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Five good business books

 


Were I to list the five best business books of recent years, (let us say, of the new millennium) I might offer this, in chronological order, without any imputation of relative priority. 

  1. Robert Bryce, PIPE DREAMS (2002). There were a lot of books above the rise and fall of Enron published around the time this one was. But this one holds up better than others of the herd. 
  2. Michael Lewis, FLASH BOYS (2014). A fascinating look at exchange structure issues, such as how exchanges collaborate with high-speed traders to allow them an advantage from their trading velocity. Who benefits? Who loses? What are those who would otherwise be losing, doing about it? 
  3. Brian Arthur, COMPLEXITIES AND THE ECONOMY (2015). Chaos theory, its spin-off in complexity theory, and whether they help us understand the business world. 
  4. Gary Sernovitz, THE GREEN AND THE BLACK (2016). About the petroleum industry, fracking, and related matters. 
  5. Mervyn King, THE END OF ALCHEMY (2016).  The author was the Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013.  What he saw and came to understand from that perch on how money and the world go 'round.
King is also known as Baron King of Lothbury, a life peerage granted him by the late Queen Elizabeth in 2013. In recognition of the awesomeness of the title, I have put his photograph above.  

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