The Age of Turbulence

What Hacker News says

1. machinehermiterJul 2021
   I second Designing Data-Intensive Applications.

   Deep Learning with Python by François Chollet I think works as an audiobook as well.

   I am a big non-fiction audio book fan and so much depends on the voice actor. I bad read can ruin the best content while Robertson Dean made Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence into an enthralling adventure story.

   thread
2. dave_sullivanAug 2011
   Founders at Work was a good one. Some that I really liked (not all biographical per se, some more non-fiction, and many non-SV related):

   ------------Tech------------

   "The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison" (Oracle, Ellison, the birth of the DB)

   "The New New Thing" (about Jim Clark, netscape, SGI, what became webmd)

   "In the plex" (Google)

   "The Nudist on the Late Shift" (kind of like founders at work, a bit light but hey)

   "Hackers" (by Stephen Levy, again, kind of light, but entertaining)

   "The Hacker Crackdown" (by Bruce Sterling, entertaining)

   ------------General Business------------

   "Losing My Virginity" (Richard Branson)

   "King of Capital" (Steve Schwarzman, guy that started Blackrock)

   "Art of the Deal" (Trump)

   "The Age of Turbulence" (Alan Greenspan)

   "Barbarians at the Gate" (RJR Nabisco takeover in 80s)

   "Liar's Poker" (the mortgage bond)

   "Den of Thieves" (Milken, Boesky, the junk bond)

   "Conspiracy of Fools" (Enron)

   ------------Historical------------

   "Carnegie" (by Peter Krass)

   "Dark Genius of Wall Street" (Jay Gould + most of the robber barons)

   "Titan: The life of John D. Rockefeller" (Rockefeller)

   "The House of Morgan" (JP Morgan, etc.)

   "Disraeli: A Brief Life" (Benjamin Disraeli)

   "Hitler: Hubris", "Hitler: Nemesis", "The Hitler Myth" (all by Ian Kershaw, all really good, covers a lot of territory)

   "Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945" (not biography but REALLY good)

   ------------Cool Story------------

   "Life" (Keith Richards, still in the middle of it but so far so good)

   "Blow" (the book that turned into the movie, they left a lot out of the movie)

   "Catch me if you can" (book that turned into the movie, again, they left a ton out of the movie, the book is autobiographical)

   That's a pretty good list of some of the ones I've enjoyed over the years, hope someone finds some of them enjoyable.

   Show morethread
3. zzzmarcusJan 2009
   This is, however jaded it sounds, is basically correct. Read Greenspan's book (Age of Turbulence) to get it in his own words. While he was running the fed he was definitely not a libertarian.

   In fact, I'd argue that that you can't be a member of the fed and be a libertarian, their entire purpose is to artificially manipulate the economy through government... or quasi-governmental intervention.

   thread
4. maxlybbertNov 2018
   It’s true that well-run countries generally don’t run into hyperinflation, but it’s also true that well-run countries turn into poorly-run countries very quickly (e.g., https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9_mR_M2zOc4Y2VhNzZkMDQtMDd... , feel free to ignore the first page; I’m only focusing on Gödel’s statements about countries turning into dictatorships).

   The first relatively recent, nonobvious, example of hyperinflation that comes to my mind is Brazil during military dictatorship (which, yes, qualifies as a banana republic). According to Greenspan’s “Age of Turbulence,” Brazil paid for 90% of its budget with taxes and bonds like a well-run country, and printed money to cover the gap. Middle class and upper class workers got contracts with automatic inflation pay raises, but lower class workers did not. Those automatic pay raises created a feedback loop and hyperinflation ( http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/brazilinfl.htm ). When prices got too crazy, they lopped off a few zeros and renamed the currency (e.g., cruzeiro, cruzado, novo cruzeiro).

   The solution to the problem was much more straightforward than I would have expected: (1) stop printing money to cover the deficit, (2) convince people that inflation would go away, and (3) get IMF loans to straighten out the government budget ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plano_Real , the loans were quickly paid off).

   I was convinced we would have high inflation when the Fed increased the money supply during the financial crisis ( https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BASE ). The fact that we haven’t shows that the Fed correctly predicted that people would want more currency on hand because of economic uncertainty, and in fact did a good job predicting the size of the change. I’m impressed that they did such a good job, but I’m not convinced they always will.

   I wouldn’t get rid of the Fed, and I don’t have any money in gold or any other inflation hedge. But I don’t expect our current low inflation to last forever (since the Fed has been targeting a higher inflation rate than we’ve seen, I don’t think the low inflation rate is proof that the Fed has complete control of things; it is arguably proof of the Fed’s limits to get what it wants).

   Show morethread
5. eruJul 2010
   > Europe had the Marshall Plan go into effect, Japan had very little reconstruction money.

   Please have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan#Expenditures

   Germany received less than half what the UK received from the Marshall Plan [1], and of course still had to pay reparations and some plans to dismantle German industry were also carried out.

   Also from the same page: "Former U.S. Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank Alan Greenspan gives most credit to Ludwig Erhard for Europe's economic recovery. Greenspan writes in his memoir The Age of Turbulence that Erhard's economic policies were the most important aspect of postwar Western Europe recovery, far outweighing the contributions of the Marshall Plan. He states that it was Erhard's reductions in economic regulations that permitted Germany's miraculous recovery, and that these policies also contributed to the recoveries of many other European countries. Japan's recovery is also used as a counter-example, since it experienced rapid growth without any aid whatsoever. Its recovery is attributed to traditional economic stimuli, such as increases in investment, fueled by a high savings rate and low taxes. Japan saw a large infusion of US investment during the Korean war."

   Ludwig Erhard is still known and popular today.

   [1] And we know how badly UK industry up until Iron Lady.

   Show morethread
6. sublemonicJun 2010
   Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan details his own relationship with Ayn Rand in his book The Age of Turbulence. I don't have the book or I'd pull direct quotes. But the gist is that he had an immense respect for her and she was a meaningful influence on his life.
   thread