Glimpses of current economy

It is a very tough task to recommend good books for ordinary readers on economics who want to educate himself/herself on the country's key economic issues without any boredom of theory or equation, Md Mazadul Hoque's latest book titled "Macroeconomic Issues: Bangladesh Perspective" is definitely a helpful one for them. Apart from attracting the policy-makers as well as academia, the compiled articles of the book could also encourage lay readers to look through the macroeconomic issues of the country.
Though the book is a compilation of nearly five dozen articles of the writer, published in the national and international dailies and journals in recent years and months, the harmonised distribution of write-ups based on their subjects moulds the book as a complete one on the country's current economy, the challenges Bangladesh is experiencing and the articles also have some policy recommendations which the government, policy makers as well as individuals could follow during a hard and harsh time of the ongoing global pandemic.
Though most of the articles in the book were read by me earlier in the newspapers, I've read this extraordinary book twice again to take an experience of the write-ups on the country's key macroeconomic challenges. The book deals with quintessential concepts of macroeconomics like national income, gross domestic product (GDP), unemployment, inflation, stagflation, savings, investments, monetary policy, fiscal policy, currency depreciation or appreciation, exports, skilled manpower, remittance, fuel and power supply, economical diplomacy in regional and global arenas, challenges during this Covid-19 pandemic and so on. The key necessity of this book is, as for me, it has focused on all macroeconomic issues as a whole but pointing very current challenges the country is going through during a global deadly virus infection; so, the readers could have first hand experience of the writings to their daily lives. Dealing with monetary policy while sharing his view on the velocity of money, Hoque also did not forget to mention farmers and try to link their gain or losses to the macroeconomy as well as food security. While pleading for regional cooperation for better trade, the book also deals with border disputes saying that without solving border clashes such cooperation couldn't sustain. Articles on unemployment, women's job market, skilled manpower both for external and internal markets, labour rights, export readiness, income inequality, the Covid-19-focused budget could directly be related to the country's current economy.
Md Mazadul Hoque, an economics graduate from the University of Chittagong, had a long experience of financial journalism before turning to banking career. I think, his first-hand experience of writing daily reports on financial issues, contributes greatly to his easy writing of difficult macroeconomic issues, which ultimately helps readers like us to digest such soporific subjects, through turning those boring issues into interesting ones. The book has a little lack also which could be reviewed in next editions. It has hardly mentioned the climate change and environment issues, mentioning which is now a part of the global economy. Except that, the book has been able to mention almost all important economic issues and challenges the country is facing and also it is combating. Thanks Bijoy Prokash, a Dhaka-based reputed publisher, for bringing the book into light even during a period when demand for printed books declined tectonically.
Dr. Mokhtarul Wadud is senior lecturer of Economics at Deakin University, Australia