Jason Furman
Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at Harvard and former Chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisers.
After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People by Dean Spears & Michael Geruso
It had the best opening sentence of any nonfiction book I read this year: "In 2012, 146 million children were born. That was more than in any prior year. It was also more than in any year since. Millions fewer will be born this year. The year 2012 may well turn out to be the year in which the most humans were ever born—ever as in ever for as long as humanity exists." Such a simple and obvious fact but I had not known it before. I had to keep reading.
on fivebooks.com · 21 Dec 2025
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang
It's powerful because it's simple without being simplistic and, like Rogoff's book, is interspersed with engaging personal stories that deepen the substantive argument.
on fivebooks.com · 21 Dec 2025
Fixed: Why Personal Finance Is Broken and How to Make It Work for Everyone by John Y. Campbell & Tarun Ramadorai
But it also is exciting and refreshing to see it addressed with such originality and cutting-edge research.
on fivebooks.com · 21 Dec 2025
Our Dollar, Your Problem by Kenneth Rogoff
This book manages to pull all of that together in a way that's genuinely readable and engaging, helped along by anecdotes from his own policymaking experience that both clarify the arguments and make them feel concrete and accessible to a much broader audience.
on fivebooks.com · 21 Dec 2025
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
I first read it in college and recently, as we approach this milestone, decided to re-read it and was amazed about how fresh and vivid it felt, as well as how nuanced and humane it is.
on fivebooks.com · 21 Dec 2025
Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller
Chris Miller tells us the history of how microchips were developed, emphasizing the critical role of the government, and especially defense procurement.
on fivebooks.com · 10 Dec 2022
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
I have a soft spot for extremely broad histories like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel and Joseph Henrich's The WEIRDest People in the World.
on fivebooks.com · 10 Dec 2022
Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It by Richard V Reeves
Although his training is not in economics, Richard Reeves draws on economic research, as well as research from the fields of sociology, psychology, and political science, to tell an under-told story. The book explores the problems faced by boys and men, the roots of those problems, and possible policy solutions.
on fivebooks.com · 10 Dec 2022
Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century by Brad DeLong
Slouching Towards Utopia is a rich, nuanced story of the interplay of politics, economics, and ideas and how they shaped progress.
on fivebooks.com · 10 Dec 2022
Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success by Leah Boustan & Ran Abramitzky
Absolutely. It is incredibly enjoyable and readable. The authors, in a way that is very rare for economists, find small stories that paint big pictures for the points they make.
on fivebooks.com · 10 Dec 2022
The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality by Oded Galor
I particularly appreciated The Journey of Humanity because it is an ambitious and deep story about the past tens of thousands of years of economic development that is also well grounded in a growing economics literature into the deep origins of growth
on fivebooks.com · 10 Dec 2022
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