Page 17 - Forbes India (December 2015)

6,000

The number of titles
LeaderBoard at its first physical store
Amazon Books is selling
that opened in Seattle
this month
BuSineSS liBrAry The 21st Century Case for Gold: A New
Information Theory of Money
Turning the By George Gilder
American Principles Project, free
Page on 2015 The famed technologist turns his formidable
mind to money and compellingly explains
how the perverted policies of central banks
health care fixes, central-bank smackdowns today are wreaking havoc. What gives this
absorbing treatise special force is Gilder’s
and the economics of LeBron James: Editor-in- tying the subject of money to one of the
Chief Steve Forbes selects (in no particular order) critical building blocks of high tech, Claude
his eight favourite books of the year—several penned Shannon’s information theory. in this vein,
Gilder’s analysis of the bitcoin phenomenon is especially helpful.
by current or former Forbes contributors.
Wealth, Poverty and Politics: An International Perspective
Team Genius: The New Science of By Thomas Sowell
High-Performing Organizations Basic Books, $30
By Rich Karlgaard and Michael S Malone it’s a scandal that economist Thomas Sowell
Harper Business, $28 has not been awarded the nobel prize. no one
Any large company’s nightmare is being alive has turned out so many insightful, richly
ambushed by smaller, nimbler competi- researched books. His latest is another triumph
tors. How does a big organisation stay of crackling observations that underscore the
innovative and not get bogged down in ignorance of our economists and policymakers.
bureaucracy? Critical to sustained suc- His take on how culture, geography, politics and
cess, this book persuasively argues, is the social factors affect how societies progress—or
creation and use of teams, optimally of don’t—will rile those addicted to political cor-
five to nine individuals. The authors dig rectness but leave everyone else wiser.
through mountains of research to give
needed insights on putting the right team together and ensuring Reviving America: How Repealing
that it successfully completes its task. Obamacare, Replacing the Tax Code and
Reforming the Fed Will Restore Hope and
The Devil We Know: Dealing With the New Iranian Superpower Prosperity
By Robert Baer By Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames
Broadway Books, $15 McGraw-Hill Education, $26
published in 2008, this strange but im- i’ll take a cue from the Donald and trumpet
portant book is particularly relevant now. my latest, which will be released December
Baer, an ex-CiA agent, posits that iran is a 8. Candidates and policy-makers could
rising regional and global power and that do worse than to imbibe the principles
the best course for the uS is to appease espoused here!
the mullahs. Saudi Arabia, iraq and the
Gulf states are destined to become iranian
satrapies, while egypt will be an impotent The Power of Relentless: 7 Secrets
bystander. What makes this tome eerily to Achieving Mega-Success, Financial
notable is that it totally explains president Freedom and the Life of Your Dreams
obama’s actions in that part of the world, By Wayne Allyn Root
particularly this year’s capitulation to Regnery Publishing, $28
iran’s nuclear ambitions. Did obama read
this book? He could have written it. Consuming this engaging book by outsize
personality root is the perfect way to pre-
pare for making your new year’s resolutions.
Popular Economics: What the Rolling it’s telling that both Donald Trump and Ben
Stones, Downton Abbey and LeBron Carson have endorsed root’s opus.
James Can Teach You About Economics
By John Tamny Catastrophic Care: Why Everything
Regnery Publishing, $28 We Think We Know About Health Care
if you have kids or grandchildren attend- Is Wrong
ing college, give them this book over By David Goldhill
the holidays with the admonition: “Don’t Knopf, $17
waste your time taking economics cours-
es; read this instead. you’ll learn all you published two years ago, this offers a
really need to know and avoid cluttering thorough analysis of what ails American
your mind with wrongheaded concepts.” medicine. read it and you’ll be prepared Top: GeTTy imAGeS
Adam Smith would have applauded this when this issue explodes again after the
masterpiece. 2016 elections.

DECEMBER 11, 2015 FORBES INDIA | 17