Book Report: Students are required to submit one book report on one of the selected books on the following page. Books are selected based on current relevance, historical importance, current access and the degree to which they enhance the subject of Microeconomics.<\/p>\n
The book report will represent 25% of the final grade. The book reports are to be no more than 12 pages and no less than 10 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font (TNR). Footnote or endnote all references except the primary text. Papers must be of acceptable business quality in terms of grammar, spelling and print quality. Book reports must be turned in at the beginning of class on the due date. Students need to submit a paper copy and email a digital copy. No late papers will be accepted. The book report will be graded for the content outlined on the following page.<\/p>\n
Book Report<\/p>\n
A number of people have asked for some guidance on the books. I put some note below on each book. If<\/p>\n
you have not chosen a book yet, I hope this helps you decide. FYI, each of these books is available for<\/p>\n
purchase on Amazon as a physical book, an EBook (which you can read with a Kindle or through an APP<\/p>\n
in the Chrome browser) and an audio book.<\/p>\n
Milton Friedman: Capitalism and Freedom – Milton Friedman is the intellectual Godfather of the<\/p>\n
modern conservative movement. He was a major influence in 1980\u2019s political policy and advocates for<\/p>\n
free markets in all possible scenarios. Capitalism and Freedom is his best work on his philosophy and in<\/p>\n
this book he lays out multiple of example markets that he wants to see change from controlled markets<\/p>\n
to less controlled markets.<\/p>\n
John Kenneth Galbraith: The Great Crash of 1929. This is by far the most influential and respected<\/p>\n
historical accounting of the Great Crash. Excellently written and researched. If you are interested in a<\/p>\n
detailed retelling of what the Great Crash was and was not, this is the best book to read. This book is<\/p>\n
here for two reasons; first for students who learn through history, second is for those that want to<\/p>\n
understand depression and recession issues. You may be shocked and disappointed at the similarities<\/p>\n
between the 1929 crash\/depression and our most recent recession.<\/p>\n
Chrystia Freeland: Plutocrat. I recently added this book to the reading list. It covers the issue, brought<\/p>\n
to prominence by the Occupy Movement and Bernie Sanders, of the growing disparity in the distribution<\/p>\n
of income and wealth. This well researched book focus on North American markets, but includes<\/p>\n
references to Asia and Europe too. The author is a reporter first and a social economist second. If you<\/p>\n
are interested in what Occupy is all about or the more frequently referenced distribution of income<\/p>\n
issues, this book details out the 99%\/1% issue.<\/p>\n
Thomas Sowell: Applied Economics. Thomas Sowell is a committed Free Market advocate. He haswritten almost a dozen books, but this is the best one for the purposes of this class. In my opinion it is<\/p>\n
also his best book. Sowell is active in current policy debate and you can find him commenting almost<\/p>\n
every week on regional or national Government market involvement. He also has a good personal story,<\/p>\n
which will make your Author section research interesting.<\/p>\n
Paul Krugman: The Conscience of Liberal. Krugman is recent Nobel Prize winner. He is also a prolific<\/p>\n
writer. I limit our selection to just this book. The Conscience of Liberal is a good primer of how modern<\/p>\n
Keynesian theory is utilized in current Gov policy. Krugman is our most liberal author (contrast him with<\/p>\n
Sowell). You can frequently find explaining the beneficial role the government can play as both an actor<\/p>\n
and referee.<\/p>\n
Robert Reich: Supercapitalism . Robert Reich is another prolific writer, he was the Secretary of Labor for<\/p>\n
President Clinton. In that role he was widely regarded as one of the best policy makers of the modern<\/p>\n
era. Supercapitalism is Reich\u2019s warning that the balance of power in the Market systems has changed<\/p>\n
(remember that graph in Chapter three with Gov, Households and businesses). Reich promotes that<\/p>\n
Households have lost much of their authority not to the Gov, but to the Business sector. The pastconcern that Government is the one element likely to get out of control is pass\u00e9. Reich warns that multinational<\/p>\n
companies have attained a power position more powerful than either Gov or households. Reich<\/p>\n
has an inspiring personal history.<\/p>\n
Robert Heilbroner: The Worldly Philosophers. This is a true history book. Heilbroner creates a<\/p>\n
chronological timeline of all the major contributors to the theory of economics. This is the top selling<\/p>\n
Economics books of all time. If you are a historical\/time-line learner this is a great book for you. If you<\/p>\n
want to see how economics has changed as the world has changed this is a great book. This book is<\/p>\n
structured differently from the rest of the list and will require some adjustments to the outline in the<\/p>\n
syllabus; I will go over that in class. If you want to truly understand economics from a social philosophy<\/p>\n
perspective I recommend this book.<\/p>\n
Joseph Stiglitz: The Price of Inequality. Academic and Political Economist Joseph Stigiltz reviews<\/p>\n
growing disparity in the distribution of wealth and income. He discussed the impact of this reality and<\/p>\n
the potential implications for democracy, monetary policy, budgetary policy, globalization and the<\/p>\n
standing of living in the US. Sitglitz presents a cause for this reality and a potential solution.<\/p>\n
Richard Thaler: Misbehaving: The Making of Behavior Economics. Richard Thaler has spent his career<\/p>\n
challenging the notion that the central agents of the economy are rational automatons. Instead Thaler<\/p>\n
presents research that the central agents in our economy are \u201chuman\u201d \u2013 predicable but error-prone<\/p>\n
individuals. This collection of research has impacted the underlying assumption of economics. This is an<\/p>\n
excellent book with management, marketing, and policy lessons.<\/p>\n
Joerg Rieger: No Rising Tide. Rieger is a Main\u2013Line Theologian and this book is first a Theology book<\/p>\n
then an economics book. He writes this book from a \u201cSermon of the Mount\u201d perspective. He connects<\/p>\n
Old Testament, Gospel and New Testament teaching to the current free market system. The Title of the<\/p>\n
book is a criticism of JFK\u2019s speech about \u201cA rising tide lifts all boats.\u201d The vocabulary is the vocabulary of<\/p>\n
a Theologian. If you are a Biblical Studies major or minor you will be completely familiar with thevocabulary he uses, if you are not get ready to learn a few new terms. This is an intellectually and<\/p>\n
spiritually challenging read. Due to the complexity of this book, I award the student an additional 5% for<\/p>\n
selecting this text (your grade *1.05)<\/p>\n
Thorstein Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class. We will discuss \u201cConspicuous Consumption\u201d soon.<\/p>\n
Veblen is the coiner and this book is his thesis on that concept. Veblen is a social critic and he identifies<\/p>\n
\u201cleisure class\u201d social behavior, charts its history and identifies the positive and negative realities of this<\/p>\n
class. If you are a Social Science major or a Marketing Major, this is a good book. Due to the complexity<\/p>\n
of this book and the author determination to show off his vocabulary acumen (Veblen is a smart guy and<\/p>\n
he wants his readers to know it), I award the student an additional 5% for selecting this text (your grade<\/p>\n
*1.05)<\/p>\n
Thomas Friedman: The World is Flat and The World is Hot, Flat and Crowded. These two books are<\/p>\n
excellent books on Globalization. The author is open and honest about the pros & cons of Globalization.<\/p>\n
The Worlds is Flat is the best book I know on the history, concept, interworking and potential of<\/p>\n
Globalization. The World is Hot, Flat and Crowded is also about Globalization, but primarily about energy<\/p>\n
and the environmental issues that Globalization is creating. These are long books and for that reason I<\/p>\n
award the student an additional 5% for undertaking these texts (your grade *1.05).<\/p>\n
Just a few quick suggestions.<\/p>\n
considered modern classics, take advantage of the application to your other studies.<\/p>\n
read Milton Friedman or Thomas Sowell. If you resonate with conservative politics read<\/p>\n
Krugman or Reich. All these books are well done works by reasonable, highly educated and<\/p>\n
successful authors. Get to know what other people think from the best sources.<\/p>\n
understand specific issues on a deep basis (like Globalization, Climate Change, Distribution of<\/p>\n
Income or Depression\/Recession issues) select the appropriate text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Book Report: Students are required to submit one book report on one of the selected books on the following page. Books are selected based on current relevance, historical importance, current access and the degree to which they enhance the subject Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}