Books by Adair Turner
“What Adair is arguing in this book is that we have a Faustian bargain with the financial system, and particularly with debt, which is the major instrument of finance. Debt has real advantages, in that it allows people to shift their spending patterns over their lifetime, to borrow when they need to borrow (to buy a house, for instance), and then to pay it off over a long time…The trouble with debt is that it creates profound fragility in the economy because it creates a very large and important set of contracts—debt contracts—which are really inflexible. The only way you can end them is if you pay them off. So if you get a crisis when lots of people can’t pay their debt, then lots of people go bankrupt. And if lots of people, including companies, go bankrupt all at the same time, you have a whacking great recession, or even a depression. It takes a lot of time to work out who owns what, who owes what, and people don’t know how well off they are—either as creditors or debtors. It freezes the economy. So his view—which I share—is that we would do much better with less debt in our society than we have.” Read more...
The best books on Challenges Facing the World Economy
Martin Wolf, Economist
Interviews where books by Adair Turner were recommended
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1
Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit, and Fixing Global Finance
by Adair Turner -
2
Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World
by Adam Tooze -
3
The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty
by Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson -
4
Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century
by Brad DeLong -
5
The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War
by Robert J. Gordon
The best books on Challenges Facing the World Economy, recommended by Martin Wolf
The best books on Challenges Facing the World Economy, recommended by Martin Wolf
Problems in the world economy can have a profound impact on politics. What’s happening in the US and elsewhere is disturbing, says Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator of the Financial Times. He talks us through books to help us reflect on the challenges facing economies. His recommendations include two books that query whether the era of unprecedented economic growth—which has transformed our societies over the last 150 years—is finally coming to an end.
