My Narrative Guide to the Global Economy

20 Jun, 2025

Most academic writing is boring. That's a major reason this website exists - to give you easy access to the frontier of academic knowledge without needing the (often unnecessary) background or jargon.

But sometimes you might still be after some more depth or some more context, some characters and heartbreak that give you a better understanding of the global political economy.

Below is a list of books that I've found engaging and informative when I'm craving political economy without needing to look at a regression model or worry about selection effects. In other words, they are fun and some even make decent bedtime reading.

I've restricted myself to a basically a book per topic just to keep it manageable. I place equal weight on ideas and writing quality. I've tried to pair books that give you alternate/complimentary views. You can think about this as a narrative guide to the global economy.

To be clear, the diversity of this list sucks and I think that is both a reflection on the non-fiction industry and therefore inevitably on me.