Monthly Archives: January 2016

Mainstream macro and Minsky the maverick

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I was one of the many economists who had barely heard of Hyman Minsky, still less read any of his work, before the financial crisis. One of the many who, seeking to understand, quickly devoured his [amazon_link id=”0071592997″ target=”_blank” ]Stabilizing an Unstable Economy[/amazon_link]. And found it pretty sensible. Macro isn’t my field, but there didn’t seem to be anything in that book a sensible mainstream macro person should have objected to. Should being the operative word. Because of course everyday, mainstream DSGE models in use in 2008 ruled out the very possibility of a crisis, whereas Minsky believed in their inevitability in some shape.

[amazon_image id=”0071592997″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Stabilizing an Unstable Economy[/amazon_image]

This week I’ve been reading Randall Wray’s [amazon_link id=”0691159122″ target=”_blank” ]Why Minsky Matters[/amazon_link], which is a useful and accessible overview of both what Minsky said and – as the title puts it – why it matters. I recommend the book (perhaps particularly to mainstream macro people!).

[amazon_image id=”0691159122″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Why Minsky Matters: An Introduction to the Work of a Maverick Economist[/amazon_image]

The first chapter gives an overview of Minsky’s arguments. The second chapter was to me the most interesting. It’s called ‘The Road Not taken’ and sets out the broad mainstream approach against which Minsky developed his arguments. This is the neoclassical synthesis, whose foundations were laid by John Hicks and Alvin ‘Secular Stagnation’ Hansen in the early years after Keynes’s death, then by both ‘Keynesians’ like Patinkin and Tobin and ‘Monetarists’ such as Friedman. Wray argues that these camps disagreed largely over parameter values, and that they essentially bowdlerised Keynes by ignoring his emphasis on investment, finance and uncertainty.

Debates about what Keynes ‘really’ meant in [amazon_link id=”1502423588″ target=”_blank” ]The General Theory[/amazon_link] are not all that interesting – and by the by a good reason for emphasising the importance of maths as well as words in economics. The mathematical notation is a way of enforcing logical consistency and expressing arguments with precision; the words can then explain more clearly, and introduce reality while keeping it rooted in logica and clarity. Anyway, what’s interesting about the chapter is its brief account of how finance vanished from macro, to our great cost.

[amazon_image id=”1502423588″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (Classic John Maynard Keynes)[/amazon_image]

The later chapters of Wray’s primer set out Minsky’s views on specific issues, starting with his now-famous financial instability hypothesis: that market forces must be constrained in finance to prevent instability, but the consequent stability is itself destabilizing. The final chapter ends with some thoughts about how to proceed in the face of this paradox – in Wray’s view, tougher regulation especially of the shadow banking sector, and a smaller financial sector overall focusing on industrial investment. I agree, not least because the [amazon_link id=”0691169853″ target=”_blank” ]contribution of the sector to GDP is overstated[/amazon_link] (as Sir Charles Bean also pointed out in his recent interim report on economic statistics), and its contribution to economic welfare might well be a net negative.

This seems like common sense. I don’t entirely understand the unwillingness of the political classes to address the finance problem (despite the lobbying and campaign contributions)  – will it really take another crisis? The reluctance of people who did pre-2008 macro to ditch their human capital is entirely understandable, and I’m constantly told that anyway there has nevertheless been a lot of change in macroeconomics. Still (and to repeat, this is not my field) I’d be interested to know what proper macroeconomists think about Minsky now. If Minsky is still, as the book jacket claims, a maverick shunned by the mainstream – why?

Non-rational economic man

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This past couple of days I’ve been attending the IDEI/Toulouse School of Economics digital economics conference, where the Suzanne Scotchmer Memorial Lecture was given by Joshua Gans.

Josh has a new book out soon (March), definitely one to look forward to, The Disruption Dilemma. The blurb says: “Almost twenty years ago Clayton Christensen popularized the term in his book [amazon_link id=”142219602X” target=”_blank” ]The Innovator’s Dilemma[/amazon_link], writing of disruption as a set of risks that established firms face. Since then, few have closely examined his account. Gans does so in this book. He looks at companies that have proven resilient and those that have fallen, and explains why some companies have successfully managed disruption — Fujifilm and Canon, for example — and why some like Blockbuster and Encyclopedia Britannica have not. Departing from the conventional wisdom, Gans identifies two kinds of disruption: demand-side, when successful firms focus on their main customers and underestimate market entrants with innovations that target niche demands; and supply-side, when firms focused on developing existing competencies become incapable of developing new ones.”

[amazon_image id=”0262034484″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Disruption Dilemma[/amazon_image]

However, his lecture was on his paper on the market for scholarly attribution, which interprets the assignment of co-authorship between senior and junior scientific researchers in terms of a signalling model. It was very interesting and perhaps sheds some light on the growing trend toward larger numbers of co-authors on science papers. The day afterwards, Justin Wolfers wrote in the New York Times about a new paper by Heather Sarsons showing among other results that women get zero credit for papers on which they are listed by co-authors (unless the others are also women). While this is a finding that will not surprise any female academics, it’s also kind of shocking to see the empirical results so starkly. No doubt Josh will blog about the gap between the rational world of his model and the non-rationality of male economists.

Thinking outside the ???

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I’ve read Kyna Leski’s [amazon_link id=”0262029944″ target=”_blank” ]The Storm of Creativity[/amazon_link] on my travels this past couple of days. Although the author is an architect, and normally I’d have filed this mentally as one for arty people, my attention was caught on flicking through it by the fact that the book uses Darwin as one of its prominent examples – his papers are all accessible online, which makes him a great candidate for studying the thought processes of a creative genius). The aim in the book is to describe the process of creative discovery in general, so there are also examples from medicine as technology as well as the arts.

[amazon_image id=”0262029944″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Storm of Creativity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)[/amazon_image]

It is by no means a ‘how to’ book. Still, the description of the stages of being creative range true with me (not that I’m claiming any great creative kudos for myself). There is ‘unlearning’ to start with (not even ‘thinking outside the box’, but not starting with a box at all; reframing, perhaps, avoiding the usual tramlines). This heading also emphasised ‘attentiveness’ and I wholly agree that the most interesting people I meet or hear are superb at listening, paying attention to detail etc. “Attentiveness in the creative process de-emphasizes information that already exists, and what you and others may have done before.”

Next is problem making (asking new questions, where nobody else had seen anything to question in the first place); gathering (accumulating ideas, information, bits and pieces, in an unformed way); propelling (using the relevant professional language to get going: “Drawing is taking a line for a walk,” said Paul Klee), perceiving (having a sensibility about some emerging new thing/idea), seeing ahead (starting to shape an outcome), connecting (“Darwin is one of the most creative connectors of all time.” I think this means ability to synthesize separate elements into a new picture); pausing (a break in the momentum – a time to let the mind wander, daydream etc); and continuing (persistence, even in the face of failure).

This all makes sense to me, although having followed the Darwin trail I did conclude that the book will make more sense to people in the arts and design.

Forthcoming economics books for 2016 – Part 2

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Yesterday’s post had some of the new books being published by university presses in the months ahead. Here are the forthcoming titles from some other publishers. This selection is rather random/eclectic. So once again, suggestions for an update welcomed.

Penguin & its imprints: [amazon_link id=”0241234891″ target=”_blank” ]Chronicles: On Our Troubled Times[/amazon_link], essays by Thomas Piketty; [amazon_link id=”0241248353″ target=”_blank” ]The New Case for Gold[/amazon_link] by James Rickards; [amazon_link id=”0393248895″ target=”_blank” ]The Rise and Fall of Nations[/amazon_link] by Ruchir Sharma; [amazon_link id=”B016EFNJWA” target=”_blank” ]The Life Project: The Extraordinary Story of 70,000 Ordinary Lives[/amazon_link] by Helen Pearson; [amazon_link id=”039325402X” target=”_blank” ]The Euro: How Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe[/amazon_link] by Joe Stiglitz.

[amazon_image id=”0241234891″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Chronicles: On Our Troubled Times[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0241248353″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The New Case for Gold[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0393248895″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Rise and Fall of Nations: Forces of Change in the Post-Crisis World[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”039325402X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe[/amazon_image]

Random House: Mohamed El-Erian’s [amazon_link id=”081299762X” target=”_blank” ]The Only Game in Town: Central Banks,Instability and Avoiding the Next Collapse[/amazon_link].

[amazon_image id=”081299762X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse[/amazon_image]

Bodley Head:[amazon_link id=”B01913WYZ0″ target=”_blank” ] And the Weak Suffer What They Must?[/amazon_link] by Yanis Varoufakis; Cryptocurrency by Paul Vigna and Michael Casey; [amazon_link id=”178503040X” target=”_blank” ]Narconomics: How to Run a Drugs Cartel[/amazon_link] by Tom Wainwright; [amazon_link id=”0701186585″ target=”_blank” ]The Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails[/amazon_link] by Sarah Bakewell (OK, philosophy, not economics); [amazon_link id=”1908717939″ target=”_blank” ]Saving Bletchley Park[/amazon_link] by Sue Black and Stevyn Colgan (again, stretching the category). Also from a Random House imprint: [amazon_link id=”0224099825″ target=”_blank” ]A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution[/amazon_link] by Travis Elborough.

[amazon_image id=”1568585047″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Weak Suffer What They Must[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”178503040X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Narconomics: How To Run a Drug Cartel[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0701186585″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]At The Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1908717920″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Saving Bletchley Park: How #socialmedia saved the home of the WWII codebreakers[/amazon_image]

Little Brown: [amazon_link id=”1408706105″ target=”_blank” ]The End of Alchemy: Banking, the Global Economy & the Future of Money[/amazon_link] by Mervyn King. Via Virago, LB also supports the Virago New Statesman Women’s Prize for Politics and Economics – closing date for entry for new writers is 31 January!

[amazon_image id=”1408706105″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The End of Alchemy: Banking, the Global Economy and the Future of Money[/amazon_image]

Profile: [amazon_link id=”1781255318″ target=”_blank” ]The Ways of the World[/amazon_link] by David Harvey; [amazon_link id=”B017T7DXJ6″ target=”_blank” ]We Do Things Differently[/amazon_link] by Mark Stevenson; [amazon_link id=”B017T7DZ1M” target=”_blank” ]Warren Buffett’s Ground Rules[/amazon_link] by Jeremy Miller.

[amazon_image id=”B014RT1LJI” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Ways of the World[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”B017T7DXJ6″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]We Do Things Differently[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”B017T7DZ1M” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Warren Buffett’s Ground Rules: Words of Wisdom from the Partnership Letters of the World’s Greatest Investor[/amazon_image]

Bloomsbury: [amazon_link id=”1472925130″ target=”_blank” ]Created in China: How China is becoming a Global Innovator [/amazon_link]by Georges Hauor and Max Von Zedtwitz (this is a big theme this season!).

[amazon_image id=”1472925130″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Created in China: How China is Becoming a Global Innovator[/amazon_image]

Polity: [amazon_link id=”0745686060″ target=”_blank” ]Should Rich Nations Help The Poor[/amazon_link] by David Hulme; [amazon_link id=”0745698735″ target=”_blank” ]Can the Welfare State Survive[/amazon_link] by Andrew Gamble; [amazon_link id=”1509506233″ target=”_blank” ]Parallax of Growth[/amazon_link] by Ole Bjerg.

[amazon_image id=”0745686060″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Should Rich Nations Help the Poor[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0745698735″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Can the Welfare State Survive?[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1509506233″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Parallax of Growth: The Philosophy of Ecology and Economy[/amazon_image]

Basic Books: [amazon_link id=”B017T7DXXC” target=”_blank” ]The Perfect Bet[/amazon_link] by Adam Kucharski; [amazon_link id=”0465064256″ target=”_blank” ]Heyday: The 1850s and the Dawn of the Global Age[/amazon_link] by Ben Wilson; [amazon_link id=”0465050964″ target=”_blank” ]Prisoners of Hope: Lyndon B Johnson, The Great Society and the Limits of Liberalism[/amazon_link] by Randall Woods; [amazon_link id=”0465055664″ target=”_blank” ]The Limousine Liberal[/amazon_link] by Steve Fraser; [amazon_link id=”0465061966″ target=”_blank” ]The Fractured Republic: Our Dissolving Social Contract in the Age of Individualism[/amazon_link] by Yuval Levin; [amazon_link id=”0465055699″ target=”_blank” ]A Crude Look at the Whole: The Science of Complex Systems[/amazon_link] by John Miller.

[amazon_image id=”B017T7DXXC” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Perfect Bet: How Science and Maths are Taking the Luck Out of Gambling[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0465064256″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Heyday: The 1850s and the Dawn of the Global Age[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0465050964″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Prisoners of Hope: Lyndon B. Johnson, the Great Society, and the Limits of Liberalism[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”B016TX4DU4″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]A Crude Look at the Whole: The Science of Complex Systems in Business, Life, and Society[/amazon_image]

Harvard Business Review: [amazon_link id=”1422189813″ target=”_blank” ]Concrete Economics: The Hamilton Approach to Economic Growth and Policy[/amazon_link] by Stephen Cohen and Brad Delong.

[amazon_image id=”1422189813″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Concrete Economics[/amazon_image]

Verso: [amazon_link id=”1784783668″ target=”_blank” ]The City[/amazon_link] by Tony Norfield; [amazon_link id=”1784781843″ target=”_blank” ]American Socialist[/amazon_link] by Kshama Sawant; [amazon_link id=”1784781320″ target=”_blank” ]Fossil Capital[/amazon_link] by Andreas Malm.

[amazon_image id=”1784783668″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The City: London and the Global Power of Finance[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1784781843″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]American Socialist[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”1784781320″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam-Power and the Roots of Global Warming[/amazon_image]

Macmillan: [amazon_link id=”1137563958″ target=”_blank” ]Socialist Optimism[/amazon_link] by Paul Auerbach; [amazon_link id=”1137495561″ target=”_blank” ]Risk, Power and Inequality in the 21st Century[/amazon_link] by Dean Curran.

Simon & Schuster: Conspiracies of the Ruling Class and How to Break Their Grip Forever by Lawrence Lindsay; [amazon_link id=”1451667825″ target=”_blank” ]American Amnesia[/amazon_link] by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson; [amazon_link id=”1471156036″ target=”_blank” ]The Industries of the Future [/amazon_link]by Alec Ross.

[amazon_image id=”B010MFEMSS” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”B014DXPATK” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Industries of the Future[/amazon_image]

Books to look forward to in 2016 – part 1

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Naturally, everybody has made a New Year’s Resolution to read more economics books. Here are some forthcoming highlights. I’m starting with the university presses, and as ever favouritism as well as its excellent economics list means Princeton University Press kicks us off.

The PUP Spring 2016 catalogue highlights William Goetzmann’s [amazon_link id=”B017MVYMSA” target=”_blank” ]Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible[/amazon_link]; [amazon_link id=”B017I2M8ZC” target=”_blank” ]Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy[/amazon_link] by Robert Frank; [amazon_link id=”0691170495″ target=”_blank” ]Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality[/amazon_link] by Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson; [amazon_link id=”0691165459″ target=”_blank” ]Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe[/amazon_link] by Kenneth Scheve and David Stasavage. There’s also a fantastic list outside economics. I most want to read Frans De Waal’s [amazon_link id=”0691169160″ target=”_blank” ]Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved[/amazon_link].

[amazon_image id=”B017MVYMSA” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible[/amazon_image]  [amazon_image id=”B017I2M8ZC” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0691170495″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality Since 1700 (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0691165459″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0691169160″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved (Princeton Science Library)[/amazon_image]

Over at Yale University Press, there’s James Galbraith’s [amazon_link id=”0300220448″ target=”_blank” ]Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe[/amazon_link]; [amazon_link id=”0300163800″ target=”_blank” ]The Moral Economy[/amazon_link] by Sam Bowles; the paperback of [amazon_link id=”0300210981″ target=”_blank” ]Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet [/amazon_link]by Dieter Helm; and [amazon_link id=”0300194412″ target=”_blank” ]What They Do With Your Money: How the financial system fails us and how to fix[/amazon_link] it by Stephen Davis, Jon Lukomnik and David Pitt-Watson.

[amazon_image id=”0300220448″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0300163800″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Moral Economy: Why Good Incentives are No Substitute for Good Citizens (Castle Lectures Series)[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0300210981″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0300194412″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]What They Do with Your Money: How the Financial System Fails Us, and How to Fix it[/amazon_image]

 Oxford University Press has just released Deborah Brautigam’s [amazon_link id=”019939685X” target=”_blank” ]Will Africa Feed China? [/amazon_link]Coming soon are: [amazon_link id=”0198747543″ target=”_blank” ]A Few Hares To Chase: The Economic Life and Times of Bill Phillips[/amazon_link] by Alan Bollard; [amazon_link id=”0190460679″ target=”_blank” ]All The Facts: A History of Information in the United States Since 1870[/amazon_link] by James Cortada (going to have to read that one!); [amazon_link id=”019875356X” target=”_blank” ]China as an Innovation Nation[/amazon_link] by Yu Zhou, William Lazonick, Yifei Sun; and [amazon_link id=”0199390630″ target=”_blank” ]Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises[/amazon_link] by Anwar Shaikh. There’s also Calestous Juma’s Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies – not yet on Amazon but trailed on Twitter.

[amazon_image id=”B0146Y9TNE” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Will Africa Feed China?[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”B019GXM8V0″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]A Few Hares to Chase: The Economic Life and Times of Bill Phillips[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0190460679″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]All the Facts: A History of Information in the United States since 1870[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”019875356X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]China as an Innovation Nation[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0199390630″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises[/amazon_image]

 Cambridge University Press has fewer titles aimed at non-specialists. One that caught my eye was [amazon_link id=”1107514509″ target=”_blank” ]The Future of Financial Regulation: Who Should Pay For the Failure of American and European Banks? [/amazon_link]by Johan Lybeck. For growth folks, [amazon_link id=”1316503895″ target=”_blank” ]Structural Dynamics and Economic Growth[/amazon_link] edited by Arena and Porter looks a possibility.

[amazon_image id=”1107106850″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Future of Financial Regulation: Who Should Pay for the Failure of American and European Banks?[/amazon_image]  [amazon_image id=”1316503895″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Structural Dynamics and Economic Growth[/amazon_image]

MIT Press has a promising-looking catalogue. On macro, there’s what will be a must-read, [amazon_link id=”026203462X” target=”_blank” ]Progress and Confusion: The State of Macroeconomic Policy[/amazon_link], by Blanchard, Rajan, Rogoff and Summers. Also coming soon are [amazon_link id=”0262034581″ target=”_blank” ]China’s Next Strategic Advantage: From Imitation to Innovation [/amazon_link]by George Yip and Bruce McKern, and [amazon_link id=”0262034484″ target=”_blank” ]The Disruption Dilemma[/amazon_link] by Joshua Gans. There’s a couple of interesting-looking edited volumes, [amazon_link id=”0262034085″ target=”_blank” ]Cognitive Unconscious and Human Rationality[/amazon_link]; and [amazon_link id=”0262034441″ target=”_blank” ]Public Sector Economics and the Need for Reforms[/amazon_link]. By Hal Scott there is [amazon_link id=”0262034379″ target=”_blank” ]Connectedness and Contagion: Protecting the Financial System from Panics[/amazon_link].

[amazon_image id=”026203462X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Progress and Confusion: The State of Macroeconomic Policy[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0262034581″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]China’s Next Strategic Advantage: From Imitation to Innovation[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0262034379″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Connectedness and Contagion: Protecting the Financial System from Panics[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0262034484″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Disruption Dilemma[/amazon_image]

I will have to read [amazon_link id=”0231175108″ target=”_blank” ]The Power of a Single Number: A Political History of GDP[/amazon_link] by Philippe Lepenies from Columbia University Press. Other titles this spring include [amazon_link id=”0231172583″ target=”_blank” ]Economic Thought: A Brief History[/amazon_link] by Heinz Kurz; [amazon_link id=”0231173725″ target=”_blank” ]The Evolution of Money[/amazon_link] by David Orrell and Roman Chlupaty; and I[amazon_link id=”0231164629″ target=”_blank” ]nside the Investments of Warren Buffett: Twenty Cases[/amazon_link] by Yefei Lu.

[amazon_image id=”0231175108″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Power of a Single Number: A Political History of GDP[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0231172583″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Economic Thought: A Brief History[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0231173725″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Evolution of Money[/amazon_image]

Forthcoming from Harvard University Press are [amazon_link id=”0674051149″ target=”_blank” ]The Engine of Enterprise: Credit in America[/amazon_link] by Rowena Olegario; Finding Time: The Economics of Work Life Conflict by Heather Boushey; [amazon_link id=”0674660498″ target=”_blank” ]From Steel to Slots: Casino Capitalism in the Post-Industrial City[/amazon_link] by Chloe Taft; [amazon_link id=”0674737237″ target=”_blank” ]From The War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America[/amazon_link] by Elisabeth Hinton; [amazon_link id=”067473713X” target=”_blank” ]Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization[/amazon_link] by Brank Milanovic; [amazon_link id=”0674088824″ target=”_blank” ]Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics[/amazon_link] by Jens Beckert; [amazon_link id=”0674504917″ target=”_blank” ]The Great Leveler: Capitalism and Competition in the Court of Law[/amazon_link] by Brett Christophers; and [amazon_link id=”0674088883″ target=”_blank” ]Legislating Instability: Adam Smith, Free Banking and the Financial Crisis of 1772[/amazon_link] by Tyler Beck Goodspeed. Lots of enticement here.

[amazon_image id=”0674051149″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Engine of Enterprise: Credit in America[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0674660498″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]From Steel to Slots: Casino Capitalism in the Postindustrial City[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0674737237″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0674504917″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Great Leveler: Capitalism and Competition in the Court of Law[/amazon_image]

[amazon_image id=”067473713X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0674088824″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0674088883″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Legislating Instability: Adam Smith, Free Banking, and the Financial Crisis of 1772[/amazon_image]

Inevitably, this is only a partial list. If any publishers particularly want to flag up something I’ve omitted to readers of this blog please let me know – I’m happy to update this post, and one covering other publishers’ forthcoming titles will follow.