Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Maonomics

Maonomics: why Chinese Communists make better capitalists than we do by Loretta Napoleoni 2011

In her book Maonomics: why Chinese Communists make better capitalists than we do Napoleoni examines the present political and economic conditions by comparing those of the West, primarily the American and British, to those of China. She points out the biases and baggage in our interpretation of words such as “communism” vs “capitalism” and of “democracy” vs “dictatorship” and how they influence our perception of the world.

Napoleoni goes back to the basics: the early philosophers that influenced the thinking of the West vs the East, Machiavelli vs Confucius. Using past and recent events, and stripping away some preconceptions, she compares how the lives of everyday people are affected by globalization in China and in the West. It is not always the way that it seems.

The book constantly asks questions: Is our multi-party electoral system truly the expression of the majority? Was Marxism ever applied as Marx intended? Where did the theory of supply-side economics come from? How free are we really? What are the long-term effects of Reagan and Thatcher’s economics?

This is a book that makes us truly examine what is going on in our world at present. You may not always agree with Napoleoni, but she will make you think.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: The Big Short

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis 2010, Reviewed as a Book on CD

What a great title to be held captive with on a recent road trip!

This book might be called required reading for anyone with an eye on the stock market and a desire to understand causes and effects of the Great Recession of 2008. The author, Lewis, is very “hot” right now, with a past and current portfolio of books on various financial events and topics. In this book, he explains how the financial industry obscured credit risk by packaging and repackaging low-quality subprime mortgages into complicated securities that would receive secure, high credit ratings. Included are the main players and banks, and sadly it leaves you believing there are few honorable players in the industry. The audio version contained a bonus interview with the author on the aftermath of the collapse. I’m now looking forward to reading the author’s next book, Boomerang, a travelogue about the European debt crisis.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: The Value of Nothing

The Value of Nothing by Raj Patel 2009

For the last 30 or 40 years, we have been given the message that the free market economy with constantly expanding consumption is the only way to go. Wealth will grow and the forces of the market will ensure equitable distribution of resources and income and any government interference only disrupts this natural process. This has guided politicians both in Canada and the United States, and, to a lesser extent, in Europe and Asia. The consequences of this philosophy are as follows: global warming, a vast gulf between the few rich and the many poor, and finally, the economic meltdown in the fall of 2008.

In his book The Value of Nothing, Raj Patel shows that the free market economy is not the only one. For one thing, the market does not reflect the true costs of goods. When social and ecological costs are taken into account, a $2.00 hamburger’s true cost is closer to $400.00! He traces economic thought from Adam Smith to present times, noting that some of the assumptions have been proven to be wrong by actual events. He speaks of some grassroots organizations such as the Via Campesina that use a different economic model with results that are kinder to Mother Earth and her inhabitants.

His message is summed up in the following quote:

“What needs to be plucked out of the markets is the perpetual and overriding hunger for expansion and profit that has brought us to the brink of ecological catastrophe ; what needs to plucked out of us is the belief that markets are the only way to value our world.”

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Nothing to Envy

Nothing to Envy: ordinary lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick 2009


Award-winning journalist Demick offers a never-before seen view of a country mostly unknown to the rest of the world. She based the book on interviews with the defectors from the city of Chong jin.

The book is about the lives of real six people who have families and try to make a living in a country with a totalitarian regime. The human rights issues and daily life in North Korea is a tragedy that is taking place out of Western public view, while the news headlines focus on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
Demick says at the end that the defectors find it hard to settle in South Korea. They are overwhelmed by the choices facing them. Many feel guilty about leaving family members behind and would like to return home.

The stories are moving and disturbing and tell us more about North Korean lives than the staged tourists visits to the capital city. The title is from a song the North Korean children are taught to sing: “Nothing to envy in the world” - this while struggling to survive and slowly dying of starvation.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: SuperFreakonomics

SuperFreakonomics
by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner 2009

This is the sequel to the best-seller Freakonomics, in which University of Chicago professor of economics Steven Levitt and author Stephen Dubner teamed together to apply economic reasoning to a wide range of real-world questions. As in the original, the situations explored in SuperFreakonomics are based on accumulated data, not anecdotes or anomalies. Statistical techniques are applied to such unconventional topics such as drunk walking, prostitution, honesty in psychological testing, and doctors' resistance to washing hands. They go beyond simply reporting their observations, to suggest that solutions to apparently intractable problems appear both "out of nowhere" and as a result of self-interest. For instance, the the problem of too much horse manure in American cities was solved by the introduction of gasoline automobiles. Similarly, the problem of climate change will only be solved when we base our choices on self-interest. Kyoto's appeals to our consciences are not incentive enough endure the inconvenience of changing our habits.
The authors have a gift for explaining clearly how a researcher reaches their conclusions, making the writing not only entertaining, but factual.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Hot, Flat and Crowded

Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America
by Thomas Friedman 2008

Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, is best known for his recent book The World is Flat. "Flat" as in technology has leveled the global economy, allowing more people to compete, connect and collaborate. Since that book, he's noticed 2 other trends: the weather is getting hotter and the population is growing rapidly. He sees these 3 trends exacerbating 5 problems: resources are decreasing as people wanting them increase; as the prices of these resources increase, money is being transferred to petro-dictatorships, who oppose our western society; climate disruptions; energy poverty, where poor societies cannot afford the electricity to participate in the global economy; and the loss of biodiversity.
His analysis is based on extensive travel and interviews with experts. Friedman's thought-provoking solution is that America must reinvent itself as a green and energy efficient society and export this new approach to the world. Non-Americans might find his wide-eyed patriotism annoying and excessive. But the world notices the American lifestyle, either rejecting it or embracing it, so his arguments are compelling.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Payback

Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood 2008

If bookmarks, leaves, stems of leaves, and bits of paper all mark pages that
a reader wants to return to when he/she is finished, then it must be a good book. If a book almost doubles its size with these markers, it surely must be a book to recommend. Since that was the case, I recommend Margaret Atwood’s
Payback: Debt and the shadow side of wealth Atwood’s timely topic of debt is all the more relevant with Wall Street’s demise,economic scandals and historic moves by the United States and countries of the world to avert a global Armageddon. Atwood says the balance of good and evil, debts and debtors, vengeance and forgiveness have more to do with our humanness than money. An example she uses throughout the chapters is that of the monkey studies which illustrate that when a pebble is used as a reward rather than a grape, monkey behaviour changes. They understand “it’s not fair”. From a child’s firm declaration to the Bible’s book of Deuteronomy, opera, poetry, literature of all kinds and a Jewish seder, Atwood demonstrates how debt and balance mean more than money. In the last chapter, Atwood quotes Charles Darwin when he said, “Wealth comes from nature. Without it, there wouldn’t be any economics”. Does that mean we are truly indebted to nature? How do we pay back our debt to bees?