A new book, [amazon_link id=”1118515668″ target=”_blank” ]The Road To Recovery: How and why economic policy must change[/amazon_link] by Andrew Smithers has just arrived – I’ll be reviewing it for the World Economic Forum blog in due course. It was well-reviewed earlier this week by John Authers in the FT, who wrote: “Long one of the best-known and most respected analysts in the City of London, in my experience he provokes anger and annoyance in the Square Mile like almost no other.” This reminded me of receiving from Mr Smithers in 2001, in my last days as Economics Editor of The Independent, a research report with the title ‘Britain: The World’s Biggest Hedge Fund’. It was intentionally provocative but that iconoclastic clarity of vision about the unfavourable gap between the UK’s overseas assets and liabilities was rare in those days at the tail end of the first dot com boom. I’m looking forward to reading the book.

[amazon_image id=”1118515668″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Road to Recovery: How and Why Economic Policy Must Change[/amazon_image]