Twelve Books Everyone in Finance Will Be Talking About in 2022

Publishing my first book in late 2021 was one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done, both personally and professionally. It feels so great to have it out in the wild and I have been truly amazed by the feedback and response to it. 

With that out of the way, one unfortunate downside of all the time spent writing my own book was that the time I spent reading other books effectively came to a screeching halt. Sure, I managed to read a handful from start to finish but nothing like the pace I was at prior to starting my own endeavor. 

Now that I have my weekends back, I plan on changing that in 2022. And my Amazon wish list is full of some intriguing new investing/finance/business books that will eventually be making their way to my doorstep.

I wanted to share a list of the twelve books that I think the finance industry will be buzzing about throughout this year. The only real rule applied here is that the release date has to be January 1st, 2022 or later. This way I can't be biased to include my own book! Unfortunately, this means that other late 2021 releases like Trillions by Robin Wigglesworth (which is wonderful and you should definitely check out) also didn't make the cut. 

Just Keep Buying: Proven Ways to Save Money and Build Your Wealth by Nick Maggiulli

Nick Magguilli, a.k.a. Nicky Numbers, took the financial blogosphere by storm a few years ago and never looked back. I'm not aware of anyone who does a better job pairing practical personal finance wisdom with quantitative rigor and data visualization quite like Nick. I can't wait to see what he has in store with his "rookie" book, which I have no doubt will be a category best seller. 

The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All by Mary Childs

I am so pumped for this one. Mary is a tremendous reporter and I have long been fascinated with the modern bond market and its key players. Love him or hate him, there is no denying that a book about the rise and fall of Bill Gross - the original Bond Kind - will be endlessly entertaining and informative. Counting down the days for my pre-order to ship!

The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future by Sebastian Mallaby

Mr. Mallaby authored one of the definitive books on hedge funds, More Money Than God. He now aims to do the same thing with venture capital, writing a detailed history of the rise of VC's most powerful and storied firms and their role in shaping the global economy.

The Revolution That Wasn't: GameStop, Reddit, and the Fleecing of Small Investors by Spencer Jakab

Spencer Jakab is an excellent journalist with the Wall Street Journal and I always enjoy his columns. It's hard to believe it's been over a year since GameStop, Reddit, and Robinhood captivated the nation for a brief period of time. While the meme-stock mania has died down (at least for now), there is still an elevated level of participation in markets from retail investors relative to years past. For a variety of reasons, it's unlikely that will go away any time soon. 

Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War by Roger Lowenstein

I don't read a ton of history books, but this one about the funding of the Civil War seems too good to pass up. It helps when the author is as pedigreed as Roger Lowenstein, who has given us classics like When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management.

The Metaverse: And How it Will Revolutionize Everything by Matthew Ball

Metaverse might be the buzzword of the year. It's everywhere you look today - earnings call mentions, social media. Hell, Facebook renamed and is reorienting its entire business model around the concept. Ticker symbols are being bought and sold. One thing is for certain, it's not going anywhere and it would be wise for investors to spend some time learning about it. Is it overblown hype? A revolutionary new future? Probably a little bit of both.

Matthew Ball may be the preeminent expert on the subject. I first encountered Matthew on Patrick O'Shaughnessy's Invest Like the Best podcast and have since read several of the many essays he has written on the Metaverse. I'll look forward to seeing how this book distills all of his thinking into one cohesive narrative. 

Investing Amid Low Expected Returns: Making the Most When Markets Offer the Least by Antti Ilmanen

I've written about it before, but Antti's first book, Expected Returns, is my investment bible. So you can imagine how excited I was when I discovered that a sequel is coming later this year. Not to mention we share the same foreword contributor, the one and only Cliff Asness :)

In reading the description of Investing Amid Low Expected Returns, it seems to align very much with my inspiration for writing The Allocator's Edge - embracing both boldness and humility in diversifying portfolios and providing allocators and investors with actionable suggestions to address the low return environment ahead.

The Bogle Effect: How John Bogle and Vanguard Turned Wall Street Inside Out and Saved Investors Trillions by Eric Balchunas

Eric's knowledge of ETFs is encyclopedic. He's forgotten more about ETFs by breakfast than most of us will ever know in a lifetime. So it's hard to think of a better tour guide than Bloomberg's own resident ETF guru for the story of John Bogle, Vanguard, and how they transformed the index fund/ETF landscape for the betterment of the individual investor. 

Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke

Former professional poker player Annie Duke has become one of the foremost authorities on decision making. Her critically acclaimed debut book, Thinking in Bets, contained great lessons for making decisions in life and investing. I'm really looking forward to this follow-up that will dive deep into a topic that affects just about everybody - when to walk away from something when it isn't working. 

The Truth About Crypto: A Practical, Easy-to-Understand Guide to Bitcoin, Blockchain, NFTs, and Other Digital Assets by Ric Edelman 

RIAs across the country are trying to figure out how, if at all, they should be addressing crypto with their clients. Ric Edelman, a wealth management industry icon, has been an unabashed advocate for digital assets. I'm sure there will be plenty of financial advisors picking up a copy of Ric's new book to see how he's thinking about the use of crypto in client portfolios. 

Trillion Dollar Triage: How Jay Powell and the Fed Battled a President and a Pandemic---and Prevented Economic Disaster by Nick Timiraos

If there was one word to describe the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the associated fiscal and monetary policy responses, it would be - unprecedented. To counteract the necessary self-inflicted recession that accompanies shutting down the economy, 

While all of this occurred just shy of two years ago, in many ways it feels like a decade ago. I'm really looking forward to this inside story of what was happening inside the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government during the early days of this unprecedented global health and economic crisis that we are still living through today.

The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni

PayPal stock is a mess right now. It's currently trading at about 1/3 of it's all-time high. Despite the company's present troubles, we often forget just how influential PayPal's founding team  - the PayPal Mafia as it's known - was in shaping Silicon Valley. Without their experience at PayPal, it's unlikely we'd ever see Tesla, Facebook, YouTube, Palantir, LinkedIn and many other tech juggernauts. I have to believe there are some incredible stories of innovation and entrepreneurship in this book.