The new classics: Most influential economics tomes

The Freakonomics guys are back with a new book (When to Rob a Bank). Here are some of the past decade’s most influential economics tomes:

The Black Swan
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Random House, 2007
Taleb published Swan—warning of the potentially catastrophic effects of unforeseen events—in April 2007. Months later came the panic of 2008. Good timing.

Capital in the Twenty-First Century
by Thomas Piketty
Belknap Press, 2014
Sure, Piketty is a French socialist whose numbers might be un peu fuzzy, but no econ text in decades made such an impact.

Freakonomics
by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
William Morrow, 2005
Out-Gladwelling Malcolm Gladwell, this pop-econ sensation examined abortion, the corporate structure of drug gangs and more through an economic lens.

Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
by Liaquat Ahamed
Penguin Books, 2009
What we’ve learnt (and haven’t) from the Great Depression—and how US banks and slow-growth Europe pose a repeat threat.

Predictably Irrational
by Dan Ariely
Harper Collins, 2008
In this behavioural-econ treatise, Ariely argues that humans’ irrationality is among the most important aspects of economics.

The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy
by Pietra Rivoli
Wiley, 2009
Tracking the counter-intuitive journey of a single $5.99 T-shirt as a metaphor for doing business in our connected world.