I asked for and was happy to receive a copy of Alan Greenspan's, The Age of Turbulence for Christmas. I've been a long-time admirer of the former Fed chairman's policies for quite a while. He is also inextricably linked in my mind to the sunny economic weather that the United States saw in the 90's and the relatively mild economic shocks following the dotcom bubble bursting. (Yes, its debatable whether Fed policy after the bubble helped inflate the housing bubble whose deflating we are now dealing with.)
The book is excellent, its smart and insightful. I've been interested in economics and finance since I was about twelve. For me, the book also gives me a more in depth accounting of many financial events I've heard about or lived through from an insider's perspective. I think its great because its one of those accountings of events where half the names I might have heard Tom Browkaw say. The other half didn't make enough noise to reach the thirty minute script that America takes to be the sum of what had occurred on that given day.
One fact that I have a feeling will stay stored in my brain for quick cocktail party recall is that from 2000 to 2007 Venezuelan oil production fell 25% from 3.2 million barrels per day to 2.4 million. This is due primarily to Huga Chavez's installation of political cronies in the national oil monopoly. Chavez's government has been saved by rocketing oil prices. As a result, he is free to placate the public with bread and circuses while biting the US hand that feeds him. (America is Venezuela's largest buyer.) Due to our dependence on oil for transport we are currently scarcely able to act to counter Chavez's arms building and rabble raising in South America. Hopefully Venezuela will find a new leader or we will free ourselves of dependence on it for oil and therefore be able to act before Chavez becomes violent, which I fear is where he is heading.
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