Black Box Thinking

Superb' - Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add UpMoney is essential to the economy and how we live our lives, yet is inherently worthless. We can use it to build a home or send us to space, and it can lead to the rise and fall of empires. Few innovations have had such a huge impact on the development of humanity, but money is a shared fiction: a story we believe in so long as others act as if it is true.Money is rarely out of the headlines – from the invention of cryptocurrencies to the problem of high inflation, extraordinary interventions by central banks and the power the West has over the worldwide banking system. In Money in One Lesson, Gavin Jackson answers the most important questions on what money is and how it shapes our world, drawing on vivid examples from throughout history to demystify and show how societies and its citizens, both past and present, are always entwined with matters of money.‘A highly illuminating, well-researched and beautifully written book on one of humanity’s most important innovations’ – Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator, Financial Times

Ha-Joon Chang's 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism turns received economic wisdom on its head to show you how the world really works.In this revelatory book, Ha-Joon Chang destroys the biggest myths of our times and shows us an alternative view of the world, including:There's no such thing as a 'free' marketGlobalization isn't making the world richerWe don't live in a digital world - the washing machine has changed lives more than the internetPoor countries are more entrepreneurial than rich onesHigher paid managers don't produce better resultsWe don't have to accept things as they are any longer. Ha-Joon Chang is here to show us there's a better way.'Lively, accessible and provocative ... read this book'Sunday Times'A witty and timely debunking of some of the biggest myths surrounding the global economy'Observer'The new kid on the economics block ... Chang's iconoclastic attitude has won him fans'Independent on Sunday'Lucid ... audacious ... increasingly influential ... will provoke physical symptoms of revulsion if you are in any way involved in high finance'Guardian'Important ... persuasive ... an engaging case for a more caring era of globalization'Financial Times'A must-read ... incisive and entertaining'New Statesman Books of the YearHa-Joon Chang is a Reader in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge. He is author of Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective, which won the 2003 Gunnar Myrdal Prize, and Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World. Since the beginning of the 2008 economic crisis, he has been a regular contributor to the Guardian, and a vocal critic of the failures of our economic system.

A fun take on some of the biggest questions in economics, made accessible for non-experts (and dogs)Monty is a dog, not a financial genius, but economics still shapes his everyday life.Over the course of seventeen walks, Dr Rebecca Campbell chews over economic concepts and investigates how they apply to our lives – people and mutts alike. There are no graphs, no charts (Monty can’t read them) and definitely no calculus!How to Teach Economics to Your Dog tackles the knotty question of what economics actually is. Is it a mathematical science like physics? Or a moral and philosophical investigation of how societies should manage scarce resources?Along the way we meet some of the great thinkers from Adam Smith to Thomas Piketty, and ponder questions such as: What on earth does quantitative easing mean? And why are some countries so much richer than others?

Through economics, our politicians have the power to transform people's lives for better or worse. Think Deng Xiaoping who lifted millions out of poverty by opening up China: Franklin D Roosevelt whose 'New Deal' helped the USA break free of the Great Depression. Or Peron and his successors in Argentina who brought the country to the brink of ruin. In this magisterial history, economist and politician Vince Cable examines the legacy of 16 world leaders who transformed their countries' economic fortunes and who also challenged economic convention. From Thatcher to Trump, from Lenin to Bismarck, Money and Power provides a whole new perspective on the science of government. Examining the fascinating interplay of economics and politics, this is a compelling journey through some of the most significant people and events of the last 300 years.