Day: October 25, 2009

What I’m reading now

What I’m reading now

Well, I’ve recently finished re-reading False Economy by Alan Beattie for the second time. A very good book on economics.

I started re-reading The Days of the French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert. It reads well but it’s really terrifying to consider what little regard for life there was in those days. We all buy into the notion that King Loius XVI was a bad king but, really, he tried and didn’t deserve his fate — he would have made a quite acceptable constitutional monarchist a la the English monarchy if he’d been given a chance.

Speaking of economics, the more I get into it the more convinced I am that we’ve made a fundamental error in not combining economics, philosophy, and sociology together. Too much of what is being described by economics more rightly deserves to be studied with a sociological light as well.

I’m also reading Economics for Dummies by Sean Masaki Flynn which I’m finding very enjoyable.

Again, as I’ve said, I think it’s imperative that we all have an understanding of economics, sociology, and philosophy. I suppose I should add that I think a basic understanding of thermodynamics (specifically: entropy) is vital to understanding what drives us.

Oh, yes! And I just recently re-read Jared Diamond’s Pulitzer-prize winning seminal Guns, Germs, and Steel. Always worth a re-read.