The End of Normal by James Galbraith

Surprise, this is not yet another Lasher review.  I actually read, understood and enjoyed a book about economics!  Galbraith debunks the mathematical model rigor of collegiate and post-grad courses and puts economics back where it is often missing, asking such questions as what happens to buying and selling when resources are scant or disappearing; is the value of every dollar spent by a government worth the same amount; and how can capital investments in production increase coincident with a shrinking need for human labor?

His questions, which I have probably paraphrased into kindergarten-like simplicity, certainly merit serious discussions between individuals and by those who aspire to elected government.

the best chapter in the book is called "The Fallout of Financial Fraud."  If I were to quote at length, I would be retyping pages.  Let's just start with control fraud:

"...  control fraud is fraud committed on organizations by those who control them ... building the problem of crime into the study of organizations ... organizations that are most vulnerable to being taken down from the top, through devices that transfer funds to persons who are in control ... from the simple device of overpaying top executives ... left unchecked, fraud grows to the point where self-dealing exceeds the amount the amount that the corporation can extract from its environment ... stock options ... diluting shares or otherwise stealing from investors ... separating the top executives from operating management ... and no reason to care about the firm's long term prospects ..."

"... looting as the fourth phase ... just beyond Ponzi .. by this time, criminal misrepresentation has already occurred .... legal exposure is already there ... the executive has nothing more to lose ..."

"... in financial firms, the temptation to loot must be ever present ... the Gresham dynamic: selling good securities is excellent training for selling bad ones .. looting has its impresarios who can take a firm that has not yet doomed itself to failure and drive it over the edge ... develop an entire repertory of skills to enhance and prolong their success."

Galbraith is describing the housing crisis and the firms that lent mortgages to people without means to pay them.  These passages nonetheless resounded with me as I learn of firms coming in to "manage" organizations through bankruptcy and from control frauds and looters I find even in governmental positions.

Well, these are thoughts to digest and use as arguments before falling asleep.  Still reading Lasher for entertainment and exposure to great writing.  Also trying to get through Empire of Cotton which was reviewed by the NYT today and which I snatched off the library new books shelf before someone put it on hold.  Otherwise, a wonderful day to read, dark, dank and 5 hours of football pending.  Will rouse myself from the recliner only to make chicken in mole sauce.

Lasher Bridging 2014 to 2015

Falls the Shadow was probably my least favorite Lasher mystery so far.  It must have been written during the height of that stupid tee shirt craze where all that was written on them was Bob.  Bob is a personification of six degrees of separation, the dentist to all the main characters, but also the source of good intentions gone bad.  Maybe Victor Carl looks heroic because he is surrounded by such nasty supporting characters.  In addition to pain inflicting Bob are his thug of a dental assistant, a corrupt defense attorney from the convicted killer who Victor is representing in his retrial, that "killer" Francois who makes porno movies, his wife who was the victim and her best friend who were party girls at a club owned by another disreputable slug.  Oh and I left out the three drug addicted teenagers.

A cast of thousands of intertwining stories is what Lasher orchestrates the best, well, maybe a close second to his masterful nuanced humor.  Even a bad Lasher is better than 99% of the mysteries on the library shelves.

On to Past Due, speaking of libraries.