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Your summer reading list: 5 ideas from our investment team
Jared Franz
Paul Benjamin
Chris Buchbinder
Matt Miller
Mark Casey
July 3, 2024
In her acclaimed memoir The Glass Castle, author Jeanette Walls wrote: “One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”
Indeed, the lazy days of summer offer ample opportunity to kick back, relax and enjoy a good book. With that in mind, here is a new selection of titles personally recommended by Capital Group team members. As loyal readers know, these book recommendations have become a popular tradition in recent years.
So, here’s your summer reading list, borrowed directly from the nightstands of our portfolio managers and economists:
What types of books are Americans reading?
1. Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
With the arrival of artificial intelligence as a ubiquitous tool in our work and personal lives, economist Jared Franz says Co-Intelligence is a smart yet accessible introduction to the rapidly evolving world of AI. Jared should know: He’s spent the past 20 years studying the technological, social and financial market implications of AI. He believes it will have a profound impact on our lives over the next two decades.
“It’s a great book for anyone who wants a non-technical explanation of large language models, the backbone of popular AI programs such as ChatGPT,” Franz says. “It’s approachable, understandable and interesting.”
Co-Intelligence, published two months ago, was written by Ethan Mollick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, who specializes in entrepreneurship and innovation.
2. The Psychology of Money
Portfolio manager Paul Benjamin selected The Psychology of Money, which features 19 short stories about the sometimes odd ways that people think about money. The book argues that becoming wealthy isn’t just about picking the right investments; it is also highly influenced, for better or worse, by patterns of human behaviour.
“In the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet,” writes author Morgan Housel, a partner at The Collaborative Fund and a former columnist with The Wall Street Journal. “They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing and odd incentives are scrambled together.”
Benjamin said he found the book, published in 2020, fascinating because of the case it makes for taking behavioural matters as seriously as valuation issues. “As a personal finance book, it provides a window into the way people think about money and retirement and sustainability without scaring the heck out of you,” he explains. “It’s a great read.”
3. The Creative Act: A Way of Being
You might think a book about creativity wouldn’t be of interest to a financially minded professional. It’s a left-brain versus right-brain thing. But equity portfolio manager Chris Buchbinder says it was right up his alley. The Creative Act, written by Grammy-award winning producer Rick Rubin, explores the power of creativity and how it can be applied in all walks of life.
Rubin is best known as the co-founder, along with Russell Simmons, of Def Jam Recordings, a legendary New York record label that helped popularize hip hop music, working with artists such as the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Run-DMC and many others.
“It’s really a book about the creative process, oriented toward artists, but the best investors I’ve known in my career are also quite creative,” Buchbinder explains. “I’ve found a lot of wisdom in this book that’s applicable to my work. Normally, I’m not someone who takes notes or highlights when I read books, but I found myself doing a lot of highlighting as I went through this one.”
4. How to Know a Person
Author and New York Times columnist David Brooks recently spoke to a large group of Capital investment professionals about his new book, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen. As the publisher explains, it’s a guide to the art of truly knowing another person to foster deeper connections at work, at home and throughout life.
As such, the book is Capital Group political economist Matt Miller’s selection for our summer reading list. He invited Brooks to speak shortly after the title was released late last year.
“Now you may be thinking, how is this relevant to investing?” Miller said to the group. “Well, as portfolio manager Anne-Marie Peterson noted when she planted the seed for this call, Capital Group’s culture and success are rooted in deep relationships, and we could all benefit from a little thoughtful guidance on how to improve ours.”
5. Resistance Money: A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin
True to tradition, portfolio manager Mark Casey recommended a book about Bitcoin — as he is known for doing in person around the halls of Capital Group.
Resistance Money, released this month, “is the first book about Bitcoin to be published by an academic press, but it’s still very accessible and readable by a general audience,” says Casey.
The book explains the history of Bitcoin, its unique place among other forms of money, and the philosophy behind its creation that makes it such an important part of the cryptocurrency universe. Bitcoin isn’t meant for criminals or speculators, but rather, the authors argue, it is designed to fight “rampant inflation, creeping authoritarianism, surveillance, censorship and financial exclusion.” Thus, they consider it “resistance money.”
“It does a great job of delving into the philosophy behind Bitcoin,” Casey says, “which isn’t surprising because the authors — Andrew Bailey, Bradley Rettler and Craig Warmke — are philosophy professors. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about Bitcoin, and why it’s the only cryptocurrency that I find interesting.”
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