I recently finished reading two books, both of which...

I recently finished reading two books, both of which I can recommend. The first is 'Just What I Said' by Bloomberg columnist Caroline Baum and the second is 'Master Traders' by Fari Hamzei of Hamzei Analytics. I did not know what to expect from either book, but once started they were both hard to put down. The books are completely different in style and content and perhaps who they will appeal to. Let's take a look at each. Just What I Said'Just What I Said' will appeal to anyone who wants to learn how the real economy works, in easy to understand lessons cleverly disguised as light hearted articles. The book (broken out into 19 distinct recurring themes) is a collection of the best columns that she has written for Bloomberg over the past seven years, some 1300+ columns in total. The amazing thing is her columns are as pertinent today as when she originally wrote them. There are so many misconceptions about the economy floating around that simply refuse to die probably because not enough people have read her book. Caroline tackles many of those misconceptions in a manner that anyone could understand. Her style varies from funny, to serious, to sarcastic and everything in between. Articles in the book range from understanding the yield curve, voodoo economics, the tax code, the US dollar, the trade deficit, the Time Magazine cover curse, the minimum wage, whether or not falling oil prices are good for the economy, the seen and unseen, the political economy, and much more. In one article she compared Alan Greenspan to Alfred Hitchcock. In another article she compares birds at her backyard feeders to the economy. And she is as dedicated to a free market economy as I am. My favorite chapters are the key myth busting chapters: 'Myths Under the Microscope', 'Still Nonsense After All These Years', and 'Oil Things to Oil People'.Inquiring minds might be interested in how this book came to my attention. I have been reading her articles for many years (but had not yet read her book) when I made a post on my blog called Caroline Baum on Inflation. In that post I sided with her on the Fed's understanding of inflation, as well as reader reactions to her Bloomberg articles. I ended my blog with...