Books List for Summer

Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace by Christopher Blattman, Viking Christopher
Blattman of the University of Chicago has written an outstanding book on one of the most important
questions about human behaviour: why do we fight? He notes that the vast majority of conflicts do
not become violent. When they do, it is because the incentives for compromise are insufficient.
Blattman offers five reasons why this happens. We are seeing one of them right now. Vladimir Putin
has started a war because he thinks it is in his interests and, in today’s Russia, nobody else’s
interests matter.

Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century by Helen Thompson, Oxford University Press

Helen Thompson is professor of political economy at Cambridge university. In this ambitious book
she attempts to elucidate the economic and political forces shaping (and reshaping) our world. Her
story has three elements: first, the geopolitics of energy, especially oil; second, economics, especially
monetary and energy economics; third, national politics, especially those of the western
democracies, notably the rise of plutocracy. The book is as disturbing as it is thought-provoking.

21st Century Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19 by Ben
Bernanke, WW Norton

If one is to criticise something intelligently, one needs to understand it. Ben Bernanke, one of the
world’s leading monetary economists and chair of the Federal Reserve during the global financial
crisis, is ideally equipped to explain the economic forces and ideas behind the policies of central
banks, especially the Fed, over the past half-century. The book is characteristically well argued. But,
ironically, just after the Fed adopted its new framework aimed at achieving “maximum
employment”, surging inflation brought back the concerns of the 1970s. Nothing, it turns out, is for
ever.

Unshackling India: Hard Truths and Clear Choices for Economic Revival by Ajay Chhibber and Salman
Anees Soz, HarperCollins

India will soon be the world’s most populous country. But will it also be a prosperous one? This is a
crucial question, not only for Indians, but for the rest of humanity. Ajay Chhibber and Salman Anees
Soz’s superb book shows that prosperity is far from guaranteed. A little over a decade ago,
continued fast economic growth was widely considered highly likely. Now, optimism has evaporated.

The book provides an excellent overview of what has gone wrong and what needs to be done to put
it right.

The Chancellors: Steering the British Economy in Crisis Times by Howard Davies, Polity

Howard Davies investigates the role and performance of the UK Treasury since 1997. For this
purpose he has managed to interview Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Philip
Hammond. The story is fascinating, since it covers so many challenges and changes. Davies is kinder
to the Treasury than I would be. Nevertheless, he recognises that trouble lies ahead: political and
economic realities do not look friendly to the belief in free markets and fiscal discipline that guides
this powerful institution.

Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose by Stefan Dercon, Hurst
Stefan Dercon, director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford,
asks the most important question in economics: why do some developing countries develop, while
others do not? There has been much progress. But that progress has also been hugely divergent. The
answer, he argues, lies not in policies per se, let alone the supply of foreign aid or transformation of
global institutions, but in the politics of economics: development will happen if elites decide it is in
their interests to deliver it. This “development bargain” is the key: it is as simple — and difficult — as
that.

Financial Cold War: A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets by James A Fok, Wiley
The growing friction between the US and China is the most important political and economic fact
about our world. In this book, the author — an expert on both China and finance, long resident in
Hong Kong — focuses on how this friction is playing out in the key area of finance. He brings out very
clearly the fragilities and dangers created by the financial connections between these two very
different and increasingly rivalrous superpowers.

1. The Decline of Empires in South Asia

2. Straits
3. How the world really works
4. 21st century Monetary policy
5. An economist outlook