50 كتابا كلاسيكيا في الاقتصاد

50 Classics

by Tom Butler-Bowdon, توم باتلر باودون

خلاصة أعظم كتب الاقتصاد. طريقك المختصر لأهم الأفكار عن الرأسمالية والتمويل والاقتصاد العالمي

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Business, Finance, Classics, Reference, History

Paperback

First published May 4, 2017

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

List of the 50 books covered:

1. Liaquat Ahamed - Lords of Finance (2009)
Fixed ideas in economics can have disastrous results

2. William Baumol - The Microtheory of Innovative Entrepreneurship (2010)
Entrepreneurs are the engines of growth and must be valued

3. Gary Becker - Human Capital (1964)
The most important investment we ever make is in ourselves

4. John Bogle - The Little Book of Common Sense Investing (2007)
The most successful investing strategy is also the easiest

5. Eric Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee - The Second Machine Age (2014)
Technological revolutions must allow for the advance of everyone

6. Ha-Joon Chang - 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism (2012)
Many nations succeeded by bucking the rules of orthodox economics

7. Diane Coyle - GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History (2014)
How we measure economic output has consequences for people and nations

8. Ronald Coase - The Firm, The Market and The Law (1990)
Why firms exist; the role of transaction costs in economic life

9. Peter Drucker - Innovation and Entrepreneurship (1985)
Success comes from taking management and ideas seriously

10. Niall Ferguson - The Ascent of Money (2008)
Finance is not evil, it built the modern world

11. Milton Friedman - Capitalism and Freedom (1962)
Free markets, not government, protect the individual and ensure quality

12. JK Galbraith - The Great Crash, 1929 (1954)
It’s government’s job to stop speculative frenzies ruining the real economy

13. Henry George - Progress and Poverty (1879)
The best and fairest way to ensure opportunity is a tax on land

14. Robert J Gordon - The Rise and Fall of American Growth (2016)
Living standards keep rising, but the greatest gains have already happened

15. Benjamin Graham - The Intelligent Investor (1949)
We grow in wealth through long-term investing, not speculating

16. Friedrich Hayek - The Use of Knowledge in Society (1945)
Societies prosper when they give up planning and control, and allow decentralization of knowledge

17. Albert O Hirschman - Exit, Voice and Loyalty (1970)
Consumers have many options to get what they want

18. Jane Jacobs - The Economy of Cities (1968)
Cities have always been, and always will be, the drivers of wealth

19. John Maynard Keynes - The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936)
To achieve social goals like full employment, governments must actively manage the economy

20. Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine (2008)
‘Neoliberal’ economic programs have proved a disaster for many developing countries

21. Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal (2007)
The postwar consensus on how to grow an economy has been hijacked by ideology

22. Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner - Freakonomics (2006)
Economics is not a moral science, more an observation of how incentives work

23. Michael Lewis - The Big Short (2011)
Modern finance was meant to minimize risk, but it has only increased dangers

24. Deirdre McCloskey - Bourgeois Equality (2016)
The world became wealthy thanks to an idea: entrepreneurs and merchants are not so bad after all

25. Thomas Malthus - An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)
The world’s finite resources can’t cope with an increasing population

26. Alfred Marshall - Principles of Economics (1890)
To understand people, watch their habits of earning, saving and investing

27. Karl Marx - Capital (1867)
The interests of labor and capital are perennially in conflict

28. Hyman Minsky - Stabilizing An Unstable Economy (1986)
Rather than creating equilibrium, capitalism is inherently unstable

29. Ludwig Von Mises - Human Action (1940)
Economics has laws which no person, society or government can escape

30. Dambisa Moyo - Dead Aid (2010)
Countries grow and get rich by creating industries, not by addiction to aid

31. Elinor Ostrom - Governing the Commons (1990)
To stay healthy, common resources like air, water and forests need to be managed in novel ways.

32. Thomas Piketty - Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014)
The scales of wealth are tipping towards capital; if inequality widens there will be social upheaval

33. Karl Polanyi - The Great Transformation (1944)
​Markets must serve society, not the other way around

34. Michael E Porter - The Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990)
Competition and industry clusters make a rich nation

35. Ayn Rand - Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966)
Capitalism is the most moral form of political economy

36. David Ricardo - Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817)
A free-trading world will see each nation fulfil its potential

37. Dani Rodrik - The Globalization Paradox (2011)
Globalization agendas are often floored by national politics

38. Paul Samuelson - Economics (1948)
A combination of classical and Keynesian ideas creates the best-performing economies

39. EF Schumacher - Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (1973)
A new economics must arise which takes more account of people than output

40. Joseph Schumpeter - Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942)
No form of political economy matches the dynamism of capitalism and its process of ‘creative destruction’

41. Thomas Schelling - Micromotives and Macrobehavior (1978)
Small behaviors and choices of individuals ultimately produce ‘tipping points’ with major effects

42. Amartya Sen - Poverty and Famines (1981)
People starve not because there isn’t enough food, but because economics circumstances suddenly change

43. Robert Shiller - Irrational Exuberance (2000)
Psychology, not fundamental values, drives markets

44. Julian Simon - The Ultimate Resource 2 (1997)
The world will never run out of resources, because it is the human mind that drives advance, not capital or materials

45. Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations (1778)
The wealth of a nation is that of its people, not its government

46. Hernando de Soto - The Mystery of Capital (2003)
Clear property rights are the basis of stability and prosperity

47. Joseph Stiglitz - The Euro (2016)
Europe’s failed currency and its ideological underpinnings

48. Richard Thaler - Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics (2015)
How psychology has transformed the economics discipline

49. Thorstein Veblen - Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
The great goal of capitalist life is not to have to work - or to take on the appearance of not needing to

50. Max Weber - The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904)
Culture and religion are the most overlooked ingredients of economic success

[Otto Lehto · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book does what it promises. Although there are no real "shortcuts" to a proper understanding of economics, this book contains some pretty decent summaries of 50 important economic thinkers. They will get you a long way to understanding what the key issues and debates are in the field.

The one big problem I have with the text is that it suffers from a pretty blatant free market and right wing bias. This is evident in the selection of the authors, with much more space given to pro-market authors than anti-market authors. This bias also clouds the neutrality of the text. Half of the anti-market chapters are written in a way to predispose the reader to think that the anti-market theories have been debunked by subsequent theory and evidence. None of the pro-market chapters contain such heavy-handed editorial commentary. Well, I would have preferred a more balanced approach.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

Good book summarizing the points of many of the most important economic thinkers of the last several centuries. I was a little surprised they included the debunked neo-Marxist Picketty, but maybe that's what passes for important these days, when many economists are opining that it's possible that economics is a dead field, that we know pretty much everything there is to know.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few years ago, I read Sylvia Nasar's book "Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius" and enjoyed it immensely. When I saw this book as a Goodreads giveaway, I couldn't help but enter. Economics is an endlessly fascinating topic once you begin to dive a little deeper. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it is a great way to "read" all those economics texts that you never seem to have time to dive into. The selection of texts was excellent and included my favorite - Hayek!

[Harith Alrashid · Rating 4 out of 5]

ملخصات لا تتعدى الصفحات الخمس لاهم خمسين كتابا في الاقتصاد
الكتاب جيد جدا لمن اراد التعرف على هذه الكتب لكنه بالطبع لا يغني ابدا عن قراءتها ولكن للمعلومية معظم هذه الكتب لم تترجم الى العربية فلا باس من اخذ فكرة عنها من خلال هذا الكتاب لمن لا يجيد اللغة الإنجليزية

[bks · Rating 4 out of 5]

It summarizes the book and tells you how they relate to each other. That is the whole point of "how to talk about books that you haven't read" by Pierre Bayard.

[Luke Glasspool · Rating 4 out of 5]

Served as a good way of filtering through the drillers I won’t like when they inevitably fall on my reading list. I will say that it do be an epic fortnite victory that the driller I want as my next supervisor features in this book. Gave 3.5*, but upgraded to 4 (fr goodreads, when are you going to let nuanced drillers like myself thrive by implementing a half star system to reviews).

[Ciarán Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to some classics. Really liked the synopsis at the end of each summary. Since they are short the reader can simultaneously keep the central point from multiple books in their mind to compare and contrast. Or they can find books to look more into. I would recommend Dead Aid, The Ascent of Money and The Wealth of Nations

[NormaCenva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great compilation, it is visible that a lot of care and research were combined to produce it. Very much enjoyable. Will check out the rest of the series for sure.

N.B. it is already going to a very happy and excited friend, for a read!

[Sergio Medinaceli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un excelente "cross-check list" para ampliar o profundizar en cualquier biblioteca. A mis casi 49 años, comprendí el origen de muchos conceptos que conozco (ya que soy economista). No es pérdida de tiempo, en absoluto. Quizás añadiría que el autor no puede ocultar un ligero sesgo de pensamiento.

[Malek · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب ثري
أشبه بفهرس للاقتصاد ونظرياته ومبادئه
ولأن الاقتصاد متداخل بشكل كبير، اهتمامك بجانب منه يقودك لجوانب اخرى

[Adwitiya (অদ্বিতীয়া) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.0 / 5.0

I extracted a LOT of value out of this work. Started reading this about a year ago from now and took my time going through the articles in chronological order. Really loved the way Tom Butler-Bowdon organized the whole thing. Would love to read the rest of the works in the 50 Classics series too.

~ 2 November 2023

[Mike Koellhoffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful book, especially for any business majors. "50 Economics Classics: Your shortcut to the most important ideas on capitalism, finance, and the global economy" by Tom Butler-Bowdon picks 50 of some of the most definitive classic books on economics divided into five major categories: The Spirit of Capitalism, Growth and Development, Adventures in Money & Finance (booms, busts, and gradual growth), Government, Markets & the Economy, and Behavioral Economics. The book then provides a quick synopsis of each book including quotes, other books of a similar vein and even a short bio of the author. Great resource material for everyone interested in business and finance but who does not have the time to read each of these books. Provides the reader with enough basic information to appear knowledgeable and well-read without requiring months of dedicated reading time. Cliff notes for economics!

[ليلة · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب مهم جدا يوفر تعب البحث عن أهم الكتب ليس فقط في نظريات الاقتصادالحديث بل كتب
الاستثمار المالي وفي رأس المال البشري المؤثرة ربما خلال اخر 100 عام او يزيد..لكنه أغفل تماما الاشارة إلى كتب تراثية للمسلمين عن الاقتصاد ربما لانه لا يعرفها او لاننالم نهتم بنشرها بالانجليزي مثل التبصرة بالتجارة للجاحظ او الاشارة إلى محاسن التجارة وغشوش المدلسين فيها للدمشقي والكثير غيرها التي استخدمت كلمة تثمير او انماء المال لا اقتصاد

[ليلة · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب مهم جدا يوفر تعب البحث عن أهم الكتب ليس فقط في نظريات الاقتصادالحديث بل كتب
الاستثمار المالي وفي رأس المال البشري المؤثرة ربما خلال اخر 100 عام او يزيد..لكنه أغفل تماما الاشارة إلى كتب تراثية للمسلمين عن الاقتصاد ربما لانه لا يعرفها او لاننالم نهتم بنشرها بالانجليزي مثل التبصرة بالتجارة للجاحظ او الاشارة إلى محاسن التجارة وغشوش المدلسين فيها للدمشقي والكثير غيرها التي استخدمت كلمة تثمير او انماء المال لا مصطلح اقتصاد

[محمد بن مبارك · Rating 2 out of 5]

عند الاستثمار في الأسهم انظر إلى نفسك كمالك لجزء من شركة وليس مضاربا."

‏كتاب يعطيك نظرة في اشهر الكتب المختصة بعلم الاقتصاد ، شخصياً حبيت كم موضوع فيه والباقي مافهمته بالشكل الصحيح او يسرد الموضوع بطريقة مملة جداً وكأنه يجبرك تقرأ اكثر من ١٠ مرات علشان تفهم.

[Sambasivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent synthesis of great thoughts on economics over the last 200 years. The assessment is fair and objective. The final comments are incisive. Fantastic read.

[Eero Ringmäe · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a well-respected colleague recommended this book, I was apprehensive at first - I hate the idea of "abridged" books and this seemed like the extreme version of shortening.

But - after skimming the table of contents online, I realised that I've only read a couple of these 50 books and most likely will never read the rest. So - why not blast through the big ideas in economics in one book.

Reading this book, I realised a few things..

1. Economics is a relatively young field. Adam Smith wrote "The Wealth of Nations" just as the USA was declaring it's independence in late 18th century, but vast majority of the books were from 20th century, seemingly most from after WWII

2. Economics as per this book feels much more as a "social science" compared to what we were taught in the "Economics 101" course in the university. Instead of tables and graphs with demand and supply, most of "economics" in this book it's about humans and human psychology and how society organises its rules.

3. A lot fewer of the ideas and books covered were the "fundamental classics" like Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, etc who we might have heard name-dropped since university. Many of the classics chosen for the book were about specific things - African economics, the 2008 financial crisis, etc.

The format of the book was so and so. Each book got it's own short section with a pre-defined structure - main topic, short bio of the author, etc. I felt that surely some of the books are 10x or maybe 100x more impactful and should get more attention.

I would have loved these books and ideas spun into a single narrative of classic economics thought, similarly to how Bertrand Russell wrote about philosophy in "The History of Western Philosophy".

Regardless - was able to appear smarter than before in one dinner conversation a week after finishing the book. ✅

[Zulhilmi Zakaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really helpful in providing insights to readers regarding economics ideas and great minds that have been improving directly or indirectly our modern civilization. The dialectic that has been brought by the author really challenge our mind how these various ideas that shaped our economics.

In reading Marx's Capital, i absolutely hit by his arguments about how bad capitalism and the discrimination to the worker. At the same time, when it comes to von Mises's Human Action, it really convince me that the idea of free market is already rooted in human nature. If we want to reject it, we would reject human nature. Also on same camp such as Smith's The Wealth of Nation, Ayn Rand's Capitalism The Unknown Ideal, Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom.

However, the socialist or socialistic economist ideas quiet unrejectable, the writings such as Piketty's Capital is very compelling. He came with the idea of global tax to reduce the domination of capital over labor which he believed could stop "the endless inegalitarian spiral."

I, myself rather positioning myself in pragmatic economist. We could see how they are supporting Capitalism but being critical with it. Also, on the opposite camp, Socialism. I just want to quote what Keynes said about this matter, in a nutshell, the elegant models of how economies work often wrong. Markets are not self-correcting, but need constant intervention and management to ensure high consumer demand, investment and employment. This idea also being proposed by Krugman, Stiglitz, Ha-Joon Chang and many more.

[Laimis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cool concept to take 50 top books in the domain and summarize them. Placing them side by side gives you a good idea of the common themes that top thinkers in the domain write about. What stood out to me the continuous seeking of balance between free markets and government, ideas where and how the government should intervene in the economics and what people and markets themselves can control. My beliefs going into the book did not change, and were somewhat confirmed I thought, that you need both. You need people to have ability to be left to their own devices to create solutions to the problems they see in the world, as well as create products for others to use. But there needs to be regulation frameworks, enforcement, law, policies defined that provide safety nets, safeguards, and define activities to undertake in case of crises.

[MichaelK · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author does an excellent job of summarizing the key points of each book, its legacy and criticism it has received, in a way which quite often made me want to read the full book myself: his enthusiasm for the subject is obvious. A broad spectrum of economic texts are covered, from Karl Marx to Ayn Rand, so you learn about a range of opinions and perspectives.

I don't normally read books which are so blatantly summarizing other books, but I wanted to know more about economics and this was an efficient way to go about it. I would read more summary books by the same author in his '50 Classics' series.

[Karolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

At long last! I'm finished! It's a cool and concise collection of thoughts and economic concepts. My favourite books from this collection include;;

Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (MOYO)
Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World (MCCLOSKEY)
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else (DE SOTO)
The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe (STIGLITZ)
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (AYN RAND)
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (SCHUMPETER)

[Tatu Hocksell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kirja oli hyvä. Moni käsitelty taloustieteilijä ei ollut minulle ennestään tuttu. Taloustieteessä on paljon todella oivaltavia tutkimuksia esim. Coasen ja Ostromin ajatukset ympäristönsuojelusta. Hirschmanin huomio kuluttajien ja äänestäjien eroista. Kehenkään ajattelijaan ei ehditä muutaman sivun pätkässä perehtyä kovin tarkasti, mutta kirja antaa hyvän pohjan lähteä perehtymään taloustieteilijöihin tarkemmin. Mielestäni teos oli myös aika tasapoinen ja siinä käsiteltiin iso joukko ei valtavirran taloustieteilijöitä.

[Zulfiqar Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful revision for economics enthusiasts and a valuable resource for those seeking an introduction to classic economic books and concepts therein. These range from Adam Smith's Wealth of the Nations to Pickety's Capital in the 21st century. The 50 chapters on 50 books were essentially teasers, just long enough to acquaint the reader with the core principles in the books, and to make one decide whether to buy them or not.

[Cemre Uludag · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb introductory overview of the economic ideas of the world we live in. The book is for the beginners in economics and only briefly touches ideas without going in depth. Still a good path finding book to go and explore more topics in the field of economics. Would recommend if you want to improve your literacy in the field.

[Omkar Patil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book- exposes you to a host of ideas in economics, the prominent ones being free-market/planned economies, (non)Malthusian ideology, behavioural economics and some historical perspective. It's a great book if you want to get an overview of economics, or just regret not doing an eco course in your uni. 5/5!

[Silvano Paternoster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very handy book that gives you a teaser of the most important economy books. Helps you avoid spending time in many dry books, while at the same time extracting and teaching you what was the take-home message

For some books it felt that a little bit more of comments, reflection or contrapposition would have been even better

Still a must read worth 5 start

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good overview of many of the major economic thinkers from a variety of time periods and schools of thought. It does not get into a lot of depth on any one, but acts as an introduction to each. This would be a good way to figure out which authors you would like to read more.

[Narysmellsbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good intro to economics. Happily surprised at the perspectives it included, such as those from Naomi Klein and other women and anticapitalist view points. Successfully made me want to look up some of these books and dig into them.

[Niklas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good book for what sounds list a listicle!

The author summarises key thinkers, and he does a great job at it. He knows what he is talking about - I read many of the thinkers and their original books, so I can tell.