Finished reading The Great Unraveling by Paul Krugman

I have been reading Brad De Long’s writings for some time and he is a fan of Paul Krugman’s writings. While reading my daily dose of blogs I noticed Brij has mentioned Paul Krugman’s “The Great Unraveling” as a book to read. On my next trip to Santa Clara City Library I picked this book and am I glad to read this book.

The book is about corporate scandals and how for short term political benefits political parties can ransom the future. Authors approach of telling economic facts and theories is marvelous. Back in engineering school my good friend Arun Sharma used to say if you know a concept very well then you would be able to describe it by making common analogies. That’s what the professor does. I liked how in A Retirement Fable author writes

“There once was a land where people lived only two years. In the first year they worked; in the second year they lived off their personal savings.

There came a time when the government decided to help out the elderly. So it instituted a system called Social Security”

to talk about the impending social security crisis. Or how bulls and bears are described in The Ice Age Cometh. I smiled reading Two Thousand Acres when author concludes that

According to my calculations, my work space occupies only a few square inches of office floor. You may find this implausible, but I’m using a well-accepted methodology. Well accepted, that is, among supporters of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

It was fascinating to read the real cause of California Electricity Crisis or Asian Currency trouble was just plain greed. Overall a great read. Check it at out at Amazon.