The Dollar Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Cures
by Richard Duncan
A detailed look at the reasons for the dollar’s coming collapse, by a former International Monetary Fund consultant.

Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises
by Charles P. Kindleberger
A highly regarded historical/theoretical explanation of why financial crises keep happening.

The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future
by Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Scott Burns
An up-to-date explanation of why the numbers just don't add up for Social Security and Medicare.

Gold Wars:The Battle Against Sound Money as Seen from a Swiss Perspective
by Ferdinand Lips
A Swiss economist’s history of the abandonment of gold-as-money and the ongoing attempts by central banks to manipulate the gold market.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
by Charles MacKay
The classic history of humanity’s financial bubbles. The striking thing about MacKay’s depiction of the Dutch Tulip mania and its many successors is how familiar they seem.

The Theory of Money & Credit
by Ludwig von Mises

Human Action
by Ludwig von Mises
Mises was one of the founders of the Austrian school of economics and remains a deity in the sound-money world. These serious economics texts are well worth the effort.

Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets
by Frank Partnoy
An accessible explanation of how financial engineering in general and derivatives in particular are corrupting global capitalism.

Conquer the Crash: You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression
by Robert Prechter.
This book lays out, in terrifying detail, the theoretical basis for Prechter’s prediction of a deflationary depression.

Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market
by Jim Rogers.
The famous money manager's guide to successful commodities investing.

The Case for the 100% Gold Dollar, and What Has Government Done to Our Money?
by Murray Rothbard
Rothbard offers the libertarian take on the nature of money, and gold’s potential in tomorrow’s monetary system. These, along with several of his other books, can be downloaded free of charge from the Ludwig von Mises Institute.