Scalebar

Reading list

The books behind how we read markets, energy, and power.

Curated hard, no filler, no padding. We only list books we have actually read and rate.

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Money and markets
The Price of Time
Edward Chancellor

The 5,000-year history of interest rates, and why cheap money distorts everything.

Lords of Finance
Liaquat Ahamed

The four central bankers who broke the world in the 1930s. Required reading on policy error.

When Money Dies
Adam Fergusson

Weimar hyperinflation, told day by day. The clearest warning ever written about printing.

Energy
The Prize
Daniel Yergin

The definitive history of oil and the power it buys. Pulitzer winner, still unmatched.

How the World Really Works
Vaclav Smil

The numbers behind energy, food, and materials. The antidote to magical thinking.

The New Map
Daniel Yergin

Energy, climate, and the clash of nations, mapped onto today's geopolitics.

Geopolitics and power
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
Ray Dalio

How empires and reserve currencies rise and fall, on a 250-year cycle.

The World for Sale
Javier Blas and Jack Farchy

The secretive commodity traders who move the planet's oil, metal, and grain.

Prisoners of Geography
Tim Marshall

Why mountains, rivers, and coastlines still decide what nations can and cannot do.