Books like The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

Mohamed El-Erian is probably a really smart guy, but you wouldn't know it by reading this book, which is 250 pages of turgid jargon masquerading as insight. It's not even decent financial journalism, just a high level overview of trends in the world economy written in central bank speak that does more to obfuscate than elucidate. El-Erian could have written a really interesting book describing the choices made and analysis done by central bankers in pursuing the policies that pulled the world out of the 2008 financial crisis and have kept us afloat ever since. A lot of smart and bold moves were made, and some risky ones, and I would enjoy a book that told me more about them, but don't read this book, if that is what you are seeking. El-Erian seems trapped in the world of central bank messaging where people dwell on the significance of words like "patience" and "considerable period" as predictors of policy shifts. He speaks proudly of his own part in coining the term "the new normal" to describe that world of imperfect recovery that we have stumbled into post 2008. Come on, Mohamed -- "the new normal" is just more jargon. Where's the beef? Not in this book.