End This Depression Now! by Paul Krugman (Norton). The
Princeton economist makes his case for more government spending
and less austerity. You can almost hear his teeth gnash as he
takes on the “Austerians.” (Also available as a downloadable
audiobook.)
Engines of Change by Paul Ingrassia (Simon & Schuster).
Ingrassia, who shared a 1993 Pulitzer Prize for writing on
management turmoil at General Motors Co., presents a quirky
history of American culture as seen through 15 cars.
Finance and the Good Society by Robert J. Shiller
(Princeton). The influential Yale University economist argues
that finance, for all its manifest failings of late, remains a
force for good in society.
Financial Turmoil in Europe and the United States by
George Soros (PublicAffairs). This is a compilation of op-ed
articles that the billionaire investor wrote as the euro crisis
boiled up. As a retread, it displays Soros’s knack for assessing
market linkages and psychology on the fly.
Getting It Wrong by William A. Barnett (MIT). Poor
monetary data were a root cause of the financial crisis, argues
Barnett, a University of Kansas economist and former Federal
Reserve Board staff member.
Hedge Hogs by Barbara T. Dreyfuss (Random House). Brian
Hunter’s out-of-control trading in the natural-gas market led to
the collapse of Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund Amaranth
Advisors LLC. Dreyfuss does a great job of providing the
historical context.
The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty by Dan Ariely
(Harper/HarperCollins). We like to think of ourselves as honest.
Yet experiments show that we all cheat, says the behavioral
economist. (Also available as a downloadable
audiobook.)
The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by John Coates (Fourth
Estate/Penguin Press). During his 12 years at Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. (GS), Merrill Lynch & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG, Coates
began to wonder whether testosterone and other hormones were
impairing the judgment of traders -- and fueling bubbles and
busts. So he retrained as a neuroscientist and conducted tests
on trading floors. He synthesizes his findings in this highly
speculative and absorbing book.
The Idea Factory by Jon Gertner (Penguin Press). A rich
history of Bell Labs, a hothouse of 20th-century innovation.
Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl
Sandberg (Knopf). The Facebook executive offers advice to women,
urging them not to pull back from career challenges years before
having children. (Also available as a downloadable
eBook and as a downloadable
audiobook.)
Luck by Ed Smith (Bloomsbury). Serendipity molds
everything from sports to politics and finance, argues the
former cricketer.(Not held by Evanston Library, or any library in the consortium.)
A Nation of Deadbeats by Scott Reynolds Nelson (Knopf).
The U.S. was founded by bankers who used their political
connections to make lots of money. Sound familiar?
The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti (Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt). A persuasive look at why some U.S. cities
have prospered in recent decades while others have declined.
Octopus by Guy Lawson (Crown). Hedge-fund manager Sam
Israel, who faked suicide in 2008 to escape a prison sentence
for running a $450 million Ponzi scheme, was himself the victim
of a con artist.
Other People’s Money: Inside the Housing Crisis and theDemise of the Greatest Real Estate Deal Ever Made by Charles
V. Bagli (Dutton). Buying Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village
was an ill-advised deal for Tishman Speyer and BlackRock even
before the financial crisis. Bagli recounts the horror story
with clarity and authority.
Plutocrats by Chrystia Freeland (Penguin Press).
“Being self-made is central to the self-image of today’s global
plutocrats” Freeland says. “It is how they justify their
luxuries, status and influence.”
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (Heinemann/Random
House). Dipping into neurological case studies, Duhigg explores
how our brains form habits and how we can change them. Examples
range from murderous sleepwalkers to Goldman Sachs. (Also available as a downloadable
eBook, as a downloadable
audiobook, and on
CD.)
The Price of Inequality by Joseph E. Stiglitz (Allen
Lane/Norton). Economic growth and democracy suffer when the top
1 percent of Americans earns a fifth of the country’s income and
controls more than a third of its wealth, the Nobel Prize-winning economist says.
Red Ink by David Wessel (Crown Business). The Wall
Street Journal economics editor presents a slim primer on the
people and politics driving the U.S. budget war. (Also available as a downloadable
eBook.)
Wait by Frank Partnoy (Profile/PublicAffairs). From F-16 pilots to speed traders, the best performers are those who
learn to delay their responses, argues Partnoy, a former Morgan
Stanley (MS) banker. (Also available as a downloadable
eBook, and as a downloadable
audiobook.)
What Money Can't Buy by Michael Sandel (Allen Lane/
Farrar, Straus and Giroux). The Harvard University professor who
wrote “Justice” explores the moral limits of markets in civil
society, from baseball to death bonds.
White House Burning by Simon Johnson and James Kwak
(Pantheon). A survey of how the U.S. government, ignoring
Alexander Hamilton’s precepts, piled up more than $15 trillion
in debt.
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Winner Take All by Dambisa Moyo (Allen Lane/Basic).
China has embarked on a “commodity crusade,” making it the
pre-eminent buyer of resources ranging from metals to food, says
the former Goldman Sachs banker. The result may be “famine,
conflict and worse” for everyone else in the decades to come.
“Why Nations Fail” by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson
(Crown/Profile). Why do some nations prosper while others remain
mired in poverty? The answer lies in politics, the two
economists argue in this compelling and readable study.
