Book Hints

A selective mention of books received for review

Answering the apparently insatiable thirst of Americans for investment advice are three recent "how-to-profit" books. In How to Profit from Disinflation (Piscataway, N.J.: New Century Publishers, 1982, 184 pp., $12.95), Myron Simons, a long-time New York Stock Exchange insider, outlines investment strategies appropriate for the present economic climate in which inflationary pressures are abating. Judith McQuown, a former Wall Street portfolio analyst, provides an investment guide suited to the times in a different way: Playing the Takeover Market: How to Profit from Corporate Mergers, Spinoffs, Tender Offers, and Liquidations (New York: Seaview Books, 1982, 255 pp., $14.95). And, Max Ansbacher, a Wall Street stockbroker and author of a previous investment bestseller, demonstrates how investors, large and small, can capitalize on the current market in How to Profit from the Coming Bull Market (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1981, 226 pp., $6.95 paper).

Meanwhile, for those who wish to preserve their assets from taxation, one approach is provided in The "How-To" Handbook of Massive Tax Reduction (Los Angeles: Universal Life Church, 1982, 51 pp., $14.95 paper), which presents a step-by-step guide to forming a congregation and enjoying church-oriented tax reductions. For up-to-date information on estate taxes, Who Gets It When You Go? (New York: Random House, 1982, 141 pp., $4.95 paper), by estate-tax specialist David Larsen, explains exactly what happens to our property when we die and what can be done so that most of what we have goes to those we choose.

Taxes are the subject in a different way of two other books, Inside the Underground Economy (New York: Signet Classics, 1982, 168 pp., $2.50 paper), by Jerome Tuccille, and the Subterranean Economy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982, 187 pp., $19.95), by Dan Bawly. Both look at who is evading or avoiding taxes, why they do it, and how.

On a more theoretical note, several books on political economy and political philosophy deserve mention. Arnold Heertje has edited a tribute to Joseph Schumpeter in Schumpeter's Capitalism: "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" Revisited (New York: Praeger, 1982, 208 pp., $19.95), in which well-known scholars including Robert Heilbroner and Paul Samuelson reevaluate Schumpeter's prediction that capitalism cannot survive. The American Enterprise Institute has published two provocative companion pieces, How Democratic Is the Constitution? (Washington, 1982, 172 pp, $5.25 paper) and How Capitalistic Is the Constitution? (Washington, 1981, 150 pp., $12.25, $5.25 paper), both edited by Robert Goldwin and William Schambra. In the former, the authors analyze the meaning of democracy, its relationship to the Constitution, and the relative importance of securing individual rights versus establishing a democracy. The latter book offers a variety of views regarding the relationship between a free, democratic government and a capitalist economic system.

Of interest to scholars in political philosophy is Allen Buchanan's Marx and Justice: The Radical Critique of Liberalism (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1982, 220 pp., $23.50). Written in part while Buchanan was a summer fellow at the Reason Foundation, the book provides a comprehensive examination of Marx's thoughts on distributive justice, political and civil rights, and criminal justice. Also of interest to political philosophers, LibertyClassics has recently published two volumes of works by Adam Smith, Essays on Philosophical Subjects (Indianapolis, 1982, 355 pp., $5.50) and Lectures on Jurisprudence (Indianapolis, 1982, 610 pp., $5.50), each originally published in hardcover by Oxford University Press as part of a six-volume series of the works and correspondence of Adam Smith.