From Abundance to Enshittification: 2025’s Must-Read Economics Books

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Paul and Goldy look back at the most notable economics books of the year. They discuss Ezra Klein and David Thompson’s Abundance, Cory Doctorow’s blistering Enshittification, Thomas Piketty’s new works on inequality, Diane Coyle’s fresh take on GDP, and the overlooked history behind the Garland Fund. Whether you’re hunting for a holiday gift for the wonk in the family or looking to understand the ideas driving today’s political economy, this episode is full of must-reads. Must-Read Economics Books 2025 Abundance by Ezra Klein and David Thompson Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow Equality Is a Struggle by Thomas Piketty Nature, Culture, and Inequality by Thomas Piketty Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters by Thomas Piketty and Michael J. Sandel The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters by Diane Coyle The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America by John Fabian Witt Honorable Mention Ricardo’s Dream: How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us Astray By Nat Dyer Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by Cesar Hidalgo Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America by Robert Reisch Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist Liz Pelly Other Books Mentioned in Episode Homelessness is a Housing Problem by Greg Colburn & Clayton Page Aldern Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress--And How to Bring It Back by Marc Dunkelman Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty The Gardens of Democracy: A New American Story of Citizenship, the Economy, and the Role of Government by Nick Hanauer & Eric Liu Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: ⁠The Pitch⁠

Transcript

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0:00.0	The rising inequality and growing political instability that we see today are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory.
0:10.6	The last five decades of trickle-down economics haven't worked.
0:14.8	But what's the alternative?
0:16.3	Middle-out economics is the answer.
0:18.6	Because the middle class is the source of growth, not its consequence.
0:23.2	That's right.
0:28.7	This is pitchfork economics with Nick Hanauer, a podcast about how to build the economy from the middle out.
0:36.9	Welcome to the show.
0:42.3	David Goldie Goldstein, how are you?
0:45.8	Paul Bobby Constant.
0:48.5	How am I?
0:49.7	You know, I'm inshittified.
0:51.5	We'll get to that a little bit over.
0:54.1	I'm feeling a little inshittified. The whole world is feeling inshittified. We'll get to that a little bit, I'm feeling a little inshittified. The whole world is feeling
0:57.3	inshittified to me right now. But happy holidays. Indeed, happy holidays to you. And, you know,
1:05.4	we didn't do a summer reading episode this year because we were doing the Back to Basics series.
1:11.7	And so I thought it would be fun to do a sort of best of year in economics books
1:19.8	episode for the end of the year. Maybe give people some book buying ideas because I think
1:25.1	that books are the best holiday gift imaginable. So are you down to
1:29.8	play this game, Goldie? Sure. I actually read a book with my eyes this year because it wasn't
1:36.4	available as an audiobook. Yeah, why not? Sure, you're the book person. We'll let you lead this.
1:42.5	We'll let you lead this show today, Paul, and
	...

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