Book Review: Porcelain Thief by Huan Hsu

 A memoir by an ABC. The author is born in San Francisco and grew up in Utah, his parents emigrated to USA from Taiwan as graduate students. One of his uncles on his mother side is Richard Chang (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Rujing), a successful microchip entrepreneur who invested in mainland China's emerging chip manufacturing. And his maternal grandmother is a Ginling Woman College graduate in Republic China. One of his granduncle is Fang Zhen Zhi ( https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%96%B9%E6%AD%A3%E7%9F%A5/7818279),  a scientist who played important role in mainland China's atomic bomb research. 

His view of mainland China in early 21st century and his view on Taiwan in the same period provided a unique vantage point from a ABC perspective. His root tracking brought him to Jindezhen, Shanghai, Taipei, Jinan, Jiujiang, Lushan Nanjing, Beijing and Hong Kong, and along the journey we got a chance to see these places in the eyes of American born Chinese.

Book Review: Mexico, A 500-Year History by Paul Gillingham (to be completed)

 Only finished first chapter about 1521 Cortes conquest of Mexico City, then named Tenochtitlan from Mexica with aid from local tribes

Book Review: Kicking The Hornet's Nest, US Foreign Policy In The Middle East From Truman To Trump by Daniel E. Zoughbie

 

A comprehensive and critical review of US foreign policy on Middle East from both above (Truman to Trump presidency) and below (Arabic and Israli view). 

Book Review: Rope, How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of the Civilization by Tim Queeney

 An interesting book about history of rope with a lot of anecdotes, worth a weekend afternoon to flop through for some leisure fun.

Book Review: The fractured Age, How the Return of Geopolitics Will Sprinter the Global Economy by Neil Shearing

The book is the best I have read in deciphering splinting of the globalization after Donald Trump's 2nd term. It analyzed why, how and what will come after the ending of hyper globalization and gave logic prediction what lies ahead in 20240 for the world

Trilemma of monetary policy by John Fleming and Robert Mundell

 The country cannot have all three of the policies

• full and complete openness to global capital flows
• a fixed exchange rate; and
• independent monetary polices geared toward domestic objectives

This is the theoretical basis for Bretton Woods system

Raising Children

 "究竟什么是富养，每个人的理解却不同。 我觉得，让孩子拥有宽松的家庭环境，自由的成长空间，和善良正直，通情达理，情绪稳定的父母，才是最实实在在的富养。"

 https://bbs.wenxuecity.com/bbs/znjy/7722053.html

Book Review: The Land Trap, A New History of The World's Oldest Asset By Mike Bird

With protracted downturn in China's housing market, a common phrase is often quoted as "The housing market abducts Chinese economy".

As this book meticulously detailed, that phrase can also be applied to 80's Japanese housing market, Hong Kong's two hundred plus years policy of using land to finance government functioning, US's reliance on land financing to bootstrap colonial economy, and 2008's housing bubble in US. One exception is Singapore, who manages to provide a semi-market driven and rising housing market without economy being kidnapped by the housing market at the expense of other productive industries such as manufacturing and service.

Along the way, the book introduces some of the critical thinkers in land and housing policies, Henry George and his Progress and poverty, Wolf Ladejinsky and his land reform in post second war Japan, Korea and Taiwan

Correlate to this book, it seems the land price will either flatline or fall in fractured world where capital flow will be more intra-bloc and less inter-bloc.