INVENTING THE FUTURE – REVIEW OF MICHIO KAKU’S “PHYSICS OF THE FUTURE”

Michio Kaku is an acclaimed American theoretical physicist, the co-founder of string field theory (whatever that may be; I mean, I have heard of string theory, but string field theory?). But one thing I can vouch for – Kaku is an engrossing speaker as is evident from his several videos on YouTube.

DELIGHTFUL NEOLOGISMS – REVIEW OF JONATHON KEATS’ “VIRTUAL WORDS”

I have found it to be quite an effort keeping up with the new jargon being thrown up by the scientific and IT fields in recent times. I remember the first time I encountered the word “tweet”. I was nonplussed. Then someone told me it has to do with the social media organization Twitter. It was only when I opened my own Twitter account a year ago did I actually comprehend what a “tweet” was.

PREDICTIONS GALORE – REVIEW OF PETER D SCHIFF’S “CRASH PROOF 2.0”

There are few books I would term “life defining”. For instance, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged made me a capitalist for life while J D Salinger’s Catcher In The Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird helped me grow in other ways. A recent book that helped define my worldview was Crash Proof 2.0: How To Profit From The Economic Collapse (2009) written by Peter D Schiff along with John Downes.

THE ONE RIGHT WAY – REVIEW OF PARAG PARIKH’S “VALUE INVESTING AND BEHAVIORAL FINANCE”

Of value investing, it is said, either you get it the first time you are introduced to it, or you never get it. I got hooked to value investing the first time I read an article on it.

Value investors in India would have heard of Parag Parikh, founder-chairman of Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services Ltd (PPFAS) and a value investor to the core. Parag Parikh has written a book Value Investing and Behavioral Finance: Insights into Indian Stock Market Realities (2009) which demystifies investing especially keeping Indian markets in mind.

INDIAN OCEAN STRATEGY – REVIEW OF ROBERT D KAPLAN’S “MONSOON”

Foreign policy experts have paid a lot of attention to Russia, China and the Arab states in recent times. In his book Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power (2010), Robert D Kaplan, a security expert at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, argues that these people are sniffing up the wrong tree. The next big area that is poised to capture American geopolitical attention is the Indian Ocean.

OF MAGIC AND MYSTICISM – REVIEW OF FERNANDO MORAIS’ “PAULO COELHO”

Fernando Morais, an acclaimed biographer from Brazil, has written the “authorized biography” of his fellow Brazilian entitled Paulo Coelho: A Warrior’s Life (2009). Firstly I don’t see why he calls Coelho a warrior. Coelho, for the most part, seems to be tumbling through life rather than navigating through it.

FRAGILE STATE – REVIEW OF M J AKBAR’S “TINDERBOX”

I remember reading, back in my college days, M J Akbar’s India: The Siege Within (1985) with a sense of discovery and excitement. Akbar came across as a stylish writer and I learnt many things about my country’s history from that book. His recent work is Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan (2011) in which he begins the history of Pakistan right from Mahmud of Ghazni’s plunder of Somanath in 1026 and even earlier.

OF AFRICAN BELIEFS: REVIEW OF V S NAIPAUL’S “THE MASQUE OF AFRICA”

V. S. Naipaul came from a remote corner of the earth, a literary abyss, and captured the attention of the world. He wrote a couple of novels – The Mystic Masseur (1957) and Miguel Street (1959) – focusing on his early years in Trinidad. If he had carried on in that vein, he could have become an exemplary tragic-comic storyteller like R K Narayan. Instead he resolved to make the world his stage and strode on it like a colossus, culminating in his Nobel Prize in 2001.

A DECADE OF HIDING: REVIEW OF SALMAN RUSHDIE’S “JOSEPH ANTON”

It was after a long time that I read a Rushdie book. Salman Rushdie’s Joseph Anton: A Memoir (2012) is a summary of his life – a chapter dwells on his life prior to 14 February 1989 (the day of his fatwa) and the rest of his book is regarding his captive life after the fatwa in which he assumed the name Joseph Anton for reasons of safety.

LOOKING FORWARD: REVIEW OF JAMES RICKARDS’ “THE DEATH OF MONEY”

My last blog post was a review of Eswar S Prasad’s The Dollar Trap: How the US Dollar Tightened Its Grip on Global Finance (2014) (see review here). As I mentioned, Prasad admits the possibility of a dollar crash but is hesitant to work out the triggers. This is carried forward by financial expert James Rickards in The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System (2014). Rickards, an aficionado of complexity theory, intrepidly peers through the curtain and forecasts what looms in front of us.

SHACKLED TO THE DOLLAR – REVIEW OF ESWAR S PRASAD’S “THE DOLLAR TRAP”

I am inclined towards the Austrian School in my economics. What I find particularly attractive is the healthy distrust Austrians have of sophisticated mathematical models in describing the economy. It must be noted that faulty models were at the bottom of the 2008 financial crisis. What I often wonder is, when greed and fear, the basic driving forces of the economy cannot be quantified, what does one get by quantifying the rest of the economy? Economics, in my opinion, is, and is destined to remain, a soft science.

SHODDY MANUFACTURING – REVIEW OF PAUL MIDLER’S “POORLY MADE IN CHINA”

Yet another book on China. While Richard McGregor’s The Party (2012) was a criticism of the Communist rulers of China (see review here), Paul Midler’s Poorly Made in China: An Insider’s Account of the China Production Game (Rev. Ed., 2011) is about the duplicity of Chinese entrepreneurs.

STATE CONTROL IN CHINA – REVIEW OF RICHARD MCGREGOR’S “THE PARTY”

An alternate title I contemplated for this post was: “China refuses to grow up.” By this I mean China cannot quite grapple with the legacy of Mao or come to terms with civil change and a pro-democratic outlook. China is doomed to fabricate lies and dress them up as history, attempting to suppress dissent at all times.

DISRUPTIVE VISIONS – REVIEW OF FRED VOGELSTEIN’S “DOGFIGHT”

I bought my first smartphone last year – a Samsung model. Until then I was using a Nokia featurephone. Little did I realize while buying the smartphone, that it had taken a bloodless revolution to come up with the gadget I was holding in my palm. This is the topic of Fred Vogelstein’s Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution (2013).

SEEKING MOATS – REVIEW OF PAT DORSEY’S “THE LITTLE BOOK THAT BUILDS WEALTH”

The title may seem a bit flippant, but Pat Dorsey’s The Little Book That Builds Wealth (2008) is not your usual get-rich-quick book. It does not offer hare-brained schemes that promise to double your bank balance in a few years. It is instead a serious book that advises on the types of stocks to include in your portfolio for the long term.

THE OIL BEHEMOTH – REVIEW OF STEVE COLL’S “PRIVATE EMPIRE”

Two-time Pulitzer winner Steve Coll has written a goldmine of a book called Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (2012). Indeed this book has bagged the prestigious FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award for 2012.

FROM GONDWANA TO GURGAON – REVIEW OF SANJEEV SANYAL’S “LAND OF THE SEVEN RIVERS”

I remember how amazed I was when I first saw an aerial shot of the Taj Mahal. It offered an entirely different perspective, a more provocative and panoramic one, than the static frontal view. In a similar way, Sanjeev Sanyal’s Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India’s Geography offers a fresh view of India’s contours over the ages.

IN TWO MINDS – REVIEW OF DANIEL KAHNEMAN’S “THINKING, FAST AND SLOW”

Having been influenced by the great Richard Feynman’s talks, I used to look upon psychologists with a certain disdain. Looking back, I think Feynman’s dislike of psychologists stemmed from the fact that they often tend to concentrate on the abnormal mind: hence such oddities like “Oedipus complex” and “Electra complex”.

SMALL TOWN WONDERS – REVIEW OF RASHMI BANSAL’S “TAKE ME HOME”

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish (2008) was about entrepreneurs with an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad. Connect the Dots (2010) was about entrepreneurs without an MBA. I Have A Dream (2011) was about social entrepreneurs. Now Rashmi Bansal is out with a new book Take Me Home (2014) about entrepreneurs who have built global enterprises in the small towns of India.

THE HISTORY OF HEDGE FUNDS – REVIEW OF SEBASTIAN MALLABY’S “MORE MONEY THAN GOD”

Hedge funds have been around since 1949 when they were invented by Alfred Winslow Jones. Not many know about hedge funds since only high net worth individuals can invest in them. Middle-class investors opt for the more familiar mutual funds through systematic investment plan (SIP) mode. What is not generally recognized is that hedge fund managers like Julian Robertson and George Soros have changed the way the world functions!

IRRATIONALLY YOURS – REVIEW OF DAN ARIELY’S “PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL”

Two thousand years ago Aristotle stated, “Man is a rational animal”, to differentiate him from other animals who relied on instincts. In my college days, for a while I was hooked on rationality under the influence of Ayn Rand. I used to think that every action and every opinion should be rationally evaluated and life should be conducted with reason as the measure of virtue.

CURRENCY SUICIDE! – REVIEW OF JAMES RICKARDS’ “CURRENCY WARS”

A currency war is a situation where several countries simultaneously devalue their currency by printing more money, with an ostensible motive of increasing their exports. We are now in the midst of a currency war. And it has not been good for India. The present day high inflation and the drastic depreciation of the rupee in summer of 2013 can be attributed to the ongoing currency war.

BUILT DIFFERENT: REVIEW OF KAREN BLUMENTHAL’S “STEVE JOBS”

Let me first disambiguate. This is not a review of the classic biography by Walter Isaacson. Karen Blumenthal’s Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different (2012) is a less heavier book written more for the man in a hurry who cannot be compelled to peruse Isaacson’s 500-plus-page tome.

THE HUNGRY DRAGON: REVIEW OF DAMBISA MOYO’S “WINNER TAKE ALL”

I picked up Dambisa Moyo’s Winner Take All: China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for Us (2012) for the sole reason that it was endorsed by legendary investor and commodities guru Jim Rogers. And it turned out to be quite an interesting read.

GLOBAL DISSONANCE: REVIEW OF “FAULT LINES” BY RAGHURAM RAJAN

Raghuram G Rajan, the present RBI governor, has had a stellar career thus far and is something of a economic rockstar in Indian circles. After an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT – Delhi, he went on to do an PG-Diploma in Business Administration from the IIM – Ahmedabad (“I always was interested in finance and economics”). Then he moved to the US to complete a PhD in Management from MIT. He joined the Faculty in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he is now Eric Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance. He had a stint as Chief Economist at the IMF between 2003 and 2006. He was also one of the very few who correctly predicted the 2008 financial crisis.

TO REFORM OR NOT TO REFORM? A REVIEW OF “INDIA’S TRYST WITH DESTINY” BY BHAGWATI AND PANAGARIYA

Jadgish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya are well known proponents of free trade and globalization based at Columbia University. In fact, Bhagwati has long been considered a contender for the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on International Trade. Bhagwati and Panagariya have written a hard-hitting book titled India’s Tryst with Destiny: Debunking Myths that Undermine Progress and Addressing New Challenges (2012) which presents a strong case for economic reforms and advocate further reforms for promoting growth in India.

WHY THIS BLOG? – A “SELFIE” IN WORDS

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” – Jorge Luis Borges

Ever since my childhood, I have perceived the world through the books I read. I have never been much of a “people-person” or a “places-person”. My knowledge of the world around me and the world on other corners of the globe has been drawn from my reading.