top of page

RECOMMENDED READINGS

Self-education is the best education, but it's hard to know where to start. Googling the top 100 books in a certain subject yields often tolerable but lacking results. A good strategy is to simply ask a friend what books they would recommend. Listed are some books, academic articles, and legal documents, I would recommend on topics of potential value to clients and friends. I have only listed items that I have actually read.

 

An additional note, I have included an entire category devoted to my favorite economist and public intellectual Thomas Sowell, whose own reading list is part of the inspiration for this page. I'd like to one day have read everything he has written, but at 94, he keeps writing. 

ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Capitalism in America - Alan Greenspan
Economics as a Moral Science - Kenneth Boulding
Economics in One Lesson - Henry Hazlitt
Endogenous Technological Change - Paul Romer
Free to Choose - Milton Friedman
Freakonomics - Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt
Global Capitalism - Jeffrey Frieden
Oil on the Brain - Lisa Margolis
On Liberty - John Stuart Mill
Special Economic Zones and Regional Integration in Africa - Trade Law Law Centre
The Anti-Social Network - Ben Mezrich
The Ascent of Money - Niall Ferguson
The Impact of Higher Interest Rates on the Cost of Servicing Government Debt - JF Wen
The New Map - Daniel Bergen
The Use of Knowledge in Society - Friederich Hayek
The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith
Where Good Ideas Come From - Steven Johnson

SANCTIONS, AML, and Counter Terrorism

 

2012 Wolfsberg Anti-Money Laundering Principles for Private Banking

2023 State Department Trafficking in Persons Report: Burma
Chip War - Chris Miller
Freezing Order - Bill Browder
History Lessons - Sanctions: Neither War nor Peace - Lance Davis and Stanley Engerman
How to Locate Anyone Anywhere - Ted Gunderson
Inside the Criminal Mind - Stanton Samenow
Myanmar Legal Handbook for Investors
New York State Department of Financial Services (NYS DFS) Part 504 Ruling
OFAC Burma Business Advisory
The Constitution of the United States
Too Big to Jail - Chris Blackhurst
Underground - Haruki Murakami
When to Rob a Bank - Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt
Wolfsberg Group's Guidance on Sanctions Screening

CHINA and the SINOSPHERE

Architect of Prosperity: Sir John Cowperthwaite and the Making of Hong Kong - Neil Monnery
Blockchain Chicken Farm - Xiaowei Wang
China's Water Crisis and the Privatization of Urban Water in Kunming - Ching Lam
Getting Along with the Chinese - Fred Schneiter
Ghetto at the Center of the World - Gordon Matthews
Letter to the Bishops, Priests, Consecrated Persons and Lay Faithful of the Catholic Church in the People's Republic of China - Pope Benedict XVI
Quotations from Chairman Mao - Mao Zedong
Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China (Graphic Novel) - Guy Delisle
The Opium War - Julia Lovell
The Tragedy of Liberation - Frank Dikotter
The World in Guangzhou - Gordon Matthews
Viral: The Search for the Origins of Covid-19 - Matt Ridley and Alina Chan
Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse - Shelley Rigger

WORLD TRAVEL and GLOBAL AFFAIRS

 

Across Asia on the Cheap - Tony Wheeler
A Trip to Hanoi - Susan Sontag
Burma Chronicles (Graphic Novel) - Guy Delisle
Civilization: The West and the Rest - Niall Ferguson
Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire - Niall Ferguson
Potatoes on the Moon - Jim Goad
Power and Greed: A Short History of the World - Phillip Gigantes
Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea (Graphic Novel) - Guy Delisle
Southern California: An Island on the Land - Carey McWilliams
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
World Order - Henry Kissinger

SALES, ADVERTISING, MARKETING and DESIGN PRINCIPLES

 

Alchemy - Rory Sutherland
Damn Good Advice (for people with talent) - George Lois
Grinding it Out - Ray Kroc
Grid Systems in Graphic Design - Joseph Muller Brockmann
How to Master the Art of Selling - Tom Hopkins
Made in Hong Kong - Chris Kyme and Tommy Cheng
Never Use Futura - Douglas Thomas
Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Business Man - Robert Updegraff
Ogilvy on Advertising - David Ogilvy
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan
Victore: Or Who Died and Made You Boss - James Victore
Writing that Works - Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson

GENERAL LIVING, ARTS and FICTION

 

1984 - George Orwell
A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind - Shoukei Matsumoto
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Free Women Free Men - Camille Paglia
Men without Women - Ernest Hemingway
Notes on 'Camp' - Susan Sontag
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
The Death of Cool - Gavin McInnes
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Stranger - Albert Camus
The Theory of Moral Sentiments - Adam Smith
Thinking as a Science - Henry Hazlitt

BIOGRAPHIES

A Personal Odyssey - Thomas Sowell
Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali
In Order to Live - Yeonmi Park
Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
The Art of the Deal - Donald Trump
Washington: A Life - Ron Chernow

Thomas Sowell

A Conflict of Visions - Thomas Sowell
A Personal Odyssey - Thomas Sowell
Education - Thomas Sowell
Ethnic America - Thomas Sowell
Intellectuals and Society - Thomas Sowell
The Housing Boom and Bust - Thomas Sowell

CONTACT

If you'd like to discuss advisory, design, tutoring, or business development services, please feel free to connect by clicking the contact link below. 

bottom of page