On July 14, Newsweek published a list of ten books they described as "best business literature out there." The list of ten current titles was decidedly anti-business. Newsweek included an interview with each book's author. The list included:
"War at the Wall Street Journal: Inside the Struggle to Control an American Business Empire," by Sarah Ellison. The book detailed Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the Wall Street Journal in 2003. Newsweek couldn't help but highlight Murdoch's "obsession" at competing with the liberal darling New York Times.
"Money for Nothing: How the Failure of Corporate Boards is Ruining American Business and Costing Us Trillions," by John Gillespie and David Zweig. Gillespie and Zweig examined how the boards of directors at companies such as Lehman Brothers and General Motors were "paid handsome sums to oversee the activity of the executives and protect shareholders' interest" while the "CEOs ran the companies into the ground."
In their interview with Newsweek, the authors criticized former General Motors CEO Rich Wagoner for the company's "disastrous strategy" but didn't mention the unions' role in GM's demise.
"Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter," by Tom Bissell. Bissell's book argues that video games are a "legitimate creative medium" and in his interview, Newsweek's Nick Summers wondered: "Is one problem that games make too much money? That it's so easy to make millions with crap that no one takes time to make quality stuff?"
Newsweek's list also included books investigating everything from the oil industry to hedge funds and ignored a number of pro-businesses books for sale on bookstore shelves. Some of the titles Newsweek failed to mention are "Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain its Economic Superpower Status," by Arthur B. Laffer, "Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half Baked Theories Don't," by John Lott, and "Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One," by Thomas Sowell.
Newsweek has a history of championing liberal ideas and criticizing capitalism, so perhaps this latest list is simply Newsweek's background reading.
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