Economics Books and Future Articles
Sidenote: Books I Am Currently Reading or Want to Read
When writing the Economic Justice and Progress Newsletter, I try to balance my time writing and informing others with time spent reading and learning more about the political economy myself. An essential part of learning any complex subject is reading books written by experts. Thanks to the generous grassroots support of subscribers and donators, I met my first Ko-fi goal! My plan is to use these funds to buy additional books covering subjects I want to address in future articles.
Purchasing Books for Future Articles
Now that I have a critical mass of support, I am considering which books about the political economy I might add to my collection next. To get an idea of which books you readers would be interested to learn about, and get my perspective on, I created a GoodReads account. This will help me compile and share a growing list of certain books, including those in the image below, that I am currently considering. If you have an opinion which books you would like me to purchase next, please feel free to reach out and share your thoughts!
Books I Am Currently Reading
In addition to purchasing new economics books, I am working on reading some books in my existing collection as well. I am closer to finishing some books than others, but if you have a preference regarding certain books you would like me to prioritize finishing sooner than others – so that I can discuss their topics in future articles – then I would love to hear your opinion on these books as well.
So you have a better idea of what books I am currently reading, and what future articles about these books would discuss, here is a breakdown of the core topics covered in the books about the political economy I am reading:
The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy – Stephanie Kelton
In this book by a former economic advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, Professor Stephanie Kelton addresses and dispels many myths about economics which are commonly repeated by both laypersons and supposed experts alike. This includes the titular myth about federal deficit spending, the accumulation of which results in what is frequently called the “national debt”, and how many of the misconceptions about these topics are either due to outdated economic principles, fundamentally flawed logic, or – all too frequently – both.
Aside from simply wanting to have a more accurate and consistent framework through which I view the political economy, I wanted to read this important book to have a better understanding of whether the opponents of progress who frequently spout variations of “we can’t afford to fix any problems plaguing our society” have any legitimate arguments, or whether they are simply obstructing progress in an effort to maintain the status quo. Kelton makes compelling arguments throughout that: no, these obstructionists frequently do not present any legitimate arguments; that a better world is indeed possible; and that, if there is anything we truly can’t afford, we can’t afford to ignore existential crises like climate change.
I am currently reading the chapter on “entitlement” programs, like Social Security, and am learning a great deal about how these programs function and how to improve them. I eagerly await being able to share more of the details of this book with you readers throughout future articles, and encourage anyone interested in learning more about economics to pick this book up and read it yourself.
The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay – Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman
Economics professors at the University of California, Berkeley, compiled decades of economic data on taxation in the United States and used it to demonstrate how unjust our taxation has become over the past century, especially after the Trump tax cuts. Saez and Zucman prescribe policy solutions in this book based on this data, such as the wealth tax that Senator Elizabeth Warren supports. Their research also helped create wealthtaxsimulator.org to help anyone interested in fairer tax policies to experiment with their own plans and see the estimated results in real time.
The injustice within our tax system is a substantial obstacle standing in the way of economic justice, so this is certainly another topic the Economic Justice and Progress Newsletter will revisit in the future.
The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It – Robert B. Reich
Another U.C. Berkeley professor of economics, and former Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, Robert Reich’s latest book covers several systemic problems within the U.S. political economy. He frames many of the problems in the context of the undemocratic consolidation of power in the hands of the wealthy elite, or an oligarchy rather than a democratic republic.
The System frequently examines the actions and words of J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as an illustrative example, noting that even though Dimon will periodically acknowledge some of these systemic issues publicly, Dimon and other corporate loyalists refuse to actually do anything to help solve these problems they ostensibly decry. Because these corporatists clearly have not, and will not, address systemic problems if doing so hurts their short-term bottom line, transformative legislation appears to be necessary. Rather than sitting idly and accepting our descent into oligarchy, I am always interested to hear Robert Reich’s suggestions for restoring democracy to the United States.
The Wealth of Nations – Adam Smith
Released in the same year as the founding of the United States of America, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was a groundbreaking piece of literature in 1776. While many of Smith’s observations are obviously outdated nearly two and a half centuries later, several of his philosophical underpinnings are timeless.
Many people who only know what they’ve heard or assume about Smith’s writing are also often surprised to learn that he was frequently critical of people who generate profits through property ownership, or those we often refer to as “capitalists” in modern English. Although it is rather difficult to digest certain passages because it was written so long ago, I enjoy getting glimpses into the mind of a moral philosopher who lived before the industrial revolution, and look forward to reading more of this classic.
Capital (Das Kapital) – Karl Marx
Despite the Republican myth that universities are Marxist indoctrination facilities, I was never assigned to read a single page of Marx’s writing throughout my entire academic career. I’m not even sure I remember a single professor mention Marx specifically. We examined differences in economic growth between China and the United States throughout my Intermediate Macroeconomics course, and discussed differences between market-based and “centrally-planned” economies in various courses, but never directly studied anything written by Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto.
That being said, even though I am beginning to read some of Marx’s writing, I don’t believe that this makes me a “Marxist” in any sense of the word, just like simply reading the Bible does not make one a Christian. Still, I am already finding many valuable insights throughout Marx’s Capital, despite nineteenth-century observations being outdated for similar reasons that Smith’s eighteenth-century observations are. Whether or not certain aspects of his work are outdated, Marx was nevertheless beginning to see more of the impact that the Industrial Revolution would have on workers, and just how destructive the consolidation of economic power was becoming. Unfortunately, many of these problems persist centuries later.
Because many of Marx’s observations are rooted in defending those who work for a living – who cannot simply extract value from others by virtue of owning resources – there is a timeless element to his writing that should be taken seriously even in the twenty-first century.
Capital in the Twenty-First Century / Capital and Ideology – Thomas Piketty
Part of what began my path through the annals of economic history was the massive tome of a book titled Capital in the Twenty-First Century by French economist Thomas Piketty. Written in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, Piketty tried to pinpoint some of the causes contributing to the collapse, and examined the economic history of the United States and comparable European nations to glean insight into what many economists got wrong. The book culminates in the mathematical expression r > g as a driving force of inequality, where the rate of return on capital (r) exceeding the rate of overall economic growth (g) causes the owners of capital to accumulate more and more wealth over time.
I also found myself agreeing with Piketty that many American economists try to view economics as somewhat of a deterministic natural science, with predictable inputs and outputs, rather than a messy social science with very human imperfections. Although I certainly believe that empirical analysis is an important tool for analyzing economic data, it almost feels as though relying completely on statistics and formulaic analysis frequently obfuscates the human experiences at the heart of the economy.
Reading Piketty’s work further highlighted just how much economic history and philosophy my formal education lacked. Perhaps if I majored in economics specifically, rather than Economics and Accounting, I would have had more exposure to a broader variety of economic theory. Instead, it frequently felt like my economics exams essentially tested for the understanding of applied data science. While many of these skills are valuable in this “Age of Information”, where data analysis is fundamental to many business models, I still find myself having to seek out additional reading material to get a fuller understanding of economics.
Piketty recently released the sequel, Capital and Ideology, which focused primarily on just these types of ideological failings in our modern political economy. He further analyzes the economic histories of other countries, focusing on philosophical and ideological differences over time. I look forward to finishing both of Piketty’s books and discussing some of his insights with all of you.
Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President – Ron Suskind
Although this book is not written by an economist, it is written by an award-winning journalist who interviewed central figures in finance and politics during the Global Financial Crisis and the ensuing Great Recession. I remember reading through a good portion of the book when it first came out, and stopped reading when I got to the chapters covering the Obama administration, since many of those details were still fresh in my memory. I will probably start over from the beginning to refresh my memory of the Bush years as well, but I still vividly remember thinking several times throughout the book, “How have these Wall Street gamblers not simply committed textbook fraud?”
I eventually plan to write several articles on the Wall Street bailouts, the mortgage-backed financial instruments that threatened to crash the global economy, and how we could have handled the situation differently without handing out golden parachutes for the criminals responsible for the damage. This book will be a key resource in writing these articles, and I hope you’ll be as interested in hearing about the details as I have been in reading them.
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media – Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman
Linguist and influential political activist Noam Chomsky teamed up with economist Edward Herman to produce an excellent book about the political economics surrounding the mass media industry. They go into detail about how, even when major news networks will ostensibly disagree on certain issues, they will far too frequently disseminate propaganda uncritically and unquestioningly that furthers nefarious U.S. foreign policy or corporate interests. This might sound familiar if you were watching the news before the Iraq War or throughout the Vietnam War. Many of the topics covered in this book explain why we also need independent journalists unbeholden to corporate shareholders providing counternarratives.
Free to Choose: A Personal Statement – Milton and Rose Friedman
One of the most influential economists of his time, Milton Friedman championed the sort of laissez-faire “free” market regulatory environment that helped fuel the Reagan-era deregulation catastrophe, like we discussed in my Capitalism vs. Socialism article. Arguably, this era of deregulation culminated in such disasters as the Global Financial Crisis when Wall Street frauds tanked the economy with their unscrupulous gambling addiction.
Despite my clear contempt for this demonstrably flawed philosophy, I plan to read Friedman’s work with a relatively open mind, so that I might better understand why someone could arrive at such an inane conclusion. However, I have decades’ worth of hindsight which, in my view, clearly demonstrates why giving corporations the “freedom” to destroy the world is a terrible idea. There is still value in confronting arguments with which one disagrees and considering whether new information leads to more nuanced conclusions.
Inequality in the 21st Century: A Reader – Edited by David B. Grusky and Jasmine Hill
This collection of both historical and contemporary literature on inequality, prepared for a Stanford course on the subject, contains an excellent variety of perspectives. From sociologists like W.E.B. Du Bois to some of the economists who authored previously mentioned books, like Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, this compilation examines inequality in economic, racial, political, and other social contexts. For someone with a limited background in social sciences beyond economics like myself, this has been an excellent diving board from which I began to explore the multiple factors behind inequality. Perhaps one day I may even enroll in the Stanford course and share some of the writing assignments with you readers as well.
I hope you readers are interested to hear my perspective on some of these topics as I have been to read about them. Please feel free to reach out and let me know which books you are most interested in, or if there are other books I should look into reading in the future. I’m sure I’ve forgotten to include some books I’ve been meaning to read, but now that I have a GoodReads account, it will be easier to keep track of them all moving forward. Thank you all again for your support, your input, and I hope you look forward to more articles about these and other topics!
Thank you for reading my newsletter and taking the effort to learn about making the world a better place. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can make progress towards a more just economy.
-JJ