What I’m Reading – Business and Finance

Over the past few months there have been a number of books released reviewing, analyzing, and discussing the past two years of economic and governmental change.  Here are some of the best of those.

On the Financial Crisis:

How We Got through it:

Two well researched books using first-hand accounts of the 2008 crisis as it unfolded. They both read like fast-paced, exciting novels – except everything here is both real and accurate.

• “Too Big to Fail” by Andrew Ross Sorkin
• “On the Brink” by Ex-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson

How We Get out of it:

• “The Road from Ruin” by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green – a thoughtful set of ideas of how to get out of our financial peril
• “Too Big to Save” by Robert Pozen, another HBS colleague – a scholarly approach to prevent future crises

Best book on 2008 Presidential campaign:

• “Game Change” by Mark Halperin and John Heileman – fast-paced, inside account  of the most dramatic Presidential campaign of our lifetime

Business Development:

• “Winning in Emerging Markets” by Tarun Khanna and Krishna Palepu – excellent new book by my HBS colleagues about succeeding in building businesses in the emerging markets