A thoroughly unsunny and dense but fascinating look at the engines of our discontent.
Economic history that examines the mechanisms and prospects of lessening inequality in our time.
The rich and poor have been with us always. Or at least, writes Scheidel (Humanities/Stanford Univ.; State Power in Ancient China and Rome, 2015, etc.), surpluses have, and with them “humans who were prepared to share them unevenly.” Enter the first capitalists, the first hoarders, and the first impoverished people. Thanks in large measure to the French economist Thomas Piketty, much attention has recently been given to this economic inequality and its causes; less energy has been exerted on how to put an end to it or ameliorate its harsher effects, other than to float the wan idea that wealth has to be redistributed. But how? Enter the historically minded Scheidel, whose observations don’t make for a pretty picture: of the proven methods for redistributing wealth and lessening inequality in the past, the most effective harken back to the four horsemen, involving shaking a society’s and economy’s foundations to the ground. Some energies toward this end—civil wars, revolts, etc.—have served only to increase inequality. However, writes the author, the old “violent levelers” aren’t afoot on a broad scale, and on the horizon, there’s no “easy way to vote, regulate, or teach our way to significantly greater equality.” Toward the end of his examination of these levelers and their past occurrences in places like Mesoamerica and Bronze Age Crete, he adds, “only all-out thermonuclear war might fundamentally reset the existing distribution of resources.” Given history, it seems certain that in such a scenario, one person will own all the bomb shelters and the other 99 will be out in the cold. Along the way, Scheidel offers provocative observations about things as they are, including the odd thought (for an academic) that “workers are increasingly overqualified for the work they do,” contributing to wage dispersion and suppression and thus to inequality.
A thoroughly unsunny and dense but fascinating look at the engines of our discontent.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-691-16502-8
Page Count: 520
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
This penetrating interview with dominant financial philosopher and philanthropist Soros (Underwriting Democracy, 1991, etc.) is unfortunately hindered by repetition, obscurity, and occasionally forced contrariness. A book of conversations with a successful investor automatically suggests the Market Wizards collection, the seminal pair of books containing interviews with financiers who fit the title. Like those works, Soros on Soros sinks or swims with the ability of its subject to shed light on the methods that have made him the second most successful money manager in history (after Warren Buffett). The reflective and talkative Soros provides three interviews. The first, conducted by investment strategist and Soros friend Wien, concentrates on the Hungarian immigrant's upbringing and investment style. Hungarian journalist Koenen poses the questions in the second interview, which explores Soros's philanthropic efforts and global political interests. The final interview, again by Wien, delves more deeply into Soros's philosophy as it informs his life outside of investing. Untangling the man's uniquely philosophical approach to market prognostication, the first section is by far the most tantalizing. Since 1969, Soros has managed the Quantum Fund, the superior precursor to today's hedge funds, which, by employing a greater deal of leverage than most funds dare, has grown at a pace that would have turned a $1,000 investment in 1969 into over $2 million today. Soros is perhaps best known for Quantum's attack on the British pound in 1992, a maneuver that netted Quantum shareholders over $2 billion but is viewed with hostility by many who fear the trader's power. The play-by-play of this wrangle and others best grabs the attention of readers not intimidated by concepts such as derivatives and currency speculation. Call it messianic or ballsy, there's a courage to this interviewee that makes for both an educational and entertaining read, though one dampened by the constraints of the question-and- answer format. (First serial to Fortune Magazine; $250,000 ad/promo)
Pub Date: Sept. 19, 1995
ISBN: 0-471-12014-6
Page Count: 321
Publisher: Wiley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Selective albeit generally absorbing recollections from an improbable stormy petrel who held important posts in two Republican administrations. Stans (who turned 87 earlier this year) left his rural Minnesota home as a teenager to take night courses in accounting at Northwestern University. He eventually became the senior partner of a Chicago-based CPA firm, which he turned into a national power, and amassed a considerable fortune. An active Republican, Stans was appointed deputy postmaster general in 1955. He moved on at Eisenhower's invitation to the Bureau of the Budget, where he was the last director to balance the federal government's books. While the Democrats controlled the presidency, the author served as treasurer of Nixon's abortive run for governor of California in 1962, incurred the punitive wrath of the JFK White House, and played a major role in Nixon's successful 1968 presidential campaign. Joining the Cabinet as secretary of commerce, Stans was not only an energetic trade warrior but also an effective apostle of dÇtente and the man in charge of establishing the Office of Minority Business Enterprise (an oft-ignored Nixon initiative). Withal, these and other accomplishments were washed away in the flood tide of Watergate. At no small cost, Stans (who recounted his legal travails in The Terrors of Justice, 1978) was acquitted on state charges of accepting unlawful contributions on behalf of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). Under intense pressure from a special prosecutor, however, he pled guilty to five misdemeanors involving financial improprieties unrelated to the cover-up. Although Stans devotes only the last two chapters of his narrative to making a case for his relatively innocent entanglements in the Watergate scandal, the guess here is that this exculpatory material will command a lion's share of such attention as is paid the book. Engrossing reminiscences of a genuinely singular life that seem almost certain to awaken bitter memories of unforgiven trespasses.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-57488-032-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
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