Best international business & investing books according to redditors
We found 377 Reddit comments discussing the best international business & investing books. We ranked the 156 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
2. Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game
19 mentions
John Wiley Sons
From an economics perspective:
From a social perspective:
From a moral perspective:
There's many more than just these, and there's a lot of underlying philosophy that modern conservationism is based on. I'd also categorize these books as a basis for "intellectual conservatism" as opposed to say "cultural conservatism". Something to note is that little of the conservative mindset is focused on policy and politics, per se. There is instead a strong emphasis on personal action and collective culture, the value of morals, and a focus on introspection. So while these books will perhaps help you understand a conservative perspective better, they will not likely provide a good basis for engaging in political debate. For that maybe you want a book by Ben Shapiro or something.
The lack of a go-getter spirit and international outlook that makes it difficult for us to create internationally-recognized brands that reach outside North America.
European nations smaller than us (Sweden, The Netherlands, etc.) have recognizable global brands, while we're happy having companies like GM Canada, IBM Canada, etc. and a bunch of resource companies that no one's heard of. Our only global brands are Blackberry, Nortel (defunct), Scotiabank, and a few others. Canada punches way below its weight in global entrepreneurship.
This issue was explored in the book, "Why Mexicans don't drink Molson" [1]
[1] https://www.amazon.ca/Why-Mexicans-Don-Drink-Molson/dp/1553652258
If you are interested in Japanese Baseball, I can't recommend "You Gotta Have Wa" by Robert Whiting highly enough! Well written book, which I found to be quite informative. It definitely is what you want here, covering the introduction and early years, as well as the interplay between Japanese and American baseball. Personally, I found that to perhaps be the weakest part though, since while it does talk about early barnstorming exhibitions in the '30s and such, I felt that there was too much focus in the latter half of the book on the experience of American players in the Japanese system. Don't get me wrong, that was quite interesting too, and I think was done at least in part to give the American reader figures who they can identify with as these players recount their attempts to understand Japanese ball. And also, of course, this means that much of the book focuses on the 70s/80s (It was published in 1990, although there added material in the new edition).
That quibble aside though, it is still a great book, and certainly covers what you want, devoting a fair chunk to early development of the Japanese game, which actually dates to the 1870s, being introduced there by American teachers named Horace Wilson and GH Mudgett in a period of "bunmei-kaika" following the Meiji Restoration. The game took off quickly, and by the end of the decade it was an incredibly popular past-time at upper class educational centers around Tokyo. Western sports in general were becoming popular pastimes during this period of moderniation, and baseball in particular held something of a fascination for the Japanese, as Whiting notes:
>The Japanese found the one-on-one battle between pitcher and batter similar in psychology to sumo and the martial arts. It involved split-second timing and a special harmony of mental and physical strength. As such, the Ministry of Education deemed it good for the national character.
The first Pro team would be founded in 1878, the Shimbashi Athletic Club Athletics, although the Japanese founder, Hiroshi Hiraoka, had actually learned the game while studying in Boston. In 1896, the Yokohama Country Athletic Club, fielding a team drawn mostly from the stellar Ichiko University team, defeated a team of American amateurs 29-4, the first proper game against an American team, which garnered national headlines. The following two rematches were also losses, even with the addition of players from a visiting US Naval ship. The Americans finally won 14-12 in the fourth meeting, with an American pro on the roster. Despite that eventual loss, the series of victories nevertheless were another illustration that the Japanese were as good, if not better, than Westerners. Visits by the Uni. of Chicago in 1910 would not go as smoothly, with Waseda University, one of the premier collegiate team in Japan, getting trounced in a series of embarrassing games, including a 20-0 shutout. By that point though, baseball was an ingrained part of Japanese character, even if not everyone was happy with it. Critics of the game especially were displeased that players would skip class for games and practice, as well as exhibit bad manners.
Similar to the concept of scholastic amateurism in the West, in 1915, the Koshien tournament was started to counter this. Originally a middle-school tournament, and later high school, it was created by the Osaka Asahi newspaper as a sales promotion, actually, but nevertheless marketed to highlight the educational virtues of the sport, working in instill "self-control and generous[ity] in victory and defeat" in the young players. The tournament quickly became a huge deal - still is! - and because they rather explicitly marketed it as a counter to commercial baseball as seen in the US, it quite possibly helped to stave off the development of a professional league until the mid-1930s.
So as we hit the 1940s, we see that it really has little to do with American postwar occupation. Baseball was firmly entrenched by that point, although it should be noted that during the war, baseball had mostly been suspended - the last school tournament was 1942 - and the resumption of Koshien in 1946 was readily granted permission by the American occupation forces, as, in the words of MacArthur:
>I can think of no greater source of human character development than intercollegiate athletic competition, and the most distinguished of these contests is the sport which has been loved for so long by both Americans and Japanese alike, baseball. Baseball cultivates individual endurance and discipline for teamwork. Also, baseball inspires a spirit of competition between people and groups, which is a prerequisite for free development politically, economically and socially - In baseball, I can also see valuable, great, moral power, which will help all Japanese solve the grave problems facing you in the reconstruction of your nation.
There was a not insignificant amount of ironic, not to mention nonsensical, racism in the decision, as they believed that "American team sports" would help to reeducate the Japanese, unlike the "individualistic" martial arts they practiced. It obviously ignores the fact the Japanese already had their own baseball traditions independent of the US, not to mention the fact that American propaganda during the war had gone a long way to portray the Japanese as practically a hive-mind devoid of any individuality.... Anyways though, point is the American occupation had little to do with it aside from mild encouragement.
So that is a brief summary. As I said, absolutely check out Whiting's book. Also, if you want a brief introduction, and have access to JSTOR, check out "Bushidō Baseball? Three 'Fathers' and the Invention of a Tradition" by Thomas Blackwood, which I cited for a few things here as well.
I may be downvoted to hell for this, but in my opinion, they really need it.
The ironic fruits of communism, designed to eliminate all "deviant" behaviour, had the law of unintended consequences applied to it: You have a country full of people who lie, cheat, and steal as a normal way of life. They have no moral compass, no sense of right and wrong, and if manifests itself in countless ways:
So, in order to “play nice” with the rest of the civilized world, the Chinese government HAS to start doing something. They can’t teach morals, so they just have to financial penalize them into compliance.
If you have a better solution, I’m all ears. (Really, I’d to discuss this, it’s a very interesting topic). What else could be done? What do you think?
Offshoring is not as simple as it seems.
Preface: I own a successful SEO company, as well as a half dozen other solid online businesses.
For learning SEO, I would recommend starting with the Moz beginners guide. This should be your first step, and will let you build a solid foundation.
After that it depends what kind of SEO you're looking for. I'm a recovering grey-hatter, and have been at this for the better part of a decade. With good experience under your belt trying to bend the rules can be ok sometimes (looking at you blackhatworld), but for a newbie it's just a recipe for disaster. I've seen literally thousands of webmasters get their projects and income completely wiped out by breaking Google's rules without knowledge on how to properly do it and how to mitigate risk. Google is only getting smarter with A.I. thrown in so I would personally never recommend someone new jump into the black/grey-hat stuff. It's an uphill battle that you will probably lose. Best to start with clean white-hat stuff until you're comfortable. And please don't create sites that don't provide real value, it's just not going to last. Affiliate bullshit is on the way out.
Some people who I do actually have some respect for in the SEO industry are Terry Kyle and Brian Dean. Follow them and you'll learn a lot. Becker did have some solid free info at one time (but all of his products sucked really hard), but I don't know if it's still any good or not. Remember that these guys are all marketers, so don't fall for the sales pitches & copywriting they will throw at you unless you really know what you're getting.
My personal recommendation is to learn from the Digital Marketer guys. Here are some of their courses, and here is kind of an intro to stuff. These guys are way over the top promotional, but there is zero question that they understand their topics like no other. If you master the funnels they talk about in detail first, marketing becomes much much easier. I know people who have doubled their biz's by just understanding the funnels.
So my recommendation is to learn some solid basics about SEO, and then diversify and learn other stuff. The people making the real money are not just SEO'ers, they are well rounded marketers who know when and how to use each skill (SEO, PPC, copywriting, funnels, content marketing, social media, etc). This is coming from experience. Even though I'm great at SEO, knowing when and how to apply all of these things is what created my real success, not just ranking a few sites in Google.
The quickest way to learn is probably from an apprenticeship. This site is ran by a friend of mine, and the entire purpose of the site is to help people like you learn from people already doing it.
I was a TA for that class. Can highly recommend the class material and especially Joe's book which the class is based on. https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Cryptocurrency-Technologies-Comprehensive-Introduction/dp/0691171696/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1501196273&sr=8-3&keywords=cryptocurrencies
> requiring knowledge of economics, computer programming, and the blockchain.
Unfortunately, to become an expert in Bitcoin, those are the competencies you'll need to master. There are some better ground-up instructions. What I would recommend.
If you even skim those three books you'll know more than 90% of the people who hold Bitcoin today.
My admittedly untrained opinion on Diamond's work is that, while incomplete, it's probably still worth reading (though, in your case, maybe not worth prioritizing). If I might offer an alternative "big history" sort of text with a similar thrust, I would recommend Ian Morris' "Why the West Rules -- for Now." It's an easy, fun read and generally more well-regarded around these parts.
I have three that I like to turn to:
Everyone should read this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004G5Z2A8
It is standard practice for those factories to finish an order for a big-name brand that can afford to push back if quality is bad, then send the QC guy home, bring in a pile of the cheapest materials available, and continue cranking out the same design with a different label for the grey market.
Simon Kuper is one of the best writers in football. Anybody who likes this should read The Football Men: Up Close with the Giants of the Modern Game, Soccernomics or Football Against The Enemy.
Also I hate when footballers are labelled idiots. It requires extreme intelligence to be a top class player. Not "book learning" intelligence or even basic common sense, but extreme intelligence nonetheless. It's no different to how a top tier Physics academic might not be able to book a hotel room online. They are brilliant in their field, bit sometimes dim in other areas.
Interesting.
It looks like the ranking compared to how the teams did in their respective leagues strongly supports the main conclusion of the people who wrote "Soccernomics": the greatest predictor of how a team will do, is how much they are spending on wages.
There are some overachivers (Man Utd, Tottenham in the EPL) and some underachivers (Liverpool seems to stand out for the EPL, and obviously Man City given that they are using in excess of 25% more than Man Utd), but it mostly seems to be a really close correlation.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soccernomics-Simon-Kuper/dp/0007457847
/u/papermarioguy02's reading list outline:
Several people have asked me about what things to read to get initiated in the stuff I'm interested in. I don't really think that I'm the best teaching resource, but I can at least list off the pieces of media that have influenced my thoughts to a certain extent. This is just an outline, and you should probably use /u/integralds' list as a more authoritative resource, he's not 14, but this is how I got where I am (I also don't 100% agree with all of the arguments presented on the reading list, but they have influenced me).
Articles
In Praise of Cheap Labor - Paul Krugman
The Obama Doctrine - Jeffery Goldberg
The Case for Reparations - Ta-Nehisi Coates
How Politics Makes us Stupid - Ezra Klein
What the Fox Knows - Nate Silver
Books
Principles of Economics - Greg Mankiw
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
International Economics: Theory and Policy - Paul Krugman and Maurice Obstfeld (READING STILL IN PROGRESS, and reading Princples of Economics or some other 101 textbook is probably a prerequisite here)
Capitalism and Freedom - Milton Friedman (READING IN PROGRESS, and again, you should probably read the 101 textbook before this one)
Non Print Stuff
Any of the Crash Course series hosted by John Green. They aren't anywhere near perfect, but they do a good job of introducing you to subjects, and giving some insight on how to think about some topics.
Any of Khan Academy's math stuff. All very good explanations of many different ideas
Grant Sanderson's Essence of Calculus series, a way of getting a good visual intuition for how some really important math works.
____
Again, this is just one 14 year old's list. I do not pretend to be authoritative or that anything here is perfect, but they are things that have influenced the way I've thought about things. This is still an outline, so I might add things here in the future.
/u/Devjorcra, /u/Shawshank_Fanatic
Outstanding answer my man!! I have been interested in getting into blockchain development as well, and I am planning to do a project on it for my networks course this semester. My experience mainly lies with C++, and I'm comfortable with sockets as well in it(boost and regular UNIX sockets), I also did take a distributed systems course as well.
Any ideas for a semester long project? I am currently reading [this] (https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Bitcoin-Programming-Open-Blockchain/dp/1491954388/ref=dp_ob_title_bk#reader_1491954388) and this to get started.
He's absolutely correct. Now we have an underlying network of trade routes, pipelines and connectivity with hubs that comprise the real architecture of our global economy. Some countries, notably China are aware of this and exploiting it. We are tied up in knots with maps drawn post WW2 that have little relevance to the world as it is. A must read on this topic is Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization
http://www.amazon.com/Connectography-Mapping-Future-Global-Civilization/dp/0812988558/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458857900&sr=1-1&keywords=connectography
This book has incredible maps that suggest emerging political alliances that eclipse the old view of hegemonic relations held by those in power in the US.
Hey there,
Great idea that you chose to focus your research on Bitcoin.
When I first tried to grasp the inner workings of the technology, I found this post to be extremely useful: http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-actually-works/ (it's a bit older, but still perfectly suitable for your purpose). Moreover, this article gives a good technical overview (http://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP2015/papers-archived/6949a104.pdf) and this one is for a less technical audience (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/aea/jep/2015/00000029/00000002/art00010). Finally, if you want to have a more comprehensive introduction to the system, get yourself a copy of "Mastering Bitcoin" (has already been suggested here) and of this new book (https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Cryptocurrency-Technologies-Comprehensive-Introduction/dp/0691171696%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q%26tag%3Dduckduckgo-ffsb-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0691171696). The latter is an excellent introduction into the technical and economic building blocks. There are plenty of other valuable resources publicly available, but the previously mentioned articles and books should be sufficient to get you started.
Good luck with your thesis!
> You can't let someone else tell you what your goals should be.
This is pretty much exactly my point. So many people want to buy an ebook to follow this one simple trick to be able to retire on a beach somewhere with a bunch of bikini clad girls, but it doesn't work that way. It's a process and you have to work through it.
> In what way do you think you're a pioneer? What are you doing that hasn't been done before?
I don't think I'm a pioneer. There has to be a better word for it, I just don't know what it is. More and more people that are able to leave their home country as more businesses allow remote work and as entrepreneurship becomes more widespread (The End of Jobs is a good read on this). This isn't "new", it's been around for years, but it's gaining momentum. Digital nomads might seem "mainstream" now, but I bet if you look back on 2018 in a decade or two, someone that starts this year will have "gotten in early".
Here's a couple I'd recommend:
Why The West Rules: For Now- this is a book by Stanford Professor Ian Morris, in which he details the rise of Western and Eastern Civilization and the effects of geography, philosophy, and nature upon this rise, asking questions such as: Why did the industrial revolution occur in Western Europe first? Fantastic book.
Link- https://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0312611692
A Short History Of Western Civilization- This book by John Harrison traces the development of Western Civilization starting in Mesopotamia then Egypt and through Crete to Greece and eventually Rome and Western Europe. Really helped me to conceptualize the concept of Western Civ.
Link- https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Western-Civilization-Combined/dp/0070268975
https://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077
Nothing changed since.
This, I think.
"You gotta have wa" is a classic.
If you enjoyed this, I would recommend reading the book "Poorly Made In China" which exposes a lot of secrets about Chinese factories making substandard products.
https://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077
Do you think Apple products have bad quality? They are manufactured in China.. The problem is you can't just say you want high quality to a chinese manufacturer and expect to be handed an iPhone. You have to specify EVERYTHING . Don't leave anything to chance with Chinese manufacturer or they will cut corner and you will get something that you didn't expect.
I suggest you read Poorly Made In China By Author Paul Midler for a deeper understanding of how things work when manufacturing in China.
They are no longer cheap. 12 years of 15-20% annual wage increases have left Chinese products surprisingly expensive.
The quality, on the other hand, is as shitty as ever.
They don't even know what quality is. They will do it poorly, when they might just as well make it good.
https://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077
But the support is different in Asia. They don't fit the european 'one club for life' system (what Kuper & Szymanski refer to as the Hornby model). Some of them may have switched to Barca/City/Real Madrid within recent years... and will change again after that.
In Soccernomics they reference estimated united fan numbers.
>"2003, 75 million :source Mori,
>2007, About 90 Million :source Manchester United,
>2008, 333 Million (inc. 139 million 'core fans) :source: TNS Sport"
Extract from: Soccernomics
Obviously the definition of fan isn't the same for everyone.
Depends on how you define civilization and destruction. Personally, I like Ian Morris's ideas. The fall of Rome was accompanied in a fall in development, but it wasn't the total destruction of western civilization.
You should read this book.
Read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077
Chinese manufacturers are really good at negotiating and they take “nice guys” to town all the time.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future, by Ian Morris
A closer look at the underbelly of things Japanese:
The secret behind Japanese office workers always running about the office... written by future Japanese Nobel Prize winner...
Was in the book Soccernomics. IIRC his stats said he was tackling less often which contributed to Fergie selling him, but his tackles decreased because the team as a whole had improved meaning he was needed less often.
Don't forget the Princeton textbook, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction
You can't go wrong with Krugman, Obstfeld, and Melitz. These guys "wrote the book" on trade, literally and figuratively.
I have a lot of admiration/respect for Qaboos. I've been to Oman many times and while I really enjoy Muscat, I'm planning on making my next trip there out to Musandam. I developed a greater appreciation for Oman after reading Monsoon by Robert D. Kaplan. One of the most eye-opening books I've ever read on foreign policy and an excellent primer for anyone interested in the history/geopolitics of S.W. Asia. He spends a lot of time discussing in depth Oman's rich history and it's strategic position within the region in the coming decades. He also paints a very intimate profile of Qaboos - one that I don't think most people would expect:
>"Qaboos is one of a kind in the Arab world. He is unmarried, lives alone, plays the organ and lute, and composes music. A graduate of Britain's Sandhurst military academy, he may arguably be the most worldly and best-informed leader in the Arab world, who understands in depth both the Israeli and Palestinian points of view even as he balances Americans off against Iranians and provides U.S. forces with access agreements. Infrastructure projects, women's rights, and the environment are mainstays of his rule, and he has avoided creating the sort of personality cult that plagues the region. His shyness on the world stage is in line with the minimalist manner of Scandinavian prime ministers and in contrast with bombastic bullies like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. One Western expert calls Qaboos the only head of state in the Arab world you can call a "Renaissance man." In 1979 Oman was the only Arab state to recognize Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's peace agreement with Israel."
Also since he is 72 years old, has no children and has not formally announced an heir, the succession of power could amount to one of the biggest political shakeups in the Gulf in years and perhaps the adoption of democratic form of government.
Have you considered reading Ian Morris' Why the West Rules...For Now? The book attempts to find why Western Civilization became dominant over all the other civilizational cores that have emerged in human history, as well as whether the West's position is tenable. As the book starts with an introduction of human evolution out of Africa and goes through a summary of human history into speculation into our future, I think you may enjoy this book. I know I did.
read this http://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0374290024
answers it in more depth and with greater clarity.
the short answer is that 12,000 BCE, people were hunter gatherers, and the people that happened to live at each end of asia (the yangtze and the anatolian plateau) happened to live in an area that has naturally occurring cereal crops. small bands gathered. people had a decent life, they stopped wandering as much. First evidence that people began to think: "hey, let's take some of these rye seeds we are beating into our baskets and plant them closer to home." Small rodents that were not aggressive or fearful could live off human trash. Same for wolves--becoming dogs (although that perhaps came about sooner). But in general things just happened to be really ideal there and in China.
Then disaster struck. earth tilts a bit, north america gets a little warmer, the glacial lake agassiz (roughly size of all great lakes combined) breaks and funnels into the atlantic ocean where it shuts down the jet stream for 1,000 years. New mini ice-age. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Agassiz
Most hunter gatherers go back to huntering and gathering, but for the guys in turkey, this may have been an impetus for more intensely preparing and cultivating food. still not full agriculture, ox-drawn plow type stuff, but working in that direction. Around this time is when non-utilitarian structures start showing up. Suddenly things are colder, it's harder to find food, and you start making weird religious stuff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe
Back in 9000 BCE, things have changed in this "fertile crescent" area. Most other groups are the hunter gathering type. But these guys just went through 1,000 where they have religious roots. They have invented modern grains whose seeds don't fall off the stem when they are ripe. Well, they unconsciously selected for them and these seeds became over-represented in each subsequent generation.
keep repeating this cycle: grow a little more food, have a few more babies, need a little more food, cultivate more intensely, develop social customs of ownership, property, religion, etc. until you have the sumer you know. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubaid_period
Then, just that reinforcing cycle.
tl;dr. Sumerians didn't "settle" in mesopotamia, the land gave birth (sort of) to that civilization there.
also, yeah, middle east used to be much different--read the bible about the "cedars of lebanon" or abraham coming out of sumeria-ish area and settling in fertile valleys. Right now it all looks like a wasteland. Jared Diamonds book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed to see just how easily we can screw up our environment.
If yoyu found this article interesting, you should check out his book Monsoon. I haven't finished it yet, but it's about the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean and quite good.
It's been vastly superceeded by more scientific based research, (I still loved the book though) instead of Diamond's approach more on "is one society better"-type outlook.
I recommend Why The West Rules--For Now by Ian Morris - basically the best book on the subject of why the west rules ever written, its a bit advanced though, having read Guns first will vastly help.
Next would be 1491 by Charles C. Mann an educated look on the pre-Colombian Americas and why we were so wrong in viewing them and why the myths persist. Highly recommended.
FYI, I was just looking at the reviews for this book on Amazon (just for curiosity, I read this a few months ago) and the top reviews are by two of the best writers on geopolitics and world affairs in my opinion, Robert Kaplan and Walter Russel Mead. Kaplan has written a number of fantastic books (I'd recommend starting with Monsoon. Mead writes and regularly updates a blog that even if I don't always agree with, I find to generally be ahead of the curve and pretty insightful.
I think the interesting bit is encapsulated in this image - specifically the dotted lines in the top half.
'mTTV' is the valuation of the team as compared to the median of the league - therefore, we can see that City had just about a mid-table squad up until 2008. (By mid-table I mean in terms of the team's cost, which these guys equate very closely to success.)
*How they work out the cost is quite complicated, I don't completely understand it, but they work in wages, "football inflation", and transfers, as well as the "usefulness" of players I believe.
Now in the earlier years of the Premiership you could win the league with maybe 2x the median. This was what circa late '90s Arsenal and Man United had, more-or-less - although the Invincibles were actually very low, I think 1.66x the median. Nowadays, to win the league you need 3x or 4x.
So, we can clearly see the stratification into a top 3 of Mancs + Mancs + Chelsea, and the chasing pack of Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool.
So basically the guy is saying Arsenal need to invest quite a bit to break back into that new top 3. (Duh I hear you say, as that's what the title is.)
Disclaimer: I haven't actually read the article, I just looked at the image, but I've read [Pay As You Play](http://transferpriceindex.com/), [Why England Lose/Soccernomics*](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soccernomics-Simon-Kuper/dp/0007457847/) and also some of this writer's other articles - I quite like his stuff actually but I don't pretend to understand the specifics, just the main gist of it.
Edit - another interesting thing with that graph - it seems like beyond a certain point, the mTTV seems to be a diminishing quality - otherwise, Chelsea would have walked the league every season since 2004. Or perhaps, it's a huge credit to what Ferguson has achieved (you would have expected him to be runner-up much more often).
Daniel Tudor wrote a good chapter on Han and Heung in his book (Chapter 10).
Korea: The Impossible Country
I'm not adding to the discussion but I have a hunch you may enjoy reading this book:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307946657/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
I would recommend the OP and others read [Poorly Made In China](
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004G5Z2A8/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1491188807&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=made+in+china) to get an idea of how China's economy and production culture may not match their given economic data. Many of those who think the Chinese economic growth is sustainable and that China will become a superpower (depending on how you define that) fail to realize how vast the difference is between China's projected image and how things actually are here.
China is a growing country and has a lot of potential, but personally I think it's still a few generations from achieving that "superpower" status and sustaining it for any length of time. This is ignoring that China's military is out of practice and arguably hasn't achieved a military objective since the Korean War if not further back than that.
But this is an academic sub and I'm speaking in anecdotes so let me give some data: I believe China is currently experiencing an economic downturn. [See here for some growth numbers.](
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/Dollars-do-not-lie-the-true-picture-of-China-s-growth?page=1) You also have the Chinese stock market drops over the last couple years, which I believe many of the shares/stocks are still frozen. The Chinese housing market is surging with new housing being built beyond demand and many apartment complexes sitting virtually empty, yet many Chinese still buy apartments and housing as their main vehicles for investment. If the Chinese housing market bursts, a massive chunk of Chinese investment goes with it. The current downturn and the possible housing bubble burst would set back China's progress substantially.
If the question is "Will China become a superpower, eventually?" I would say that given another few decades at least, maybe. If the question is "Will China become a superpower as quickly as many people are predicting? (2020, 2030)" I would say no.
Bitcoin and Crypto currency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction This book is great for learning all about Crypto
The following books are taken from the General section of our books and resources list:
I'm sure more books can be found in the book list.
Happy reading :)
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not exactly the same, but this is a good, and rather critical story of a guy who acts as an intermediary for American companies looking to source their products in China.
http://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077/ref=pd_sim_b_10?ie=UTF8&refRID=0S9FG1D4SEAXDG1NYV7R
I'm personally very disturbed by the many instances in world history of the chaos and literal collapse of civilization that has followed modest changes in climate. The fact that we are living in such a period now, and that we are doing it to ourselves, worries me.
The complacency with which people dismiss climate change as "no big deal" is startling (even among many who accept that mankind is causing it). It seems to betray an ignorance of history over the last five thousand years.
The idea seems to be that the modern world could absorb such a shock (and the resulting migrations and power shifts) more gracefully. But I'm not sure what evidence there is of this.
Sources:
If you ever get a chance, check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0312611692
It argues that cultural thought is rarely the spark that starts a major historical movement, but rather the post-fact rationalisation resulting from tectonic shifts in resources and other external circumstances in the world. You're right, nitpicking inevitably happens, whether in successful independence movements like the USA or India, or stymied groups of people like those in Scotland or Quebec or Okinawans with their Ryukyuan language.
I suppose I'm personally on the side that looks for progressive solutions to our actual current state, instead of nitpicking and navel gazing, fixating on a single issue and dominating the conversation in a much longer standing stalemate.
I'm not actually arguing there shouldn't be a discussion on independence. Nor am I against independence per se, and I think making the subject taboo just raises its profile more. But is it a movement? Is there an actual viable plan? Regardless, violence should have no place in rational discourse, and any group that would instigate physical violence should be condemned and prosecuted in accordance with existing laws.
>It's the closest experience I've got
The fact that you think that is close reveals the shallowness of your understanding.
>The certainty of comments in this thread are laughable.
I find your lack of intellectual curiosity laughable too. I guess we have different senses of humour.
Seriously though, your time would be better spent reading an international economics textbook than arguing with me.
It contains stuff I used to teach 19 year olds. If they got it, I see no reason why you cannot.
It might help you understanding economics issues better than the popular press articles that your diet seems to be centred around.
Goodbye, and have a nice day.
Try this book.
>Even more embarrassing for contemporary leftists is the fact that they will concede that different races have different gross physical attributes, are predisposed to different genetic diseases, and respond differently to different types of medication, all while claiming that despite all of these differences, every race has the same genetic mean intellectual capacity.
Race is not a valid method of categorizing human beings. The groupings are far too vague and based more on cultural norms than biology. There are two reasons that different "races" have different outcomes. Firstly, racial groupings can partially overlap with actually meaningful groupings of human beings, as in the case of relatives of victims of the American slavery and the wider African-American community. The second is just statistics. If you compare two groups you're likely to find differences. This is the reason that the moment a researcher starts breaking racial categories down into valid classifications the racial category loses all of its coherence.
>in spite of the aforementioned fact and every study done on the topic of race and mean IQ concluding that the gap between races appears to be caused by genetic differences
If you're referring to the studies from the Charles Murray debacle, that's not what they show. What's more, IQ has very little to do with factors that affect children from birth. Looking at trends across generations is quite complicated. Although, I'm willing to bet that there is not a single respectable historian that will endorse the level of importance that you place on IQ. If you you want to get a better understanding of how disparities can be created across large groups of human beings, then I suggest you read Why the West Rules for Now. Hint: it's not IQ
https://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0312611692
I'd say get both these books, the technical details are very good and they're both very well written.
Mastering Bitcoin
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies
And take this free online class based on the second book I recommended:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency/
Slugging It Out in Japan: An American Major Leaguer in the Tokyo Outfield
Former MLB'er Warren Cromartie wrote about his experiences playing in Japan, and there's parts of the other famous Japanese baseball book You Gotta Have Wa in there as well. It helped introduce me to Japanese baseball. Pretty good reads.
https://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0312611692
You Gotta Have Wa
>The "wa" one must have is the group harmony that is the essence of Japanese "besoboru," or baseball. (Japanese baseball fans view individualism as the fatal flaw in the American game.) This interesting comparative study of the sport as it is played on both sides of the Pacific concentrates on the American stars who have gone to play in Japan. Whiting ( The Chrysanthemum and the Bat ) shows how Americans abroad have adapted to punishing spring training and pre-game practices throughout the season in Japan, and their adjustment to such aspects of the sport as the sacrifice bunt, the hit-and-run and the squeeze. He also chronicles American athletes' problems with tyrannical managers and coaches and umpires bent on saving face. The conclusion: American and Japanese baseball are vastly different games. Photos not seen by PW.
Covers the history of Japanese baseball (which surprisingly well pre-dates WW2) and players which cross the Pacific to play.
Notably, the current version includes updates that cover the careers of well known players like Ichiro, Darvish, etc. One of the most fascinating books I've read in years.
There has never been a collapse everywhere at once. So when one region collapses, another is in a rebirth.
Naill Ferguson simplifies things with his "Six killer apps of Civilization". When this article was written, China had 5 out of 6 of the apps. They are now getting the 6th.
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/02/141942357/how-the-west-beat-the-rest-six-killer-apps
"Why the west rules for now" this author is interesting in that he divides humans into 7 major groups. But the then goes PC correct and says geography determines things.
But he again shows there is a similar pattern.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0312611692
The speed of rebirth is a lot quicker. Mao drove China into the stone age, less then 40 years later they are building projects like these.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/business/international/in-china-projects-to-make-great-wall-feel-small-.html?_r=0
Snide comments like that where made about the Empire state building, Hoover dam etc 80 years ago. What the critics failed to reason is that the project itself might be useless, but it is what is learned in the process.
In the book "Why the west rules for now" is people forget the amount of ideas that where transfered from India/China to Britain. A civil service is an Indian/Chinese invention. The Brits go ahold of the idea and improved on it. By the same token, China is getting western ideas that work, fusing them to their own culture and improving on them.
Later the "west" when it rebirths, will take the new and improved Chinese ideas and improve on them.
One of the big "gimmes" in this type of discussion is that things made in China are crap. This is not true simply because things are made in China, it is true because manufacturing companies make things according to specifications. If the specifications allow for a large margin of error (usually to keep up production demands), you will inevitably end up with crap. The big X Factor in any manufacturing, is quality control. If there is little to none, there will be quality issues.
At this time, I would like to admit there are definitely a world of other issues in Chinese manufacturing, but for the sake of this discussion, I don't really want to get into it right now. For those interested in further reading, take a look at (Poorly Made in China)[http://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077]
Now, to bring it back to America, how many of you have purchased Allen Edmonds Seconds? Odds are you took a look at the shoe and thought "Damn, I don't see a single thing wrong with it!". And yet, it still failed a particular standard of quality control that it was not sent out for normal sales.
Three of my favorite examples of quality control are Budweiser, McDonald's and Levi's. This is not intended to say they're examples of awesome products, but they know what they're doing when it comes to production.
Budweiser is the third most popular beer brand in the country. Yet you can buy a Bud anywhere and it will taste exactly the same. They produced 16 million barrels of beer and you don't have to worry that what's about to enter your mouth was going to taste like Budweiser.
McDonald's has restaurants all over the US and the world, and I have eaten at various locations (US, Asia, Europe, Mexico) and the exact same food items taste the same everywhere you go. McDonald's has food scientists to ensure every local area has access to the ingredients that will make sure the food tastes the same. I believe I read that for Moscow, they had to find a particular type of cow and genetically bred a particular type of potato.
Levi's I am specifically including because much of their manufacturing is outside the US. Although there can be a bit of a swing in consistency between sizes, for the most part, I can safely walk into ANY store selling Levi's, pick up my size and cut and buy it without trying it on (depending on how picky I am feeling about fit that day).
I have no doubt there will be naysayers to these examples, and that's fine. I believe they're examples of excellent quality control. And ultimately, I think that's where the fault lies. In certain Made in America products, the level of quality control is just higher.
And just for the sake of making a list here is a generic wardrobe one could make using things made in the USA.
Shoes
Socks
Underwear
Chinos
Jeans
Shirts
T-shirts
Blazer
Suit
Accessories
Knitwear
Anyone else can feel free to add on to this list
An interesting read
if you're looking for a little reading, I really enjoyed, Poorly Made in China.
I'm a coder and I found that it jumps from beginner level to more advanced elliptical curve cryptographic math very quickly past the 100 page mark. I think a better book would be the following one which is the basis for a Coursera course:
https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Cryptocurrency-Technologies-Comprehensive-Introduction/dp/0691171696
ctrl-v from their FAQ
> also mattels chinese factories 'responsibly' put lead into kids toys.
That isn't really how Chinese manufacturing works- American companies don't build or administrate Chinese companies. They contract out completely and really don't have much control over what the manufacturers actually do. Poorly made in China is pretty outdated now but it's a fun read on what it's like.
Nowadays it's more normal to have a closer involvement with Chinese contractors but if the product isn't carefully monitored it's still not unusual for things like that to happen. Foreign companies still can't actually run the factories without a Chinese sponsor, and that only happened recently.
Why the West Rules - for now is a good overview of history written in an easily accessible way - with history, social sciences and economics thrown in.
For a great easy read on financial history, I recommend Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money, which will teach you a ton - and it includes all of the above (how influential psychology can be is astounding).
Because all good things are three, I'll throw in Against the Gods. A book on the history of risk analysis, you do get a hefty dose of psychology as well as a great understanding of how that all-important field works.
Anyone interested:
Why the West Rules For Now
Holy fuck, man.
> Typically they're defined by factors like economic performance, social stability, resources, political structure, etc.
So what made their economic performance, social stability, and political structure that of a 4th grade level? Who did that?
Here's something you should read to help you, and here's another, and I guess even this one, although it's not nearly as good. But I'm sure you won't- you just stumbled into a very complex topic with the faintest of knowledge- so it really doesn't matter. What you'd learn from it is that geography is about the only thing that is really deterministic in human development- everything else is what you decide to do. And geography isn't what's determining the difference between North and South Korea, so...
It seems as if we should be comparing them all, instead of infantilizing whole nations of people so you can make some awkward and cringeworthy conspiracy that isn't even correct anyway.
Wow. Just wow.
My kind of contest! :) I think you might suggest to a fellow non-fiction reader Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future; I found it on the /r/AskHistorians book list. Happy birthday!
I wouldn't feel too bad. It appears to have been a chinese factory and this sadly is the norm for them.
I'd give this a read if you are interested. Very entertaining book about what goes on behind the scenes in the chinese manufacturing world.
Not true. There are cycles that were primarily influenced by regional climatic changes resulting in migration, war and disease. Unfortunately, Africa never had that upswing other than the Sahel region about 6,000 - 8,000 years ago. China and the ME were booming in the BCs era, while Europe languished. Then Europe (basically Rome), rose then fell. The ME and China flourished from the 9th - 12th centuries, then Europe...etc etc etc.. A really good read on these cycles is [Why the West Rules for Now.] (http://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0312611692)
You should read this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0007457847?pc_redir=1407687343&robot_redir=1
It disagrees with you that stats mean less in soccer than american sports. It is an insightful read and I recommend giving it a chance.
Here is the post for archival purposes:
Author: _blue_Tshirt
Content:
>I'd like to learn more about the technical side of how the blockchain works, how it is implemented and what standard design choices / decisions were made and why.
>2 books look interesting:
> Mastering Bitcoin by A. Antonopoulos
> Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies by A. Narayanan et. al
>Both have good reviews. Has anyone read both? How do they compare?
>I've got a few years programming under my belt, although don't have a background in cryptography.
>Thanks :)
Here’s a link to the amazon kindle version. It starts at the three kingdoms period (ancient history). Covers through the Japanese occupation, Korean War, economic boom, and current day. It’s more than a history book as it covers a lot of current issues in Korea as well as explaining the culture. Really insightful! Explains things like their current obsession with standardized exams during education which is rooted in their historically confusion government entrance exams.
Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009CH9FA8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ciRsDbFM27JYH
Thanks, I've downloaded a sample. Ian Morris discusses the costs and benefits of the Neolithic and Industrial Revolutions in his book, Why the West Rules -- for Now.
When talking about Chinese manufactured products, I say "It looks like an X but it's not an X" It looks like a shoe, but it's not a shoe. It looks like a winter coat, but it's not a winter coat.
You need to read
Poorly Made in China
Aggressive cost reduction methods lead to "the dangerous practice of quality fade—the deliberate and secret habit of Chinese manufacturers to widen profit margins through the reduction of quality inputs."
On top of the relentless pressure to reduce prices year over year, each time Walmart adds a smiley face Public Relations program, Walmart shifts the entire cost and burden onto the factories. The factories have to sharpen their pencils and find a way to extract that cost out of the products.
this. Don't let the title fool you into thinking its west-centric, it's pretty much about the whole world and delves into what makes civilizations succeed and fail.
The one I recommend to everyone is The Baseball Fan's Companion, it is unfortunately out of print but easy to find used. I'd also recommend:
The Glory of their Times by Lawrence Ritter
Veeck as in Wreck by Bill Veeck
Stolen Season by David Lamb
Can't Anybody Here Play this Game by Jimmy Breslin
The Wrong Stuff and Have Glove Will Travel by Bill Lee
You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting
This is a great documentary. For anyone who likes the sort of thing there is a book I just read called Why the West Rules - For Now which is very much in the same vein.
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
If you want a book that takes a look at this dynamic, regarding pack animals, check out Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond or Why the West Rules—for Now by Ian Morris.
If India is to lead the 21st century it must look beyond the USA, and Europe. It must look at everything that the ideologies of the past 200 years have done wrong, which have lead to the chaos, and destitution in the world. It is for that reason that they're rich, their imperialistic tendencies, and to respond to that system we must create a new world, and look towards new ideas, and a different future that addresses other aspects of humanity other than the ever pervasive GDP. We must in essence redefine, and rework all the "progress" of the past 200 years.
To think that there was no rule of law, and that this is some new European invention is a load of bull, each country, each culture, each people, from the muslims, to the tribes in Africa had their own systems that worked well for them, and the destruction of those systems is exactly what is causing the chaos in the Middles-East, and Africa (especially Africa since much of it was based in an oral tradition), because the traditional institutions that were in place to deal with the problems were destroyed. The destruction of that cultural basis is tremendously useful for exploitation, and it is through that exploitation that Europe, and America, to this day even, have tremendous wealth. Look at European history, and you will realize that they had a very interesting culture that lead to their rise (read Why The West Rules - For Now by Ian Morris for an overview.). In essence it's when a traditional institution is destroyed that chaos arises, and the area is ripe for exploitation, but that may not be a bad thing in the long run as those institutions also restrict progress towards better ways of doing things.
With that said we must put an end to that exploitative ideology, including the very basis of our economics values, and capitalistic goals.
I think India is in a unique position to literally change the course of history in the 21st century, and redefine what is the goal of humanity as a whole. From education, to the economic goals of nations, and even redefining nationhood as an entity, and the political paradigms within that nation. The very essence of governance needs to shift in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and the reason I think India is in a unique position ranges from its culture, philosophy, history, but more concretely is its young population, and focus on technology.
The answers for the 21st century lie in technology, and are fundamentally based in decentralization of governance. This requires a tremendous amount of communicative powers, which thankfully to the technology bit provides. Communications allows for a people to assemble together to solve problems, and gives unparalelled ability for the common man to educate him self. The communication of ideas, not laws (not throwing away the concept), is what provides the stability, and progress within a people. So that's what I mean dismissing Law, and Order because I think it's going to be replaced in one form or another by basic communication abilities of a people.
Just jumping in here because he is right:
1.) Is the American empire running out of gas? Foreign policy analyst and former Brookings Institution fellow Parag Khanna thinks that only inertia keeps us going. The collapse of the Soviet Union left America as the world’s only superpower, but we are not universally loved, feared, or even respected. “Does the world no longer need the United States?” asks Khanna. “Anti-Americanism continues even as America’s dominance fades.” China and the European Union (E.U.) have joined America as first-rank powers, although the nature of their power is different. China is working hard to become America’s military equal; already, its economic influence extends around the world. “Globalization is happening on China’s terms,”
2.) Trump's decision to kill TPP leaves door open for China
3.) US leaving TPP: A great news day for China
4.) With a population of 1.3 billion, China recently became the second largest economy and is increasingly playing an important and influential role in the global economy.
5.) Book: “For those who fear that the world is becoming too inward-looking, Connectography is a refreshing, optimistic vision. . . . The most convincing point in the book concerns policy prescriptions. To become part of global supply chains, Mr. Khanna argues, it is essential to invest in infrastructure. China, in particular, has built a sprawling network of ports, canals and the like across the world to acquire and transport natural resources. By contrast, rich countries, especially America, now underfund capital goods, in an attempt to reduce public spending. This short-term skimping bodes ill for future growth.”—The Economist
The list could really go on for miles... It is very widely known China is unabashedly and effectively and gunning for world trade / economic dominance.
Boy, I know very little about Japanese players. I've read You Gotta Have Wa and Sadaharu Oh's biography but it's been a long time and the players' names didn't mean much to me then.
What are some good online resources for doing some digging? I can google 'Japanese baseball' but I don't have any way of knowing if the sites are any good. BBref has stats, but little league context and no park numbers, so those are difficult to evaluate.
I appreciate the nationalism (?) and it's food for thought, but companies brand themselves the way they do for all sorts of reasons, none of which should concern the average citizen.
I'm not going to stop eating at Swiss Chalet because they're not Swiss.
The bigger issue is not naming but the Canadian entrepreneurial culture. There's a book called "Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson" that goes into detail as why Canadian companies have a hard to developing global brands, and a lot of it has to do with complacency, risk aversion to developing foreign markets and lack of an ecosystem for scale-up.
https://www.amazon.com/Why-Mexicans-Dont-Drink-Molson/dp/1553652258
Many older (and some younger) Canadians have this mindset that we're a country descended from "hewers of wood and drawers of water", and don't really think to venture abroad -- past the United States and Western Europe, and to emerging economies -- and take risks there. It's really a mindset thing. Fortunately one of the biggest sources of complacency disruptors are immigrants, so we'll see if the risk appetite of the Canadian population changes.
Why the west rules — for now. https://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0312611692 Lembra Sapiens, mas é mais científico, menos especulativo. Também é um Guns Germs and Steel mais bem embasado.
You should write a book. Have you read "Poorly made in China"?
https://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493677702&sr=8-1&keywords=poorly+made+in+china
If you're suspicious that large numbers of Reddit users are shilling for Ethereum, then you can't trust any answer you receive to this question on Reddit. You'll have to turn to other sources, or develop your own knowledge of the functions and problems of cryptocurrencies and how they compare to each other and fiat. I'm reading this book which I'm finding really helpful. It focuses on bitcoin of course, but is a good primer on cryptocurrencies in general.
There’s a pretty enlightening book on China’s plan for Africa
For the second half I'd recommend Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici as a good starting point. It's going to respond to a lot of other thinkers, including Marx, so it can be a good starting point for further investigation on all the subjects I mentioned.
The first half isn't going to be the thesis of any works that I know of; but more of a truism that appears throughout a ton of works. I'll respond in part with an explanation and recommend some basic readings that might flesh out the ideas more.
The word "economy" comes from the Greek "oikos" meaning "home" and "nomos" meaning which refers to the function of it. It's very similar to the word "ecology" which is the combination of "oikos" and "logos", or the logic of the home. As a result, for the ancient Greeks, "economy" referred to the functioning of the household. The house and surrounding land in Athens was referred to a "demo" and constituted a single economic unit run by a single family. A government built with these units was called a "democracy", or a nation of "demos". You can read more about this in The Ancient City by Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges to understand the basic terms and theories going into the structures of our society today, which are based heavily on the ancient Greek language and understanding of the world (as the article above indicates as well).
A fun book that discusses the theme of economics and the formation of society is Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals. It's not full of references or citations, but more of a thought experiment on the subject that I think lays some good groundwork for understanding some of the motivations for the creation of a society. A more specific analysis on the goals and aspirations of an economy can be found in the general cannon, like Smith's Wealth of Nations and the critical response from Marx in Das Kapital. These are both introductory texts on the subject and a little outdated of course. If you want a more contemporary understanding of economic systems and what they do today, I'd recommend Wolff's Contending Economic Theories. These books aren't about why economies come first in society (other than the Genealogy of Morals), but they are a knowledge foundation as to why societies are organized in order to create an economy.
>Content Warning: Math (I mean it’s just high school algebra but if you really have a phobia of numbers, I can’t really help you)
>
>Economist Paul Samuelson once said that comparative advantage is the most important principle in the social sciences that is both true and non-trivial (i.e. it isn’t immediately obvious). This probably means it’s pretty fucking important to learn about. I mentioned it as one of the principles of this post. But that was a fairly basic overview. This won’t be as long as some of the more broad posts I’ve made here but it’s also very important. Comparative advantage is at the heart of most of what this sub suggests in terms of trade policy. It’s the thing that when I learned it, I suddenly had an interest in economics, it’s pretty hard to deny it once you realize how it works and knowing about it makes free trade much more appealing.
>
>#Absolute Advantage
>
>Before we get into comparative advantage, it’s useful to talk about absolute advantage. This is what people would usually think drives which goods a country would manufacture or import. Absolute advantage simply means you can make more of something at a lower cost. The US has an absolute advantage over other countries in most things for instance. American workers have the technology and resources to be able to make most things better than almost everyone else, so why don’t they? The easy answer is that it’s cheaper to make in other countries, but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, wouldn’t the extra productivity of American workers be worth the wage premium. Clearly something is at play that’s more substantial than absolute advantage, but what. Here’s where we get into:
>
>#Comparative Advantage
>
>Here’s the thing about costs in economics, you can’t just look at the monetary cost of a thing, you need to look at opportunity costs. If you benefit from something but could better spend your time doing something else, that thing could still have a net cost. What determines what countries will actually import or make for themselves relies not only on their productivity in that thing, but their productivity in that thing relative to other things. If the US can make flowers just as if not more productively as, say Ecuador, it might still make sense for Ecuador to to make them if the US could also make other things, say hammers, even more efficiently compared to absolute advantage in flowers than Ecuador could make them. Then Ecuador could make the flowers and the US would be free to make more hammers and everyone would be better off for it.^1 I love this so much, it makes perfect sense once you explain it, but if you didn’t already know about it you would be pretty hard pressed to come up with an independent explanation for why countries with an absolute advantage is almost all things have a reason to trade. That being said this only says what can happen and not what will, but before you start telling me we need central planning to maximize gains from trade I’m going to try to prove here that the profit motive is enough to maximize gains from trade, and I can even tell you what my model is.
>
>#The Ricardian Model of Trade
>
>The Ricardian model of trade is probably the most famous/significant economic model other than like, the supply and demand graph. In the 1817 book On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation^2 Classical economist David Ricardo lays out Comparative Advantage using the Ricardian model. This model has a few simple characteristics, there’s only one factor of production, labor, there are only two nations to trade between and two goods that can be produced.^3 Let’s just focus on one country, we’ll call it Freedomland and see what their local economy looks like without trade. They have a total labor supply L and can use this labor supply to make some amount of two goods, say tea and coffee. We can measure productivity from here by using the unit labor requirement, pretty much just a fancy way of saying the amount of man hours needed to produce another unit of a thing. As such this means this equation holds where Q is the quantity of the good made, g is the good and A is the unit labor requirement. From here we can draw out the production possibilities frontier a graph of the combination of goods that can be made with one good on the x axis and one on the y axis. Let’s give our economy 500 man hours to work with, give a kilogram of coffee a unit labor requirement of 1 and a kilogram of tea a unit labor requirement of 2. This production possibilities frontier can be drawn out so the economy can produce 500 kilos of coffee, 250 kilos of tea, or something in between.^4 The nice thing about the production possibilities graph is that its rise/run slope is the negative opportunity cost (in terms of what’s on the y axis) of producing another kilo of whatever’s on the x axis. In our example the slope and as a result the opportunity cost is constant of making another kilo of tea or coffee. The reasoning for this is that there’s only one factor of production (labor) that can be moved freely between sectors with ease. But all of this is still about what can be produced, we want to see what a free market actually will produce.
>
>Firstly in this example, we have a completely frictionless and competitive economy, so workers make whatever the selling price of the thing they’re making is and there are no economic profits. So the economy will just make whatever good has the better selling price per hour of work. If the relative price of wine is the price of tea divided by the price of coffee and the relative unit labor requirement is the same thing with the unit labor requirement, whether coffee will be more profitable is dependent on whether its relative price is greater than its relative unit labor requirement (0.5 in our example). The relative unit labor requirement also happens to be the opportunity cost of making that thing, as such in a free market economy, the more profitable good will be the one that has the best return compared to its opportunity cost, and the economy will want to specialize in that good. The issue is that people still want to consume both goods, the only way that would be possible is if their relative price equals their relative unit labor requirement so the economy doesn’t specialize.^5 If we add another country into the mix though…
>
>Let’s say we have another country existing in this world called Crumpetland. They also have 500 man hours to work with but their opportunity cost of making a kilo of tea is only 0.5. Their production possibilities frontier ends at 250 kilos of tea and 125 kilos of coffee. Thus despite Crumpetland not having an absolute advantage in anything they have a comparative advantage in tea making. We can formalize this by saying that a comparative advantage is had when your relative unit labor requirement of making a good is greater than other country’s’.^6 Now once we allow free trade between these two countries the price of the goods will equalize between Freedomland and Crumpetland because if the price was different between countries people would engage in arbitrage until supply and demand make prices equalize (arbitrage just means making a thing where it’s cheaper and selling it where it’s more expensive). The particulars of where this price will settle are important but for the sake of this Reddit post all you need know is that if the relative price of a good is above the opportunity cost of making said good in a country, the country will specialize in it.^7 If the relative price is below the opportunity cost, the country will specialize in the other good. You can set some prices with the powers of the free market with relative supply and demand and you can see that the magical situation where both countries get more stuff simply by trading becomes true, that’s pretty great. Now Freedomland can specialize in coffee making and Crumpetland in tea making, they can trade, and everyone is better off, that’s the power of the free market with Comparative Advantage in the Ricardian Model.^8
>
>____
>
>Obviously this isn’t quite how the world works but the conclusion of it has been tested and we can see comparative advantage in action in real life (the post war UK and US are a particularly good example, and why I named the countries the way I did). The Ricardian model is a relatively simple explanation for a phenomenon that doesn’t make a whole lot of intuitive sense. The basic idea for this obviously comes from David Ricardo. But some of the presentation here comes from Paul Krugman and Maurice Obstfeld’s International Economics textbook. Though their examples were longer, more in depth and heavy on the math for a Reddit post, so this is a much thinner version of their explanation with different examples. Anyway, I hope you gained some appreciation for why this sub loves free trade. I’m also only some teenager on the internet with some Economics textbooks and too much time on his hands, so I very well have made a mistake here or there, so if you want to correct my mistake, make a joke about my age, tell me that I’m paid off by George Soros or just want to meme, please give feedback below.
>
>#Footnotes
>
>1. I should be clear that I just pulled this example out of my ass, there’s nothing special about flowers or hammers that lend them to this situation, you can substitute most any two goods in here.
>
you have Stockholm Syndrome bad. so bad that you cannot make the distinction between consumer and shareholder. seek help from your brainwashing!
and bribery and monopoly is NOT capitalism. source: adam smith
https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Nations-Adam-Smith/dp/1505577128/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502204263&sr=8-1&keywords=adam+smith
'Why the west rules for now' by Ian Morris. Best overview of human history I've ever read.
Amazon link
You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting. Great read if you're interested in Japanese baseball and how it compares to American.
If you're trying to actually make a point, you should try to do it more clearly.
>we don't and the people who absorb the vast majority of the gains use their gains to make sure that we don't.
First of all, false, there have been plenty of policies aimed at doing just what you said we don't. Second, it is unclear who you're implying these people are. I could take some guesses, with varying degrees of specificity, but I still wouldn't be sure. Third, it is unclear what you are implying they do to make sure "we don't." It sounds like you have some point here but for some reason you are taking large tiptoes around saying exactly what it is you mean.
>You can't just arbitrarily treat economic and political systems as separate of each others influence.
Unclear who you think is doing this, because it's not me. Nor is it the economists who model trade, because the political economy of trade policy is quite well understood (a standard reference for undergraduate-level courses has at least an entire chapter devoted to it, for instance).
Kindle price is $16.99 for me -- and "this price was set by the publisher".
Book recommendation for those who loved Germs, Guns & Steel.
Why the west rules, for now
I recommend reading The End of Jobs, by Taylor Pearson. I am currently about 70% through the kindle version. Check out the description here and see if it is something you are interested in. http://www.amazon.com.br/End-Jobs-Meaning-9---5-ebook/dp/B010L8SYRG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1453811457&sr=1-1
If you want a great and contemporary work on this topic I would recommend Robert D. Kaplan's Monsoon: http://www.amazon.com/Monsoon-Indian-Ocean-Future-American/dp/0812979206
On China, India, the US and the shift of both the economic and military center of gravity from the West to the East.
Yeah I do too. I'm just bad for it. It's like teachers in schools; they limit you too much on what you can do for people, and then after they limit you, you still have to get malpractice insurance because "for some reason," DERP, treatments don't work all that great. And by that I mean for prisoners and my profession is mental healthcare. Because in the real world, most of the people would have eventually fixed their own problems, with or without a therapist. I think the science says something like 80% of people would fix themselves. Forgot the exact numbers; but a vast majority would fix themselves.
I am not saying things in psychology do not work, but a lot of it comes down to stuff that people who are not fucking up their life know. If you're a person who isn't fucking up their life, and you meet someone who is, chances are you can develop a type of therapy that is as successful as what's out there now, without getting a college degree.
And the thing I find the most fucking stupid is, a lot of the people you study are from like the 70s, and they basically said "I studied psychology and this stuff is bullshit; I am going to come up with my own treatment method and keep track of the results to prove mine is better," which they did. So it was less than 50 damn years ago, and they ignored that shit they learned in college because it was basically garbage, but now we can't do the same thing. Mind you, they kept the good parts, which anyone with half a fucking brain cell could do now with current and older psychological methods, but that's it.
And because pieces of shit who can't fix their own fucking lives and want a "miracle pill" think psychologists can make them fart butterflies and piss rainbows, they decide to sue psychologists if they can't make it happen the exact second they want it to.
If you are thinking about paying a psychologist, I would try these first:
http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Life-Other-Dangerous-Situations-ebook/dp/B00F8LP88U/
http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Behavior-Therapy-Second-Basics-ebook/dp/B005HROKHU/
http://www.amazon.com/Coach-Your-Own-Life-Barriers-ebook/dp/B00VQL4VW0/
http://www.amazon.com/Get-Life-You-Want-Neuro-Linguistic-ebook/dp/B001OD41PC/
http://www.amazon.com/Reboot-Your-Life--Work-Were-ebook/dp/B01344BZ3E/
http://www.amazon.com/End-Jobs-Meaning-9-5-ebook/dp/B010L8SYRG/
Those books have just enough technical knowledge (how/why to do stuff), inspirational ideology and "mystical psychological mumbo jumbo" to help you fix most of your own problems.
And the worst part is, you know in college the biggest message they kept stressing over and over? "Get paid up front; get a retainer if you testify in court, or you won't get paid, or it won't be in a timely manner." Like the #1 message over and over "Get paid." Pffft. What a jackass-filled tom-fuckin'-foolery inspired joke institutional psychology is. I wipe my ass with my whole college experience, and don't much enjoy the profession. It's not the people; it's the fucking invisible leash that makes it so you can't really help people.
Would not recommend, unless you just want a tedious job helping people who would mostly eventually help themselves anyway.
It's a long story. Read this book (https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Cryptocurrency-Technologies-Comprehensive-Introduction-ebook/dp/B01GGQJ2XW/ref=pd_ybh_a_20?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=W0QTCV2Y10G4GWR703PE) if you want a solid understanding. It'll be a great investment for your time and $
https://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077
>Again, name a non-asian stable country.
>not knowing when our stability started, not knowing Western history, forgetting what nuance is yet again
>White people built the cities and their wealth
Fuck off. Don't reply to me anymore. I'm done with this White Pride^TM historically revisionist bullshit. Non-white people aren't people to you, and any of their contributions, innovation, or leadership in the Western world since its inception are invalid, so frankly, you aren't a person to me either. Your brand of culture that you express is trash.
It's cultish vomit, you should kys, and you should export yourself elsewhere where you aren't enjoying the fruits of past immigrants' labour out of ethical commitment.
Not completely on this topic (I don't have the time to find literature on hand for our conversation), but because of your illiteracy (combined with brash, dehumanizing extremity) I've noticed in some areas, here are a few accessible books I'd recommend reading in general
https://books.google.ca/books?id=XzJdpd8DbYEC&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0312611692
http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_and_the_People_Without_History
and, just to really get on your nerves, here's some interesting triggering history of philosophy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muqaddimah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Khaldun
http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/islamic-world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Haytham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ghazali
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahab_al-Din_Yahya_ibn_Habash_Suhrawardi
http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/al-jahiz.php
Islamic scholars also scoured the earth to obtain copies of books and texts so that they may build on that knowledge and share it with future generations. But progression in society is not always a certainty.
It's a book. Here you go!
In that case, I'd recommend Ian Morris's book from last year, "Why the West Rules--for Now." It looks at much of the same questions as Guns, Germs, and Steel, but from a different direction. Also, the conclusion (about the near future) is kind of astonishing, though the entire book leads up to it. I won't spoil it for you, but it's worth reading just for the conclusions.
If you're going to read this book, do not read any reviews or spoilers first.
Ian Morris does a good attempt at explaining Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future.
A good sequel to Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.
I don't think they're the best nonfiction books I've read, but really relevant today and with lots to think about and new books to explore after..
> made in China
== Made in Guangdong Province.
"Guangdong Province: Where we put lead in everything except your pencil".
Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game
by Paul Midler
One of the most interesting books I have read in a long time.
I understand the topic choice, seems interesting, but why exactly this book?
I suggest China's Second Continent, which is also more up to date.
*One of the Best Books of the Year at • The Economist • The Guardian • Foreign Affairs
When is the deadline for deciding a new book, and how do we decide? :)
Maybe we need a seperate post.
/u/n4kke had the following to say:
> I suggest China's Second Continent, which is also more up to date.
> *One of the Best Books of the Year at • The Economist • The Guardian • Foreign Affairs
1) How would dumping low-skilled labor into the US labor pool not displace or devalue US low-skilled labor?
I think the problem that a lot of people who look at it this way have is that they don't account for entrepreneurial expansion or the fluidity of human capital. I'm going to use farmers as my example for consistency but there are factory jobs, construction jobs, and other jobs in the food service sector that low/wage immigrant workers tend to take.
If a farmer sees a reduced cost of wages due to increased competition between domestic and international laborers on his/her farm, s/he has two possible ways to react: lower costs to the consumer (unlikely) or reinvest the excess money into the operation. This, in turn, increases demand in other areas of the economy in different ways and creates openings in other low-wage/low skill areas like factories, chemical plants, etc. Though these low-wage workers may not be able to work at a farm anymore, there's always the low-wage canning factory, farming supply store, repair shop, or other jobs that will grow as a result of an expansion at the farm.
What if these jobs don't exist in their area? Then the people may have to move to an area where the jobs do exist. The reason why the US economy is able to meet the demands of the world market so well is because most Americans are willing to move to get to the job that gives them the life they want. If immigrants come to Baraboo and push a bunch of farmer laborers out, they can always move to Stevens Point and work for Del Monte.
This reaction also ignores the fact that a person can, at any time, improve their skill-sets or education. Right now, we're having a discussion about people with very low skill-sets: lacking a high school diploma or GED, generally in the agricultural sector. The US has many opportunities for these people to advance to the next level of education or training if/when jobs become scarce. This is why Congress passed a bill that expanded tech colleges immediately after the Great Recession in 2008 to meet the expected demand of new students.
In all reality, though, the data is inconclusive as to whether or not a displacement or devaluation of domestic low-skilled labor occurs. When we talked about this in one of my econ classes, the only group of people affected by more immigration were the immigrants already in the US, legal or otherwise. I would actually like to see some research that demonstrates the sort of effect you're talking about here because I haven't seen any, yet.
2) What explains the flood of high risk-taking by immigrant labor?
This is widely believed but, I think, widely misunderstood. Most people who ILLEGALLY immigrate to the US are not taking excessive risks because only one incident with the police will demonstrate that they don't have legal documentation and send them to jail or to be deported. Here's an article by NPR (I know, biased but I'm doing this on the fly) that talks about it. From personal experience working with Latino immigrants to the US, I can say that the majority's biggest fear is that the police will have any reason to stop them because it would mean that they have to be sent home. A kid I worked with at a restaurant was pulled over for not having his car fully registered and he never showed up to work again.
I agree though, the places where most of these people are coming from are also some of the poorest states in their country. Nowadays, what we're seeing an increase of is immigrants from further south: Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, etc. and an overall decrease of Mexican immigration.
3) Though I'm aware of many border factories, didn't our subsequent deal with China wipe out the full promise of NAFTA?
Short answer: no. Long answer: Our investment in Mexico allowed Mexico to gain a competitive advantage in a lot of the manufacturing jobs that were displaced there. Though many of the factories that we initially relocated to Mexico have subsequently moved to China (and now to Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Indonesia) the Mexican domestic demand for many of these products remained and so the factories did, too. It's also easier to do business with Mexico because of our more similar cultural expectations, free trade agreement, and trust between nations. Mexico is a natural partner for the US and Canada.
4) I see you've referenced the Hamilton Project of the Brookings Institution; do you have non-political-thinktank sources to support your point?
Sorry, no, I looked hard, but the subject hasn't had a truly "independent" look yet. I can say that the book I read that initially discussed all of this was pretty balanced in its approach, but Paul Krugman and the professor teaching the class are both considered "liberal" economists.
4) Stuff on the bottom of your point
Yes, Mexico's inequality does remain very high and will continue to do so until they fix their institutions. The influx of wealth from the North did not fix their problem, it only helped alleviate ours a little. It's sort of like a teacher putting a kid's homework into their backpack every night. The kid still has to do the homework, but at least it's there for him to do.
And it will and should. I'm a free trade guy, so my take on this is that Mexico didn't have the infrastructure to effectively and efficiently produce corn that could fully compete with US corn. I whole-heatedly agree that agricultural subsidies should be reexamined, but I haven't studied it much so this opinion is based solely on the fact that I see it as spending the US government can't afford. I don't know the benefits of the system very well.
I strongly recommend listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History which has a multi-part set of episodes on this. (His podcasts on other topics are fantastic too.) As others have mentioned this is a very complex topic and there are many different threads woven through it.
I also strongly recommend reading Why The West Rules. Ignore the title and final section. The majority of the book is about human history showing how things progressed and regressed in various parts of the world over time and is absolutely fascinating.
> "There is literally no industry in the world that we have an advantage in," he said. "‘Our most prolific companies, Nortel, BlackBerry, Bombardier -- we’re not good at running businesses, period, and it has to do with our culture. We’re not as aggressive and competitive and capitalistic as the folks down south."
Wow. Finally someone said it in print. And we all know it's true: What major Canadian brands are household names, outside of Canada? None. Why the hell do we (Canadians) drink so much Corona but do Mexicans drink Molson's? No.
Why does Switzerland, Sweden, or Australia, etc...all smaller countries... have much greater success at growing 'National Champion' globally-recognized businesses and brands? Why are there no more Canadian branded automobiles? (we used to have a number of Canadian auto manufacturers).
Hasan is dead on. But he doesn't need to join our national inferiority complex over it - we have a limited head start, so get out there an out-compete. Dominate the market.
https://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496257208&sr=8-1&keywords=poorly+made+in+china
Read this book a few years back. Sure, it might be cheaper and you might be getting a good deal, but especially on food grade equipment, that's still a risk.
The Chicoms are well known to steal intellectual property, and make knockoff items.
They made their own molds and dies from reverse engineering foreign designs, most likely.
There is no such thing as patent law protection in China. They steal and cheat anyway and however they can.
Read the book "Poorly Made In China", by Paul Midler.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470928077/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_jgnYDbCKCFEKY
> I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers from
This book.
God damn you love the BBC. Do you work for them?
Who the fuck says "I know they were biased against my country's referendum" then goes on to be an apologist for them.
So its not about left and right. That is just a distraction. It is about whatever the Government supports. Since that is all over the place (left and right) it makes sense that both sides point fingers and idiots like you think they have it all figured out. "See they cant be biased because both sides accuse them".
The reality is there is only one side to the BBC. The Government side. Because they are Government mouthpiece..
Prove me wrong.
Was the BBC for the Scottish Referendum?
Was the BBC for the Iraq War?
Was the BBC for the invasion of Syria?
Do they support Israel at every turn?
Yep, just like the British Government...
This is how the free market works. If you have a good or service people want, they pay for it. You do not profess to be fair and balanced so the Gov should institute a tax and make everybody pay for it for you.
Here is a book you might want to read if you can get your brainwashed ass out from in front of the BBC--- Oh, and Fuck you...
http://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Nations-Adam-Smith/dp/1505577128/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427228310&sr=8-1&keywords=adam+smith