KukaXoco Finance - Bookstore

We can highly recommend buyign the following books as interesting reads about the worlds of finance, economics and history. Not so much to make use of them in trading systems, but rather to help you obtain a good understanding of the flows of ideas, monies and power across time.

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BOOKS - FINANCE

Winning the Loser's Game: Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing - by Charles Ellis
Published in 2013, his criticisms are still true today. In his first edition in 1998, he reported on how only about 20% of actively managed funds were outperforming the SP500 (which has no fees). A good article reviews this dismal history since Ellis published his book: The active [fund] management paradox: why skill improvements have not translated to better returns

The Intelligent Investor - by Benjamin Graham
The classic text on fundamental analysis and value investing for the long term. In an era of fundamentals-destroying ETFs, and zero-day to expire options, worth a read but probably less useful that it was decades ago.

Options as a Strategic Investment - by Lawrence McMillan
The 'bible' of options trading, a huge book of detailed descriptions on options strategies. But lacking in discussing the subtleties of options tradings: margins, time decay of extrinsic value, option activities of big traders, etc.

Our Dollar, Your Problem - by Kenneth Rogoff (2025)
The biggest challenge to the dollar's global stature is the American government's unsustainable debt. "The United States is running deficits at such a prolific rate that it is likely headed for trouble in almost any scenario." For U.S. debt, explicit default and cutting enough expenses seem unlikely; that leaves inflation and financial repression, which are implicit defaults.

Inflation - a Guide for Users and Losers - by Mark Blyth and Nicolo Fraccaroli (2025)
A new book on inflation, which impacts everything in the financial world. " Now tariffs, climate shocks, demographic change, geopolitical tensions, and politicians promising to upend the global order are all combining to create a more inflationary future, making a new paradigm for understanding inflation urgently necessary."

Going Nuclear - How Atomic Energy Will Save the World - by Tim Gregory
KukaXoco Finance is a big fan of nuclear fission energy (and hopefully nuclear fusion energy), though prefer that more progress be made on dealing with the problem of nuclear wastes and decommissioning and its nuclear wastes.

Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future - by Dan Wang (2025)
Why China has a tech manufacturing advantage over the USA. In his book, Wang compares China's 'engineering' state that is enabling its rapid rise on the tech ladder, with U.S. policy and immigration rules that threaten to dent the edge of the USA. He also reviews how the USA has become a "lawyerly society" that excels at obstruction (conservatism to protect and enrich the rich), while China is dedicated to technological supremacy (but still allowing people to become rich).

Delay, Deny, Defend: why insurance companies don't pay claims and what you can do about it - by Jay Feinman
A worthwhile read if you are going to invest in insurance companies such as UnitedHealthcare and Berkshire Hathaway.

Primal Intelligence - by Angus Fletcher (2025)
"AI tools can process huge amounts of data. Yet they lack the human mind's capacity for intuitive understanding." One more reason that the AI bubble is a bubble. A free article for investors: The hater's guide to the AI bubble.

The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Become Big Business - by David Courtwright
If you are going to invest in online gambling, online shopping, pharmaceutical companies, cellphone and app companies, sugary foods and beverages - a must read about "limpic capitalism".

The Silk Roads - by Peter Frankopan
A history of trade and politics across the Silk Road spanning China, India, Central Asia and beyond.

Debt - The First 5000 Years - by David Graeber
A comprehensive review of debt mechanisms throughout history.

The Leading Indicators - A Short History of the Numbers that Rule Our World - by Zachary Karabell (2014)
A short, 92-page, book on the history of the important indicators that greatly influence investing, such as inflation and unemployment measures. But indicators invented in the 1950s - are they still relevant in today's very different global economy? Do we need new indiactors?

Goliath's Curse - by Luke Kemp (2025)
"People are fundamentally egalitarian but are led to collapses by enriched, status-obsessed elites, while past collapses often improved the lives of ordinary citizens." Since we are now ruled by enriched, status-obsessed elites, a collapse is coming - with or without the destructive effects of misanthropic AI. Book review at The Guardian.

A History of Nigeria - by Toyln Falola and Matthew Heaton
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Lagos, its biggest city with over 20 million people, is one of the fastest-growing megacities in the world, and the largest in Africa. If you plan on investing in Africa in the coming years, Nigeria is a good place to start and learn about.

BOOKS - HISTORY

Enshittification - why everything suddenly got worse and what to do about it - by Cory Doctorow, 2025.
"Misogyny, conspiratorialism, surveillance, manipulation, fraud, and AI slop are drowning the internet. For the [extremely rich] monopolists who dominate online - X, TikTok, Amazon, Meta, Apple - this is all part of the playbook. The process is what leading tech critic Cory Doctorow has dubbed 'enshittification'.

Science and Technology in World History: an introduction - by James McClellan (2nd edition, 2006)
"This bestselling textbook may be the single most influential study of the historical relationship between science and technology ever published."

The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914 - by Philipp Blom.
Blom describes how turn-of-the-20th-century technology changed the way people thought about art and human nature and how it contributed to a nervous breakdown across the west. Disoriented by the speed of modern times, Europeans and Americans suffered from record-high rates of anxiety and a sense that our inventions had destroyed our humanity. Sounds like today's reactions to today's technology.

Pox Romana: the Plague that Shook the Roman World - by Colin Elliott
The author argues that the Antonine plague that broke out in 165 ACE, along with climate change, poor rules, and geopolitics of the time - hastened the decline of the Roman empire. Many parallels to today.

The Dawn of Everything - A New History of Humanity - by David Graeber and David Wengrow
From the Ice Age to today, how much of what is 'modern' is rooted in history.

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humholdt's New World - by Andrea Wulf
A famous scientst of the 19th century, not only did Humboldt invent the modern idea of 'nature' and environmentalism, but he also interacted with many people who went onto making big contributions in many other areas of life.

The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge - by David McCullough
A fascinating history of the people, the finances and technological challenges of building the Brooklyn Bridge across 14 years of construction.
The Path Between the Seas: the Creation of the Panama Canal - by David McCullough
Another great historical history by David McCullough, the history of another great achievement of engineering, science and finance: the construction of the Panama Canal.
The Wright Brothers - by David McCullough
The third in a trilogy of books by McCullough celebrating the intersection of science/engineering and commerce.

Suleiman the Magnificent (the Lawgiver) by Andre Clot
Sulieman was one of the great leaders in Islamic history, not only in battle on land and sea, but also in the law - harmonizing the laws of the sultans with the laws of Sharia, in the arts, and even in women's rights (in the influential status of his wife, Roxelana).

A System of Moral Philosophy by Francis Hutcheson (1755)
Hutcheson was a teacher of the hugely influential Adam Smith. Hutcheson's book had a huge influence on the American revolutionaries. "Hutcheson insisted on the right of rebellion - more precisely, the natural right of people to defend themselves against any form of private or public tyranny. Servants, he argued, may leave unjust masters. The subjects of monarchs may not be treated unjustly." A review of Hutcheson is at: The Enlightened Scot Who Inspired America's Founders.

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PUBLICATIONS

Barron's
Barron's weekly financial newspaper on Saturday is one of the best reads in the investment world. For new investors and old, a weekly read will make you a better investor.