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.