100 Best Economics Books of All Time

Malcolm Gladwell

Writer & Journalist

I don’t need to say much here. This book invented an entire genre. Economics was never supposed to be this entertaining. [source]

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

I love newer books like this book. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

James Altucher recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

Barack Obama

Former USA President

A few months ago, Mr. Obama read “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman, about how people make decisions — quick, instinctive thinking versus slower, contemplative deliberation. For Mr. Obama, a deliberator in an instinctive business, this may be as instructive as any political science text. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

Captivating dive into human decision making, marred by inclusion of several/many? psychology studies that fail to replicate. Will stand as a cautionary tale? [source]

Sheryl Sandberg

COO/Facebook

Michael Lewis's ability to boil down the most complicated subjects is like a magic trick. You can't believe your own eyes. He takes on important issues - from the 2008 Wall Street crash in "The Big Short" to parenting in "Home Game" - and breaks them down to the deepest truths. His combination of an extraordinarily analytical mind and a deep understanding of human nature allows him to weave together data and events to offer a fresh and insightful narrative. Whatever the topic, the result is always compelling and even thrilling. I am in awe of him. [source]

Barry Ritholtz

Michael Lewis, to me, is the preeminent narrator of the financial crisis. He is the guy who constructs the story better than anybody else. [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

A good one. [source]

Dan Ariely

Author

Nudge is a very important book. One of the reasons Nudge is so important is because it’s taking these ideas and applying them to the policy domain. Here are the mistakes we make. Here are the ways marketers are trying to influence us. Here’s the way we might be able to fight back. If policymakers understood these principles, what could they do? The other important thing about the book is that it describes, in detail, small interventions. It’s basically a book about cheap persuasion. [source]

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

A pioneer in behavioral economics and just recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, his classic book on how to make better decisions. [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

This might feel like a weird book to include, but I think it presents another side of strategy that is too often forgotten. It’s not always about bold actors and strategic thrusts. Sometimes strategy is about subtle influence. Sometimes it is framing and small tweaks that change behavior. We can have big aims, but get there with little moves. This book has excellent examples of that kind of thinking and how it is changing politics, government and business. My favorite example is about the bumblebee that they started putting on urinals–which drastically reduced the amount of spray and spillage because it changed where men aimed when they peed. It’s not exactly the coolest strategy but it solved a problem. So we can learn from it. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Capital sparked a fantastic global discussion this year about inequality. Piketty kindly spent an hour discussing his work with me before I finished my review. As I told him, although I have concerns about some of his secondary points and policy prescriptions, I agree with his most important conclusions: inequality is a growing problem and that governments should play a role in reducing it. I admire his work and hope it draws in more smart people to study the causes of, and cures for, inequality. [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

This is the book that was catapulted by its conclusion: r > g. That the rate of return on capital is greater than the growth rate of the economy. Which means that capital, and the people who own it, will end up with a larger and larger share of all wealth and income in the economy as time goes on. It’s a dense dive into the historical data on wealth, income, and economic growth from the optic of inequality. It’s fascinating to realize just how little economic growth there was before the industrial revolution (<0.1% at times). Centuries would pass where societies got almost no more productive, and thus saw no per-capita growth. In the past few decades, we’ve moved closer to the historical norm. Real growth through productivity improvements is down a lot since that former golden period, most western societies aren’t growing their population as rapidly as they were, and thus hereditary wealth and privileges are coming back as prime determinants of inequality. Despite the dense approach, the book isn’t in anyway unapproachable. It’s well told and easily read. And it’s about as timely as it gets. Highly recommend it so far. [source]

George Monbiot

Piketty explains the economic crisis that we face in ways that also explain the political crisis. He does this by talking about the rise of what he calls ‘patrimonial capital’: wealth arising from inheritance, rent, and interest payments which greatly outweighs any wealth arising from hard work and enterprise. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

Jeff Bezos

Founder/Amazon

From the book "The Everything Store: and the Age of Amazon" “The scholar argues that people are wired to see patterns in chaos while remaining blind to unpredictable events, with massive consequences. Experimentation and empiricism trumps the easy and obvious narrative,” Stone writes. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

And throw in “The Black Swan” and “Fooled by Randomness”. “Fragile” means if you hit something might break. “Resilient” means if you hit something, it will stay the same. On my podcast Nassim discusses “Antifragility” – building a system, even on that works for you on a personal level, where you if you harm your self in some way it becomes stronger. That podcast changed my life He discusses Antifragility throughout history, up to our current economic situation, and even in our personal situations. [source]

Ben Shapiro

If you read this book and "Basic Economics" you'll know more than all or your classmates combined about the basic workings of free markets and economics. [source]

Chris Nichols

@fishin_me @IslesFGC @AsSeenOnTv55 @IlhanMN The best economic book written. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

"I read two books that raise big, interesting questions about social change and technological progress. I’m planning to write longer reviews of each of these books, but let me flag them for you now. One is Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson.The topic of this book is why some countries have prospered and created great living conditions for their citizens while others have not. This is an important topic, which I care a lot about. The book makes an appealing argument that economic development depends on political institutions that protect individual rights. It is well written and very easy to read with lots of interesting historical stories about different countries. But it is a major disappointment. Its analysis is vague and simplistic. I’ll explain more in a longer review." [source]

Mark Zuckerberg

Founder/Facebook

My next book for A Year of Books is Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoğlu and James A. Robinson. This book explores the different kinds of social institutions and incentives that nations have applied to encourage prosperity, economic development and elimination of poverty. This is a good complement to our last book, Portfolios of the Poor, which focused on how people live in poverty. This one discusses why poverty exists and how to reduce it. [source]

Daron Acemoglu

In terms of understanding this top inequality, I mentioned the possibility that it might be about politics. How should we think about politics? What are the levers of politics? For that we need a conceptual framework and that’s what this book tries to provide. It’s co-authored with my long-term collaborator and friend Jim Robinson – and it’s not about US or UK or Canadian inequality. It runs through several thousand years of history, and tries to explain how societies work and why, often, they fail to generate prosperity for their citizens. It’s a very political story. [source]

Barack Obama

Former USA President

Obama, unsurprisingly, appears to be more drawn to stories sympathetic to the working classes than is McCain. Obama cites John Steinbeck’s “In Dubious Battle,” about a labor dispute; Robert Caro’s “Power Broker,” about Robert Moses; and Studs Terkel’s “Working.” But he also includes Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” and “Theory of Moral Sentiments” on his list. [source]

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Adam Smith FTW obv. [source]

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist, Author & Science Communicator

Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? … The Wealth of Nations (Smith) to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. [source]

Kevin Rose

Co-founder/Digg

Bunch of really good information in here on how to make ideas go viral. This could be good to apply to any kind of products or ideas you may have. Definitely, check out The Tipping Point, which is one of my favorites. [source]

Seth Godin

Author, Marketer, Entrepreneur

Malcolm Gladwell's breakthrough insight was to focus on the micro-relationships between individuals, which helped organizations realize that it's not about the big ads and the huge charity balls... it's about setting the stage for the buzz to start. [source]

Andy Stern

I think that when we talk about making change, it is much more about macro change, like in policy. This book reminds you that at times when you're building big movements, or trying to elect significant decision-makers in politics, sometimes it's the little things that make a difference. Ever since the book was written, we've become very used to the idea of things going viral unexpectedly and then having massive impact. The Tipping Point, to me, is really an appreciation that very small things can rearrange thinking in ways – like infectious diseases – that have huge implications. While we're always searching for the big policy changes – and we think we have to do that in very traditional ways of building coalitions against constituencies, movements and the media – sometimes it's the little things that actually tip the situation. Like the story of a person and their unique set of circumstances that really captures an issue about health care or housing. So it's trying to remember, while you're thinking about the grand and the glorious, that thinking about the small things can equally bring about change. [source]

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire Hathaway

To invest successfully over a lifetime does not require a stratospheric IQ, unusual business insights, or inside information. What's needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep emotions from corroding that framework. This book precisely and clearly prescribes the proper framework. You must provide the emotional discipline. [source]

Kevin Rose

Co-founder/Digg

The foundation for investing. A lot of people have used this as their guide to getting into investment, basic strategies. Actually Warren Buffett cites this as the book that got him into investing and he says that principles he learned here helped him to become a great investor. Highly recommend this book. It’s a great way understand what’s going on and how to evaluate different companies out there before you make an investment. [source]

DJ Vlad

The single biggest influence on how I buy and sell stocks. [source]

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?" [source]

Andra Zaharia

'While I was thinking of the best books to add to this short list, I realized that not even half of them are directly related to digital marketing. This is because I believe that the best marketers are people who understand human nature deeply and aim to bring out the best in it. Call me naive, but that’s how I see it. If I were to want to pursue a career in marketing, I’d read … Predictably Irrational. [source]

Chris Goward

Here are some of the books that have been very impactful for me, or taught me a new way of thinking: … Predictably Irrational. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I recommend this book to anyone who reads nonfiction. It is very well written and full of great insights. [source]

Fabrice Grinda

I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. [source]

Keith Slotter

These two gentlemen wrote the first book several years ago and SuperFreakonomics just came out. The books are very interesting on crime theory. Their theories are controversial. For example, they link a decrease in crime to the legalisation of abortion. In a nutshell they say that abortion stopped a whole new generation of criminals from being born. And that is because they say abortion is most prominent among the lowest class people. That is, of course, not a politically correct statement to make, but when you go through their numbers and what they have done, sadly there rings a strong sound of truth in their argument. So, I would encourage anyone with an open mind to read these books and give it some thought. Read 4 The Cell by John Miller, Michael Stone, and Chris Mitchell Read [source]

Barack Obama

Former USA President

As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

This was a breakthrough to me. The framework Hans enunciates is one that took me decades of working in global development to create for myself, and I could have never expressed it in such a clear way. I’m going to try to use this model moving forward. [source]

Aidan Connolly

I would suggest Hans Rosling’s Factfulness on the real world of statistics. [source]

Donna Dickenson

Naomi Klein’s argument is that capitalism actually requires deliberately engineered shocks to the economic systems. [source]

George Monbiot

The Shock Doctrine explains some of the mechanisms by which patrimonial capital acquires power and enhances its wealth. It’s a brilliant piece of work, and one of those rare books that changes the way you perceive the world. [source]

Mat Whitecross

It starts with the theory that moments of crisis have been utilised by the right wing in the US and other countries to manipulate people into following their agenda. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

Gladwell is not the first person to come up with the 10,000 hour rule. Nor is he the first person to document what it takes to become the best in the world at something. But his stories are so great as he explains these deep concepts. How did the Beatles become the best? Why are professional hockey players born in January, February and March? And so on. [source]

Alex Circei

Question: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why? Answer: Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons In Life by Richard Branson Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki [source]

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.” - Elon Mus [source]

Mark Zuckerberg

Founder/Facebook

This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world. [source]

Ben Horowitz

Co-founder/Andreessen Horowitz

Zero To One is a great book. I learned a lot reading it. [source]

Geoffrey Miller

@bdmarotta No, The Road to Serfdom by Hayek is the best book on modern evil [source]

Mitch Daniels

This book convincingly demonstrated what was already intuitive to me: namely, the utter futility, the illusion of government planning as a mechanism for uplifting those less fortunate. [source]

Yuval Levin

The Road to Serfdom is a very polemical book. It was published in 1944. It’s a warning not exactly about Communism, but about the coming of statism in the West, about the ways that some of the governing élites that Hayek saw, especially in Britain, thought about governing. The book is really mostly about Britain. He talks about the dangers of central planning, of the attempt to take over the economic life of a society and to try and control it from the centre. It’s a book that is properly understood as a libertarian book, but it’s not libertarian in the way that a lot of contemporary libertarians would define themselves. It is a very, very sceptical book, and a very modest book. In a way, Hayek argues for limited government because he has a very limited view of human nature and human knowledge. I think he would call himself a Whig. I think he actually did call himself a Whig, when he was asked whether he was a libertarian or a conservative. It’s a book that shows that at its best, the libertarian strain of conservatism is a form of scepticism rather than of utopianism. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Does a great job of bringing alive the complexities of poor people’s lives. [source]

Harini Calamur

@ask0704 Read his book. I don't agree with some of the things he says. But, it is a great read on understanding poverty [source]

Carol Dweck

You would think that the relationship between training and skill would be utterly obvious in sports, but apparently it isn’t. [source]

Daniel Hamermesh

What the book is really about is a guy who is using some econometrics to predict which players will do better in advancing wins, which is a remarkable use of economic thinking. [source]

David Papineau

It’s a parable of the disinclination of people in general to base their practices on evidence, a parable for evidence-based policy in general. [source]

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?" [source]

Muhtar Kent

Former CEO/Coca-Cola

CEO considers it a great read. [source]

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Actor, Politician & Businessman

The other book that I have given hundreds of copies to is Free to Choose by Milton Friedman. It kind of lays out why the private sector is really the answer to a lot of problems that we have and not government. I think it’s a real great philosophic kind of a book about how to approach our problems, if it is education, if it is economic growth, all of those various kinds of different issues. He lays it out. It’s a very simple book to read, but it is very good and it makes an impact on your when you read it. [source]

Grover Norquist

With Free to Choose, the title summarises it. He deals with vouchers in education and the whole idea of what we’re promoting. This goes back to the argument on the science stuff. We’re not for freedom because it brings economic growth. We’re not for freedom because it brings technology and improvements in standards of living. We’re for freedom because we’re for people being free. It also happens to be the case that a free people are going to be more financially and economically successful than an un-free people. But the goal is freedom, not that you’re allowed to have a little freedom because it brings more prosperity. That’s the New Economic Policy of Lenin: ‘We’re starving, so we are going to allow a little freedom to have stores operate and people grow food.’ Freedom is a tool that you let people have a little bit in order to get what you want – which is food for the cities. For us, freedom is the goal. [source]

John Quiggin

Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose: that book very much takes the view that what matters is the individual choice. The problems of people’s interactions with others can all be solved reasonably straightforwardly without any real interference with individual choice and so the best thing governments can do is back out and leave people alone to make their own choices. [source]

Barack Obama

Former USA President

Fact or fiction, the president knows that reading keeps the mind sharp. He also delved into these non-fiction reads. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Both Melinda and I read this one, and it has sparked lots of great conversations at our dinner table. Harari takes on a daunting challenge: to tell the entire history of the human race in just 400 pages. He also writes about our species today and how artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and other technologies will change us in the future. Although I found things to disagree with—especially Harari’s claim that humans were better off before we started farming—I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species. [source]

Reid Hoffman

CEO/LinkedIn

A grand theory of humanity. [source]

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

Daymond John said this is one of his most-recommended books. [source]

Aisha Yesufu

@seundavidpaul 👏👏👏👏👏 This is a great book [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

This is a 1920s classic version of How To Get Rich. The ancestor of all the pale imitations, like Rich Dad/Poor Dad, that came since. And while I scoffed at plenty of the allegories from ancient Babylon that presents the lessons, it was still a neat package. And at least ancient Babylon is a more interesting backdrop for teaching lessons about money than some suburban house flipper. I ended up liking it more at the end than I did at the beginning. It’s also a really interesting tie-in with that debt history book. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

And throw in “The Black Swan” and “Fooled by Randomness”. “Fragile” means if you hit something might break. “Resilient” means if you hit something, it will stay the same. On my podcast Nassim discusses “Antifragility” – building a system, even on that works for you on a personal level, where you if you harm your self in some way it becomes stronger. That podcast changed my life He discusses Antifragility throughout history, up to our current economic situation, and even in our personal situations. [source]

Anant Jain

The five-book series, "Incerto", by Nassim Nicholas Taleb has had a profound impact on how I think about the world. There’s some overlap across the books — but you'll likely find the repetition helpful in retaining the content better. [source]

Art De Vany

I used this book is a class I taught on the economics of uncertainty. [source]

Seth Godin

Author, Marketer, Entrepreneur

I recommend it in audio because David is sometimes repetitive and a little elliptical, but in audio it's all okay because you can just listen to it again. [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

After a few false starts, I finally got going with this, and what a treat. It shoots down the common myth that prior to money, everyone just bartered shit. I give you a pig, you give me five pies and a hat. Evidence shows that just wasn’t at all how things went. Most societies were structured either rather communistic (take what you need, give what you can) or with a loose debt-ledger system (or a combination of both). But where things get really interesting is how the emergence of market economies (and money) changed the relationship with human life and dignity. Especially as a consequence of slavery, which put a very explicit price on that which previously was priceless. All sorts of fascinating historical links to women wearing veils (to distinguish them from women who could be bought), how debt peonage really took off once slavery came profitable (so debtors could be sold, or their children sold, if they failed to repay), and how other morality got intertwined with debt. It’s truly eye-opening, and the lines trace disturbingly well from millennia. [source]

Will Davies

What’s stunning about the book is how it brings an anthropological perspective to bear on such an expansive history and geography, bringing the story right up to the present day, at the precise moment when debt has become a hugely political, mobilizing and destabilizing issue. Its central argument is simple and easy to grasp, and has been seized by activists and critics of the financial sector. [source]

Andrew W Lo

This book really opened my eyes to the fact that there’s some very deep and beautiful logic underlying the economy, and financial markets and institutions especially. [source]

Daniel Hamermesh

This is the oldest book I’ve chosen by far. The first edition came out in 1953 – I read it in my senior year in high school. That’s one of the reasons I love this book. We had what was called the Honours Social Studies class. The teacher was quite sophisticated, a very unusual guy. He had an MA from Harvard. [source]

Erik Brynjolfsson

@AndrewWLo @DianeCoyle1859 Great book. I read it in high school and it kind of turned into an economist [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history. [source]

Daniel Ek

A brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning book about how the modern world was formed, analyzing how societies developed differently on different continents. [source]

Simon Sinek

Author

I’m a fan of books that challenge our assumptions, and Diamond offers us a new and remarkably simple way of looking at our world. Learning to challenge existing assumptions is core to effective leadership for it trains us to keep an open mind. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

You ask about success. To be successful you have to avoid being “fragile” – the idea that if something hurts you, you let collapse completely. You also have to avoid simply being resilient. Bouncing back is not enough. Antifragile is when something tries to hurt you and you come back stronger. That is real life business. That is real life success. Nassim focuses on the economy. But when I read the book I kept asking myself, “how can I apply this to the areas of my life where I feel most fragile?” [source]

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian). [source]

Vlad Tenev

The general concept is applicable to many fields beyond biology, for instance finance, economics and monetary policy. [source]

Eric Weinstein

Managing Director/Thiel Capital

Folks frequently ask “What are the books that changed your life?” If I tell them, they are usually radically disappointed. I find that curious. I just cleared out of an office, and these are books that mattered enough to me to bring home. So here they are. [source]

Mark Blyth

This is an incredibly important book because it shows us that Adam Smith was only right in a special case. [source]

Paul Krugman

It is a difficult book, because it’s the first book that tries to figure this stuff out. You don’t teach Keynesian economics from Keynes anymore. Keynes was actually working on The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money before the Great Depression, but, obviously, the Great Depression gave it urgency. It’s a first stab – it’s one hell of a first stab – but because it is a first stab, it’s got all the awkwardnesses that go with that. He goes off on tangents that seemed important to him at the time, but don’t seem so important now. It’s not an easy read. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011. [source]

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?" [source]

John Lanchester

This is a minute-by-minute account of how the whole financial system nearly went over the brink in 2008, and the astonishing sense of tension and danger involved. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I have mixed feelings about The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future by Joseph E. Stiglitz. Stiglitz’s contributions are important in that he really does a good job of articulating the issues of inequality and the economic factors that underlie it. He raises important questions about whether it’s getting harder for people in the U.S. to move up the economic ladder. He makes a pretty rational case for keeping things like the estate tax and for increasing taxes as part of how you close the budget deficit. On these ideas, I found a lot of common ground with Stiglitz. But he seems to think that government is totally benign, and he is very skeptical of the private sector. The private sector’s obligations and its relative contributions to the economy are an interesting topic for discussion. But Stiglitz seems to demonize the category as a whole. I wonder if many of his policy solutions would make things worse by incentivizing business to put even more money and effort into currying favor with Washington. [source]

Francisco Bethencourt

I’m working now on a history of inequality, because while I was working on racism I was bumping into this issue all the time. It is indeed a political problem. [source]

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian). [source]

Alex Circei

Question: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why? Answer: Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons In Life by Richard Branson Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki [source]

Auston Bunsen

I’ve got a few, one book that really impacted me early on as someone coming from a middle-class family was “Rich dad, Poor dad”. [source]

Fabrice Grinda

I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. [source]

Ola Olusoga

Like Charlie Munger once said: “I’ve long believed that a certain system - which almost any intelligent person can learn - works way better than the systems most people use to understand the world. What you need is a latticework of mental models in your head. And, with that system, things gradually fit together in a way that enhances cognition. Just as multiple factors shape every system, multiple mental models from a variety of disciplines are necessary to understand that system". You can read this book to start building a "latticework of mental models in your head". [source]

Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Marx and Engels’s historical analysis is breathtakingly, brilliantly simple. I think it’s wrong but, again, you’ve just got to admire its genius. Obviously, without understanding the historical basis of Marx’s thought you can’t understand anything else in Marxism. [source]

Peter Singer

Yes, it is. I chose The Communist Manifesto, rather than, say, Capital because it shows in a much easier-to-read, shorter work something that is central to Marx’s vision. Capital is much drier, and a lot of it is focused on economics, although there are some remarkable passages of Capital describing the conditions of industrial workers in England at the time. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011. [source]

Jamie Dimon

CEO/JPMorgan Chase

CEO recommends this book (along with The Intelligent Investor) in his suggestion to JP Morgan summer interns. [source]

Erik Rostad

I read this book in 2003 or 2004. I was out of college and working in my first job. Friedman convincingly showed that the world was rapidly changing and that I would soon be competing for jobs with people from around the world. I decided to go to graduate school as a direct result of being convinced of his argument in this book. What's interesting is that I don't think these two books would have the same impact on me now than they did at the time I read them. Certain books are meant for certain seasons of life. Also, the Friedman one is probably quite outdated by now. In other words, these wouldn't necessarily be the books I recommend to people now, but they shaped the direction of my life. [source]

Barry Ritholtz

It covers a 50-year period from before World War I and leading up to World War II. Even if you’re not interested in finance, it’s a great read. [source]

David J Lynch

Lords of Finance gives you that alternative history, particularly through the inter-war years from the end of World War I into the Great Depression. [source]

Tim O'Reilly

Founder/O'Reilly Media

I am loving @KateRaworth’s book Doughnut Economics. It puts #inequality in a far broader context, connecting a great many 21st century problems with a single vision. Every business leader and every policy maker should read it. For a quick summary, see https://t.co/harwQvlLlC [source]

Fernando Lelo Larrea

🍩Amazing book by @KateRaworth #DoughnutEconomics . I really wish all my Economics students can read it. Fundamental rethinking of our science and what lays ahead. https://t.co/oWUL1TwSYh [source]

George Monbiot

Doughnut Economics tries to reconcile an environmental vision with the vision of widely shared prosperity. [source]

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

A counterpoint to communism and useful as such, but should be tempered with kindness. [source]

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

is said by his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, to have regarded Atlas Shrugged as one of his “guides in life”. [source]

Travis Kalanick

Travis Kalanick mentioned this book in a Washington Post interview. [source]

Chiki Sarkar

Just in and Looking good - the new book by the best selling and super brilliant authors of poor economics. @juggernautbooks https://t.co/wcHLVehE1x [source]

John Quiggin

It very much reflects the positive direction of economics over the past decade or two. It’s focused on data and randomized control tests. It’s about developing policy improvements that will make life better for people and working out which kinds of policy interventions actually work and which don’t—without an excessively dogmatic starting point. So the general spirit is to say, ‘Let’s look at interventions by making sophisticated use of data,’ rather than rely either on theory or on the fairly sloppy testing that was done in the past. This approach has produced some striking results. [source]

Mike Shinoda

I know most of the guys in the band read this book. [source]

Marillyn Hewson

CEO/Lockheed Martin

CEO Marilyn Hewson recommends this book because it helped her to trust her instincts in business. [source]

Antonio Eram

When asked to name some books that had a big impact on him, Antonio mentioned Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. [source]

Audrey Russo

Question: What books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path? Answer: Anything by Peter Senge. The Hard Thing About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz Once you are Lucky, Twice you are good – Sara Lacey Revolutionary Wealth – Alvin Toffler Black Swan – Taleb Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, by Ellen Pao. Creative Class – Richard Florida Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis American Government 101: From the Continental Congress to the Iowa Caucus, Everything You Need to Know About US Politics – Kathleen Spears The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Any book by Herman Hesse The Art of War by Sun Tzu. [source]

John Lanchester

It’s still a wonderfully entertaining book: An absolutely hilarious, very, very dark, vivid account of how Michael Lewis came out of Princeton and, with basically no qualifications, got a job in the bond trading department of Salomon Brothers [source]

Andrew W Lo

It’s a wonderful read because it doesn’t presuppose any background knowledge of economics or finance…It’s had so much staying power. It was written in the 1970s, a bestseller when it came out, and it’s still a bestseller now. I recommend it to my MBA students today because it’s just a wonderful introduction to the field of finance. At the same time, it provides some very sensible advice for investors about how to manage their own money. [source]

John Kay

Essentially, the theme of Malkiel’s book was that you could, in effect, do investing yourself. [source]

Michael Hebenstreit

If you want to get into stock trading or in case you want to become an investor, then I definitely would recommend to read the book I already mentioned and in addition: A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel. [source]

Satya Nadella

CEO/Microsoft

"My father recommended this book long ago,” says Nadella of the 1944 classic by a Hungarian-American writer who chronicles the development of England’s market economy and argues that society should drive economic change. [source]

Dani Rodrik

It makes a rather important point, that the economy has always been embedded in society, and when we try to disembed it from society and treat it like an independent institution, then we’re really going to run into trouble. [source]

Mark Blyth

A story which stretches from 1815 to 1914. He says it was 100 years of peace, although that’s not actually true because if you were a colonial subject it was hardly peaceful. [source]

Diane Coyle

The Wealth And Poverty of Nations is one of several really fantastic economic history books of recent times. [source]

John Kay

He provides an explanation for why Western Europe was the cradle for modern economic growth and looks at the development of the institutions that made modern economic development possible. [source]

Nick Harkaway

Landes argues, for example, that the most significant invention of the last 800 years was the mechanical clock, because until you…can reliably subdivide time, you can’t have capitalism [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Its subject is the history of humanity, focusing on why our species has succeeded and how we should think about the future. [source]

Mark Zuckerberg

Founder/Facebook

My next book for A Year of Books is The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley. Two of the books I've read this year -- The Better Angels of Our Nature: and Why Nations Fail -- have explored how social and economic progress work together to make the world better. The Better Angels argues for that the two feed off each other, whereas Why Nations Fail argues that social and political progress ultimately controls the economic progress a society makes. This next book argues the opposite -- that economic progress is the greater force is pushing society forward. I'm interested to see which idea resonates more after exploring both frameworks. This is also the second one of Ridley's books I've read this year. Here's a photo from a few weeks back of me reading his book Genome with my dog Beast. [source]

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

Sparkling explanation of how the economy evolves, producing the glorious cornucopia of goods and services available all around us. How to feel good about the future even in dark times. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

If you want a good understanding of how the issues that cause poverty are intertwined, you should read this book about the eviction crisis in Milwaukee. Desmond has written a brilliant portrait of Americans living in poverty. He gave me a better sense of what it is like to be poor in this country than anything else I have read. [source]

Satya Nadella

CEO/Microsoft

Nadella is using this season to learn more in a variety of subjects. By the looks of it, he is interested in, among other things, virtual reality, the refugee crisis, and housing for the urban poor. [source]

Noah Kagan

Founder/Sumo

Surprising insights into the lives of people who were evicted. I make a lot of assumptions about these people. Turns out I was wrong WHY they get evicted. [source]

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

There are the normal ones that everybody loves. There would be "Rich Dad Poor Dad," "Who Moved My Cheese?;" I love all the Dale Carnegie books; "The One Minute Manager." I love newer ones like "Blue Ocean Strategy" and all the "Freaknomics" books. [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

I don’t remember who originally told me to read Blue Ocean Strategy but I’m glad they did because this simple recommendation would substantially shape the course of my life and my career. [source]

Ayush Kumar

One doesn't necessarily need to take from others to fill their glass & you can always build a successful business in any industry. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I did find his historical analysis, which makes up the bulk of the book, utterly fascinating. [source]

Brad Feld

Co-Founder/Foundry Group

The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War: This book was a grind, but it had a lot of good stuff in it. It’s only 784 pages so it took more than a day to read it. If you are trying to understand what is going on in the current American economy, and why the future will not look like the past, this is a good place to start. [source]

Satya Nadella

CEO/Microsoft

Covering everything from the combustion engine to the flush toilet—and judging recent breakthroughs with a skeptical eye—this work of economic history “concludes that innovation is the ultimate source of dramatic improvements in the human condition,” says Nadella. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011. [source]

Gretchen Peters

Jeffrey Sachs gives a fascinating and very basic new way of looking at development. Essentially, we all benefit when the poorest people are better off. [source]

Jeffrey D Sachs

The book is an attempt to put forward this proposition that we have in our hands now the means to end extreme poverty within our generation. [source]

Larry Summers

Globalization and its Discontents is a book that anyone looking for a rounded set of perspectives on globalization should read. [source]

Leah Lizarondo

These books propelled me to want to work on a social enterprise and underscored my passion for making a difference in food policy. I believe we can build an innovative company that has deep social impact. That we can use the same mindsets that single bottom-line companies have to build successful triple and quadruple bottom-line companies. It is the holy grail -- for your work to present the challenge to be creative, innovative, quick on a daily basis but also at the end of the day, the knowledge that you are making a real difference in people's lives. I feel extremely fortunate to be in this position right now. [source]

Angela Pham

Another form of non-fiction heartbreak. This is a timeless look at how most of America survives. You cannot be an empathetic business leader without this lens. [source]

Jim Edwards

@Astrologic007 @ainecain @businessinsider @B_Ehrenreich @AndrewYang @carolhunter @esaagar @EmmaVigeland @kthalps @ErinBurnett @mviser Nickel and Dimed is a great book and everyone should read it. @B_Ehrenreich [source]

Leah Lizarondo

These books propelled me to want to work on a social enterprise and underscored my passion for making a difference in food policy. I believe we can build an innovative company that has deep social impact. That we can use the same mindsets that single bottom-line companies have to build successful triple and quadruple bottom-line companies. It is the holy grail -- for your work to present the challenge to be creative, innovative, quick on a daily basis but also at the end of the day, the knowledge that you are making a real difference in people's lives. I feel extremely fortunate to be in this position right now. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

Andrew W Lo

They…took an enormous amount of time to put together datasets that allow us to look back eight centuries and ask, quantitatively, whether there are any common denominators to financial crises. And the not-surprising answer is, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ [source]

Charles Morris

The great thing that Rogoff and Reinhart have done is they’ve assembled this huge database. They’ve gone back 800 years and you can see roughly what’s been going on with government borrowing and lending over that time. [source]

Francis Fukuyama

He accepts the fact that the crisis had multiple causes but he argues that redistribution done through subsidised lending is one of the most inefficient and dangerous ways to do redistribution. [source]

George A. Akerlof

Fault Lines provides an excellent analysis of the lessons to be learned from the financial crisis, and the difficult choices that lie ahead. Of the many books written in the wake of our recent economic meltdown, this is the one that gets it right. [source]

Robert J Shiller

I admire this book because it’s not superficial. It goes for the ultimate causes of the economic crisis we’ve been through. Most people tend to focus in on something approximate. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On the short list of books that I recommend to people. [source]

Nicholas Kristof

There’s been a tendency for people looking at global poverty to either emphasise the extraordinary difficulty in making a difference or to make it seem almost too easy. What I really liked about The Bottom Billion is that he acknowledges how difficult it can be to end poverty, but also offers some important ideas about how one can actually make a difference. [source]

Doug McMillon

CEO/Walmart

Here are some of my favorite reads from 2017. Lots of friends and colleagues send me book suggestions and it's impossible to squeeze them all in. I continue to be super curious about how digital and tech are enabling people to transform our lives but I try to read a good mix of books that apply to a variety of areas and stretch my thinking more broadly. [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

Michael Lewis is just a great storyteller, and tell a story in this he does. It’s about two Israeli psychologists, their collaboration on the irrationality of the human mind, and the milestones they set with concepts like loss-aversion, endowment effect, and other common quirks that the assumption of rationality doesn’t account for. It’s a bit long-winded, but if you like Lewis’ style, you probably won’t mind it. The scientific recaps could have happened in a book 1/10th the length, but then you’d miss out on the character portrayals of these two fascinating scientists. [source]

Francisco Perez Mackenna

This summer, Mackenna is learning more about the birth of behavioral economics, the psychology of white collar crime, and the restoration of American cities as locations of economic growth. [source]

Malcolm Gladwell

Writer & Journalist

It's good to be reminded every now and again what genius looks like. [source]

Alvin Lindsay

ATTENTION: Do you hate your job? "HOW TO ESCAPE THE JOB YOU HATE" FREE Sunday Times Best Seller Book & DVD package will show you a simple way. https://t.co/uLzyBw429W #england #UK #Unitedkingdom shipping ONLY! #business #marketing https://t.co/InNXqxQnOY [source]

Ed Miliband

Very happy to talk this week on #CheerfulBookClub to the brilliant Michael Lewis about his long-standing interest in markets that fail from baseball to Wall Street, as well as his new book on Donald Trump and why it’s a defence of public service. Listen below https://t.co/2DGez9T8vV [source]

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?" [source]

John Gapper

The Fed itself did not bail out LTCM, but it was worried enough to get a bunch of big banks into the room and say, “Would you care to chip in and save this thing?” Which they obligingly did – and then liquidated it. The Fed foresaw that the failure of a single big hedge fund could send shock waves through the entire financial system. The issue of systemic risk was highlighted. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I found this to be an interesting follow-up to the excellent Guns, Germs, and Steel. It examines the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations. [source]

Daniel Headrick

I found Jared Diamond’s book Collapse more valuable in influencing my own thinking, because it shows the importance of culture in determining how humans deal with environmental threats. …….The author investigates the successes and failures of a number of civilisations which had reached a crisis point, and looks at why some succeeded and others hadn’t. [source]

David Pilling

This is a warning that societies can do this. We, as a human society, could do this if we’re not careful. If we stretch the earth beyond its planetary limits, we could ruin the soil, we could ruin the ocean, we could ruin the air, and we could drain the ocean of fish. He sees evidence all around that we’re doing precisely that. He sees a limit to technology to solve our problems. [source]

Chelsea Frank

I read everything with an open mind, often challenging myself by choosing books with an odd perspective or religious/spiritual views. These books do not reflect my personal feelings but are books that helped shape my perspective on life, love, and happiness. [source]

Grant Cardone

This isn’t philosophy—it’s the pragmatic way to riches. I loved how Wallace talked about how becoming rich is a noble desire. Too many people start saying things like “money isn’t everything” when you claim you want to be rich. You need money to access things in your environment. Your potential can only be reached when you are in full possession of wealth. This book gives a method for success that is just as certain as mathematical equations. Things come to you when you make them come to you. Some important takeaways from this great read include: It’s is a misconception that wealth is limited. The world is rich, and individuals are only poor because they do not act. Thoughts always find a way into reality. [source]

John Gapper

The book shows his talent as a popular economist. It’s not chiefly a work of economics, though it does analyse the causes of the Great Depression. It’s more a work of history, almost of journalism. For an academic, Galbraith writes unusually well. [source]

Raoul Pal

@operationtrader It’s a great book. After that, read Lords of Finance and Manias, crashes and panics [source]

Bogdana Butnar

I thought I might put my money where my mouth is. I keep whining that young people are not in touch with some essential books on advertising that have helped me shape the way I practise my trade today, but I never did anything about it. So I am starting here the ultimate books to read list. I will add to it as I get suggestions and as more good books get written. [source]

David Lammy

This is another modern classic worth revisiting. It charts how brands have become tangled up with identity – how they stopped being markers of quality and became symbols of identity and markers of status. Logos have moved from the inside label to being splashed all over products. Having a coffee in Starbucks is an experience not a product. What you wear helps signal your worth. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

Chris Goodall

A wonderfully readable history of the development of the oil age. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

@hallofwonders He's appealing to you and me. In any case, I highly recommend a great book, 'The War on Normal People' , by a brilliant young man named @AndrewYang [source]

John Harwood

Andrew Yang’s book is a take on the forces fraying America’s middle class. He draws our attention to eye-popping data points about where our economy is heading. [source]

Marieme Jamme

Thank you @AndrewYang for this awesome book. Merry Christmas to you and four family 🦋❤️#maths https://t.co/TbX5QnPXPc [source]

Adam Wagner

@CCriadoPerez @MumsnetTowers I love this - the book, Poppy, the mug - it's so well composed! [source]

Asher Wolf

Tell me your best thing today. Mine was an amazing book and greeting card arrived in the post from the wonderful @MmeEmmeline https://t.co/GpEs2lg037 [source]

Caitlin Moran

@CCriadoPerez mate, I bow in admiration. it's an AMAZING, game-changing book. [source]

Julia Galef

Has some good advice on how to improve your ability to make accurate predictions. [source]

Sheil Kapadia

Read the book Superforecasting, had a great conversation with @bcmassey and came up with seven ideas for how NFL teams can try to find small edges during the draft process. Would love to hear feedback on this one. https://t.co/PdN1fKCagl [source]