We have selected four books that offer thought-provoking perspectives on global capitalism, European economic policy, cultural change, and financial inclusion. Together, they examine how institutions, ideas, and policies shape economic opportunity and social outcomes.

This issue brings together four timely explorations of how economic systems shape people’s lives: a history of the first global financial crash and its political aftershocks, a critique of today’s personal finance markets and proposals to fix them, a vivid guide to our new era of trade wars and geopolitical competition, and a fresh look at morally contested markets, from organs to education, through the lens of incentives and market design.

This issue’s reading list circles around one question: what kind of economy do we want, and how do we build it? One book revisits Keynes for lessons for lessons still urgently relevant today. Another charts a path toward an economy built around collective wellbeing. A third examines how financial markets can be better aligned with climate goals. And a fourth reminds us that behind every model and statistic are people whose work and dignity matter.

This newsletter spotlights four compelling new books that examine the forces reshaping modern economies — from precarious labor markets and the future of work in the developing world, to the macroeconomic role of expectations and the policy imperatives of structural transformation.

This newsletter brings together four essential reads at the intersection of economic governance and urgent global challenges: from the future of central banking and inflation management to the moral obligations of wealthy nations on climate, and the threat that unchecked private power poses to democracy.

This newsletter features four timely contributions spanning issues such as the future of the dollar and international currencies, the sustainability of capitalist models through a Nordic lens, the role of central banks in the green transition, and the impact of asset bubbles  on macroeconomic policy.

We selected four books that examine critical tensions at the intersection of economics, politics, and global order. They explore how postwar institutions struggle to adapt amid rising geopolitical fragmentation, economic coercion as a tool of statecraft, the temporal governance challenges of climate change, and the structural compatibility between market economies and democratic systems.

We have selected four books that reveal the tensions between economic prosperity, environmental limits, social justice, and political systems—offering critical perspectives on the challenges that define our contemporary moment and the difficult choices ahead.

The Means of Prediction – How AI Really Works (and Who Benefits) By: Maximilian Kasy – University of Oxford [E]conomist Maximilian Kasy shows in The Means of Prediction, artificial intelligence, far from being an unstoppable force, is irrevocably shaped by human decisions—choices made to date by the ownership class that steers its development and deployment. […]