● The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters
Diane Coyle
Summary via publisher (Princeton U. Press)
The ways that statisticians and governments measure the economy were developed in the 1940s, when the urgent economic problems were entirely different from those of today. In The Measure of Progress, Diane Coyle argues that the framework underpinning today’s economic statistics is so outdated that it functions as a distorting lens, or even a set of blinkers. When policymakers rely on such an antiquated conceptual tool, how can they measure, understand, and respond with any precision to what is happening in today’s digital economy? Coyle makes the case for a new framework, one that takes into consideration current economic realities.

● The Power of Cash: Why Using Paper Money is Good for You and Society
Jay L. Zagorsky
Summary via publisher (Wiley)
Over the last thirty years, we have witnessed a rapid transformation in the way that people pay for goods and services. Where we used to use cash for all but our largest purchases, many people now prefer credit cards, debit cards, cryptocurrency, and electronic services like Venmo, PayPal, or Alipay. And that’s not necessarily a good thing. In The Power of Cash: Why Using Paper Money is Good for You and Society, Professor Jay Zagorsky, former advisor to the Boston Federal Reserve, delivers a startlingly insightful and eye-opening discussion of the harmful and unintended consequences of the demise of paper money. The author convincingly argues that cash is an essential and helpful tool that’s worth preserving for the long run.

● Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare
Edward Fishman
Review via The Economist
In the opening episode of “Jack Ryan”, a TV series based on Tom Clancy’s novels, the show’s square-jawed hero charms an impressionable young Treasury official into blocking the bank account of a suspected terrorist. “That…was awesome,” she sighs, after pushing the button. “I get so frustrated when people say Treasury doesn’t do anything,” remarks Mr Ryan, a CIA analyst and former Marine, before jetting off to a firefight in Yemen.
People do not say that now. In “Chokepoints”, Edward Fishman, a former official at both the Department of State and the Department of the Treasury, describes how the American government’s unglamorous economic arms have jumped into the middle of the country’s geopolitical fights over the past two decades. This happened as leaders lost faith in military force but gained confidence in the many economic weapons at their disposal. Some of these “chokepoints” are obvious, like the dollar and vital American chip technologies. Others, such as Western domination of shipping insurance, are more obscure.

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