It’s been a while since I did one of these, which leaves with plenty of material for your enjoyment. The Land Trap, by Mike Bird, a journalist working for the Economist, is my most recent non-fiction reads—or listen via Audible—and I enjoyed it. Mike’s book puts pen to paper on an idea that has rattled around in my head for a while. If we were to reinvent capitalism today—with our knowledge about the past few hundred years—we would likely treat land and real estate very differently from a financial and economic perspective. More specifically, we wouldn’t allow the speculation, securitisation and ultimately ownership concentration of land and housing that is a core feature of capitalist societies today.
Read MoreThese exercises inevitably turn into a "look how smart I am" post, but I love when others do them. My friend Jonathan Tepper usually does one every year, and I always find something interesting on it. Tyler Cowen's 2016 non-fiction list is here, and is full of gems. The FT editors’ recently gave their suggestions too, Shane Parris has chimed in, and Toby has listed the favourites of FinTwitter where my suggestions, inexplicably, have been left out. No matter, however, because I have listed them all below.
Some of the titles invariably are from 2015, but I thought I that I would include them anyway. In addition, I should note that over half of them have been consumed via Audible. If you don't already have a subscription, go get one. I have separated fiction and non-fiction. I dare you not to find one or two that would be worth your time.
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