John F. Wasik

Bloomberg columnist Wasik usually doles out financial advice, but here he attempts to link the "worst housing bust in generations" with the American Dream's realization in the suburbs. This is not an easy task. The book reads like two parallel tracks -- economics and suburbia -- that only occasionally touch each other, though by the end of the book it is clear that the affordability that Americans hoped for in distant suburbs ("spurbs", as Wasik coins them) cannot last, subject to rising energy costs, ill health and other factors. Wasik's primary argument sees Americans' belief in the insoluble equity of their homes as the root of the housing bust. Blame goes to homeowners more than lenders and others who push the American Dream, but the privatization of expenses that accompanied house depreciation did not help matters, as people could not then afford their mortgages. Wasik's reporting on sustainable houses does not address this problem. He is enamored by engineering and technical solutions, going so far as to equate prefab house designer Michelle Kaufmann with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. His solutions are a combination of homeowner-generated ones (green homes, energy production) and policies (transportation funding, adopting LEED in building codes, change real estate tax breaks) that ignore land use, density and other factors that would make living closer together the most sustainable solution of all. (Note: the excerpt above is from a June 2009 review of The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome on my blog, which I paired with Building Suburbia by Dolores Hayden. I added it to LT after noticing my Early Reviewer review for the former was not showing up. Longer review can be read here: https://archidose.blogspot.com/2009/06/book-review-two-books-on-suburbia.html )… (més)

John Maynard Keynes' won and lost fortunes propel this investment primer. Reuters columnist and Forbes contributor John Wasik offers Keynes as a prototypal value investor in his choices for the British government, King's College Cambridge, gentleman's-club hedge funds and his own holdings.

The strategies are pretty mainstream today. Wasik broadens his theme of Keynes as portfolio manager by noting later generations' debt to Keynes, and takes some delight in pointing out the Keynesian origins of the conservative economic worldview. He draws parallels between Keynes' "animal spirits" and Alan Greenspan's "irrational exuberance," uses Keynes' theories to explain the 2008 recession and recounts his warnings on concentration of wealth among what he might have called "the 5 percent."

The narrative only hints at Keynes' eccentric private life, which could have provided some "Downton Abbey" color. Wasik did as much in his illumination of Sam Insull and Thomas Edison for "The Merchant of Power." But for the executive's nightstand, this book traces the origins of personal investing basics, and shows they still hold true.… (més)