David Frum's Top Book Recommendations

Jonathan GruberCharles Murray took the economic concept of moral hazard – the concept that if you reward people for bad behaviour then they behave badly – and turned it into prose. Reading the book moved me a notch to the right. It posed a challenge to liberals – to get more rigorous in our analysis. It showed the simple facts didn’t look so good for us and that we needed to address questions like, “Is welfare... (Source)

Augustine 25@pantspartyjon @sallykohn Yeah. Check out how well black families did prior to LBJ's great society programs. Read Charles Murray's book, Losing Ground for the details. (Source)

David FrumBy 1984, conservatives had won a lot of important arguments about public policy. But there are real problems in the mid 80s for Americans that conservatives don’t have the answers to and one of them is the urban crisis that started in the 50s and 60s and was only getting worse. Welfare dependency was getting worse; there was a new problem of homelessness that was very shocking to people living in... (Source)

David FrumGreat book by @DavidSatter on the politics of Russian memory, with perfect title: "It was a long time ago, and it never happened anyway." https://t.co/rDYR27nWHx (Source)

Edward LucasI think David Satter has really captured the role of the past in the present in Russia. He’s a very experienced correspondent from the Soviet era who has maintained his interest in post-Soviet Russia. He’s a really energetic, gumption reporter – he just goes to places that foreign correspondents don’t often go to in the provinces and follows up stories he first reported in the 1970s. Also, he’s... (Source)

David FrumSuch a great book, all who care about modern India should read it https://t.co/zOGZyJILVN (Source)

Sanjay JhaWhile on a serene sabbatical read ⁦@kapskom⁩’a brilliant book on contemporary Indian politics; it spares no political party, while confesses that India could be perilously close to becoming a authoritarian state. The book is cathartic, given craven media cheerleading. https://t.co/I2a93no4lT (Source)

David FrumSimon’s point is that there is nothing less natural than a natural resource. All of these things are developed by an investment of knowledge, effort and labour. People do that according to whether it pays. The natural way to think about natural resources is that there is so much copper in the ground and then, after you’ve dug it all up, you don’t have any more. And what he argued is no, the... (Source)

Mark Pellegrino@gnvrbyd @rickrepetti @rickballan @PrimateBri @platypusrex256 @LevelToPower @TeresaRJ3 @AynRand_is_Dead @wellsm8 @twisted_words @KeepItRealLuke @Musicfreak78 @lucidunity2 @angel_scoggins @TheMartyrSpeaks @MDSebach @_ad_libertatum_ @Anarchofree @_AuberonHerbert @comicalwagner @Harun07321327 @Anarchist_Rants @DuneSlaya @Mr_Abysmalyxia @SageThinker99 @HoundJuliet @LuciSoc @JohnFis87569576 @mwhi4321... (Source)

David FrumThere was an accepted understanding of why it was that the economy went into this searing experience for a generation of Americans and what it was that got the US out again. (Source)

Robert BarroIt’s clear that a lot of the policies that were put into place were negative, but as to sorting out how important they were, that’s much more challenging. (Source)

Christina RomerIf you buy only one economics book, it should be this. The book is important for our understanding of the Great Depression, but its impact goes far beyond that. Friedman and Schwartz show us that monetary events and monetary policy have affected real output throughout American history. (Source)

David FrumIn 1974 if you asked Americans what their number one concern was, it wasn’t energy, though that was a time of gas lines. It was not unemployment, though there was a terrible recession. It was not inflation, though inflation was accelerating. It wasn’t the war in Vietnam; it wasn’t Watergate. The number one concern was crime. (Source)

David FrumThe Other Path is not a book on the Peruvian economy: it’s a book on Third World economies. I should mention that I haven’t met Simon and I haven’t met Friedman but I know most of the people on this list personally and Hernando de Soto is probably the one I know best and admire hugely. In this book, he does an experiment. His team’s mission was to start a small textile factory with a dozen... (Source)