Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism

After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead

Alan S. Blinder · 476 pages

Many fine books on the financial crisis were first drafts of history--books written quickly to fill the need for immediate understanding. Alan S. Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, held off, taking the time to understand the crisis and create a truly comprehensive and coherent narrative of how the worst economic crisis in postwar American history happened, what the governm

The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America

David A. Stockman · 743 pages

The Communist Manifesto

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels · 56 pages

"The Communist Manifesto," penned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is a revolutionary treatise advocating for the overthrow of capitalist systems and the establishment of a classless society. Published in 1848, its succinct yet powerful prose remains a cornerstone of socialist ideology, inspiring movements worldwide.

Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics

Nicholas Wapshott · 400 pages

As the stock market crash of 1929 plunged the world into turmoil, two men emerged with competing claims on how to restore balance to economies gone awry. John Maynard Keynes, the mercurial Cambridge economist, believed that government had a duty to spend when others would not. He met his opposite in a little-known Austrian economics professor, Friedrich Hayek, who considered attempts to intervene

Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

Mark Blyth · 288 pages

A history of austerity, an explanation of austerity-based economic policies, an examination of the results of applying austerity-based economic policies, and a determination why those policies failed.

Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country

William Greider · 798 pages

Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System

Barry Eichengreen · 215 pages

The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy

Daniel Yergin, Joseph Stanislaw · 476 pages

Maestro: Greenspan's Fed and the American Boom

Bob Woodward · 279 pages

Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis

James Rickards · 288 pages

In 1971, President Nixon imposed national price controls and took the United States off the gold standard, an extreme measure intended to end an ongoing currency war that had destroyed faith in the U.S. dollar. Today we are engaged in a new currency war, and this time the consequences will be far worse than those that confronted Nixon. Currency wars are one of the most destructive and fear

How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region

Joe Studwell · 360 pages

A provocative look at what has worked - and what hasn't - in East Asian economics. It explores how policies ridiculed by economists created titans in Japan Korea and Taiwan, and are now behind the rise of China, while the best advice the West could offer sold its allies in south-east Asia down the economic river.

The Economic Consequences of the Peace

John Maynard Keynes

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein · 619 pages

**The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism** is a 2007 book by the Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein. In the book, Klein argues that neoliberal free market policies (as advocated by the economist Milton Friedman) have risen to prominence in some developed countries because of a deliberate strategy of "shock therapy". This centers on the exploitation of national crises (dis

The Housing Boom and Bust

Thomas Sowell · 184 pages

This is a plain-English explanation of how we got into the current economic disaster that developed out of the economics and politics of the housing boom and bust. The “creative” financing of home mortgages and the even more “creative” marketing of financial securities based on American mortgages to countries around the world, are part of the story of how a financial house of cards was built up—an

Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Ha-Joon Chang · 288 pages

A radical look by a leading economist at the issues surrounding globalization...It's rare that a book appears with a fresh perspective on world affairs, but renowned economist Ha-Joon Chang has some startlingly original things to say about the future of globalization. In theory, he argues, the world's wealthiest countries and supra-national institutions like the IMF, World Bank and WTO want to see

Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises

Timothy F. Geithner · 592 pages

From the former Treasury Secretary, the definitive account of the unprecedented effort to save the U.S. economy from collapse in the wake of the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy

Karl Marx · 898 pages

Economix: How and Why Our Economy Works (and Doesn't Work), in Words and Pictures

Michael Goodwin, David Bach, Joel Bakan · 304 pages

A guide to the economy in graphic novel format traces the history of Western economic thought from its beginnings to the world economy in the twenty-first century.

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

Joseph Alois Schumpeter · 437 pages

The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism

David Harvey · 256 pages

Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and the Government Bailout Will Make Things Worse

Thomas E. Woods Jr. · 194 pages

Historian Woods, writing as a libertarian, argues that government intervention in the economy actually caused the housing bubble.

Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future

Robert B. Reich · 174 pages

Great Divergence, The

Timothy Noah · 276 pages

The income gap in America has been blamed on everything from computers to immigration, but its causes and consequences call for a patient, non-partisan exploration. Noah explains not only how this "Great Divergence" has come about, but why it threatens American democracy--and most important, how we can begin to reverse it.

Globalization and Its Discontents

Joseph E. Stiglitz · 528 pages