevolence, that most of the freedom and economic progress is dependent upon, according to Adam Smith and Milton Friedman.
Mr. Friedman was a radical free trade crusader and the evidence espoused in this book is overwhelmingly effective at convincing most open-minded individuals. Friedman goes on to write "Wherever we find any large element of individual freedom, some measure of progress in the material comforts at the disposal of ordinary citizens, and widespread hope of further progress in the future, there we also find that market activity is organized mainly through the free market." He goes on to warn us that "Wherever the state undertakes to control in detail the economic activities of its citizens, wherever, that is, detailed central economic planning reigns, there ordinary citizens are in political fetters, have a low standard of living, and have little power to control their own destiny." He further declares that under such governments impressive monuments may be produced and a certain class may enjoy a full measure of material goods, however, ordinary citizens will become merely "instruments to be used for the state's purpose" and will receive only what is "necessary to keep them docile and reasonably productive."
Friedman also covers topics on education, consumer protection, inflation, unions and what he believed, at that time, was a "turning of the tide" into a more free market based mentality by the general population. This period, however, was when Carter was still in office and Reagan was coming in with his message of small government and as a result reduction in taxes. I'm afraid that we are again seeing a turning of the tide, this time, unfortunately, we are headed into larger government and more social programs, due in large part to the short memory of the American public of what communism used to be and the continual romanticizing of socialist countries that provide its population with cradle to grave social programs, almost always at the expense of freedom and progress. We must be careful!
This book is a must-read to gain a fundamental understanding of economics, and as a reminder of the basic economic principles that have made America great. Enjoy!
Life transforming.......2007-06-23
Friedman was a genius. He was also the most articulate and fearless advovate for freedom. It seems that most are willing to give a little here and there for their pet projects. He was not. This is the best argument for the economic power that comes from freedom as well as the advantages for the individual. Over the long hall it is also the only way to prevent the loss of all freedoms. Read this book and it will positively change your life.
A book for freedom.......2007-06-14
Mr. Friedman, God rest his soul, continues to demonstrate the link between laissez faire economics and personal freedom. This companion to "Capitalism and Freedom" is a must read for those who are interested in individual liberty and the economic system that pertuates such liberty.
Be Free.......2007-05-24
Milton and Rose Friedman, "A society that puts equality - in the sense of equality of outcome - ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.
...
On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality."
Milton Friedman, "Everybody agrees that socialism has been a failure. Everybody agrees that capitalism has been a success... yet everybody is extending socialism."
Lawrence Reed, "Free men are not equal and equal men are not free."
Tusen Takk!
Still a beauty.......2007-04-08
Almost 30 years on, Free to Choose still offers valuable insights to the political economics in western democracies. The books main message is that special interests always prevail over general interests. For that reason, we have tariffs on sugar though the majority of the electorate loses from it and we have restricted entry into several occupations like real estate brokers and furniture designing. The story of the development of the Interstate Commerce Commission is particuylarly readable. The ICC was established to protect the consumer (general interest), but quickly turned to protect the producers (special interest). Because special interests always prevail, the governments role in the economy should be restricted.
The Freidmans finish their book with a faint of hope. The final chapter is called The Tide is Turning, and in the foreword written in 1990, they acknowledge that public opinion is greatly different in 1990 than it was in 1975. And economic policy in the US is improved. Marginal tax rates are reduced sharply. Inflation is low and stable. The former communist countries have gone capitalist in scores.
Many of the key messages of the book are now conventional wisdom. Its still worth reading, though. The book offers a very gook look into the intellectual climate of the late 70s. It is one of the central works of one of history's most prominent economists. But foremost, it describes the logic of economics in a very beautiful way.
Book Description
Listen to a short interview with Thomas McCraw
Host: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane
Pan Am, Gimbel's, Pullman, Douglas Aircraft, Digital Equipment Corporation, British Leyland--all once as strong as dinosaurs, all now just as extinct. Destruction of businesses, fortunes, products, and careers is the price of progress toward a better material life. No one understood this bedrock economic principle better than Joseph A. Schumpeter. "Creative destruction," he said, is the driving force of capitalism.
Described by John Kenneth Galbraith as "the most sophisticated conservative" of the twentieth century, Schumpeter made his mark as the prophet of incessant change. His vision was stark: Nearly all businesses fail, victims of innovation by their competitors. Businesspeople ignore this lesson at their peril--to survive, they must be entrepreneurial and think strategically. Yet in Schumpeter's view, the general prosperity produced by the "capitalist engine" far outweighs the wreckage it leaves behind.
During a tumultuous life spanning two world wars, the Great Depression, and the early Cold War, Schumpeter reinvented himself many times. From boy wonder in turn-of-the-century Vienna to captivating Harvard professor, he was stalked by tragedy and haunted by the specter of his rival, John Maynard Keynes. By 1983--the centennial of the birth of both men--Forbes christened Schumpeter, not Keynes, the best navigator through the turbulent seas of globalization. Time has proved that assessment accurate.
Prophet of Innovation is also the private story of a man rescued repeatedly by women who loved him and put his well-being above their own. Without them, he would likely have perished, so fierce were the conflicts between his reason and his emotions. Drawing on all of Schumpeter's writings, including many intimate diaries and letters never before used, this biography paints the full portrait of a magnetic figure who aspired to become the world's greatest economist, lover, and horseman--and admitted to failure only with the horses.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Work!.......2007-10-08
Schumpeter was an unusual man: both professionally and personally. This excellent biography captures both. Schumpeter sought fame, and the agonies he went through to achieve this obsession- mainly through the enormous amount of writing and research he undertook, which probably undermined his health and shortened his life- are well captured in this book.
Schumpeter sought to develop a 'system' of economics, yet his prolific reading and research lead him to discover that there is no such thing as a watertight system of economic theory. In fact, Schumpeter found, like most notable economists, that an understanding of economics comes from an understanding of history, psychology, sociology and many other areas of learning. And what a contrast to the emphasis of graduate economics courses taught in our schools today!
Having just read Greenspan's book, it comes as no surprise that Greenspan achnowleged Schumpeter as one of the greatest influences upon his outlook. Both men believe in the superiority of the capitalist system as a creator of wealth, yet not for any doctriare reasons, but because they are/were convinced that capitalism is part and parcel of the make up of humankind, and the way in which we organize themselves and cooperate to ensure our survival and progress.
Buy this book, and enjoy the read; you will find yourself coming back to it to reread sections over again.
Important.......2007-06-23
Free markets are hard to explain. It is even harder to explain why companies must fail and be replaced by new ones. In the U.S. we mostly let that happen but in Europe they try and prevent it. It seems that this issue will become even more important as the world becomes 100% "flat" and competition becomes more intense. Developments in Asia will make the levels of creative destruction we have seen in the past look mild by comparison.
This book gives a great introduction to one of the great economic minds. His insights, although proven over and over, are still not accepted my many.
Review of McCraw's book on Schumpeter.......2007-05-31
I have been impressed by this book, which is a good mix of the 'history' of Joseph Schumpeter and his ideas and contributions to economics. I think the author has obtained a very good balance between trying to understand this great economist, and presenting his work to the informed lay-person. Economists and non-economists alike will find a lot here, which is very relevant to today (perhaps even more so to economists working in academia!). Some of Schumpeter's major works (like Business Cycles published in 1939) are not easy to digest; but this book brings out enough to capture the essentials. Overall, this is the best book on Schumpeter I have seen.
BEST WRITTEN RECENT BIOGRAPHY; BUT TENOUS WHEN IT MOVES FROM HISTORY TO ECONOMICS.......2007-05-01
Thomas McCraw is one of the best business historians in the world and with this output, late in his career (he is an emeritus professor at Harvard now), he can lay claim to being one of the best historians in the world, not just a business historian. It is hard to imagine a political biography in recent years that comes close to matching the lucid style, perfect prose, excellent quotes and commentary about life as this book.
The subject is one of the most famous economists of the twentieth century, someone who along with Frederick Hayek, Ludwig Mises and others from the Austrian School came to anchor the philosophical basis for the success of economic and political freedom. The book covers in detail the personal life of Schumpeter, including a lot of material not commonly available. His biography of the deaths of his daughter mother and wife within months is an excellent if tragic basis to delineate the first part of Schumpeter's life, which the author suggests made him an Enfant Terrible, from the second, which the author calls made him an adult. The final segment is his becoming a Sage. Peppered throughout the book are some of the best quotations from some of the most famous persons in history, including legendary poets, yet ones the reader would never have read before.
For all those reasons, Thomas McCraw has delivered a book that is filling like a all-you-can-eat buffet, yet with each dish of the same quality as fine dining. IT IS A TOUR DE FORCE.
Yet there is a contextual flaw which weighs down the narrative. From the very first pages it is clear that Thomas McCraw is attempting to also make a comparative evaluation of economic systems, a task that quickly appears tenous, and to do that while crowning Schumpeter as the king of economics, past and present, at which point the narrative makes one cringe. Here is why this brilliant history turns into tenous economic analysis.
Firstly, as Thomas McCraw's colleagues across the Charles River should tell him, Schumpeter was his best not so much as a pure AUstrian-School economist but as a chronicler of the economy, almost a contemporary historian of the subject. In that sense he shared much with Karl Marx, who he studied extensively, for both really shined with words not with mathematics. So the author's repeated references to Schumpeter as a mathematical genius, or as a competitor in that regard with John Keynes, fails and fails obviously. Schumpeter was the least mathematical of all the great economists of the twentieth century.
Secondly, McCraw makes the error common to passionate biographers to make a sage out of their subject. Here too the book overreaches, for Schumpeter was among the worst at foretelling the future. Here again it was because he was more a historian, and less an economist. He predicted capitalism would collapse, a prediction that the author just glosses over. Yet the author pillories Karl Marx for the same error without realizing that Karl Marx wrote without the full benefit of the technological revolution, the telegraph and railroad barely underway by the 1840s. Yet by Schumpeter's time, not only were those revolutions done, but so was the telephone, electricity, the internal combustion engine and the airplane. As such, Schumpeter's pessimism was unforgivable while Karl Marx's was fully understandable.
Third, McCraw makes a shocking mistake by glossing over Schumpeter's lobbying for heavy reparations on the Germans after WW I. He did so by offering calculations that the German economy would easily recover, and therefore could support reparations. The point was fully opposed by John Keynes, who resigned as representative of Britain when the Schumpeterian perspective was used to devastate the Germans with debt burdens. If McCraw had not been at Harvard, or of such fame, it would easily have been a career ending mistake. After all, it is well known that those reparations led to Adolf Hitler and WW II, a point so well understood by 1945 that John Keynes was made the head of the entire postwar economic decisionmaking, precisely why he got to build the World Bank, IMF and Bretton Woods. Schumpeter by contrast was thoroughly discredited.
Fourth, for a business historian of unmatched credibility, McCraw makes a surprising contextual error with regard to Schumpeter's life. He seems to ignore the inevitability of progress, of the drivers of American growth in the early 20th century and absolute irrelevance of Schumpeter to that growth. Perhaps it is his bias as a biographer, or to make the layman buy the book, but it is fatal to the book. Here again, I point to the prior point that Schumpeter was more an economic historian than an economist in the sense that HAD SCHUMPETER NOT LIVED, NONE OF THE GREAT ECONOMIC ADVANCES OF THE 20TH CENTURY, INCLUDING THE VENTURE CAPITAL BUSINESS, WOULD HAVE BEEN HAMPERED. By contrast, without John Keynes, recovery after Sept. 11th, after WW II (when defense spending collapsed and social spending and reconstruction was increased to avoid a collapse of the economy) or in the midst of the Great Depression would have been hard to imagine. Precisely why comparative economic analysis undertaken by McCraw takes the tinge of conservative talk show simplicity. Harvard's economics department would likely have little of his business history about Schumpeter.
Finally, the book would have been a lot stronger had it left the idolization of Schumpeter to the jacket flaps and in the introduction. But repeated compliments only make the reader notice that the author has it wrong, especially when he summarily dismisses karl Marx or John Keynes the way a conservative talk show host would. All Schumpeter was was an immensely readable subject, and an inspiring prosaists who hungered for fame, and whose economic history was impressive, all reasons why you must buy the book and keep it prominently on your book shelf, but he was a flawed economist driven to the wrong conclusions (from reparations to the sustainability of capitalism). His grandiosity was Churchillian, as was his sense of history and society, but unlike Winston Churchill, fate never gave Schumpeter the chance to correct for a lifetime of grandiose errors.
The Basic Paradox of Capitalism.......2007-04-24
As I recently read Thomas K. McCraw's brilliant biography of Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950), I was intrigued by the evolution of his career after he earned a Ph.D. at the University of Vienna (1906). At age 24, he served as a secretary of state for finance in the new Austrian republic (1919-1920), and later became chairman and president of a Vienna-based Biederman Bank (1920-1924) that collapsed. As a result of that and several substantial investments in companies which also failed, Schumpeter suffered major financial setbacks (both professional and personal) but eventually repaid his debts, then taught at the University of Bonn (1925-1932) before accepting an offer to join the Harvard faculty as a professor of economics where he continued to teach until his death in 1950. McCraw also examines Schumpeter's personal life that, understandably, reflected the successes and failures in his career. For example, Schumpeter fell deeply in love with Anna Josifina Reisinger and married her in 1925. The next year, his beloved mother died and within a month, his wife died in childbirth, as did their son. McCraw suggests that Schumpeter never fully recovered from these personal losses.
Of greatest interest to me is the context or frame-of-reference the biographical material provides for one of Schumpeter's most influential business concepts, "creative destruction," which he introduced in his most popular book, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy," first published in 1942. Scholars have divided opinions as to the influences on Schumpeter's development of this concept. They probably include Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Werner Sombart.
According to Schumpeter, there is a "process of industrial mutation-if I may use that biological term-that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in." He goes on to explain, "The first thing to go is the traditional conception of the modus operandi of competition. Economists are at long last emerging from the stage in which price competition was all they saw. As soon as quality competition and sales effort are admitted into the sacred precincts of theory, the price variable is ousted from its dominant position. However, it is still competition within a rigid pattern of invariant conditions, methods of production and forms of industrial organization in particular, that practically monopolizes attention. But in capitalist reality as distinguished from its textbook picture, it is not that kind of competition which counts but the competition from the new commodity, the new technology, the new source of supply, the new type of organization (the largest-scale unit of control for instance) - competition which commands a decisive cost or quality advantage and which strikes not at the margins of the profits and the outputs of the existing firms but at their foundations and their very lives." (from "The Process of Creative Destruction," 1942) There are countless examples of applications of this concept, notably Jack Welch's determination to "blow up" GE after he succeeded Reginald Jones as CEO.
In his own review of Prophet of Innovation in the Wall Street Journal, Dan Seligman includes Schumpeter's widely quoted question-and-answer sequence: "Can capitalism survive? No, I do not think it can." Seligman then suggests that that answer "is hedged in later passages [in Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy]. Even so, it will seem wildly counterintuitive to readers who have read Schumpeter on capitalism's huge successes." I agree. In fact, I presume to suggest that, from Schumpeter's perspective, no form of capitalism can survive and that continuous replacement of one form of capitalism by another confirms the enduring reality of creative destruction. Without it, there can be no innovation. In essence, that is the basic paradox of capitalism.
Book Description
On Wall Street, in the culture of high tech, in American government: Libertarianism-the simple but radical idea that the only purpose of government is to protect its citizens and their property against direct violence and threat-has become an extremely influential strain of thought. But while many books talk about libertarian ideas, none until now has explored the history of this uniquely American movement-where and who it came from, how it evolved, and what impact it has had on our country.
In this revelatory book, based on original research and interviews with more than 100 key sources, Brian Doherty traces the evolution of the movement through the unconventional life stories of its most influential leaders-Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Milton Friedman-and through the personal battles, character flaws, love affairs, and historical events that altered its course. And by doing so, he provides a fascinating new perspective on American history-from the New Deal through the culture wars of the 1960s to today's most divisive political issues. Neither an exposi nor a political polemic, this entertaining historical narrative will enlighten anyone interested in American politics.
Customer Reviews:
Thorough History Of The Libertarian Movement.......2007-07-18
I am not a libertarian. But I do support their stance on certain issues such as being pro-immigration, against military imperialism and for civil liberties, including the legalization of prostitution and drugs. This book is a very thorough and well researched history of the movement. But, at over 600 pages, it is not really for those seeking a brief introduction.
Doherty begins the movement's history with the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises and proceeds, more or less, chronologically describing key libertarian figures such as F.A. Hayek, Rose Wilder Lane, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard and Milton Friedman. Doherty is a senior editor at Reason magazine and thus obviously a libertarian himself. But I found his overall approach to be balanced and he certainly wasn't afraid to describe the personal faults of important libertarian figures. For instance, Ayn Rand comes across as an insufferable egomaniac who turned her Objectivist philosophy movement into something resembling a religious cult (based on the worship of her) before eventually driving away nearly everyone associated with her. On the other hand, I found Murray Rothbard to be a more likable character, at least during his Circle Bastiat days.
Rothbard is also the person who was most involved in bringing libertarian ideas to the radicals of the 1960's. As someone who came of age in the counter-culture, I have always recognized that there was a link between the bohemian's and the libertarian's emphasis on individual freedom. However, the truth is that most politically minded counter-cultural types tend to lean towards a sort of leftist communal anarchism and would probably identify as "radicals against capitalism" instead of "radicals for capitalism". Still I do see some similarties there and will be interested to read another of Doherty's books - "This Is Burning Man: The Rise Of A New American Underground".
In any case, I agree with the previous reviewer that every significant political philosophy deserves it's own written history and this one is very well written, detailed and worthy of being read.
Uninspiring history.......2007-07-17
This is a beefy book that needs a strong dose of willpower to finish. It reads more like a brain dump than something that's had some thought devoted to its structure (hence presumably requiring the "freewheeling" qualifier in the title), or some editorial pruning to its frequent repetition. It is useful, though, as a single source to look up the names that crop up in any discussion with _American_ libertarians (libertarians/anarchists in the rest of the world are dogmatically anti-capitalist).
The book confirms that the American libertarian philosophy is the economic-determinist twin of the Marxist one, with the premise that a simple economic formula will free everyone. For the libertarians, its "private property and free markets"; for the Marxist, it is "state-owned production and central planning". With the libertarians, you just hand over your freedom to the property owner. That is, if you can even afford to participate in their free market.
One logical corollary of the formula shows up in the book in the person of Andrew Galambos, the guru of Harry Browne, twice Presidential candidate of the American Libertarian Party. Galambos taught courses on capitalism, but attendees could not talk to anyone about the content, since the ideas were owned by Galambos. (However, there are apparently a few American libertarians who oppose intellectual property.)
A really good analysis of the absurdities underlying what passes for the political philosophy underlying "libertarianism" and "anarcho-capitalism", even assuming their central proposition of the State being an inherently evil institution, is a document available on the web called "An Anarchist FAQ", written by left-libertarians and anarchists, who are obviously sceptical of any government. Since this book is a history, there understandably aren't any pages devoted to a _decent_ defence of the ideology from its critics.
As the other reviews describe, the central flow of the narrative is woven around Mises, Hayek, Rand, Friedman and Rothbard, with the other libertarians and institutions discussed in major digressions. Of all the people mentioned in this hagiography, one person who stood out was Robert Anton Wilson, a recently deceased libertarian science fiction author, who seemed to have a genuine interest in seeing the whether the professed aims of libertarianism would help those who needed it the most.
The material on Austrian economics is interesting, since it's perhaps not well known that it's quite sceptical of the ideas underlying the dominant neo-classical school, which seems to the uninitiated to be all about market-driven solutions. There is some discussion of Hayek's screed against central planning, but too little about how it applies to the central planning that takes place inside any corporation. It was striking that Mises, the founding Austrian economist, rejected, _on principle_, any empirical verification of Austrian theory against real-world data. Quite a "rational " position, that, perhaps explaining why Austrian economics was not (and perhaps still is not) taken seriously.
An Excellent and Fun History.......2007-06-29
This book is the first comprehensive history of the American libertarian movement, from its roots in the American Revolution, to Ron Paul, Cato and beyond. Along the way, the author looks at 19th Century philosophers whose anarchism was based in a strong belief in individual liberty to the nadir of American individual in the crisis of the Great Depression and the patriotic collectivism of World War Two. In 1943, it seemed that individualism was dead, so much so that the last "classic" individual anarchist, Albert Jay Nock, entitled his autobiography "The Memoirs of a Superfluous Man."
It is at that point that the story really picks up. For also in 1943, three remarkable women, Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane and Ayn Rand each published works that would rally believers in individual liberty. The following year, Frederick Hayek would publish "The Road to Serfdom" and the battle against government control would begin. Doherty makes many stops along the way, addressing the many disparate strands that are American libertarianism. From the respectable businessmen who joined the Foundation for Economic Education, to the students at the Freedom School, to the anarchism of Murray Rothbard, the radicalism of Karl Hess and the back to the land movement, Doherty shows the characters, the freewheeling, and the backstabbing.
While the term libertarian is still somewhat loaded, thanks to the sometimes strange people that inhibit the Libertarian Party, Doherty also shows how libertarianism has gone mainstream. While early Austrian economists Mises and Hayek had trouble finding academic berths in the United States, the "Chicago School" has built a network of academics. Milton Freidman advised presidents and one of his disciples now sits as head of the Federal Reserve (ironic as Friedman wanted to abolish the Federal Reserve). Whereas in the early 1960s, libertarian ideas were often passed around in mimeographed newsletters, today, it is discussed in libertarian think tanks and in glossy magazines.
Doherty really did his homework. Much of the book contains personal remembrances gleaned from an incredible number of interviews conducted over about 10 years. And as the book comes to present day, Doherty, an editor at Reason Magazine and connected with many modern libertarian organizations, takes on a very conversational tone.
In short, the book is well researched, easy to read and fun. I highly recommend it.
The Story of an Awakening.......2007-06-25
What a great read! Doherty researched his subject (and subjects) almost exhaustively and gave a sometimes breezy, sometimes dense, all the time entertaining portrait of Libertarianism and its founders. Libertarians (and I count myself as one) who boast that their "time has come" are as deluded as the conspiracy nuts who KNOW that Bush is in cohoots with Osama, Saddam, Jews, Saudis, Nazis, aliens - take your pick. I've always contended that Libertarianism will never be a political force because of the very nature of the philosophy - an anti-collectivist attitude that rejecting the sublimation of the individual to the group that is the hallmark of modern politics. In this Brave New World, everything from bathroom flushes to the size of holes in Swiss cheese is politicized. Incredibly, there are those who argue these issues with the passion of the newly converted - I mark it down to the substitution of ideology for religion.
Libertarians are critical thinkers, intelligent and questioning. Even a casual perusal of this work makes that evident. They somehow found the intellectual fortitude to reject the overwhelming majority belief in a nanny State. The movement has the highest percentage of atheists of any political group and yet, for all their smarts, they are constantly battling one another. They can only agree on the broadest and vaguest concepts - non-coercion, limited government, individual and property rights. Maybe it's the absence of the ubiquitious "Vote for me and I'll start a program" politics that voters need. The personalities in the book are heavy hitters - Von Mises, Rand, Rothbard, Hayek, Freidman and then there are all the others - Ron Paul, Popper, Brown, etc. Rand is mainly discussed through her fiction although her non-fiction is almost highlighted. Hayek's advocacy of freedom along with the brilliant but turgid von Mises is contrasted with the almost sunny, public Friedman.
Libertarianism arose in the GOP and it remains almost exclusively in that realm. (Paul says that Republicans were the original Libertarians.) The only "leftist" thread in Libertarianism is the anarchist leaning of some. The Democrat embrace of group rights, the nanny state, high taxes and (until recently) foreign intervention has prevented the rise of any movement from that side. The common thread, the glue that holds the book together is Rothbard. His decades-long search to find his philosophical base was both repelling and fascinating as he switched allegiances, picked fights, protested this or that perceived slight and yet remained in the spotlight. One is suspicious that this was his real goal at times. His claim never to have changed views is absurd and yet his machinations give the book a well-needed "spine" that allows the action to flow chronologically. As in most books about Libertarianism, the subjects of economic and human rights arise since there is a direct correlation between the two.
Doherty strikes a fine balance between theory, biography, gossip and commentary. In many books like this, either the ideology or the personalities receive short shrift. I found the reading incredibly interesting but for others it will be a chore. In the end one is both awed at the human effort that has been expended toward the idea of freedom and saddened that so few seem to grasp those ideas.
Push Back the State.......2007-06-24
Every movement deserves its 700 page history and Brian Doherty has written an outstanding one for the libertarian movement. He focuses on five seminal libertarian thinkers, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard and Milton Friedman, but certainly doesn't ignore the other people who have made the movement so colorful. The book is consistently enlightening and provides biographical details of its major players that I didn't know. And, contrary to those who would rewrite history, Doherty makes it clear that Rand's "Objectivist" movement left a trail of broken lives in its wake, not the least of which was Rand's.
As other reviewers have noted, perhaps a few too many mistakes crept into this book and there are certainly some questionable judgments, but this is "our history" and all libertarians should be grateful to Mr. Doherty.
Book Description
Selected by the Times Literary Supplement as one of the "hundred most influential books since the war"
How can we benefit from the promise of government while avoiding the threat it poses to individual freedom? In this classic book, Milton Friedman provides the definitive statement of his immensely influential economic philosophy—one in which competitive capitalism serves as both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom. The result is an accessible text that has sold well over half a million copies in English, has been translated into eighteen languages, and shows every sign of becoming more and more influential as time goes on.
Customer Reviews:
The Godfather of the Libertarian Movement.......2007-09-17
An absolute classic work in the areas of Laissez Faire economics and libertarianism. While not everyone in the libertarian movement idolizes Dr. Friedman, his work was written in such a clear and accessible way that it introduced classical liberalism to a generation of people in the 1960's, who were big government Keynesians. Friedman fought for individual liberty, and while he wasn't an anarcho-capitalist by any means and sometimes uses government to solve problems, he is still the godfather of the libertarian movement and the libertarian movement would not be where it is today without Dr. Friedman.
The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-14
I hate to be so outspoken on a review of a book. But I find this gentleman elemental, childish and silly. On top of all of that I do not believe that he is entirely sincere. This man was a statistician and "accountant" not a theoretician. He actually won the Nobel Prize. This I find very hard to believe. I have not given up on him though. But I have yet to find anything that he has written that I can get past the introduction. The more I read of what he has to say the worse it gets.
More Capitalist Rhetoric.......2007-08-07
Clearly he overlooks the basic concepts of political economy in an effort to advocate for capitalist societies. Moreover, he fails to confront the basic questions of inequality which is characteristic in capitalist societies.
Friedman asserts that communism and socialism are mere tools of totalitarian regimes as if he's even attempted to study marx. This book is extremely lopsided and narrow in its praise for a system that has accounted for much pain in the world.
If your looking for a balanced intellectual perspective, look else where. However, I will recommend this book after gaining a true foundation on the study of political economy; try Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Locke, James Mill, Keynes, Proudhon, Ricardo, Owen, Engels, etc.
Like him or not - important to know.......2007-07-26
Overview / Review: Milton Friedman, like him or hate him, is an essential economic theorist to tackle if one is interested in that field or in theories of economic justice. Having a progressive bias, I disagree strongly with many Friedman's theories. Having said that, for anyone interested in getting the essentials of his "liberal" (used in the older, more classic sense) economic views would do well to read this book. Friedman is opposed to state intervention in individual freedom, so many see Friedman as a modern counterpart to Adam Smith. Friedman advocates a free-market economy, with minimal taxation and government interference, because he believes the free market approach assures the greatest measure of freedom, justice, and overall affluence. Many modern conservatives have echoed the arguments he makes herein.
Friedman is actually convincing in his review on a few counts - the abuse of licensure, the problems of tax loopholes, and the fact that there are frequent shortcomings of the well-intended social welfare state. Having said that, however, Friedman does seem unduly biased in favor of a society so individualistic it is therefore almost atomistic, with little to no social cohesion. Some of his arguments are more assertions and claims than full-blown arguments, and one wishes he had addressed major issues in more detail (perhaps he does elsewhere). The book's virtue is that it is brief, but its weakness is also that its arguments are often too brief, and too compact. Karl Marx for example, has many faults in his theory that can be found, but Friedman too casually blows off Marx in about one page of analysis (Chapter 10, p. 167-8). Friedman's argument for a very limited government, and against socialism/communism, would have been more convincing if he had devoted a full chapter to Marx for one, and more attention to other matters of social justice, inequality, and oppression.
In a nutshell: this book encapsulates Friedman's "liberal" or laissez-faire approach to a wide range of issues on economics, government, and capitalism. The free individual is given utmost importance, and government that governs best is that which governs (or interferes) least in his Friedman's view. Not convincing from the standpoint of those interested in progressive social justice (Niebuhr's views on selfishness and power are more cogent), but essential to read and analyze if one is interested in economics and ethics.
Brilliant.......2007-07-05
Friedman was America's preeminent economists that explained the connection between Political and Economic freedom without the signature econo-techno-babble that is the vernacular of lesser economists. This book should be REQUIRED reading for all high school, or at the very least, college students. I enjoyed it immensely and will be wary of "too many dollars chasing too few goods"!
Amazon.com
One day in 1992, Thomas Friedman toured a Lexus factory in Japan and marveled at the robots that put the luxury cars together. That evening, as he ate sushi on a Japanese bullet train, he read a story about yet another Middle East squabble between Palestinians and Israelis. And it hit him: Half the world was lusting after those Lexuses, or at least the brilliant technology that made them possible, and the other half was fighting over who owned which olive tree.
Friedman, the well-traveled New York Times foreign-affairs columnist, peppers The Lexus and the Olive Tree with stories that illustrate his central theme: that globalization--the Lexus--is the central organizing principle of the post-cold war world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding onto what has traditionally mattered to them--the olive tree.
Problem is, few of us understand what exactly globalization means. As Friedman sees it, the concept, at first glance, is all about American hegemony, about Disneyfication of all corners of the earth. But the reality, thank goodness, is far more complex than that, involving international relations, global markets, and the rise of the power of individuals (Bill Gates, Osama Bin Laden) relative to the power of nations.
No one knows how all this will shake out, but The Lexus and the Olive Tree is as good an overview of this sometimes brave, sometimes fearful new world as you'll find. --Lou Schuler
Book Description
From one of our most perceptive commentators and winner of the National Book Award, a comprehensive look at the new world of globalization, the international system that, more than anything else, is shaping world affairs today.
As the Foreign Affairs columnist for
The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman has traveled the globe, interviewing people from all walks of contemporary life: Brazilian peasants in the Amazon rain forest, new entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Islamic students in Teheran, and the financial wizards on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.
Now Friedman has drawn on his years on the road to produce an engrossing and original look at globalization. Globalization, he argues, is not just a phenomenon and not just a passing trend. It is the international system that replaced the Cold War system; the new, well-greased, interconnected system: Globalization is the integration of capital, technology, and information across national borders, in a way that is creating a single global market and, to some degreee, a global village. Simply put, one can't possibly understand the morning news or one's own investments without some grasp of the system. Just one example: During the Cold War, we reached for the hot line between the White House and the Kremlin--a symbol that we were all divided but at least the two superpowers were in charge. In the era of globalization, we reach for the Internet--a symbol that we are all connected but nobody is totally in charge.
With vivid stories and a set of original terms and concepts, Friedman offers readers remarkable access to his unique understanding of this new world order, and shows us how to see this new system. He dramatizes the conflict of "the Lexus and the olive tree"--the tension between the globalization system and ancient forces of culture, geography, tradition, and community. He also details the powerful backlash that globalization produces among those who feel brutalized by it, and he spells out what we all need to do to keep the system in balance. Finding the proper balance between the Lexus and the olive tree is the great drama of he globalization era, and the ultimate theme of Friedman's challenging, provocative book--essential reading for all who care about how the world really works.
Customer Reviews:
The Lexus and the Olive Tree.......2007-10-18
This book provides a very good understanding of globilisation by integrating various issues and concepts with critical, illustrative and at times poignant examples. This helps appreciate what globilisation means currently and the historical summary helps explain how we got to where we are today. Consequently we are better able to forecast trends and determine meaningful business and social strategies that will enhance our lifestyles. It is an easy, informative and enjoyable read.
Tons of theories, and examples, good read for learning about Globalization.......2007-10-16
Mr. Friedman is very effective in defending the globalization. It did not paint the picture all peachy and cream about globalization. I remember hearing a term, "those who suffered from globalization always know who they are, those who benefited from Globalization does not always know who they are." A lot of the example in the books are quite relevant. The title of the book is a bit off I think, it is a bit puzzling to me. Globalization is inevitable according to Mr. Friedman, I think it is very hard to resist also. Especially when all the information is flowing freely on the net, it is going to get harder for any countries trying to hold on to the old non-competitive way of living.
What is globalization?.......2007-09-16
Just about everyone has a definition of globalization and a view as to whether it is 'good' or 'bad'. For most of us, relative 'goodness' or 'badness' will depend on how we perceive globalization to impact on us individually or on our local communities.
The case for globalization is not made in this book. The relative measurement of global benefits and disadvantages is not something readily accessible to most of us: what benefits me is likely to disadvantage you.
What makes this book worth reading, in my view, is that by using concrete examples (ownership of the olive tree, or desire for the Lexus)readers may come to see debates about globalization as not just being the realm of economists and governments. Whether we like it or not, globalization is part of the current world landscape. We need to consider what this means at an individual level.
This book does not provide answers. What it does provide is a starting point for identifying and thinking about some of the issues.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
utterly vacuous...the case for globalization is made far better elsewhere.......2007-08-21
I read this book years ago. While I realized then that the book was poor, only now after reading several other books on the same topic do I realize just how much. Friedman's only discernible talent seems to be filling pages with fact-like tripe and passing it off as, well, something worthy of attention. In the process of course he's swindling people who are actually interested enough in globalization to buy a book. Thomas Friedman isn't an economist, from what I can tell he's not an expert on much of anything, and his long-sustained role as some sort of eminently knowledgeable commentator on these topics bothers me to no end. People like this slow down the progress of all human kind.
Since I'm what you could characterize for lack of a better term as "pro-globalization", this book makes me doubly angry, as it manages to damage the cause it purportedly supports. He can't even preach to the choir properly, since the choir thinks he's an idiot.
Critics of globalization are laughed off in 20 pages, and even if he spent more time he doesnt have the expertise to make a remotely convincing case. This is done far better elsewhere, I'd recommend Martin Wolf's 'Why Globalization Works.' Its a much tougher read for an intro to globalization, but thats because, uh, Wolf actually knows what he's talking about. So if you're "anti-globalization" and want a book to challenge your perceptions, or are just someone generally interested in the topic, read that. But if you feel like having a laugh at a self-absorbed, self-appointed 'expert' and cheerleader for processes he cant possibly understand, then by all means read Friedman.
And just to reiterate for everyone who's read this already, if you think you learned something from this book about globalization, either for or against, you probably didn't.
Excellent Globalization Primer.......2007-07-25
Even though this book is seven years old, I still found it to be a highly adept examination of globalization and a good primer for anyone who, like myself, has not read every tome on the growing global economy. Friedman is obviously an accomplished journalist and author, and brings these talents to bear on much of the book. I found myself pausing quite often to reflect on some of the theories he presented, like Golden Straightjacket, DOScapital, or - my favorite - the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention.
This last concept serves as a perfect example for the intellectual tone of the book, and some of the debatable concepts. While he was on one of his many globetrotting expeditions, Friedman formed this theory from the observation that no country capable of a sustaining a McDonald's franchise had ever gone to war with another of similar standing. The theory is that by the time the middle class of a country is large enough to support a McDonald's franchise, there is too much for it to loose in terms of global trade capital, to risk a protracted war with another McDeveloped state. Of course, this theory has its adversaries, who often point to the US intervention into Panama or NATO's bombing of Serbia, but that healthy intellectual debate is exactly what makes reading this book so fun and thought provoking.
I only failed to give Mr. Friedman's book 5 stars, because in the end, I thought he could have made his point more succinctly. For, if we truly live in a global world, where we compete against everyone else on the planet, who has time to read a book of over 500 pages?
Amazon.com
In Natural Capitalism, three top strategists show how leading-edge companies are practicing "a new type of industrialism" that is more efficient and profitable while saving the environment and creating jobs. Paul Hawken and Amory and Hunter Lovins write that in the next century, cars will get 200 miles per gallon without compromising safety and power, manufacturers will relentlessly recycle their products, and the world's standard of living will jump without further damaging natural resources. "Is this the vision of a utopia? In fact, the changes described here could come about in the decades to come as the result of economic and technological trends already in place," the authors write.
They call their approach natural capitalism because it's based on the principle that business can be good for the environment. For instance, Interface of Atlanta doubled revenues and employment and tripled profits by creating an environmentally friendly system of recycling floor coverings for businesses. The authors also describe how the next generation of cars is closer than we might think. Manufacturers are already perfecting vehicles that are ultralight, aerodynamic, and fueled by hybrid gas-electric systems. If natural capitalism continues to blossom, so much money and resources will be saved that societies will be able to focus on issues such as housing, contend Hawken, author of a book and PBS series called Growing a Business, and the Lovinses, who cofounded and directed the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank. The book is a fascinating and provocative read for public-policy makers, as well as environmentalists and capitalists alike. --Dan Ring
Book Description
In Natural Capitalism, three top strategists show how leading-edge companies are practicing "a new type of industrialism" that is more efficient and profitable while saving the environment and creating jobs. Paul Hawken and Amory and Hunter Lovins write that in the next century, cars will get 200 miles per gallon without compromising safety and power, manufacturers will relentlessly recycle their products, and the world's standard of living will jump without further damaging natural resources. "Is this the vision of a utopia?In fact, the changes described here could come about in the decades to come as the result of economic and technological trends already in place," the authors write.They call their approach natural capitalism because it's based on the principle that business can be good for the environment. For instance, Interface of Atlanta doubled revenues and employment and tripled profits by creating an environmentally friendly system of recycling floor coverings for businesses. The authors also describe how the next generation of cars is closer than we might think. Manufacturers are already perfecting vehicles that are ultralight, aerodynamic, and fueled by hybrid gas-electric systems. If natural capitalism continues to blossom, so much money and resources will be saved that societies will be able to focus on issues such as housing, contend Hawken, author of a book and PBS series called Growing a Business, and the Lovinses, who cofounded and directed the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank. The book is a fascinating and provocative read for public-policy makers, as well as environmentalists and capitalists alike. --Dan Ring
Customer Reviews:
Great book. Innovative and still readable. .......2007-10-10
This is more than one book's worth of information. Years of research and innovation are woven together tightly and the result is an extremely informative book that is also a page turner.
The book includes enough technical detail to be of use to current experts in the field and the writing makes the data accessible to the newbie as well.
This would be a particularly good read for anyone in business who's looking to improve the bottom line while simultanteously lessoning the negative impact of operations on the planet. The authors show clearly how businesses can reduce costs by implementing eco-friendly practices.
Great for Green Building..........2007-10-05
this is a great resource for anyone wanting to learn more about sustainable building practices and how they can affect your bottom line. I recommend it for architects, designers and developers alike.
Excellent environmental analysis, clear direction!.......2007-10-04
This book provides a wealth of environmental analysis, including well-considered advice for policymakers at every level (from federal down to county). Also there is solid information for residential/condominium owners. The section that describes and designs how low-end residential units can sell energy back to the grid and raise their standard of living was exceptionally well-written. I am still reading the rest of the book and have not stopped since I first picked it up.
Great solutions to in-depth problems.......2007-09-30
I've only read the first two chapters, but its very motivating. The authors creatively give solutions to the environmental problems of the world. They fully understand the problems at hand, analyze them completely and give valuable ideas for probably and realistic solutions.
A more complete view of the economy.......2007-09-19
This book shows how our current view of the environment is flawed. It brings us from viewing the environment as something too vast to be harmed, to understanding that technology has given humanity the ability to profoundly affect the environment. The book presents a good argument as to why we need to see nature as part of the economic cycle and factor its use into how we use and manage the earth's resources.
Book Description
Participating in the economy is a part of everyday life, yet much of what is commonly accepted as economic fact is wrong. Keynesian schoolteachers and the liberal media have filled the world with politically correct errors that myth-busting professor Robert Murphy sets straight. Murphy explains hot topics like outsourcing (why it's good for Americans) and zoning restrictions (why they're not). Just like the other books in the P.I.G. series, The Politically Incorrect GuideT to Capitalism pulls no punches.
Customer Reviews:
Good overview of arguments for capitalism........2007-10-06
I have avoided the P.I.G. series, not knowing if they were going to be any good. But I have been trying to learn something about economics, and have read a variety of book on the subject over the past three years. This book is a very good summary of the arguements for capitalism. Whether or not you disagree with a laissez-faire approach this book lays out the ideas in a straightforward manner, and without too much demagoguery (there is a little, but not so much that it becomes the focus of the book). Overall, a book that does it's job well.
5 stars for beginners; 4 stars for libertarian philosophes.......2007-09-27
This book is stridently, unabashedly, and wholeheartedly 100% pro-capitalist in the purest, most positive sense of the word. Unlike other Politically Incorrect Guides, the orientation of this book is not conservative, but rather libertarian. There is some pandering to the Conservative Book Club audience, with lots of digs at "liberals," and deafening silence on the issues of immigration and war (though a few pro-immigration, anti-war hints are dropped if you're careful to pay attention). All in all, this book would be great for liberals and conservatives alike who are trending libertarian and/or who know very little about economics or capitalist philosophy. For longtime libertarians, however, this gets only 4 stars as a wonderful affirmation of our already held beliefs. One thing this book did do for me, however, is finally turn me against my last bastion of big-government activism, anti-discrimination laws -- which even conservatives have come to embrace. Libertarianism is the only anti-racist creed, and yet it recognizes that all the government can morally do is to not practice racism -- it cannot enforce laws against its practice on a private level.
Poor sourcing and dubious claims.......2007-09-17
In The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, Robert P. Murphy aims to show that the free market is the most efficient and effective way of organising things. He argues that government regulation causes inefficiency to the point that it can never be justified, even in conditions where it is asked for by most governments.
The book does contain a number of very interesting points. Some include about how the New Deal failed to cure the Depression, or about how the free market would end slavery and child labour naturally.
However, these good points are offset by too many dubious claims, for instance about how a privatised road market would end congestion. Whilst there would be more efficient use of labour in road building, there is likely to be a major problem here. If (as I imagine) vehicle companies took over ownership of roads (which Murphy never says impossible or even improbable). One would obtain a system where profit gives unparalleled incentive to create more traffic. This would no doubt mean completely uncalled-for roads get built and oher more efficient transport is outcompeted. Similarly, when discussing endangered species he does not realise that many dealer in (say) rhino horn have a stake in ensuring rhinos become extinct. Also, many endangered species are of no potential commercial value.
Although Murphy likewise says capitalism is essential to a free society, he fails to clearly define this - even implicity saying the right to strike is not a basic freedom.
The extremely poor sourcing - worse even than in the appalling Guide to Global Warming - makes this book very dubious. There are certainly better economics books out there for those who need them.
This book is more political or social science than economic science.......2007-08-25
This book is more political or social science than economic science. The author Rush Limbaugh school of economics not a university. As none of this is sound economics. More just some ramble on politics.
Good but not great.......2007-08-24
This is a good primer on capitalism and I'm inclined to believe the message of this book. Unfortunately at times it lacks footnotes and sources to back up some of its claims. Therefore it can seem more like an exercise in pamphleteering than a serious arguement. Many of the author's claims will require a leap of faith. They'll appeal to true believers, but they may not convince skeptics. Nevertheless, it should be read to get a basic understanding of the benefits of capitalism.
Amazon.com
It's become clear by now the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in most places around the globe hasn't ushered in an unequivocal flowering of capitalism in the developing and postcommunist world. Western thinkers have blamed this on everything from these countries' lack of sellable assets to their inherently non-entrepreneurial "mindset." In this book, the renowned Peruvian economist and adviser to presidents and prime ministers Hernando de Soto proposes and argues another reason: it's not that poor, postcommunist countries don't have the assets to make capitalism flourish. As de Soto points out by way of example, in Egypt, the wealth the poor have accumulated is worth 55 times as much as the sum of all direct foreign investment ever recorded there, including that spent on building the Suez Canal and the Aswan Dam.
No, the real problem is that such countries have yet to establish and normalize the invisible network of laws that turns assets from "dead" into "liquid" capital. In the West, standardized laws allow us to mortgage a house to raise money for a new venture, permit the worth of a company to be broken up into so many publicly tradable stocks, and make it possible to govern and appraise property with agreed-upon rules that hold across neighborhoods, towns, or regions. This invisible infrastructure of "asset management"--so taken for granted in the West, even though it has only fully existed in the United States for the past 100 years--is the missing ingredient to success with capitalism, insists de Soto. But even though that link is primarily a legal one, he argues that the process of making it a normalized component of a society is more a political--or attitude-changing--challenge than anything else.
With a fleet of researchers, de Soto has sought out detailed evidence from struggling economies around the world to back up his claims. The result is a fascinating and solidly supported look at the one component that's holding much of the world back from developing healthy free markets. --Timothy Murphy
Book Description
"The hour of capitalism's greatest triumph" writes Hernando de Soto, "is, in the eyes of four-fifths of humanity, its hour of crisis." In The Mystery of Capital, the world-famous Peruvian economist takes up the question that, more than any other, is central to one of the most crucial problems the world faces today: Why do some countries succeed at capitalism while others fail?
In strong opposition to the popular view that success is determined by cultural differences, de Soto finds that it actually has everything to do with the legal structure of property and property rights. Every developed nation in the world at one time went through the transformation from predominantly informal, extralegal ownership to a formal, unified legal property system. In the West we've forgotten that creating this system is what also allowed people everywhere to leverage property into wealth. This persuasive book revolutionizes our understanding of capital and points the way to a major transformation of the world economy.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful.......2007-09-26
I thought this was a fantistic book. The author compares the sorry state of property rights in the third world today with identical problems in earlier periods of US history.
Rich countries are frequently blamed for the problems in poor countries but this book shows why that blame is misplaced. This book also shows why billions of dollars in foreign aid have not and can not eliminate third world poverty.
Clear, Precise, Cogent and Important Thoughts.......2007-09-12
Although De Soto is trumpeted in the halls of the Chicago School as a person directly in line with his ideological primogeniteurs, it is clear that De Soto is not an ideologue.
His main thesis is that property rights are one of the fundamental underpinnings of western capitalism. Property rights allow the smooth functioning of capital accumulation without the diversion of too many supernumerary laws and institutions, and form the base impedements that allow capital markets, lending institutions and wealth creation mechanisms to function smoothly. If property rights are not highly developed then the "friction" this creates in the movement of capital impedes growth. As a concrete example, people in Africa and much of Latin America and Asia live in hovels that do represent accumulations of capital, but because these hovels, many owned by squatters cannot be leveraged to create capital or cannot be lent against. They in effect at dead capital because their ownership is in limbo. Advanced societies have smooth functioning property laws and markets that allow the process of wealth creation.
All of this is simple and De Soto does chronicle, as well as he can the underlying condition of dead capital formation, historical development of property rights and solid policies for implementing more legal property controls in the third world.
De Soto is also profoundly motivated to move backward societies forward and feels the poverty profoundly. In this sense he is very much a thinking man's economist and not an ideologue.
The one thing I would state is that the concepts De Soto is propounding are simple in nature and scope. As such I think that De Soto does repeat himself from time to time. Also the historical developments of property rights in the US is a good example of how a country with essentially third-world property rights, emerged to relatively advanced property rights. But I do think that his historical scholarship suffers a little as an Economist outside of his area of interest.
The writing style, though good, is not so exciting at times and would do better with a bit more details on specific human examples. But that should not detract from its scholarship.
Important work.......2007-07-23
This book is a very important work in the area of the economics of property rights. De Soto emphasizes the importance of property rights for the development of developing countries.
Capitalism Triumphs in "Market" and Fails EveryWhere Else.......2007-07-04
Most reader comments on the "political" and "Policy" side of the book. They applause by embracing the idea of less government intervention, better legal protection, better property right and so on. But I will comment the Economic side of the book. The most important point in this book is that there is a lot of "dead capital" in under developing countries. My wonder to this point is that which mechanism generate so huge amount of "dead capital". From the content of De Soto book, it is sure that all these "dead capital" comes from "black/underground Market" or "Illegal Free Market". The "Illegal Free Market" generate 9.3 trillion dollar. Actually I think De Soto is still highly under estimate the value since De Soto does not include all the human capital estimation. I think De Soto agree Free Market is the real source of economic growth.
Also in De Soto analysis, capital is the fuel for economy growth while the Keynesian believe that both individual and government spending the fuel for economy growth. De Soto book does not directly compare this 2 different ways to go. But De Soto clearly show that Foreign loan or aid does no help since it only simulate spending only. From my understanding, De Soto recommends to use Market to replace the government to release the "dead capital". Government is only require to provide minimum effect to ensure that the contract is fulfilled.
Spot on!.......2007-06-24
It's been a while since I read the book. As a citizen and resident of a third world country I can vouch that what de Soto says is the absolute truth. I have also had a business in the USA and the difference is just staggering. The longest procedure in the USA for setting up my business was getting the sales tax permit and that took about two hours. A similar procedure in my country can take months.
I'm a bit amazed that some reviewers are commenting about the book being badly written. I don't have that recollection but then, it's been a while since I read it and I enjoyed it very, very much.
Book Description
In 1945, many Europeans still heated with coal, cooled their food with ice, and lacked indoor plumbing. Today, things could hardly be more different. Over the second half of the twentieth century, the average European's buying power tripled, while working hours fell by a third. The European Economy since 1945 is a broad, accessible, forthright account of the extraordinary development of Europe's economy since the end of World War II. Barry Eichengreen argues that the continent's history has been critical to its economic performance, and that it will continue to be so going forward.
Challenging standard views that basic economic forces were behind postwar Europe's success, Eichengreen shows how Western Europe in particular inherited a set of institutions singularly well suited to the economic circumstances that reigned for almost three decades. Economic growth was facilitated by solidarity-centered trade unions, cohesive employers' associations, and growth-minded governments--all legacies of Europe's earlier history. For example, these institutions worked together to mobilize savings, finance investment, and stabilize wages.
However, this inheritance of economic and social institutions that was the solution until around 1973--when Europe had to switch from growth based on brute-force investment and the acquisition of known technologies to growth based on increased efficiency and innovation--then became the problem.
Thus, the key questions for the future are whether Europe and its constituent nations can now adapt their institutions to the needs of a globalized knowledge economy, and whether in doing so, the continent's distinctive history will be an obstacle or an asset.
Amazon.com
The Condition of Postmodernity is David Harvey's seminal history of our most equivocal of eras. What does postmodernism mean? Where did it come from? Harvey, a professor of geography and a key mover behind extending the scope and influence of the discipline of geography itself, does a thorough job here delineating the passage through to postmodernity and the economic, social, and political changes that underscored and accompanied it. As he clearly states, the rise in postmodernist cultural forms is related to a new intensity in what Harvey terms "time-space compression," but this new intensity is a qualitative rather than quantitative change in social organization, and it does not point to an era beyond capitalism as "the basic rules of capitalistic accumulation" remain unchanged. Unlike Fredric Jameson (whose equally rewarding Postmodernism stands as the twin pillar to Harvey's critique), who explicitly relies on Ernest Mandel's periodization of late capitalism, Harvey eschews a narrowly economic focus, the limits and contradictions of production that have led to the rise in the service sector, and takes a more multidisciplinary approach to his history. As comfortable discussing Manet as he is labor markets, Harvey is an excellent writer, and The Condition of Postmodernity is an exceptionally informative and enjoyable read. --Mark Thwaite, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
A great deal has been written on what has variously been described as the post-modern condition and on post-modern culture, architecture, art and society. In this new book, David Harvey seeks to determine what is meant by the term in its different contexts and to identify how accurate and useful it is as a description of contemporary experience. But the book is much more than this: in the course of his investigation the author provides a social and semantic history - from the Enlightenment to the present - of modernism and its expression in political and social ideas and movements, as well as in art, literature and architecture. He considers in particular how the meaning and perception of time and space themselves vary over time and space, and shows that this variance affects individual values and social processes of the most fundamental kind. This book will be widely welcomed, not only for its clear and critical account of the arguments surrounding the propositions of modernity and post-modernity, but as an incisive contribution to the history of ideas and their relation to social and political change.
Customer Reviews:
Good lord.......2005-09-16
Wow, this book is about as dense as the crust of the earth. It takes at least a few reads over to understand what the arguments are. While the arguments in this book are very well articulated, I found myself wanting to shoot myself in the face sometimes while reading this book. It can be really boring, but brings up some very interesting ideas of 80's culture and society.
Po-Mo Schmomo?.......2003-03-04
Ask ten academics about what to call our present fin-de-siecle epoch and you'll get ten different labels, but "postmodernism" seems always the default term. Although it's twelve years old, Harvey's book is the best I've read about the pluralistic fabric we daily inhabit. It's edifyingly reader-friendly (especially compared to some of the Franco-drunk rhetoricians out there trying to get a handle on our current world). In precise prose Harvey outlines the shift to our information-as-capital paradigm since the mid-sixties, and the causes of the growth of the temp sector and "just-in-time" production capabilities. Harvey traces the arrival of "flexible accumulation" to the collapse of Fordist production practices in the 1966-73 waves of recession, but covers far more than just economic factors--architecture, art, literature, cinema--without any self-conscious Neo-Marxist whistling-in-the-dark. In his project to articulate a new (meta?)narrative, Harvey's book will probably give post-structuralists a new constellation of ideas to obfuscate with hip terminology and dense prose...
Manuel Castell's "The Rise of the Network Society" is another good book along these lines.
Best overview of modern/postmodern condition I have found.......2002-08-22
This is a great overview of concepts that are, by definition, very fractured. Harvey clarifies and pulls together a number of seemingly disparate elements in a masterful manner. Though this book could work as a good introduction to these concepts, I think readers with some background in the major writers of modernism and postmodernism will get more out of it. Dogmatic postmodernists may be put off that Harvey has the "temerity" to suggest that postmodernism might be an extension of modernism or that he finds some good in modernism and some excesses in postmodern approaches but, they should get over themselves and realize that their insistence that "all meta-narratives are bad" is their own meta-narrative. Overall, Harvey manages to convi
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The Wealth of Nations (Bantam Classics)
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