An annotated booklist for Joy in Enough Economics section
I’ve divided this into sections. Obviously this is a personal list. Others might include different titles.
The Crisis (meaning the financial crisis of 2008)
The Shifts and the Shocks – what we’ve learned and still have to learn by Martin Wolf.
Martin Wolf is a columnist on the Financial Times and this is the books second edition. Excellent on the background to the 2008 crisis (which he admits he did not foresee). Written in an accessible yet authoritative style. Very good bibliography.
Fools Gold- How unrestrained greed corrupted a dream, shattered global markets and unleashed a catastrophe by Gillian Tett.
Very good on the culture of banking in the lead up to 2008. Tett is a journalist on The Financial Times who has spoken at Greenbelt.
The Gods that failed-how the financial elites gambled away our futures by Larry Elliot
Between debt and the devil: Money credit and fixing global finance by Adair Turner.
A recent contribution by an insider.
Money
Debt-the first five thousand years by David Graeber.
Graeber is an anthropologist. As the title suggests he takes a long view and his book is well written.
Money-the unauthorised biography by Felix Martin similar to Graeber’s book. Read one but not both.
This Time is Different Eight centuries of financial folly by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff
(Often cited but to be honest I haven’t got round to it yet. Said to be witty)
Jimmy Stewart is Dead-Ending the world’s financial plague with limited purpose banking by Lawrence Koltikoff (An antidote to “bring backery” where monetary policy is concerned.)
www.positivemoney.org Their critique of quantitative easing should be noted.
Tax
The Joy of Tax: how a fair tax system can create a better society by Richard Murphy (Murphy is a former Tax Inspector)
The Great Tax Robbery-How Britain became a haven for fat cats and big business by Richard Brooks
Treasure Islands-tax havens and the men who stole the world By Nicholas Shaxon. Not many books change my outlook but this one did. I was shocked. A new post Brexit edition is now available. Obtainable from Amazon surprisingly!!
Inequality
Capital in the Twenty First Century by Thomas Piketty.
Very important. Do not be put off by the size of the book. It is very readable and held my attention throughout. The message can be summarised in one line: r>g where r is the rate of return to wealth and g is the economic growth rate.
Inequality What can be done by Anthony Atkinson Very thorough treatment of this question by a scholar who has devoted much of his professional life to this question.
Inequality and the 1% by Danny Dorling
Dorling is a geographer. See also his All that is solid-the great housing disaster.
Sustainability
Enough is Enough by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill The key text that underpinned the first JiE conference in Birmingham
Prosperity without Growth by Tim Jackson The case for sustainability as opposed to growth in developed nations.
How much is enough Money and the Good Life by Robert and Edward Skidelsky Money should not be an end in itself but a means to the good life.
Other
The Price of Civilisation economics and ethics after the fall by Jeffrey Sachs. Criticism of neo liberal economics and policy
23 things they don’t tell you about capitalism by Ha Joon Chang who has stood outside mainstream academic economics for some time.
Happiness: lessons from a new science by P Richard G Layard. Layard comes to this from a hard edged economic background. There is nothing woolly here. Excellent diagnosis of our present discontents.
Globalisation and its discontents by Joseph Stiglitz. Anything by Stiglitz is well worth the time and the trouble.
Mammon’s Kingdom by David Marquand An essay on Britain now. An elegantly and attractively written account of our present discontents which pays homage to the great political, religious and economic thinkers of the past including R H Tawney. Best description of the Gini-coefficient that I’ve read anywhere.
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