The Genius of the Beast

In this summary you will learn

• Why capitalism is the best way to advance humanity
• How boom and bust cycles are genetically programmed into living organisms, including people, and thus, into the economy
• How capitalism can regenerate itself in the 21st century

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Why you should read The Genius of the Beast

Since the 2008 crash, capitalism has received a bad rap. Experts and pundits, some still licking their fiscal or psychic wounds, question its future. Renaissance man Howard Bloom says blame does not lie with the system, but with the way people perceive it and what they bring to it. Bloom, a businessman, scientist and philosopher, lays out, in dizzying, swooping detail, how all life, from the smallest bacteria to human beings, is genetically programmed to flourish under the free market system. He jumps from era to era to illustrate the whys and wherefores of human thinking and progress. He argues that capitalism, as imperfect as it is, enables the best and brightest to emerge. He advocates reviving moribund business by injecting it with emotion, desire and passion. Bloom’s book – at its zenith soaring and fascinating, and at its nadir meandering and infuriating – stalls only when he lingers over his time as an ’80s pop impresario. It leaps back to life when he races from microbes to chimps and from ancient Rome to Marco Polo to make his case for capitalism. While readers may debate some of Bloom’s conclusions – not to mention some of his examples – getAbstract suggests his book as a breath of fresh air amid the usual staid economic texts.

About the Author

Howard Bloom is a businessman, scientist and philosopher. He is also the author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History and Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century.