50 Economics Classics: Revised Edition

by Tom Butler-Bowdon

Overview

Revised and updated edition

Economics drives the modern world and shapes our lives, but few of us feel we have time to engage with the breadth of ideas in the subject.

50 Economics Classics is the smart person's guide to two centuries of discussion of finance, capitalism and the global economy.
'Something of a modern classic in its own right.'
E&T magazine

'50 Economics Classics is a celebration of the large imaginative canvasses of the great economists. Butler—Bowdon's choices are broad, interdisciplinary and compellingly idiosyncratic. His chapters are not simply straight summaries of the chosen works, but thoughtful reflections on why we should care about this or that book and what its relevance is for us today. Butler—Bowdon's renderings are done so well that one might never bother going back to the original! Professional economists, students and general readers alike will find much here to delight in and many new byways to explore.'
Niall Kishtainy, Fellow in Economic History, London School of Economics

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399800990
Publisher:	Hachette Mobius
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Tom Butler—Bowdon is recognized as an expert on personal development literature. His 50 Classics series has been hailed as the definitive guide to the literature of possibility, and has won numerous awards including the Benjamin Franklin Self—Help Award and Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Award. A graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Sydney, he lives and works in both the Oxford, UK and Australia. www.butler—bowdon.com

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction 1

1 Lords of Finance (2009) Liaquat Ahamed

Fixed ideas in economics can have disastrous results 14

2 The Bitcoin Standard (2018) Saifedean Ammous

We need a form of money and store of wealth suited to the digital age 22

3 The Microtheory of Innovative Entrepreneurship (2010) William Baumol

Entrepreneurs are the engines of growth and must be valued 30

4 Human Capital (1964) Gary Becker

The most important investment we ever make is in ourselves 38

5 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (2012) Ha-Joon Chang

Many nations succeeded by bucking the rules of orthodox economics 44

6 The Firm, the Market and the Law (1990) Ronald Coase

Why firms exist; the role of transaction costs in economic life 52

7 GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History (2014) Diane Coyle

How we measure economic output has consequences for people and nations 58

8 Innovation and Entrepreneurship (1985) Peter Drucker

Success comes from taking management and ideas seriously 64

9 The Ascent of Money (2008) Niall Ferguson

Finance is not evil; it built the modern world 70

10 Capitalism and Freedom (1962) Milton Friedman

Free markets, not government, protect the individual and ensure quality 76

11 The Great Crash 1929 (1955) J. K. Galbraith

The government's job to stop speculative frenzies ruining the real economy 82

12 Progress and Poverty (1879) Henry George

The best and fairest way to ensure opportunity is a tax on land 88

13 The Rise and Fall of American Growth (2016) Robert J. Gordon

Living standards keep rising, but the greatest gains have already happened 94

14 The Intelligent Investor (1949) Benjamin Graham

We grow in wealth through long-term investing, not speculating 102

15 The Use of Knowledge in Society (1945) Friedrich Hayek

Societies prosper when they give up planning and control, and allow decentralization of knowledge 108

16 Economics in One Lesson (1979) Henry Hazlitt

All government economic policies have unintended consequences and can only be assessed over the long term 114

17 Exit, Voice and Loyalty (1970) Albert O. Hirschman

Consumers have many options to get what they want 122

18 The Economy of Cities (1968) Jane Jacobs

Cities have always been, and always will be, the drivers of wealth 128

19 The Deficit Myth (2020) Stephanie Kelton

Governments should not, and need not, hold back on their spending to achieve social outcomes 134

20 The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) John Maynard Keynes

To achieve social goals such as full employment, governments must actively manage the economy 142

21 The Shock Doctrine (2007) Naomi Klein

"Neoliberal" economic programs have proved a disaster for many developing countries 150

22 Freakonomics (2005) Steven Levitt Stephen Dubner

Economics is not a moral science, more an observation of how incentives work 156

23 The Big Short (2010) Michael Lewis

Modern finance was meant to minimize risk, but it has only increased dangers 162

24 Bourgeois Equality (2016) Deirdre McCloskey

The world became wealthy thanks to an idea: entrepreneurs and merchants are not so bad, after all 170

25 An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) Thomas Malthus

The worlds finite resources cannot cope with an increasing population 176

26 Principles of Economics (1890) Alfred Marshall

To understand people, watch their habits of earning, saving, and investing 182

27 Capital (1867) Karl Marx

The interests of labor and capital are perennially in conflict 190

28 Stabilizing an Unstable Economy (1986) Hyman Minsky

Rather than creating equilibrium, capitalism is inherently unstable 196

29 Human Action (1940) Ludwig von Mises

Economics has laws which no person, society, or government can escape 202

30 Dead Aid (2010) Dambisa Moyo

Countries grow and get rich by creating industries, not by addiction to aid 208

31 Governing the Commons (1990) Elinor Ostrom

To stay healthy, common resources like air, water, and forests need to be managed in novel ways 216

32 Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014) Thomas Piketty

The scales of wealth are tipping toward capital; if inequality widens, there will be social upheaval 222

33 The Great Transformation (1944) Karl Polanyi

Markets must serve society, not the other way around 230

34 The Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990) Michael E. Porter

Competition and industry clusters make a rich nation 236

35 Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966) Ayn Rand

Capitalism is the most moral form of political economy 244

36 Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817) David Ricardo

A free-trading world will see each nation fulfill its potential 250

37 The Globalization Paradox (2011) Dani Rodrik

Globalization agendas are often floored by national politics 258

38 Anatomy of the State (1965) Murray Rothbard

The nature of the state is to extend itself, at the expense of citizens 266

39 Economics (1948) Paul Samuelson William Nordhaus

A combination of classical and Keynesian ideas creates the best-performing economies 274

40 Small Is Beautiful (1973) E. F. Schumacher

A new economics must arise which takes more account of people than output 280

41 Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942) Joseph Schumpeter

No form of political economy matches the dynamism of capitalism and its process of "creative destruction" 286

42 Poverty and Famines (1981) Amartya Sen

People starve not because there is not enough food, but because economic circumstances suddenly change 292

43 Irrational Exuberance (2000) Robert Shiller

Psychology, not fundamental values, drives markets 300

44 The Ultimate Resource 2 (1996) Julian Simon

The world will never run out of resources because it is the human mind that drives advance, not capital or materials 306

45 The Wealth of Nations (1778) Adam Smith

The wealth of a nation is that of its people, not its government 312

46 The Mystery of Capital (2000) Hernando de Soto

Clear property rights are the basis of stability and prosperity 320

47 Discrimination and Disparities (2018) Thomas Sowell

Disparity of economic outcomes does not always mean people have been subject to discrimination 326

48 Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics (2015) Richard Thaler

How psychology has transformed the economics discipline 334

49 The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Thorstein Veblen

The great goal of capitalist life is not to have to work-or to take on the appearance of not needing to 342

50 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904) Max Weber

Culture and religion are the most overlooked ingredients of economic success 348

50 More Economics Classics 354

Chronological List 361

Credits 363

Acknowledgments 367