A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Has Shaped the World from Prehistory to the Present
By William Bernstein, Atlantic Books

A Splendid Exchange sets out to establish just what drove early man to trade and to examine its profound influence on the world we know today. Mr Bernstein, an expert on Modern Portfolio Theory and author of several self-help finance books, suggests that an analysis of the history of trade might teach us about how to avoid seemingly new anxieties about globalisation and the flattening of the world. Read more

Cold Steel: The Multi-billion-dollar Battle for a Global Industry
By Tim Bouquet & Byron Ousey, Little Brown Book Group

Cold Steel presents the story of the 2006 takeover of Arcelor, a venerated European steel company, by Lakshmi Mittal, a Calcutta-born industrialist who rose from humble beginnings to become the world’s fourth-richest man.

Mr Bouquet, a journalist and contributor to the Telegraph magazine, and Mr Ousey, a managing director at Gavin Anderson, an international financial public relations consultancy, take readers inside the battle that sent shockwaves through the political corridors of Europe and transformed the global steel industry. Read more

McMafia: Crime Without Frontiers
By Misha Glenny, Random House

For three years, Mr Glenny, a distinguished journalist who has worked for The Guardian and the BBC, recorded the stories of gun runners in Ukraine, money launderers in Dubai, drug syndicates in Canada and other criminal enterprises. Together those experiences build a breathtaking picture of the shadow economy that may now account for up to 20 per cent of the world’s GDP. Read more

Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy
By Lawrence Lessig, The Penguin Press

America’s copyright laws were designed to protect artists’ creations while allowing them to build on previous creative works.

But now, new technologies have made it easy to flout these laws and ensured that some of today’s most talented artists are felons. They burn copyrighted CDs, ‘bite’ riffs from films and videos and make new art from them.

Mr Lessig, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society, shows how we can and must embrace a ‘read-write culture,’ which allows its users to create art as readily as they consume it. Read more

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
By Alice Schroeder, Bloomsbury Publishing

‘The Snowball’ recounts the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world - Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but he allowed Ms Schroeder to explore directly with him - and with those closest to him - his work opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies and wisdom.

Ms Schroeder, an insurance industry analyst and one time managing director at Morgan Stanley, gives new insights into Buffett’s character and life, distilling the principles and philosophies that have guided him on a path to extraordinary success and esteem. Read more

When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
By Mohamed El-Erian, McGraw-Hill

Mr El-Erian is a co-chief executive of PIMCO, the world’s biggest bond fund manager.

While most pundits dismiss conflicting messages about the economy and the markets as ‘noise’, Mr El-Erian argues that they signal deep, structural changes and realignments that are radically redefining the investment game.

“When Markets Collide” brings readers up to speed on the new economic and investing landscape – its challenges and risks. Read more