By Glen Arnold
Summary via publisher (Harriman House)
In this second volume of The Deals of Warren Buffett, the story continues as we trace Warren Buffett’s journey to his first $1bn. When we left Buffett at the end of Volume 1, he had reached a fortune of $100m. In this enthralling next instalment, we follow Buffett’s investment deals over two more decades as he became a billionaire. This is the most exhilarating period of Buffett’s career, where he found gem after gem in both the stock market and among tightly-run family firms with excellent economic franchises. In this period, Berkshire Hathaway shares jumped 29-fold from $89 to $2,600.
An Agenda for Moving Beyond GDP
Edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz, et al.
Summary via publisher (New Press)
A consensus has emerged among key experts that our conventional economic measures are out of sync with how most people experience their lives. GDP, they argue, is a poor and outmoded measure of our well-being. The global movement to advance beyond GDP has attracted some of the world’s leading economists, statisticians, and social thinkers who have worked collectively to articulate new approaches to measuring economic well-being and social progress. In the decade since the 2008 economic crisis, these experts have come together to create a new “dashboard” of indicators of what actually makes for better lives.
Edited by Michael Holmes and Knut Roder
Summary via publisher (Manchester University Press)
The global financial crisis of 2007-8 did not offer the political and economic opportunities to the left that many thought it would. As financial institutions collapsed, traditional left-wing issues were apparently back on the agenda. However, instead of being a trigger for a resurgence of the left, in many European countries left-wing parties have suffered savage electoral defeat. At the same time, the crisis has led to austerity programmes being implemented across Europe. This book brings together essays that consider ten EU member states, including all bail-out recipients and some of the main ‘donor’ states, in an examination of this crucial period for the left in Europe from a number of perspectives.
● Why Are We Yelling?: The Art of Productive Disagreement
By Buster Benson
Summary via publisher (Portfolio/Penguin RandomHouse)
If the threat of raised voices, emotional outbursts, and public discord makes you want to hide under the conference room table, you’re not alone. Conflict, or the fear of it, can be exhausting. But as this powerful book argues, conflict doesn’t have to be unpleasant. In fact, properly channeled, conflict can be the most valuable tool we have at our disposal for deepening relationships, solving problems, and coming up with new ideas. As the mastermind behind some of the highest-performing teams at Amazon, Twitter, and Slack, Buster Benson spent decades facilitating hard conversations in stressful environments. In this book, Buster reveals the psychological underpinnings of awkward, unproductive conflict and the critical habits anyone can learn to avoid it.
● The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts
By Shane Parrish and Rhiannon Beaubien
Summary via publisher (Farnum Street)
The Great Mental Models is a project by FS to help equalize opportunity in the world by making a high-quality multidisciplinary, interconnected, education free and available to everyone. That’s a big ambition. To get there, we’re starting with 5 reference books that cover the core, timeless, individual mental models you should have learned in school with a broad education. After we have the individual models, we’ll connect them together in a dedicated website and add more examples. Then we’ll create a set of META MODELS we can use to hone our thinking and understanding.
Please note that the links to books above are affiliate links with Amazon.com and James Picerno (a.k.a. The Capital Spectator) earns money if you buy one of the titles listed. Also note that you will not pay extra for a book even though it generates revenue for The Capital Spectator. By purchasing books through this site, you provide support for The Capital Spectator’s free content. Thank you!