Book reviews
Book notes: Smart Money, by Andrew Palmer
An important attempt to show how financial innovation is “reshaping our world for the better” all the more important
Book notes: The media and financial crises, by Steve Schifferes and Richard Roberts
A fascinating book, which gives a very different perspective on the financial crisis and its predecessors
Book notes: Hall of mirrors, by Barry Eichengreen
A scholarly, but readable narrative that interleaves an account of the build-up to and course of the Great Depression with the similar course of events in the Global Financial Crisis
Book notes: Don’t start from here, by David Shirreff
A pointed, passionate plea for a simpler banking system that deserves to be taken seriously
Book notes: Emerging Africa, by Kingsley Moghalu
Sub-Saharan Africa is no basket case, but neither is it poised to follow China and India on their meteoric economic rise, Kingsley Moghalu argues in his forthright book
Book notes: European Spring, by Philippe Legrain
Ambitious and accessible, this book's take on events is provocative and its alternative insights warrant reflection
Book notes: Sovereign debt management, by Rosa María Lastra and Lee Buchheit
An immensely valuable compilation of contributions by lawyers and several economists on sovereign debt. This book is eminently readable, in spite of its difficult subject matter
Book notes: What Have We learned? Macroeconomic Policy After the Crisis, by George Akerlof, Olivier Blanchard, David Romer and Joseph Stiglitz
This book brings together the great and the good of the economics profession, policy-makers and academics, to assess what the dust jacket describes as the “brave new economic world"
Book notes: Finding Equilibrium, by Till Düppe & Roy Weintraub
This unusual book describes the early progress in the mathematisation of economics and, in particular, micro-economic model building
Book notes: Fortune Tellers: The Story of America’s First Economic Forecasters, by Walter Friedman
A fascinating book that crosses the traditional boundaries between the history of economic thought and cultural history
Book notes: GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History, by Diane Coyle
A whistle-stop tour of the development of GDP, a workhorse of economic modelling and analysis
Book notes: Alexandre Lamfalussy, by Christophe Lamfalussy, Ivo Maes and Sabine Peters
This is a fascinating account of the life and career of a great European
Book notes: The Dollar Trap, by Eswar S Prasad
A lively and compelling analysis on currency wars in the wake of the financial crisis – and the likely persistence of the US dollar as the world’s pre-eminent currency
Book notes: Deliberating American Monetary Policy, by Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey
Using recordings of meetings of not only the FOMC but also of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, the book tries to understand how monetary policy is decided
Book notes: Mass flourishing, by Edmund Phelps
This is a recommended read, not only because it was written by Edmund Phelps, the 2006 Nobel Laureate in economics, but for encouraging reflection on fundamental issues related to modern life
Book notes: The Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature and the Future of Forecasting
The Map and the Territory is an enigmatic title for a book written by a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan.
Book notes: Reflections on Global Finance: Selected Essays from SSgA’s Official Institutions Group 2002–2013
Articles and essays addressed to official sector clients of State Street Global Advisors’ official institutions group (SSgA OIG).
Book notes: Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit
Markets for goods and labour depend vitally on the institutions that underpin them, say Charles Calomiris and Stephen Haber
Book notes: Saving the City: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914
A fascinating, brilliant and superbly researched analysis of these events and the lessons they have for us.
