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      • Annual Conference
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Reading Room
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Book reviews

The Measure of Progress

Counting What Really Matters

Reviewer: Kate Barker, Universities Superannuation Scheme

Diane Coyle argues that the framework underpinning today's economic statistics is so outdated that it functions as a distorting lens, or even a set of blinkers. Only with a new approach to measurement will we be able to achieve the right kind of growth for the benefit of all.

Our Money

Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters

Reviewer: Geoff Crocker, Author, Rethinking Income and Money

How the creation of money and monetary policy can be more dramatic.

Rich World, Poor World

The Struggle to Escape Poverty

Reviewer: Leath Al Obaidi

A landmark history of the world economic order, exploring how developing countries have fought to escape impoverishment.

Environomics

How the Global Economy is Going Green

Reviewer: Neil Reeder

In this vibrant and eye-opening book, economist and broadcaster Dharshini David follows the course of an average day – from the moment we flick on the light in the morning – to reveal the green changes that are already taking place in every aspect of our world.

Industrial Policy for the United States

Winning the Competition for Good Jobs and High‑Value Industries

Reviewer: Kate Barker, Universities Superannuation Scheme

Orthodox economics notwithstanding, free trade is bad for America, some industries are better than others and government plays an indispensable role in commercialising and developing new technologies

Inside Thatcher's Monetarism Experiment

The Promise, the failure, the legacy

Reviewer: Ian Harwood

Offering fascination insights into one of the most unsuccessful episodes of British economic history, he also examines the legacy of monetarism for the economy today.

Goodbye Globalisation

The Return of a Divided World

Reviewer: Vicky Pryce

In this groundbreaking account, Elisabeth Braw explores the collapse of globalisation and the profound challenges it will bring to the West.

Pursued Economy

Understanding and Overcoming the Challenging New Realities for Advanced Economies

Reviewer: Geoff Crocker, Author, Forthcoming "Rethinking Income and Money"

Richard C Koo dives deep into the failure of traditional economic solutions to address the economic and social problems of the post-Great Recession and post-pandemic economies.

Left Behind

A New Economics for Neglected Places

Reviewer: Anjalika Bardalai

The world-renowned economist offers a ground-breaking new vision for inclusive prosperity.

The Tortuous Path of South Korean Economic Development

Reviewer: Andrew Peaple

This book explains how South Korea has uniquely transformed itself from a developing to a developed country by combining economic analysis with historical perspective, and approach badly needed but rarely taken by previous studies.

Edible Economics

The World in 17 Dishes

Reviewer: Richard Urwin, Chair, Saranac Partners Investment Committee

Economic thinking in its most digestible form

Visions of Financial Order

National Institutions and the Development of Banking Regulation

Reviewer: William A Allen, National Institute of Economic and Social Research

How differences in national financial regulatory systems emerged from divergent beliefs about economic order and prosperity

How the World Ran Out of Everything

Inside the Global Supply Chain

Reviewer: Max Magnacca

How differences in national financial regulatory systems emerged from divergent beliefs about economic order and prosperity.

The Coming Wave

AI, Power and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma

Reviewer: Kevin Gardiner, Rothschild & Co

Soon we will be surrounded by AI's. Suleyman shows how these forces will create immense prosperity but also threaten the nation-state, the foundation of global order.

The Bailout State

Why Governments Rescue Banks, Not People

Reviewer: Christine Shields

Martijn Konings exposes the inner workings of this sprawling infrastructure of government guarantees.

How to Think Like an Economist

Great Economists Who Shaped the World and What They Can Teach Us

Reviewer: Ian Bright

In explaining how economic thinking is indispensable to tackling these huge problems, this book is a sure-footed guide, spanning Aristotle's ideas about restraining consumption, Adam Smith's thinking about the importance of moral character for sustained economic development, and Esther Duflo's ongoing work to help the world's poorest communities lift themselves out of poverty.

The Road to Freedom

Economics and the Good Society

Reviewer: Bridget Rosewell

A major reappraisal, by the Nobel-prizewinning economist, of the relationship between capitalism and freedom

The Shortest History of Economics

Reviewer: Ian Harwood

The Shortest History of Economics unearths the hidden economic forces behind war, innovation and social transformation, tracing how capitalism and the market system emerged.

Adam Smith's America

How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism

Reviewer: Filippo Gaddo, Macro Advisory Partners

The unlikely story of how Americans canonized Adam Smith as the patron saint of free markets.

This Time No Mistakes

How to Remake Britain

Reviewer: Kevin Gardiner, Rothschild & Co / Cardiff Capital Region

Will Hutton's passionate book shows how the right and left have gone wrong over the course of the last century - and how we can remake a better Britain

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Articles reflect the authors’ views which are not necessarily shared by the Society or the Editor. The Editor welcomes comments, ideas and articles on a wide range of applied economics topics and related issues of more general interest.

For Books and Reviews contact:
Ian Harwood
Book Reviews Editor, The Society of Professional Economists
harwoodfive@btinternet.com

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