Highlights of “The Myth of Male Power”
I read lots. Problem is, I never take the time to sit and write or ponder what I have read, and the result is that I forget why I love/like/dislike/hate a book. If I have the patience (not bloody likely), I would like to start a book review on SNV. The first book is The Great Deformation.
I ponder and blog often about economics and fiscal issues, and even give concrete examples on occasion. This tome was a massive summary of how, since the 1930s, bubble finance and Keynesian economics has distorted the market, creating a new normal that will likely come crashing on its head in the coming years. From leveling the myth of Reaganite conservatism, to discussing the stupidity of the modern public-finance assumption that balance sheets don’t matter, to explaining how Bain Capital, GM, and the Big Banks are modern monetary Frankensteins, to eviscerating the legacies of the Chicago School economists Milton Friedman and Arthur Laffer, the book made me ponder my own views of the financial system very thoroughly – and even made me come away with a new appreciation of the immensity of the cliff we must climb if we are to escape our debt canyon with a functioning economy. The book is very long and took 3 weeks to read (a very long time for me), which was both a drawback (short attention span) and a benefit (the level of detail was useful enough to give me reason to pull out the book as a resource when I want to examine bailouts or stimulus programs).
If you have the patience to get through it, I would recommend picking this book up. It is the most practical economic treatise I have read in over a year.
