The Shifts and the Shocks: What We've Learned--And Have Still to Learn--From the Financial Crisis

Martin Wolf (Get this book)
An editor for the Financial Times weighs in with a scholarly analysis of what caused the financial collapse of 2008 and provides suggestions to prevent a recurrence. Wolf offers a highly organized, detailed and, at times, somewhat dense text-at least for general readers. It's also a text with attitude. Although his view is global, he focuses often on the United States and on the United Kingdom and discusses sharply how (in the U.S.) partisan politics often trumped common sense before, during and after the crisis. He argues throughout that austerity plans were exactly the wrong things to implement and that government stimulus plans were too small to be as effective as they could have been. Closely reasoned, highly organized and logical-and stiffly challenging.--Kirkus

The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth

James K. Galbraith (Get this book)
A renowned economist argues that the days of easy growth and full employment are over. Following the crisis of 2008, economists scrambled to "explain" the financial meltdown, variously blaming the government, banks or income inequality for the most severe setback since the Great Depression. Almost all have offered prescriptions for restoring economic health; almost all presume as normal a growth rate that, but for a blip in the 1970s, has persisted since the end of World War II. Galbraith dissents. We face a far different future, he insists, with the world economy no longer under the financial or military control of the United States and its allies, with energy markets costly and uncertain, new technologies destroying more jobs than they create and the private financial sector no longer supercharging growth. Under these new conditions, preserving post-WWII growth rates is impossible. A cleareyed, if dismaying analysis of the new normal, "a qualitatively different form of capitalism" for the 21st century.--Kirkus

Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win or Lose Off the Battlefield

Toni Zinni (Get this book)
Distinguished U.S. Marine Corps General (ret.) Zinni argues that the key to the U.S. military's success in battle lies in a combination of strategic decisions and actions that occur off the battlefield and often before the battle begins. Zinni illustrates his primer on the basics of formulating national strategy with examples taken from more than 50 years of military and national security experience. His full-bore critique of presidential administrations is organized chronologically from Kennedy to Obama. In the course of his analysis, Zinni names names and makes some bold and controversial assertions. He offers several solutions to the issues he raises, including the creation of a professional, civilian-led national security corps, and a complete legislative reorganization of the military's administrative departments to force "whole of government" strategic approaches to solving problems of national security. Zinni insightfully criticizes the decision-making process behind our national strategy and makes recommendations worthy of consideration.--Publisher's Weekly