Billy Crafton Favorite Reads – Summer 2024

Focusing on what’s essentially a multi-decade war over microchip technology, Tufts University economic historian Chris Miller makes a compelling case for microchips actually becoming the world’s modern day oil — a very scarce commodity on which 21st century humanity relies as much as any other.

It’s such an enjoyable read that the New York Times calls it a “nonfiction thriller,” and one that even gives off some Mission Impossible vibes at that.

As the book’s summary notes, “Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves, smartphones to the stock market—runs on chips.”

For me, Miller’s work here really serves as a stark wake-up call for America, especially for our policy-making politicians.
With several other countries vying for the lead in this battle for such crucial technology, and China unsurprisingly leading the way, inaction may have catastrophic consequences.

Indeed, China takes the issue so seriously that they now spend more money importing microchips than they do importing oil. It’s crazy to think that humanity’s future may be impacted by the “Chip War” as much as anything else.

Chris’s book is amazingly well-written. It’s brought in so many honors, from New York Times Bestseller to Financial Times Business Book of the Year, and everything in between, that you’d be hard-pressed to not consider it a rare must-read.

One of the more unique (and really sweeping in scale to a large extent) books I’ve read in recent memory, Matthew Hart’s GOLD takes us back to some of the earliest civilizations in human history.

He starts his long expose on gold from 6,000 years ago, and eventually brings us up to present-day, where similar to CHIP WAR discussed above, we once again see the emergence of China as a key player on this stage.

Although Hart speaks to humankind’s millenniums-long love for gold overall, I found the details on 2008’s financial crisis to be some of the most interesting in the book.

I’m sure this is due in part to having lived through it (seeing gold’s value soar to nearly $2K per ounce was staggering), but it was also an incredible revelation to learn that gold exploring and mining worldwide shot up to a level that dwarfed the 1800s Gold Rush.

The book is much more than that, however, as Matthew really takes us on an amazing journey through so much of human history, all across the globe. I also thoroughly enjoyed his discussion of gold in South America, since my wife and I recently took a trip to Machu Picchu in Peru, where Hart speaks to the gold of the Incas — and Spain’s bloodthirsty quest to essentially steal all of it, whatever the cost.

GOLD is such a thoroughly researched, impressive work, I easily recommend it wholeheartedly. It’s the perfect read for learning both gold’s cultural evolution throughout human history and the economics behind it… this simple mineral that’s evolved into the world’s most precious metal.

Quite the intriguing read here, this unusual story starts with a Washington, DC power shift in the 1970s, deftly tracing the dawn of America’s ugly lobbyist era, one we still grapple with today.

Brody and Luke Mullins essentially shine the light on how American democracy really started to lose its way, as the dark underbelly of political clout shifted from smoky, backroom deals into a much more complicated, at times sophisiticatedly crafted, web of influence.

Indeed, the book’s description perfectly sets the stage —

“The cigar-chomping son of an influential congressman, an illustrious political fixer with a weakness for modern art, a Watergate-era dirty trickster, the city’s favorite cocktail party host… these were the sort of men who now ran Washington.”

THE WOLVES OF K STREET is a pretty intense read, showcasing the emergence of shadow lobbying and the subsequent deeply-rooted corporate leverage that would take hold of American politics.

Today we often hear the terms corporate Republican and corporate Democrat, and you’ll gain a much better understanding of what those terms truly refer to if you read this Mullins brothers’ book.

It also, however, shows the fall from the top for the four protagonists, all to varying degrees.

The New York Times boasts that in THE WOLVES OF K STREET, its writers “cleverly set up their story as a mystery… with considerable narrative skill and novelistic detail.” And I completely concur, as for me the book is another must-read if you have any interest at all in American politics.