The Black Swan
by
Dr. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb is one of the most important books in history.  Taleb proves to be one of the world's great thinkers and takes apart the financial empire, the economists, and bankers who have screwed up the world. Taleb shows how the misuse of statistics and risk have been used to con the world. This thievery by bankers, economists, and government is the result of this misuse of statistics and the intentional under estimation of risk in complex systems and the market place. If you read only one book this year: Read The Black Swan.

Forget everything you've learned about statistics, the Bell Curve etc. in college and listen to Taleb. In these videos below you'll get some idea of what I am talking about. Taleb has spoken all over the world and was one of the few to predict the crashing of the economy.