The Birth of Plenty : How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created

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The Birth of Plenty : How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created
by William J. Bernstein
from McGraw-Hill

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• This book is a Must Read.
  This is a must read book.
  The gist of his message was very positive and gave me great hope. Strong economies and economic trade bring peace. As a business person it is always gratifying to know that you might be doing the world some good. More than just providing jobs but actually helping world peace. Commerce is the start of all peace in the world.
  Throughout the book, he talks about four prerequisites for economic growth:
  - Secure property rights, not only for physical property, but also... more info

• Essential reading for citizens of the modern world
  It has been alleged that one of the great embarrassments of the economics profession is its inability to explain why some countries get rich and some do not. Foreign Policy editor Moisés Naím, a former Venezuelan minister of industry, once compared the gap in knowledge to physicists not being able to explain how gravity works. With respect, if Naim truly thinks that it is a mystery why some countries get rich and some do not, it can only be that he has not read Bernstein's masterpiece of... more info

• Many good ideas, sloppy analysis
  This book contains many ideas about the causes of economic growth that are approximately right, but rarely backs them up with good arguments.
  He starts by saying four institutions are needed to escape from a Malthusian trap: property rights (rule of law), reason (scientific methods), capital markets, and fast transportation/communication. But later when discussing why some countries were slow to develop, he adds ad hoc explanations (e.g. "excessive military expenditure" "reliably derails great... more info

• Nice read
  Bernstein book is reasonably well researched and has cogent writing style to prove his hypothesis that there are 4 necessary and sufficient conditions for nations to achieve long lasting prosperity. Those 4 conditions are (1) support structure for property rights, i.e. customers must have proper incentive to create (2) Scientific rationalism - innovators must posses the proper intellectual tools in order to innovate (3) Capital markets for availability for funds for innovators and (4) transportation and... more info

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