A provocative consideration for the thoughtful investor.
A convention-busting reappraisal of global macroeconomics.
Macroeconomics, the study of economic systems involving large regions, is a forbidding field, generally dominated by academically esoteric analysis that’s often inaccessible to lay readers. On the other hand, popular treatments of the subject liberally dispense investment strategy without adequately explaining complex financial contexts. Debut author Gonzalez situates his own work in the space between those two options, furnishing a study that’s intellectually rigorous but ultimately practical. He begins with what he calls an “investing epistemology,” explaining the ways that macroeconomics falls short of being a full-fledged science. The unscientific character of the field, however, doesn’t foreclose the possibility of rational prediction, but according to the author, it requires a panoramic understanding of the history of macro markets. The book’s first section is largely structured around such history, providing an astute investigation of the 1944 United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, the 1985 Plaza Accord, the conclusion of the Cold War, the American elections of 1994, and a host of other significant events. The book’s second part focuses on other topics, although historical analysis still plays a major, even principal, role. Part of what makes macroeconomics such a challenging discipline is the vast array of pertinent factors that underlie change, including shifting political landscapes, climate change, institutional structures, and global disruptions, such as war. (In fact, one of the highlights of the book is its examination of the macroeconomic repercussions of several modern conflicts.) Although he’s heavily influenced by George Soros, Gonzalez’s perspective is his own, and he intrepidly opposes prevailing wisdom when evidence leads him to new conclusions. For example, he says that commodities and equities aren’t always given a boost by military conflict, and that growth, interest rates, and inflation sometimes move along contradictory currents. Sometimes, the author delivers his iconoclasm with real verve: “However, in financial macro the laws of supply and demand do not hold. Pardon me, you might say. Yes, they do not hold.” This is a well-researched study, brimming with helpfully illustrative graphs. Although the author doesn’t appear to be very interested in providing immediately actionable investment advice, his book is still a highly valuable guide.
A provocative consideration for the thoughtful investor.Pub Date: July 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5175-7619-6
Page Count: 308
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A timely, vividly realized reminder to slow down and harness the restorative wonders of serenity.
An exploration of the importance of clarity through calmness in an increasingly fast-paced world.
Austin-based speaker and strategist Holiday (Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue, 2018, etc.) believes in downshifting one’s life and activities in order to fully grasp the wonder of stillness. He bolsters this theory with a wide array of perspectives—some based on ancient wisdom (one of the author’s specialties), others more modern—all with the intent to direct readers toward the essential importance of stillness and its “attainable path to enlightenment and excellence, greatness and happiness, performance as well as presence.” Readers will be encouraged by Holiday’s insistence that his methods are within anyone’s grasp. He acknowledges that this rare and coveted calm is already inside each of us, but it’s been worn down by the hustle of busy lives and distractions. Recognizing that this goal requires immense personal discipline, the author draws on the representational histories of John F. Kennedy, Buddha, Tiger Woods, Fred Rogers, Leonardo da Vinci, and many other creative thinkers and scholarly, scientific texts. These examples demonstrate how others have evolved past the noise of modern life and into the solitude of productive thought and cleansing tranquility. Holiday splits his accessible, empowering, and sporadically meandering narrative into a three-part “timeless trinity of mind, body, soul—the head, the heart, the human body.” He juxtaposes Stoic philosopher Seneca’s internal reflection and wisdom against Donald Trump’s egocentric existence, with much of his time spent “in his bathrobe, ranting about the news.” Holiday stresses that while contemporary life is filled with a dizzying variety of “competing priorities and beliefs,” the frenzy can be quelled and serenity maintained through a deliberative calming of the mind and body. The author shows how “stillness is what aims the arrow,” fostering focus, internal harmony, and the kind of holistic self-examination necessary for optimal contentment and mind-body centeredness. Throughout the narrative, he promotes that concept mindfully and convincingly.
A timely, vividly realized reminder to slow down and harness the restorative wonders of serenity.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-53858-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Portfolio
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Essential reading for citizens of the here and now. Other economists should marvel at how that plain language can be put to...
A French academic serves up a long, rigorous critique, dense with historical data, of American-style predatory capitalism—and offers remedies that Karl Marx might applaud.
Economist Piketty considers capital, in the monetary sense, from the vantage of what he considers the capital of the world, namely Paris; at times, his discussions of how capital works, and especially public capital, befit Locke-ian France and not Hobbesian America, a source of some controversy in the wide discussion surrounding his book. At heart, though, his argument turns on well-founded economic principles, notably r > g, meaning that the “rate of return on capital significantly exceeds the growth rate of the economy,” in Piketty’s gloss. It logically follows that when such conditions prevail, then wealth will accumulate in a few hands faster than it can be broadly distributed. By the author’s reckoning, the United States is one of the leading nations in the “high inequality” camp, though it was not always so. In the colonial era, Piketty likens the inequality quotient in New England to be about that of Scandinavia today, with few abject poor and few mega-rich. The difference is that the rich now—who are mostly the “supermanagers” of business rather than the “superstars” of sports and entertainment—have surrounded themselves with political shields that keep them safe from the specter of paying more in taxes and adding to the fund of public wealth. The author’s data is unassailable. His policy recommendations are considerably more controversial, including his call for a global tax on wealth. From start to finish, the discussion is written in plainspoken prose that, though punctuated by formulas, also draws on a wide range of cultural references.
Essential reading for citizens of the here and now. Other economists should marvel at how that plain language can be put to work explaining the most complex of ideas, foremost among them the fact that economic inequality is at an all-time high—and is only bound to grow worse.Pub Date: March 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-674-43000-6
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Belknap/Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
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