We thank Yahsin Huang for the review and helpful feedback
I used to think that reading wasn’t my thing, but it turns out I read more books than I ever imagined I could.
I regret not writing down these reviews sooner. Most of the books were lent out to friends, so I have to rely on my memory here. Please take my recollections with a grain of salt, as they may not be entirely accurate.
Books that Left a Strong Impression
The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes
I read a Chinese translated copy published by SpringHill Publishing(春山出版).
This biography of Keynes, a famous economist, by Zachary D. Carter, focuses on Keynes’s personal life and his roles as a government official and diplomat.
- Keynes, trained as a mathematician, was also a member of the Bloomsbury Group, a collection of artists and novelists.
- The book vividly portrays their naive views about war. No one seriously thought WWI would happen.
- Keynes played a crucial role in helping the UK raise funds and resources in the war.
- He was also involved in post-war discussions on settling war debts, believing the imposed debt on Germany was too harsh and would have dire consequences.
- Keynes’s story comprises roughly two-thirds of the book. The remainder tracks the modern development of economics and Keynes’s impact on it.
- Keynes’s theories gained popularity in the US, but post-war US academia was heavily influenced by McCarthyism, leading many Keynesian scholars to be labeled as communists and marginalized.
After reading this book, I became curious about modern macroeconomics, a subject that had made little sense to me during my studies in finance. Microeconomics feels more scientific to me, as it builds on the theory of rational agents, similar to the reductionist approach in modern chemistry built on atoms.
The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level
I came across a tweet from Prof. John Cochrane about his new book, “The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level.” As someone deeply involved in the Ethereum ecosystem for years, I’ve been eager to gain a systematic view of money. In a video, Prof. Cochrane mentioned that much of the monetary theory we learned in school are outdated fairy tales that no longer apply to today’s environment.
I preordered this book and wrote a review discussing its implications for Ethereum.
I had previously taken Prof. Cochrane’s asset pricing course on Coursera around 2013 or 2014. It was a well-designed and well-lectured course, truly a public good.
Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time
I read a Chinese copy published by 八旗文化 Gūsa Publishing.
This might be the first anthropological book I’ve read. I wanted to explore what different domains of social science have to say about the modern world.
I noticed a recurring pattern in books that discuss work: they often exhume Keynes from his grave and ask him why people today work long hours instead of the 15 hours a week he predicted.
Another pattern I observed is the difference between economists’ views and those of anthropologists and sociologists. Most economists believe that the main problem in the world is either growth halting or growing too slowly. They argue that more growth means more resources and more tools at hand to solve problems. In contrast, anthropologists and sociologists often view the obsession with growth as the root of all evil.
The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World
I read a Chinese translated copy published by 衛城出版社 Acropolis.
Constitutions are something I’ve heard a lot about but hadn’t had the chance to dive into. People often compare consensus protocols to constitutions, yet constitutions are deeply rooted in regions and cultures. Finding a good introduction that offers a systematic view without delving into legal formalism can be challenging.
Luckily, Linda Colley, a great historian, is also a great storyteller.
The main thesis of the book regarding the origin of constitutions is that warfare became more violent in the 16th century. With the advancement of guns and ships, powerful kingdoms could launch long-distance strikes in remote lands and oceans. Constitutions, usually drafted by people with military backgrounds who could travel abroad and understand warfare, evolved as a means to conscript people to fight powerful invaders. In exchange, constitutions granted people some rights, such as the right to vote. This explains several things:
- Why did the first constitutions grant rights only to men and not women? Because men were the combatants recruited for war.
- Why doesn’t England have a (codified) constitution? The author argues that Magna Carta doesn’t count. England has never faced a direct threat of remote invasion before bomber planes were invented during the World Wars.
I also learned many interesting facts from this book. It indirectly answered some of my personal questions:
- Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” was heavily inspired by Napoleon.
- Simón Bolívar fought an independence war like George Washington. Why didn’t South America unite as a big global power like the US did? The book lists three reasons.
- First, in 1775, the population of North America was not very large. By 1790, the population of North America was about 4 million (excluding natives), but just the population of Mexico already exceeded that number.
- The second reason is that South America is much larger than North America. The USA’s independence involved only a few states along the East Coast, but South America was already split into dozens of controversial politics and unclear borders.
- The third reason is that the American independence received support from key global powers like France, so the British had to retreat if they didn’t win within a short time window. South America didn’t receive strong foreign support, and Europe was preoccupied with the Napoleonic Wars.
- London was a place where all exiled politicians and militarists had to come. Thought leader Jeremy Bentham wasn’t just about utilitarianism. He was born wealthy and never had to work in his whole life, yet he was busy connecting with politicians and writing constitutions for them. He exercised regularly to maximize his productivity for writing every day.
- Jeremy Bentham believed there was one perfect constitution that could be derived by logic and applied worldwide. Simón Bolívar was skeptical about that idea. Having lived a different life and witnessed extreme violence and poverty, he believed institutions should be customized for local people.
A 400-Year History of Taiwanese Economy
This book is also published by SpringHill Publishing (春山出版). Unfortunately, the book has no English translation yet at the time of writing this blog post.
2024 marks 400 years since 1624, when the Dutch left some text records in Taiwan. That’s why the study of economic growth starts 400 years ago.
For some quick background, an overly simplified history of Taiwan since 1624 is:
- The Dutch VOC colonized Tainan.
- The House of Zheng, a branch of the Ming Empire that was kicked out from China by the Qing Empire, fled to Taiwan and ousted the VOC.
- The Qing Empire defeated the House of Zheng and colonized Taiwan.
- The Japanese colonized Taiwan after the Qing Empire gave it up.
- The ROC, after being kicked out from China by the PRC, took over Taiwan post-war.
Some facts I learned:
- The Dutch bought Manhattan and built a wall for defense. They traded with natives there, and it later became “Wall Street.” The Dutch also bought land, built a castle, and a wall in Tainan. The wall still exists today, but there’s no Wall Street in Tainan.
- The Dutch people liked auctions. I was looking for places or stories related to auctions when I visited Amsterdam. It turns out there are quite a few in Tainan, the place I was born.
- Dutch people built the city and sold some IDs to people. If people paid tax and got an ID, they could enjoy some legal protection. The Dutch were understaffed to collect tax from each citizen, so they auctioned out the right to collect tax to the highest bidder.
- Chinese merchants came to the mountain to trade deer skin. The Chinese hunters also deployed unsustainable methods to trap hundreds of deer in a hole. The combined effect was that deer almost became extinct in the mountain. The Dutch people auctioned the permits to trade and hunt and regulated the mountain to make it sustainable.
- The House of Zheng didn’t leave many documents for historians to study.
- The Qing Empire was incredibly corrupt. Simple policies were difficult to enforce. They made mistakes in property boundaries and couldn’t build straight train tracks. People would bribe them to change the direction of the track, and the train staff would collect bribes. Dutch people handed a property list to the House of Zheng, who then handed it to the Qing Empire, but it was lost in chaos, so nothing was handed to the Japanese.
- The Japanese colonizers were meticulous. They improved sanitation by forcing local Taiwanese people to stop eating rats and clean their houses. They conducted unnecessary detailed surveys on land rights and census.
- The KMT-dominated ROC was no less corrupt than the Qing Empire. What’s common in both the KMT and DPP, the two major ruling parties in modern Taiwanese history, is a lack of faith in the free market. They prefer price controls in most sectors like industry, education, and the medical sector.
The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War
I read a Chinese translated copy published by 衛城出版社 Acropolis.
- Economic weapons are more effective against small countries but less effective against large countries.
- Most economists treat sanctions as an economic problem. They design a gravity model and estimate how much GDP can be harmed in the sanctioned country. However, Nicholas Mulder, a historian, argues that this is historically incorrect. Imposing political ideology is also a goal of sanctions, among others.
- The US was historically reluctant to enforce sanctions to stay neutral in European wars. Nowadays, sanctions are widespread and target individuals. As someone in crypto who cares about financial privacy, I feel there’s a need to understand this history.
- Keynes helped the UK raise funds and resources, while Robert Cecil tried to avoid enemies to raise funds and resources.
Other books and quick comments
- License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport (旅行許可證). I also have Statelessness (無國籍：一部關於身分、人權與國家主權的近代史) on my shelf. I was hoping to gain some understanding of identity and the problems surrounding it.
- A translated copy of 上野先生、フェミニズムについてゼロから教えてください! by Rye Field Publishing Co. This is a conversation between a famous feminist scholar and a famous comic author on the topic of feminism and in the social/historical background of Japan.
- What’s Cooking in the Kremlin: A Modern History of Russia Through the Kitchen Door. I got a translated copy by Acropolis. The author is a great storyteller. Telling history through food also makes the people relatable to the readers.
- Traverse Taiwan: On the Phytogeographical Origin of Montane Plants in Taiwan (橫斷台灣). This book has an English title but unfortunately is only available in Chinese. The book delves into the study of disjunct distribution, which explores similarities in plant species between two places so distant that they can’t be explained by traditional means of travel. The author specializes in the disjunct distribution between the Hengduan Mountains and mountains in Taiwan. These similarities paint a picture of geographical history and the interaction of biological forces. They also have geopolitical implications in modern history. For example, American ginseng, a Chinese medicine that is also distributed in North America, was exported to China in the late 18th century, mitigating fiscal stress for the newly founded United States.
- 羞辱創傷. This book is about Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) related to shame, which is a common theme of trauma source in Asian culture. During the school years or even in traditional workspaces, shaming is everywhere. The author is a therapist and an eloquent writer who is good at capturing the trauma source in Taiwanese culture that haunts our lives. It is said that some readers burst into tears in a bookstore when accidentally browsing one of her books.
- The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities. I got this book from my brother. I’m still in the early chapters, but I hope I can progress more this year.
- Real-World Cryptography by David Wong. I’m really happy to have a signed copy from the author.
- Diplomatic Gifts: A History in Fifty Presents (送禮的藝術). I was too busy and had to give this up. Books published by Acropolis look so fun to me, but my plate is constantly full.
Taiwan Classics Book Club 台灣經典書友會
I want to thank Oskar for organizing this study group and thank the three anonymous members who hold each of us accountable. The goal of this study group is to “eat our vegetables” and read books that are at least 30 years old.
Why old books? The rationale might be best explained by a quote from Oskar’s tweet:
“If you explicitly mark everything you read by the year it was published, you will likely be surprised by your contemporary bias. Most of the great works are in the past (and in the future).”
- The Road to Serfdom. We read this classic by Friedrich Hayek. I got a copy translated by Yin Haiguang from my father. We happened to do this study group at Wistaria Tea House, where liberal intellectuals like Yin Haiguang used to hang out.
- Dead Souls. This old book has many funny paragraphs that I found entertaining to read.
- The Left Hand of Darkness. I’m still 30% through the book. This sci-fi novel focuses on the cultures of people, which is fascinating to me. I saw the name “Ansible,” the devops tool originates from, referenced in the book.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude. I hope to finish this this year.
- The Castle by Kafka. I speed ran through an abbreviated simplified Chinese version.
- Das Kapital. I did not finish.
Summary
Before writing this post, I read Poor Economics and Power and Progress. I now feel like I’ve heard 11 opinions from 10 economists, and some more from historians and anthropologists. I learned lots of messy things along the way, not necessarily from the books above.
- Growth is the center of economics, everything else serves it. As the recently deceased Nobel Prize economist Robert Lucas put it: “Once you start thinking about economic growth, it’s hard to think about anything else.”
- When solving the problem of poverty, economists ask if the poor have some justifiable fixed point in the growth function, aka “poverty trap”, that stops them from growing themselves.
- When solving technology progress, economists build a growth model to ask if a certain way to invest in technology can best facilitate long-term economic growth.
- Some economists are pessimistic about modeling
- because of the fat-tail distribution and you’ll never empirically get parameters estimated for your beautiful model.
- because some philosophical problems for economics are unresolved yet. It is too early to build math models.
- Some historians think modeling misses the nuances in history.
- Some economists are optimistic about modeling
- if we carefully build the right abstraction and the right amount of complexity.
- We can validate models from the study of history
- Fuck Nuance
- Many agree that we learned lots of fairy tales about money in school
- There wasn’t evidence of bartering economics in history. Debt and tokens exist since day one.
There’s a common theme of why I decided to choose a book and invest time to read it.
There’s the desire to learn more about humanity subjects.
“Blockchain is a solution looking for a problem.” I heard this phrase somewhere but I was surprised to see people published various articles under the same title since 2016. There are definitely some truths in it, if not all. We’re very good at solving the problems within the blockchain, building decentralized exchanges, improving transaction privacy, and offloading computation verification with cryptographic tools. I see proficiency in developers, computer science academics, and even game theorists.
But for solving the real-world problem. I don’t feel most of the people get the competency for that. I think the main reasons are that the barriers of computer science and cryptography attract people with more proficiencies in these domains. The discourse about the real world in the blockchain sphere feels off and not authentic. We’re still lacking in engaging in conversations in humanities academics.
There’s the desire to free myself from the past.
I haven’t read Homo Deus but I like this quote:
This is the best reason to learn history: not in order to predict the future, but to free yourself of the past and imagine alternative destinies.
– Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Whether learning about the shaming from childhood, the 400 years of economic history, humans chewing cooked food a million years ago, or even a little bit longer, the plants began to migrate, all helps understand who I am, how I am shaped, and how different we could become.
Note: The post is edited by ChatGPT for fluency and flow.