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Book reviews

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What's Wrong With Economics?

A Primer for the Perplexed

Reviewer: Bridget Rosewell, Senior Advisor, Volterra Partners

A passionate and informed critique of mainstream economics from one of the leading economic thinkers of our time.

Money in the Great Recession:

Did a Crash in Money Growth Cause the Global Slump?

Reviewer: Christine Shields

No issue is more fundamental in contemporary macroeconomics than identifying the causes of the recent Great Recession. The standard view is that the banks were to blame because they took on too much risk, 'went bust' and had to be bailed out by governments.

An Economic History of the English Garden

Reviewer: Bridget Rosewell, Senior Advisor, Volterra Partners

At least since the seventeenth century, most of the English population have been unable to stop making, improving and dreaming of gardens. Yet in all the thousands of books about them, this is the first to address seriously the question of how much gardens and gardening have cost, and to work out the place of gardens in the economic, as well as the horticultural, life of the nation. It is a new kind of gardening history.

China's Change:

The Greatest Show on Earth

Reviewer: Ian Harwood

As the Chinese economy has become an ever larger and more integral part of the global economy, so too has China-watching become an increasingly active pursuit.

Slowdown:

The End of the Great Acceleration‑and Why It’s Good for the Planet, the Economy, and Our Lives

Reviewer: Vicky Pryce, Board Member, CEBR

The end of our high-growth world was underway well before COVID-19 arrived. In this powerful and timely argument, Danny Dorling demonstrates the benefits of a larger, ongoing societal slowdown.

The Long Good Buy:

Analysing Cycles in Markets

Reviewer: Lavan Mahadeva

The Long Good Buy is an excellent introduction to understanding the cycles, trends and crises in financial markets over the past 100 years.

Productivity Perspectives

Reviewer: Dame Kate Barker, British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme

Productivity Perspectives offers a timely and stimulating social science view on the productivity debate, drawing on the work of the ESRC funded Productivity Insights Network. The book examines the drivers and inhibitors of UK productivity growth in the light of international evidence, and the resulting dramatic slowdown and flatlining of productivity growth in the UK.

The Deficit Myth:

Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy

Reviewer: Melissa Davies

The Deficit Myth, by Stephanie Kelton, is a wonderful introduction to the ‘through-the-looking-glass’ economics of Modern Monetary Theory – the increasingly fashionable challenger to the orthodox thinking that has dominated macro policy-making since the taming of the Great Inflation

The Economics of Belonging:

A Radical Plan to Win Back the Left Behind and Achieve Prosperity

Reviewer: Matt Whittaker

A radical new approach to economic policy that addresses the symptoms and causes of inequality in Western society today Fueled by populism and the frustrations of the disenfranchised, the past few years have witnessed the widespread rejection of the economic and political order that Western countries built up after 1945. Political debates have turned into violent clashes between those who want to "take their country back" and those viewed as defending an elitist, broken, and unpatriotic social contract.

Schism

China, America and the Fracturing of the Global Trading System

Reviewer: Rebecca Harding

China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 was heralded as historic, and for good reason: the world's most populous nation was joining the rule-based system that has governed international commerce since World War II. But the full ramifications of that event are only now becoming apparent, as the Chinese economic juggernaut has evolved in unanticipated and profoundly troublesome ways.

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Articles reflect the authors’ views which are not necessarily shared by the Society or the Editors. The Editors welcome 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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