Christmas 2011: Michael Kile

 Satyajit Das, Extreme Money – Masters of the Universe & the cult of risk (Penguin Portfolio, 2011)

The rule of extreme money is that everybody borrows, everybody saves, and everybody is supposed to get wealthier. But only skilled insiders get richer, running and rigging the game.

Epic in scope, Das’s big book is an insider’s devastating analysis of how the “exuberant” pursuit of money morphed into the most dangerous extreme sport of our generation and its devastating global consequences. If you seek a deeper understanding of current crises and their causes, this lively and illuminating critique of the rotten core of modern finance and banking is for you.

Ajahn Brahmavamso, The Art of Disappearing – The Buddha’s path to lasting joy (Wisdom Publications, 2011)

Have the financial alchemists sacrificed your life savings on the altar of risk? Have you ever asked – “Why me?” Is “minding my own (mind’s) business” your new year’s resolution? Or would you just like to get to know your inner alien? If so, this new book by Ajahn Brahm – master of inner space, graduate in theoretical physics and winner of the 2004 John Curtin Medal – will give you helpful tips on how to deal with life’s shocks, slings, arrows, rocks, rogues, reefs, rips, and rip-offs. 

Donna Laframboise, The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken for the World’s Top Climate Expert

“This is one of the most important pieces of investigative journalism in recent years.”    Matt Ridley

Reports by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the delinquent teenager) are a key reason why carbon taxes have or are being introduced by some governments, energy costs are rising, and new regulations are being considered to settle the West’s “climate debt” by transferring billions to the developing world. It is also why so many believe (incorrectly) carbon dioxide emissions are dangerous.

Donna Laframboise is a fearless Toronto-based investigative journalist. Her short e-book, the product of two years research, reveals aspects of the Panel’s work and processes are flawed and not the product of an impartial compilation of evidence.