Books

By Robert J Shiller Princeton University Press $Aus 37.95 $NZ 46.91 The reputation of the financial industry could hardly be worse than it is today in the painful aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. New York Times best-selling economist Robert Shiller is no apologist for the sins of finance–he is probably the only person to have predicted both the stock market bubble of 2000 and the real estate bubble that led up to the subprime mortgage meltdown. But in this important and timely book, Shiller argues that, rather than condemning finance, we need to reclaim it for the common good. He makes a powerful case for recognising that finance, far from being a parasite on society, is one of the most powerful tools we have for solving our common problems and increasing the general well-being. We need more financial innovation–not less–and finance should play a larger role in helping society achieve its goals. Challenging the public and its leaders to rethink finance and its role in society, Shiller argues that finance should be defined not merely as the manipulation of money or the management of risk but as the stewardship of society’s assets. He explains how people in financial careers–from CEO, investment manager, and banker to insurer, lawyer, and regulator–can and do manage, protect, and increase these assets. He describes how finance has historically contributed to the good of society through inventions such as insurance, mortgages, savings accounts, and pensions, and argues that we need to envision new ways to rechannel financial creativity to benefit society as a whole. Ultimately, Shiller shows how society can once again harness the power of finance for the greater good.  

  Alastair Campbell Random House $62.99 The Burden of Power is the fourth volume of Alastair Campbell’s diaries, and perhaps the most eagerly awaited given the ground it covers. It begins on September 12, 2001 as world leaders assess their response to Al Qaida terrorist attacks in New York and Washington the day before, a day which wrote itself immediately into the history books: 9/11, and it ends on the day Campbell leaves Downing Street. In between there are two wars, first Afghanistan, still going on today, and then, even more controversially, Iraq. It was the most difficult decision of Blair’s premiership, and perhaps the most unpopular. Campbell describes in detail the discussions with President Bush and other world leaders as the steps to war are taken, and delivers an intimate account of Blair as war leader. He records the enormous political difficulties at home, and the sense of crisis that engulfed the government over the suicide of weapons inspector David Kelly. And in the meantime Blair continues to struggle with two issues that have run through all of the Campbell diaries in government – fighting for peace in Northern Ireland, and trying to make peace with Gordon Brown. And Campbell continues to struggle with trying to balance one of the most pressurised posts in politics with the needs of a family and a partner who wants him to leave it. The Burden of Power is as raw and intimate a portrayal of the pressures and responsibilities of political life as you are ever likely to read.  

  By Tim Flannery Text Publishing Twenty-five years ago, a young curator of mammals from the Australian Museum in Sydney set out to research the fauna of the Pacific Islands. Starting with a survey of one of the most inaccessible islands in Melanesia – Woodlark, in the Trobriands Group that the young scientist found himself ghost-whispering, snake wrestling, Quadoi hunting and plunged waist-deep into a sludge of maggot-infested faeces in search of a small bat that turned out not to be earth-shatteringly interesting.With accounts of discovering, naming and sometimes eating new mammal species; being thwarted or aided by local customs; and historic scientific expeditions, Tim Flannery takes us on an enthralling journey through some of the most diverse and spectacular environments on earth. Among the Islandsis the third book in a loose trilogy of Flannery’s adventures, following on fromThrowim Way Leg and Country.  

  By Michael Lewis Penguin Books $RRP $47 Having made the U.S. financial crisis comprehensible for us all in The Big Short, Michael Lewis realised that he hadn’t begun to get grips with the full story. ÊHow exactly had it come to hit the rest of the world in the face too? Just how broke are we really? Boomerang is a tragi-comic romp across Europe, in which Lewis gives full vent to his storytelling genius. The cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge.Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a pi–ata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack. The Irish wanted to stop being Irish. The Germans wanted to be even more German. Michael Lewis’s investigation of bubbles across Europe is brilliantly, sadly hilarious. He also turns a merciless eye on America: on California, the epicentre of world consumption, where we see that a final reckoning awaits the most avaricious of nations too. This is the ultimate book of our times. It’s time to brace ourselves for impact. And, with Michael Lewis, to laugh out loud while we’re doing it. Extract The Secret Lives of Germans By the time I arrived in Hamburg, in the summer of 2011, the fate of the financial universe seemed to turn on which way the German people jumped. Moody’s was set to downgrade the Portuguese government’s debt to junk bond status, and Standard & Poor’s had hinted darkly that Italy might be next. Ireland was about to be downgraded to junk status, too, and there […]

  By Audrey Niffenegger Random House $38.99 Her Fearful Symmetry is a great book for a dark winter night. It takes place in and around London’s Highgate Cemetery and deals with love, obsession and ghosts (real and metaphoric). The book is quietly suspenseful, slowly drawing readers into the lives of an unusual set of characters before moving into a fast and somewhat frantic climax. Elspeth has been estranged from her twin sister for years, but before dying of cancer, she decides to leave her apartment near Highgate Cemetery to her twin nieces who she has only met once. The condition: the nieces must move from America and live in the apartment before selling it. The twins’ mother (Elspeth’s sister) is not allowed into the apartment. Julia is thrilled to inherit the apartment and have a chance at adventure. Her twin, Valentina, is less enthusiastic, but always lets Julia make the decisions. Once in London, however, Valentina begins to find some independence. She also experiences a strange connection with her aunt, which is further solidified when the twins discover that their aunt’s ghost is living in the apartment. This all may sound a little far-fetched and silly, but if you read The Time Traveler’s Wife, you know that Niffenegger has a gift for taking the far-fetched and making it seem plausible. As she does so, she reveals depth in her characters and looks at the nature of love and control.  

The House Without Windows by Barbara Newhall Follet is about a girl who chooses to live in nature and eventually transcends to a higher being. It was written when Barbara was 9, and rewritten at 12 after the manuscript was destroyed in a house fire. In her twenties, she walked out the door of her home, never to return. Touching and disturbing, but somehow fascinating. Haven’t you been tempted to just walk away? I have been, sometimes drawn by the natural world, sometimes craving a simpler life. What I have discovered this year is that, just walking away from the status quo, life never gets simpler. Better in some aspects, but not less complex. And quantum physics and other new sciences show that even in nature, randomness and chaos are needed to create order which then dissolves again in a complicated, beautiful ying-yang relationship. The secret to sanity is to accept the chaos, to continuously adapt to the change and embrace it. The tempting horizon is now the Random School instead of the antelope trails of the Great Plains. Let’s use music to create order from the chaos and pain being human engenders. About the author Barbara Newhall Follett lived from March 4, 1914 – December 7, 1939 (disappeared)) and was an American child prodigy novelist. Her first novel, The House Without Windows, was published in 1927 when she was thirteen years old. Her next novel, The Voyage of the Norman D., received critical acclaim when she was fourteen. In 1939 she became depressed with her marriage and walked out of her apartment with just thirty dollars when she was twenty-five years old. She was never seen again. The daughter of critic and editor Wilson Follett, Barbara Follett was schooled at home and was writing poetry by age four. The […]

  “Babbage’s book is aimed at teachers and educators, but any parent or student would benefit from reading it. . . . The spend-for-today mentality has to stop. Schools and society have to address the problem, and Dr. Babbage has concrete ideas, exercises and plans that will help. “—Don McNay, founder of the McNay Settlement Group, October 20, 2009, Times-Tribune   What Financial future awaits the current generation of children and teenagers? Our children and teenagers did not cause the financial problems that confront the nation and impacts their families, but they will pay part of the price for these financial problems. What should children and teenagers know about personal finance? How can sound financial principles and money management be taught to these students? Extreme Economics identifies, through current research, what children and teenagers need to know about managing funds. It shows educators how to design instructional activities that enable students to learn about money management in fascinating and meaningful ways. Extreme Economics is not filled with complicated or confusing charts, graphs, and terminology. It is readable and immediately applicable. As education continues to advance, the school curriculum might consist of reading, writing, math, and economics and finance. This book is an important step to ensuring a solid base in this emerging area. About the Author Keen J. Babbage has twenty-five years of experience as a teacher and administrator in middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. He is the author of author of numerous books including 911: The School Administrator’s Guide to Crisis Management (1996), Extreme Teaching (2002), Results-Driven Teaching: Teach So Well That Every Student Learns(2006) and What Only Teachers Know About Education (2008).  

Book Review By Bengtsson, Jesper Aung Sun Suu Kyi was confined to house arrest in 1989 by the junta in Burma and since then she has been cut off from the world outside. Few people have seen or spoken to her during this time, yet despite her isolation and forced reticence, Suu Kyi – leader of Burma’s National League for Democracy and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize – remans an enduring symbol for hope and freedom to her supporters within Burma and abroad, and one of the most powerful symbols of human rights of our era. While her struggle has fascinated the whole world, it has also meant that she has been kept apart from her family. Her husband Michael Aris died in 1999 without their having been able to meet to say farewell to each other. Their sons Alexander and Kim have had to live most of their lives without any contact with their mother. Who is she? And what drives her to make such huge personal sacrifices for her country? In Struggle for Freedom journalist and author Jesper Bengtsson draws a portrait of one of the most talked about political personalities of our times. He demonstrates that Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s magnetism is a matter of charisma and courage, but also that she personifies one of the major questions of our era: what conditions are necessary for the emergence of democracy out of profoundly authoritarian systems? Jesper Bengtsson is a Swedish journalist and author. He has followed developments in Burma for more than ten years. Jesper is the chairman of the Swedish section of Reporters sans frontires [Reporters Without Borders].

Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat. “As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain. “Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . .” Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that’s better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.  “This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air.” “Kingsolver takes the genre to a new literary level; a well-paced narrative and the apparent ease of the beautiful prose makes the pages […]