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.