Peterson Stumbles at MIT, Bankers Blunder in Top Business Books

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Peter G. Peterson gets expelled from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornelius Vanderbilt wages a war, and four central bankers spark the Great Depression in our favorite general business books of 2009. (A list of the year’s top financial-crisis books will run later this week.)

‘Lords of Finance’

“Lords of Finance” by Liaquat Ahamed (Penguin Press/ Heinemann). The timing couldn’t be better for this vivid history of how the predecessors of Ben Bernanke, Jean-Claude Trichet and Mervyn King brought on the Great Depression. The lessons are spooky, showing how today’s dynamics both do and don’t resemble what unfolded in that age of ocean liners and evening dress. To buy this book in North America, click here.

‘The First Tycoon’

“The First Tycoon” by T.J. Stiles (Knopf). Overbearing. Brazen. Ruthless. Stiles deploys all these icy adjectives to describe Cornelius Vanderbilt in this monumental biography. It’s an odd way for a historian to portray his hero, yet Stiles has a gift for making readers admire unsavory characters. When I put down this arresting saga -- some 700 pages of fistfights, shipwrecks and market manipulation -- I raised a toast to everything the old rascal did for the U.S. To buy in North America, click here.

‘The Education of an American Dreamer’

“The Education of an American Dreamer” by Peter G. Peterson (Twelve). The life of Pete Peterson, the co-founder of Blackstone Group LP, has been nothing if not diverse, as this disarming memoir shows. Born to Greek immigrants on the Nebraska plains, he was briefly expelled from MIT for copying a term paper, procured components for the Manhattan Project, and wound up rising through careers as varied as advertising (McCann Erickson), manufacturing (Bell & Howell) and finance ( Lehman Brothers Inc.). To buy in North America, click here.

‘The Big Rich’

“The Big Rich” by Bryan Burrough (Penguin Press). In September 1930, a bigamist in a straw boater drove up to a wooden oil derrick in a clearing in East Texas. His name was H.L. Hunt, and he was on his way to becoming rich. The petroleum found beneath that patch of pine forest and elsewhere in Texas would produce the state’s great family fortunes, Burrough writes in this galloping history of the wildcatters whose drive, ranches and gaudy mansions inspired both the Beverly Hillbillies and J.R. Ewing. To buy in North America, click here.

‘Googled’

“Googled” by Ken Auletta (Penguin Press). Is Google Inc. a force for good -- or for ill? Is it a friend to the fourth estate, or an enemy? The answer found in this journey through Google’s breakthroughs and boundless ambitions can be summed up in a word used by adman Martin Sorrell: Google is a “frenemy” -- neither a friend nor an enemy “but a rival power to guard against,” as Auletta says. To buy in North America, click here.

‘What the Dog Saw’

“What the Dog Saw” by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown/Allen Lane). The writer who brought us “The Tipping Point,” “Blink” and “Outliers” is back with a new collection of articles. Many address business topics. There’s a portrait of financial guru Nassim Taleb, reflections on Enron Corp., and a look at why ketchup has stayed the same even though mustard comes in so many varieties. To buy in North America, click here.

Offbeat Economics

“The Big Questions” by Steven E. Landsburg (Free Press) and “SuperFreakonomics” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (Morrow/Allen Lane). Offbeat economics are like popcorn for the brain; I can never get too much.

Armchair Economist Landsburg dips into physics, mathematics and economics to answer the eternal questions of philosophy: Where did the universe come from? How do we know right from wrong? Why does my computer hate me?

Levitt and Dubner focus on earthier matters. Chicago hookers, they explain, work overtime around the Fourth of July holiday. Suicide bombers should buy life insurance. And capuchin monkeys have learned to use money to acquire sexual favors. To buy in North America, click here for Landsburg and here for Levitt and Dubner.

‘$20 Per Gallon’

“$20 Per Gallon” by Christopher Steiner (Grand Central). As U.S. gasoline prices spurted last year to more than $4 a gallon, Americans shuddered. Presidential candidates called for a gas-tax holiday; SUV sales plunged. That was a glimpse of things to come, Steiner writes in this surprisingly upbeat look at how rising gasoline prices “will change our lives for the better.” To buy in North America, click here.

(James Pressley writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: James Pressley in Brussels at jpressley@bloomberg.net.