s most recent book attempts a formidable task of introducing narratives into economics. By doing so, it strives to be nothing short of a beginning of "a new theory of economic change" (Shiller, 2019: 3). Shiller is well poised for this attempt. He is most known for his work on asset prices (Case -Shiller index fame) and the irrationality of financial markets, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 2013 (or rather The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel). He covered the same subject in a more popular tone as the author of the bestselling Irrational Exuberance, originally published in 2000. He also co -authored two very successful books with George Akerlof (another Nobel Prize winner) -Animal Spirits in 2009 and Phishing for Phools in 2015.Shiller is primarily concerned with the virality of stories -what makes them contagious and interesting for repetition. The importance of this book lies in the interest for how the "narrative contagion affects economic events" (Shiller, 2019: xi), and indeed substantially drives economic fluctuations (Shiller, 2019: 26). The principal strengths and weaknesses of this book stem from this connection. It is worthwhile to note that this interest in combining epidemiology and economics predated the Covid -19 pandemic, as the book was originally published in October 2019. There is also an earlier and briefer version, which first appeared as Shiller's presidential address at the American Economic Association, published as NBER working paper and then as a journal article in The American Economic Review in 2017. This elementary manoeuvre has, however, gained a note of familiarity as a result of the pandemics.Shiller is able to illustrate the various narrative contagions with the use of two databases: he uses Google Ngrams for the frequency of appearance of key terms in books and ProQuest News and Newspapers for newspaper articles and advertisements. Shiller strives to provide enough historical examples of viral narratives to convince the reader of their importance to economic processes. He peppers the book with diverse bits of information, which make for a fun and informative read. To a certain extent, it

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Crises can force leaders and technocrats together, highlight failures and, more rarely, precipitate changes in ideological worldview and the prevailing consensus. In 2007-8, the worst financial and economic crises since the Great Depression of 1929 caused a paradigm shift in financial and regulatory ideology. G20 leaders and central bankers reasserted collective power and authority over financial markets and global banks to an extent and in a manner not seen since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971. The retreat of state authority reversed direction. The spell of the 'mystical Anglo-Saxon model of liberalisation and deregulation' was broken. In 2014 the paradigm shift is still underway and still under attack by recalcitrant bank CEOs and their lobbyists, but the shift may be durable-signalling a major change in international regulation of the world's largest financial markets and firms.

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