Edible Economics—A Hungry Economist Explains the World
Ha-Joon Chang
This is perhaps the most fun book of all on the list. In this book, Chang uses different kinds of food, fruit and drink, to explain what he thinks are the most basic principles of economics that all of us need to know. Of course, he also uses the book to take up his favourite cause of telling the world that free-market economics is not what it seems to be. So, he uses the humble okra (or bhindi as it is known in large parts of India), to explain the misleading language of free-market economics. Then, prawns show why developing countries need to use protectionism against superior foreign competition, and so on. Readers of Chang’s earlier book 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, may find this book slightly repetitive. Nonetheless, the book is not just about the economics it seeks to explain, but, more importantly, it’s also about how Chang manages to connect different kinds of food to different economic principles. That’s the interesting part.
South vs North—India’s Great Divide
Nilakantan R.S.
As far as cliches go, this book was waiting to be written. In the 75 years since Independence, the states of southern India have done much better socially and economically, than their counterparts in the Indo-Gangetic plains. The southern…
