In 'Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century', Helen Thompson provides a comprehensive explanation for the recent disruptions in global politics. She argues that the standard explanations for the rise of populist nationalism and authoritarianism are too simplistic and instead examines the large-scale societal shifts, particularly in how the world produces and consumes energy. The book delves into the geopolitical instability caused by the global energy rivalry between the United States, Russia, and China, and how changes in international monetary policy have remade the world economy along fragile fault lines. Thompson concludes that these factors have precipitated the crisis of democracy in Western nations, highlighting how Western governments have become more focused on the consent of plutocrats than their own citizens.
In 'The Deluge', Adam Tooze provides a panoramic view of the struggle for global mastery from the battles of the Western Front in 1916 to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The book explores how the Great War reshaped the global order, leading to the collapse of empires, the emergence of new nations, and the rise of the United States as a dominant global force. Tooze argues that the war marked the beginning of an American-centered world order, which would be challenged by leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, and those of Imperial Japan in the subsequent decades. The book also delves into the economic and political implications of this new order, including the role of Woodrow Wilson's 'peace without victory' and the global economic instability that followed[2][4][5].
Inflation is back, and its impact can be felt everywhere, from the grocery store to the mortgage market to the results of elections around the world. What's more, tariffs and trade wars threaten to accelerate inflation again. Yet the conventional wisdom about inflation is stuck in the past. Since the 1970s, there has only really been one playbook for fighting inflation: raise interest rates, thereby creating unemployment and a recession, which will lower prices. But this simple story hides a multitude of beliefs about why prices go up and how policymakers can wrestle them back down, beliefs that are often wrong, damaging, and have little empirical basis.
Leading political economists Mark Blyth and Nicolò Fraccaroli reveal why inflation really happens, challenge how we think about it, and argue for fresh approaches to combat it. With accessible and engaging commentary, and a good dose of humor, Blyth and Fraccaroli bring the complexities of economic policy and inflation indices down to earth.
Policymakers around the world may have pulled off a so-called "soft landing," but Inflation warns they must update their thinking. Now tariffs, climate shocks, demographic change, geopolitical tensions, and politicians promising to upend the global order are all combining to create a more inflationary future, making a new paradigm for understanding inflation urgently necessary. Astute, timely, and engaging, Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the forces shaping our economy and politics.
Mark Blyth is a political economist whose research focuses upon how uncertainty and randomness impact complex systems, particularly economic systems, and why people continue to believe stupid economic ideas despite buckets of evidence to the contrary. He is the author of several books, including Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford University Press 2013, and The Future of the Euro (with Matthias Matthijs) (Oxford University Press 2015).
Sidney Michelini is a post-doctoral researcher working on Ecology, Climate, and Violence at the Peace Research Institute of Frankfurt (PRIF).
Book Recomendations:
The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph by Albert O. Hirschman
The Rhetoric of Reaction by Albert O. Hirschman
Disorder: Hard Times in the Twenty-First Century by Helen Thompson
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