1. Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan, by D.R. Thorpe. I'm not one of these people who enjoys reading a lot of long tracts about British politicians, but this is one of the best non-fiction books of the year. It's full of good information, offers useful context for British economic and political debates, has plenty of original research, and is as suspenseful as a very good novel. Most of all, it brings its world and character to life. Highly recommended.
2. J.P. Singh, Globalized Arts: The Entertainment Economy and Cultural Identity. The definitive book for updating coverage on its topic, including the best and most comprehensive history of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity.
3. James K. Glassman, Safety Net: The Strategy for De-Risking Your Investments in a Time of Turbulence. p.11: "Reduce the proportion of stocks in your portfolio."
4. Alan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Loyalists, and Indian Allies. "The civil war had four overlapping dimensions. In the first, Loyalists and Americans battled for control of Upper Canada. Second, the bitter partisanship within the United States threatened to become a civil war, as many Federalists served the British as spies and smugglers, while their leaders in New England flirted with secession. Third, Irish republicans waged a civil war within the British empire, renewing in Canada their rebellion, which the British had suppressed in Ireland in 1798. Invading Canada, Irish-American soldiers faced British regiments primarily recruited in Ireland, for thousands of Irishmen had fled from poverty by enlisting in the royal forces. Fourth, the war embroiled and divided native peoples…In the North American civil war of 1812, Americans fought Americans, Irish battled Irish, and Indians attacked one another. They struggled to extend, or to contain, the republicanism spawned by the American Revolution." Some of this book has too much detail for my interests, but overall it is good.
5. Thomas Bartlett, Ireland: A History. I liked the cover so much that I also enjoyed the book more. I also liked the weight of this book a great deal; it was just right. In any case a fine one-volume introduction.
RE #3: Interesting if this is the same Glassman who came out with "Dow 36,000" in November of 2000.
Re: #3, I'm always curious to hear about the investment strategies of economists. Based on the Amazon blurb, the book seems to run counter to the "default sensible" strategy (buy-and-hold; use low-cost index funds; pick an allocation strategy diversified across geography, company type, and equity type; rebalance regularly but infrequently; start early and save steadily). Tyler, do you have a general investment philosophy? And to be clear, I'm not asking for the sake of advice. I'm more curious about how your beliefs about the world affect your material decisions.
Whoop de Do.
A contrast between Fama/French and Glassman's book. Here is the Fama/French take (invest in stocks during this period; high growth countries may have less stock potential growth because they are valued assuming the growth) http://www.dimensional.com/famafrench/2010/12/sho… and contrast this with the Glassman summary: buy bonds, invest in developing countries, sell stocks.
The finest investment advice I've aeen lately: We must all become contrarians now.
Harold Macmillan: a man of understatement, who described a grave political crisis in his Prime Ministerial days as a "little local difficulty"; whom the younger John Kennedy was in touch with during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis; a Conservative of the old school, who saw Margaret Thatcher's aggressive privatization plans as rather like selling the family silver; who in his advanced years presided over Oxford University, where he had "read" Classics decades before, as its Chancellor. A courtly, shrewd, many-sided, ironic man.
I sold last year, right after the Dow hit 36,000.
Bernard, even the trip to the library would be a bit much for the sake of Glassman.
More likely, Tyler was sent a review copy. Opening it up is an outsized amount of effort, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he caught page 12 as he was using it for kindling.
Let me be the 74th commenter to note that if Glassman is recommending "de-risking," now is the time to take advantage of the fact that risk is underpriced. Counter-indicators FTW!
Bartlett's book: the Editorial Review from Publishers Weekly is a remarkable load of drivel. If I were Bartlett, I'd be tempted to sue.
For those who weren't paying attention, Glassman managed to be at the scene of the Nasdaq crime, so to speak, and on the ground floor of the Iraq War IPO. He has an unbroken record of being spectacularly wrong in a way that Washington rewards with new book contracts. Now that he's recommending bonds, the 30 year bond bull market is sure to be over. He deserves a place in the AEI Hall of Fame right next to Wolfowitz and Jonah Goldberg.
Comments on this entry are closed.