Fund-of-funds Books

What a fun book to read. Personal anecdotes from the lives of these big-name politicians and their "challengers". Bottom line - unless the incumbent really messes up - there is no way possible to beat one - period.

The authors have a great understanding of the political process and the built-in advantages enjoyed by incumbents. For anyone involved in, or simply interested in, elective politics, I recommend this book enthusiastically.

The authors explore several races in which incumbents were challenged by relative newcomers or, as they might describe them, "usurpers." In virtually every case, long term office holders seem to consider the positions as "theirs" rather than the people's. Each challenger had to try to overcome the advantages which legislators had (over time) enacted for themselves -- everything from dispensing "pork," to using staff and free postage (the franking privlege), to the "old boy" network exercising fund raising and other political muscle to protect its own.

The book was brought to my attention because one of the featured challengers is Charlie Gerow, a candidate for Pennsylvania's 19th Congressional District seat. Charlie is a friend of mine who waged two campaigns against Congressman Bill Goodling (a member of the House for over two decades, after succeeding his father). Having worked in Gerow's campaign, I can attest that the authors did their homework as to events and consequences in those races. I presume the same care was taken with respect to the other chapters.

In his foreward to the book, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm refers to stories "of courage, determination, and dedication; and treachery, cynicism, corruption, and idealism." I know from my experience with Gerow of the "courage, determination and dedication" it takes to run against an incumbent as well as the "idealism" which one must have to take on such a challenge. As to "treachery, cynicism, corruption," I recommend reading each of the stories and deciding for yourself.

"Against Long Odds" is a good read for anyone involved in or interested in elective politics. The authors understand well the advantages enjoyed by incumbents: taxpayers footing the bill for "newsletters" (really campaign literature) and for research staff while challengers either have to pay or rely on volunteers; they solicit contributions from organizations (or their employees) which are subject to their oversight powers; they utilize the "old boy" network of fellow officeholders for incestuous self-protection. Merriner and Senter explain, with graphic examples, the uphill battles faced by challengers and the arrogance of some incumbents in protecting "their" seats.

The book is composed of short, easy to read chapters on each of 14 races. One is devoted to Charlie Gerow's challenges to Pennsylvania Congressman Bill Goodling (who has been in the House for over two decades, after having succeeded his father). From my personal involvement as a friend and volunteer for Gerow, I can attest to the accuracy of reporting by the authors. They did their homework, and I assume the remainder of the book was equally as well researched, reported and documented.

In his Foreword, former Colorado Governor Lamm says "The book also tells very readable stories of courage, determination, and dedication; and treachery, cynicism, corruption, and idealism." I saw at first hand the kind of "courage, determination, and dedication" it took for Gerow to run against the formidable forces available to a long-term incumbent and the "idealism" he had to bring to such a challenge. As to "treachery, cynicism, corruption," I leave it to each reader to make his or her own determination in each chapter of the very good book.

One of the best books. The best book I ever read on Investing. You will LOVE this book. You will learn a LOT! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.

Congratulations to Mr. Little for having written a fantastic easy-to-get-through primer on the investing world. All essentials are explained and explained WELL, and no relevant terms are left out. For an investing manual, this read went by fast!

The author didn't make you feel like a dummy, even though the subject matter could've easily led to a condescending approach. Ken Little's tone was like that of a friend. Examples: "Don't get too hung up on being precise with these terms, because their definitions are very fluid. Toward the end of this hour we will introduce you to a widely accepted way of classifying mutual funds that is not arbitrary." (page 163); "The lesson here is that you shouldn't get tripped up over broad terms such as 'growth' when considering stocks. If you want an objective determination, use one of the several systems available, such as Morningstar.com. This will help you compared like stocks and avoid ridiculous questions such as, 'Should I buy AT&T or Amazon.com."

The book was divided into 24 chapters, with each chapter organized to take up one hour of time for the average reader to get through. And because this book is sincere in trying to get the reader to learn and be serious about what he has just read, every chapter/hour has a short multiple-choice quiz to test the reader's understanding and retention of the material for that chapter. That's a nice touch.

This book takes a proactive stance in getting the amateur investor up and running. For beginners who are intimidated about getting their feet wet and those who don't know where to start, the book frequently offers lists of "5 things you can do today."

This book is a great instruction manual for novices, a good reference guide, and is very well-crafted. Bravo.

This book is a broad introduction to the concept of investing. It is broken into five major sections:

1. Getting Started, which talks about goals, credit card debt, budgets, and basic investment vehicles
2. Doing the Research, which discusses retirement plans and ways to find information you need to invest
3. Mutual Funds, Stocks, and Bonds, which finally dives into the details on those investment vehicles
4. Making Choices, which introduces various investment strategies
5. Working Toward a Goal, which wraps things up with portfolio examples, the level of participation in your investments, and retirement

First off, I want to note the author's tone and his style of writing - Little presents information in a very easy-to-understand manner, with simple examples and witty jokes. The book does not feel tedious, and you can fly through it quickly.

Each of the five sections consists of multiple chapters, which Little calls "Hours." The idea is that you can, of course, learn about investing in 24 hours - so there are 24 chapters. At the end of each chapter is a hands-on workshop and a quiz. While the quizzes are basically a joke (the answer choices are beyond obvious), the workshops are a great practical way to get your hands dirty and start looking at the wealth of information available to investors. Little provides multiple websites (although some are, of course, outdated) and other ways to get the information you need. I suggest you follow through some of the book's workshops - i.e. look over some annual reports, think of investment goals, etc.

A big plus for this book is that it provides very practical information. It describes (although very briefly) the financial documents that a company publishes (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow) and some ways that companies can be evaluated using some basic ratios - EPS, P/E, PEG, P/S, etc. Unfortunately Little does not spend a lot of time on how to use these values to help determine the financial strength of a company. He just instructs the reader to compare the values to those of other companies in the same sector/industry.

In Hour 6, the diagrams used to demonstrate how to read stock/fund price changes are unfortunately botched in a major way. The columns are not wide enough, and values are truncated or carried over to the next line. This is very confusing. In addition, some of the columns referenced in the text don't seem to exist at all in the diagrams. This is a huge miss by the editors - very disappointing.

While Little attempts to target a very broad audience by demonstrating investment strategies, goal planning, and risk management for various age groups, the overall feel of this book is that of one written for a very specific group of people: individuals who are suddenly realizing that retirement is not so far off - and that it's time to start planning for it.

Little constantly reinforces the notion of tax-protected accounts (i.e. the 401k and the IRA family) - yes, we get it, it's nice to have tax-deferred and even tax-free growth, but some of us would like to use the money we make before retirement. Little furthermore explicitly recommends moderate-risk investment strategies (even though he describes aggressive strategies, as well), spending many pages on why mutual funds are great. He also has a section on how to get rid of credit card debt and find money in your budget to begin investing. Finally, Little targets "retirement" as the example of every long-term goal he discusses.

Don't get me wrong - Little does an excellent job making the reader comfortable with the notion of investing. He stresses again and again that you don't have time to lose - and you need to start NOW. But it always feels like he's addressing the middle-aged individual who needs to get his/her finances in order and start thinking about retirement.

I wish Little would spend more time on stocks rather than concentrating so much on mutual funds. He groups stocks into 3 very broad categories - value, growth, and income. While this might be the way that some mutual funds label their holdings, I feel that this classification of stocks is a gross oversimplification. Peter Lynch does a much better job of this in his One Up on Wall Street. But then again, Little's goal is not to teach the reader everything about stocks - but rather get him/her familiar with the basics. His ultimate advice is to go with stock index funds rather than individual stocks.

Finally, I wish Little would spend a bit more time on advanced topics such as options, futures, and shorting. He defines each concept, but he dismisses these vehicles as overly risky - yet he doesn't describe the risks very well. He also mentions that options can be a good hedge to protect your investments, but he stops there. I feel that Little could have spent more time describing HOW to use these vehicles, and WHY they can be so risky. Simply saying that, in options trading, you could lose all of your investment (meaning the premium) is not enough.

In conclusion, I have mixed feelings about the book. I was very skeptical half-way through, but the book picked up in the middle and taught me some things I didn't already know - so I am glad I finished it. It got me to look at a balance sheet for Goldman Sachs and try to figure what's going on. However, keep in mind that, unless you have absolutely no knowledge of investment vehicles and their markets, this book will not teach you a lot. It will get you started - perhaps you will muster up the guts to invest into an S&P 500 index fund via your 401k plan... but to do anything else, you will need more. Nevertheless, if you are new to investing and are realizing that retirement is not far away, this is a great book to get you started.

Pros:
+ easy and quick read, lots of examples, witty jokes
+ practical information - financial docs, stock ratios, general tid-bits of advice, examples of portfolios
+ useful workshops that make you try things on your own

Cons:
- diagram errors in Hour 6
- some things are repeated many times
- could spend a lot more time on stocks and on advanced topics (options, futures)
- feels like it's targeted for a very specific audience

I heard the editor of this book interviewed on NPR Fresh Air about two months ago -- the interview was pretty incredible and was an excellent complement to the book. Take it in if you can.

Are you providing care for a loved one? If so, you're not alone (although it may sometimes feel that way). As this timely book relates, about 26 million Americans are looking after an ill or disabled relative or friend. These "informal caregivers" are providing an average of 18 hours of care a week, often while holding down full-time jobs or raising families, or both. If these caregivers were paid for their work, their economic value would total $200 billion a year-one-fifth of national health care expenditures. This is far more than we spend on home health care and nursing home care--combined.

This book, a collection of essays by different authors, looks at why the demands on family caregivers are growing and how the health care system can better meet their needs. The book combines the personal stories of caregivers, often movingly told, with professional insights on the impact of caregiving on workers and families. What comes through all the chapters is the lack of social support for caregivers under our current system. The cost constraints of managed care have shifted costs and caregiving responsibilities to families. Often family caregivers are required to provide high-tech assistance and perform the work that nurses or physical therapists used to perform. In trying to cope, caregivers are going it alone for the most part, and the stresses are sometimes unimaginable. In one particularly heart-wrenching chapter, Gladys Gonzalez-Ramos describes how her father finally buckled under the isolation of years of caring for his wife, who had advanced Parkinson's disease. With his wife's apparent consent, he shot her and then killed himself.

Such dramatic action, of course, is not the norm. Most caregivers struggle on in silence, internalizing the stress and pain they feel. Many could benefit from psychotherapist Barry Jacobs' brief but extraordinarily helpful chapter, "From Sadness to Pride: Seven Common Emotional Experiences of Caregiving." But caregivers need more than emotional support. As Rabbi Gerald I. Wolpe puts it in his account of caring for his wife, most caregivers "are in an almost constant state of caregiving." They need breaks, they need more help from a medical system that off-loads patients onto families as quickly as possible, and they need relief from insurance companies and HMOs that are reluctant to pay for home health care.

Always on Call is a much-needed step in the right direction. It is written for a broad audience--family caregivers, health care professionals, administrators, policymakers and advocates. Through its powerful first-person accounts and resources section, the book offers solace to caregivers struggling under our current system. Through its concrete suggestions for improving that system, Always on Call also offers them hope for a better future.

This book brings home many of the realities people who care for relatives and friends face each and every day. It uses personal stories to illustrate the many ways people find themselves in the role of caregiver: the editor was catapulted into the role when her husband was in a car accident. Others found their caregiving increased as relatives slipped into the grip of Alzheimer's disease or AIDS. Beyond anecdotes, the book also asks key policy questions: like whether there are any limits to your responsibility for caring for a family member, whether the health care system is able to communicate clearly with family caregivers and accommodate their needs. It also offers clear suggestions for those who find themselves giving care including web resources and advice on how to go about looking for the help you need. This book helps put your experiences into context...both with other caregivers, and within the existing health care system. Most of all, it points up the systemic flaws, and offers suggestions for repairing a system that runs on the emotions, savings and lives of millions of American caregivers. If you don't need the information here right now, you are likely to need it in the future.

The author touches on many aspects of analyzing the performance of an investment portfolio and the investment manager. The book is more basic overview than handbook or how-to manual. It is not quantitative or in-depth enough for the practitioner but may be of use to a layman finding himself with new fiduciary oversight responsibilities. The book is now 10 years old so most of the tables covering historical performance of investments and investment styles cover a period ending in 1995.

Very insightful in helping understand the elements that must be considered in investing into a portfolio and in managing a portfolio. Very well written and complete.

The book is very well written and strikes the right balance between portfolio math and a discussion of the various ideas in investment performance. I specialize in automating financial reports and this book explained what many of these reports were trying to do (but which, I now see, could do better). I spent ($$$) for this book (...) and it was well worth it. This book isn't about beating the market, it's about understanding the components of one's investment return. How much is related to the balance of the portfolio, the stock selection, the market's broad movement. Was the manager taking unnecessary risks? If he did well was it due more to the portfolio's balance or the market's movement. I also keep going back to this book, it's a great reference.

This book is perfect for introducing your little one to the many animals and ethnicities of the world.

this book is not bad, but not one of my son's (18 mos) favorites. we both enjoyed global babies very much. if you are looking for animal books...we like busy doggies and busy barnyard. not a bad book though.

We found this book at our local library: what a find! The real life pictures are from all around the world, featuring children of all ages holding the animals ingidinous to their part of the globe. About 14 pages of about 5 words per page, it was perfect for my newly toddling son. A very nice example of diversity within a child's book.

This is certainly the best book I found on the modelling and managing of risk for funds-of-funds in private equity. It contains a lot of hints on the currently evolving literature on PE funds-of-funds and describes a complete and integrated approach on how to measure, monitor and manage values and associated risks.

Beyond being the perfect starting point to learn more about this growing market segment, it also provides a lot of input to the practitioner who up to now has not been aware of pragmatic & efficient risk and rating (scoring) models for such funds. While some of the newer papers from academics rather aimed at details or were sometimes exaggeratly sophisticated, this books combines best-practice from theory and practice.

Well done!

I always enjoy reading books on the venture industry written by professionals with practical expereince because the others are usually do not add much insight. However, not all industry experts write insightful books, but this is an exception. However, the price is a bit steep for less than 400 pages.

I would have given this book the highest rating but "The Startup Company Bible for Entrepreneurs" is the best book in my opinion. It is not only for entrepreneurs but VCs and anyone else who wants to gain an in-depth understanding of te venture capital industry and process. It may even be too advanced for some entrepreneurs but if you want to understand and do it right, look no further! Be warned: its 600 pages

These two books would go great together because they are both advanced and very insightful, unlike most of the other books on the subject.

Mssrs. Meyer and Mathonet have produced a valuable resource for building and managing a portfolio of venture capital and private equity funds. The book demystifies private equity investing, and presents a quantitative and qualitative approach to the fund selection process. It has been a key resource in the development of our fund, and we reference it often. This book is great for institutional investors, and should be on the shelf of academics as well.

Joseph Addison's (1672-1719) Play "Cato: A Tragedy", first staged in 1713, inspired many enlightened thinkers in the 18th century with its portrayal of the Roman senator Cato the Younger's (95-46 B.C.E.) willingness to commit suicide rather than to live under the tyrannical rule of Julius Caesar. The play takes place during Cato's final hours of resistance to Caesar. George Washington remarked it was his favorite play and had it performed for his men in Valley Forge during the revolution. Washington found in the play a powerful statement on patriotism, liberty, virtue and honor. He quoted from it extensively in his writings. The most famous use of the play was when he met with disgruntled officers in Newburgh, New York right after the war. They had met to contemplate taking over the government by force because the Continental Congress hadn't paid them. Washington got their attention by taking out a pair of glasses to read a letter he had recently sent to congress. As he donned the glasses he quoted a line from the play, "I fear I have grown old in the service of my country." After this remark it is reported that there wasn't a dry eye in the room and after he read the letter the officers dispersed. Nathan Hale echoed another line from the play, right before he was to be hanged by the British as a spy; "I regret, but that I have only one life to give to my country."

In addition, Addison has a great reputation as an essayist admired by none other than Samuel Johnson and Benjamin Franklin. This edition includes 32 essays extolling the virtues of liberty, and government free of corruption. Tories and Whigs in the English Parliament admired him. Joseph Addison studied in Oxford in Latin and Greek Classics. He served as a member of parliament, and became widely known as an essayist, playwright, poet and statesman.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history of the founding era of the United States.

The Roman senator, Cato the Younger (95 BC - 46 BC) stubbornly resisted Julius Caesar's rise to power, but was ultimately defeated by Caesar in north Africa. Addison's play focuses on the last days of Cato's life, as Caesar's forces advanced. Although others urged Cato to come to terms with Julius Caesar, Cato resists to the end, finally committing suicide rather than surrendering. This tragedy has strong political overtones, addressing the conflict between individual liberty and government tyranny and republicanism versus monarchism.

Writing a political play during a period of intense political rivalry in England, Joseph Addison avoided charges of partisanship by having the prologue written by a Tory poet, Alexander Poe, and the epilogue by a Whig poet, Samuel Garth. Although this tragedy was held in high esteem throughout the eighteenth century, today's audience may find Addison's effusive praise of Cato's political virtue tends to be rather one-dimensional, and thus not entirely convincing.

Cato remained popular for decades in England and even longer in the American colonies, becoming a literary inspiration for the American Revolution. George Washington had it performed for the Continental Army at Valley Forge. The famous quotes by Patrick Henry and Nathan Hale were apparently derived from Addison's play.

Addison's characterization of Cato lacks the psychological depth and complexity that is found in Shakespeare's tragedies, or even what we have come to expect in modern biographical films like A Man for All Seasons, Lawrence of Arabia, Patton, and Gandhi. To be fair to Addison, Cato was described by his contemporaries, including his political enemies, as having high moral standards and incorruptible virtue. In contrast, Addison portrays Cato's sons Portius and Marcus, his close friend Lucius, and his protégé Juba, the prince of Numidia, in more realistic fashion, all decidedly loyal to Cato, but subject to private doubts and other emotions.

Cato is considered by many as the best tragedy written in eighteenth century England. I give it four stars, in part for its historical significance.

Note: Individual editions of Cato may not be easy to find, but it is often included in collections of eighteen century English plays. The Everyman edition, titled The Beggar's Opera and Other Eighteenth Century plays (edited by David Lindsay), is a good source.

Collaboratively and expertly co-edited by academicians Christine Dunn Henderson and Mark E. Yellin (both of whom are Fellows at Liberty Fund), Cato: A Tragedy, And Selected Essays is a compilation of the writings of Joseph Addison, beginning with his "Cato: A Tragedy" which is an account of the final hours of Marcus Porcius Cato (95-46 B.C.), a Stoic whose deeds, rhetoric, and resistance to the tyranny of Julius Caesar made him an icon of republicanism, virtue, and liberty to this very day. Although popular in its day (1713), the play had fallen into neglect and this is the first scholarly addition to be made available to the general reading public. The play is then added to in this volume to provide readers with examples of Addison's attempts to educate England's 18th century developing middle class of merchants and tradespeople in the habits, morals, and manners he felt necessary to the preservation of limited government and a free, commercial society. Also available in a hardcover edition (086597442X, $24.00), Cato: A Tragedy, And Selected Essays is a seminal and welcome addition to the growing library of literature promoting conservative values such as liberty, self-government, an opposition to tyranny, the advancement of justice, and the advocacy of honor, patriotism, and integrity.

As a person who is just delving into the grant writing arena, I have discovered this book to be an easy to understand "must have" guide. Reading this book put the whole business of grant getting together for me. The section on research was really thorough and the budget chapter was really helpful.

This guide is a fantastic reference for grant writers, from those just starting out to very-experienced fundraising professionals-there really is something here for everyone. It's clear, well-organized, and engagingly written. It's also incredibly comprehensive, with information on every possible aspect of the business. The book walks you through the entire process, including who has the money and why they give it away, cultivation of possible sources, the actual writing process, budgets, even sample proposals of all kinds. The advice it gives is concrete and the information in it is easy-to-use. As an experienced grant writer, I highly recommend this book!

It was everything I anticipated and loaded with information I needed to know to further my research.

Excellent insight into the hot topics such as cost average, balance average, rebalancing between stocks & bonds & so on. Just pick the mutual fund, keep adding the money monthly & follow the authors recommendations. I highly recommend this book for patient investors who has 20 to 30 years to stash away his money to grow.

Excellent insight into the hot topics such as cost average, balance average, rebalancing between stocks & bonds & so on. Just pick the mutual fund, keep adding the money monthly & follow the authors recommendations. I highly recommend this book for patient investors who has 20 to 30 years to stash away his money to grow.

First of all with the exception of your 401k I believe a good investor should be putting at least 50% of their money in individual stocks as opposed to mutual funds. One of the reasons for this is that by basically doing nothing a investing in just an index fund ( the most basic mutual fund as far as how it works) return an average of about 15% per year over the last half century. The typical mutual fund does not beat that return, plus you have to pay the management fees( or loads if you are unenlightened enough to buy a loan fund) which can run about 2% of your total return.

This book goes over all the types of funds and how to pick winners. It also informs the reader how to watch out for funds that are heading for a fall such as recent management changes. As well as indirectly helping turn you on to a couple good stocks, as components of mutual funds.

My advice is to keep most of your money in stocks and maybye put 20% in a very good balanced fund. It is also worth noting that on yahoo you can look up the components of the top funds to see what stocks they are investing in. Obviously that is a way to look for some stock picks. Obviously that is not the only factor to consider but i have gotten a couple good picks off this method and got a 22% return in a 4 month period of general motors using that method

The (pretty much) complete take on the Hayek-Keynes feud.
The fact that Hayek was himself off track as to monetary policy was in no way a boost to Keynes's views on the subject.
He may not be at his clearest head here, as in the Constitution of Liberty, or Economics and Knowledge, but it's still interesting to see where he was coming from, as they now say.
I couldn't agree more with Mr. Mueller in saying that Caldwell's intro is a superb, almost stand-alone essay itself.

This particular volume of Hayek's collected works covers the very important exchanges between Hayek and Keynes over Keynes's theories of investment and capital originally put forth in 1930 in the Treatise on Money(two volumes).Keynes's General Theory(1936) approaches to investment and capital are the same as in the TM except for Keynes's decision to greatly emphasize the importance of the uncertainty of the information and knowledge base(or,in Ellsberg's terminology,the ambiguity of such information and knowledge) in economic decision making concerning future events(about investment in fixed capital subject to technological change and obsolescence) where the probabilities are both unreliable and unclear.Keynes and Hayek have completely opposite positions concerning the differences between fixed capital,subject to the impact of uncertainty in decision making,and circulating capital,subject to the impact of risk,but not uncertainty.Hayek is very clear-there is no fundamental difference between fixed capital and circulating capital:"To over-emphasize the distinction between fixed and circulating capital,which is, at best,merely one of degree,and not by any means of fundamental importance,is a common trait of English economic theory and has probably contributed more than any other cause to the unsatisfactory state of the English theory of capital at the present time".(Hayek,p.177;see also pp.86,99-100,103-108,168-170,etc.).Hayek's misbelief that he could present a theory of capital that abstracts from uncertainty is in direct contradiction to Keynes's theories that argue[for a modern ,mathematical treatment of Keynes's theories,see any article or book by Dixit and Pindyck on the "real options" approach to investment projects that are fixed(sunk ,durable capital)]that uncertainty and/or ambiguity is fundamental and any attempt to abstract from it can only result in a very special theory applicable in conditions where there is no uncertainty.This book shows the immense gulf that separated Keynes and Hayek intellectually.While Hayek would later acknowledge the importance of uncertainty after the appearance of the General Theory,uncertainty has NO impact at all in the final conclusions reached by Hayek concerning investment and the business cycle.Since uncertainty makes absolutely no difference in the final decision outcome,there is no difference at all between Hayek and a neoclassical economics based on the Ramsey,De Finetti,and Savage subjective approach to decision making.

The reviewer Mr. Brady attempts to dismiss the work of Hayek because of his failure to adequately distinguish between fixed and circulating capital, in addition to paying insufficient attention to the role of uncertainty.
This observation is admittedly partly true. When Hayek began his work on business cycle theory, he paid very close attention to equilibrium analysis, believing that any explanation of downturns would have to include equilibrium statics if it hoped at all to be tenable. Hayek brought this belief over with him to the LSE and used it to criticize the theories of Maynard Keynes, who failed to incorporate a robust theory of capital structure into his account of economic disruption(according to Hayek). But if Mr. Brady bothered at all to read the excellent introduction to this volume by Bruce Caldwell, all of this would be clear. Hayek increasingly came to abandon equilibrium analysis in favor of a theoretical view that consistently embraced subjectivism and uncertainty. It is on this point that I wish Mr. Brady would have extended his last sentence into a fuller discussion of the fundamental differences of Mr. Keynes and Mr. Hayek with respect to their overall economic outlook given their beliefs in ineradicale uncertainty. Hayek does seem to place excessive faith in the capabilities of the market system, but Keynes, while justifiably remaining sceptical, demands repeated acts of government intervention as the means of avoiding the errors that attend the arena of uncertainty. These two positions are interesting, if only because their discovery of the uncertainty principle led them to adopt positions that occupied two extremes. I believe Keynes was right in attacking neoclassical economics and its program of economic efficiency in the absence of government regulation. But it in no way follows that a theory of chaos and confusion (uncertainty) should commit us to a position or policy of rigid rule-making. Such activity may very well exacerbate this perpetual state of ignorance that we find ourselves in daily. Keynes, with his emphasis on uncertainty, cannot have his cake and eat it too. A consistent application of uncertainty would, in my view, seem to distance us from both a commitment to laissez-faire and government regulation.


Anyway, if the above paragraph interests anyone, then this is a book that is worth reading. The debates between Hayek, Keynes and Sraffa are fascinating, and shed considerable light on some of the most fundamental questions of economic theory. Bruce Caldwell's introduction is worth the price of the book alone.