Till Time’s Last Sand
A History of the Bank of England
Reviewer: Kevin Gardner, Economics & Intl Divisions, Bank of England (1982-86)
David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. He has been a professional historian since 1973 and has written eighteen books, including The City of London (1994-2001), a widely acclaimed four-volume history, and W.G.'s Birthday Party, an account of the Gentleman vs. the Players at Lord's in July 1898. He is the author of Austerity Britain, 1945-51, the first title in a series of books covering the history of post-war Britain (1945-1979) under the collective title 'Tales of a New Jerusalem'. He is currently a visiting professor at Kingston University.
Edge of Chaos
Why Democracy Is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth‑and How to Fix It
Reviewer: Rosemary Connell
In Edge of Chaos, Dambisa Moyo sets out the new political and economic challenges facing the world, and the specific, radical solutions needed to resolve these issues and reignite global growth. Dambisa enumerates the four headwinds of demographics, inequality, commodity scarcity and technological innovation that are driving social and economic unrest, and argues for a fundamental retooling of democratic capitalism to address current problems and deliver better outcomes in the future.
The Political Power of Global Corporations
Reviewer: Christine Shields
In this book, John Mikler re–casts global corporations as political actors with complex identities and strategies. Debunking the idea of global corporations as exclusively profit–driven entities, he shows how they seek not only to drive or modify the agendas of states but to govern in their own right. He also explains why we need to re–territorialize global corporations as political actors that reflect and project the political power of the states and regions from which they hail.
Rebuilding Macroeconomic Theory
Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 34, Numbers 1‑2, Spring‑Summer 2018. ISSN 0266‑903X
Reviewer: Kevin Gardiner
In this paper the authors review the Rebuilding Macroeconomic Theory Project, in which they asked a number of leading macroeconomists to describe how the benchmark New Keynesian model might be rebuilt, in the wake of the 2008 crisis. The need to change macroeconomic theory is similar to the situation in the 1930s, at the time of the Great Depression, and in the 1970s, when inflationary pressures were unsustainable. Four main changes to the core model are recommended: to emphasize financial frictions, to place a limit on the operation of rational expectations, to include heterogeneous agents, and to devise more appropriate microfoundations. Achieving these objectives requires changes to all of the behavioural equations in the model governing consumption, investment, and price setting, and also the insertion of a wedge between the interest rate set by policy-makers and that facing consumers and investors. In the author's view, the result will not be a paradigm shift, but an evolution towards a more pluralist discipline.
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WTF
What have we done? Why did it happen? How do we take back control?
Reviewer: Rosemary Connell
As with his previous bestsellers, WHO RUNS BRITAIN? and HOW DO WE FIX THIS MESS?, in Robert Peston's new book WTF he draws on his years of experience as a political, economics and business journalist to show us what has gone bad and gives us a manifesto to put at least some of it right.
Doughnut Economics
Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st‑Century Economist
Reviewer: Ian Bright
In Doughnut Economics, Oxford academic Kate Raworth lays out the seven deadly mistakes of economics and offers a radical re-envisioning of the system that has brought us to the point of ruin. Moving beyond the myths of ‘rational economic man’ and unlimited growth, Doughnut Economics zeroes in on the sweet spot: a system that meets all our needs without exhausting the planet.
Central Banks into the Breach
From Triumph to Crisis and the Road Ahead
Reviewer: Dame Kate Barker
Central banks play an important role in the course of national economies and the global economy. Their leaders are regularly feted or vilified, their policy pronouncements highly anticipated and routinely scrutinized. This is all the more so since the global financial crisis.
The past fifteen years in monetary policy is essentially the story of two mistakes and one triumph, argues Pierre L. Siklos, a professor of economics at Wilfrid Laurier University. One mistake was that central bankers underestimated the connection between finance and the real economy. The other was a failure to realize how inter-connected the world's financial system had become. The triumph, in turn, was the recognition that price stability is a desirable objective.
The Wisdom of Finance
Reviewer: Vicky Pryce, SBE fellow and Author
This book captures Desai's lucid exploration of the ideas of finance as seen through the unusual prism of the humanities. Through this novel, creative approach, Desai shows that outsiders can access the underlying ideas easily and insiders can reacquaint themselves with the core humanity of their profession.
The Contradictions of Capital in the 21st Century
Reviewer: Bridget Rosewell, Senior Partner, Volterra
This volume of essays builds upon renewed interest in the long-run global development of wealth and inequality stimulated by the publication in 2014 of Thomas Piketty s Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It brings together an international team of leading economic historians and economists to provide a comprehensive overview of global developments in the theory, practice and policy of inequality, and its place in the modern world order.
Machine, Platform, Crowd
Harnessing Our Digital Future
Reviewer: Ian Bright
We live in strange times. A machine plays the strategy game Go better than any human; upstarts like Apple and Google destroy industry stalwarts such as Nokia; ideas from the crowd are repeatedly more innovative than corporate research labs.
MIT’s Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson know what it takes to master this digital-powered shift: we must rethink the integration of minds and machines, of products and platforms, and of the core and the crowd. In all three cases, the balance now favors the second element of the pair, with massive implications for how we run our companies and live our lives.