inquiry_from_an_anti_library's reviews
624 reviews

The National System Of Political Economy by Friedrich List

adventurous challenging informative slow-paced

2.0

Is This An Overview?

What cannot be produced domestically, needs to be obtained through international trade.  Sovereign states are limited in what they can produce due to resources, industry, and politics.  States prefer and benefit from free and unrestricted trade when they have an agrarian economy, as they can export surplus agriculture products in exchange for manufactured products and metal resources.  Trade policies change to become more restricted when the state develops their culture and industry. 

 

States borrow skills and manufacturing ability from others, but then protect them domestically.  Competition has the effect of improving the production ability of the competitors, but when domestic producers want more market share, they use their power to appeal to political representatives.  Domestic producers ask for restricting foreign competition, and the politicians tend to oblige. 

 

Social and political institutions effect the ability to produce material wealth.  States that had more liberty, had more production ability.  Liberty brings with it industry, invention, and enterprise.  People who are persecuted in a state, take their skills to states that would support them.  Infrastructure accompanies the development of manufacturing ability, to enhance access to the market.

 

Caveats?

This book is difficult to read, with antediluvian references.  A diverse history of trade is presented, but more research will be needed to understand any state or situation.  Various economic ideas remain valid, but their explanations have been improved.  

Misunderstanding Financial Crises: Why We Don't See Them Coming by Gary B. Gorton

adventurous challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

Is This An Overview?

Financial crises are inherent in a market system.  Financial crises occurred before and after a centralized currency, before and after the development of a central bank.  Each crisis has different characteristics, but a common structural cause.  Financial crises occur when people and firms do not want the product of a bank.  The product of a bank, is debt.  Debt is used for transactions.  Different eras have different forms of bank debt, such as banknotes and repurchase agreements.  The debt is not riskless, and banks do not hold the cash needed to repay all the debt, as they lend out cash. 

 

Debt is used for transactions, which depends on the lack of secrecy.  That each party knows the value of the collateral being exchanged, and neither knows more than the other.  But when people become uncertain of the value of bank debt, people trigger a bank run.  No matter the form of the debt, crisis are caused by an avoidance of what the bank have to offer.  Crisis are triggered by the panic that ensues. 

 

A panic caused by problems with the banks, rather than panics causing the bank problems.  A financial crisis is when many consumers and firms are demanding more cash from the banking system than what the banks can provide, a contractual demand that the banking system cannot satisfy.  Events that cause a crisis are unpredictable, but the financial systems’ fragility can be observed.  Financial system fragility depends on the amount of credit outstanding.  Before a financial crisis, there is a credit boom that increases the financial systems’ fragility. 

 

Caveats?

This book provides an introduction to the cause of financial crises.  More research would be needed understand any specific crisis.  

 

The book can be difficult to read.  There are a variety of excerpts provided to be historic evidence to claims, but they have mixed results.  The excerpts can help explain the situation or be distracting. 

Aztecs: A History From Beginning to End by Hourly History

adventurous informative tense fast-paced

3.0

Is This An Overview?

Through their belief system, Aztecs valued life as they understood life to be transient.  That nature was cyclical, that nature could give life and take life away.  Sacrificing to their deities was part of their code for living, for the deities sacrificed, and the people needed to continue the practice.  Status affected what was to be sacrificed, but none could escape the inevitable catastrophes.  Science and religion were intertwined, and reinforced each other.  They had techniques for hydraulic engineering, which were used to reclaim swamp territory.  The political system was based on an alliance of clans, a decentralized network.  Geopolitics caused tension between different groups, with alliances forming to overcome tyranny of another.  Trade existed along with a tribute system.  An Aztec market was part of the culture, which had various guilds that held enough power and authority to enforce behavior. 

 

Caveats?

This is an introductory book.  To understand more about the Aztecs would require more research.  This book provides various sources for learning about the complexity of Aztec society. 

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

3.0

Is This An Overview?

With disaster comes opportunity, a market opportunity.  Disasters are used to impose drastic changes on society, using shock therapy, rather than gradual changes.  Disasters are a shock to the system that enables policies to be accepted that would not have been acceptable otherwise.  To receive support or loans, sovereign states facing disaster are given conditions which generally include privatization, deregulation, and reduction in social spending. 

 

This has the effect of enacting policies that are favorable to markets, and gives access to foreign firms to buy resources and buyout domestic firms.  Resources and firms are sold relatively cheap, as the economy is facing disaster.  This is how disaster capitalism works.  Disaster makes sovereign states vulnerable to accept policies they would not otherwise accept, policies that are a form of colonialism.  The effect of shock therapy is to transfer public wealth to private individuals and groups, increase debt, and exacerbate inequality.  This situation is created by government and businesses working together.

 

The form of the disaster is not relevant.  Whether caused by nature or political conflict.  Although there had been many disasters available to which shock therapy was applied, there were disasters that were created.  When the democratic process chose means that were not favorable to those who were ready to take advantage of a disaster, methods were used to create a crisis such as the removal of democratically elected leaders and policies.  Replacing them with favorable leaders.  Undermining the democratic process, often with violent means.  Instituting and imposing authoritarian measures while claiming to that they are for liberty and the improvement of society.

 

Before disaster capitalism, societies wanted to avoid crises as that hurt the economy and the people.  Due to disaster capitalism, disaster has become profitable.  Rather than losing money due to a disaster, the economy benefits from a crisis.  Even when imposing a crisis on another economy.  Various firms profit from war activities, and then reconstruction efforts.  Firms are being rewarded with rebuilding what they enabled to destroy.  While war activity is compensated, the victims of disaster are not appropriately compensated.

 

Caveats?

The effects of shock therapy are considered from a variety of events from diverse sovereign states.  Many details are provided on the events, but there can be too many details or lack relevance which takes the focus away from a systematic account of the topic.  Even with the details provided, the reader would need to do more research to understand each event. 

 

This book challenges the myths of how effective economic policies have been.  The problem is that the author challenges the myths by providing myths.  This book is a form of destructive tribalism, in which the ideas and people who are the target of the book, are assumed to have an essence.  That anyone who engages with them shares all the same terrible ideas throughout time.  All the harm that is done, the author holds the target group responsible.  When a totalitarian sovereign state considers and changes their economy to be even a little more aligned with the target group, the target group is considered to be responsible for all the totalitarianism.  When the opponents of the target group have power and effect policies that are similar to what the target group wanted, the target group is considered responsible. 

 

Much like how the author criticizes the target group for wanting a pure market system without government, the author wants the targets to appear purely evil. The targets of the book are provided a one-sided narrative, and are given responsibility for every negative consequent.  The author references books written by the targets, but the content in those books that contradict the author’s claims are not referenced. 

 

The focus of the book is when the target group uses disasters for policy opportunities, even though there were a few references to non-target groups using disasters for policy opportunities.  By focusing only on a single target group and making them responsible for everything, has the effect of hiding and empowering other groups who use disasters for their benefit.  

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Is This An Overview?

Having a philosophy of life can prevent an individual from mis-living life.  To not waste the chance one has at living.  By having a philosophy of life, an individual can find effective strategies to attain life goals, and adjust behavior to increase the likelihood of attaining the goals.  The goal of the Stoics was to live a virtuous life, a life of tranquility.  Tranquility found through a lack of negative emotions.  The Stoics did not want to remove all emotions, just to limit the effect of negative emotions.  Stoics practiced preventing and overcoming negative emotions, rather than repressing emotions.  Stoicism is a cure for negative emotions that prevent a joyful existence.  Stoic methods can help an individual handle social relations, insults, grief, anger, fame, luxury, and various other aspects of life.

 

The Stoics use various practices to find tranquility such as negative visualization.  Thinking of a potential loss can create behaviors to prevent the loss, and find appreciation of what the individual has.  Negative visualization overcomes hedonic adaptation.  Stoics practice voluntary discomfort, voluntary self-denial of what they have or can have.  Voluntary self-denial prepares the individual for situations in which they are not voluntarily deprived, provides an appreciation for the comforts they do have, and builds willpower that develops self-control to enable freedom to choose one’s behavior.  Stoics create an appreciation of each day when reflecting on mortality.  But they do not worry about what they cannot control, such as mortality, as that would be futile.  Stoics focus on what they can control, such as the state of mind.  Finding contentment by changing oneself.

 

How To Explain Stoic Philosophy?

A Stoic practice of negative visualization, thinking about a potential loss, can change behavior to prevent the problem.  If the problem was inevitable, then the person can be emotionally prepared to handle the problem.  People are insatiable, for when what is wanted is obtained, the happiness derived is adapted to.  Adapting to happiness reduces the effect of happiness, causing the individual to want more.  Through negative visualization, people can think of losing what they do have, which makes them understand the value of what they have. 

 

Stoics reflect on mortality, the finite time they have available, to bring about an appreciation of each day.  To make the day fulfilling and productive, rather than waste the time they have available to them.  Reflecting on mortality changes the state of mind when carrying out activities, to not take their experiences for granted.  Stoics think about what they have control over, as that can lead to a change in a future situation.  They avoid thinking about things they cannot control, as that would be a waste of time.

 

Caveats?

The author uses and updates Stoic claims, which are given a complex understanding.  The Stoic claims can still be misunderstood, and the application of some methods can harm rather than improve a situation.  The claims made provide a foundation, but need to be adjusted and improved upon using local, tacit experiences and cultural values.

 

Claims provided on the effect of Stoic values and why people avoid Stoicism, have stereotypical reactions.  Stereotypical reactions based on age and other social features.  Stereotypical reactions are popular in the media, but are not representative of people’s diverse views. 

 

The explanation for why a philosophy of life is needed, can be effective, but makes life appear static.  As if a chosen goal, one chosen earlier, cannot change.  That all of life needs to be about strategies for accomplishing the goal. 

A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Is This An Overview?

American political and moral elite have not thought kindly of the way everyone else behaved.  Too many vices, too much leisure, too irresponsible, too free.  External controls seemed to be too totalitarian, therefore the reformers such as the Founding Fathers wanted to replace them with internal controls.  Self-rule was meant to make people responsible.  As through democracy, would people have an interest in their own future, and therefore change their behavior. 

 

This is a history of America’s struggle for personal liberties, a moral clash in society.  As there were those trying to make people responsible, there were also those who wanted the freedom to do what they wanted.  These are the renegades.  Activist who changed culture by behaving the way they wanted to.  During a time of repression, renegades fought for various freedoms and made socially acceptable the behaviors that seemed repulsive.  They fought for: diverse entertainment in arts, dance, music, and movies; time away from work and the pursuit of leisure; racial and ethnic integration of establishments; sexual liberty to be with whom they wanted to be with no matter the race, ethnicity, or sex of the partner.  The renegades came from diverse backgrounds and diverse cultures, such as slaves, prostitutes, gangsters, African Americans, Jews, Irish, and Italian.  Renegades who were often mistreated by society, but changed the American culture. 

 

Caveats?

This book shares a host of socially sensitive topics.  Topics that could have been handled a bit more sensitively.  This book shares a diverse set of values that has changed American culture, but explanations of the events are sometimes given a too simple and one-sided narrative, without caveats.  For a book on renegades and diversity, there seems to be too much homogeneity in how the different sides treated others and were treated themselves.  

Prisoners of Geography, Volume 1: Ten Maps That Explain Everything about the World by Tim Marshall

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

3.0

Is This An Overview?

Geography can provide a bounty of nutrition and abundant resources, or have them in scarcity if at all.  Abundance can enable people to flourish, or create a source of conflict for control.  Scarcity limits people’s ability to expand, or can incentive development of methods to overcome geographic limitations.  If people are able to inhabit a territory, they respond to what their geography provides.  Developing behaviors to compensate for what they lack, and use effectively what they have. 

Geography can bring people together, or can divide people.  Geography that connects different people together can bring in wealth through trade, but also can be a source of invasion.  To limit the threat of invasion, some peoples have become conquerors as a form of defensive strategy.  Geography that separates people can prevent conflicts, or can be a form of intensive conflict as no people may be able to seize control of the territories.   

 

Caveats?

Many sovereign states are represented along with their complex political situation.  But information on each state is limited.  To understand each sovereign state would require more research.  The diversity of sovereign states shows the diversity of geographic features and how the geography effects the political situation. 

The problem is that similar geographic features, are given a different outcome while claims that the geography has caused the generalized behavior.  The explanations take a situation and reason backward to how the situation came to be, but different political situations existed with similar or the same geography.  Geography is a factor of what people have to respond to, but the way people choose to respond to geography shapes the outcomes.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve by Steve Stewart-Williams

adventurous emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

Is This An Overview?

Evolution effects more than just biology, evolution also effects the mind.  Many social behaviors have evolutionary explanations.  Evolution is the process by which the best genes are able to copy themselves, to propagate the gene pool.  Evolution is about the genes, not the organisms, nor survival of the species.  Evolution is competition within a species, that can enable favorable individual traits which are detrimental to the species.  Evolution captures historic beneficial adaptations, but lacks foresight.  Creating an evolutionary mismatch as behavior that was appropriate in the evolutionary past might not be appropriate within different contexts.

 

Genes and cultures coevolved.  Genes affected behaviors which formed cultures, while cultures are able to change which genes are selected.  Information within cultures evolve the same way genes do, through the ability to copy themselves.  Cultures enabled and were created by cooperation.  Within a group, selfish individuals do better.  Within a population, altruistic groups do better than selfish groups as altruistic groups waste less resources competing against their own members.  Reciprocal cooperation enables each individual to improve their outcomes, as they are unable to do everything on their own.   Cooperation is a form of competition, as members cooperate due to self-interest.  As the selfless would be exploited by the selfish, self-interest is needed to prevent the self-interest of others.   

 

Caveats?

This book shows the evolution of evolution, how the idea of evolution changed.  The organizational structure has mixed results.  Part of the organization relies on hypothesis testing, through an evolutionary process.  Showing the hypothesis that fail and why they fail, then the improved hypothesis in the following iteration until an appropriate hypothesis.  Another part of the organization is the use of an alien as an analogy to science, an objective observer.  An objectivity derived through subjectivity.  This book describes various socially sensitive topics, expressing how evolution effects them rather than just culture.  The socially sensitive topics could have been handled more sensitively. 

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

3.0

Is This An Overview?

Skin in the game is outcome symmetry of decisions.  A symmetry of the benefits and harm derived from a decision.  Skin in the game within a transaction means having no asymmetric uncertainty.  Skin in the game is about taking risk, rather than transferring the risk.  Advice that benefits the individual and the adviser, without the adviser sharing the harm, is bad advice.  Those who make decisions without suffering negative repercussions of being wrong, continue making bad decisions.  Alternatively, being accountable for errors of decisions, makes people learn from their mistakes and improve their decision making.

 

Caveats?

Although the ambiguity of language is understood, the use of language in the book creates more negative consequences than benefits.  Harsh language is being used throughout the book, which is partly meant to give people skin in the game who have not taken responsibility for wrong decisions, and also to signal freedom.  The consequences of the harsh language can be 1) to make society more intolerant given the influence of the author, 2) possibly enable a fundamental attribution bias for dynamic decisions are rarely made by a single person but who then becomes a scapegoat for others, and 3) make people defensive which prevents learning. 

 

The focus of skin in the game is about those who are making wrong decisions without facing the negative consequences, but as the author recognizes, there have been those who perished even though they were right.  Its uncertain if the author has skin in the game with the advice given about using skin in the game to improve situations.  

The Diversity of Life: With a New Preface by Edward O. Wilson

adventurous challenging informative medium-paced

3.0

Is This An Overview?

Each species is a unique representation of the ability to survive on the planet.  Unique biology, behavior, interaction with other species, and its impact on the ecosystem.  Biological diversity begins with slight adaptations to environmental niches within a species.  Adaptations that start as small divergences, from which hybrids are possible.  But the differences often grow, leading to reproductive isolation between the populations.  Origin of species is an evolution of differences that prevent hybrids. 

 

Diverse species are less vulnerable to environmental shocks as an end to a single species can be overcome by another taking over the niche.  Each species is precious as other species can depend on it, directly or indirectly.  Some species are keystone species, as their removal would cause drastic changes to the ecosystem.  Biodiversity needs expansive geographic distribution for an appropriate nutrient cycle.  Limited geographic distribution makes diversity vulnerable. 

 

Although there have been mass extinction events before, humans are responsible for latest mass extinction, in part, by taking over more land.  The problem with the extinctions are the costs to material wealth.  Biodiversity contains biological wealth in the form of nutrition, medicine, and amenities.  By removing biodiversity, humans are removing sources of undiscovered wealth.  With time diversity can come back, but at times scales that lack meaning for contemporary humans. 

 

Caveats?

The book is about diversity.  Much of the book consists of showcasing diverse species.  But each species does not get much information.  To understand more about each species would require more research.  The descriptions of the diverse species can be a distraction away from the systematic analysis of diversity.