You Are Ready For Takeoff: A Short Trip by Susan Orlean

 

 

As we struggle with new anxieties, the New York Times bestselling author of The Library Book tackles an old fear in this insightful and hypnotizingly funny essay about taking off and letting go.

Susan Orlean has a full-on phobia of flying—an epic inconvenience for an author on a national book tour. With her trademark curiosity, she decides to rewire her thinking through hypnosis. Along the way, Susan discovers a lot about the unconscious mind, suggestibility, Mesmer, Freud, today’s cutting-edge treatments, and the dulling power of a sonorous voice. Most of all, she learns what it takes to close her eyes, open them again at thirty thousand feet, and finally be able to exhale. And you can too.

 

A Short History of Significant American Recessions, Depressions, and Panics: Why Conservative Economic Theory Does Not Work by Scott Belford

 

 

If you look carefully at the chart on the front cover, you will notice that prior to WW II there was a significant number of Recessions, Depressions, and Panics. Yet, after WW II, there was a noticeable absence of these downturns; and they were both smaller in size and in duration – this is not by accident. This book explores why such a dichotomy exists and who or what is responsible for it. We dig deep into what classical (conservative) economics means and what so-called liberal economics consists of. We look into why and where each is the same and each is different. To understand this is to understand what politicians are telling you and to help determine the veracity of what you are hearing. Through an analysis of over two dozen major recessions, depressions, and panics that have occurred in our 200+ years as a nation we gain an understanding of the five factors needed to have a major downturn. These same five factors were present in the Long Depression in the mid-1800s as well as the Great 2008 Recession. Understanding that this is, in fact, true will help guide you on who to vote for in order to produce the best possible economic outcome for you.