Favorite Macroeconomics and Finance Books
Students and colleagues often ask me about my favorite popular books on economics and finance. Here is a selected (i.e., not comprehensive) list of books that have inspired me. I’m posting this list in the hope that it might serve as inspiration for others too.
Macro-financial history
Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises by Kindleberger and Aliber. If you only read one book about financial crises, make it this one.
Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919-1939 by Eichengreen. A definitive history of the gold standard and Great Depression from an international perspective.
A Monetary History of the United States by Friedman and Schwarz. The chapter on the Great Depression ("The Great Contraction") is a self-contained overview of the Great Depression in the U.S.
This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Reinhart and Rogoff. A data-driven overview of the history of financial crises, covering banking, sovereign debt, and exchange rate crises.
The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes by Carter. A fun history of the interwar economic crises and the life and ideas of John Maynard Keynes.
2008 Global Financial Crisis and the modern US macroeconomic history
Too Big to Fail by Sorkin. A play-by-play account of the 2008 crisis. This is a page-turner, easily digested on the beach. A key message is that most bankers did not foresee the crisis or even fully understand what was happening as the crisis unfolded.
House of Debt by Mian and Sufi. A compelling, data-driven account of how high household leverage drove the severity of the Great Recession.
The Courage To Act by Bernanke. A fascinating account of economic policy-making during the 2008 crisis. Reads well alongside Geithner’s Stress Test.
The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan by Mallaby. Covers the modern history of U.S. central banking from the perspective of the life of Alan Greenspan.
The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 by Krugman. The book that got me interested in working on economic crises. Short and sweet.