New Ideas from Dead Economists: An Introduction to Modern Economic Thought by Todd G. Buchholz and Martin Feldstein

"Our children are no longer raised by people who know the world, not because parents have gotten stupid or lazy, but because the world has gotten too big to master. Parents must eventually learn to teach their children how to handle uncertainty - not how to ensure stability"

I find that all people that know very well their business, they obey two rules: first they can make even a stupid man understand, by simple and amusing stories, such a way regardless of how complicated all seems so simple and common; and second they can always look at many sides of the story, and as Keynes "always have two answers for one question". This reminded me of other two writers I liked a lot Stephen Hawking and Bill Bryson, that after analyzing many theories, inside up, they come to the conclusion that sill there is much to discover.

The book simply presents all the important economists and their ideas through the centuries, with lots of humor and simple example. I found out about: Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" - the free market, the division of labor, deregulations.. Found out the the prophecies of overpopulation and global climate change are actually very old, dating from Malthus time, that is around 1800. Found out how Ricardo's law of "competitive advantage" works, and why free trade is so important.

Jeremy Bentham's "pleasure, pain and arithmetic" sounded a little similar to Dalai Lama's teachings, thou I am pretty sure I have to read a little more into it.. :)

Also found out about John Stuart Mill's theories, Karl Marx life and "contributions", Alfred Marshall's marginalist theories, economic time - short and long runs (and how our perception of morality and ethics changes given a different time constraint), the biological view of economy.

And here comes the fun part:
1. Institutionalists:
- Thorstein Veblen and his "Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899) "Clothing use to have labels on the inside, hidden from view. [..] Ralph Lauren's name tells the world that the wearer can afford expensive clothing."
A follower, John K Galbraith - "advertising and salesmanship cannot be reconciled with the notion of independently determined desires, for their central function is to create desire - to ring into being wants that previously did not exist "

- The creativity of engineers, in the face of business man
- Economy and law - hand in hand, and how does it apply to negligence, property, crime and corporate finance.

2. MV = PQ : Keynes vs Friedman (monetarist), and how modern economies are shaken/driven by the four pedals that these currents created.

3. The Public Choice School/The politics as a business: trying to explain why politicians act as they do, and what are their constraints from an economical point of view.

4. The Rational Expectations and Behavioral Economics: that brings fresh ideas on stock exchange and the new economy we leave in. "Stock picking is ineffective because so many people engage in research and stock analysis." "Plenty of brokers and publicists rave about their predictions. Careful studies uncover little reason to believe them."
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky - theories on how people react depending on the why the problem is formulated. Rchard Thaler's intertemporal choice - how people value the future - the people discount the future too much.

Even so, even if my late-hour review is just a long list of names, at the end of the story it is a good start point to investigate more, at least on bold topics. Night night.

"All Marketers are Liars" - Seth Godin (Google presentation)

I've just seen this presentation from Seth Godin, about new means of marketing products, two years after his presentation, and I find him completely right and according to the directions of the Web3.0 in the last years.

It will be interesting to watch how Google and other companies apply this, for sure Apple does it; as well as to look fw for other presentations of the guy.

"Ideas that spread win", use this in conjunction with the power of internet communities, and you are a winner. Talk to the people that care about it (early adopters).

Check his blog and website.