Bitcoin Books

link to our bitcoin books in the catalog.

Highest Paid YouTube Celebrities

Article from Forbes here.

Interesting list of self-made celebrities in telling jokes, playing the violin, doing your own comedy, reviewing video games, etc. and how you can make real money doing that.

Vemma Temporary Halted Due to Pyramid Scheme Allegation

I wrote earlier about the Vemma energy drink business model controversy. A court has agreed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and temporary halted Vemma operations due to concerns about the company being a pyramid scheme.

Read more about this issue here.

Protecting Traditional Knowledge From Copyright

Corporations occasionally try to copyright traditional knowledge, culture, and/or technology.

India has taken the step of creating the traditional digital library which documents traditional knowledge.  This makes it more difficult for corporations to take traditional knowledge and claim that purely for themselves. 

Case in point: the recent case where Colgate Palmolive attempted to copyright a product that used traditional Indian spices - and apparently nothing else. Read about the case here, in which Colgate did not prevail.

History of Land Registration in the UK

It is very important to have a reliable, objective system of land titles - something we do not currently have in this country. I've written before about the importance of property rights to capitalism and the problems with unreliable electronic record-keeping in this country.

A lot of American law comes from English origins, so here's this good article about the history of land registration in the United Kingdom.

There's a reason we have county clerks and land registries and so on, and it wasn't always so!

What is Fair Trade and Does it Work?

Here's an introduction to the concept of "fair trade" - the icon you've seen (most likely) on coffee bags. It usually refers to handicrafts and agricultural products from the developing world.

What is it? Among other things, a way for individual producers to remain individually employed and earn higher wages (good or bad? effective or not? read up and make up your own mind).

Quick and dirty link to our holdings on "fair trade" books.

The relevant subject heading is Consumption (Economics)

Financial "Pro" Loses House

Here's a New York Times article making the rounds.

A financial "pro" - who answered an ad for "securities" thinking it was for a security guard (yes, really) - gets caught up in the consumer lifestyle in Las Vegas and has to walk away from his house.

Great cultural history of American nonchalance. Much like the New York Times guy who lost HIS house.

But here's how this won't happen to YOU - read these books about investing.

Book Review: Money and Man

Elgin Groseclose's Money and Man is a great summary of humanity's experience with money over the centuries.

It's a good read for monetary newbies to understand how the physics of money affects the real world.

This book starts with Greek and Roman use of silver and copper as money - which are dependent on natural supply rather than issuance. This static supply affects credit and economic growth in a society.

In Europe, the use of paper money only really came about after the Middle Ages and it's interesting to see the move away from barter and precious metals to a fiat currency (although often backed by precious metals).

Fiat currency can be quite advantageous, provided its issuance is governed by restraint and wisdom. Unfortunately, it rarely turns out that way, and ultimately the history of the world is littered with defunct and now worthless paper bank notes. Groseclose delves into the reasons why different paper currencies failed.

It's worthwhile for an American to familiarize yourself with these concepts, because we're relatively unscathed by monetary devaluation. In other words, we take relatively stable money for granted.

That could change.

Economics of Water

A growing population in some of the world's driest areas is leading many people to study the economics of water. Why is a diamond expensive and water free? It's a famous question posed in economics.

Actually that may not persist much longer.

Here is the main category for the economics of water.

To get an idea of how much renewable water a country has, go to Worldbank/World Development Indicators database.

Type freshwater as a search term.

Or check p.142 of the paper copy of World Development Indicators.

Books on Steve Jobs and Apple

To me, the legacy of Steve Jobs is bringing design, creativity and intellectualism to the corporate world and mass production.

Big business done (mostly) right.

Here are a couple of books on Steve Jobs

Books on Apple Computer.

Outsourcing Statistics

Looking for outsourcing statistics? The official data is located at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and called Extended Mass Layoffs Associated with Domestic and Overseas Relocations

Or rather, it used to be. The above link is from 2004. Its passing as a data collection point was duly noted by many.

More recent data is mentioned in passing in this report.

Search the document for the phrase: 60,950 workers lost their jobs

Some newer information is given here, but much less prominence is given to outsourcing in these new figures and often it is not mentioned at all.

Here you have arrived at the end of the sidewalk so to speak. I suggest you search wonky news articles from ABI Inform to read other people's takes and context for these numbers.

Income Distribution in America

Here's a Census Report about the last fifty years of income distribution in America. It's called "The Changing Shape of the Nation's Income Distribution, 1947-1998." Good historical overview.

The Statistical Abstract of the United States has some information about the distribution of income by family.

Or you check it out by individual if you like.

Here are some of our books about the topic.

The Black Market

The black market shows up as the informal sector - economics in our online book catalog. Good articles on this subject can be found in our Business Source Complete or other business databases.

If you are doing a search on this topic, don't forget to search informal economy (or some derivation) as a keyword.

The "informal economy" is a fact of life for most of humanity. There are different reasons you might have a black market. The "informal" economy more accurately reflects demand (either with more expensive or cheaper goods), circumvents currency regulations, inflexible working regulations, or a number of other reasons depending on the context.

I'm just preparing Americans for a possible world that they know little of: currency controls, currency devaluation, how to negotiate the black market, etc...

Underwater Mortgages in Austin and Texas

Good question today: How many home mortgages in the Austin area are underwater (i.e. people owe more than the house is worth)?

The standard figures, from an organization called American CoreLogic, has come up with a report that is cited by several newspapers and business newspapers.

It includes the top 50 metropolitan areas by underwater status.

I would have put the report up in PDF form, but you must register for free beforehand, and I don't want to step on anybody's toes over at American CoreLogic.

Keynes Vs. Hayek in Economic Rap-Off

John Maynard Keynes Books Are Here

FA Hayek Books Are Here

Bloomberg Has the Best Economic Calendar

Keep up with which economic reports are being released when.

Bloomberg has my favorite economic calendar. Manufacturing surveys, employment reports, inflation numbers, consumer sentiment and more are all here.

Or you could use the NASDAQ version. It's just as good really.

400 Richest Americans

An after-dinner mint of information: Forbes's 400 Richest Americans.

There is a cool way to search by industry and state.

Book Review: Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk

These books are the kind of thing that can put you over the top in business, school and life.

So let's do another one.

Peter Bernstein's Against the Gods, The Remarkable Story of Risk.

Here's what Publishers Weekly said about this title:

Risk management, which assumes that future risks can be understood, measured and to some extent predicted, is the focus of this solid, thoroughgoing history. Probability theory, pioneered by 17th-century French mathematicians Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat, has made possible the design of great bridges, electric power utilities and insurance policies.

The statistical sampling methods invented by dour Swiss scientist Jacob Bernoulli undergird diverse activities such as the testing of new drugs, stock-picking and wine tasting. Bernstein (Capital Ideas) animates his narrative with a colorful cast of risk-analyzers, including gambling addict Girolamo Cardano, 16th-century Italian physician to the Pope; and John Maynard Keynes, whose concerns over economic uncertainty compelled him to recommend an active, interventionist role for government.

Bernstein also traces the development of business forecasting, game theory, insurance and derivatives, and surveys recent advances in risk forecasting made possible through chaos theory and by the development of neural networks.

New Beige Book is Out

The Fed Reserve has released its current edition of the Beige Book. Editions come out eight times a year. The actual title is Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions.

This is the book that summarizes current economic conditions in different areas of the country. It's a little general in content, but it's often referred to by economic commentators.

The Baby-Sitting Co-Op Economics Article

Heard about the baby sitting article yet?

Like the book reviews, I will sometimes include thought pieces here that give you context, meaning, and fodder for your imagination.

So today's food-for-thought piece is a famous academic journal article about a group of young families in need of a babysitter. They made coupons that could be redeemed for one night of baby sitting, and....then something unexpected happened.

Nobody wanted to go out (because they wanted to save up the scarce coupons) and therefore people weren't earning coupons for spending. Without coupons, they couldn't go out. What's the solution? In other words, this problem is about demand, money supply, and deflation. Sound familiar?

And this is what people are talking about when they mention "the baby-sitting article."