Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Even More Wonk Books

Over dinner last night, I started reading Jared Bernstein's recent book Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (contain your excitement, Megnanimous). The book is written in a chatty, Q&A format that aims to answer economic questions posed by real Americans.

Bernstein may be the only senior government official in recent memory to write things like this:
It's a bitch to balance work and family when you and the spouse are working one and three-quarters full-time, full-year jobs between you.
Or the only one to imagine an economic policy film noir with scenes like this:
I caught up with her in her penthouse, a place that had 'housing bubble' written all over it. I know my wealth distributions, and this kitten came from the top 0.1 percent. I don't like playing the sap -- it was time for some class welfare.

[snip]

She was Milton Friedman with the body of Scarlett Johansson.
Or the only one to write economic policy haiku like the following:
My health plan betrays me.
I fight alone
against a stronger foe.

1 comment:

Meg said...

oh my- another good read that i will need to borrow. Between JQ and Linker's suggestions, i will need to lock myself in our apt for at least 6 months to get through my rather large pile of reading