Essential Reading for Financial Modelers

I recommend the three following volumes to anyone who religiously ascribes to the "modern financial models" (MPT, CAP-M, Black-Scholes, to hit the high points). All three demonstrate the weakness of the inherent fundamental assumptions, particularly normality. Any hopes that geeks armed with these models can "make money" or "beat the market" should be put directly out of mind. The models the geeks use are far more complicated, attempting in various idiosyncratic ways to compensate for the broad generalizations implicit in the textbook models.

Taleb. 2007. The Black Swan. Random House.

Mandelbrot & Hudson. 2004. The (Mis)Behavior of Markets. Basic.

Lowenstein. 2000. When Genius Failed. Random House.

Ethanol good for poor?

From the "there's two sides to every story" desk:

Slate has a piece on ethanol's potential upside for developing nations. Very much in the spirit of Kirwan's work on subsidies for US exports...every nation has both consumers and producers. If the consumers are hurt (prices are high), chances are the producers are happy. If the producers are hurt (prices are driven down), chances are the consumers like the low prices. Anyway.
http://www.slate.com/id/2169867/nav/tap1/