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Recommended Reading for Our Times
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"The shift in values from mother to son can also be viewed as allegory for our own nation's continuing cultural shift. We have moved away from the values of thrift and financial security held by our Depression-era parents to that of overuse of credit to fund lifestyles we cannot afford, that have not always brought happiness, and -- in the case of the foreclosure crisis -- that have caused dislocation and despair."
DOUGLAS J. DONATELLI
Chairman and chief executive,
based in Bethesda
"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds," by Charles Mackay (1841)
What it's about: An antebellum title whose lessons remain unheeded by many.
Donatelli says:"The book is a classic, which is always good to go back to. It describes financial bubbles in the 1600s to 1800s, most of which look ridiculous in retrospect but were very serious at the time. Today's markets are fraught with speculation; we seem to create bubbles for ourselves every few years, the two most recent being the Internet stock bubble and the residential real estate bubble. The book reminds us that these aren't new phenomena, that we need to recognize bubbles as they are occurring and that we always need to keep an eye on underlying fundamental values."
N. GREGORY MANKIW
Robert M. Beren professor of economics, Harvard University
"Capitalism and Freedom," by Milton Friedman (1962)
What it's about: The renowned economist argues for the necessity of capitalism in creating free societies in a book hailed by some as one of the 100 most influential of the second half of the 20th century
