My new book comes out next week.
You can pre-order Here if you’re so inclined.
The book will be in paperback and Kindle format. There will also be an audio version.
While I was planning the book, my publisher asked me if I wanted to read it myself or have a man with a British accent read it for me. At first I gambled and said let a professional handle it.
But I changed my mind. I’m making a podcast. I can place the right conjugations and emotions in some words and sentences. Why wouldn’t I?
A few months ago I went to a recording studio for a few days and read the entire book into a microphone.
Reading out loud for hours was harder than I expected, but I enjoyed the process. Finding the right rhythm was both challenging and fun. I liked the result.
I’ve been switching to audiobooks for the last six months or so. I still read fiction on my Kindle, but I moved 90% of my non-fiction books to Audible. My book buying is at an all-time high because it’s so much easier.
These days, I find myself listening to books more often while walking my dog, grocery shopping, or spending time waiting for one of my child’s sporting events to start.
I’m a sucker for new stories, data points, and anecdotes.
Here are some things I’ve learned from recent books:
Wealth inequality is a big concern for many people these days. It doesn’t seem fair that the top 10% control almost 70% of the wealth in America.
It’s hard to believe, but this is actually an improvement over the past.
Inside Wall Street: A History, Charles Geisst shares that inequality was much worse in the early 20th century:
Five percent of the population controlled 90 percent of the wealth. Half of the country’s corporate wealth was controlled by two hundred companies. Large fortunes were amassed when the average annual wage was less than $1,500.
The top 5 percent owned 90 percent of the wealth in the early 1900s!
What’s interesting about that period is how many of the wealthiest people of the Gilded Age became so philanthropic. Andrew Carnegie’s steel business was making $40 million a year in profits by 1900 (about $2 billion today). Accumulating large amounts of wealth caused Carnegie to lose interest in business, which led him to focus on distributing his wealth.
Carnegie wrote: “After the publication of my book, The Wealth Bible, it was inevitable that I should cease striving for greater wealth and live in accordance with its teachings. I resolved to abandon hoarding and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.”
I hope today’s richest individuals will follow a similar path.
There were two stories that David McWilliams told in his book. History of Money This caught my attention.
The first was that Hitler planned to drop millions of pounds from planes across Britain during the Second World War.
After experiencing hyperinflation in Weimar Germany, Hitler was well aware of how destabilizing extreme levels of inflation could be for an economy:
The Luftwaffe’s plan to drop millions of banknotes on Britain was top secret and known only to a few senior Nazis. While some honest subjects of the king might appeal to the authorities, Hitler was operating on the basis that most British people would tuck a few notes under the bed. They would recruit famous people against them, whom Napoleon described as a “nation of tradesmen” obsessed with money. By circulating this counterfeit currency throughout the country, inflation would tear the system apart, especially given that so much of Britain’s economic resources were being diverted to the war effort. Only small quantities of consumer goods and basic necessities were traded, so prices could vary. In such conditions of deprivation, an influx of new money would push British prices up and trigger panic. Hitler hoped that the previously silent and obedient British would experience a fire at the theater moment. They would go crazy, and the resulting chaos would overwhelm the Blitz spirits, jeopardizing the war effort.
There were hundreds of counterfeiters working day and night to help the Germans break the Bank of England. The plan was never implemented because Germany was losing on the battlefield and could not save the planes.
McWilliams also explains a theory about The Wizard of Oz that was new to me:
In the film, we can read the evil Wizard of Oz as the embodiment of the banking elite and also as the steward of gold; oz is the symbol for one ounce. The Yellow Brick Road represents the Gold Standard itself, a road of gold bars. Dorothy is the daughter of a farmer from Kansas, the state that is geographically located in the middle of the country and represents that legendary place, Middle America. The Scarecrow is the Midwestern farmer stranded by falling prices, and the Tin Man is the industrial worker affected by the deflation associated with the Gold Standard, whose wages have also fallen. The Cowardly Lion is William Jennings Bryan, a combination Democrat-Populist candidate in the 1896 presidential election.
However, when they unmask the Magician, they discover that he is nothing but a fraud; just like the Gold Standard.
Even if this isn’t true, I love how deep this theory goes in terms of its hatred of the gold standard.
McWilliams argues that the invention of money helped create the incentive structure for progress and innovation.
Inside How Does the World Really Work?Vaclav Smil also explains how energy is helping usher in a new era of prosperity around the world:
The average Earth resident today has almost 700 times more useful energy than their ancestors had in the early 19th century.
As supply increased, inflation-adjusted energy prices fell significantly:
By 1964, crude oil had overtaken coal as the world’s most important fossil fuel, but although its production continued to increase, supply was abundant and so prices were falling. In constant (inflation-adjusted) currencies, the world oil price was lower in 1950 than in 1940, lower in 1960 than in 1950, and lower in 1970 than in 1960.
It is difficult to understand the gain in energy resources:
The 20th century saw an almost 40-fold increase in useful energy; Since 1800, earnings have been about 3,500 times.
Our efficiency in using energy to feed billions of people has reshaped society:
Between 1800 and 2020, we reduced the labor required to produce one kilogram of grain by more than 98 percent and reduced the share of the country’s population engaged in agriculture by the same amount.
The current geopolitical situation is once again a reminder of the importance of energy in the world order.
Further Reading:
The Best Books I Read in 2025
