Kishore Mahbubani, Todd G. Buchholz, and Jayati Ghosh for PS Book Recommendations

Your weekly reading inspiration, provided by PS contributors. The PS Book Recommendations newsletter. [View this message in a web browser.]( [PS Book Recommendations]( Welcome to PS Book Recommendations, your weekly source of reading inspiration, provided by PS contributors. This week's edition features Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore; Todd G. Buchholz, a former White House director of economic policy and managing director of the Tiger hedge fund; and Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. By a PS Contributor [Living the Asian Century: An Undiplomatic Memoir]( By Kishore Mahbubani Mahbubani says: “Asia’s rise ‘will be the dominant story in history books written 300 years from now,’ former US Treasury Secretary [Larry Summers]( has declared. I lived through it. My childhood was marked by the trappings of developing-country poverty: undernourishment, no access to a flush toilet, an imprisoned father, and debt collectors at the door. But an indomitable mother saved me; her resilient spirit inspired me to overcome all the adversity I faced. I also benefited from the decisions of three extraordinary leaders who transformed Singapore – Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee, and S. Rajaratnam. My diplomatic career eventually brought me close to all three. In Singapore, I also inhaled the vapors of three great Asian civilizations – Chinese, Indian, and Islamic – which are now enjoying a renaissance. Asia’s rise is a fascinating and complex story. I hope that my memoir, through both personal and political anecdotes, will illuminate a path through this complexity and go some way toward explaining why the world must begin preparing for the inevitable Asian Century.” [Read more from Mahbubani](. Todd G. Buchholz Recommends... [The Radetsky March]( By Joseph Roth Buchholz says: "This brilliant epic, first published in 1932, intertwines the story of the Hapsburg monarchy’s declining power with the experience of a middle-class family. In my 2016 book [The Price of Prosperity: Why Rich Nations Fail and How to Renew Them]( I discuss the Hapsburgs at length, and Roth’s book serves as a reminder that many people of varied ethnicities revered emperor Joseph I as he battled to keep the empire intact." Don't miss our recent PS Say More interview with Buchholz, in which he points out that not all the reasons for the US economy’s strong performance are positive, highlights the limits of antitrust enforcement, suggests that China is undermining both its own future growth and the world trading apparatus, and more. [Read now](. PS Contributors on PS Contributors [The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies]( By [Mariana Mazzucato]( and [Rosie Collington]( [Jayati Ghosh]( says: "The title of this book says it all. Mazzucato and Collington offer a clear, devastating, and analytically powerful indictment of the enormous confidence game perpetrated by the consulting industry on our governments and societies. This is not just a scam, but a tragedy, because it impedes innovation, reduces corporate accountability, and promotes private corporate interests, often in opaque ways. It can even lead to public policies that hamper progress on essential social and planetary goals. Follow it up with [When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm]( in which Walter Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe drive The Big Con’s points home with a forensic examination of the best-known consulting company’s behavior around the world." [Read more from Mazzucato and Collington](. [PS. Subscribe to Premium to access PS Quarterly: Age of Extremes.]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( Project Syndicate publishes and provides, on a not-for-profit basis, original commentary by the world's leading thinkers to more than 500 media outlets in over 150 countries. This newsletter does not entitle the recipient to re-publish any of the content it contains. This newsletter is a service of [Project Syndicate](. [Change your newsletter preferences](. Follow us on [Facebook]( [Twitter]( and [YouTube](. © Project Syndicate, all rights reserved. [Unsubscribe from all newsletters](.