The End of the Free Market: For People Too Busy to Read the Book

Ian Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group—disclosure: I work part-time for Eurasia Group—gives a talk on his new book The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and the Corporations? on the New America Foundation website. Despite the dismal title, he gives the long-run edge to free market capitalism over state capitalism, basically the state using economic tools—state enterprises and flagship companies, sovereign funds, regulatory powers—to achieve political goals and not the other way around. However, he explains that it won’t be easy to get there.

Actually, watch the video, then go buy the book. (No, I can’t lend it to you; I only have the electronic galley proof. Besides, Ian needs the money; look at his clothes if you don’t believe me.) There’s obviously a lot more to the story than seventy-one minutes of talk, some of it from Steve Clemons, the interviewer. Ian always makes the extra effort to make his books an easy read*, and this one is no exception.

* This is a very desirable if often overlooked trait. One of the reasons that I respect Bernard Lewis so much is the overwhelming clarity and eloquence that he brings to his writing. At the other end of the spectrum is Francis Fukuyama, for whose books the word “turgid” was invented.

Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational

I finished Dan Ariely’s book on behavioral economics Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions in three days, it’s that easy to read. The subject and style remind me of Freakonomics. I like this one better though, partly because all the chapters revolve around experiments that Ariely took part in himself, but mostly for his engaging and reflective personal touch.

The book leaves me with the impression that behavioral economics is more psychology and sociology than economics, more engineering than science. In any case, Ariely’s insights are certainly eye-opening for this novice, and each useful. But the most memorable moment for me was when Ariely moved away from his experiments and drew on his experience and hopes as an empathic, apparently apolitical Israeli Jew*:

So what about our football fans and the game-winning pass? Although both friends were watching the same game, they were doing so through markedly different lenses. One saw the pass as in bounds. The other saw it as out. In sports, such arguments are not particularly damaging—in fact, they can be fun. The problem is that these same biased processes can influence how we experience other aspects of our world. These biased processes are in fact a major source of escalation in almost every conflict, whether Israeli-Palestinian, American-Iraqi, Serbian-Croatian, or Indian-Pakistani.
In all these conflicts, individuals, from both sides can read similar history books and even have the same facts taught to them, yet it is very unusual to find individuals who would agree about who started the conflict, who is to blame, who should make the next concession, etc…We like to think that sitting at the same table together will help us hammer out our differences and that concessions will soon follow. But history has shown us that this is an unlikely outcome…

Ariely’s prescription is to find a neutral third party “who has not been tainted with our expectations”—useful advice when such a third party is available. In the meantime, setting aside the past and focusing on the present and future may be useful. Just look at East Asia now, giving the lie to the claims of so many experts who placed their bets on the history issues during the Koizumi administration.

* Incidentally, I wonder how often we see the word Israeli being used without an implicit assumption that it actually means Jewish Israeli? For that matter, how often do we see something similar in other ethnic, religious, and cultural contexts? And how does that affect public discourse? It’s probably worth looking into.

Transformation at AP; Also, Jodi Kantor on Barack Obama

I’ve taken note of the BBC’s tendency to jazz up its headlines to attract hits on its website. AP is doing much, much more than that according to the Washington Post, which ran a report entitled The AP Is Breaking More Than News. Jay Newton-Small, the reporter, chronicles the shift to what the AP’s Washington bureau chief calls “accountability journalism”.

Speaking of WaPo, Jodi Kantor’s report on Barack Obama is the most persuasive one I’ve seen on the man. I’ve finally gotten around to reading his Dreams from My Father and, though the stories he tells about himself there are nothing short of enchanting, I’ve been somewhat disconcerted by their neatly scripted, tightly edited feel. Ms. Kantor’s report sheds light on this sensation in a way that nothing else I’ve see does. It made me go back and look at her other articles; I think there’s a Pulitzer or two waiting for her—not now, but somewhere down the line.

And as another piece of proof that I’m behind the curve, I’m also finally reading The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. A Black Swan, according to Mr. Taleb, is an event with the following three attributes:

First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of normal expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.

No need to explain why I’m getting into it now. Funny thing is, the real black swan carries only the first attribute.

Incidentally, I bought the two books (and a few others) at the Shinjuku Junkudo bookstore, which is currently selling all its foreign language books at half-price. For those of you in the Tokyo area who weren’t aware of it, the 50%-off sale continues till the end of this month.

Read This Book: Dream Angus

Alexander McCall Smith weaves stories of love and dreams around a Celtic myth, and a name. McCall Smith shifts effortlessly between the past, where gods and men live amongst and with one another, and the present, where love and dreams still work their magic, even when you think they don’t. The two threads come together at the end, with no shopworn tricks like magic realism.

Read. It is very, very short, and is thus doubly recommended.

My Ghanaian Colleague Asked Me Tonight, What Is the One Book about Japan that I Should Read? Here’s My Answer, BWI

Hands down, it’s Fūshi Kaden. You are lucky, because a translation came out last year. Available here.

And if that doesn’t inspire you, find the 31-syllable poetry of Ōtomo no Yakamochi.

Finally, the short story written by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa about Satan in Japan. If you don’t get it, well, that’s the point of the story.