The Wisdom in Fifty Economics Classics

          
       By Bayo Ogunmupe
    Just published in May,
> the 50 Economics Classics is the latest in the series of
> great books distilled into one volume; written by Tom
> Butler-Bowdon, an accomplished author and literary critic.
> Previously published volumes in the series include 50
> Philosophy Classics; 50 politics Classics; 50 Prosperity
> Classics and 50 Success Classics. Published by Nicholas
> Brealey Publishing, London, 50 Economics Classics is your
> shortcut to the most important ideas on capitalism, finance
> and the world economy.
>      In paperback,it has 50
> chapters, 360 pages; seven pages of 50 More Economics
> Classics for those in need of further inquiry; then two
> pages of chronological list of titles; three pages of book
> editions used in researching this book and finally, a page
> of acknowledgements. The 50 Classics series has sold over
> 300,000 copies. This Economics volume is the smart person's
> guide to two centuries of conversation on the global
> economy.
>      From Adam Smith's Wealth
> of Nations to Thomas Piketty's best selling Capital in the
> Twenty First century, here are the great bards, seminal
> ideas and    texts clarified and illuminated for
> all. This book is all the more relevant, coming as it did in
> Nigeria's period of economic turmoil and depression.
> Economics may drive the modern world but sadly, we lack the
> knowledge of the ideas, thinkers and writings which
> constitute the discipline.
>      Spanning 50 books,
> hundreds of ideas and two centuries in time, 50 Economics
> Classics is an enquirer's guide to the global economy;
> taking you on a journey from the Industrial Revolution to
> the second machine age of the internet  and artificial
> intelligence. This is neither a history nor an encyclopedia
> of economics. This is only a guide to the great thinkers and
> their seminal ideas old and new.
>      When in 1765, Edmund
> Burke (1729- 1797) said: "The age of Chivalry is gone; that
> of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded," he
> was right that economics, finance and money  are at the
> heart of modern civilization; in the way honor, chivalry and
> religion were to the Middle Ages. If in the past, a person's
> fate was settled by the social circumstances of his birth,
> today each of us is at the mercy of economics, for we must
> produce things of market value if we are to survive and
> thrive. "All your life," Economist Paul Samuelson said,
> "from cradle to grave and beyond- you will run up against
> the brutal truths of economics."
>      The importance of
> economics is that it is at the root of human prosperity. If
> voting gives freedom and power in theory; in practice it
> means little if we cannot even sustain ourselves and our
> families. Which is why cracking the code of economic
> prosperity for a person, firm or nation is crucial to peace
> and well-being of the people. Fifty Economics Classics gives
> you the knowledge to make you prosperous as a person or
> nation. John Maynard Keynes, the creator of the Keynesian
> economic superstructure, thought economics was built so we
> could enjoy the good things in life.
>      To Keynes, this was only
> possible with a stable and growing economy in which the
> damaging cycles of boom and bust were ironed out.
> Economists, Keynes said, are the trustees, not of
> civilization but of the possibility of civilization. The
> economist Hyman Minsky warned that, unless it is well
> regulated, capitalism will eventually go to extremes and
> produce instability. He went on to say that only an
> economics that is critical of capitalism can be a guide to
> successful policy making. Until economic policy stops being
> a tool for one group's advantage, it will be hard for
> capitalism to fully realize its goal of increasing the
> well-being of all.
>      This book by Tom
> Butler-Bowdon is a terrific compendium of the greatest books
> ever written on finance, economics and prosperity from
> famous classics to the hidden; distilled to the point of
> poignant clarity. Tom was the one who announced to the world
> in 50 Prosperity Classics the arrival of Donald Trump on the
> world stage as the 47th greatest thinker on prosperity. And
> by his victory as the 45th president of the United States
> Trump validated Tom's foresight.
>      The only African writer
> on the pack is Liaquat Ahamed, author of The Lords of
> Finance. In 2010, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve
> Bank, Ben Bernanke, was asked by the Financial Crisis
> Inquiry Commission what books he would recommend to
> understand the crisis. He mentioned just one, Lords of
> Finance, a work of economic history which won the Pulitzer
> prize in the same year.
>     Then Federal Reserve
> Bank's investment adviser, Liaquat Ahamed first had the idea
> for his book when reading a 1999 Time magazine story on the
> Committee to save the World and its successful efforts of
> Alan Greenspan, then Federal Reserve Bank chairman to stave
> off the Asian financial crisis, which threatened to bring
> down the global economy.
>      In a nutshell, Lords of
> Finance says, fixed ideas in economics can have disastrous
> results. The world hung onto the gold standard long after it
> had stopped being a means of creating stability and growth
> in the world. Born in Kenya, Ahamed studied economics in
> Cambridge, UK and Harvard, United States. He became
> economist to the World Bank before becoming the chief
> executive of a New York firm of economists.
>  For the author, Butler-Bowdon is
> most  notable for the 50 Classics series, which provide
> key commentaries on the world of knowledge. An Australian by
> birth, Tom, Acting President of Nigeria Yemi Osinbajo and I
> did graduate work at the London School of Economics. While
> Tom researched on public policy, Yemi did his own in the law
> of evidence and i did mine in public finance. Tom gained
> experience while advising various Australian prime
> ministers. It was in the course of his job that he
> discovered the need for the Classics series. He sent me the
> book shortly before it was published last May. I recommend
> the book for the Aso Villa economic management group.
>