1. Thomas Sowell, On Classical Economics. I'm teaching Classical and Marxian Political Economy in the Spring, and I'm thinking about assigning this. James C.W. Ahiakpor didn't care for it. It's very heavily footnoted--about 1/3 of the 300 or so pages are devoted to notes, index, and bibliography.

2. Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness. It's always good to read a little Rand during major policy debates; she isn't one to mince words. Many will find the title off-putting; Rand's use of "selfishness" is different from the way most of the rest of us use it. Every chapter stands alone because the book is a collection of essays by Rand and Nathaniel Branden. My favorite chapters were 12, 13, and 14 on "Man's Rights," "Collectivized 'Rights,'", and "The Nature of Government." Branden's chapter on "The Divine Right of Stagnation (chapter 16) is also worth reading.

3. Deirdre McCloskey, How to be Human (Though an Economist). I've read this a few times--I picked it up when I was on the job market in Boston in 2006. Every grad student should read it during their first year. My favorite essays (those on work and scholarship) appear on pp. 101-110 under "Rule 5. Work and Pray."

4. Robert Ekelund and Robert Tollison, Mercantilism as a Rent-Seeking Society. I've skimmed parts of it and it applies the now-standard theory of rent-seeking to European mercantilism. The content will provide interesting background for my Classical and Marxian course, and I'm especially interested in reading it in light of the literature that has developed since it was published in 1981.

5. The One-Year Bible (New Living Translation). This is one of the more innovative of the various Bible-reading plans I've come across. Every day has a selection from the Old Testament, a selection from the New Testament, and selections from Psalms and Proverbs. I first read it in 2001-2002; I've become a fan of the NLT because of its conversational tone.

A couple of notes on movies and something about insurance below the fold.

*-Meme: Guess.

1. Kung-Fu Panda. I was interested in this because I've been practicing martial arts for about two years. It's a very cute fish-out-of-water story with a predictable moral, but also with a twist. You'll want to go out for dim sum after seeing it. Unless you have a compelling reason to see it now, wait for the DVD.

2. The Dark Knight. Wow. This movie is absolutely fantastic. A little more back story on the Joker would've been nice, but I'll stop there for people who haven't seen it. Worth seeing in the theater. Worth the price of admission.

3. The Incredible Hulk. We figured we'd round out the comic book movie summer by seeing this one. It's what we expected: a pretty good popcorn flick with lots of explosions and cool special effects, which didn't really leave much time for character or plot development. Wait for the DVD.

4. Semi-Pro. We were going to rent Batman Begins to prepare for The Dark Knight but settled for this. A cute concept, but don't waste your time.

I left Hulk wondering about the efficiency of insurance markets in the Fictional Universe. There seems to be an awful lot of "(Gigantic/Evil/Extraterrestrial/Experimental) ___________(something)_________ (attacks/is released in/lands in) ___________(major city)___________ and destroys (several buildings/a lot of stuff/everything)" in this alternate reality, so I wonder how this affects housing and insurance markets. Is there a Fictional FEMA that redistributes the risk from residents of Gotham, Metropolis, and other hapless municipalities to taxpayers? To the best of my knowledge, neither DC or Marvel has created a series of comics about a heroic claims adjuster yet, but someone has to write the checks to clean up the damage. There's a Batman comic about Ludwig von Mises, so why not one about insurance?