Global Trade and the History of the Wheels of Commerce Considered - A Book Review

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How much do you really know about the history of economics and free trade? I feel as if I know more than 99% of the people on the planet, but perhaps that's because I've studied a three-part volume entitled the wheels of commerce. I think you should pick up a set for yourself. If you'd like to learn more let me explain what I mean and describe to you what's in volume 2 as an example;

"The Wheels of Commerce - Civilization and Capitalism; 15th through 18th Century, Volume 2" by Ferdinand Braudel, 1979.

The 15th and 18th Century is when capitalism really took off. In this particular second volume we see the slow evolution towards what we consider today to be economics. The first volume explained how "economic life" started and how using a unit of trade increased and individual's, or family's quality-of-life. Now, in this volume we see how cross roads became trading points for villages, towns, and cities and how the wheels of commerce started turning.

Indeed, this is a tale of economic history; how capitalism and trading changed everything forever. How free and open markets with shops, distributors, traders, dealers, salesmen, bankers, and even what might now be considered a stock market in Amsterdam were only the beginning. This book tells of the London Royal Exchange, French and Dutch banking, and the exchanges of paper money and distribution in China, bankers and India, and the ships that distributing goods, and those using the silk Roads all participated in what we consider today to be global trade.

The book explains merchants and trading circuits, and self-regulating markets. During this time were the first uses of the words; capital, capitalist, capitalism. It is interesting that most economic textbooks have a brief chapter or two perhaps on how it all got started, but it is very interesting to read a huge three volumes set of books on the subject. It's amazing to me that we do not teach economics as we used to in the schools, and I bet if we did, we wouldn't have the types of economic crisis as we do today. I hope you please consider all this.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes in economics.

Truth About Global Economic Crisis: Book Review

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You want to read The Global Economic Crisis The Great Depression of the XXI Century, edited by Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall, if you meet these criteria: you welcome information and analysis about critically important issues that come from great thinkers outside the mainstream media and publishing world; you can handle brain pain from detailed and brutally honest revelations; you are willing and able to challenge your own biases and preconceptions to let in new explanations of how the world really functions.

If millions of Americans read this book, we would probably see a far stronger uprising against the political establishment that has refused to severely punish the countless guilty people in the financial, banking and mortgage sectors that brought down the US and global economic system.

This book ties together a large number of factors in twenty chapters that reveal just how corrupt the world has become because of the power of plutocratic, wealthy and corporate interests. From Wall Street corporate boardrooms to the Federal Reserve and other central banks to the US military and NATO, a multitude of threads get woven into a disturbing tapestry of crimes against society that still have not been prosecuted.

This book is truly an instrument of anti-brainwashing. If you are willing to spend serious time reading it, then you surely will become much angrier about the dismal state of the economy that is causing so much pain and suffering to ordinary people worldwide. If you personally have escaped the worst ravages of the economic meltdown, then you will have much more compassion for those severely affected.

In all honesty, if the current global economic crisis has made you angry, pessimistic, fearful, paranoid, despairing and worse, then this book will most likely exacerbate all such feelings. By revealing still more connections, implications and causes, this book will motivate you to do anything you can to fight the corporate, plutocratic forces devastating the lives of ordinary people. If you already have little confidence in government, it will only make things worse. Does all this mean you should avoid reading it? Absolutely not.

Here are a few statements from the book that resonated with me and that you can use to decide whether the general philosophic orientation of it is compatible with your views:

"Wall Street's Ponzi scheme was used to manipulate the market and transfer billions of dollars into the pockets of banksters."

"Government rescue packages around the world are corporatist in their very nature, as they save the capitalists at the expense of the people."

"The global political economy is being transformed into a global government structure at the crossroads of a major financial crisis."

Just gin up the courage to read it, get out several color markers to highlight passages and expand your knowledge to overcome all the propaganda constantly being hurled at you. We need more citizen unrest to energize more public protests to overthrow the powers that have corrupted and perverted our government. A key voice in the mainstream media that is in sync with the painful messages in this book is Dylan Ratigan who has a terrific daily show on MSNBC. He too should read this timely book.

How Did the Global Financial Crisis and Bubble Happen?

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Former FED Chairman Alan Greenspan made a very interesting comment when he testified before congress after the Global Financial bubble burst of late 2008. When asked how did this happen, he made a number of astute observations and comments, of course the most telling and one that has been repeated the most was; "I couldn't believe that bankers would act this way against their own interests" or something to that point.

Was it more irrational exuberance, only this time aimed at the banking sector? Well, if you'd like to read an extremely good book on the reality of "rational investment" on Wall Street than boy to I have a good book recommendation for you. The book is a really good read, but very detail oriented and philosophically based, which 100s of names, theories, examples, observations and a good bit of history on economic thought, and financial theory. The book is:

"The Myth of Rational Markets; A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street" by Justin Fox; Harper Business Book Publishers; New York, NY; 2009.

As the author takes you through some 350 pages, he never actually answers the question, which is the suggested in the title of the book; are markets rational? But, that is okay, as the reader, if intellectually endowed will have a very good understanding by the time they finish. All the pros and cons, and theories of this question are addressed.

I very much enjoyed the history, and his lectures on the evolution of economic and financial thinking. There were many folks listed in the book, as well as all their arguments. I enjoyed the comments about Warren Buffet, and the top academic scholars on investment theory, portfolio allocation schemes, capital asset pricing, and option pricing. Action packed with references galore, it's all here. Think on this.

Lance Winslow - Lance Winslow's Bio. Lance Winslow is also Founder of the Car Wash Guys, a cool little Franchise Company; http://www.carwashguys.com/history/founder.html.