Economics books I plan on reading
A few conversations + a chance visit to a bookstore led me down a rabbit hole...
In recent years, my brother has read and listened to various economists, and those experiences have started to influence his thinking, decision making, and our conversations.
In addition to this, while visiting a bookstore on a whim, I happened to come across Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics” book. Although I disagree with him strongly in many areas, it piqued my interest in the field more generally. After all, my investment and business decisions are underpinned by economics, and understanding the field enhances my ability to make informed decisions and analysis of businesses and state power more generally.
Many of the publications I currently read also quote from or interview various economists, and federal reserve board members. Since most central bankers have a strong background in economics, I figured I’d take a peak myself.
One central banker that I knew of and read about in the past was Stanley Fischer. Originally he was going to study chemistry, but decided to study economics instead after reading John Maynard Keynes’ “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”.
That work is available for free online and will soon be on my reading list. There are a few others as well:
A treatise on probability
Supply and demand (authored in this case by Sir Hubert Henderson with a foreword by Keynes)
The economic consequences of the peace
and a few other works that I likely won’t pick up such as “Indian currency and finance”, etc. due to their idiosyncratic nature
In addition to those, I also remembered Ben Bernanke studied the Great Depression extensively, so I figured I’d look for his “favorite books on the Great Depression”. Here’s what came up:
Essays on the Great Depression (authored by Bernanke)
A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960
The Great Crash 1929 (I have read this book and highly recommend it)
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
The Great Depression: America 1929-1941
^ If I can find the time, I hope to wind my way through each of these as well.
Although I worked on most of a master’s degree in teaching with a focus in government, economics, and history, I never got to the economics part of the program before having to quit due to various factors. I’ll count reading through these and other works as part of my instruction, and figured some of you reading this might find some of these works of interest as well.
If you’re wondering, yes, I’ve added these books above to my ongoing reading list at the bottom of the following page: here where you can see all the books I’ve read, am currently reading, or planning to read.