Book review: GDP, by Ehsan Masood

GDP: The World’s Most Powerful Formula and Why it Must Now Change is an account of how Gross Domestic Product came to be, how it rose to dominate international politics, and how it fails us. It is told through the stories of the people who invented it, tweaked it or challenged it over the decades, bringing a human dimension to what could otherwise be a somewhat bloodless history of an idea.

However, let’s cut to the chase: there are many books that critique GDP (including mine), and seve...