Martin Vander Weyer
Shockingly Sensible
Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth – and How to Fix It
By Dambisa Moyo
Little, Brown 294pp £20
‘Tell us why the world is such an unhappy place’ is a common instruction from publishers to economic pundits these days. The response has been shelves of books addressing the impact of globalisation, automation, executive greed, social media and all the other things that are perceived to have angered voters and led them to make quixotic voting choices: hence Donald Trump as US president and the UK leaving the European Union.
Naturally, some of those books are better than others, both in elucidating the problems and – the more difficult part of the task – in proposing original solutions. A recent example is Robert Peston’s WTF, a discursive trot around several of these fashionable themes that in the end tells us more about the author’s inner angst than it does about how the world might set itself on a fairer, more stable course.
By contrast, Edge of Chaos, by the Zambian-born economist Dambisa Moyo, is intensely focused in its purpose and forthright in its findings. It has narrative drive; it is not self-indulgent or too long; and it uses statistics and other factual evidence from wide-ranging sources to powerful polemical effect.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk