Most Influential Books Read in 2023

(And other influencers) - Article #2

Before I start to summarize each of the top 10 most influential books that I read in 2022 or earlier, I decided to publish my top 10 list of most influential books that I read this year for two reasons. First, it is close enough to the end of the year that I feel good about my list. Secondly, seeing this list of 10 more books will help you better understand where I am coming from and where I intend to go with The X Project.

I.        Trade Wars are Class Wars:  How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace by Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis, May, 2020

II.       The Great Demographic Reversal by Charles Goodhart and Manoj Pradhan, August, 2020

III.     The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail by Ray Dalio, November, 2021

IV.     Disorder:  Hard Times in the 21st Century by Helen Thompson, March, 2022

V.       The End of the World is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan, June, 2022

VI.     Money and Empire: Charles P. Kindleberger and the Dollar System by Perry Mehrling, June, 2022

VII.   The Price of Time:  The Real Story of Interest by Edward Chancellor, July, 2022

VIII. End Times:  Elites, Counter-Elites, and The Path of Political Disintegration by Peter Turchin, June, 2023

IX.     The Fourth Turning is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End by Neil Howe, July, 2023

X.      Broken Money: Why Our Financial System is Failing Us and How We Can Make it Better by Lyn Alden, August, 2023.

Other Top Influencers

To further help you understand who shapes my perspective, here is a list of my top 2x10 (too many to narrow down to just 10) influencers who I respect and follow on SubStack, Twitter/X, YouTube, podcasts, or their subscription services and/or their own (firm’s) websites:

I.          Dr. Anas Alhajji

II.         Jim Bianco

III.       Doomberg

IV.        Louis-Vincent Gave

V.         Leigh R. Goehring

VI.        Jim Grant

VII.      Luke Gromen

VIII.    David Hay

IX.       Dr. Lacy Hunt

X.         Dr. John P. Hussman

XI.       Brent Johnson

XII.      Rory Johnston

XIII.    Michael Kao

XIV.     Dr. Pippa Malmgren

XV.       Keith McCullough

XVI.     Stephanie Pomboy

XVII.    Lance Roberts

XVIII. Adam A. Rozencwajg

XIX.     Grant Williams

XX.       Felix Zulauf

And to round out my influencers, here are my top 10 YouTube channels. I subscribe to and regularly listen to/watch several dozen YouTube channels, but these are probably the top 10 (in alphabetical order) where I spend most of my YouTube time:

I.        Blockworks Macro

II.       Caspian Report

III.     Commodity Culture

IV.      Eurodollar University

V.       Gzero Media

VI.     Macro Voices

VII.   NorthmanTrader

VIII. Wealthion

IX.     What is Going on with Shipping

X. Zeihan on Geopolitics

So this (including the 10 books highlighted in my first article) should give you a pretty good idea of the wide range of people and their respective opinions, perspectives, and ideas that influence what I know, how I think, and what I consider to be important and relevant.

I understand not everyone is as interested and passionate about these topics as I am. I also understand that not everyone has the time I have to devote to following these topics as closely and deeply as I do. And so my goal is to start with the books, summarize them in a way that breaks them down to what you need to know, and explain why it is relevant to us and our future. Once I have covered the books, I intend to follow a similar format (updated along the way based on feedback provided by you) covering other content, publications, themes, and ideas related to The X Project topics:

I. Commodities                                 

II. Debt

III. Deficits

IV. Demographics

V. Economics

VI. Energy

VII. Geopolitics    

VIII. Interest Rates

IX. Markets                                           

X. Money