The triumph of conservatism

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…gs.com/burnhamsbeat/2008/07/fannie-mae... . This happens again and again, thanks to the actual mechanisms by which Congress works. Government's End by Jonathan Rauch and The Triumph of Conservatism by Gabriel Kolko are great treatments of the subject. The real solution is that we need someone like Mark Cuban to start a competing stock market. He could create listing requirements that would include mandatory rules such as 1) requiring that companies only pay dividends (instead of doing stock buybacks 2) CEO's must get paid based on how the company does for the decade after they leave 3) all shareholders must either vote for the board members or hire a proxy voting firm, etc. etc. I don't know what the exact rules would be, but I'm sure someone could design a set of rules that would be both less obtrusive and more effective than our current…

The Triumph of Conservatism by Gabriel Kolko - the book for understanding the rise of corporate serfdom The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig - will make you nostalgic for the days of monarchy World on Fire by Amy Chua - the single best book for understanding globalization that I have read. The antidote to Tom Friedman. America's Great Depression by Murray Rothbard - very different from the story you get in school. Is he right? Two favorite tech books are Inside Intuit and The Manager Pool