Thought-Provoking Reads 2023 

This years top reads included a few on how supply chains are being remapped, critical minerals supply chains, the shifting global economy, history of Chinese and Spanish languages and art history. Most were non-fiction. All of these books made me think – and I hope some may be thought-provoking for you too. My rule is that I have to read or listen to them in 2023, but they needn’t be published that year. What were your favorite reads this year?

Wine/beverage related reads are surveyed separately on my new Wine and Economics substack (sign up if you like or just go there and read it).

Geoeconomics/Commodities/Supply chains: Several books aimed to survey the remapping of the global economy and political dynamics and associated risks including the impacts of sanctions to restrict some trade and direct government support trying to build new markets. 

One of my favorites came out towards year end. Ed Conway’s Material World: The  Six Raw Materials that Shape Modern Civilization (2023) looks at the importance of sand, salt, copper, iron, oil and lithium in our society. Conway takes us on a lively ride through the places where these critical inputs are mined, refined, processed and used – and highlights the tradeoffs involved in their extraction. A big takeaway – the sheer volumes of rock and material displaced, pulverized, heated and processed. Producers continue to become more innovative in how to extract material from less and less concentrated deposits even as users become more creative in how to use them. Similarly, its also notable how “productive” these companies with less and less labor used. So many useful nuggets, especially in the early chapters on sand and salt – the latter ones on energy, iron and lithium are great too – but perhaps their importance is more known. 

Along that line, I started 2023 trying to get smarter on critical minerals – something with which some great University of Toronto students were instrumental. To get up to speed, I’d recommend Lukasz Bednarski’s Lithium: The Global Race for Battery Dominance and the New Energy Revolution (2021) A good primer on the divergent Lithium mining and refining prospects. It brought home in a detailed way the tradeoffs in development (including the impact on the water levels) and inconsistencies of policies (Chinese dominance of processing).

Three important books tackled potential impacts of the broad use of sanctions and other coercive economic policies and the greater government role in the economy. Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy (2023) by Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, extends their concept of weaponized interdependence to better map how governments, especially the US are using the chokepoints they control for national security purposes – and how such visible use poses challenges – from other countries seeking to control their own chokepoints or businesses coping with the new normal. Despite spending most of my days tracking many of the cases Henry and Abe highlight, they left a lot to reflect upon. The depiction of the tit-for-tat risks of US-China competition are sobering, as is that on EU strategic autonomy. Farrell and Newman point to a risk that I’ve worried about in the oil sanctions context – where’s the tipping point where some large companies or segments prefer to operate in the “dark twisty” corners of the global economy than in brighter clearer channels. 

Daniel McDowell’s Bucking the Buck: US Financial Sanctions and the International Backlash against the Dollar(2023), which I reviewed for lawfare earlier this year, tackles the key question whether sanctions and related policies are leading countries away from the US dollar. His conclusion is yes, especially following the more extensive sanctions on Russia. McDowell well surveys the data and includes to some of the economic reasons for such policies, but finds plausible evidence that political factors are adding to some de-dollarization. Still, I see a lot more rhetorical interest and railing against the dollar, but this very interest is important – as is a guide knowing where in the economic statistics to look and which policies matter. . The sections highlighting Chinese swaps, CIPS (China’s payment system transfer and FX reserves are useful primers. 

Finally Ken Heydon’s Trade Weapon: How Weaponizing Trade Threatens Growth, Public Health and the Energy Transition (2023), written by a former trade negotiator, brings together the main ways that trade has been weaponized – political goals (sanctions), supply chain resilience, health and energy transition and tries to propose alternate policies that might be more effective than trade protection.  Pushing back against the tide is quite difficult given the political commitment both to restrictive and positive government interventionist policies but it’s an interesting call for a renewed look at multilateral trade policy, reviving the WTO amid valid concerns of Tit-for-tat trade restrictions. 

Sovereign Funds: How the Communist Party of China Finances its Global Ambitions (2023). Zongyuan Zoe Liu surveys the interlocking pools of government capital in China to map the complex area of sovereign investment. A good summary of the tradeoffs and drivers.

Inspired by Travel: A few other books were inspired by travel I often try to pick up books that help explain the history, politics and society of the places I visit – this year Southern Italy, Spain in particular.  One of the best was The Land Where Lemons grow: The Story of Italy and its Citrus Fruit (2015)  Helena Atlee travels Italy to taste some well known and other very obscure citrus. It includes visits to the Medici Gardens, the hanging lemons on steep slopes of the Amalfi coast and careful Etrog harvesting for Sukkot. What’s stricking is how all these citrus are derived from three original ancestors, and how generations of growers and chefs learned to coax them to deliver their best. Have some lemon pasta or not overly sweetened limoncello on the side. Other good books on Southern Italy include the Serpent Coiled in Naples. It collects stories of the area around Naples. 

La Historia del Espanol/The Story of Spanish (2014) uses the Spanish language to tell a story of the development of the Iberian nations from Roman times, through the empire and beyond. In effect it is a story of the many Spanish languages, especially once the colonization period kicks off and the narrative jumps around across many countries in the Americas. The book follows the French-Canadian authors’ first book on French. An interesting read, which makes a good point of highlighting the words which came from what influence be it Latin, Arabic, Basque, Taino or other indigenous dialects. 

Climate Change/Sustainability and Resources: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2015). For some years, people have been recommending I read this book – and I’m glad they did.  I took this one to the Caribbean beach and indeed it lived up to the hype. Fascinating set of vignettes about Robin Wall Kimmerer’s scientific analysis, the lessons learned from her indigenous traditions and those of others especially on sustainable harvesting. Some important ideas of balance.  

The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet (2023). Jeff Goddell’s concerning dive into human vulnerability to extreme heat seemed unfortunately well timed for another year of rising average temperatures – including a long stretch in parts of America’s South West, and the Mediterranean. He highlights the incredible sensitivity the human body has to heat – and highlights the inequalities of exposure.

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (2022). Kate Beaton’s graphic novel telling a story of tough remote life, isolation and sexual assault. It’s a quick but powerful read telling many important stories about this key industry – and all the reasons why working there has been so important as a wealth transfer. 

Others lack a category per se but still thought-provoking. 

Jing Tsu’s Kingdom of Characters: The language Evolution that made China Modern (2022) starts with the mandarin simplication story that was a major part of both Han Chinese nationalism and the increase in Chinese literacy. The narrative carries through to the challenges of developing typewriters for Chinese characters and more recent development of stroke-based quick typing on mobile phones and computers. Along the way, there are interesting stories of how a range of Asian pictograph languages faced higher costs and difficult conversions for wire services and other elements of modern communication. 

The Arts of War: Ukrainian Artists Confront Russia Year One (2023). Blair Ruble’s collection of short essays is one of the best books I’ve read about Ukraine in the last year. He showcases Ukrainian artists (musicians painters, dancers) to tell a story about resistance, fighting and yes resilience. Implicit in each of the 50 essays is the geographical and historical reach of Ukraine, and the stories of individuals as well as the cities they hail from. Focusing on those who sought to use art as a way to heal, to raise funds and to rebuild helps highlight the importance of these tools. I also found Serhii Plokhy’s The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History(2023) interesting, especially the first half which takes us through the 2014 start of the war and the historical precedents. Particularly important is the narrative on lead-up to war and the political consolidation in Ukraine in that period, even if new faultlines are now opening up.  The latter chapters suffer from being written in 2022, and are more first draft of history. 

Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon (2023, Audible) Michael Lewis’s tale of Sam Bankman Fried was useful both to understand what went wrong, but also as an introduction of Effective Altruism, a philosophy and life guide about which I knew little. Given the importance of EA in the OpenAI battle as well as the mess of SBF’s empire, it’s a useful intro. The book mostly offers a window on the crazy life of FTX and Alameda research as well as how little smart people (including Lewis himself) were able to question the underlying valuations. Also a reminder that those who control the exchanges – chokepoints themselves, can end up incredibly wealthy with rents.

Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art (2019, Audible) Mary Gabriel’s tale focuses on the Women in in the abstract expressionist movement, telling a story both of the individuals artists, their interactions with their (mostly) male partners and competitors and the societal shifts. It followed up nicely on some of the themes covered in last year’s Picasso’s War, which followed the challenge of bringing the Master’s work to New York and the development of the Modern Art Museum. The book’s scope talking about a generation and a half or so, is really a lens on the broader trans-atlantic society and art scene – and gave me some new names – which shouldn’t have been new – to watch for in galleries. 

What were your favorites?