Falling to Earth

by Al Warden

Memories Fade.

I didn't know about the postal covers scandal. I picked this book up because it was written by an astronaut, and I've always had astronaut dreams.

Al Warden flew on Apollo 15. At the time, he and his fellow crewmates brought postal covers along with them with the intent of selling them at a later date as special  memorabilia; a souvenir of something that had flown to the moon and back.  

But that nots all what the book is about. It's also about the life of an astronaut. How they got there, what it takes. Al admits that he got lucky. He was an astronaut because at the time the government believe that test pilots with an engineering background would be great astronauts and he fit the bill

He did have a lot of passion for his career. This did cause him much personal pain as his wife never had an appreciation for a husband who had to take great risks with his safety.

 

Money, The Unauthorized Biography. By Felix Martin.

Documents the history of money, especially the tension between the two concepts of money. One as an absolute standard of value. The other as a transferable system of credits.

Money as an absolute standard of value (Such as the gold standard) has always been favored by less-government types because it can be maintained without a powerful government. It's only when money is treated as a system of transferable credit, managed by a government, that the economy can stabilize.

The book also has a strong opinion on how banks should be reformed to deal with the great recession. It calls for a separation between payment-transfer banking and investment banking. There were other recommendations, all good I'm sure, but they have fallen out of my mind.