This is the story of one of the world’s greatest (but least famous) con artists. Ghana’s John Ackah Blay-Miezah bilked investors on several continents by promising he knew where lost gold was hidden. Exhaustive reporting by the author makes this a riveting addition to the canon on great swindlers.

A forceful argument to replace the sprawling and vague Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations with 12 cost-effective policies to help the world’s poor. “Some things are difficult to fix, cost a lot and help little,” the author writes. Others are solved “at low cost, with remarkable outcomes”.

An economics professor at Stanford University builds out a new(ish) theory for how government debt, not interest rates, ultimately determines prices. Not for the faint-hearted, this book is provocative to economists and well-timed for an age of big deficits and high inflation.

A technology-and-business guru at mit explains how the mindset that inspires Silicon Valley could be usefully applied in life and in other fields of business, with a focus on teamwork, producing prototypes quickly and avoiding bureaucracy through individual accountability.

Megaprojects often turn into megasnafus. This entertaining book, co-written by an academic at Oxford University and a journalist, looks at why ambitious schemes so consistently miss deadlines and budgets and what can be done about it. Project management has never been more fun.

The economics and data editor of Sky News in Britain travels the world in this study of how six crucial materials—copper, iron, lithium, oil, salt and sand—have altered human history and underpin the modern economy. As countries seek to decarbonise, a battle is raging to control their supply.

A compelling book dealing with an important and neglected question in finance: not what to buy or sell, but how much. Even sophisticated professionals tend to answer this question badly, leading to lost fortunes. But financial theory provides the answer. Mathematical but not excessively so, this will appeal to anyone with an interest in markets.

Good books about the nuts and bolts of management are vanishingly rare. A former executive at Google and Stripe offers a practical guide to everything from giving feedback and delegating to running a meeting and building teams.

A deeply reported and unsparing account of the final years of Sumner Redstone, an American media mogul who died in 2020. Like a lot of reality tv, “Unscripted” is riveting because its cast is so awful. It delves into (sometimes excruciating) detail about his domineering character and extraordinary antics.