Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World

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Part One is about overcoming prejudice through using the author's own experience overcoming his aversion to food like okra (I can relate, hate that thing), and the next is about becoming more productive, then the third is about doing better globally; and the fourth and last sections are about living together and thinking of the future. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review Edible Economics in exchange for an honest review. It drew stories and parallels between various food ingredients to, often seemingly random, economic concepts. Edible Economics is a moveable feast of alternative economic ideas wrapped up in witty stories about food from around the world.

and had a basic understanding of some economic phenomena such as industrialisation overtaking raw-materials based economies in terms of income and prosperity. Each chapter has a recipe as a header, not in full but as a list of ingredients that go into the recipe that showcases the food item used as an example to discuss the theme of the chapter. As with a Church of England sermon, it’s easy to chuckle at the artless way in which the points are sometimes brought in, – “In a very real sense, isn’t the carrot rather like a patent system?It's rather a compilation of personal anecdotes, food history tidbits, and a critique of economic theories to explain the world we live in.

Often, it goes a bit off-tangent from the beginning of chapters and you end up in an entirely different plane. But this is bland and unhealthy - like British food in the 1980s, when bestselling author and economist Ha-Joon Chang first arrived in the UK from South Korea. In chapters with titles such as Noodle and Banana, Ha-Joon Chang sketches out the story of his home country’s rise. Chang’s preferred growth model, once unorthodox, is close to being an “anti-Washington” consensus these days, and like all such consensuses, has weaknesses. I learned a good deal from each chapter and the author manages to entwine complicated concepts with charming stories and various facts.I am sure it will be a tasty treat for everyone interested not only in food or economics but in a good storytelling about how the modern world works. En cada uno de sus libros, los mitos económicos ultraliberales quedan al descubierto, demostrado su falta de evidencia real e histórica. Being a history reader, I knew about events like those told in the Anchovy chapter, the Banana chapter, etc.