UAA Book Club Reviews

 

Manuel Hinds, Dollarization and Domestic Currencies in Developing Countries (2006)

On Wednesday, March 30, 2022, seven participants reviewed Playing Monopoly with the Devil: Dollarization and Domestic Currencies in Developing Countries by Manuel Hinds, in a virtual meeting by Zoom led by Joe Ryan.  Here are Joe’s presentation notes and an article by Hinds introducing the subject.
 
Manuel Hinds is a former Finance Minister of El Salvador who led El Salvador’s adoption of the U.S. dollar (dropping its old currency) on January 1, 2001.  The book is about why all developing countries should do the same thing. 
 
The book points out that policy makers’ attempts to benefit from having a separate, independent currency — by manipulating interest rates, inflation rates, and exchange rates — result in the currency losing its role as a standard of value.  Also, when the exchange rate depreciates in a small economy, household income falls due to lack of substitutes, unlike in large economies like the U.S. where alternatives are available locally and exchange-rate depreciations don’t have such sharp effects.
 
Thus, when policy makers manipulate the value of the local currency, people substitute global currencies like the U.S. dollar for the local currency, creating financial crises rather than giving policy makers the control they thought they had.
 
 

“New Economics Curriculum” and “Instant Economics–The Real-Time Revolution” (2021)

On Wednesday, November 17, twelve participants discussed the “New Economics Curriculum” and “Instant Economics–The Real-Time Revolution” in economic analysis that appeared in The New Yorker and The Economistrespectively, in a virtual meeting via Zoom led by Tony Chan, with help from Jerre Manarolla. 
 
“The world is on the brink of a real time revolution in economics, as the quality and timeliness of information is transformed” according to The Economist. What is commonly known as Big Data – real time information on activity – is harvested and processed to provide real time insights into in this case, economic activity and by extension, better public policy responses in terms of timeliness and accuracy.

Tony’s presentation notes and pdf copies of the articles discussed can be read here

 


The Enduring Struggle:  The History of the Agency for International Development and America’s Uneasy Transformation of the World (2021)

On Wednesday, December 8, twenty-four participants joined Alex Shakow and author John Norris in a Zoom discussion of The Enduring Struggle:  The History of the Agency for International Development and America’s Uneasy Transformation of the World, 2021.

US Foreign aid is one of the most misunderstand functions of our federal government. Consuming less than 1% of the federal government budget, it has nonetheless played an outsized role in political debate. At the center of this controversy and misunderstanding has been the U.S. Agency for International Development, or AID, the government agency created during the Kennedy administration to administer America’s foreign assistance programs, an often conflicted behemoth with a presence spanning the globe. In this book, journalist and foreign policy expert John Norris provides a compelling and rich story of AID. In totality, the work of AID has touched millions and millions of lives in ways that have been truly profound, both good and bad. On the Eve of AID’s 60th anniversary, Norris shares history on an almost epic scale that remains largely untold.

 


 

Higher Education in Developing Countries, Peril and Promise (2002)

On Wednesday, September 29, 2021, Joe Ryan led a Zoom discussion with eight participants about  Higher Education in Developing Countries, Peril and Promise, by the World Bank Task Force on Higher Education and Society, 2000.  

The world economy is changing as knowledge supplants physical capital as the source of present (and future) wealth.  Technology is driving much of this process, with informational technology, biotechnology, and other innovations leading to remarkable changes in the way we live and work.  As knowledge becomes more important, so does higher education.  Countries need to educate more of their young people to a higher standard–a degree is now a basic qualification for many skilled jobs.  The quality of knowledge generated within higher education institutions, and its availability to the wider economy, is becoming increasingly critical to national competitiveness.

Readers can access the relevant documents from the session by clicking on the blue, underlined titles:   Joe Ryan’s presentation for the review and the World Bank Task Force document.


The Authoritarians — Bob Altemeyer (2006)

The UAA Book Club held a virtual meeting with 10 participants via Zoom on June 23, 2021, for which Joe Ryan led a review of The Authoritarians, 2006, by Bob Altemeyer. 

The interesting thing for UAA about Prof. Altemeyer’s online book, The Authoritarians, is that it’s relevant for the question about whether populations have a taste for international cooperation, or whether on the contrary they tend to be hostile to foreigners. 

Copies of Joe Ryan’s presentations for the review and a PDF copy of the book itself can be reached below:

  1. The Authoritarians e-book
  2. “Icebreaker” for Book Club
  3.  Presentation for Book Club Discussion                                                      

The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind — Raghuram Rajan 

The UAA Book Club held a virtual meeting with 12 participants via Zoom on May 26, 2021, for which Bobbie van Haeften led a discussion of The Third Pillar:  How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind, by Raghuram Rajan. In The Third Pillar, “Rajan argues that markets and the state have usurped communities’ power, and the balance needs to be reset. Power must devolve from global and national levels to the community. Rajan notes that as machines and robots begin to produce more of our goods and services, human work “will center once again around inter-personal relationships.” Communities could well be the workplace of tomorrow.”  –  excerpt from an IMF review by Prakash Loungani, assistant director of the IMF Independent Evaluation Office

To see reviews of the book on the UAA website click here.

 


 

The Upswing:  How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again — Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Garrett

The UAA Book Club held a virtual meeting with 14 participants on April 21, 2021.  Richard Blue led a discussion of The Upswing:  How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again, by Robert D. Putnam with Shaylyn Romney Garrett.This is a very ambitious and provocative book, which uses a wide variety of data sources to convey a picture of tremendous change in America, starting with the “Gilded Age” in last quarter of the 19th century, through the progressive era, the roaring twenties, the depression, two World Wars, the New Deal and Fair Deal, up to the cultural revolutions of the late 1960s into the 1970s.  Putnam and Garrett (PG) characterize this as the movement from an “I” dominated society to one they call the “We” America.  Starting with the mid-sixties, according to PG, stagnation and decline set in, and over the last fifty years, we have returned to a predominately “I” society, marked by high levels of economic, social inequality, political polarization, and cultural narcissism.  PG provide copious and sometimes innovative hard data to support their basic I/WE/I proposition for each major dimension, economic, social, political and cultural.  To read three reviews and a comprehensive issues paper, please click here.

 


Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

The UAA Book Club held a virtual meeting via Zoom on January 27, 2021, during which Jon O’Rourke led a discussion, with 18 participants, of Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.  The overall intent of the book is to convince readers that, while we think of ourselves as rational beings, the truth is we make many decisions unconsciously on an irrational base. It catalogues numerous examples of irrational thinking and together represents a humbling comment on human fallibility. Being aware of these distorting influences in ourselves will reduce judgment errors in our personal lives, in financial and legal matters, and in leadership and management.  For comprehensive reviews by Jon O’Rourke and others, visit the UAA website by clicking here.


Good Economics for Hard Times, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo

The UAA Book Club held a virtual meeting via Zoom on December 9, 2020, for which Richard Blue reviewed and led a discussion of Good Economics for Hard Times, 2019, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo.  The authors claim that there are too many discrepancies between what theory predicts and what actually happens, especially as economics undergo major transformations.  They point out the despair and rage of those left behind in America, in Eastern Germany, the Brexit heartland, and in large parts of Brazil and Mexico.  “The rich and the talented step nimbly into the glittering pockets of economic success but all too many of the rest have to hang back.  This is the world that produced Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro and Brexit…” (p324). B and D also summarize the incredible changes that have occurred over the last forty years…”the fall of communism, the rise of China, the halving and halving again of world poverty…  Also the rise of inequality, the spread of authoritarian nationalism, and looming environmental catastrophes…”  Finally, Banerjee and Duflo issue a “Call to Action, not just for economists —it is for all of us who want a better saner, more humane world.  Economics is too important to be left to economists.”   You can read the review of this book by clicking here.


The Meritocracy Trap:  How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite, 2019

The UAA Book Club held two virtual meetings on October 21 and 28, in which Bobbie van Haeften reviewed and led discussions of Daniel Markovits’s new book, The Meritocracy Trap:  How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite, 2019.  About 12 people participated in the review.   Copies of three professional reviews of this complex book are posted in the UAA Book Club Reviews section of the UAA website and may be read by clicking here.


 Blowout:  Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth

On January 15, 2020, eighteen members of the UAA Book Club met at the BISTRO 1521 Restaurant in Arlington, VA, for a discussion, led by Jim Fox , Rachel Maddow’s new best-seller Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth.  Jim’s summary review is posted in the UAA Book Club Reviews section of the UAA website.  This book is full of detailed observations of the oil industry, people in the industry, its benefits and costs, together with an astute analysis of the goals and pretentions of Vladimir Putin.  It has many strands and vignettes on characters that make up the drama of the oil industry, but three main themes loom through all the detail:  the industry and its operators, the awesome political power it makes possible, and the geopolitical threat posed by Russia under Vladimir Putin. These three do not fit particularly well into something coherent, but they make for a lively and entertaining read.  The bottom line of the book – what we should do about the issues she poses—is disappointingly modest. 

Click Here to Read the Full UAA Book Review


Climate Casino by William Nordhaus 

On November 20, 2019, Lee Roussel led a discussion with fifteen members of the UAA Book Club, of William Nordhaus’s, Climate Casino, 2013. Lee selected this book because it is a comprehensive approach by an economist to the complex issues confronted in considering climate change. Written for non-economists, it covers all the elements involved in understanding the human role in climate change, both what we now know and what we do not really know. Nordhaus was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2018. In detailing its reasons for giving the prize to Nordhaus, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences specifically recognized his efforts to develop “an integrated assessment model, i.e. a quantitative model that describes the global interplay between the economy and the climate. His model integrates theories and empirical results from physics, chemistry and economics. Nordhaus’ model is now widely spread and is used to simulate how the economy and the climate co-evolve.”  Nordhaus has been sharply criticized by many who objected to important elements not adequately addressed by his model. The book group found urgency in three pages of findings and six specific recommendations issued by over 11,000 scientists on November 6, 2019. These findings especially focused on population policies and the difficult to quantify but important trends impacting agriculture, fishing, and biodiversity.

Click Here to Read the Full UAA Book Review


How Change Happens by Cass R. Sunstein

On October 23rd, twelve members of the UAA Book Club met to discuss How Change Happens by Cass R. Sunstein. Jim Fox led a discussion of a complex and difficult book, dealing with a wide range of ideas and thoughts about how we think and why we think the way we do. It discusses flaws in rational planning such as availability bias, loss aversion, framing bias, overoptimism, deontology and partyism. It is a multifaceted investigation into how people collectively develop views on important social and legal matters.

Click Here to Read the Full UAA Book Review


Mario Vargas Llosa’s,  La Ilamada de la Tribu (Call of the Tribe)

At the September 18th meeting of the UAA Book Club, Jim Elliott and Clarence Zuvekas led a discussion of Mario Vargas Llosa’s book, La Ilamada de la Tribu (Call of the Tribe), Alfaguara, 2018. Jim and Clarence prepared a written review and discussion questions in English (the book is published in Spanish.) The discussion focused on the different meanings of the “call of the tribe” and the “spirit of the tribe.”  The siren-song call of the tribe is identifiable with nationalism run amok—as under Kaiser Wilhelm or, even worse, a Hitler. The spirit of the tribe animates political “discussion” on the internet which leads to “no-compromise, double-down” factionalism.  It can open fissures within a country that sets people with near identical languages (e.g., Serbs and Croats) against one another. Copies of the papers on this very interesting scholarly book will soon be posted on the Book Club Reviews section of the UAA website.

Click Here to Read the Full UAA Book Review


Notes on “Nationalism – What Went Wrong?” by Peter Amato

The title chosen for this discussion, Nationalism – What Went Wrong? reveals this presenter’s bias; namely there is something inherently wrong with nationalism as it is broadly interpreted today.  This approach is vigorously challenged by one of our authors.  Others take a more nuanced position defining “nationalism” as… “identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests,”(in extreme cases) “…to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.”  Under this definition, nationalism confers certain benefits to some and costs to others, and how nationalism is viewed¾whether it is on the whole good or bad¾will depend on the political, economic and/or social leanings of the viewer.

Click Here to Read the Full UAA Book Review  


Can American Capitalism Survive?
Why Greed Is Not Good, Opportunity Is Not Equal,
and Fairness Won’t Make Us Poor (2018) – Steven Pearlstein

The central issue in this treatise is ‘how much income and wealth inequality and injustice can capitalism contain in the USA’?  ‘Are present trends somehow inevitable, inherent in fundamental dynamics of our economic and cultural evolution?’ His answers are “Probably not much more inequality will be tolerated;” and “No, the trend was not inevitable and can be reversed.”

Click Here to Read the Full UAA Book Review


The Future of Capitalism – By Paul Collier

Many of us have been reading Paul Collier for years for his insightful assessment of poor countries, none more than his The Bottom Billion, a provocative study of those countries least able to escape extreme poverty.  Despite his career working in and on poor countries, The Future of Capitalism, has little to do with that.  Rather, it is about the future of the US and the UK in dealing with their own challenges.  In it, he draws on the insights of the great political economists, and shows the breakdown of community in these two countries, the hollowing out of regional areas, the agglomeration of wealth in the metropoles, the sins of the financial community, the sins of the legal industry, the decline of good childrearing practices, and the inappropriateness of much education spending.  (I’ve probably left out one or more of his targets.)  But it is not a diatribe.  Rather, it is a carefully crafted analysis of where we have gone wrong, and somewhat, how to fix it.

Collier is not writing about capitalism in the world.  His references to poor countries are limited to discussion of the moral responsibility of “rescue” in cases of extreme deprivation, and for limiting the extent of immigration into rich countries, in order to maintain confidence in a shared national identity.

Click Here To Read the Full UAA Book Review.


What Would the Great Economists Do? – By Linda Yueh

The author discusses twelve classic economists whose theories she believes changed their world and which still have some relevance for our current economic problems, focused on the rate and quality of economic growth and development. She includes a lot of interesting details about the life and times of each economist discussed and a discussion about recent economic episodes relevant to their theoretical contributions.

Click Here To Read the Full UAA Book Review. 


Why the West Rules — for Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future – By Ian Morris

Morris defines social development as “societies’ abilities to get things done – to shape their physical, economic, social and intellectual environments to their own ends.”  Asking why the West rules, Morris argues, involves finding answers to two questions: (1) Why the West is more developed, i.e. more able to get things done that any other region of the world.  And (2) Why Western development rose so high in the last two hundred years that for the first time in history a few countries could dominate the entire planet?

Most Western observers in the 19th and 20th century, according to Morris, took it for granted that social development is a good.  This is a position that many of us in the development community have also taken for granted. But today, as Morris also points out, “many people feel that environmental degradation, wars, inequality, and disillusionment that social development brings in its train far outweighs any benefits it generates.”

Click Here to Read the Full UAA Book Club Review  


Mellor, John W., Agricultural Development and Economic Transformation:  Promoting Growth with Poverty Reduction

An underlying premise of John Mellor’s new book is that poverty and lack of food security is due to lack of income, and not lack of food supply.  He again notes that traditional agriculture cannot achieve high growth rates without technological modernization. But in traditional agriculture, his new book distinguishes between small commercial farmers and rural non-farm households, with poverty concentrated in the latter.  Research has identified the main engine of economic growth and poverty reduction, where it has successfully occurred, as the dynamic process between increasing the productivity and income of small commercial farmers and their propensity to spend half their incremental income on locally available goods and services produced by rural non-farm households.  But for small commercial farmers to achieve sufficient technological modernization, substantial support from the government is required—for rural infrastructure like roads, education, electrification, agricultural research and extension.  The quantity and quality of foreign aid, and local government expenditures, in this area have declined since the 1980s, as has the rate of poverty reduction. 

Click Here to Read the Full UAA Book Club Review 

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