Richard Davies

In search of a fresh perspective on the modern economy, Extreme Economies takes the reader off the beaten path, introducing people living at the world's margins. From disaster zones and displaced societies to failed states and hidden rainforest communities, the lives of people who inhabit these little-known places tend to be ignored by economists and policy makers. Richard Davies argues that this is a mistake, and explains why the world's overlooked extremes offer a glimpse of the forces that underlie human resilience, help markets to function and cause them to fail, and will come to shape our collective future. Whether trekking with Punjabi migrants through the lawless Panamanian jungle or revealing the clever trick Syrians use to underpin trade in the world's most entrepreneurial refugee camp, Richard Davies brings a storyteller's eye to places where the economy has been destroyed, distorted, and even turbocharged. In adapting to circumstances that would be unimaginable to most of us, the people he encounters have become economic pioneers whose lives help us reflect on our own. At once intimate and analytical, Extreme Economies draws the lines between personal narratives and global trends, shedding light on today's biggest economic questions and providing vital lessons for our turbulent future.

*Winner of the Enlightened Economist Prize 2019* *Winner of Debut Writer of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020* *Longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2019* 'Extreme Economies is a revelation - and a must-read.' Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England To understand how humans react and adapt to economic change we need to study people who live in harsh environments. From death-row prisoners trading in institutions where money is banned to flourishing entrepreneurs in the world's largest refugee camp, from the unrealised potential of cities like Kinshasa to the hyper-modern economy of Estonia, every life in this book has been hit by a seismic shock, violently broken or changed in some way. In his quest for a purer view of how economies succeed and fail, Richard Davies takes the reader off the beaten path to places where part of the economy has been repressed, removed, destroyed or turbocharged. He tells the personal stories of humans living in these extreme situations, and of the financial infrastructure they create. Far from the familiar stock reports, housing crises, or banking scandals of the financial pages, Extreme Economies reveals the importance of human and social capital, and in so doing tells small stories that shed light on today's biggest economic questions. 'A highly original approach to understanding what really makes economies tick.' Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England