This book’s full title is Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World. His telling of the first farmers etc. is like a telling a just so story. It is a story that has not been verified. This is my only negative comment. I found the book interesting reading. An example is how much land the cattle and sheep stations cover and how much land Gina Rinehart owns.
Aaron Retica writes an interesting review at the New York Times. Unfortunately, this review is now behind a pay wall. Carmen Margiotta on Earth.org gives us a review of this book. Also, I found a review on Kirkus Reviews. There is also a good review on Coot’s Reviews. I also read a review by Eric Liebetrau at the Boston Globe.
Simon Winchester is interviewed at the Kinokuniya Book Store about this book. The author is interviewed at the Gibson’s Bookstore. On C-Span Simon Winchester starts his talk 2 minutes in. Simon Winchester talks on TED.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Friday, September 2, 2022
The Journey of Humanity by Oded Galor
This book’s full title is The Journey of Humanity; the Origins of Wealth and Inequality. I found this book to be very interesting. I realize that there are criticisms of Oded Galor theories. The criticisms are interesting, but so is the book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it worthwhile to read.
According to Oded Galor, there was a rapid eruption of change in the past 2 centuries. The change did not happen equally across the globe. Some areas saw the change and in other areas, change is just happening recently. We went from stagnation to growth. It was a huge transition.
During the Malthusian epoch, there was technological innovation, but it leads to a bigger population, but the individuals of that population were not better off. Eventually, technological progress reaches a critical threshold. Eventually, human capital formation triggers a reduction in fertility and growth is freed from the counterbalancing effect of population growth. He calls this a phase transition.
Steven Poole on the Guardian reviews this book. His criticism of the book is quite interesting. James Kwak of the Washington Post reviews this book. Simon Kuper at the New Statesman reviews this book.
There is a public online speech at Brown University by Oded Galor. Q & A. starts around 1 hour into the video. Economist Oded Galor joins Penguin Books UK to answer some Big Questions on diversity, equality, and the future of humanity. This video is around 12 minutes in length. Oded Galor is interviewed on Growth Chat. This video is around 40 minutes long.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
According to Oded Galor, there was a rapid eruption of change in the past 2 centuries. The change did not happen equally across the globe. Some areas saw the change and in other areas, change is just happening recently. We went from stagnation to growth. It was a huge transition.
During the Malthusian epoch, there was technological innovation, but it leads to a bigger population, but the individuals of that population were not better off. Eventually, technological progress reaches a critical threshold. Eventually, human capital formation triggers a reduction in fertility and growth is freed from the counterbalancing effect of population growth. He calls this a phase transition.
Steven Poole on the Guardian reviews this book. His criticism of the book is quite interesting. James Kwak of the Washington Post reviews this book. Simon Kuper at the New Statesman reviews this book.
There is a public online speech at Brown University by Oded Galor. Q & A. starts around 1 hour into the video. Economist Oded Galor joins Penguin Books UK to answer some Big Questions on diversity, equality, and the future of humanity. This video is around 12 minutes in length. Oded Galor is interviewed on Growth Chat. This video is around 40 minutes long.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer
This book’s full title is Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade. However, it should be called Medieval World of Eurasia. She includes Europe, Middle East, India, China, Korea, and Japan. South East Asia is missing as its America and Africa. She has her own site here.
However, I did like the book as it covered a lot of history of the medieval world. I liked that it covered India a lot, because a lot of history books tend to just skip over India. The parts of world mostly covered in this book, give a good history of those areas which seem to be her area of expertise.
I certainly appreciated all the maps she included. There was at least one map in each chapter and all the places mentioned were on these maps. Too many history books do not include maps and this is a big mistake as far as I am concerned. Some include maps but do not show on the map all the places that they mention. This is frustrating.
What I did not like is that she says the old canard about Greenland being called Greenland to make it attractive, but it was just sand. However, people who have investigated it looking at soil samples say that where the colony was situated was covered in trees when the Vikings landed. She also gives a very shallow coverage of North America and completely ignores South America.
I must admit there are some very good (and very long) reviews on Good Reads. There is a short, interesting review by Christine at Our Curious Home. This is a link to a PDF of an essay by J. M. Roberts at Open Journals.
Dr. Harry Bleatter, interviews author, historian, and professor Susan Wise Bauer at The King's College in New York City . This is part of The King's College Distinguished Visitor Series and it is just a snippet of the interview and it the whole does not seem available for the public. I cannot find anything on this author and history on video. There is also a short interview with Susan Wise Bauer at the San Diego Comic-Con 2018.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
However, I did like the book as it covered a lot of history of the medieval world. I liked that it covered India a lot, because a lot of history books tend to just skip over India. The parts of world mostly covered in this book, give a good history of those areas which seem to be her area of expertise.
I certainly appreciated all the maps she included. There was at least one map in each chapter and all the places mentioned were on these maps. Too many history books do not include maps and this is a big mistake as far as I am concerned. Some include maps but do not show on the map all the places that they mention. This is frustrating.
What I did not like is that she says the old canard about Greenland being called Greenland to make it attractive, but it was just sand. However, people who have investigated it looking at soil samples say that where the colony was situated was covered in trees when the Vikings landed. She also gives a very shallow coverage of North America and completely ignores South America.
I must admit there are some very good (and very long) reviews on Good Reads. There is a short, interesting review by Christine at Our Curious Home. This is a link to a PDF of an essay by J. M. Roberts at Open Journals.
Dr. Harry Bleatter, interviews author, historian, and professor Susan Wise Bauer at The King's College in New York City . This is part of The King's College Distinguished Visitor Series and it is just a snippet of the interview and it the whole does not seem available for the public. I cannot find anything on this author and history on video. There is also a short interview with Susan Wise Bauer at the San Diego Comic-Con 2018.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Monday, November 29, 2021
Has the West Lost It? By Kishore Mahbubani
This book’s full title is Has the West Lost It? A Provocation. He thinks that they have not lost it yet, but it still can. Throughout most of history, India, and China each produced about a third of the world’s GDP. However, Europe, then the US (i.e., the West) has dominated the world since 1800. However, this is coming to an end and the US (and the West) will have to deal with the changing world. Kishore Mahbubani has his own web site .
I quite liked this book. Kishore Mahbubani certainly has a different view of the world. But this is what I would expect from him. He is a Singaporean citizen. I felt the book was well written and interesting. I like to read people who have a different world view that what I generally hear. I live in Canada. The world is changing and we need to hear from non-westerners.
There are a surprising number of very negative reviews on Good Reads. Hilton L. Root writes a great review of this book at Independent Institute. Masih Ullah Khan at India Quarterly, Journal of International Affairs writes a balanced view of this book. There is another good review by Sir Richard Jolly at the Institute of Development Studies. Kishore Mahbubani at World Economic Forum on how Asian wisdom can complement western thinking.
Bill Emmott & Kishore Mahbubani talk at Ideas Abu Dhabi about A Clash or Fusion of Civilizations and the state of our world. This is an interesting discussion only about 22 minutes long.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
I quite liked this book. Kishore Mahbubani certainly has a different view of the world. But this is what I would expect from him. He is a Singaporean citizen. I felt the book was well written and interesting. I like to read people who have a different world view that what I generally hear. I live in Canada. The world is changing and we need to hear from non-westerners.
There are a surprising number of very negative reviews on Good Reads. Hilton L. Root writes a great review of this book at Independent Institute. Masih Ullah Khan at India Quarterly, Journal of International Affairs writes a balanced view of this book. There is another good review by Sir Richard Jolly at the Institute of Development Studies. Kishore Mahbubani at World Economic Forum on how Asian wisdom can complement western thinking.
Bill Emmott & Kishore Mahbubani talk at Ideas Abu Dhabi about A Clash or Fusion of Civilizations and the state of our world. This is an interesting discussion only about 22 minutes long.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin
This book’s full title is Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence. This is written by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez with a forward by Mr. Money Mustache. Vicki Robin has her own website here.
It is a bit preachy but some ideas are worth stating. At one point she says if you have 10 dresses and felt you have nothing to wear – – the trill of getting is greater than the joy of having and using. But if you have ten dresses and have enjoyed waring all of them for years you are frugal (and happier). Waste lies not in the number of possessions but in the failure to enjoy them. Your success at being frugal is measured not by your penny-pinching but by your degree of enjoyment of the material world. (This is on pages 165 to 166 in my paperback).
I liked the attitude of no blame, no shame about dealing with the past. If you were foolish with money in the past, forget about that and only focus on what you will do in the future. What I do not find practical was advise to invest in real estate for renting. Personally, I rather invest in the stock market. You do not have to deal with people as you do if you have real estate for renting. I know people who have done this and they do have some horror stories.
I invest in companies in the stock market. You can get in trouble if you go after short term capital gains. This can be fine in a strong bull market, but you can lose big time in a bear market. I just ride out bear markets. I have good dividend paying stocks and they come back after each bear. During the bear, I still get dividends and every bear market I have been in, my overall dividends have increases. Of course, there are always companies that cut or suspend their dividends in a bear market. However, there are also companies that increase their dividends in a bear market.
There is a review by a blogger on Physician on Fire. There is a review by Mary Wisniewski on this personal finance site. There is another good review on Zen Habits.
See a money or your life summary by The Swedish Investor on YouTube. There is short and good review by Yath Prem on YouTube. Vicki Robin speaks at Microsoft Research. Vicki Robin also speaks on Detroit Public TV.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
It is a bit preachy but some ideas are worth stating. At one point she says if you have 10 dresses and felt you have nothing to wear – – the trill of getting is greater than the joy of having and using. But if you have ten dresses and have enjoyed waring all of them for years you are frugal (and happier). Waste lies not in the number of possessions but in the failure to enjoy them. Your success at being frugal is measured not by your penny-pinching but by your degree of enjoyment of the material world. (This is on pages 165 to 166 in my paperback).
I liked the attitude of no blame, no shame about dealing with the past. If you were foolish with money in the past, forget about that and only focus on what you will do in the future. What I do not find practical was advise to invest in real estate for renting. Personally, I rather invest in the stock market. You do not have to deal with people as you do if you have real estate for renting. I know people who have done this and they do have some horror stories.
I invest in companies in the stock market. You can get in trouble if you go after short term capital gains. This can be fine in a strong bull market, but you can lose big time in a bear market. I just ride out bear markets. I have good dividend paying stocks and they come back after each bear. During the bear, I still get dividends and every bear market I have been in, my overall dividends have increases. Of course, there are always companies that cut or suspend their dividends in a bear market. However, there are also companies that increase their dividends in a bear market.
There is a review by a blogger on Physician on Fire. There is a review by Mary Wisniewski on this personal finance site. There is another good review on Zen Habits.
See a money or your life summary by The Swedish Investor on YouTube. There is short and good review by Yath Prem on YouTube. Vicki Robin speaks at Microsoft Research. Vicki Robin also speaks on Detroit Public TV.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
The Beleaguered by Lynne Golding
This book’s full title is The Beleaguered: Beneath the Alders Series. Lynne Golding has a site here. Her twitter account is here with a twitter name of @lynne_golding.
This is a book I got from Ben McNally’s breakfasts with authors at the King Eddie. I very much enjoyed this book. You can learn about some Canadian History while reading about Jessie Stephens and her life in Brampton. The book is part fiction and part stories from the author’s Great Aunt Jessie. I learned a bit about what the World War I was like for Canadians. I had known that there were problems for people of Austrian and German descent.
Although my ancestors in Canada came from Switzerland, they spoken German and settle in the German community. They did not talk much about the World Wars but I know that they felt that they must learn English quickly and keep their heads down. My family came in the late 1800’s to Canada. It is my Great Grandparents that were the immigrants and they apparently only spoke German. My Grandfather and Grandmother were bilingual and my father (born in 1914) only spoke English. Although he learned to swear in German.
There are book reviews on Good Reads. There is a written interview with Lynne Golding at Open Book.
Lynne Golding speaks about this series on her site. Her Facebook page is here. She has a number of videos on her site.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
This is a book I got from Ben McNally’s breakfasts with authors at the King Eddie. I very much enjoyed this book. You can learn about some Canadian History while reading about Jessie Stephens and her life in Brampton. The book is part fiction and part stories from the author’s Great Aunt Jessie. I learned a bit about what the World War I was like for Canadians. I had known that there were problems for people of Austrian and German descent.
Although my ancestors in Canada came from Switzerland, they spoken German and settle in the German community. They did not talk much about the World Wars but I know that they felt that they must learn English quickly and keep their heads down. My family came in the late 1800’s to Canada. It is my Great Grandparents that were the immigrants and they apparently only spoke German. My Grandfather and Grandmother were bilingual and my father (born in 1914) only spoke English. Although he learned to swear in German.
There are book reviews on Good Reads. There is a written interview with Lynne Golding at Open Book.
Lynne Golding speaks about this series on her site. Her Facebook page is here. She has a number of videos on her site.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Friday, June 4, 2021
The Fate of the West by Bill Emmott
This book’s full title is The Fate of the West: The Battle to Save the World’s Most Successful Political Idea. Bill Emmott has his own site here. Click the 2050 index for an interesting overview.
He talks a lot of the problems of the west. People have lost faith in government. Europe is a mess. They have economic problems but also immigration problems and terrorism. It would seem to have a lot to do with new immigrants that UK voted to separate from the EU. He says that no rich country has revived or re-energized from economic or political torpor by a revision to authoritarian rule. Those that have achieved revival had done so through some new combination of openness and a restoration of equality.
He still has hope for the future of the west. I must admit I have hope but we are going through some tough times. You can see we have a problem with trust and there is a lot of polarization. Even in Canada we have people who intensely hate people of other political parties. It is not good that people have a hard time accepting an election when their political party is not the winner. I am hoping we will muddle through our problems somehow.
There is an interesting review on Kirkus Reviews. There is a review on Publishers Weekly. G. John Ikenberry reviews this book on Foreign Affairs. He also reviews The Retreat of Western Liberalism by Edward Luce. In closing he says “But, like Luce, Emmott doesn’t shed much light on the specifics of what would amount to a wholesale rethinking of the Western social contract”.
John Andrews interviews Bill Emmott on Project Syndicate . Financial News columnist David Wighton, and Christoph Winder from Der Standard joints in. Populism and the Fate of the West is debated on YouTube. The Speakers were Bill Emmott, Former Economist Editor-in-chief; Edward Luce, US columnist, Financial Times Joris Luyendijk, Investigative Journalist; and the Chair by Rowan Conway.
Bill Emmott is interviewed at Cambridge Union. This was not as interesting as the other interviews. They talked mostly of journalism. Bill Emmott and Kishore Mahbubani are interviewed at Ideas in Abu Dhabi. Kishore Mahbubani is Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, where he also served as the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy from 2004 to 2017. His book is “Has the West Lost It”.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
He talks a lot of the problems of the west. People have lost faith in government. Europe is a mess. They have economic problems but also immigration problems and terrorism. It would seem to have a lot to do with new immigrants that UK voted to separate from the EU. He says that no rich country has revived or re-energized from economic or political torpor by a revision to authoritarian rule. Those that have achieved revival had done so through some new combination of openness and a restoration of equality.
He still has hope for the future of the west. I must admit I have hope but we are going through some tough times. You can see we have a problem with trust and there is a lot of polarization. Even in Canada we have people who intensely hate people of other political parties. It is not good that people have a hard time accepting an election when their political party is not the winner. I am hoping we will muddle through our problems somehow.
There is an interesting review on Kirkus Reviews. There is a review on Publishers Weekly. G. John Ikenberry reviews this book on Foreign Affairs. He also reviews The Retreat of Western Liberalism by Edward Luce. In closing he says “But, like Luce, Emmott doesn’t shed much light on the specifics of what would amount to a wholesale rethinking of the Western social contract”.
John Andrews interviews Bill Emmott on Project Syndicate . Financial News columnist David Wighton, and Christoph Winder from Der Standard joints in. Populism and the Fate of the West is debated on YouTube. The Speakers were Bill Emmott, Former Economist Editor-in-chief; Edward Luce, US columnist, Financial Times Joris Luyendijk, Investigative Journalist; and the Chair by Rowan Conway.
Bill Emmott is interviewed at Cambridge Union. This was not as interesting as the other interviews. They talked mostly of journalism. Bill Emmott and Kishore Mahbubani are interviewed at Ideas in Abu Dhabi. Kishore Mahbubani is Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, where he also served as the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy from 2004 to 2017. His book is “Has the West Lost It”.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
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