The Undercover Economist Strikes Back: How to Run – or Ruin – an Economy

Written at least partly in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist Strikes Back is a lively Q&A-style discussion of key macroeconomic topics including inflation, gross domestic product (GDP), price rigidity, unemployment, and Keynesian forms of stimulus. Harford's explanations are lucid and even witty — readers who are not well-versed in economic thinking will learn a great deal — but what comes across more than anything is how little economists know about the factors that cause recessions or drive economic growth.