Karthik Boyareddygari
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The Creature from Jekyll Island
- A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
- De: G. Edward Griffin
- Narrado por: Mark Bramhall
- Duración: 24 h y 21 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 6,045
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 5,332
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 5,329
This classic expose of the Fed has become one of the best-selling books in its category of all time. Where does money come from? Where does it go? Who makes it? The money magician's secrets are unveiled. Here is a close look at their mirrors and smoke machines, the pulleys, cogs, and wheels that create the grand illusion called money. A boring subject? Just wait. You'll be hooked in five minutes. It reads like a detective story - which it really is, but it's all true.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Lost confidence in author
- De Amazon Customer en 07-11-20
- The Creature from Jekyll Island
- A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
- De: G. Edward Griffin
- Narrado por: Mark Bramhall
Thought-provoking, compelling, and conspiratorial
Revisado: 04-09-23
As a newbie to economics, I cannot as of yet test the veracity of the overarching themes within this book, and I will admit that it can get a bit conspiratorial at times. But that is by no means a reason to dismiss this book out of hand because it also presents evidence that is not by any means common knowledge to support an alternative view of the last few centuries of history while simultaneously attacking the rationale and justifications for the prevailing view of history. I would much rather be considered by some to be a conspiracy theorist for entertaining revisionist history than to subscribe only to the view held by the mainstream and then being duped like everyone else when we all fall into a hole we can't find our ways out of — if only because history is written by the victors.
Having lived through the COVID panic, witnessing the responses of the FDIC and Fed to the failures of SVB/Silvergate/Signature (which are looking like veiled attempts at thwarting cryptocurrencies), awaiting in trepidation the introduction of the FedNow service (CBDC), and in general watching America follow a similar trajectory to other empires throughout history which collapsed after spreading themselves too thin, I can't help but think that there is something fundamentally true about this book's portrayal of history and central banking in general. I appreciate its treatments of the different kinds of money, the history of countries following/straying from a gold standard, the Rothschild formula, and mandrake mechanism. Just as with any theoretical construct, they are to be graded on a mixture of their explanatory power, predictive capability, and veracity. You don't need to believe that there is a literal cabal of men planning all these things to still grant that these constructs for one reason or another have manifested throughout history and continue to perpetuate to this day.
I won't say much more because I don't want to spoil some of the more mind-blowing claims, at least not until I've been able to look into them more thoroughly, but I can say that I fully intend to read through this again in a physical book so that I can take it slowly and verify information as I go. As with most books like this, the chapters where the author ventures into conjecture are the hardest to assess without the benefit of hindsight and most prone to conspiracy/alarmism, but they certainly were a shock to me and not something I will heed lightly. And if you disregard the facts, it definitely makes for a fascinating story that's hard to put down.
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Cooperation and Coercion
- How Busybodies Became Busybullies and What That Means for Economics and Politics
- De: Antony Davies, James R. Harrigan
- Narrado por: Pat Grimes
- Duración: 4 h y 39 m
- Versión completa
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General5 out of 5 stars 84
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 72
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Historia5 out of 5 stars 73
There are only two ways that humans work together: They cooperate with one another or they coerce one another. And once you realize this fundamental fact, it will change how you see the world. In this myth-busting book, Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan display their wisdom and talent for explaining complex topics; these skills have attracted a devoted audience to their weekly podcast, Words & Numbers, and made them popular speakers around the country.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Clear, Concise, and Informative
- De Jacob en 03-27-21
- Cooperation and Coercion
- How Busybodies Became Busybullies and What That Means for Economics and Politics
- De: Antony Davies, James R. Harrigan
- Narrado por: Pat Grimes
Sober and Thought Provoking Binary Classification
Revisado: 02-16-23
As a regular Words & Numbers listener, I was not disappointed in the least! While both Antony and James are excellent at appealing to the facts and figures to make their arguments, it would have been nice for there to have been a bit more of the indignation that James can pull off so well. It's no surprise then that chapter 9 on "Busybullies" was my favorite. Not only could you pick up on a certain level of disdain when reading that chapter, but was the one place where there was a discussion of the the kinds of people drawn to government whereas the rest of the book focused on how people adapted to various forms of coercion.
This appeals to those who are more libertarian in temperament while also not being completely satisfying to those who are anarchists, but I won't dock the book for not going into something that it wasn't meant to address. One topic that I really would've appreciated hearing their perspective on is schooling since the requirement to have a K-12 education is a form of coercion — especially since both authors are heavily involved with education broadly speaking.
Don't get me wrong, I still found this to be a very compelling read, and it's clearly a good recommendation for the uninitiated to get them thinking and perhaps more motivated to continue reading further going forwards. And honestly, this somewhat reminded me of Thomas Sowell's "A Conflict of Visions" since they both introduce a binary classification, explain it with some basic principles, and then illustrate how it manifests in a variety of facets of real life. Not only is the approach reminiscent of Sowell's work, but also the quality. Those familiar with Sowell's work will understand how strong an endorsement that is.
I really hope that we can see more publications out of this duo in the future!
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Weapons of Mass Instruction
- A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
- De: John Taylor Gatto
- Narrado por: Michael Puttonen
- Duración: 8 h y 32 m
- Versión completa
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General5 out of 5 stars 862
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 748
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Historia5 out of 5 stars 750
John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of traditional education which cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, introduced the now-famous expression of the title into the common vernacular. Weapons of Mass Instruction adds another chilling metaphor to the brief against conventional schooling.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I will never see school the same
- De Nicole en 05-21-15
- Weapons of Mass Instruction
- A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
- De: John Taylor Gatto
- Narrado por: Michael Puttonen
Fascinating and Scandalous but Egality Obsessed
Revisado: 10-26-22
Full disclosure, I already am a proponent of abolishing compulsory state schooling, but this book helped put more meat on the bones of my current understanding of how state schooling has robbed us of a more moral, productive, and educated society. Some other reviewers on various sites find damning the amount of anecdotal evidence presented, but I think it makes it all the more easy to empathize with when it is delivered in this fashion. It is even possible that he is relying on his confidence that the vast majority of people who read this book will be sympathetic to his arguments and assertions simply from having gone through state schooling themselves. However, he does run the risk of overstating issues.
For example, it was interesting learning about Alfred Russell Wallace since I was not previously aware of him. The reasons for his disappearance into obscurity being based on the social classes of the two is entirely plausible, but it does seem like the differences between Darwin's views and Wallace's views were greatly inflated. As I was listening, I had the thought that it was entirely possible — and in fact likely — for the evolutionary mechanisms emphasized by both Wallace and Darwin to not be mutually exclusive and rather supplement each other to form a more complete view of evolutionary theory. And while a quick Google search does not refute the large body of sources from which Gatto surely read to arrive at his conclusions, it doesn't seem that Wallace disagreed with Darwin's "survival of the fittest" explanation and even defended natural selection in his own writings.
Additionally, Gatto is almost obsessed with egalitarianism to the point of not giving research in economics, genetics, and social psychology its due. That there are natural elites in a variety of disciplines and crafts can hardly be denied, and a truly libertarian society would almost certainly give rise to natural centralization in certain fields because it actually outperforms against smaller units — which is not to say that it would expand indefinitely, just that smaller is not always better. And having read The Bell Curve, I do not see it making the arguments that he seems to find in it. I understand why he would not be keen on accepting any of its findings because of his strong, and admirable, belief that there is nothing ever wrong with the child, but I just don't think he spent the necessary time with the text to understand the nuances of what Murray and Herrnstein were arguing. And with the wealth of research into neuroscience and intelligence/consciousness, it seems that his discounting of factors such as IQ is to his detriment.
Still, I think the book shines in so many other areas such as his discussions of the origins and motivations of the American schooling system, propaganda and deception involved in selling Americans on the necessity of compulsory schooling, cases in which successful people could conceivably have traced their success in part to their more personalized education, ways in which compulsory schooling is severely delaying real-life experiences and maturity, how open-source education is preferable to factory schooling, failure of state schools to meet their stated goals, squashing of divergent thinking/thinkers by classifying them as losers in one way or another, and the last goes on.
This is a book well-worth reading, and I fully intend to get a hard copy to re-read in order to better absorb the information presented and also have it as a quick reference. Before that, I will probably listen to it again. Perhaps with the benefit of knowing the full story, I will catch something that I hadn't before. But if for no other reason, I highly recommend everyone read this because of how thought-provoking it is.
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