Monday, May 18, 2009
Submit Your Book Reviews
In the comment section, students of Mr. DiFranco's Introduction to Economics class at Georgetown Middle High School should submit a quick review of their text. In it please include bibliographical information, a brief summary of the text and your recommendation if others should read it and why.
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Confessions of an economic hit man
ReplyDeleteby John Perkins
Published in 2004
This book was about economic hit men. These people known as EHMs use their economic knowledge to take advantage of other countries and corporations in order to essentially tie them to the USA through debt. Since these countries/corporations are tied to the USA through debt they have to make good relations with us. Throughout the book the main character struggles with some of the decisions he has to make such as when he sent a family of peasants, whom which he had befriended, to jail just because they found out who he was.
The main character also used his knowledge and connections to make successful businesses.
I found this book interesting, but I would not recommend it to others. It is written well and is interesting, but it did not hold my interest when reading it. This may have also been because of the skipping around I did when reading parts of it. Overall I would rate this book a three out of five.
In Mark Bauerlein's 'The Dumbest Generation' the author focuses on how the technological generation is actually dumber than previous generations. He first presents the idea that most people think high school seniors today have increasing amount of work and no free time. He then dispels this by showing a survey that says 39% of teens have no homework or don't do any of their homework. He continues in the book with similar surveys that show test scores in multiple subjects like history and math. The results show that our generation is dumber than previous even though we have more access to information. He blames this on decreased reading levels and an increase of time in front of the TV and computer. I wouldn't recommend this book because it is very data heavy and can be boring at points. It also seems like the author is very closed minded and dispels other research findings that dismiss his points for no reason at all. The information can be insulting to a youth reading it as the author seems to label all of us dumb, not just some of us.
ReplyDeleteKP
Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt
ReplyDeleteThe book Traffic is about all kinds of phenomena that occur with driving. Vanderbilt goes in-depth into different areas that we overlook everyday. Some areas of focus are our perception of our driving skills, driver anonymity, and the use of seatbelts. For example, since seatbelts first began to be widely used, the number of accidents has increased dramatically. Because of seatbelts, drivers feel a sense of protection and therefore are more reckless behind the wheel than they were without a seatbelt.
I would recommend this book to everyone because we all can relate to the situations that are discussed in Traffic. Even if you are not a driver, you certainly have experienced many of the situations discussed as a passenger.
JA
Generation Debt by Anya Kamentz
ReplyDeleteThe new generation has too much debt to be able to move on. They have this much debt because college is so expensive but is necessary if they want to get anywhere. Even with degrees it is still hard to find jobs. The young generation is left with a huge amount of debt in student loans from college. College tuition continues to rise each year. Due to this less people are unable to go to college or end up having to drop out because it is too expensive.
I would not recommend this book because it goes on and on about the same thing over and over. The examples used were about real people’s situations which was a good way to prove these things were happening but were far too long. By the end of the example I felt like I knew their whole life story. Then in another chapter they would bring the same person back and talk more about them. The book gave good information but it could have been done in a much shorter and simpler way.
Title: The Drunkard's Walk- How Randomness Rules our Lives.
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Leonard Mlodinow
Mlodinow’s goal in this book was to demonstrate how much the idea of randomness
really affects our lives, and we just do not realize it. In support of his idea he used famous
scientists such as Bernoulli, Laplace and Pascal, and focused on all of their ideas and the degree
that randomness affected them. There is also the presence of change and probability that play
another large role in their lives. The major idea that is presented by the book is how the reader
can make more informed decisions to control the presence of randomness. The author uses the
book to show the things that are really meaningful in our lives that we seem to overlook, and
therefore discover a deeper truth about how the world around us actually works. Mlodinow also
talks about the reality of change and reveals some of the psychological illusions that force people
to misjudge their surroundings.
Pigs at the Trough, written by Arianna Huffington, talks about all of the problems that the United States has with some of the CEOs of the largest corporations in America. The corruption in our country's economy has led to certain CEOs being able to steal millions, even billions, of dollars from their companies. While these companies head straight for rock bottom the CEOs sit back and sip umbrella drinks and no one questions them. Overall I would not recommend this book. There are too many charts and numbers to comprehend and the stories all sound the same.
ReplyDeleteGetting Loaded by Peter G. Bielagus
ReplyDeletePublished 2003
Getting Loaded is a great book that explains how to make a million, while still young. This is achieved through fifty secrets, from creating goals, to organization, and how to save and make money.
It is a truly great book, an enjoyable read, and shows how to use youth as an asset to gaining a million dollars. I would recomend it to everybody who wishes to become rich, which is most people.
The Color of Welfare, written by Jill Quadagno is a book about how racism undermined the welfare system and the fight against poverty. The author focuses especially on the New Deal legislation, and the Civil Rights movement. Quadagno focused on the laws and things like unions and the Federal Housing Administration that kept African Americans suppressed because they were forced to be isolated from society. The oppression of African Americans kept the economy from functioning at its full potential and kept much of the nation in poverty.The book has a lot of interesting facts and the author makes many points that back her arguements however this book reads more like a research paper than a novel.
ReplyDeleteEasy Money by Charles R. Whitlock.
ReplyDeleteThis book focuses on profiling con artists and some of the tricks they play on people. The author ranges from street scams to phone scams to scams committed in the office. It gives some precautions that you can take to avoid being conned. I would recommend this book to others who wish to learn how to spot and avoid being conned in everyday situations.
The book Fast Food Nation is about how the fast food industry is negatively affecting the U.S. economy. Throughout much of the book, the author shows how teenagers and immigrant workers are paid less in order to give the franchises a greater profit. This does not allow the money to circulate throughout the economy fully. A few chapters show how dangerous the fast food jobs can be. This is definitely a good read that will have all readers questioning whether or not the fast food industry should stay in America.
ReplyDeleteThe Armchair Economist
ReplyDeleteBy: Steven Landsburg
The Armchair Economist explains different phenomena in our world’s economy. It explains different situations with different ways of thinking of things. The author does a good job at explaining things with an interesting point of view. The short amount that I read was good, and interesting to read. i would recomend this book to people that want to look at economics in a different and more intersting sense.
M.R.
More Sex is Safer Sex
ReplyDeleteby Steven E. Landsburg
Published in 2007
This book attempts to uncover the workings of society in a new light that is different than common sense and typical ways of thinking. In his writing, Landsburg provides new, outrageous, and fun insight about simple and complex things. Some titles include "How to fix politics" or "how to fix the justice system" or "how to shorten waiting lines", etc. Honestly, who would think a way to stop the spread of AIDS would be to have more sex? He compares society to a "communal stream" and those that do not feel influenced by the costs of their actions are deemed "pollutants" of that stream.
I found this book to be very very interesting since most of the subjects actually apply to me and my peers. They're common issues and I find it interesting to think about these issues in such an unordinary way that I normally would not think about. I definitely recommend this book. It's a quick and easy read, but nonetheless informative.
The Millionaire Mind
ReplyDeleteBy Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D.
Published 2000
The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley explores the factors that contribute to the success of America’s millionaires. Through out the book Stanley examines the school days, importance of spouses, the homes, the lifestyles, and the occupations of the average millionaire.
According to Stanley’s research, the American millionaires tend to share the following characteristics
About 50 years old and male
Married to the same spouse for more than two decades
Have an average household net worth of approximately $9.2 million
Live a relatively frugal lifestyle more congruent with their middle-class origins than their upper-class status
Over half (61%) never inherited a dime while fewer than 8% of all American millionaires inherited the majority of their wealth.
Has a college degree, although few were “A” students or graduated from Ivy league schools
Are not workaholics and enjoy spending time with family and friends
Stanley also asked the 733 millionaires he surveyed what they believed to be the keys to their success. The most important success factors, according to them, are integrity, discipline, hard work and working well with others.
I enjoyed the Millionaire Mind and found much of its information fascinating and useful. However, I felt as though the majority of the book was summed up in the first chapter. The reader could read the first chapter and take as much from the book as if they read the whole thing. I do recommend that others read this book to see if they too have the millionaire mind.
"The Coming Economic Collapse: How You can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a barrel" was a very interesting read as it focuses on two points of view. First, it explains the forthcoming economic struggle the U.S. and most of the world will have as oil prices rise to all time highs, consumption soars, and supply falls. The book warns its readers about this economic downturn and how to stop it from happening. Second, the book explains how one can make money off of the sky rocketing prices of oil and the rise of certain energy companies, particularly those in alternative fuels. Overall, the book was a great read and was kept the reader very interested and is highly recommend. Also, Kyle Mac5cent is the coolest kid in the class, the book also explains that.
ReplyDeleteThe Two-Income Trap
ReplyDeleteby Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi
published in 2003
Basically this book provided financial advice and information to people of all different situations. The main focus was on families with two incomes and strangely although more parents are working and making more money, they are also accumulating more debt. The authors give a few helpful tips to avoid and try to get out of debt and possible reasons for this strange phenomenon. I feel that this book is worth reading. It contains a lot of facts and numbers but they are more helpful to further prove the points. Overall it was a good read, more specifically for people who want families in the future and who do not have a family who is in debt now.
Freakonomics
ReplyDeleteBy: Steven D. Levitt/Stephen J. Dubner
Published by Harper Collins 2006
Freakonomics deals with the secrets that are within our society. The author provides variuos surveys that deal with parents naming their children based on education levels, to how the KKK is similar in variuos ways like real estate agents. Although the book views the world in another way, it does not have much to to with economics but does cover certain areas, such as discrimination or the economic strategy of intimidation. This book was only to make the reader think in a different way and look at events that occur in everyday life from another prospective.
The Prisoner's Dilemma by William Poundstone(1992) Is a book about various game theories that happen in every day life. The author explains many of these theories by using history like the Cold War. Poundstone talks about one of the main economists who studied game theories, John Von Neumann. Neumann was a very successful man who helped the United States in politics and the economy.
ReplyDeleteI would not recommend this book to people because it was confusing and had a lot of facts and history. The book was very long and had so many theories that it was hard to read. It was very interesting but was still hard to understand
Presented in the format of a story rather than as a factual accumulation of details, J. David Kuo epands upon the obstacles and compromiss required in creating financial giants. Overall, Kuo explores the growth and struggles o ValueAmerica-the first Intenet retail store to go public at the start of the consumer internet book. Evidently, the task of successfully developng a national company is no easy feat. Though Craig Winn, founder of the company, had a hand in manufacturing from an early age due to the early success of his father's business, there always appeard for Winn the brilliant prospect of the American Dream. He soon found that while there was a quickly-growing trend in online shopping, no stores yet offered a wide array of products. The story essentially follows Winns struggles and successes in fulfilling a revolutionary idea. It is recommended for anyone who has held curiosity over the origins of Internet giants.
ReplyDelete-Sarah C.
Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt was published in 1979. It takes the simple concepts of everyday economic life and explains what you need to know. The author goes over what incentives to choose and how production and employment affect each other.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, the text can be pretty boring. Yes, it is an easy book to read, but he rambles on for three chapters on each topic with different scenarios. I would not recommend this book.
The book The Logic of Life by Tim Harford discusses when faced with a decision, people will act rationally and respond to incentives that they are faced with. He analyzes how people act in accordance to the rational choice theory and uses the example of parking a car. If you cant find any spots, you can weigh the costs of getting caught parking illegally against the benefit of getting a parking spot. He also talks about how the game theory can be applies to poker. By analyzing how you think that other people will act, you can then choose the best way to play the game. Overall I enjoyed this book much more than the last book that I read. It was rambling in some areas, but rather than telling a story it applies economics to everyday life.
ReplyDeleteEB
The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams is about how bad management is. He is the creator of the dilbert comics. in the introduction he tells us about the "evolution of idiots" and talks mainly about bad bosses. Later in the book he describes the ways managers treat their employees so they work at efficient rates and continue to be productive. He tells us that the perfect balance of morale is happy but with low self-esteem. This allows the workers to get work done without their egos getting to big.
ReplyDeleteM.S
The Tipping Point
ReplyDeleteMalcolm Gladwell
Published in 2000
The Tipping Point is a book about how different trends, epidemics, and other things can start out small, hit a tipping point which makes the explode, and become huge or popular. These things are governed by three rules: the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. I would recommend thing book to anybody because of the diverse subjects that Gladwell studies and because it is important to understand how things can become popular. Subjects include the American Revolution, crime rates, fashion trends, cigarette companies, and the spread of HIV.
DK
Die Broke
ReplyDeleteStephen M. Pollan
This book describes how to live your life to the fullest and maximize your profit so that you ultimately die broke and happy. The author takes you tghrough four steps to success. The first one is to quit now. this means to detatch yourself from your ob and always be on the lookout. this way you can always get the best job for you. His second peice of advice is to pay with cash. This makes it harder to spend a lot of money. The next step is to never retire. This wayyou're always bringing in an income. Lastely, you should die broke and spend all the money you can before you die because more than likely it won't be worth as much in the future. This book was very interesting and i highly recommend it.
A.S
Although not a primarily econmic text, Amusing the Million was an extremely interesting account of Coney Island as a sociological movement at the turn of the century. Filled with pictures and intersting anecdotes, the book kept me entertained with concepts like Luna Park, blocks filled with replicas of exotic Japanese Gardens, an Irish Village, and a Chinese Theater. The park seems to take on a fantastical theme which inspired a mixing of social classes, art forms, and different layers of American culture. Overall, a very intersting read that brings one away from corporate theme parks of today and into an age of mysticism and wonder.
ReplyDeleteMP
Title: Sway: The Irresistible pull of Irrational Behavior
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
Year Published: 2008
The idea of Sway was to illustrate that the rule that, “humans always act rationally” can and will be broken. The authors describe situations in which people make irrational decisions even though they were taught to do something with rationality. The book discusses many forces that cause us to act irrationally. They refer to these forces as “sways.”
It was a very interesting book, especially since I am interested in psychology and the social sciences. However I felt that it didn't go in depth as much as it should have and it did not seem like it was book length.
J.S.