Zach

While I admire Diane Ravitch's public service and her ability to admit to errors when she's wrong, I think she is missing the point about what has been successful in education. I agree with her that standardized tests and strict critiquing of teachers is not the solution (and probably more of the problem), she goes in the exact opposite direction as she wishes to inject more Federal oversight and legislation into a system that is rotten with it.

One need look no further than the university system in America to see the way a successful system should be run at every level. More choice, less legislation. That said, I think the University system is on the wrong path with interest free student loans flooding the system with loan bearing students that would otherwise be productive members of the economy. Just my two cents.

Less self aggrandizing than Peter Schiff, Thomas Woods lays out the 2008 crisis, why banks failed and why current policies are holding back the potential of the US markets. A great vindication for the Austrian school of thought and ammunition and understanding to an opposing view to the Krugmans and other Keynesians of the world.

The authors did not provide a single original thought. Their credentials are insufficient to write a book like this. They simply replicate facts (some hard, some soft) from more prominent, smarter people. While I agree with a lot of what the duo had to say, I have read all the books that are cited and not cited by the two. Skip this book; read Gladwell, Taleb and Carnegie.