Book Summary: Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir
This summary of Scarcity: The True Cost of Not Having Enough by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir explains how scarcity changes the […]
Tag: economics
“Thinking in Systems” and Economics
Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows uses many economics-related examples. Even though Meadows’ background is as an environmental scientist, she clearly knows […]
Book Summary: Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
This summary of Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows explains how systems thinking can help us better understand and change […]
Book Summary: The Big Short by Michael Lewis
This summary of The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis explains what exactly went down during the 2007 Global […]
Criticisms of Ha-Joon Chang’s “Economics: The User’s Guide”
In this post, I set out and explain some of my criticisms of Ha-Joon Chang’s book, Economics: The User’s Guide. First off, […]
Book Summary: Economics: The User’s Guide by Ha-Joon Chang
I’m prefacing this summary of Economics: The User’s Guide with a disclaimer: There’s a lot that I haven’t summarised, because the book […]
Book Summary: Why We Fight by Chris Blattman
What motivates people to go to war? In this summary of Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to […]
Book Summary: The New New Zealand by Paul Spoonley
Spoonley discusses the demographic challenges facing New Zealand over the next few decades. The book tackles an interesting and neglected topic and its overall message (i.e. that there need to be informed, national discussions about this) seems sensible enough. Unfortunately, however, Spoonley’s writing isn’t great, and he relies too heavily on secondary sources.
Book Summary: Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Evicted takes place in Milwaukee during 2008 and 2009. The author, Desmond, follows 8 different tenant families, their landlords, and the events in their lives related to housing. Their stories are interspersed with facts and statistics about housing and evictions more generally.