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50 Economics Classics
Your shortcut to the most important ideas on capitalism, finance, and the global economy Revised 2022 Edition by Tom Butler-Bowdon Silver Medal Winner, 2018 U.S. Axiom Business Book Awards (Business Reference Category) Economics drives the modern world and shapes our lives, but few of us feel we have time to engage with the breadth of ideas in the subject. 50 Economics Classics is the smart person's guide to two centuries of discussion of finance, capitalism and the global economy. From Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations to Thomas Piketty's bestseller Capital in the Twenty-First Century, here are the great reads, seminal ideas and famous texts clarified and illuminated for all. Table of Contents (Titles in green are new chapters in the Revised Edition) Introduction 1. Liaquat Ahamed - Lords of Finance (2009) Fixed ideas in economics can have disastrous results 2. Saifedean Ammous - The Bitcoin Standard (2018) We need a form of money and store of wealth suited to the digital age 3. William Baumol - The Microtheory of Innovative Entrepreneurship (2010) Entrepreneurs are the engines of growth and must be valued 4. Gary Becker - Human Capital (1964) The most important investment we ever make is in ourselves 5. Ha-Joon Chang - 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism (2012) Many nations succeeded by bucking the rules of orthodox economics 6. Diane Coyle - GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History (2014) How we measure economic output has consequences for people and nations 7. Ronald Coase - The Firm, The Market and The Law (1990) Why firms exist; the role of transaction costs in economic life 8. Peter Drucker - Innovation and Entrepreneurship (1985) Success comes from taking management and ideas seriously 9. Niall Ferguson - The Ascent of Money (2008) Finance is not evil, it built the modern world 10. Milton Friedman - Capitalism and Freedom (1962) Free markets, not government, protect the individual and ensure quality 11. JK Galbraith - The Great Crash, 1929 (1954) It’s government’s job to stop speculative frenzies ruining the real economy 12. Henry George - Progress and Poverty (1879) The best and fairest way to ensure opportunity is a tax on land 13. Robert J Gordon - The Rise and Fall of American Growth (2016) Living standards keep rising, but the greatest gains have already happened 14. Benjamin Graham - The Intelligent Investor (1949) We grow in wealth through long-term investing, not speculating 15. Friedrich Hayek - The Use of Knowledge in Society (1945) Societies prosper when they give up planning and control, and allow decentralization of knowledge 16. Henry Hazlitt - Economics in One Lesson (1979) All government economic policies have unintended consequences and can only be assessed over the long-term 17. Albert O. Hirschman - Exit, Voice and Loyalty (1970) Consumers have many options to get what they want 18. Jane Jacobs - The Economy of Cities (1968) Cities have always been, and always will be, the drivers of wealth 19. Stephanie Kelton - The Deficit Myth (2020) Governments should not, and need not, hold back on their spending to achieve social outcomes 20. John Maynard Keynes - The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) To achieve social goals like full employment, governments must actively manage the economy 21. Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine (2008) ‘Neoliberal’ economic programs have proved a disaster for many developing countries 22. Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner - Freakonomics (2006) Economics is not a moral science, more an observation of how incentives work 23. Michael Lewis - The Big Short (2011) Modern finance was meant to minimize risk, but it has only increased dangers 24. Deirdre McCloskey - Bourgeois Equality (2016) The world became wealthy thanks to an idea: entrepreneurs and merchants are not so bad after all 25. Thomas Malthus - An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) The world’s finite resources can’t cope with an increasing population 26. Alfred Marshall - Principles of Economics (1890) To understand people, watch their habits of earning, saving and investing 27. Karl Marx - Capital (1867) The interests of labor and capital are perennially in conflict 28. Hyman Minsky - Stabilizing An Unstable Economy (1986) Rather than creating equilibrium, capitalism is inherently unstable 29. Ludwig Von Mises - Human Action (1940) Economics has laws which no person, society or government can escape 30. Dambisa Moyo - Dead Aid (2010) Countries grow and get rich by creating industries, not by addiction to aid 31. Elinor Ostrom - Governing the Commons (1990) To stay healthy, common resources like air, water and forests need to be managed in novel ways. 32. Thomas Piketty - Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014) The scales of wealth are tipping towards capital; if inequality widens there will be social upheaval 33. Karl Polanyi - The Great Transformation (1944) Markets must serve society, not the other way around 34. Michael E Porter - The Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990) Competition and industry clusters make a rich nation 35. Ayn Rand - Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966) Capitalism is the most moral form of political economy 36. David Ricardo - Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817) A free-trading world will see each nation fulfil its potential 37. Dani Rodrik - The Globalization Paradox (2011) Globalization agendas are often floored by national politics 38. Murray Rothbard - Anatomy of the State (1965) The nature of the state is to extend itself, at the expense of citizens 39. Paul Samuelson - Economics (1948) A combination of classical and Keynesian ideas creates the best-performing economies 40. EF Schumacher - Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (1973) A new economics must arise which takes more account of people than output 41. Joseph Schumpeter - Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942) No form of political economy matches the dynamism of capitalism and its process of ‘creative destruction’ 42. Amartya Sen - Poverty and Famines (1981) People starve not because there isn’t enough food, but because economics circumstances suddenly change 43. Robert Shiller - Irrational Exuberance (2000) Psychology, not fundamental values, drives markets 44. Julian Simon - The Ultimate Resource 2 (1997) The world will never run out of resources, because it is the human mind that drives advance, not capital or materials 45. Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations (1778) The wealth of a nation is that of its people, not its government 46. Hernando de Soto - The Mystery of Capital (2003) Clear property rights are the basis of stability and prosperity 47. Thomas Sowell - Discrimination and Disparities (2018) Disparity of economic outcomes does not always mean people have been subject to discrimination 48. Richard Thaler - Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics (2015) How psychology has transformed the economics discipline 49. Thorstein Veblen - Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) The great goal of capitalist life is not to have to work - or to take on the appearance of not needing to 50. Max Weber - The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904) Culture and religion are the most overlooked ingredients of economic success 50 More Classics Chronological List Acknowledgements Credits |
50 ECONOMICS CLASSICS Your shortcut to the most important ideas on capitalism, finance, and the global economy Revised 2022 Edition 5 new chapters + significant updating Nicholas Brealey Publishing (London & Boston) Testimonials and Reviews: "A fascinating and very timely book." Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of Political Economy, John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University “To round up the best of the best is a manifestly good idea, and to have these works presented in a consistently detailed and accurate way makes ‘50 Economics Classics’ something of a modern classic in its own right.”' E&T magazine "The synopses in this book are fair, balanced, and about as good an introduction to the broad range of modern economic writing, along with a few classics, as one is likely to find." Professor James K Galbraith, University of Texas, author of Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know "Butler-Bowdon's choices are broad, interdisciplinary and compellingly idiosyncratic. His chapters are not simply straight summaries of the chosen works, but thoughtful reflections on why we should care about this or that book and what its relevance is for us today. Butler-Bowdon's renderings are done so well that one might never bother going back to the original! Professional economists, students and general readers alike will find much here to delight in and many new byways to explore.' Niall Kishtainy, Author of A Little History of Economics Economics giants such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Milton Friedman feature heavily, but one of the book's big plus points for me is that it has room for more contemporary authors and ideas…the book is a well-written affair by an author obviously in full control of his subject.” Tom Herbert, Accounting Web "An incisive, concise, and distilled look at the world of economics that spans 200 years. Major theories and writers are put under scrutiny and critique - Marx, Krugman, Thaler and Keynes to name but a few. Areas and subjects covered include economic freedom, food security, knowledge, globalisation, neoliberalism and 'creative destruction.' This embracing publication is not only a wonderful introduction, but a useful reminder of the subject for seasoned learners." Len Parkyn, The Teacher (National Union of Teachers UK) "A good starting point for someone new to economics wanting a general overview. Capturing the essence of a book in 3 pages is a difficult task. Tom Butler-Bowdon is a very well-read person with this rare skill." Diane Coyle, author of GDP: A brief but affectionate history "It's a great achievement and I wish I'd had it when doing A level economics." Richard Koch, author of The 80/20 Principle “Tom’s approach is more thorough, more systematic, more unbiased, more honest than that of many so-called experts, providing a critical asset that most economists lack, one that specialization has driven the academia to neglect: intelligent synthesis. Hernan Blejer, economic journalist, Euromonitor, University of Buenos Aires 2022 READER BONUS Readers of 50 Economics Classics, New Edition (2022), click here for your bonus chapters: 
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