Economics – Making Sense of the Modern Economy 2nd Edition (2006) edited by Simon Cox is an interesting collection of essays about the modern economy written by contributors to The Economist.

The book is split into 4 parts. The first on The new Liberalism and the case for globalisation. The second on imbalances in the global financial setup. The third is called The arteries of capitalism and is on finance, central banks and global capital. The book concludes with a chapter called Worldly philosophy on the uses and abuses of economics.

The book is really dense. It’s heavy going. Each essay make a point and backs the points up with statistics and numbers. Think of it as a collection of the heavier going parts of The Economist.

The first part goes over the numbers on how globalisation is making the world richer. It makes the case fairly and points out that a fair bit of the evidence is reasonably circumstantial however there is a quite a large volume of it. It’s no cheer leading but solid argument for globalisation being a force for good.

The Second Chapter is very interesting with comment on the current issues in world finance. The US’s lack of saving and China’s surplus is given a lot of treatment. This issue is one of the things that has driven the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and it’s also clear that the issues have not gone away.  There are also chapters on the perceived under-performance of the Japanese and German economies.

The Third Chapter on finance and banking is interesting and heavy going. It’s useful reference material.

The final chapter looks at modern economics and it’s applications. A list of promising young economists is made up, one of which is Steven Levitt who has since risen to fame. The government of Zimbabwe is looked at as well as how economists are modelling government.

The book is an interesting view of issues in modern economics, finance and the world economy.

3.5 / 5

Moneyball ( 2003 ) by Michael Lewis is a really fine book about how carefully using numbers can improve things, in this case the performance of a baseball team. Lewis was a bond trader who wrote the also excellent Liar’s Poker .The book is well written, has an interesting subject and has had a real impact on the way baseball is managed and played. There is also going to be a film based on the book coming out in 2011.

The book looks primarily at the Oakland Athletics (A’s) and their general manager Billy Beane. Baseball has no salary cap so teams have payrolls that differ by 3-4 times. This season the New York Yankees paid their team 209 million while the Oakland A’s paid their players only 47. There is a full list on wikipedia . Given such huge differences the A’s had to find a way to be more efficient with who they select and how they play.

Baseball is a game with a plethora of statistics so it an ideal game for objectively working out which players and teams are really good. However, the way that it has traditionally worked is largely hit and miss. In particular the purchasing of new players tended to focus on how athletic players were rather than their effectiveness. Ironically, the sort of player that has traditionally been picked is someone like Billy Beane himself, who was a prodigious athlete and was expected to perform brilliantly in the major league baseball but instead went on to have a mediocre career.

Sabermetrics, which is the analysis of baseball through careful statistics grew rapidly in the 1970s. Bill James started publishing a book called The Bill James Baseball Abstract. This book was bought by many people who would go on to better analyze how baseball worked. Baseball had statistics since the 1800s but these didn’t measure things that led to being able to predict who would do well. Sabermatricians with computers and modern statistical techniques were able to make better predictions. Rather than attempt to use these techniques major league baseball ignored and ridiculed them.

Billy Beane was the general manager of the A’s. The general manager is the person who hires and fire the team. Beane adopted sabermetric techniques. They worked well, allowing the A’s to perform far better than their payroll would suggest they could.

The book itself is interesting, Lewis wanted to write a book about baseball in general but decided that Beane and the A’s were much more interesting. The irony is that the methods the A’s adopted have since been adopted around the league so the A’s advantage is lessening. But it does make for a fine story.

The book is highly recommended for anyone with any interest in how stats can be used or in sports and ideally in both. Lewis is a fun, engaging writer. It’s a good story, well told about an interesting subject.

4.5 / 5

In Defense of Global Capitalism (2001) by Johan Norberg is a thorough, thoughtful, fact backed justification for globalisation and capitalism. Norberg puts forth the thesis that the problem with globalisation and capitalism is that some countries are yet to adopt it. Norberg is a good, clear writer and he goes through his arguments well. He starts off by saying how he went through an anarchist phase before becoming a liberal.

Norberg’s main argument is that the recent historical record indicates strongly that countries that trade freely are the ones that grow. He says that this is the best way to enrich people, make their lives longer and healthier and better. He also says that the idea of ‘fair trade’ is untenable as what is ‘fair’ is subjective and that free trade is fair because he believes that people only trade when both parties get mutual advantage. Norberg looks at South American to show how planned, highly protected go. He omits the fact that there was also high growth in some countries that had fairly high levels of protection like Australia in the post war period.

Norberg spends a little time on looking at why free markets do so much better than planned ones, he mentions the information that is created by markets and the efficiency of people choosing what works for them rather than someone who supposedly knows better who is often further away from the decision.

He looks at the criticisms of the market, the race to the bottom idea, and disposes of them by pointing out that instead there is more of a race to the top as people look for efficient societies with good infrastructure and highly trained workers that, coupled with capital, generate the most wealth.

The book is strong, ultimately what it says has such strong backing from the way things have worked out that it’s hard to argue with. But showing people what works often isn’t as popular as a polemic that decries the state of the world. It’s not a bad book, but it’s not brilliant. It’s a good antidote to silly books like No Logo and a good source for data on how things have improved.

3 / 5

The Map that Changed the World (2001) by Simon Winchester is a fine book by Simon Winchester. The book tells the story of William Smith who single-handedly created the first Geological map of Britain. It is another book where Winchester writes a fine biographical story of a person who made a huge contribution to a field and who led an interesting life.  Smith also, remarkably created this map on his own. This contrasts with the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and other great compendiums of knowledge that were the work of sizable teams.

Smith was born in 1769 and was the first son of a black smith. He was born into a radically changing and improving world. Technology, science and capitalism were freeing humanity from poverty and oppression. It was a world where belief in the West said that the world was 6000 years old. Smith’s father died when he was brought up by his Uncle and Aunt. On their farm in Oxfordshire there are pound stones of a fairly regular size that are that size because they contain a fossil.

Smith became a surveyor after meeting Edward Webb who was surveying in Smith’s area. In order to move goods and in particular coal around canals were being dug all over Britain. Surveyors were in great demand and good surveyors could make quite a bit of money. Smith became a good surveyor and went around the country surveying. He also examined the rocks and formations where ever he went. He struck out on his own and went freelance, but also incurred significant debt in the beginnings of what was to ruin him in future.

After some time surveying Smith had become so interested in the new science of geology that he started to do geological maps, the first he did was one around Bath. After this he wanted to do something grander and indeed began a map of the whole of the British Isles. Eventually a bounty was offered by Sir Joseph Banks and the Royal Society to complete this which Smith did.

Unfortunately by the time Smith had completed the map he had also incurred significant debt which caused him to have to go into debtors prison. He was then released but was unable to make much of an income. But after a short time the huge contribution his map made to Geology was recognized and he was awarded the first Wollaston Medal for Geology and managed a reasonable retirement.

The book is really well done. Winchester skillfully interleaves the changes in Britain, the changes in science, the geology of Britain and the life of William Smith and the host of interesting characters around him. Winchester also has quite an interest in geology and this comes through well. A fine read.

4/5

Irrationality (1992) by Stuart Sutherland is an absolutely superb book. The book goes through common ways that people act irrationally. It’s compact, well written and witty.

Sutherland was an experimental psychologist who clearly understood his subject and had seen just how poorly people make many decisions. He goes through how we make decisions badly in groups, because of sunk costs and because of our inability to look at numbers carefully and properly. Most of the 20 or so chapters looks at a particular aspect of irrationality and there are a few points summarizing the chapter at the end.There is also a chapter on the paranormal which doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the book. It does, however, provide some nice examples of people failing to be rational.

There is so much in the book that is worth thinking about, there are so many good examples of just how we consistently go wrong. There are fine quotes, such as “intuition is that strange instinct that tells a person that he is right, whether he is or not”. There are examinations of how evidence was systematically ignored, such as by the US commanding General at Pearl Harbor. The book’s conclusion also looks at why we think the way we do. Sutherland makes the point that for most of human existence quick decisions under pressure were life and death ones. He points out that drawing up tables of probability is a bad strategy for dealing with lion attacks. But the way our brain evolved to serve us under those conditions means that in the radical new world of civilization we have to consciously think about our actions in a way that doesn’t come naturally to us.

This book was from the library but is so good that I’ve just ordered it.

4.5 / 5

Connections (2007) by James Burke is a superb book about the development of science and technology. Burke was Oxford educated and has an MA in Middle English. He became a science reporter and was the BBC’s chief reporter on the Project Apollo mission. He was a reporter on the Tomorrow’s World program and learnt how to make science and technology interesting. He also had a deep understanding of European History. He made the documentary video series of Connections in 1978 in the tradition Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation and Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man. Connections the book is the adaption of the video series to print. Connections looks at how technology and science developed historically. Each chapter in Connections looks at a modern technology and then traces its development from the past. Burke is brilliant at finding a story that runs through these developments.

Burke’s video series allow him to use his voice, actions and video footage to emphasize the points that he is making. In the book Burke has to write and provide illustrations. He does both well. Video is more spectacular, but with a book the reader can go back and forth over things more easily. Burke makes the point that much technological innovation has not been commissioned by Research and Development offices and planned. Instead an invention somewhere, for instance in weaving technology through paper patterns has led to machinery for automation that led to automated counting for the US census that led to the punch card for computing. Some technological innovation has been directed by government and has come from theoretical underpinnings. The development of improvements in navigation through accurate clocks that worked from springs rather than from pendulums is one example. In modern times atomic power and weapons and the delivery systems for them, the jet aircraft and the missile and rocket, are another.

Science, engineering and mathematics is not taught as it was developed historically and instead tend to be taught axiomatically from the most rigorous start possible. Academics also have a tendency to put forward a view where it is ideas from academies that are then developed by practical people. This may be the case recently for some inventions, such as the transistor and atomic bomb, but for much technological development it has not been the case. Connections makes this case.

Connections has 10 Chapters:

1) The Trigger Effect – that traces the breakdown of the US electricity network to the beginning of agriculture and introduces the book.

2) The Road from Alexandria – that goes from the extraction of gold in North Western Turkey in millenium before christ to the atomic bomb.

3) Distant Voices – Starts with the nuclear fusion and fission and then jumps back to The Battle of Hastings and the stirrup and then returns to the present with the  development of the telephone.

4) Faith in Numbers – Starts with telecommunication and electro-magnetism and jumps back to the monasteries and then goes to the development of punch cards.

5) The Wheel of Fortune – Starts with the computer from the punch card and then goes back to early astronomy and finishes with the development of factories.

6) Fuel to the Flame – Starts with tools and factories and then goes back to Medieval Warm period and the cooling that went for several hundred years and then goes through developments that led to the car and the internal combustion engine and mentions early aircraft development.

7) The Long Chain – Starts with the jet engine and then goes back to Holland being the world’s leading trading and financial power and then moves through history to the invention of PVC.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry – Starts with plastics and then leaps back to the development of credit and then the history of muskets and then to the development of refrigeration and rocketry.

9) Lightning the Way – Starts with the Moon Landing, mentions the accelerometer then goes back to forts, cannon and then on to television.

10) Inventing the Future – Summarises the book and talks about how history neglects technology and why we should look at the history of technology.

The book is very clever in the way each chapter sets up the next. The jumps that occur when going backward are natural. The history that Burke looks at is fascinating. The view if euro-centric but does include Arabic mathematics and credits China with inventions that were critical to Western Science and technology, that of the compass, gunpowder and paper and the printing press. But as modern science has developed from European science it is not unreasonable to concentrate on their development. Burke does allude to the Needham Question. It was interesting to see the Medieval Warm period, which since 1995 has been disputed by some paleo-climatologists as being regarded simply as historic fact.

The book also provides an interesting view in contrast to that of A farewell to Alms on development before the industrial revolution. Burke clearly sees life as getting better for many people. He does brush on Malthusian views but describes technology progress as proceeding apace. Burke discusses the impact of the plague and the resultant labour shortage on technological development. Burke also provides short views into finance and talks about banks, providing a view into what The Ascent of Money would explore. This is to be expected, Civilisation and The Ascent of Man also overlap.

The book is fantastic. For anyone who is interested in history or technology it’s a great read. For those interested in both it’s a must read.

4.5/5

Who Killed Leigh Leigh (1998) by Kerry Carrington is a book about the killing of Leigh Leigh in 1989 in Stockton, a suburb of Newcastle. The murder was written into a play that became the film Blackrock .It’s a thoroughly depressing read that chronicles just how awful people can be. Leigh Leigh was a 14 year old girl who went to a 16th birthday part where she got very drunk and was raped and then killed. It’s awful. Two boys were prosecuted. Mat Webster and Tom Potts. Mat Webster for murder and Potts for carnal knowledge. Carrington alleges that others were involved. She is probably correct. She sees poor and cynical policing and a culture that is misogynistic as the causes. She is probably correct. Against this you do wonder what would be gained by other convictions. The police presumably looked at the case as solved with two convictions and doubted there was sufficient evidence to get more. Carrington sees this as a gross dereliction of duty. It’s arguable.

I’m not into true crime. This book didn’t grab me. Indeed it just made me reflect on how awful human beings can be.

2/5

Africa Rising by Vijay Mahajan (2008) is a really interesting book about Africa and the opportunities that it offers. In contrast to other books on Africa like Dead Aid and The Trouble with Africa the picture put forward is considerably more positive. Perhaps in part because the book looks forward rather than back. Mahajan is a very bright guy who went to IIT and then went on to study management and public policy. He’s an Indian so he has an interesting perspective on how places develop. His main point is that in the 1960s and 1970s many in the West thought that India was going to be a basket case. Paul Ehrlich stated that “India couldn’t possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980,” and “I have yet to meet anyone familiar with the situation who thinks that India will be self-sufficient in food by 1971.” Whereas now, 40 years after these sorts of thoroughly erroneous predictions India is not only feeding hundreds millions more people it is growing rapidly economically and is seen as a huge economic opportunity. Mahajan believes that similarly the Western take on Africa is wrong and that Africa is set to grow and become a bigger and bigger market.

Mahajan makes the point that there are a dozen countries in Africa with GNI per capita that is larger than China and six more with a GNI between India and China as well as the others where GNI is lower than India. The Economy of Africa is not the basket case that many people assume. This argument alone should give people pause for thought. It’s interesting that Mahajan does not make the point that India and China are increasing demand for what Africa already supplies, raw materials, to the world but it is yet another argument as to why Africa is about to take off. One thing he points to is current African growth, which stands at 5.16% over the past 2 years of the Global Financial Crisis and resultant recession, a very impressive performance.

The book is divided into two Parts, The African Opportunity and Part II Realizing the Opportunity. In the first part Mahajan introduces his view of Africa in baking bread in Zimbabwe where he looks at a mall is what is for many the prime example of African failure. He points out that even despite the Mugabe totalitarian regime the market finds ways to work and improve things. He puts forward the trade not aid case. In the second chapter, Africa is richer than you think Mahajan looks at what Africa already has and the things that have recently happened that are helping Africa enormously. He points out that cell phones and the internet are, in many ways a bigger aid for Africa than they are in the West because they break the state monopolies on communication and information. He talks about how cell phones are being used for banking and have already allowed millions in Africa to communicate. Mahajan breaks down Africa in Africa One, the already rich part of Africa One, the 50-150 million people who already have a  considerable income, Africa Two, those working hard to education their children and who have some disposable income of 350-500 million people and then Africa three, the poorest Africans, who aspire to Africa two but are still purchasing goods but who are also trying hard to keep food on the table. This 500-600 million group has less potential for those selling goods, but still some. Africa two, which is discussed in Chapter 2 Mahajan regards as the sweet spot for those targeting Africa because of its size and potential.

In Part II Mahajan looks at how people are already making profits and enriching the lives of those in Africa. Mahajan makes the point that doing business in Africa requires knowledge of the way Africa works. In Chapter 5 he looks at The Hanouti, which are small shops in Morocco. By looking at how they operate a chain of Hanouti has been created that is capable of being both cheaper for people by using economies of scale and profitable. In Chapter 5 the possibilities for providing the infrastructure that Africa lacks are probed. Water pumps, airlines and refrigeration and discussed. In Chapter 5 Generation Cheetah Mahajan talks about how youth offers great promise in Africa and how young people in Africa don’t rail about ‘colonialism’ being responsible for their ills but instead want to make money and have better government that allows them better lives. Mahajan looks at Nollywood and how entertainment works in Africa. Who knew that one of the largest film industries in the world existed in Nigeria? In chapter 8 Mahajan looks at the African diaspora and the role that it plays in enriching Africa and the world.

In the Conclusion: Ubuntu Market Mahajan provides a conclusion to the optimistic picture that he has created. He makes a strong case. As an Indian he points out that once things start working they can really take off and the West’s pessimism which has been shown to be wrong across the world may also be wrong in the case of Africa now. The book is filled with data on the value of African markets and the growth and profits of companies and people in Africa and anecdotes about success stories from Mahajan’s travels in Africa.The book is perhaps over optimistic and spends little time looking at African problems like poor infrastructure and terrible government. However, the book is clear, well written and well worth a read for those who doubt that Africa too can rise and enjoy the fruits of the market and globalisation that have been so successful in reducing hunger and poverty in the rest of the world. Let’s hope Mahajan is right.

4/5

The March of the Patriots (2009) by Paul Kelly is a fantastic book that will probably wind up either being one of the most important books describing Australian politics in the 1990s and the early part of the 21st Century or the most important. Kelly writes masterfully well and has the advantage of knowing the protagonists well. As editor of the Australian for much of the period and editor at large as well Kelly was in the ideal position to see what developed. What’s even more remarkable is his even handedness is treating both sides. He certainly has his views, but they are not common views. Most Australians are partisan toward one of the major parties. Kelly isn’t.

Kelly divides the book both chronologically and by theme. This is a good idea overall but does split related events if their themes are chosen to be separate. In particular the rise of One Nation is not shown to be related to the tough gun laws that Howard introduced after the Port Arthur massacre when there is a link. Also Howard’s treatment of illegal boat arrivals is separated from the rise of One Nation.

The books starts off by looking at the early life of Keating and Howard. The two grew up under fairly similar circumstances in Sydney’s West. Both of their parents were business people. Howard’s father died when Howard was 16 which clearly affected him. He also had a hearing impairment that caused problems for him. Nonetheless he was able to study law at Sydney University and became a solicitor for a short time before becoming a politician. Keating left school at 15 and then quickly became involved in Unions and then politics. Kelly describes the theme that the book puts together, that Keating and Howard are continuum of similar real politics but differing temperaments.

After introducing his protagonists Kelly looks at Paul Keating in Part 1: The Keating Miracle, and his ascension to Prime Minister after toppling Bob Hawke and his victory in the 1993 election. Kelly also brushes on the theme of the 24 hour news cycle. He describes Keating as hating it and not handling it well. Kelly looks at Hewson and his naive strategy that so remarkably enable Keating to win. Keating’s victory was impressive, his political cunning would serve him well but he was given an opponent who was weak. Costello’s disdain for Hewson, also evident in Costello’s book. Is also presented.

After giving fairly quick treatment to Keating’s win Kelly turns to look at Keating’s ideas in the second part, The big Picture. Kelly writes about the remarkable push by Keating that had started in the 1980s of adding more people into superannuation. His final push in 1991 that pushed superannuation into law was very impressive. It was on the eve of a recession that Keating must have had some idea was coming. The deal was done just before Keating became PM but the details had to be worked out by Keating and his then treasurer John Dawkins . Kelly does appear to respect Keating considerably but presents him as being a disorganized PM who wanted to be an ideas man, perhaps in a way to compensate for his lack of formal learning. Keating was certainly a very successful treasurer, as PM he appears less so. The severity of the early 1990s recession hit him hard. He essentially owned the problem. Kelly paints him as someone who instead wanted to be a big picture person, perhaps because he was not overly proud of his economics at the time. Whether Keating should have switched to this big picture view is questionable. But he did and also successfully courted the Left Wing intelligentsia (LWI) of Australia. The LWI was impressed by Keating’s desire to become a Republic, change the flag and engage in reconciliation with Australia’s Aborigines. Middle Australia was less impressed. One legacy of Keating’s big picture did yield results, his engagement with Asia was successful and has had long lasting effects. Despite Keating starting by lecturing Brent Snowcroft, one of the architects of the US victory in the Cold War and in the first Gulf War in a manner that was really quite amusing he did get US support for APEC and he strengthened Australian relations with Indonesia. Kelly also notes that Keating introduced mandatory detention, a policy that would be continued but explode under Howard.

In Part III The Showdown Kelly describes the contest between Howard and Keating where Howard managed to split the LWI, which was the Labour leadership, from much of the Labour base that became the Howard battlers. Howard’s rise as the Final Option due to Hewson’s dismal failure and Downer’s amusing one is given fairly short shrift.

In Part IV, The Howard System, Howards setup as PM is described. Howard is described as setting up a system where he was key and one in which he would continue the politicisation of the senior ranks of the public service. Howard also had an asset in a strong treasurer in Peter Costello. The two were not friends but had a very successful working relationship. Together they would balance the budget under fire from the public service and the unions. This was not, as Labour would later attempt to paint it as, balancing the budget in good times. Howard and Costello would also make the Reserve Bank legally independent. It was quite a step that would cause the Liberal Party pain in the short term but gain in the long term. Kelly also writes about how Howard would engage in a cultural conflict with the LWI that Keating had deliberately launched with his big picture ideas. Kelly describe’s Howard’s relations with indigenous Australia as being an opportunity wasted. Kelly has spoken to Noel Pearson who would be important in this part of Liberal politics and Pearson provides numerous interesting quotes throughout the book.

In Part V The Crisis of Legitimacy Kelly writes about the problems that would hit the Howard government early on, the waterfront crisis, the Native Title Crisis and in particular the rise of One Nation and Pauline Hanson. Howard’s tough victory in the 1998 election where he had all these setbacks but still courageously and openly proposed a new tax and won is described. With that Howard laid to rest the Ghost of Billy McMahon.

In Part VI, John Howard discovers the world Kelly writes about the Howard government, Downer and it’s relations with the world. After initially not engaging with Asia Howard and Downer’s change to further engagement is given examination.

In Part VII Howard Unleashed larger chunks of Howard’s government and the particularly successful phase that ultimately made it such a long lasting government is examined. Kelly describes Howard and Downer’s handling of East Timor as improvised but successful and establishing real foreign policy credentials for them. The introduction of the GST and the avoidance of the 2001 recession is given a surprisingly short treatment. Kelly says that Howard was skillful but that Costello was too hard line and would have failed to have passed it. Kelly hints that Howard looked at this as showing the Costello would not have made a good leader. Tampa and the Children overboard affair is described with an interval where the events of 9/11 and the Howard/Bush relationship are examined. Kelly describes the former as being unintentionally mishandled, in contrast to the myth that the ALP and others have subsequently attempted to construct of the whole issue as being a dog whistle. Kelly’s narrative is solid and makes far more sense than allowing the Left’s hatred of Howard to run wild and paint him as some evil Machiavellian genius. Kelly also points out that much of the setup was inherited from Keating. Kelly does not paint Howard and in particular Reith as being blameless, indeed he appears certain that before the 2001 election both were aware of the inadvertent construct they had painted but neither, in the run up to an election being prepared to fully overturn what had appeared.

The book ends with the 2001 election with Howard ready to step into the salad days of his time as PM when budget surpluses and the China boom would kick in.

The book is very impressive. For anyone who is seriously interested in Australian politics it’s a must read. The faults that the book has, in particular the separation of themes with chronology disturbed are justified in that they give a good view of topics. The more natural choice of strict chronological order would have broken the overview of the issues that the book instead does so well. Kelly gives more time to Howard’s 5 years than Keating’s and this is justified. The Hawke government did more than the Keating government did. Keating’s role in that was critical. By the time he became PM the ALP was always on the defensive. Keating also lost the momentum to finish the program of reforms that he had so brilliantly started. It would be left to Howard to finish the painting by bringing in the GST, balancing the budget and formally separating the Reserve Bank. The book is long, it could be called The Long March of the Patriots. But this is clearly necessary. It would also have been good to have summaries of the economic and demographic status of Australia for the period. But these are minor quibbles. The book stands as a huge achievement.

4.5 / 5.

Ponyo ( IMDB wikipedia ) 2008 is Splash with a bacon fetish remade by Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki that was written on drugs. It’s a charming Japanese animated film that allows us to relive the magic chemistry between Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah in a very new way. It’s a fine children’s film. It’s not as polished as a Pixar film, but it is certainly beautiful in its own right. Ponyo is a goldfish with a face found by Sosuke, a young Japanese boy who lives with his mother and father, who is often away at sea, atop a cliff facing the ocean. Ponyo is the daughter of some wizard who lives beneath the sea who had children with a sea goddess. He gets Ponyo back from Sosuke but then she gains more magical powers and returns to reunite with Sosuke. It’s all very well drawn and quite amazing. Well worth a look 4/5.