Gini Book List

The following books and resources have influenced Gini's philosophical and technical development in significant and small ways. These nonpartisan scholars, scientists, and thought-leaders have devoted their lives to rigorous empirical research and data-driven analysis. This has enabled them to verify thousands of important data points across many domains, which we take into account every day as we build Gini's technical systems and analyze all the global socioeconomic and geopolitical dynamics that are relevant to cryptocurrencies in today's complex, interconnected world.

As we explained on the Gini School of Economics Introduction, technical architectural design flows from philosophical beliefs. Each human's philosophical beliefs is based on their knowledge and awareness of how the universe works, but each human brain is born as a blank slate and must be filled with knowledge and life experience before it can do anything useful. This is why reading substantive books and opening our minds to a diverse selection of authors, ideas, perspectives and experiences is so important.

Rigid ideologies are like degenerative brain diseases: They retard mental, emotional, and spiritual growth and they trap the mind in a theoretical world that does not actually exist, which prevents many humans from seeing and solving problems in the real world. This is how the human mind becomes a mental prison. The only way to escape this prison is to open our minds to a diverse selection of authors, ideas and perspectives.

A human's ability to make a meaningful impact in this world flows from the accuracy of their knowledge and the depth and breadth of their awareness. Specifically, without a broad base of technical, socioeconomic, and geopolitical knowledge; significant knowledge of economic history; and significant knowledge of precisely how and why corporate and government corruption impacts economic and geopolitical systems in the real world, it's impossible for any technical team to build a well-designed cryptocurrency.

This is not an exhaustive book list. The list includes several classic Economics books that are not saturated with unrealistic economic theories, parochial assumptions, and rabid ideology. This list is primarily intended to help people learn how the perpetual and inevitable collusion between gigantic and self-serving corporations, governments, and banks makes a mockery of both Hayek and Keynes, which is why no cryptocurrency based purely on Keynesian or Austrian School theories will ever succeed in the real world. That's why Gini has developed our own unique economic philosophy, which is much more practical, relevant, responsive, adaptive, and empowering for humanity in the real world of the 21st Century. The Gini economic philosophy is based on data-driven, humanitarian principles, real-world outcomes, and many insights from nonpartisan and non-ideological economists like Adam Smith, Henry George, John Locke, and many others in this list.

No single human or organization could possibly compile all this data alone; so, we deeply appreciate all these authors and we encourage you to read all their books and articles.

Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions... by Henry George

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No economics education is complete without reading this book. Henry George was the best-selling author of all time until the 20th Century. His book sold more copies than any other book except the Bible, yet very few people know about him today. Why? Because the the field of economics was hijacked at the turn of the 20th Century by a confluence of powerful corporate and government interests that favor neoclassical and neoliberal theories, models and dogma over real-world economic logic.

The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by Karl Polanyi

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Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler: The Astonishing True Story of the American Financiers Who Bankrolled the Nazis by Anthony Sutton

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This might seem like a provocative title, but this is actually one of the most well-documented books ever written regarding how many famous American and German banks and corporations financed Hitler's political career. It illustrates what happens when giant corporations are allowed to grow beyond sustainable levels. It also reveals how giant corporations and politicians inevitably collude with each other to monopolize markets and dominate societies.

Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution: The Remarkable True Story of the American Capitalists Who Financed the Russian Communists by Anthony Sutton

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Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time by Carroll Quigley

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This is another incredibly important book of economic history. Anybody who has not read this book does not know economic history. There are two ways to digest the principles in this book: The original Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time by Carroll Quigley, which is our recommended choice. However, it's over 1,300 pages; so some people might prefer a more succinct treatment of Quigley's main ideas. For those people, you can read a more recent summary of the book: Tragedy & Hope 101 by Joseph Plummer.

The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor by William Easterly

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This book provides a detailed analysis of how neoliberal economic policies have catastrophically failed to deliver on any of the claims made by neoliberal economists since the 1970s. It also debunks many myths regarding why countries like China, Singapore, South Korea and virtually all fast-growing developing economies grow so quickly. Hint: It's not because of enlightened leadership or technical "experts". The author does an excellent job revealing the geographical and systemic dynamics that inevitably lead to rapid developmental growth when particular forms of political and economic freedom are unleashed within any country.

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The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by Walter Scheidel

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We may publish an article that expands upon the principles in this book, but for now, here are a few of the highlights:

Business as a System of Power by Robert Brady

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Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang

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The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

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The formal field of economics starts with Adam Smith; so, everybody should be familiar with his work. However, the world of economics is much broader than Adam Smith, which is why it's important to read a broad selection of economics and political economy books to develop a more accurate understanding of economics in the real world. If you don't have time to read this entire book, you can read the article, Meet the Real Adam Smith.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith

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The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith

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Once in Golconda: A True Drama of Wall Street 1920-1938 by John Brooks

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Two Treatises of Government by John Locke

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The Federalist Papers by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton & John Jay

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Winner-Take-All Politics by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson

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Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends by Peter Schweizer.

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Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean

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The author examines a particularly toxic political phenomenon in American politics today, which can come across as relatively partisan if you're not already familiar with the data on American voting, legislative and economic trends. However, this is an extremely important book because it systematically reveals why the U.S. political system has become so dysfunctional since the 1980s. This dysfunction is having devastating consequences on the American middle class and the long-term socioeconomic stability of the United States.

Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets by Peter Schweizer

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Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History by Matt Taibbi

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Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed

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All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera

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Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else by Chrystia Freeland

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The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff

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Lies, Incorporated: The World of Post-Truth Politics by Ari Rabin-Havt

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Read this book if you want to understand the true extent of the corruption and abject immorality that has destroyed the integrity of the U.S. political system over the past few decades. There is no long-term hope for fixing the U.S. political system without passing multiple constitutional amendments, which will never be passed without serious, (likely) violent mass protests throughout the country. This reality has many disturbing political and economic implications, which is why we launched the Gini Foundation.

The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium by Martin Gurri

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The author explains with many examples why nihlism is self-destructive and why the Occupy Wall Street and its counterpart movements around the world were dominated by nihilistic, privileged middle-class youths with no substantive understanding of how a sustainable political movement works. Their aversion to leadership heirarchy ensured that they never were organized well enough to present any meaningful challenge to the status quo they despised. A large percentage of the populations in each country were sympathetic to the occupy movements, but after seeing the protestors' disorganized and immature behavior, the general population lost interest and the movements lost the political and financial support they desperately needed.

Although Gini is not a protest movement per se, we are fundamentally resistant to the self-destructive economic and political regimes that are destroying capitalism and democracy in our world today. The Revolt of the Public is an important book because it highlights the mistakes of past reform movements. Gini has learned the lessons from the past and we will not make the same mistakes.

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The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic by Mike Duncan

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The author analyzes one of the most significant causes of the collapse of the Roman Empire, which virtually all history books ignore: Economic and class warfare. As the Roman Senate became increasingly powerful, the Senators began to pass laws that enriched themselves and concentrated their power. They substantially disregarded the conditions and interests of the less wealthy Assembly members and the plebeians (common people in the general public) that they represented. This resulted in escalating revolts and violence, which caused the fabric of Roman society to fragment and ultimately disintegrate. This made the Romans vulnerable to outside invaders because the general population was no longer loyal to the Roman government. This is a fascinating way to analyze the rise and fall of civilizations. The book reveals many socioeconomic parallels between Rome, the U.S., and Western Civilization in general.

Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb

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Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey Silvergate and Alan Dershowitz

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Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom by Jay Sekulow

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Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist by Jack Abramoff

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Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison by Peter Schweizer

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One of the biggest scandals in American politics is waiting to explode: the full story of the inside game in Washington shows how the permanent political class enriches itself at the expense of the rest of us. Insider trading is illegal on Wall Street, yet it is routine among members of Congress. Normal individuals cannot get in on IPOs at the asking price, but politicians do so routinely. The Obama administration has been able to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to its supporters, ensuring yet more campaign donations. An entire class of investors now makes all of its profits based on influence and access in Washington. Peter Schweizer has doggedly researched through mountains of financial records, tracking complicated deals and stock trades back to the timing of briefings, votes on bills, and every other point of leverage for politicians in Washington. The result is a manifesto for revolution: the Permanent Political Class must go.

The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted by Mike Lofgren

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The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government by Mike Lofgren

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This book is enlightening for anybody who does not understand how the U.S. Government really works. However, we have people on the Gini team who have worked inside the federal government and we know that the reality is a little different than this book portrays. In particular, there is no monolithic "Deep State" pulling all the strings per se, but there is a very powerful constellation of special interest groups who have incentives that are aligned in several ways. This alignment of interests compels them to coordinate their activities (either directly or indirectly) to thwart fundamental economic and political reforms, which would reduce their power over the federal budget, procurement processes and many other sources of power and wealth. For this reason, Lofgren's book is close enough to reality to explain most of the problems that block the economic and political reforms that Americans so desperately need today.

Republic, Lost by Lawrence Lessig

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Lessig's book does a good job of explaining many of the systemic problems in the U.S. political system today. That's why we recommend it here. However, we do not completely agree with his proposed solutions. His solutions depend too much on retrofitting policies onto the existing system, which are too easy to undo by future politicians. That's one of the reasons we launched the Gini Foundation, i.e., only systemically embedded ecosystem stability mechanisms and community governance systems with unavoidable mechanisms of accountability have any chance to fix the problems in the U.S. political system.

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

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Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas

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The author examines how the world has been flooded with an endless supply of "do-gooders" who claim to want to change the world to help humanity, but their ideas of a "new world" do nothing to solve the fundamental problems that have created the status quo they claim to want to change. The Gini Foundation has observed a very similar phenomenon: Today, there's an entire industry of self-aggrandizing philanthropists, TED talkers and think-tank academics who make vague and grandiose statements [e.g., we must work together to do something or bad things will happen], but they have no courage to confront the corporatacracy and political corruption at the heart of most problems on Earth today; nor do they have any meaningful solutions to the systemic economic and political corruption that is destroying humanity's economic and political freedom today.

Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Cocaine Explosion by Gary Webb

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The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government by David Talbot

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Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives by Edwin Black

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All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Steven Kinzer

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An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal

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If you are not sure about exactly why the American healthcare system is so catastrophically broken, read this book. If you still think the so-called "free market" is all that's necessary to fix the American healthcare system, read this book to liberate yourself from this delusion. If you work in the healthcare sector and are happy with the status quo because you don't realize how destructive to the U.S. economy and American society the broken healthcare system truly is, read this book. If you are one of the predators in the healthcare sector that is consciously raping and exploiting the U.S. economy and the American people, you are a disgusting creature and should be in prison.

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber

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Despite the brash title, this book exposes the deep dysfunction, systemic corruption and irrelevance of the 21st Century banking industry. That alone is worth the price of this book. However, the banking industry is not the sole focus of this book. Rather, the author investigates several important issues facing humanity in the 21st Century, including the current distribution of wealth and income in a world where automation is responsible for creating the vast majority of goods and services, the deeply corrupt incentives that senior politicians and corporate executives have to thwart attempts to reform our economic and political systems, the structure of daily life for humans in a world where there simply is not enough real work to do ("real work" is increasingly non-existent in many companies today), among many other deeply interesting issues. This book captures the essence of why the monetary system technology that Gini is building is essential to create a more meaningful, equitable and sustainable global economy.

Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre

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Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health by Denise Minger

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The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It by Marcia Angell

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A Game As Old As Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption by John Perkins

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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

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Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll

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Corporate Power and Expansive U.S. Military Policy by Mason Gaffney

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Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005 by Thomas Ricks

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935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America's Moral Integrity by Charles Lewis

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The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy by Dani Rodrik

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This is one of the best books on the real-world affects of the global trade regime that most people have called "globalization" over the past 40 years. As we have covered in many of our Gini articles and books, the real-world outcomes of globalization are radically different from the overwhelmingly positive picture that politicians and neoliberal economists have presented over the past few decades. Rodrik's book corroborates all of our own data and research findings, which gives us even more reasons to believe that the platform we are building at the Gini Foundation is on the right track.

This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral . . . in America's Gilded Capital by Mark Leibovich

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Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President by James Lurie and Ron Suskind

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So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government by Robert Kaiser

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The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote by Sharyl Attkisson

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Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder, Ralph Cosham, et al.

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Easier to read than The Gulag Archipelago and more expansive in its scope, this book is a deeply visceral, authentic journey through the Soviet gulag system and the Nazi concentration camps between the 1920s through the end of WWII. The most important lesson from these and many similar history books is this: Communism, socialism and fascism did not cause the death of approximately 100 million humans in the 20th Century. To the contrary, specific sociopathic humans with a lust for power brainwashed a tiny circle of ruthless, like-minded humans into believing that murdering millions of humans was their path to achieving racial purity and permanent political and economic power. The authoritarian ideologies they used to organize their economies and societies were merely intellectual facades invoked to conceal their raw lust for power. No matter what economic system we have (capitalism, socialism, communism, etc.), sociopaths will ascend to positions of power and they will distort and exploit the system to cause great harm to large populations if our economic and political systems don't have built-in ecosystem stability and accountability mechanisms. That's why a counter-balancing organization like the Gini Foundation is so important.

The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

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A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes

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The Gulag Archipelago is the most famous book about the Soviet Union because it captures so many graphic details about life in stalinist Russia. However, if you want to truly understand why Stalin and communism emerged in Russia during the 20th Century, there is no better book than A People's Tragedy. At over 1,000 pages, it's a giant book; so if you want a relatively short summary about the main ideas in the book, read our Gini article: What Caused Russia's Communist Revolution?

collusion-secret-meetings-dirty-money-russia-helped-donald-trump

Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win by Luke Harding

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Note: The Gini Foundation is nonpartisan. So, from our perspective, it doesn't matter if their name is Trump, Bush, Clinton, Obama, Reagan . . . they're all compromised by the corruption in the banking system and the broken incentives in Washington. This book provides extensive evidence of all those problems, which are much more important than the corruption of any particular politician.

Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Mark Blythe

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Mark Blythe systematically dismantles all the toxic propaganda that enabled the giant banks and bank-owned politicians in the U.S. and Europe to lie and manipulate their populations into believing that their governments were responsible for their debt crises. In reality, the banks created the debt and then shifted the debt to their governments in all cases except for Greece. The way they did this is truly diabolical. You have to read this book to appreciate how fraudulent and technically sophisticated this massive global scam is and why the Gini Foundation is building an alternative economic ecosystem for humans who want to escape this disgusting, debt-saturated fiat trap.

Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America by Charles Ferguson

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Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America by Robert McChesney

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Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by William Blum

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Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair

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The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by Edward Griffin

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The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System by Jim Rickards

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The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi

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The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America by David Stockman

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The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future by Joseph Stiglitz

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The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

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How Think Tanks Amplify Corporate America’s Influence by Eric Lipton and Brooke Williams^[1]

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The Hidden Costs of Tax Compliance by the Mercatus Center^[2]

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The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom by James Burnham

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through-our-enemies-eyes-osama-bin-laden-radical-islam-future-america

Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America by Michael Scheuer and Bruce Hoffman

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War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier by General Smedley Butler

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Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser

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The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 by Ron Suskind

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Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy by Chris Hayes

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The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age by David Sanger

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On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

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Who Runs The World? Solid Proof That A Core Group Of Wealthy Elitists Is Pulling The Strings by Michael Snyder^[3]

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Why does financial sector growth crowd out real economic growth? By the Bank for International Settlements^[4]

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Shadow Stats: Public Commentary On Unemployment Measurement by John Williams^[5]

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Notes:

^[1] Lipton, E., & Williams, B. (2016, August 7). How Think Tanks Amplify Corporate America’s Influence. The New York Times.

^[2] The Hidden Costs of Tax Compliance. (2013, May 20).

^[3] Snyder, M. (2013, January 29). Who Runs The World? Solid Proof That A Core Group Of Wealthy Elitists Is Pulling The Strings.

^[4] Bank of International Settlements. (2015). Why does financial sector growth crowd out real economic growth?

^[5] John Williams. (2016, June 8). Shadow Stats: Public Commentary On Unemployment Measurement.

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