Book review

None of my business

The huge advantages of the library’s amalgamation with most of the libraries of the lower North Island quickly became evident. It is now nigh on impossible to fail to find a wanted title and it is interesting to see where a requested book comes from. None of My Business comes courtesy of Kapiti library. 

This book comes up to P J O’Rourke’s reputation of always providing a both entertaining and informative read. This time about money and banking, both historically and the current scene. 

The cover blurb says; ‘PJ explains money, banking, debt, equity, assets, liabilities, and why he’s not rich and neither are you’. Which neatly sums up the contents.  

The book is actually a collection of the columns he has written for the free weekly online Stansberry Digest in which he discusses everything from the power of economic impulse to consumer trends among Grumpies with the digital generation, scams and armchair predictions along the way. 

He pointed out the huge shift in where the money is going. The six largest US corporations by Market capitalisation 1987 were General Motors, Exxon, Ford, IBM, Mobil and General Electric. Companies producing cars, oil and home appliances 

The six largest US corporations by market capitalisation by 2019 were Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Berkshire Hathaway. Five making money from the internet and one from the share market.  

O’Rourke is perplexed at how capitalisation has undergone such a transmortification (his word) in the last couple of decades so as to be unrecognisable. O’Rourke questions the purpose of today’s corporations and how, and indeed if, they make a measurable profit. Plus he is dumbfounded in the way they are priced on the stock exchange. 

There’s much food for thought in this book, administered in the typical, very readable, P J O’Rourke manner.  When it could possibly be getting a bit heavy he lightens it with one of his quotable lines such as:  ‘money is very hard to comprehend. Why is some soiled, crumpled, overdecorated piece of paper bearing the picture of some obscure president who didn’t achieve anything be worth twenty dollars? Meanwhile this clean soft, white and cleverly folded piece of paper which I just blew my nose on worth so little?’  

Yes indeed. 

Capitalisation has undergone such a transmortification in the last couple of decades as to be unrecognisable. O’Rourke questions the purpose  of todays corporations and perplexed how, and indeed if, they make a measurable profit.

Plus he is dumbfounded in the way they are priced on the stock exchange.