*In This Economy*, by Kyla Scanlon

The subtitle is How Money & Markets Really Work.  I am a big fan of Kyla Scanlon (see the link for her other work), who is a force of nature.  She graduated from Western Kentucky University in 2019, and she has a new and very effective approach to how to talk.  I first learned of her through her explanatory videos, and it turns out she does one almost every day.

Apart from being very well done, this economics book has two notable features.  First, it elevates Kyla’s notion of “vibes” as a significant determinant of economic activity.  I use the older (and less vibey) terminology of “cultural contagion,” but in any case I consider this a neglected and under-analyzed set of forces, including in the economic realm.

Second, this is the first popular economics book I have seen that takes 2024 seriously.  Imagine you trained a “large language human” on what people actually talk and worry about today, and set that human loose to write an economics book.  This is what you would get.  It is a good and bracing shock to those who have trained their memories on some weighted average of the more distant past.

As an aside, here are some of Kyla’s favorite poems.  Why are there no major MSM profiles of her?