I have always found the value of book reviews to be limited to the kind of book being reviewed.  A review of fiction is probably as good one day as the next.  Nonfiction, and in this case economics, is another matter.  I've decided to read books from years ago and see if they stand the test of time.  I picked "Everything for Sale" by Robert Kuttner from 1996, and "Generational Accounting" from 1993 by Laurence Kotlikoff.  As I am not the best at this kind of thing, I've broken the reviews into four sections- the good, the bad, the ugly, and the memorable.  I think you can guess the nature of the first three, but the fourth is specific to the things that stuck out and make it stand the test of time in some way (or not).

No matter your view of Kutters philosophical orientation, the guy can write.  This is an excellent work that with 20/20 hindsight provided by 14+ years of history hits the nail on the head at almost every turn.  He starts with an over view of what it means to be economically efficient, and gives the three measures- Smithian, Keynsian, and Shumpterian (allocative/micro-economic, distributive/macro-economic, and innovative/monopolistic).  He focuses on three markets- labor, health care, and financial markets.  The second two REALLY stand out, perhaps because labor markets have not exploded and dragged the nation into the worst recession since the 1930's.  He examines in detail the reasons that a free-market approach can not provide a coherent efficient health care system.  If he thought the health care situation was bad in '96 then he must have been nauseas by February 2010.  His section on financial markets was written at a very telling time- it was just before the repeal of Glass-Steagel, which he described as the last remaining pillar of financial regulation.   

The section on government intervention in R&D should be mandatory reading for all members of Congress.  Those who disagree with the conclusions should be impeached as they are too ideologically stubborn to assist the nation in any meaningful way. 

The best part of this book is how he shows that the stated deficit is a useless number to measure as it is skewed by simple naming convention.  His example is quite brilliant- Social Security.  If one country says "we tax our workers and pay retirees" and another says "we take out loans for each worker and pay that loan back with interest to each worker" both have exactly the same effect, but they show radically different deficits.  The book is worth it just for learning this.