Book Hints

A selective mention of books received

Meddlers in the economy have seen to it that these are bad times, and it is not surprising that thoughtful people are looking to the wisdom of the past. For starters, Arlington House has brought out a new edition of Henry Hazlitt's classic, Economics in One Lesson (1979, 218 pp., $8.95), with updated data, a new chapter on rent control, and a final chapter: "The Lesson after Thirty Years." In the 1930s and '40s, a man named Edward C. Riegel was a prolific author (The Meaning of Money, Dollar Doomsday, Private Enterprise Money, The New Approach to Freedom, to name some of his works), a harsh critic of deficit spending and the New Deal, and a fierce defender of individual freedom. He never had a degree and printed many of his books himself. He might have passed into oblivion but for the Heather Foundation (San Pedro, Calif.), which has reprinted his New Approach to Freedom (1976, 109 pp., $10.95), adding some essays from his other writings, and published a book that was in draft form when Riegel died in 1954—Flight from Inflation: The Monetary Alternative (1979, 168 pp., $13.95/$6.95). In Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls (Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation, 1979, 184 pp., $9.95), Robert L. Schuettinger and Eamonn F. Butler show how government is invariably the cause of inflation and how wage and price controls, popular with governments since the time of Hammurabi, invariably don't work. And in the new, paperback edition of his bestseller, A Time for Truth (New York: Berkley Books, 1979, 280 pp., $2.50), William E. Simon says in a new epilogue that he really did mean it when he said things were bad—and he means it even more now.

For those who are trying to make their own way out of these bad times: The Incredible Secret Money Machine, by Don Lancaster (Indianapolis: Howard W. Sams & Co., 1978, 159 pp., $5.95 paper), tells how to set up your own computer, craft, or technical business. Job Opportunities in the Black Market, by Burgess Laughlin (Portland, Ore.: EBLJ Publishers, 1978, $6.00 paper), surveys working conditions in the illegal but victimless economy and describes the role of retailers, wholesalers, entrepreneurs, etc., in the black market. Black Market Operations, on the other hand, by Ted Roselius and Douglas Benton (Mason, Mich.: Loompanics Unlimited, 1979, 102 pp., $6.00 paper), purports to be, not a self-help manual, but an application of marketing theory (by two business-school professors) to the fencing of stolen goods. Loompanics also offers a Directory of Mail Drops in the United States and Canada (plus some foreign countries), compiled by Michael Hoy (1979, 22 pp., $4 paper). And Dennis D. Murphy has updated his Directory of Conservative and Libertarian Serials, Publishers, and Freelance Markets (2d ed., 1979, 64 pp., $4.95 paper).

And just for fun: Made in America: Eight Great All-American Creations, by Murray Suid and Ron Harris (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1978, 186 pp., $10.95/$5.95), gives the history of Coca-Cola, Frisbee, King Kong, Levis, McDonald's, Monopoly, Superman, and TV, along with photos, games, activities, drawings, etc. Fun! Why Johnny Can't Run, Swim, Pull, Dig, Slither, Etc., subtitled A Fairytale for the Young at Mind, by Jason Alexander (San Francisco: Sitnalta Press, 1978, 206 pp., $5.95 paper), is a romantic tale that manages to get in philosophical, political, and aesthetic comment and uses plenty of photos (of art work) and drawings. And The Case of the Philosophers' Ring, by Dr. John H. Watson, "unearthed by" Randall Collins (New York: Crown, 1978, 156 pp., $7.95), has Sherlock Holmes working on an intrigue involving Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, John Maynard Keynes, G.E. Moore, G.H. Hardy, etc.