The Bank of England's Andy Haldane picks four titles that have inspired him this year.
by Andy Haldane
1. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas S Kuhn
Thomas S Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was first published in 1962 but has been reprinted this year to mark its 50th anniversary. Sad to say, I have only just got around to reading it.
The reason for doing so now is that it is the classic treatment of the anatomy of change - what Kuhn called a 'paradigm shift'. In the light of the financial crisis, I read Kuhn's book for clues as to whether economics and finance might be on the verge of its own paradigm shift. By the end, I had convinced myself it was.
The anomalies, the puzzles and, ultimately, the crisis in thinking in modern economics and finance are the classic hallmarks of a paradigm in its death throes. In a funny sort of way, that cheered me up.
