Friday, March 14, 2008

Blast from the past: recommended reading

From recent ancient history:
Paper Money, Adam Smith, 1981.

This delightful little book addresses economic issues from the perspective of 1980/1. Much rings true today.

Chapters include:
5. Why houses became more than houses
6. The proliferating dollar: how the key currency got debased
7. How OPEC started, and grew, and engineered the greatest transfer of wealth in world history
8. Why the "energy crisis" is misnamed, and why it is a financial threat no matter what the name
9. The Saudi connection: the kingdom and the power
10. Recycling the petrodollars: treacherous seas, gale-force winds, fire!
11. The stock market: what do we do on Monday morning?


As suggested by these chapter headings, the book reads well today.

Have any of our candidates a familiarity with economics even at the level of this little popular treatise?

No comments: