The sixteenth book that I’ve finished reading this year is Peter and Andrew Schiff’s “How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes”. Using straightforward language coupled with lively illustrations, the Schiffs draw out a witty caricature of the current world economy, focusing on that of their motherland, the United States of America. Critics of the Keynesian theories, the Schiffs purport that the market should be left to the “invisible hand” of supply and demand rather than a group of government officials who might not fully understand the implications of their legislations. These senators often resort to short-term remedies that target only the symptoms, resulting in long-term perils stemming from the root causes that keep?lurking back to the surface. Using one lie to cover another, the numerous lies have now snowballed and are teetering upon the edge of a cliff, prone to collapsing at any moment.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in understanding economics, especially?students. Seemingly complex concepts are explained in simple words (e.g. its definition of ‘capital’ is the clearest that I’ve ever come across, considering that I’ve studied IB Econ), allowing readers with no economics background to easily grasp the ideas. Although it holds a quite pessimistic outlook of the world economy in general (especially the US ever since the tie between the dollar and gold was severed), it’s much better to have a short and immediate crash then start to recover rather than to accumulate the consequences and wait for the bubble to burst out of control.