Book Bits: 16 August 2025

● The Price of Money: A Guide to the Past, Present, and Future of the Natural Rate of Interest
Edited by Jamie Rush, et al.
Summary via publisher (Oxford U. Press)
An accessible guide to the natural rate of interest, why it is likely going up, and what that means for the future of the global economy and markets. Ask most people who sets interest rates, and they’ll say it’s the central bank. At a fundamental level, though, decisions by the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, and their peers around the world are constrained by the natural rate of interest. The natural rate – the interest rate that balances supply of saving and demand for investment, whilst keeping inflation low and employment high – has moved from academic obscurity to a central role in monetary policy, and the operation of the economy and financial markets.

● Reimagining Social Security: Global Lessons for Retirement Policy Changes
Romina Boccia and Ivane Nachkebia
Summary via publisher (Cato Institute)
America’s largest entitlement program turns 90 this year—and it’s on life support. There’s no trust fund, just IOUs from the federal government and trillions in borrowing to keep the program afloat. By 2033—just eight years from now—Social Security will go bust. If nothing changes, benefits will be slashed by 20 percent or more. However, there is a remedy. Reimagining Social Security: Global Lessons for Retirement Policy Changes explains what is wrong with Social Security and how major retirement program reforms from Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and Sweden could work in the United States.

● Principles of Transition Finance Investing: Finding Alpha in a World Adapting to Climate Change
C. Robin Castelli
Summary via publisher (Wiley)
Principles of Transition Finance Investing: Finding Alpha in a World Adapting to Climate Change shows how to leverage science-based models used by the largest banks in the world for their climate scenario analysis exercises and turn them into useful tools for the identification of profitable investment theses for venture capital, private equity, and private credit. This book includes deep-dive examples applied to transition finance opportunities in selected areas such as geothermal energy, farmland in northern latitudes, and energy efficiency reconversion for buildings.

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