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Amazon Best of the Month, April 2008

In Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, the original pioneer of behavioral economics, Richard Thaler, teams up with the brilliant public policy expert Cass Sunstein to give us a breakthrough book of interest to both organizations in healthcare, financial services and many others areas in the public and private sector. They propose using nudges—well chosen default rules and other incentives—to help people act in their own best interest.

To learn more about these speakers and their invaluable message, click on their names above.


Kevin Phillips

Bad Money

One of the myths of the last quarter century has posited a U.S economy smoother, better run than before, and burdened with only a few minor recessions. That's bunk.

In his last several books, Kevin Phillips has been warning us of the unhealthy connections between power and wealth. In his previous book, American Theocracy, he focused particularly on the perilous interaction of debt, reckless finance, and the spiking cost of oil. Now, in his most provocative and timely book yet, he takes the full measure of our current crisis, which he saw coming long before it arrived. (He also has the cover story in the May issue of Harper's, "Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know.")

As always, Kevin goes far beyond the daily news coverage of these topics, adding both immediate and long-term historical context, revealing the true causes of the crisis, and connecting bad money in all its aspects to bad politics, bad foreign policy and bad economic policy and priorities. Kevin could not have been more prescient and this book could not have been more timely.

Kevin Phillips brings to audiences a rich historical perspective, penetrating, independent insight, and an uncommonly articulate voice to the major issue of our time. To learn more about this extraordinary speaker, click here.
Matt Mason

The Pirate's Dilemma

The new face of competition

Creative, passionate, skilled creators are at work outside the business and economic mainstream, generating new content, new trends, new ways to reach markets. And many of these innovators are young. Matt Mason, an entrepreneur himself, lives and works at the intersection between youth culture and innovation where these exciting trends are emerging.

Matt is an expert on youth culture, business and the media. He is the author of the new book The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture Reinvented Capitalism, on the opportunities and challenges presented by these new modes of innovation—though he argues that they really are not so new after all (the word “Yankee” has its origins as a European slur on the American practice of appropriating European industrial technology). What’s new is the technologies that make these new modes of creation possible and the ways that the youth culture has adopted them—and adapted them.

To learn more about this exciting speaker, click here.
Craig Newmark

Founder, Craigslist

There’s no genius behind it. It’s persis-tence and listening to people.

Craig Newmark is the founder of the famous online classified ad and social network site Craigslist. As one of its most successful innovators and entrepreneurs, he has unusually creative insight into the future of online community and commerce. Time Magazine has named him to its Time 100 most influential people in the world and he received the Person of the Year award at the 9th Annual Webby Awards.

Started in 1995 in Craig’s bedroom as a simple email exchange service, Craigslist now hosts 195 websites serving all 50 states in the U.S. and more than 47 countries and maintains a triple-digit growth rate. Craigslist was incorporated in 1999 and has consistently earned a profit since.

Yet, as huge as Craigslist has become, it remains a model of modesty and community service. In addition to his knowledge of how online communities work, Craig also brings to audiences this spirit of service and open exchange for which he and his company are famous.

To learn more about this speaker, click here.


A daily log of publications by and about our speakers

___Wednesday________________________ How to Be of Good Cheer, Arthur Brooks, The Wall Street Journal [5.14.08]
US economy falters on home and retail sales, Robert Shiller, The Sunday Times [5.14.08]
Nudge: The Gentle Power of Choice Architecture, Richard Thaler, Capital Ideas, University of Chicago GSB [5.14.08]

___Tuesday________________________ Craig (of the List) Looks Beyond the Web, Craig Newmark, The New York Times [5.13.08]
Civilization’s last chance, Bill McKibben, Los Angeles Times[5.13.08]
From Wikinomics to Government 2.0, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, The Wall Street Journal [5.13.08]
Live and let DIY, Matt Mason, Guardian [5.13.08]
New Study Finds Bar-Coded Surgical Sponges Improve Patient Safety, Atul Gawande, ICT Magazine [5.13.08]

___Monday________________________ Can Money Buy Happiness, Arthur Brooks, The American [5.12.08]
Rise and Collide, Bill Emmott, The Wall Street Journal, Rivals book review [5.12.08]
Europe Grapples over Biofuels, Jeffrey Sachs, Time [5.12.08]
Why Your Boss is Overpaid, Tim Harford, Forbes, [5.12.08]

Chris Anderson
Wired magazine, under edtior-in-chief Chris Anderson, won the 2008 National Magazine Award in the Design category. Congratulations, Chris!
 5.5.08

Atul Gawande
Dr. Atul Gawande has been selected for the third time to appear in the annual Best American Essays collection. That makes the sixth of seven years in a a row that Dr. Gawande has appeared in Best American Science Writing. Congratulations, Atul!
4.29.08

Campaign Stops
The New York Times is hosting a series of blogs on the 2008 election campaigns that features several of our speakers: David Brooks, Bill Emmott, and Jacob Hacker. Other commentators, like Paul Krugman, also drop in from time to time. click here to check it out.
3.29.08

James Surowiecki
The Brooklyn Museum has launched an extraordinary art exhibition based on Jim Surowiecki's critically acclaimed book, The Wisdom of Crowds. Click! is a photography exhibition that invites Brooklyn Museum's visitors, the online community, and the general public to participate in the exhibition process. Taking its inspiration from Jim's idea that a diverse crowd is often wiser at making decisions than expert individuals, Click: A Crowd-Curated Exhibition explores whether his premise can be applied to the visual arts—is a diverse crowd just as 'wise' at evaluating art as the trained experts? Click here to read the Museum's full description of this unique exhibition.
3.12.08
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