I wanted to outline some of the business books that I have recently read and some of the books I will be diving into throughout the podcast this year. Some of the books are biographical, some focus on a particular period or event, some focus on a particular thing, but they are all business related in nature. Here is the list:
- The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy by Christopher Leonard
- Trillion Dollar Triage by Nick Timiraos
- Millionaire by Janet Gleeson
- Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed
- Taxes Have Consequences by Arthur Laffer, Brian Domitrovic, and Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield
- The Price of Time by Edward Chancellor
- A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961-2021 by Alan S. Binder
- For Profit: A history of corporations by Magnuson
Perhaps the two most important books on this list, given the current economic conditions, are The Lords of Easy Money and Trillion Dollar Triage. The Lords of Easy Money is written by Christopher Leonard, who is a New York Times bestselling author and an excellent writer. This book follows the actions of the Federal Reserve from the financial crisis in 2007-2009 up until 2020. The book explains the consequences of the Fed’s actions on the entire financial system. This book will open your eyes to how much the Fed’s decisions have affected your life over the last 15 years. Understanding everything that happened over this period and why, will give you tremendous insights into what is currently happening in our financial system.
Trillion Dollar Triage is written by Wall Street Journal, Chief Economic Correspondent, Nick Timiraos. Nick is an outstanding business writer. I have personally enjoyed his articles in the WSJ for many years. Trillion Dollar Triage tells the story of the Federal Reserve during the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The decisions the Fed ultimately made and in the authors words, “trying to nurture a recovery without unleashing an inflation-fueling bubble-inducing money bomb.” Unfortunately, with hindsight we all now know that the Fed did unleash an inflation-fueled money bomb and there has not been much of a recovery. A fitting analogy would be a medical patient going from a wheelchair to crutches. Trillion Dollar Triage is a book that provides excellent insight into the inner workings at the Fed and combined with The Lords of Easy Money completes a picture of the Fed’s journey over the last 15 years. These two books can arm you with the understanding of how and why the U.S. financial system is facing so many difficult challenges today.
Some of the other books on the list include Millionaire, which is the story of John Law in eighteenth century France. John Law is considered the “inventor of modern finance.” Law lived an incredible life. This story is the 1700’s version of The Wolf of Wall Street. Several of the books focus on specific subjects. Taxes Have Consequences, which is written by legendary economist Arthur Laffer, is focused on taxes during the 20th century. The price of time is a history of interest and how low interest rates have affected the U.S. economy over the last 15 years leading us to the present day. For Profit is a history of corporations. A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961-2021 is just that. I am interested to see how this book stacks up again Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz’s classic A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960. Perhaps, these are two books that I will consider covering together. Finally, Lords of Finance was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. It is the story of several key central bankers and the decisions they made in the early 1920’s, which eventually led the U.S. into the great depression and ultimately World War II.
I look forward to reviewing and discussing all these books. I hope some people will join me in the reading, so that we can all accumulate great financial knowledge together.
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