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      • Annual Conference
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Reading Room
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Book reviews

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

Breaking the Mold

India’s Untravelled Path to Prosperity

Reviewer: William A Allen, National Institute for Economic & Social Research

The whole world has a stake in India’s future, and that future hinges on whether India can develop its economy and deliver for its population—now the world’s largest—while staying democratic.

Vassal State

How America Runs Britain

Reviewer: Rosemary Connell

British politicians love to vaunt the benefits of the UK's supposed 'special relationship' with the US. But are we really America's economic partner - or its colony?

The Market Mind Hypothesis

Reviewer: Richard Urwin, Investment Committee Chairman, Saranac Partners

In this pioneering book, Patrick Schotanus explains that economics’ mechanical worldview is the ontological error which leads to flawed thinking and faulty practices.

Pax Economica

Left‑Wing Visions of a Free Trade World

Reviewer: Maximilian Magnacca

The forgotten history of the liberal radicals, socialist internationalists, feminists, and Christians who envisioned free trade as the necessary prerequisite for anti-imperialism and peace

Influence Empire

The Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition

Reviewer: Bridget Rosewell

In this fascinating narrative - crammed with insider interviews and exclusive details - Lulu Chen tells the story of how Tencent created the golden era of Chinese technology, and delves into key battles involving Didi, Meituan and Alibaba. It's a chronicle of critical junctures and asks just what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur in China.

Any Happy Returns

Structural Changes and Super Cycles in Markets

Reviewer: Richard Urwin, Chairman of the Investment Committee, Saranac Partners

In Any Happy Returns: Structural Changes and Super Cycles in Markets, celebrated author Peter C. Oppenheimer delivers his much-anticipated follow-up to The Long Good Buy.

The Women Who Made Modern Economics

Reviewer: Vicky Pryce

The book tells the story of the women who for too many years have been locked out of the economy with negative consequences for them and for society as a whole.

Legacy

How to Build the Sustainable Economy

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

What would a sustainable economy look like? What would it take to live within our environmental means? Legacy answers these and other questions, setting out the key features of the sustainable economy.

The Machine Age

An Idea, a History, a Warning

Reviewer: Anjalika Bardalai

This book tells the story of our fractured relationship with machines from humanity’s first tools down to the present and into the future.

Seven Crashes

The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalisation

Reviewer: Ian Harwood

The eminent economic historian Harold James presents a new perspective on financial crises, dividing them into “good” crises, which ultimately expand markets and globalization, and “bad” crises, which result in a smaller, less prosperous world.

Capitalism and Crises

How to Fix Them

Reviewer: Dame Kate Barker, USS

Drawing on history, philosophy, psychology, and biology as well economics, law, and finance, Mayer describes what has gone wrong, what needs to change, and how to fix it.

How the World Became Rich

The Historical Origins of Economic Growth

Reviewer: Filippo Gaddo, Macro Advisory Partners

Most humans are significantly richer than their ancestors. Humanity gained nearly all of its wealth in the last two centuries. How did this come to pass? How did the world become rich?

The Chile Project

The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism

Reviewer: Maximilian Magnacca

In The Chile Project, Sebastian Edwards tells the remarkable story of how the neoliberal economic model—installed in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship.

The Bankers' New Clothes

What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do About It

Reviewer: Ian Bright

A Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg Businessweek Book of the Year

Meritocracy, Growth and Lessons from Italy's Economic Decline

Reviewer: William A Allen, NIESR

This book draws lessons on the importance of meritocracy for economic growth by analysing Italy's economic decline in the past few decades.

The Rise of Central Banks

State Power in Financial Capitalism

Reviewer: Ian Bright

A bold history of the rise of central banks, showing how institutions designed to steady the ship of global finance have instead become as destabilizing as they are dominant.

The New China Playbook

Beyond Capitalism and Socialism

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

Although China’s economy is one of the largest in the world, Western understanding of it is often based on dated assumptions and incomplete information. In The New China Playbook, Keyu Jin burrows deep into the mechanisms of a unique system, taking a nuanced, clear-eyed, and data-based look inside.

Zero Interest Policy and the New Abnormal: a Critique

Reviewer: Kate Barker, Universities Superannuation Scheme

In the 'New Normal' central banks set their interest rate to zero and print money through massive quantitative easing, while finance ministries run huge fiscal deficits. Yet inflation remains minimal. Zero Interest Policy and the New Abnormal explains why.

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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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