My Top Ten Books

By John Howard Brown

My top ten is not very high falutin’.  It consists of books that I reread again and again.  They are listed below in no particular order with brief comments.

The Hobbit  by J.R.R. Tolkien    

The function of fantasy and science fiction is to create entirely fictional worlds that are believable, then draw you into them with appealing characters.  Tolkien achieved this masterfully.  It is much better than the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Also this is a book that I shared with my son when he was younger and a source of pleasant memories on that account.

Dune by Frank Herbert

A science fiction classic which achieves just what was discussed above.  It is also a meditation on the use and abuse of religion in politics.  This too spawned sequels of steadily declining quality and interest.

 The Uplift Wars by David Brin

The last science fiction in my top ten, I promise.  It is notable for the most engaging fictional character whom I have ever encountered, (hold on to your hats) an intelligent, genetically enhanced chimpanzee.

The Civil War by Shelby Foote

This is an accomplishment in historical writing comparable to the best ever written.  I actually cried when I finished the final book, because I knew that, unlike my other favorites, I would never read it in full again.

The Mediterranean World by Fernand Braudel

The father of the Annales School of French historians wrote this masterful work describing the depths of the environmental and social sea in the 16^th Century Mediterranean below the winds and tides of contemporary politics.

Cities and the Wealth of Nations by Jane Jacobs

America’s most distinguished 20^th Century urbanist, discusses exactly why people continue to find urban living preferable to rural on economic grounds.

The Entropy Law and the Economic Process by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen

An early attempt to recognize that the economy is also a part of the natural environment and the consequences thereof.

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Adam Smith is arguably the greatest philosopher of political-economy.  This book is an exposition of the beneficial effects of the operation of markets.  Contrary to received opinion, Smith’s appraisal of capitalist economies is a measured one not an apologia.

The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough

David McCullough writes beautifully and tells the fascinating story of the dream of, and actual realization of, the Panama Canal.

The Market Economy versus Capitalism

I've been sitting on this a while, hoping to get back to it and extend and polish it. Haven't found the time, so here it is warts and all.
1) Markets are inevitable.
As long as tastes are not uniform, and goods and resources are not distributed to those who value them most, individuals will benefit from the opportunity to trade with one another. Trading in markets is such a natural impulse that societies which oppose markets have to go to incredible lengths to suppress them, usually with minimal success.
2) Markets are moral.
a) Market exchange is morally superior to exchanges mediated through coercion or deception. Is there really any doubt that it is better for individuals to be able to freely make choices rather than act under some real or imagined compulsion.
b) Because market exchange is base upon an equivalency of values exchanged, it creates a sense of equity in market participants.

3) Markets promote economic efficiency.
By establishing the opportunity costs (the sacrifice necessary to acquire) goods, prices established in markets promote movements of resources towards their best use.

4) Well functioning markets require a legal/regulatory framework that :
a) Promotes a "level playing field" i.e. does not favor particular activities and disadvantage others.
b) Prevents/limits transactions based upon coercion or deception.

5) A capitalist economy is a market economy where government functions as "the executive committee of the bourgeoisie" per Karl Marx's description.
The difficulty is that while single minded pursuit of self-interest is an excellent strategy for success in business, pursuit of self-interest in societal rule-making creates all sorts of difficulties.
The recent experience with deregulation of financial markets is an exemplar of this. Regulation has many defects, including stifling innovation. However, financial innovations have the side-effect of potentially increasing the risks of the economies payment systems. If the risks grow large enough they can threaten the very stability of the system.