Tutor2u Summer Reading List

The following is from 2012 but still includes some favourites of mine:

http://www.tutor2u.net/economics/blog/enrichment-economics-recommended-reading-for-student-economists

Bloomberg's Summer Reading List

Bloomberg’s top three for 2016

By Barry Ritholtz include:

1. “Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future,” by Martin Ford

Given the angst about robots taking jobs from, well, everyone, this 2015 FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year could not be more timely.

I am interested in machine intelligence, robotics and neural networks, so given the book’s acclaim and great reviews, I expect to find insights into what the future economic implications of these rapidly accelerating technologies will be.

2. “Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible,” by William N. Goetzmann

Given the myriad problems finance has caused -- credit crises, the dot-com collapse, housing booms and busts, commodities crashes, deflation -- it is easy to forget how wondrous financial technologies and institutions have made the modern global economy possible. We probably fail to spend adequate time contemplating how such essential economic elements as money, bonds, banks, corporations, etc., evolved into their current forms. This looks like the book that can make that explanation interesting.

It is rare that I would even consider reading a book based on a single blurb, but given my respect for William Bernstein, his did the job: “Only William Goetzmann -- an archaeologist, art historian, and esteemed finance scholar -- could have produced this masterful exploration of money and investing through the ages. Money Changes Everything is at once deep, broad, sweeping, and gorgeously illustrated. It is a book that readers will savor and refer to again and again.”

 3. “Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception,” by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller

Perhaps the flip side of better decision making is this question: Why are economic players so easily manipulated and deceived? Written by two Nobel laureates, it explores a radical idea in economics: that markets are not benign places of exchange, but are either positive or negative.

“Phishing for Phools” has won too many awards and accolades to list here. But when narrowing down my list, I noted that Bob Shiller (hear the Masters in Business interview here) co-wrote this -- what else do you need to know?

Financial Markets: Savings

Using your class notes, Anderton and the following Economics Help link: http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/848/economics/savings-ratio-uk/

Answer the following question:

Explain one macro-economic effect of a low level of savings in the UK.