Economics: Making sense of the modern economy

by Richard Davies

The world of economics is changing. Years of turmoil in the global economy mean that nothing will ever be quite the same again.

This is the starting point and theme of this radically revised Economist books classic, now available for the first time in America.

Richard Davies, economics editor of The Economist, takes us on a journey through the paper's own analysis of the state of the world's economies, how we reached this point and what to expect in the next decade. He explores:

what's gone wrong since 2008, why it's happened and how we can stop it happening again;
the shifting focus of economics from banking to labor economics;
the future hopes and challenges for the world economy.

Along the way, we encounter the global economy laid bare, from banks, panics, and crashes to innovative new policies to improve how markets function; from discussions around jobs, pay, and inequality to the promise of innovation and productivity; from the implications of emerging markets and the globalisation of trade through to the sharing economy and the economics of Google and eBay.

The result is a fascinating review of the global economy and the changing role of economics in the new world order.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 17, 2015

Reviews

[Alexandru · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of articles from 2012-2014 from a British economist, so the book centers on the UK and the US, mainly in its analysis. I regret I have not read it a bit earlier, because a lot has changed since 2014 till now, so the book is already outdated, missing entirely any analysis on AI and its impact or COVID-19 and the things we learned from it.
The book's structure is easy to read, but a bit chaotic since it is made of smaller articles that were bundled into 3 chapters - to be more simplistic, the past crisis of 2008 and its fallout, the current issues on inequality, and unemployment and so on, and the last one that probably is the most interesting, but a bit outdated already - on what the future brings and we have many new factors already. But a recommended read for economics enthusiasts.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone that did not study economics formally whilst in school I found this a pretty fun book to read. A variety of themes are covered with a few short, pithy Economist-style essays. It's a great book to read slowly as there is not too much cumulative dependence, and the articles are quite short which makes periodic reading easy.

[Antonius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read although the content unsurprisingly comes across much like a magazine or news article with sparse direct references and some of the conclusions presented more as opinion than as a structured argument. I also found a few of the tables confusing with poorly defined X and Y axis.

That said the book covered some interesting topics and the magazine article style makes it a fairly easy read with enough meat in the content to make it interesting.

[Lennart Dührsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of articles (wasn't clear to me when I bought it), but nevertheless highly interesting and provides some great insights. Like most books on economics, however, it requires at least Econ 102 knowledge from its readers, and thus probably not very well suited for the layperson.

[Szustalke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book at the airport, 3 or 4 years ago, pre-lockdown, pre-recession-worries, pre-real-interest-in-topic. First few chapters are a little bit hard to go through with industry-heavy vocabulary, making me fall asleep several times through those. I ditched it. I picked it up again years after, a bit randomly. And?

It's a good read!
The beginning can be off-putting as it touches a difficult topic that most likely couldn't be explained in any easier terms but it's so wort to mention it at all to realise financial crises were happening before 1920 and 2008 too. Afterwards it moves on to recession, inflation and market mechanisms to explain economics as it is today- the beautiful hybrid between mathematical science and social study. Yes, some of articles were touched briefly, without much depth, felt a little like they were put there just to make up for a demanded number of pages so the book could be sold at X price. Some of them were absolutely fantastic, giving me a fresh perspective I lacked before and a pinch of understanding.

To summarise, it is not a book to teach you economics as a science, don't get deluded. What it will do though, it will spark your interest in the topic and will allow you to understand some concepts in an easy to digest form that you could certainly enjoy while commuting or travelling.

[Eduardo Hoppenstedt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It needs to be updated. I also understood very little of it, not quite the best book for people without solid background in economics