又到了年末，又是各种年度书单满天飞的季节。从前，我贴过好些年的《经济学家》年度最佳图书（ 因为那时候，部分地出于教书的原因，部分地出于个人兴趣，对该刊几乎每期必读 。有兴趣瞥一眼老黄历的朋友，可以看：2011；2012；2013；2014；2015；2016；2017；2018）。后来，由于年龄增长，一度辗转于某大洋两岸，并且离开了讲台和学校等诸多原因，个人阅读品类也有变化，杂志看得不多了。
尽管各种年末书单的实际用途颇为可疑（除了图书促销等商业目的），喜欢读书或至少喜欢浏览报刊杂志书评版面的人还是不免要浏览一下，看看有没有什么重要的书、可能感兴趣的书被自己错过。以下是《经济学家》和《纽约客》选出的2019年度最佳图书（图书标题链接到 Amazon），希望至少对受阻于付费墙的朋友有点用处。——这两本杂志是我个人最熟悉的英文刊物。至于大西洋两岸最有影响的书评刊物《纽约书评》和《伦敦书评》，反倒没有年度书单，大概是曾经沧海难为水吧。
在人人低头，屏幕主导一切“阅读”的时代，让我们尽量找机会，捧一本纸书，享受一点不受干扰的阅读时光吧。
参考：《经济学家》年度最佳图书：2011；2012；2013；2014；2015；2016；2017。
The big read: The Economist’s books of the year
Politics and current affairs
Moneyland: The Inside Story of the Crooks and Kleptocrats Who Rule the World. By Oliver Bullough. Profile Books; 298 pages; £20. To be published in America by St Martin’s Press in May; $28.99
Moneyland is the author’s term for the virtual country into which the world’s mega-rich smuggle their (sometimes ill-gotten) wealth, so insulating it from the attention of tax and other officials. Focused in part on the kleptocrats of the former Soviet Union, the book ranges across the world and a wide cast of lawyers, accountants and mountebanks who see to it that money stolen in poor, ill-run countries can be invested in rich, safe ones. An urgent exposé of a vital subject.
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress. By Steven Pinker. Viking; 576 pages; $35. Allen Lane; £25
His critics regard him as Panglossian, and suspect he cherry-picks statistics, but the author’s case for global optimism is entertaining and well-argued. The Enlightenment virtues of reason and education, allied to trade and technology, have made the world richer, safer and even happier, he contends, and the improvements are likely to continue. Populists and demagogues are merely a blip in this consoling counterpoint to the misery of the news.
参考：《经济学家》年度最佳图书：2011；2012；2013；2014；2015；2016；2017；2018。
Wise words: Books of the Year 2017
Politics and current affairs
The Retreat of Western Liberalism. By Edward Luce. Grove Atlantic; 234 pages; $24. Little Brown; £16.99
Few doubt that something big has happened in Western politics over the past two years, but nobody is sure what. Turmoil in Washington and London contrasts with centrist stability in Paris and (mostly) in Berlin. In this grim diagnosis Edward Luce, a Washington-based commentator, argues that the liberal order cannot be fixed without a clear view of what has gone wrong.
参考：《经济学家》年度最佳图书：2011；2012；2013；2014；2015；2017；2018。
High fliers: Books of the Year 2016
The best books of 2016 are about China, language, microbes, hereditary power, inequality and medieval manuscripts
Politics and current affairs
China’s Future. By David Shambaugh. Polity; 195 pages; $19.95 and £14.99
No country has modernised its economy without also becoming a democracy. A respected American political scientist asks whether China can break the mould.
参考：《经济学家》年度最佳图书：2011；2012；2013；2014；2016；2017；2018。
The best books this year are about North Korea, Detroit, Nagasaki and being a pilot
Politics and current affairs
Near and Distant Neighbours: A New History of Soviet Intelligence. By Jonathan Haslam. Oxford University Press; 400 pages; £20
A detailed appraisal of how the Soviet Union handled undercover operations from the communist revolution in 1917 until the end of the cold war. The most gripping chapters focus on the chaos that was unleashed by Josef Stalin.
《纽约时报》2013年12月28日头版长篇报道：
David Kocieniewski, Academics Who Defend Wall St. Reap Reward
刚刚有了官方中译文：为华尔街充当代言人的经济学家
参考：《经济学家》年度最佳图书：2011；2012；2014；2015；2016；2017；2018。
分为政治、传记、历史、经济、科技、文化、小说七类：
Politics and current affairs
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. By Ari Shavit. Spiegel & Grau; 464 pages; $28. To be published in Britain by Scribe in February; £20.
Drawing on interviews, historical documents, diaries and letters, as well as his own family story, Ari Shavit, a Tel Aviv newspaper columnist mines four generations of history to tease out the conflicts and contradictions in his controversial homeland. A passionate elegy.
参考：《经济学家》年度最佳图书：2011；2013；2014；2015；2016；2017；2018。
分为政治、传记、历史、经济、科技、文化、文学七类：
The best books of 2012 were about Richard Burton, Titian, Rin Tin Tin, the revolution in Iran, the great famine in China, secret houses in London, good oil companies, bad pharma and management in ten words
The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. By Michael Grunwald. Simon & Schuster; 528 pages.
The most interesting book so far about the first Obama administration and what the president’s $787 billion stimulus package was actually spent on, by an award-winning author and journalist. Even Republicans should read it.
The Immigrant Exodus: Why America is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent. By Vivek Wadhwa. Wharton Digital Press; 106 pages.
A nation that can attract the cleverest people in the world can innovate and prosper indefinitely. An Indian-American technology entrepreneur and academic explains how America is forgetting this crucial lesson—to its cost.
经济危机与经济学的危机：从波斯纳的研究切入
Economic Crisis and Economics’s Crisis: A Critique Inspired by Richard Posner’s Studies
内容提要：作为一九三〇年代经济大萧条之后的最严重经济衰退，始于二〇〇八年的经济危机事实上已经成为另一场经济萧条。这场灾难的根本原因在于资本主义经济制度内在的系统风险，因此它标志着以自由市场竞争为基本特征的资本主义制度遭遇了一次重大失败。除了担负经济监管职能的政府之外，经济学职业界对这场危机负有不可推卸的责任。过去三十年间的主流经济学特别是宏观经济学和金融理论研究在方法论上存在重大缺陷，有用的理论建树乏善可陈。经济学职业界在经济危机爆发前后的表现均令公众大失所望，凸显了这一学术领域所面临的危机。当下的经济危机和经济学危机为中国经济发展和经济学研究提供了教训与启示。中国经济学界尤其应当警惕市场原教旨主义在认识论上的谬误和实践中的危害。经济学等社会科学研究者必须约束意识形态前见，以实用主义的态度面对并致力于解决真实世界中的问题，并不断寻求新知，追求自我超越。
Abstract: As the most severe economic recession after the Great Depression, 2008 economic crisis has turned out to be another depression. The fundamental reason of the calamity is the internal systematic risks of capitalist economy; the crisis therefore symbolizes a remarkable failure of capitalism whose key feature is free market. In addition to governments in charge of economic regulation, economics profession must claim an inescapable responsibility for the bust. In past three or so decades, mainstream economics, particularly macroeconomics and financial theories, have demonstrated serious methodological flaws, hence little useful theoretical achievement. Economics profession disappointed the public very much by its both ex-ante and ex-post performance in regard of the crisis, which suggested economics profession’s own crisis. Current crises of economy and economics provide lessons and revelations for Chinese economy and economics studies. Chinese economists ought to pay alerted attention to epistemological fallacy of market fundamentalism and its harms to economy. Economists and other social scientists are expected to constrain their ideological preconceptions, and to pragmatically face and overcome problems in the real world, while marching toward new knowledge and self-transcendence.
参考：《经济学家》年度最佳图书：2012；2013；2014；2015；2016；2017；2018。
分为政治、传记、经济、历史、科技、文化、小说、诗歌八类（封面图片链接至 Amazon）：
The best books of 2011 were about China, Congo, Afghanistan, Charles Dickens, Vincent van Gogh, the “Flora Delanica”, Jerusalem, Mumbai’s dance bars, quantum physics, sugar, orgasms, blue nights, two moons and other people’s money
Politics and current affairs
Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future. By Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron and Meera Balarajan. Princeton University Press; 352 pages; $35 and ￡24.95
Few things will affect our future more than migration. By calculating the how, where and why of future labour shortages, the authors analyse the costs and benefits of human migration.
NYT: Paul A. Samuelson, Economist, Dies at 94, by Michael M. Weinstein
MIT: Nobel-winning economist Paul A. Samuelson dies at age 94, by Greg Frost
Economist: Economics focus: Paul Samuelson