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      • Annual Conference
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Reading Room
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Book reviews

The Chinese Economy

Adaption and Growth

Reviewer: Lavan Mahadeva, Research Director, CRU

The new edition of a comprehensive overview of the modern Chinese economy, revised to reflect the end of the “miracle growth” period.

The Cost‑Benefit Revolution

Reviewer: Jonah P Adaun

Why policies should be based on careful consideration of their costs and benefits rather than on intuition, popular opinion, interest groups, and anecdotes. Opinions on government policies vary widely. Some people feel passionately about the child obesity epidemic and support government regulation of sugary drinks. Others argue that people should be able to eat and drink whatever they like. Some people are alarmed about climate change and favor aggressive government intervention. Others don't feel the need for any sort of climate regulation. In The Cost-Benefit Revolution, Cass Sunstein argues our major disagreements really involve facts, not values

Federal Central Banks

A comparison of the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank

Reviewer: James Smith, Director of Research, Resolution Foundation

Federal Central Banks is a unique study that critically examines the role and impact of central banks in federal and confederal political systems.

Uncertain Futures

Imaginaries, Narratives, and Calculation in the Economy

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

Uncertain Futures considers how economic actors visualize the future and decide how to act in conditions of radical uncertainty. It starts from the premise that dynamic capitalist economies are characterized by relentless innovation and novelty and hence exhibit an indeterminacy that cannot be reduced to measurable risk. The organizing question then becomes how economic actors form expectations and make decisions despite the uncertainty they face.

The Power of Capitalism

A journey through recent history across five continents

Reviewer: Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser, CEBR

“The market has failed, we need more government intervention." That’s the mantra politicians, the media, and intellectuals have been reiterating ever since the outbreak of the 2008 financial crisis. By taking the reader on a journey across continents and through recent history, Rainer Zitelmann disproves this call for greater government intervention, and demonstrates that capitalism matters more than ever.

Adam Smith: What He Thought and Why It Matters

Reviewer: Bridget Rosewell

Adam Smith is now widely regarded as 'the father of modern economics' and the most influential economist who ever lived. But what he really thought, and what the implications of his ideas are, remain fiercely contested. Was he an eloquent advocate of capitalism and the freedom of the individual? Or a prime mover of 'market fundamentalism' and an apologist for inequality and human selfishness? Or something else entirely? Jesse Norman's brilliantly conceived \book gives us not just Smith's economics, but his vastly wider intellectual project. Against the turbulent backdrop of Enlightenment Scotland, it lays out a succinct and highly engaging account of Smith's life and times, reviews his work as a whole and traces his influence over the past two centuries.

Red Flags

Why Xi’s China Is In Jeopardy

Reviewer: Keith Wade, Chief Economist, Schroders

A trusted economic commentator provides a penetrating account of the threats to China's continued economic rise Under President Xi Jinping, China has become a large and confident power both at home and abroad, but the country also faces serious challenges. In this critical take on China's future, economist George Magnus explores four key traps that China must confront and overcome in order to thrive: debt, middle income, the Renminbi, and an aging population.

Populism and Economics

Reviewer: Dame Kate Barker, Chairman of Trustees, British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme

Populism and Economics, Charles Dumas' latest book, examines the reasons for the rise in populism - Brexit and the election of Trump among other events - and how this discontent with the status quo has affected economics, both perceptions and reality.

The Value of Everything

Making and Taking in the Global Economy

Reviewer: Rosemary Connell

Who really creates wealth in our world? And how do we decide the value of what they do? In modern capitalism, value-extraction - the siphoning off of profits, from shareholders' dividends to bankers' bonuses - is rewarded more highly than value-creation- the productive process that drives a healthy economy and society. We misidentify takers as makers, and have lost sight of what value really means. Yet, argues Mariana Mazzucato in this penetrating and passionate new book, if we are to reform capitalism we urgently need to rethink where wealth comes from. Who is creating it, who is extracting it, and who is destroying it?

The Growth Delusion

The Wealth and Well‑Being of Nations

Reviewer: Dr Rebecca Harding, CEO, Coriolis Technologies

In The Growth Delusion, author and prize-winning journalist David Pilling explores how economists and their cult of growth have hijacked our policy-making and infiltrated our thinking about what makes societies work. Our policies are geared relentlessly towards increasing our standard measure of growth, Gross Domestic Product. By this yardstick we have never been wealthier or happier. So why doesn't it feel that way? Why are we living in such fractured times, with global populism on the rise and wealth inequality as stark as ever?

Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy

Reviewer: Sunil Krishnan

The world economy defies comprehension. A continuously-changing system of immense complexity, it offers over ten billion distinct products and services, doubles in size every fifteen years, and links almost every one of the planet's seven billion people. It delivers astonishing luxury to hundreds of millions. It also leaves hundreds of millions behind, puts tremendous strains on the ecosystem, and has an alarming habit of stalling. Nobody is in charge of it. Indeed, no individual understands more than a fraction of what's going on. How can we make sense of this bewildering system on which our lives depend?

The National Debt

A short history

Reviewer: William Allen

While it is central to today's politics, few people fully understand the National Debt and its role in shaping the course of British history. Without it, Britain would not have gained–and lost–two empires, nor won its wars against France and Germany.

From medieval times to the 2008 financial crash and beyond, The National Debt explores the changing fortunes of the Debt, and so of Great Britain.

Reputation

What it is and Why it Matters

Reviewer: Kevin Gardiner

A compelling exploration of how reputation affects every aspect of contemporary life Reputation touches almost everything, guiding our behavior and choices in countless ways.

2 comments

How Economic Professors Can Stop Failing Us

The Discipline at a Crossroads

Reviewer: Kevin Gardiner

This book provides an eye-opening expose on economics professors that will surely shock anyone who is not familiar with the topic, and even some of those who are familiar with it. It is critical of the behavior of economics professors, but is not critical of the field of economics itself.

How Global Currencies Work - Past, Present and Future

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

Offering a new history of global finance over the past two centuries, and marshalling extensive new data to test established theories of how global currencies work, Barry Eichengreen, Arnaud Mehl, and Livia Chitu argue for a new view, in which several national monies can share international currency status, and their importance can change rapidly.

Capitalism without Capital

The rise of the intangible economy

Reviewer: Matthew Whittaker

The first comprehensive account of the growing dominance of the intangible economy Early in the twenty-first century, a quiet revolution occurred. For the first time, the major developed economies began to invest more in intangible assets, like design, branding, R&D, or software, than in tangible assets, like machinery, buildings, and computers.

After the Flood

How the Great Recession changed Economic Thought

Reviewer: Bridget Rosewell, Volterra Partners & Atom Bank

The past three decades have been characterized by vast change and crises in global financial markets and not in politically unstable countries but in the heart of the developed world, from the Great Recession in the United States to the banking crises in Japan and the Eurozone. A momentous collection of the best recent scholarship, After the Flood illustrates both the scope of the crises' impact on our understanding of global financial markets and the innovative processes whereby scholars have adapted their research to gain a greater understanding of them.

Big Mind

How collective intelligence can change our world

Reviewer: Catherine Connolly

A new field of collective intelligence has emerged in the last few years, prompted by a wave of digital technologies that make it possible for organizations and societies to think at large scale. This "bigger mind"–human and machine capabilities working together–has the potential to solve the great challenges of our time. So why do smart technologies not automatically lead to smart results? Gathering insights from diverse fields, including philosophy, computer science, and biology, Big Mind reveals how collective intelligence can guide corporations, governments, universities, and societies to make the most of human brains and digital technologies.

The Myth of Independence

How Congress Governs the Federal Reserve

Reviewer: William Allen

Born out of crisis a century ago, the Federal Reserve has become the most powerful macroeconomic policymaker and financial regulator in the world. The Myth of Independence traces the Fed's transformation from a weak, secretive, and decentralized institution in 1913 to a remarkably transparent central bank a century later.

The Weaponization of Trade

The Great Unbalancing of Politics and Economics

Reviewer: Ian Bright

Trade is being weaponized – and this is not good. As politicians on both sides of the Atlantic raise the stakes, trade is increasingly a tool of coercion to achieve strategic influence. This book looks at the risks for us all as trade becomes an instrument of foreign policy, and it shows how politicians could turn things around.

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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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