2026 economics book written by Ann Pettifor. I head about the author via the breakdown podcast.

I liked that in the podcast she mentioned taking control of the central banks as a way to redemocratise capital, so I bought the book to see what she had to say.

It is a relatively short book that critiques aspects of the current economical system from a very strong Keynes inspired mindset.

The chapters that stayed with me the most were about shadow banking, pensions, and her proposed solutions. The pensions in particular clarified a lot of intuitions I had about how damaging the current pension system is to our future.

But despite my agreement with the author’s position and goals, I didn’t get too much from it. Perhaps it is because I am familiar with Keynes economics. Or perhaps it is not too new as part of working for the private banking sector for some time.

It could also be that narratively it is mostly a description of the world that contains a monotonous amount of disapproval that waits until the final chapter to propose some ideas.

I remember feeling similarly about “This changes everything”. In both books it is a constant stream of information that I can hardly disagree with, but they take some time to go somewhere that is mostly known. To me the value of these books is in the exploration and the research, more than the narrative or conclusions.

I would recommend this book for people that are not familiar with Keynes or want to understand some of the structural issues within the current monetary international system.