Alan Beattie defines the “false economy” of his title as the belief that “our economic future is predestined and that we are helplessly borne along by huge, uncontrollable, impersonal forces.” To counter this concept, he takes the reader through the economic histories of such countries as Egypt, China, India, Russia, England, the United States, Argentina, Indonesia and Tanzania and points out specific policies—none of them inevitable—that either enhanced or retarded the public well being.

Beattie, who holds a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge and is now world trade editor for the Financial Times, argues in False Economy that nations are seldom content to surrender control to pure market forces. Instead, they impose tariffs, give preference to special interest groups, misuse vital natural resources and otherwise distort the basic making-selling-buying continuum. Even oil- and diamond-rich countries may, through the political corruption they engender, find these coveted resources a curse rather than a blessing, Beattie says. “It seems bizarre that discovering something that is greatly prized should impoverish its finder,” he observes. “But national economies, by and large, become rich because they can make and provide goods and services, not because they own a source of basic commodities.”

Political corruption always distorts market dynamics. But Beattie says it isn’t always the hazard to economic health it appears to be. “If corruption is stable and predictable enough,” he notes, “it essentially simply becomes a tax.” However, he continues, “What starts out as a rational, if dishonest, response to an opportunity to make money often becomes hardened into a dominant culture that can endure for centuries.”

Although he insists this book isn’t “a detailed instruction manual on economic policy,” Beattie does hold out several broad principles to nations seeking economic health and stability. Among these: don’t isolate yourself from other nations. Build your economy on what it does best and don’t tamper too much with it. Honor property rights and maintain the rule of law to encourage investment and trade. Don’t let small but well-connected interest groups subvert the larger economic good. Be alert to signs that your economy is going awry and seek ways of righting it.

“The experience of history should lead us to hope and strive to make the world better,” Beattie concludes, “not to despair and resign ourselves to fate.”

Edward Morris reviews from Nashville.

If you already have substantial retirement accounts, it’s important to make sure the money is well protected against common and costly planning mistakes, and structured so that it takes full advantage of tax breaks. In Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map: The Leave-Nothing-to-Chance, Worry-Free, All-Systems-Go Guide nationally known IRA expert Ed Slott details how to protect and preserve your retirement savings, no matter where you are in the planning process. Slott incorporates information from the August 2006 tax laws, making this a very timely guide for dealing with IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s and other accounts.

This is not a book on how to invest for retirement; Slott assumes you’re already doing that. Instead, he offers guidance on giving your retirement accounts regular and thorough checkups. The book is made up of five easy-to-read sections, with topics ranging from developing a detailed account overview and managing your accounts to what to do as a beneficiary. It also gives advice on how to handle special retirement account problems, such as divorce, same-sex and unmarried couple issues and naming a charity as beneficiary. Slott’s no-nonsense approach should help you keep your retirement accounts in top-notch condition.

Ellen R. Marsden writes from Mason, Ohio.

Media hype and self-serving investment industry scare tactics to the contrary, baby boomers are actually in pretty good financial shape for retirement, according to PBS personal finance expert Jonathan D. Pond. That’s part of the good news. The other part is that even if you’re doing relatively well, there are ways to do better. Pond shows you how in You Can Do It! The Boomer’s Guide to a Great Retirement, filled with upbeat financial and lifestyle advice for those of us born between 1946 and 1964. As the exclamation in the title makes clear, Pond is an optimist and a cheerleader who’ll soon have you believing that you can get past the woulda, coulda, shoulda and overcome your previous mistakes to build a secure retirement.

Pond’s book gives readers practical suggestions on building the best portfolio, getting the best deal on annuities and buying the right kind and amount of insurance. For those edging toward retirement, he includes chapters on pre- and post-retirement decisions, Social Security, estate planning and when and where to retire. You Can Do It! contains checklists and fill-in-the-blank pages to help you get a clear understanding of where you are financially. Pond also includes a special reader website that serves as a resource from which you can obtain the most up-to-date financial information, including the author’s investment suggestions.

Ellen R. Marsden writes from Mason, Ohio.

What’s retirement all about? How does one make it meaningful? These and other key questions are explored in Portfolio Life: The New Path to Work, Purpose and Passion After 50 written by David Corbett, founder and CEO of New Directions, Inc., a career services company for senior executives. In a portfolio life plan, the goal is to create a balance in five areas: work, learning, leisure, family time and giving back. Optimally your life portfolio reflects a balance between your passions and pursuits, a way to plan ahead for the exciting new possibilities in retirement. The author outlines a step-by-step process to enable you to make your own pie chart, sectioned into slices that will give you the most pleasure and benefit. From there you add more specifics under each section until you have enough detail to form actionable plans and possibilities. Seeing your plan laid out, based wholly on who you are and what you want to do, can take you from an unenthusiastic Now what? as you contemplate retirement, to looking forward to a great time of life. Ellen R. Marsden writes from Mason, Ohio.

In their mid-50s, Barry Golson and his wife found themselves between jobs, contemplating retirement. With modest retirement savings, no pension and no benefits, it became apparent that the Golsons would have to leave the New York area and their previous way of life if they were going to have an interesting and affordable retirement.

Gringos in Paradise: An American Couple Builds Their Dream Retirement House in a Seaside Village in Mexico is the chatty and charming account of how they achieved that goal. Golson, an editor for Forbes.com and a former executive editor of Playboy and TV Guide, conveys his personal tale with wit and warmth. It was on a trip to Mexico to write an article for AARP about Americans retiring there that Colson and his wife came upon the seaside town of Sayulita, 40 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. Though it had no traffic lights, paved roads or ATMs, Sayulita boasted three Internet cafes and a great breakfast place owned by Americans. The Golsons were hooked, bought land and began their adventure.

Gringos in Paradise is an engaging story of a couple building their dream home and living a retirement they love. It reads like a diary about building a new life in Mexico and developing a deep appreciation for the local culture. Golson’s descriptions of the sights, sounds and people of Sayulita will make you feel like you’re there or wish you were. Ellen R. Marsden writes from Mason, Ohio.

Catherine S. McBreen and George H. Walper Jr. conducted in-depth research on 5,000 millionaire and mega-millionaire households to learn more about who these people are, how they accumulated their wealth and how they invest it. The result is Get Rich, Stay Rich Pass it On: The Wealth-Accumulation Secrets of America’s Richest Families. The book offers historical perspective on wealthy families like the Vanderbilts, who gained much of their fortune from shipping and railroads yet lost most of it by selling off real estate investments and squandering money on indulgences such as yachting and horse breeding. As the authors warn, investments must be income-producing, so real estate will always be a good choice, while a Van Gogh, while lovely to look at, doesn’t put money in the bank.

All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make and Spend Their Fortunes, by journalists Peter W. Bernstein and Annalyn Swan is published to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Forbes, the book clarifies the difference between those who have money (lots of actors and athletes) and those with genuine wealth (the 400 richest people in the world, according to the magazine). If knowing how the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett garnered their fortunes and what they’ve done with their wealth appeals to you, the Bernstein/Swan team’s exhaustive research will prove quite rewarding.

All the Money in the World is one of the most detailed books you’ll see, with a host of tables, sidebars, factoids, anecdotes and material. Depending on your politics, the fact that some of these people have lost more money in 25 years than many nations of the world could raise in triple that time might be amazing, interesting or appalling. This amalgam of lists, profiles and stories does humanize the Forbes 400, however, showing that even the ultra-wealthy make mistakes in judgment, have bad marriages, family feuds, unexpected setbacks and other problems. All the Money in the World is not just scholarly; it’s also highly readable and provocative.

There’s plenty of debate out there among people far more literate in science and economics than I regarding the merits of neuroeconomics, including questions about whether it’s one discipline or the other or just another fancy term coined to codify otherwise unexplainable behavior. Since Jason Zweig has worked at various times for Time, Forbes and Money magazines, he knows how to simplify fiscal language and explain things in an interesting way, which makes Your Money and Your Brain: How The New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich a lot more fun than it might sound.

Suggestions for improving your money management behavior range from resisting exposure to such images as stock tickers and closing bells (they provoke pain in the brain) to avoiding decisions based solely on short-term rewards (too impulsive and indicative of a dangerous trend if repeated). Many of Zweig’s recommendations would work for anyone regardless of genetic factors, so even those doubtful of the link between biology and finance can benefit from his advice. Your Money and Your Brain is consistently enjoyable and filled with fascinating facts that will make you pause before making another misguided investment decision.

<b>It’s your move</b> Use harassment to boost your career, advises Penelope Trunk in <b>Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success</b>, a left-field guide coming late this month for those who suspect that traditional business models stink. A popular blogger and syndicated business columnist for Yahoo! and the <i>Boston Globe</i>, Trunk etches fresh tablets with surprising new commandments for the changing business world. Basically a collection of columns with attention-grabbing titles and even more bracing advice, Trunk sets new priorities for frightening moments in unemployment (Grad School Will Not Save You), preparing a resume (When Writing Your Resume Don’t Be Too Honest), interviewing (There Are Stupid Questions, So Don’t Ask Them) and performing a job with life/work balance built in (A Long List of Ways to Dodge Long Hours). This is brave new thinking about work for Gen Xers and Yers, and a guilty pleasure for the Dilbert generation nearly mummified in its cubicles.

Russell Simmons, the groundbreaking, Tony award- winning media mogul (HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, Def Poetry Jam on Broadway ) and co-founder of hip-hop label Def Jam shares his business philosophy in Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success. Writing with Chris Morrow, Simmons relates his part biblical, part yogic principles, world-class business acumen and street-tough attitude that developed as he built his fortune and cemented his place in history by believing that hip-hop artists had as much to say to society as any Julliard graduate. His rules for success are broken out in somewhat wordy chapters from Stop Frontin’ and Start Today, to Spit Truth to Power. Simmons illustrates these highly personal lessons with his own struggles and triumphs and those of his high-powered business friends, persuading street entrepreneurs that they can get all sorts of places simply by being generous and real and never changing to suit others’ ideas of decency and taste.

The workplace can seem like a large dysfunctional family, but Lisa Robyn sees it as a wild, sadomasochistic world where some wield power and others often women succumb to it. Using the discipline of the professional dominatrix, Robyn encourages women to assume mistress roles to gain the psychological upper hand in The Corporate Dominatrix: Six Roles to Play to Get Your Way at Work. Rather than being naughty, these archetypes are just another way to help women think about the command and control dynamic and use their personal power more comfortably at work. Perception is, in some cases, more important than reality in the office, according to Robyn, a former book publishing executive. So the roles she encourages have specific purposes, from the inner- directed goddess, the image-conscious queen and the non-reactive nurse, to the nurturing governess, the always learning schoolgirl and the righteous, battle-ready amazon, allowing women to sharpen their interpersonal skills and achieve their professional fantasies without losing themselves in the process. The trick for women in the workplace is being externally observant and internally resilient, Robyn writes. Playing work roles can allow you to see other sides of yourself and new possibilities in your career path.

Hannah Seligson is every girl’s BFF in New Girl on the Job: Advice from the Trenches. Aimed at the 20-something female entering the strange subuniverse of work, the book defuses emotional undercurrents in business settings while presenting ideas for turning internships and entry-level jobs into real opportunities. Making a Graceful Entrance: How to Find a Job You Don’t Want to Quit, X + Y: Navigating Female-Male Dynamics at the Office, Bad Bosses, Why Is She Being Such a Bitch and other chapters cover everything from finding to keeping a job. Strong anecdotes from the trenches support the female-tailored techniques like changing the channel after a goof-up, using CYT (cover yourself tactics) to help avert office disasters, and the real take on crying (consider it a tic, and not a huge deal as long as you quickly compose yourself in the bathroom). Slanted to those raised on self-esteem and teamwork buzzwords ( I felt hurt, violated and embarrassed when I heard you talked about me . . . would it be more productive if we both spent less time focusing on interpersonal issues and more time designing Web pages? ) Seligson’s advice is still valuable to any worker bee trying to adjust to life in the hive.

Moving from lunch in the dorm cafeteria to lunch at Chez Henri with the boss is a transition that green professionals can make with the help of Work 101: Learning the Ropes of the Workplace Without Hanging Yourself. Author Elizabeth Freedman, an MBA and corporate career consultant, gets nitpicky with the newly hired, helping draw the fine lines of the workplace, like the difference between dress casual and too casual, or what you meant to say in e-mail vs. what you actually said. Her business rules cover all aspects of work conduct, from making a great first impression, building relationships with bosses and co-workers, showcasing strengths in meetings, mastering business communication and getting promoted or leaving a job without setting a bridge on fire. The corporate survival strategies are amusing and crucial for the young and hapless (if you have to ask, forget both the thong and Hawaiian shirt on casual Fridays) and help the experienced readjust their business hats, too.*