The best business books of 2007
The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World is the memoir of the one man who has done more than anyone to shape the world economy in the past decade – former Federal Reserve governor Alan Greenspan.
It’s a book of two halves. The first is “standard autobiography”, says David Leonhardt in the International Herald Tribune, with Greenspan talking of his early days as a jazz clarinetist who read business books between sets instead of smoking pot with his band.
In the second, he gives his views on everything from the Iraq war (“largely about oil”, though he doesn’t think that’s a bad thing) to China’s economy (doomed to fail unless it embraces democracy), but mostly avoids critical examination of his own record. Many would argue that his slack interest-rate policies were directly responsible for the turbulence the world economy is now experiencing.
That’s certainly what MoneyWeek publisher Bill Bonner thinks. You can read his irreverent take on Greenspan, and the world of international finance in Mobs, Messiahs and Markets, co-authored with Lila Rajiva.
It may be “light-hearted in tone” but “packs a serious punch”, says Roger Trapp in The Independent. And for a critique of economic meddling closer to home, try The Bumper Book of Government Waste 2008: Brown’s Squandered Billions by Matthew Elliot and Lee Rotherham, a damning review of New Labour’s profligacy, ranging from Lord Irvine’s wallpaper to EU saunas.
For something more uplifting, try Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams. It’s a “brilliant guide to one of the most profound changes of our time”, says John Gapper in the FT, showing how internet-fuelled collaboration is changing the way we communicate, live and work.
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Just as well, since dependence on the car can’t continue much longer, say Iain Carson and Vijay V Vaitheeswaran in 
Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future, a “piece of crystal-ball gazing” into “a future of energy scarcity”, says the FT. If books on finance are too short on sex and violence for your liking, pick up the FT’s business book of the year, The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co, by William D Cohan. It’s an insider’s history of the bank, packed with tales of affairs and excess, not to mention the murder of a senior banker.
If the credit crunch has you worried about post-Christmas bills, Love is Not Enough – the Smart Woman’s Guide to Money, by MoneyWeek editor Merryn Somerset Webb, is packed with tips on how to organise your finances – useful for those New Year resolutions.
Those who have more faith in their financial judgment may be persuaded otherwise by Jason Zweig’s Your Money and Your Brain, which looks at just how flawed investor psychology is. The book is “likely to be one of your better investments”, says Tom Stevenson in The Daily Telegraph.
And if you’re still looking for that perfect stocking filler, then try How Much?! by Andrew Holmes, packed with bizarre money facts compiled from our own “Bottom line” column (MoneyWeek subscribers should login here to claim a special 30% discount).
Most of these titles can be ordered from the Moneyweek bookshop.
