No comments about The Economic Structure of International Law.

1 comments about More Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.

1. More Extraordinary Popular Delusions
   
   " . . . Another lot was sold successively for $2,500, $7,800, $10,000, $17,500 and finally, $35,000- the last purchaser being the man who sold it for $2,500. A property owner on the street was asked what his property was worth and said, "Well, it was worth about $30,000 at nine o'clock this morning. But at ten o'clock the lot next to mine sold for $40,000, so I suppose it aught to bring about $50,000 as it is now ten minutes past twelve."
   
   - From, More Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Joseph Bulgatz talking about the Florida land boom in the mid 1920's
   
   
   When I read articles about South Florida real estate increasing in value 50% last year in certain cities I can't help but think about the book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay, and its follow up, More Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Joseph Bulgatz. These books talk about bubbles and how in different times in history entire societies become delusional about prices of things from, tulips, stock shares to real estate. It's truly an enlightening book that I highly recommend!
   
   I believe there are many underlying themes at work in the appreciation of the real estate market and as often happens when a certain asset class heats up there are sectors that will become distorted. Thinking about Florida, I cant help pondering the 76 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. This extrapolates into roughly 11,599 boomers hitting 60 a day starting in 2006. Put another way that's 8 a minute.
   
   I know plenty of people in their 20's, 30's and 40's that want to own a place in Florida to be able to get away and warm up during the winters, so as this wave of retirees starts to get their second wind in life and may be winding down a career they may very well head south in droves.
   
   My partner and I own a few hospitality properties in Hollywood Beach Florida and can assure you that it's not just the US boomers that are enjoying South Florida. The Canadians head south at full speed in the winter to avoid the freezing cold, the feet upon feet of snow and freezing wind they get bombarded with. Come summer it's the Europeans that enjoy South Florida as Europe just about closes down for summer vacations. Surprisingly enough they don't mind the heat and humidity, they actually enjoy it.
   
   Recently I drove South on A1A, Ocean Ave. from Hollywood Beach to South Beach Miami and counted the buildings going up on the ocean. This is about a 20 minute drive and I was amazed by the number of condominiums, many of them pre sold before construction, many even sold out. I counted 22 projects. Not even taking into account anything that was not directly on the ocean. We know the reason for the demand; low interest rates, people disgusted with the stock market, the baby boomers heading south and of course the simple fact that people follow momentum. Price moves beget further price moves. When people hear about a friend or colleague that put down $50,000 or $100,000 on a pre construction condo in Florida and as soon as the construction started sold it for a $100,000 profit, its hard not to take a shot and hope the move lasts just a bit more. Even if the price of the unit is $1,000,000 or more, many times you can tie up the unit for a small down payment. Sort of like what the binder boys were doing in the 1920's Florida land boom.
   
   It's similarities like this and comments like, "Its different this time" that make me shake my head and say, "Here we go again".
   
   By Kevin Kingston, author of: A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate
   
   
   My Blog:
   The Real Estate Investors Blog
   At Bloglines

4 comments about Schaum's Outline of Principles of Economics (Schaum's).

1. I am an old beginner in Economics. I just wanted to study to prepare my CMA certificate. Schaum's series are very popular in Korea, and maybe in the United States also for their selected many problems. That's why I chose this book for my preparation in Economics exam. Economics is very broad and practical studies. This book is written in 1995, 5 years ago from now. Someone feels it is too old to study. But I don't think so, because how much change in 5 years in Economics. The economy of a society is changing a lot in 5 years evidently but the Economics cannot be changed a lot in 5 years even in these E-days! I graduated from school longtime ago, and sometimes I was stupid in my school days because I just studied the text only without so many problems. I am now sure that the problem-driven study is the best way to conquer the complex theory. Good luck to you, and hope to find this book to help your understanding the Economics theory and extend to your real life.



2. I used Schaum's Oulines to study for my accounting CLEP test, preparing for my MBA program. The Financial and Managerial Accounting titles were excellent. I have also used them to supplement my MBA texts in Operations Management and Financial Management. Overall, the series is lucid and easy to follow. I was expecting this title to follow suit.

   Unfortunately, it did not.

   The exposition is shoddy at best. Though I could solve the problems as they were given, I found myself struggling to understand economics. Since I was studying to CLEP test out of my prerequisite Micro and Macro Econ, I was concerned. After a few weeks, I purchased Harper Collins' College Outlines' Intro to Economics, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could understand economics.




3. This book is *ok*, but it is not as good as the other Schaum's books that I own (I own nearly 20 of them). I recomment this book ONLY if you are studying high school economics. If you are in college (or taking AP Economics or studying for CLEP), get the Microeconomics and Macroeconomics versions of this guide.



4. I purchased a few books in preparation for the macro/micro econ CLEP tests. Among these books is the Schaums Principles of Economics book. From my experience, the book is not very thorough. Perhaps it will help you understand economics -- and for some people, I am sure it is a sufficient study aid -- but there are definitely better Econ books out there. The book that I am reading right now is Barron's Economics, which I find to be much more detailed. A significant difference between the two books is that the Barron's version is ~580 pages long (about 200 pages longer than the Schaums), but these pages are full of additional material that is not found in Schaums (in other words, it is not a waste of paper). Although both books seem to cover roughly the same material, I have noticed that the Barron's book includes some interesting chapters (such as Game Theory) that are not even mentioned in the Schaum's book.
   
   One more thing that I find important is that the Barron's book has smaller dimensions than the Schaums book and is therefore much more manageable (and enjoyable to read).
   
   Luckily, the used prices for this book are pretty low, so you can always do what I did and just buy both of the books! If you are interested in more books that are introductory material to economics, the following books have sparked my interest in the field:
   
   The Elusive Quest for Growth (the troubles we have encountered in trying to develop struggling nations)
   Economics in One Lesson (a succintly written book that covers basic economic fallacies)
   Globalization and its Discontents (Yes, it is about Globalization... written by Stiglitz of the World Bank)
   
   Hope this helps :)

5 comments about Principles of Financial Economics.

1. This book is formal but not that inspiring
   
   Cochrane's book is inspiring but too informal
   
   We should read both.



2. This one almost serves as a (relatively) quick read for PhD students in Finance or practitioners who have a strong quantitative background (I belong to thet latter). It gets to the point very fast without much "background info" - which could be both a pro and con. But it's quite easy to read so far.



3. As some other reviewers have intimated, this book is not for the faint of heart. It is for PhD students (and their professors) to learn the foundations of financial economics. For people wanting to know how to make money in the stock market, this is probably not the book for you.
   
   The first time through this book can be daunting. That said, having studied finance for going on three years, whenever I need to look up anything, this is the first book I grab. It has everything you need, laid out in concise, elegant terms. I am of the mind that the combination of LeRoy/Werner and Cochrane's "Asset Pricing" will give any finance student the tools s/he needs to excel.



4. This is one of the few straight-forward introductory financial economics textbooks. The main reason I like this book is because it teaches the actual economics behind finance, which is sometimes left behind in a lot of more applied texts. There is a decent discussion on the "Fundamental Theorem of Finance", but it is quite scattered around in different parts of the book. However, this is probably one of the most important issues that first-year Ph.D. students should know. There is also a good discussion on spanning, which is not found in most books.



5. great book!
   very clear, thorough and precise treatment of the material.
   Better suit for people with interest in theory than for practical uses.

5 comments about A History of Economic Thought.

1. Make no mistake: Robbins knows his stuff, he's fair, correct, and surprisingly open-minded. However, this is a transcription of lectures, and the syntax is contorted. He interrupts the flow of every other sentence to insert some qualifier or oral footnote, and the effect can be maddening. This is too much to read for the depth of treatment you will actually get. If you do read it, you will get a pretty swell reading list, but the material is definitely weighted in favor of antiquarian literature and ancient disputes. I personally found it a pleasant read, because I like old books and economics, and I felt a certain affection for the grand old man, but unless you share these tastes, you're bound to be frustrated



2. A well-organized and well-considered series of concise lectures are codified in this book. This is a substantial, but not overwhelming, chronology of the more influential contributors to economic history and thought.



3. This is a collection of lectures given at the LSE. So DON'T think it is a history. Nevertheless, it is a comprehensive journey from aristotle's economica thru the modern era. Good as a reference. Not bad as a read -- but be aware you are reading a transcribed lecture and adjust your expectations accordingly.



4. This series of lectures sheds light on the major contributors to Economic thought since Plato and Aristotle. Since the book is made up of transcripts of his lectures, he doesn't manage to cover the figures or the ideas in depth. However he does manage to give some guidelines as to what you should read if you want to be well informed on the history of Economic thought.

   I did not find the language in it frustrating, it just made the book seem like a personal lecture with Robbins (minus the questions) which added to my enjoyment. He stops at Fisher, so if you were hoping for ideas and icons after that, you will be disappointed.

   The book is split into five sections. The first deals with those philosophers that preceded the formal study of economics; Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas etc... Very interesting stuff, especially if you aren't familiar with the relationship between the ancients and economics.

   The second to the fourth sections deal with famous economists, from Adam Smith to Karl Marx. His treatment of Marx is brief so don't expect anything more than a few pages. While he goes into some length about Adam Smith and the other classical economists.

   Finally he lectures on Jevons, Menger and others of the "Marginal Revolution", ending his series of lectures with Fisher.

   A good read, I would recommend it to undergraduates in Economics or any one else who is interested in the history of economic ideas.




5. The book is the transcription of the lectures Lionel Robbins gave in the London School of Economics during 1979 on the History of Economic Thought. The material covered goes from Plato to Fisher (very few developments from the 20th century are included). Since the book is verbatim transcripts of the lectures, there is not much depth here. Therefore, a conventional book by Robbins on the subject would have been preferred (that he knew the subject, there can be no questions of). Also, the coverage varies: there is ample stuff on Smith and the early mercantilists, but the material on Marx and Walras, for example, is frustratingly short. Still, for those starting in the subject, this is an OK read.

No comments about Unequal Chances: Family Background and Economic Success.

5 comments about Optimization in Economic Theory.

1. ALL ABOUT OPTIMIZATION IN ECONOMIC. ONE OF THE BEST.



2. This book is a gem. Very clear exposition of the lagrange method and multipliers, and other optimization methods. Dixit finds economic intuition in every step of the math. I pick up this book anytime I need to remind myself how the mind of a clear economic thinker works. No personal economics library could be complete without it.



3. Many people say this book is great. But donot be fool! They are trying to make you a fool!

   The authors gets everything from the air! My impression is this book is a baby sersion of the Varian Microeconomic Analysis book. I learn absolutely nothing from this book.




4. This book is an excellent supplement for classroom lecture. I often used it to clarify methodology used in my graduate level macroeconomics course. The presentation of the maximum principle and Hamiltonians in dynamic optimization was most helpful. In about 10 pages he clarified what 6 hours of reviewing lecture notes could not.



5. If you haven't had a lot of math before entering an econ PhD program, this book is a great intro. I highly recommend if you need info on
   - Lagrange's method & Shadow prices
   - Value functions
   - Convex sets
   - Maximum Theorem
   - Dynamic Programming
   It's a quick read, but well worth your time.

5 comments about Accursed Share, Vol. 1: Consumption.

1. In this book, Georges Bataille explores the connection between man's religious and economic pursuits. By focusing in on such divergent practices as human sacrifice and ritualized warfare in Aztec society, the practice of "potlach" in native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest, Tibetan Lamaism, and the conflagrations of our most recent World Wars, the author seeks to overturn classical models of economics. Instead of economics being driven by individuals seeking to satisfy their personal needs, Bataille proposes that economics is actually a social process that seeks to destroy, excrete, and expend excess goods and services. His unique perspective centers around the idea that the systematic destruction and loss of goods and services is intimately connected to our age old struggle to attain the Beyond. The French philosopher Michel Foucault once stated that Bataille said what had never been said before. After reading this first volume of Bataille's three volume work "The Accursed Share", you can begin to understand why Foucault believed as he did.



2. Read both books that contain all three volumes: in a way, the summation of Bataille's thoughts and written with clarity. It's not just the consumption-expenditure approach to analysing human activity that's orginial, he is (as he states towards the end of vol. 3) the closest thinker to Nietzsche. That is an assertion that bears merit as Bataille examines in as thorough a way possible (and in many ways supplements and is a good commentary on) Nietzsche's ideas of the overman, which he calls the sovereign man. At the core of his thoughts is Hamlet's last line, 'The rest is silence'. Sovereignty is NOTHING. A brilliant and vital contribution to the century's history of ideas.



3. I am taking an extremely dim view (I was thinking about theology, but the final sentence of volume 1 mentions teleology, an antiquated teleology, at that, instead) of THE ACCURSED SHARE by Georges Bataille by limiting my review to those issues that were mentioned in Ezra, which I believe was written at the time that the earliest books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, were compiled in the form some people are familiar with today. The first section of Leviticus, The Ritual of Sacrifice, in chapters 1-7, concludes with a portion for Aaron and his sons by orders of Yahweh binding the sons of Israel for all generations. Ezra opens with Cyrus King of Persia declaring that the temple in Jerusalem should be rebuilt and returning vessels of the temple which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem. The greatness and glory associated with this effort is a triumph like "Mankind's Accomplishments Linked to that of the American Economy" on pages 188-189 of ACCURSED SHARE and the final sentence of volume one, "More open, the mind discerns, instead of an antiquated theology, the truth that silence alone does not betray." (p. 190).
   
   The book was written in France to offer support for the American Marshall Plan to rebuild a prosperous global economy after World War II. On the final page of notes, the question, "Why deny the fact that there can no longer be a true initiative toward independence on the part of countries other than the USSR or the USA?" (n. 17, p. 197), states the geopolitical frame of reference that millionaires and billionaires with global interests seem to have risen above today, with the greatness of America as a superpower driving economic expansion in those areas where natural resources, access to capital, and wage levels allow maximum profits to appear when money can flow to those areas where it will accomplish the most. As the millionaire who has spent the most to advertise his views in the states with early presidential primaries, Mitt Romney has proudly proclaimed the greatness of America, but the underlying structure of the political hierarchy is similar in nature to the parallels between Ezra and Bataille's ACCRSED SHARE.
   
   Chapters 9 and 10 of Ezra deal with a problem like the desire of people to move to the United States in order to make more money today. It was reported, "The people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, have not broken with the natives of the countries who are steeped in abominations--Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites--but have found wives among these foreign women for themselves and for their sons; the holy race has been mingling with the natives of the countries; in this act of treachery the chief men and officials have led the way." (Ezra 9:1-2). It was such a massive problem that it took from the first day of the tenth month to the first day of the first month to officially process all the separations from foreign wives. This reminded me of Aztec customs which linked the victims to "The individual who brought back a captive had just as much of a share in the sacred office as the priest. A first bowl of the victim's blood, drained from the wound, was offered to the sun by the priests. A second bowl was collected by the sacrificer. The latter would go before the images of the gods and wet their lips with the warm blood. The body of the sacrificed was his by right; he would carry it home, setting aside the head, and the rest would be eaten at a banquet, cooked without salt or spices -- but eaten by the invited guests, not by the sacrificer, who regarded his victim as a son, as a second self. At the dance that ended the feast, the warrior would hold the victim's head in his hand." (Bataille, pp. 53-54).
   
   Certainly the Aztecs were more harsh than the restrictions which the federal government wishes to put on drivers licenses in New York for those who are not American citizens or authorized by the United States government to live within the United States. The question of who is who here can have numerous answers, like questions about whether waterboarding is torture, or how people detained in Iraq compare to illegal combatants. Even a nominee for Attorney General might wish to equivocate about certain questions. Bataille picture people in Tibet willing to maintain a large number of monasteries to keep the young men from serving in an army. "In Tibet, even more so than in China, the military profession is held in contempt. Even after the reforms of the thirteenth Dalai Lama, a family of nobles complained of having had a son commissioned as an officer." (p. 110).
   
   I was drafted once myself, so I read about these things after years of not knowing if I would serve in Nam; then, after I got to Nam, I was even told to go to Cambodia. Though Nixon thought sending troops into Cambodia might make Vietnam safer in 1970, it was also a risky move for those who were on helicopters that crashed. The feeling generated by such changes in the expectations associated with my ultimate objective is described by Bataille:
   
   The victim is a surplus taken from the mass of useful wealth. And he can only be withdrawn from it in order to be consumed profitlessly, and therefore utterly destroyed. Once chosen, he is the accursed share, destined for violent consumption. But the curse tears him away from the order of things; it gives him a recognizable figure, which now radiates intimacy, anguish, the profundity of living beings. (p. 59).
   
   In modern society, people who are not talented enough to be known by millions of people are nobodies. John Lennon was not entirely unwelcome in New York City; he was merely shot down in the street. Government has become so awful at facing any kind of issue, Congress after World War II attempted to define a c.o. as someone who believed in a Supreme Being who prohibits a c.o. from taking part in any war. The Department of Justice was not generous in denying the status to boxer Cassius Clay all the way up to the Supreme Court, where most justices finally agreed that the Department of Justice was wrong about when Cassius Clay needed to file for a determination. Such questions plague anyone who has rules like the clean and unclean beasts in chapter 11 of Leviticus, which then considers leprosy in chapter 13, sexual impurities in chapter 15, nakedness in chapter 18, and handing over any children to Moloch in chapter 20. There are things which must not be worshiped:
   
   "You must make no idols; you must set up neither carved image nor standing stone, set up no sculptured stone in your land, to prostrate yourself in front of it; for it is I, Yahweh, who am your God." (Leviticus 26:1).
   
   It does not directly prohibit saluting the flag or pledging allegiance, but anyone who doesn't is likely to be sacrificed in some other way, like John Lennon certainly was, and Martin Luther King, Jr., both of whom opposed certain aspects of the Vietnam war. The call to support the troops is like something in THE ACCURSED SHARE for me, but so much so that my list will not go on.



4. Bataille's 3-volume masterwork is the triumph of his life's work in the philosophy of expenditure. For beginners seeking a comprehensive introduction to this most important of 20th century philosophers (a title Foucault bestowed upon Bataille), I recommend reading "Erotism: Death and Sensuality" first, then the three volumes of "The Accursed Share," and finally "The Tears of Eros."
   
   To what has already been written here about "The Accursed Share," I would add a few words about the book's content. Bataille proposes that the sovereign state--that condition of ultimate value, in which we are removed from the world that tallies our value in terms of the work we perform, in which we exist for our own sake--is the secret goal of all humanity. However, this sovereignty is not so much a development of humanity as a return to our lost animal state, a return along the trajectory of self-consciousness that resulted from becoming human. Bataille defines the human as an eternal dialectic between this lost animality and the human world of work and reason.
   
   His masterwork develops ideas that will benefit the fields of study including economics, morality, humanities, politics, aesthetics, Nietzschean philosophy, theology, and ontology, for Bataille elucidates some of the principles that link all these fields together--principles that many of these fields have loathed to discuss for themselves.



5. This book was recommended to me as the work of a very great thinker. Having read and re-read it several times I remain distinctly unimpressed. The thesis of the book appears to be that any society, once the most elementry necessities are overcome, inevitably creates a surplus (of time, energy, resources). Soceties differ and are distinguished from one another by how they spend/use this surplus. The productive capacity is not infinite and must inevitably result in "un-productive consumption".
   
   Where is the profoundidty?

5 comments about The Nature of Economies.

1. Jacobs' book disappointed me on two fronts - the poor quality of its analysis and the horrendous dialogue she uses to deliver her polemic.

   "The Nature of Economies" is Jacobs' attempt to present her worldview to readers, combining economics, environmentalism, and secular humanism in one incoherent philosophy. Unfortunately, she presents many of her views sans evidence, and often gets her analysis dead wrong. To wit, this passage from page 96 demonstrates either her economic illiteracy or her own political bias:

   "Feedback reports that operating income isn't sufficient to cover operating expenses. Suppose the response to is obtain a loan to make up the discrepancy. The loan itself adds interest costs to operating expenses. That increases the discrepancy. Therefore, still more money is borrowed. That increases the discrepancy further, and so on. This vicious circle is called deficit financing, and finally it becomes financially insupportable."

   Of course, this entire analysis rests on the assumption that the entity only borrows enough to cover the shortfall OR that any money borrowed is only used in negative-ROI projects. That's a major flaw, one that assumes that all managers are incompetent. "Nature" is full of such incomplete analyses, including many environmentalist proclamations that belie their lack of scientific support.

   The book's second flaw is the ... dialogue Jacobs uses to present her views. The dialogue itself is stilted and the characters are unbelievable bores; one can hardly imagine maintaining a conversation with one of them in a subway, much less spending hours on end listening to their harangues. Thank goodness the book is short, because it becomes more painful as the characters become more shrill.




2. A number of the other reviews critiscise the conversational form of this book. And one reviewer (who is clearly an investment analyst) critiscises one tiny sentence which makes a rather erroneous analogy between corporate and national behaviour.

   But the central theme of the book, that economies must be defined by natural principles since they are the product of human beings, themselves merely a succesful product of nature, is crucial. Its enlightening and must be debated and fleshed out. It gets beyond the "hack" economics that suggests economies need to make exports in order to earn their keep. Instead, Jacobs says that exports are the output of economic systems, not the inputs. The real inputs are basic resources - e.g. weather, location, human skills & the depth and breadth of the existing economic system.

   As an amateur economist I find the argument to be a strong one. Serious critiscisms of this book should be based on critiscisms of the central argument and its substantiveness, rather than of the formn of the book. I'd enjoy seeing such critiscism from professional economists.




3. If you pass chapter 1, you will find it more interesting. You may have already known many ideas presented in the book, but Jacobs integrates all those ideas and tries to apply them for general purposes. I felt like I was reading a poem. You may know all the words and their meanings, but how they rhyme and how they finally capture your feeling artfully make it a great poem. "The Nature of Economies" is just like that for both sides of your brain.



4. Jane Jacobs is a distinguished author but she has let down her readers with this book. The book means to explain how economies work. One major analogy is used, the analogy with a biomass. Jacobs says the biomass in an area gets larger by recycling the energy it gets from the sun. For example, if trees grow and then burn, the biomass in that area is small. But if bugs eat the trees and birds eat the bugs and monkeys eat the birds' eggs and so on, the biomass is large. She says that an economy's imports are analogous to energy, and an economy is more successful the more it recycles its imports. She calls this "import-stretching", which is an example of her often deft use of words. For example, if an economy imports drilling rigs and exports crude oil, it will be smaller than if it imports drilling rigs and processes the crude oil at home to make plastic and uses the plastic to make toys and then exports the toys. She says "... such an economy can be accounted for quantitatively as a result of dilatory and digressive uses of imports that have entered the conduit - exactly as biomass expansion in the forest can be accounted for as a result of dilatory and digressive uses of energy from the sun that has entered the conduit." (This is not an example of her usually deft usage, but it is the key point.)
   Two minor points: First, the presentation is in the form of a conversation and this form becomes very irritating. Second, the parallel between economic activity (a flow) and biomass (a stockpile) is awkward.
   Four major points: First, Jacobs says nothing at all about the standard of living in an economy. "Import-stretching" may create jobs, but we want jobs that pay well and support a good standard of living.
   Second, while she is in general keenly aware of the complexity of causation in both nature and human society, she offers us this single-cause explanation of economic growth. "Import-stretching" can indeed be one source of growth, but growth is surely one of the most multi-caused processes in economics.
   Third, this "import-stretching", as presented, turns out not to be an explanation but only a description of growth. Most of the discussion merely describes the appearance of an economy that has more diversity without explanation of why this might or might not happen.
   Fourth, the brief bits of discussion of what individuals or companies or governments can do to encourage growth, while they make sense, do not depend on the concept of import-stretching. Her brief suggestions about what causes growth and how to encourage it arise from her optimistic view that people "come by creativity naturally", and therefore, given the chance, will act in ways that bring about economic growth, usually more successfully if governments keep out of it except to prevent monopoly. We didn't need the biomass, etc., for this.



5. I am a fan of Jane Jacobs and have great respect for her work. The concepts explained in this book are so well explained that I need add nothing more. I will just mention one gripe that prevents me from giving this book a full five stars. When Tolstoy had a theory, namely that history was an inexorable process that man cannot influence, he wrote War and Peace. He explained his theory through the lives of believable characters, and the message was easier to relate to. Now if I were a philosopher and wanted to get my message across, there would be three approaches.
   
   1 - Do it the Tolstoy way with a believable story that shows concrete examples of the theory in action.
   
   2 - Write a bland book explaining the theory in all of its abstract and general terms, making it nigh on impossible for a lot of people to take in.
   
   3 - Try and explain the theory in the form of a story of two people sitting at a table discussing the theory.
   
   Method 1 is the most effective, method 2 is ineffective, and method 3 is nearly as bad as method 2. Ms Jacobs has chosen method 3 for this work, and as other reviewers have mentioned, the characters are flat, stilted, and unbelievable. I felt no affinity for them; if a meteorite smashed into their living room and killed them all I would not feel one bit upset. I found it difficult to tell the characters apart, so much so that I found myself just ignoring their names and concentrating on what they were saying. The 'storyline' of this book, a series of long drawn-out coffee mornings (during which one of the characters falls asleep, unsurprisingly) is so contrived and one-dimensional that it merely distracts from the point that the author is trying to make.
   
   That said, it should still be required reading for anyone with influence on public policy.

5 comments about Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success : A Spider Web Doctrine.

1. I thought the book gave a raw and uncut truth about africans,etc. Onyeani shot straight from the hip in regards to how we view and approach wealth. We need to become more aggressive, not to the point where we become blinded by wealth, but as far as being more proactive when it comes to wealth. I am an entrepeneur, and I am going to implement some the theories and concepts he mentioned so I can make my community a better place.



2. I went to the store to purchase "White Guilt" but they were out. I purchased this book instead and I cannot tell you how happy I was to read it. It took me 2 days to read it and then I read it again just to let it all soak in. This book uncovers the secret (at least the secret from African Americans) to be succesful. It should be required reading of all AFrican American teenagers age 16 and up. He explains how India and Koren immigrants to this country have acheived more than blacks have and they we should not whine about White People holding us back because by doing so, you CANNOT be focused on becoming an Economic Warrior, i.e., a Capitalist Nigger.
   
   Buy this book for yourself and instead of money or pen sets for graduation gifts for high school and college graduates, make this your standard gift to them. They will appreciate it for years to come.
   
   I would also suggest reading "Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery" by Na'im Akbar. It is the perfect book to accompany "Capitalist Nigger." Really, they both should be required reading for African American teenagers.



3. 
   This is an interesting book on the economic and social situation of Africans in Africa and the diaspora. The author is very critical of the economic underdevelopment and dependence of African peoples on other races. He ascribes this to inferiority complex and lack of self-confidence and self-discipline in the ability of African peoples to be world-renowned successful entrepreneurs, industrialists, scientists and engineers. He cites several examples of ineptitude by African leaders with the resource rich African continent being heavily debt-ridden with nothing to show where the money went.
   
   Onyeani believes that by following the capitalist path and doing so aggressively, resolutely, persistently and with confidence, it should be possible to uplift the African race from the bottom layers of society where it is largely settled.
   
   It is easy to dismiss Onyeani's ideas as just rantings of a frustrated African but this introspection is a critical first step towards the mental and economic emancipation of the African race. One can accuse the author of advocating a system of "capitalism" which is inherently oppressive and exploitative and is a creation by the Caucasian race which tends to contradict his basic message. However, such thinking misses the basic point that African needs to catch up or surpass the other races in building a better community characterized by prosperity, progress, mutual assistance and support and unity.



4. Had this book been written by a white person,he would have been crucified.I'm a South African and I experience what Onyeani is writing about on a daily basis.Athough I'm white,this book is painful to read.
   The book came to my knowledge about two months ago and I do not know what kind of a stir(if any)it caused when it was first published.The danger inherent to this book is that it may be abused by militant right-wingers,but anyone doing that would loose sight of the fact that the book was written by an Afro-American and that it is an outcry aimed at Afro-People everywhere to get off their duffs and to be Capitalist Niggers-you have to read the book to understand this expression-and to stop being passive,waiting with cupped hands for the seemingly endless hand-outs.
   If one looks at Africa:where are the success stories,the lasting democracies?(Except,hopefully and perhaps,South Africa)I agree with Onyeani-Africa is a beautiful and bountiful continent and it's high time that all its people manage it to its full potential and not run it into the ground as is the case currently,eg,Zimbabwe which became a pathetic,sad,broke and broken country run by a madman 20 years after the 'colonialists' left.
   White or not,it's my fervent wish that Oyeani's call to Afro-People everywhere to become Capitalist Niggers,is heeded-it will be to the ultimate benefit of all the people of all races.
   About race,race relations and what's wrong with the world in general and Britain in particular,check out THE LIGHT'S ON AT SIGNPOST by GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER,the chapters titled 'Angry Old Man'.Compulsive reading.



5. This book is the ultimate insult coming from one of its own. But history has shown that these traitors have always existed for its own self gain. A scribe that attempts to motivate its own peole by the negative, therefore insulting. It is an insult to the people that fought for the dignity of Africa and its peoples: Patrice Lumumba, Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Agostinho Neto, Samora Machel, Amilcar Cabral, Robert Mugabe and others that fought against the powerfull colonialists Portuguese, French, Belgians, Spanish supported by the American imperialism.
   
   To add insult to injury he does not acknowldge any credits to Africans that reconquered independence and dignity, he rather accepts that Africans received independence from its masters. He mixes inteligence with unscrupulous copying of intelectual property by suporting those who have no respect for innovation of any sort. Africans are artistically innovative, no copists.
   
   The handful of people he admires were pirates called navigators by their supporters; they were rapists, slaves traders but called evangelists spreading christianity by force, Bible in one hand spade in the other, against Christ own words and denegretating indigenous believes. They were without the shadow of a doubt superior in technology, organisation skills, germs and guns but not in inteligence. There is enough research and literature available to demonstrate that the reason for dominance was a set of circunstances not inteligence, but I abstain from letting this person know where that published information is. It would be useless. It would be like asking Hitler to read the Communist Manifesto. It was a set of circunstances that gave them superior advantage called by the author "killer instints". The author is calling us to become barbarians.
   
   It is no surprise that he receives support from self interested groups of people that see in this individual a support for their racist theories. The book is not supported by any historical investigation and its is a load of garbage.
   
   We as people have existed for thousands of years of which the last 500 have been under foreign dominance. 500 years is little time by comparision with our remote brilliant past and by comparison with what the future promises. It will probably after our time on earth that we regain full dignity but if I see the author in the other world I will simply walk past with disdain.