Books I read in 2016

This list is very, very late so let’s get straight to it.

1. Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty.

capital_in_the_twenty-first_century_front_cover

A brilliant analysis of the distribution of global wealth and income across centuries. Piketty argues that because the return to capital (r) is greater than the economic and population growth rate (g) then wealth will continue to accumulate to the holders of capital. He proposes a global wealth tax to prevent this. See my full review of it here.

 

2. The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

the-fishermen-coverSet in 1990s Nigeria, the Fishermen is about four close brothers whose life and their father’s dreams fall apart after a man with mental illness prophesies that the eldest of them will be killed by one of them. A nice mixture of magical realism and historical fiction, these little boys are Continue reading

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Book review: Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty

Thomas Piketty, French economist and academic, poses in his book-lined office at the French School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), in ParisThomas Piketty is a French economist and professor whose book, Capital in the 21st Century, published in French in 2013 and English in 2014, became an international bestseller. Piketty presents the most extensive review of wealth distribution ever attempted. Drawing from history and literature, he shows that the wealth of the world from antiquity has mostly been concentrated in the top centile (1%).

It started from the concentration of agricultural land read more 

 

Book review: The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman

The_Conscience_of_a_Liberal_coverPaul Krugman won the Nobel prize for Economics in 2008 and was ranked the most influential liberal in the US media by Forbes in 2009. He is one of the leading economic voices in the world and arguably the most prominent one against the wave of austerity that followed the financial crisis of 2007.

The Conscience of a Liberal was published in 2007 and is essentially a justification of Krugman’s politics. The book is deliberately titled Continue reading

On Jeremy Corbyn, Ghana and a new kind of Politics

Jeremy Corbyn, MP. PHOTO: theguardian.com

Jeremy Corbyn, MP. PHOTO: theguardian.com

Veteran Labour MP for Islington North, Jeremy Corbyn, has won the leadership election of the Labour Party in one of the most surprising electoral races in history. Earlier on in the race he was considered the least likely to win the election but the support of the unions and his opposition to a welfare bill that the rest of Labour abstained from helped Corbyn to surge Continue reading