http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1587991470/ref=pd_sim_books_2/104-5409674-8750315?v=glance&s=books
Sex, Drugs & Economics
by Diane Coyle
Reviewed in Jan 4 New Scientist.p48. also Naked Economics: Undressing the
Dismal Science
by Charles J. Wheelan
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393049825/ref=pd_sim_books_2/104-5409674-8750315?v=glance&s=books
Amazon.com
John McMillan's Reinventing the Bazaar is an extremely accessible
description of markets large and small, as well as an explanation of their
underlying mechanisms. An "absolutely free market," he says, is a
"free-for-all brawl," while a "real market" is an "ordered brawl."
Sprinkling his analysis with hundreds of anecdotes and examples--prison
camps, eBay, the American experiment with alcohol prohibition, the Tokyo
fish market, and traditional Ghanaian bazaars--and pertinent quotes from
the likes of Chekhov, Twain, and Steinbeck, McMillan animates his subject.
Why do banks build showcase headquarters? Which "frictions" brake, and
which spur, various markets? Is the "invisible hand" attached to a clothed
arm? Why are both pro- and antimarket absolutists, in McMillan's view, the
economics equivalent of "flat-earthers"? Is there such an animal as a
"perfect" market? Reinventing the Bazaar answers these questions, and many
more, in an eminently wise, entertaining, and instructive way. --H. O'Billovich
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393050211/ref=pd_sim_books_3/104-5409674-8750315?v=glance&s=books
"...Inevitably market design theory clashes with classical free market
theory (and accepted free market ideology). As McMillan illustrates well,
normative rules are necessary to a healthy well-functioning market system.
It is time to acknowledge that Adam Smith's invisible hand theory is just
plain wrong (as Walter Schultz proves at the theoretical level in The Moral
Conditions of Economic Efficiency). Although theory is not as engaging as
anecdote, it is important to connect the obscure jargon of economic theory
with the real life practice of market design..."
The Hot Zone - network theory...
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by
Steven Johnson (Hardcover) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard
Rheingold (Hardcover) Ubiquity: The Science of History . . . or Why the
World Is Simpler Than We Think by Mark Buchanan (Hardcover) The Moment of
Complexity: Emerging Network Culture by Mark C. Taylor (Hardcover) Small
Worlds by Duncan J. Watts (Preface) (Hardcover)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0738206679/ref=pd_sim_books_5/104-5409674-8750315?v=glance&s=books
