Economic systems and structures Books

Book SynopsisA FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR A call to action for the creative class and labour movement to rally against the power of Big Tech and Big Media. Corporate concentration has breached the stratosphere, as have corporate profits. An ever-expanding constellation of industries are now monopolies (where sellers have excessive power over buyers) or monopsonies (where buyers hold the whip hand over sellers) — or both. Scholar Rebecca Giblin and writer and activist Cory Doctorow argue we’re in a new era of ‘chokepoint capitalism’, with exploitative businesses creating insurmountable barriers to competition that enable them to capture value that should rightfully go to others. All workers are weakened by this, but the problem is especially well illustrated by the plight of creative workers. From Amazon’s use of digital rights management and bundling to radically change the economics of book publishing, to Google and Facebook’s siphoning away of ad revenues from news media, and the Big Three record labels’ use of inordinately long contracts to up their own margins at the cost of artists, chokepoints are everywhere. By analysing book publishing and news, live music and music streaming, screenwriting, radio, and more, Giblin and Doctorow deftly show how powerful corporations construct ‘anti-competitive flywheels’ designed to lock in users and suppliers, make their markets hostile to new entrants, and then force workers and suppliers to accept unfairly low prices. Chokepoint Capitalism is a call to workers of all sectors to unite to help smash these chokepoints and take back the power and profit that’s being heisted away — before it’s too late.Trade Review‘Provocative … What makes this book so refreshing is that it never lets its reader off the hook … I see it as a kind of manual that will arm you with the technical knowhow (and the confidence) to demand more.’ -- Kitty Drake * The Guardian *‘Nerdy, sharp, radical, and readable.’ -- Tim Harford * Financial Times *‘Chokepoint Capitalism tells us how the vampires crashed the party, and provides protective garlic.’ -- Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale‘A welcome intervention.’ -- Oscar Williams * New Statesman *‘We all know something is wrong about every click, stream, and purchase we make — unfairly depriving value creators of their worth, while enriching the wealthiest and most extractive entities in human history. Instead of just complaining about the corporate stranglehold over production and exchange, Giblin and Doctorow show us why this happened, how it works, and what we can do about it. An infuriating yet inspiring call to collective action.’ -- Douglas Rushkoff, author of Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus and Survival of the Richest‘An urgent, profound, and approachable take on what it's going to take to save our culture. If you care about books, movies, or music, read this book right now. And share a copy with a friend.’ -- Seth Godin, author of The Practice‘Chokepoint Capitalism is not just a fascinating tour of the hidden mechanics of the platform era, from Spotify playlists to Prince's name change, but a compelling agenda to break Big Tech's hold. It presents a clear new way to think about corporate power — and a path to taking that power back for cultural creators and all of us.’ -- Eli Pariser, author of The Filter Bubble and cofounder of Avaaz‘The great myth of the American economy is that it rewards creators and producers. But Chokepoint Capitalism dares to tell the real story of how it actually rewards the all-powerful middlemen fleecing both workers and consumers. This book is an absolute must-read for anyone who senses that the predominant economic mythology is a lie, who wants to know what's really happening in this economy — and who is ready to finally start fixing the problem.’ -- David Sirota, writer of Don't Look Up and founder of The Lever‘[A] lucid and damning exposé of how big business captured the culture markets … Interwoven with maddening tales of exploitation are detailed discussions of statutory licensing reform, copyright infringement detection systems, and other technical matters … The book’s broad scope, expert policy recommendations, and flashes of wit make it a must-read for anyone involved in these industries.’ -- Publishers Weekly, starred reviewGiblin and Doctorow persuasively argue that copyright can’t unrig a rigged market — for that you need worker power, antitrust, and solidarity.’ -- Jimmy Wales, cofounder of Wikipedia‘I loved this book … It helps us all see the locks and chains, and the ways to chisel through them.’ -- Zephyr Teachout, law professor and author of Corruption in America and Break ‘Em Up‘Creators are being ground up by the modern culture industries, with little choice but to participate in markets … Giblin and Doctorow show why, and offer a range of powerful strategies for fighting back.’ -- Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School‘Capitalism doesn’t work without competition. Giblin and Doctorow impressively show the extent to which that’s been lost throughout the creative industries, and how this pattern threatens every other worker.’ -- Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist‘A tome for the times … The revolution will not be spotified!’ -- Christopher Coe, artist and cofounder of Awesome Soundwave‘Chokepoint Capitalism couples its legal-economic critique with provocative, sometimes utopian, prescriptions for fairly remunerating authors and performers.’ -- Jane C. Ginsburg, Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at Columbia University School of Law‘Searing, essential, and incredibly readable.’ -- Adam Conover, comedian and host of The G-Word‘If you have ever wondered why the web feels increasingly stale, Chokepoint Capitalism outlines in great detail how it is being denied fresh air.’ -- Mat Dryhurst, artist and researcher at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music‘Chokepoint Capitalism is more than a clarion call for a new, necessary form of trustbusting. It’s a grand unified theory of a decades-long, corporate-led hollowing out of creative culture.’ -- Andy Greenberg, writer for WIRED and author of Sandworm and Tracers in the Dark‘Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow lay out their case in plain and powerful prose, offering a grand tour of the blighted cultural landscape and how our arts and artists have been chickenised, choked, and cheated.’ -- Kaiser Kuo, host and cofounder of The Sinica Podcast‘A masterwork … It’s a necessary read for any artist in the entertainment industry.’ -- David A. Goodman, writer, executive producer of The Orville, and former president of the WGA West‘Every creator will find inspiration here.’ -- Anil Dash, CEO of Glitch’[T]his is an important and powerful book not least because it crushes the myth of artists as out-of-touch elitists. Rather than painting creatives as different, Giblin and Doctorow emphasise the similarities between the problems they face and those endured by the great bulk of the population at a time when 40 per cent of Americans say they could not find $400 to cover an unexpected expense … If we want change, Giblin and Doctorow say we need to act collectively. That’s true for artists; it’s also true for non-artists … It’s only together that we’ll shake it off.’ -- Jeff Sparrow * The Saturday Paper *‘A searing and comprehensive take on the oligopolies that control creative markets, from publishing to music distribution to film distribution.’ * Alta *‘[Chokepoint Capitalism] is a dark portrait of a cultural system captured by billionaires … [and] helps us start the daunting task of taking back control.’ -- Justin O'Connor * The Conversation *‘Chokepoint Capitalism is the book we need now. Comprehensive and accessible, stirring and enlightening, it is a roadmap for taking immediate action against the corporate chokepoints that are crushing our creative workers and, increasingly, the rest of the middle class as well.’ * The Progressive *‘Totally readable.’ * The Spinoff *‘Giblin and Doctorow explain how companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook — and the big publishers — use their anti-competitive market powers to exploit creators, consumers and employees. The authors argue for collective action and minimum wages for creatives as some possible solutions to unblock the “chokepoints”.’ -- Justine Hyde, The Saturday Paper Best of 2022‘Chokepoint Capitalism offers an admirable antidote to the fiction that our economic systems operate the way they do because that’s how they are, rather than because a few companies managed to take early advantage of new technologies to manipulate those systems for their own benefit. You might not expect to find much hope in a book about the exploitation of people trying to earn a living doing what they love. But Giblin and Doctorow make a convincing case that taking on Big Tech and Big Content — seemingly a lonely and demoralising endeavour — is, in fact, an opportunity for community. Indeed, the fight demands community.’ -- Adam M. Lowenstein * The Atlantic *Praise for Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: ‘Doctorow breaks down the complex issues and tangled arguments surrounding technology, commerce, copyright, intellectual property, crowd funding, privacy and value — not to mention the tricky situation of becoming “Internet Famous.” … Doctorow has spoken and written on these issues many times before but never quite so persuasively. Required reading for creators making their ways through the new world.’ -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review‘Chokepoint Capitalism is a call to unite and it also highlights other key actions that need to take place to build a future where creative workers get a fair share of the wealth generated by their work.’ -- Celina Lei * ArtsHub *Praise for Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom: ‘Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is black-comedic sci-fi prophecy on the dangers of surrendering our consensual hallucination to the regime. Fun to read, but difficult to sleep afterwards.’ -- Douglas Rushkoff, author of Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus and Survival of the RichestPraise for Code Wars: ‘With a combination of acute observation, close analysis and clear-headed honesty, Rebecca Giblin leads the reader to share her conclusion that there is no legislative, judicial, commercial or technical panacea for copyright infringement which P2P software facilitates, but that even now it is not too late to improve the manner in which the rights-owning and distribution sectors address the challenges that P2P poses.’ -- Jeremy Phillips, Olswang, and Intellectual Property Institute

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Book SynopsisFinance is widely seen as an obstacle to a better world.Principles of Sustainable Finance explains how the financial sector can be mobilized to counter this. Using finance as a means to achieve social goals, we can divert the planet and its economy from its current path to a world that is sustainable for all.Written for undergraduate, graduate, and executive students of finance, economics, business, and sustainability, this textbook combines theory, empirical data, and policy to explain the sustainability challenges for corporate investment. It shows how finance can steer funding to certain companies and projects without sacrificing return and thus speed up the transition to a sustainable economy. It analyses the Sustainable Development Goals as a strategy for a better world and provides evidence that environmental, social, and governance factors matter, explaining in detail how to incorporate these factors in the corporate and financial sectors.Tailored for students, Principles of Sustainable Finance starts each chapter with an overview and learning objectives to support study. It includes suggestions for further reading, lists and definitions of key concepts, and extensive uses of figures, boxes, and tables to enhance educational goals and clarify concepts. Principles of Sustainable Finance is also supported by an online resource that includes teaching materials and cases.Trade ReviewSustainable finance has emerged as a major new field for practitioners, but has largely bypassed the classroom for lack of a good textbook. Principles of Sustainable Finance is an impressive textbook that fills this important gap. It lucidly explains the fundamental challenge climate change poses for financial markets. It is extremely well-informed about the latest developments and weaves together a coherent account of widely dispersed approaches, including research that is otherwise inaccessible to the layman. It is essential reading for any student seeking to understand the main ideas and trends in sustainable finance. * Patrick Bolton, Professor of Business at Columbia University *The financial system is integral to achieving a smooth transition to a low carbon economy. Based on their extensive careers in finance and academia, Schoenmaker and Schramade set out an insightful vision for a sustainable financial sector, one where social and environmental dimensions are integrated within financial decisions. At a time when the need for a sustainable financial system becomes ever more pressing, this book furthers the debate on how to get there and what role each financial market participant has to play. * Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England *The UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 are predicated on the idea that current and future generations have the resources needed to ensure access to clean water, food, shelter, health, education and energy, irrespective of the place of birth, while caring and preserving our common home: The Earth. In Principles of Sustainable Finance, Dirk Schoenmaker and Willem Schramade discuss the importance of sustainable finance and how it can help allocate resources to individual and social needs, over time, while respecting our planetâs boundaries. It is an indispensable read for students, professionals and policy-makers. * Vitor Gaspar, Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department at the International Monetary Fun *I am sometimes asked what a biologist is doing at the Ministry of Finance. The answer is simple: there is no better place for a biologist than working with finance. With the monumental challenges we are facing, such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity, mainstream finance needs to become truly sustainable. This implies that a larger skillset is needed for those dealing with economics. This textbook contributes to the change needed. * Per Bolund, Minister for Financial Markets in Sweden *The investment decisions of today shape our future. We have a choice. Do we maximise short-term returns, or create long-term sustainable value? It is becoming increasingly clear that society is reaching ecological and social boundaries, and that we can only prosper if we respect these boundaries. Principles of Sustainable Finance provides investors and financiers with the tools to make the right decisions, now and in the future. * Eloy Lindeijer, Chief Investment Officer at PGGM *With this work, Schoenmaker and Schramade make an invaluable contribution to the role of finance in the transition of the global economy to a low carbon growth path. It should be required reading in the C-suite of any bank grappling with what climate change means for its lending strategy. * Stewart James, Managing Director at Public Affairs at HSBC *Principles of Sustainable Finance comes with a perfect timing: all around the planet a new, long-term and responsible capitalism is emerging. It requires to combine both a new academic perspective and attention to its concrete implementation. This is exactly what this important book achieves and makes it so valuable for both students, researchers and practitioners. * Fred Samama, Co-Head of Institutional Clients at Amundi *Table of ContentsPart I: What is Sustainability and Why Does it Matter? 1: Sustainability and the Transition Challenge Part II: Sustainability's Challenges to corporates 2: Externalities - Internalisation 3: Governance and Behaviour 4: Coalitions for Sustainable Finance 5: Strategy and Intangibles - Changing Business Models 6: Integrated Reporting - Metrics and Data Part III: Financing Sustainability 7: Investing for Long-Term Value Creation 8: Equity - Investing with an Ownership Stake 9: Bonds - Investing without voting power 10: Banking - New Forms of Lending 11: Insurance - Managing Long-Term Risk Part IV: How To Get There? 12: Transition Management and Integrated Thinking

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Book SynopsisReflecting the most update-to-date coverage of institutional changes within the European Monetary Union, the fourteenth edition of De Grauwe''s established textbook continues to encourage students to think critically about the sustainability of the Eurozone. The author uses an authoritative, concise and exciting approach to analyse theories and policies relating to monetary union, allowing students to develop a balanced understanding of different arguments and perspectives. Part One examines the implications of adopting a common currency while Part Two considers the problems associated with running a monetary union. Both parts analyse Europe''s experience and the issues faced by the European Central Bank.Case studies throughout the text provide rich, real life and qualitative examples to help students connect with the concepts and policies presented. Additionally, each chapter ends with a conclusion recapping the core issues, and a set of questions, which encourages students to test thTrade ReviewThis is the best book in economics of the Monetary Union. It's well written and easy to follow by students * Soleiman Mohammadi Limaei, Senior Lecturer, Mid Sweden University *An outstanding example of how an applied economics text should be written. Comprehensive, clear, well-structured, and reflecting the latest theoretical and policy debates * Robert Ackrill, Professor of European Economics and Policy, Nottingham Trent University *The most updated and clear textbook that covers the challenges and prospects of the European Monetary Union * Giancarlo Ianulardo, Lecturer in Economics, University of Exeter *Table of ContentsPart 1: Costs and Benefits of Monetary Union 1: The costs of a common currency 2: The theory of optimum currency areas: a critique 3: The benefits of a common currency 4: Costs and benefits compared Part 2: Monetary Union 5: The fragility of incomplete monetary unions 6: The transition to a monetary union 7: How to complete a monetary union 8: Political economy of deconstructing the Eurozone 9: The European Central Bank 10: Monetary policy in the Eurozone 11: Fiscal policies in monetary unions 12: The euro and financial markets

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Book SynopsisDiscover the vital relationship that will take your company from "What's next?" to "We have liftoff!" Visionaries have groundbreaking ideas. Integrators make those ideas a reality. This explosive combination is the key to getting everything you want out of your business. It worked for Disney. It worked for McDonald's. It worked for Ford. It can work for you. From the author of the bestselling Traction, Rocket Fuel details the integral roles of the Visionary and Integrator and explains how an effective relationship between the two can help your business thrive. Offering advice to help Visionary-minded and Integrator-minded individuals find one another, Rocket Fuel also features assessments so you're able to determine whether you're a Visionary or an Integrator. Without an Integrator, a Visionary is far less likely to succeed long-term ,and realize the company's ultimate goals--likewise, with no Visionary, an Integrator can't rise to his or her full potential. When these two people come together to share their natural talents and innate skill sets, it's like rocket fuel--they have the power to reach new heights for virtually any company or organization.Trade Review"Rocket Fuel is a powerful model for freeing up entrepreneurial visionaries to do what they do best. Gino and Mark provide a practical gameplan for building an organization that perfectly combines vision and integration." --Dan Sullivan, President and Founder of Strategic Coach(R) "In this brilliant book, Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters explain the vital importance of having both a visionary and an integrator--and show how that relationship can provide the 'rocket fuel' your company needs to achieve its full potential." --Bo Burlingham, Editor-at-Large of Inc. magazine and author of Small Giants and Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top

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Book SynopsisEconomic and other outcomes differ vastly among individuals, groups, and nations. Many explanations have been offered for the differences. Some believe that those with less fortunate outcomes are victims of genetics. Others believe that those who are less fortunate are victims of the more fortunate.Discrimination and Disparities gathers a wide array of empirical evidence to challenge the idea that different economic outcomes can be explained by any one factor, be it discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. This revised and enlarged edition also analyzes the human consequences of the prevailing social vision of these disparities and the policies based on that vision--from educational disasters to widespread crime and violence.

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Book SynopsisThis text provides a comprehensive analysis of contemporary macroeconomics, within a European and global context. The authors balance the theoretical aspects with up-to-date policy examples throughout, allowing the reader to relate the concepts to their own economic environment.Trade ReviewBurda and Wyplosz have done a marvelous job for this eighth edition by further tweaking what has long since been an outstanding foundational book in macroeconomics. Macroeconomics: A European Text is superb in striking the right balance between theory and evidence and it remains peerless in integrating open economy aspects to the macroeconomics curriculum. The book continuous to be the go-to book for equipping undergraduate students with the thinking tools needed for understanding modern macroeconomics. * Mark Weder, Professor of Economics, Aarhus University *An excellent introduction to macroeconomics. It explains advanced concepts in easily understood models and language, with applications to real-world problems that helps students grow into mature economists. Many of Europe's economic challenges are different from those of the United States and other advanced countries, because of its unique nature of a large market made up of several smaller entities that have discretion over many aspects of economic management. It is most welcome to find a book that addresses these issues within a rigorous, yet approachable framework, that can help the reader engage in a well-informed discourse about our future. * Sir Christopher Pissarides, Regius Professor of Economics, London School of Economics *This is a superb and engaging macroeconomics text for those interested in Europe. It contains plenty of theory, empirics and case studies with excellent sections on income distribution and the global financial crisis. To be recommended strongly for those who want to teach macroeconomics for the real world. * Rick Van der Ploeg ,Professor of Economics, Oxford University *

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Book SynopsisWe have become accustomed to economists and politicians talking about “market forces” as if they are immutable laws of the universe. But what exactly is “the market”? Originally an abstract idea from economic theory – the locus of supply and demand – it has come to inform the way we speak about our relationship to the economic system as a whole. Matthew Watson unpacks the concept to ask what does it really mean to allow ourselves to submit to market forces. And does economic theory really provide insights into the market institutions that shape our everyday life? In tackling these questions, the book provides a major contribution to a deeper appreciation of the dominant economic language of our time, challenging the idea that we can simply defer to the “logic of the market”.Trade ReviewWatson has provided a history of the economic ideas that form the basis of modern economics, brilliantly explaining where many of the economic laws and concepts central to the idea of the market originated . . . there are very few texts on the market that are as good as this. -- Huw Macartney, University of BirminghamA masterpiece of erudition and concision, Matthew Watson’s new book lifts the lid on a concept whose ubiquity in public discourse is matched only by its slipperiness. With immense skill, Watson explores the ways in which the idea of 'the market' has developed within the field of economics and in so-doing teases out the complex relationships between academic abstraction of the market concept and the prevalence of market ideology in politics. The result is a truly impressive book that should be regarded as a vital supplement to standard economics textbooks and essential reading for anyone interested in understanding whether there are alternatives to the 'iron cage' of the market. -- Ben Rosamond, Professor of Politics, University of CopenhangenWatson unearths precisely why we feel so comfortable attributing disruptive economic change simply to the will of the market . . . [he] traces the emergence and triumph of the market concept as we know it, deploying critical insights from political economy and undertaking a deeply-textured excavation of the history of economic thought. The Market provides a valuable history of ‘the market’ as an idea, rendering unfamiliar something we often take as a given. In doing so, the book makes a useful contribution to vibrant debates within political economy and feeds into timely conversations beyond academia about our position as economic subjects. At a time when we are increasingly facing pressure to imagine alternative economic futures in which the economy works for everyone, The Market’s call to action will certainly have wide appeal in its abandonment of the present market concept. -- David Dodds, LSE Book ReviewsTable of Contents1. Introduction2. The market concept in triplicate3. Symmetrical moral relationships: Adam Smith's impartial spectator construct4. Demand and supply in partial equilibrium: the Marshallian cross diagram5. Vectors of market-clearing prices: the Walrasian auctioneer6. The political rhetoric of "the market"7. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisTrade Review[A] superbly argued and important book. America is no longer the home of the free-market economy…The great obstacle to action in the U.S. is the pervasive role of money in politics. The results are the twin evils of oligopoly and oligarchy…Donald Trump is in so many ways a product of the defective capitalism described in The Great Reversal. What the U.S. needs, instead, is another Teddy Roosevelt and his energetic trust-busting. Is that still imaginable? All believers in the virtues of competitive capitalism must hope so. -- Martin Wolf * Financial Times *A fascinating case study of rising corporate concentration and why this reflects not just impersonal economic forces but political choices… [Philippon] concludes competition has indeed declined to the detriment of consumers. His novel contribution, though, is to contrast this with the experience of Europe… Where the U.S. was once the world’s teacher, it may be time to be the pupil. -- Greg Ip * Wall Street Journal *Fascinating…In one industry after another, [Philippon] writes, a few companies have grown so large that they have the power to keep prices high and wages low. It’s great for those corporations—and bad for almost everyone else…Too often, both parties are still confusing the interests of big business with the national interest. And American families are paying the price. -- David Leonhardt * New York Times *Philippon sees today’s Europe, ironically the home of government-driven market intervention, as the place that has figured out how to set markets free by spurring competitiveness and thus keeping services up and prices down…The Great Reversal argues that the United States has much to gain by reforming how domestic markets work but also much to regain—a vitality that has been lost since the Reagan years. We don’t know if Philippon is a fan of Donald Trump, but his analysis points to one way of making America great again: restoring our free-market competitiveness. -- Arthur Herman * Wall Street Journal *[A] primer on the recent woes of the U.S. economy…It attributes these troubling developments to a decline in competition that has been brought about in large part by the rise of very powerful technology companies and above all by the lack of enforcement of antitrust policies. Philippon also points to the damaging role of politicians who protect the interests of their wealthy donors by sponsoring and creating loopholes in tax and regulatory laws. -- Richard N. Cooper * Foreign Affairs *Examines money in politics, and carefully knocks down tendentious arguments that such behavior does not simply reflect the rich purchasing policy outcomes that benefit themselves…Some of Philippon’s findings are eye-popping. -- Ryan Cooper * American Prospect *In this seminal book, economist Philippon uses detailed evidence to argue that, far from being the home of free-market competition, the U.S. today has less competition than the much-maligned EU, particularly in its product markets, which are riddled with monopoly and monopsony. This is not the result of natural forces, but of deliberate policy. Declining competition has raised profits, depressed wages, weakened investment and undermined productivity growth. The U.S. needs a reinvigoration of antitrust. * Financial Times *A compelling read for those interested in the dynamics of the overall innovation economy or the political debate over antitrust and Big Tech…A timely analysis of the weakening of America’s regulatory regime for protecting free market competition. -- Eric Peckham * TechCrunch *The Great Reversal is a must-read for anyone who cares about the single most important issue of our time—the growing concentration of economic and political power in the hands of too few corporations and individuals. Philippon shows us that America is no longer the home of free markets, and Old Europe is a lot more competitive than we think. Data-driven, readable economic myth-busting at its best. -- Rana Foroohar, Associate Editor and Global Business Columnist, Financial TimesProvides an in-depth, evidence-based examination of how unchecked corporate power harms workers, consumers, and the economy, all while making a passionate case in favor of competitive markets. * ProMarket *A timely diagnosis of what fundamentally ails the American economy. Philippon, using solid empirical evidence and careful research, asserts that the level of competition has declined in the U.S. -- Vivekanand Jayakumar * The Hill *Everyone in tech or interested in tech ought to read this book—it provides a rigorous, but easy-to-grasp look at the economics of consolidation and what it does to markets, prices, and products. -- Nilay Patel * The Verge *Excellent. -- Diane Coyle * Project Syndicate *Fascinating…Philippon’s work is impressive. -- Ali Nikpay * The Telegraph *Philippon argues for a surprising conclusion: Europe is making a better job of running a competitive market economy than the home of capitalism…Time also, Philippon argues, for America to relearn the virtues of competitive capitalism from its erstwhile pupil across the pond. -- Colm McCarthy * Irish Times *Should we love American capitalism, or hate it? Are large corporations making our lives better through endless innovation and price reductions, or are they exploiting their workers and their customers to enrich the few? Would European-style regulation make things better, or worse? Thomas Philippon’s eloquent book has the answers. It is an invaluable contribution to one of today’s most important debates. -- Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate in Economic SciencesIn this hugely important book, Thomas Philippon shows that America’s most urgent economic problem is not too much capitalism, but rather too little competition. A clarifying guide to the political reforms we need to make the market work for ordinary people. -- Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save ItSuperbly exposited and replete with examples, this marvelous book illustrates the challenges the United States faces today in reversing its decades-long slide into monopoly and economic oligarchy. A master class in political economy, it draws on the author’s own pathbreaking academic research, yet shows great respect for competing points of view. Philippon’s quantitative contrast between highly monopolized U.S. markets and highly competitive European markets is particularly striking. The data suggests that Americans should not be so complacent about their apparent economic superiority. -- Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard UniversityThe Great Reversal is a terrific book that tackles a hot, policy-relevant, and fascinating question: what has happened to competition in the United States? It’s essential reading to understand twenty-first-century capitalism. -- Gabriel Zucman, University of California, Berkeley

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Book Synopsis“Magisterial history... one of the most comprehensive histories of modern capitalism yet written.”—Michael Hirsh, The New York Times Book ReviewTrade Review"...even-handed and objective." -- The Washington Post"Broad and ambitious in its sweep... One lesson with enormous contemporary resonance emerges: globalization is neither inevitable nor irreversible. Governments can choose to retreat into isolation and have often done so." -- Alan Beattie - FT Magazine"Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of globalization from 1870 to the present." -- John Bruton - Irish Independent

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Book SynopsisA non-Eurocentric, sweeping look at the material conditions and events that created capitalismTrade Review'A fundamental rethinking of the origins of capitalism and the emergence of Western domination by the interactive relations with the non-European world. Highly Recommended.' -- CHOICE'A fascinating tour de force that will surely be debated in the fields of history, sociology, Marxism and International Relations for years to come' -- Justin Rosenberg, Professor in International Relations at the University of Sussex'An excellent book' -- Professor John M. Hobson, University of Sheffield'This rigorously argued book presents a compelling challenge to standard narratives of capitalist modernity. The authors combine theoretical sophistication and a wide-ranging account of extra-European histories to provide a superb - and provocative - alternative' -- Gurminder K Bhambra, author of Connected Sociologies'A superb account which successfully transcends a false dichotomy. Drawing on the best aspects of Historical Sociology and International Relations, and within a rigorous Marxist framework, the authors offer a challenge to all existing explanations of the rise of the West to world dominance' -- Neil Davidson, author of How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions?'There is much talk these days of Big History, yet the advocates invariably stop short of talking about capitalism. With their bold and wide-ranging treatment, Anievas and Nişancıoğlu now place the origins of capitalism at the very centre of the agenda' -- Geoff Eley, Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Michigan'An excellent, inventive and fascinating piece of scholarship' -- Tony Mckenna, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books'A work of towering scholarly erudition combined with deep political insights that must be reckoned with' -- Louis Proyect'Provocative and brilliant ... An enormous contribution to redressing the one-sided debates about the origins of capitalism and the West's conquest of the planet ... Their book should be read by anyone hoping to understand as well as challenge Eurocentrism, imperialism, and the capitalist system as a whole' -- International Socialist Review'Provides an important introduction to a truly global history of the origins of capitalism which recognises the vital inputs and roles of a range of non-European societies' -- Review of African Political EconomyTable of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Transition Debate: Theories and Critique 2. Rethinking the Origins of Capitalism: The Theory of Uneven and Combined Development 3. The Long Thirteenth Century: Structural Crisis, Conjunctural Catastrophe 4. The Ottoman-Habsburg Rivalry over the Long Sixteenth Century 5. The Atlantic Sources of European Capitalism, Territorial Sovereignty and the Modern Self 6. The ‘Classical’ Bourgeois Revolutions in the History of Uneven and Combined Development 7. Combined Encounters: Dutch Colonisation in South-East Asia and the Contradictions of ‘Free Labour’ 8. Origins of the Great Divergence over the Longue Durée: Rethinking the ‘Rise of the West’ Conclusion Notes Index

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Book Synopsis"A powerful case for limitarianism—the idea that we should set a maximum on how much resources one individual can appropriate. A must-read!" —Thomas Piketty, bestselling author of Capital in the Twenty-First CenturyAn original, bold, and convincing argument for a cap on wealth by the philosopher who coined the term "limitarianism."How much money is too much? Is it ethical, and democratic, for an individual to amass a limitless amount of wealth, and then spend it however they choose? Many of us feel that the answer to that is no—but what can we do about it?Ingrid Robeyns has long written and argued for the principle she calls "limitarianism"—or the need to limit extreme wealth. This idea is gaining momentum in the mainstream – with calls to "tax the rich" and slogans like "every billionaire is a policy failure"—but what does it mean in practice?Robeyns explains the key reasons to support the case against extreme wealth: It keeps the poor poor and inequalities growing It’s often dirty money It undermines democracy It’s one of the leading causes of climate change Nobody actually deserves to be a millionaire There are better things to do with excess money The rich will benefit, too This will be the first authoritative trade book to unpack the concept of a cap on wealth, where to draw the line, how to collect the excess and what to do with the money. In the process, Robeyns will ignite an urgent debate about wealth, one that calls into question the very forces we live by (capitalism and neoliberalism) and invites us to a radical reimagining of our world.Trade Review"A powerful case for limitarianism – the idea that we should set a maximum on how much resources one individual can appropriate. A must-read!"—Thomas Piketty, bestselling author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century"Robeyns has written an essential book from a radical point of view. It is high time someone asked the question, "Is there such a thing as having too much money?" Along with its corollary question, 'So what are we going to do about it?' Robeyns tackles both with deep knowledge, experience and empathy." —Abigail Disney, filmmaker, philanthropist, and activist "Is it possible to meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet? Definitely not in a world dominated by extreme wealth, as Ingrid Robeyns powerfully argues. This landmark book combines meticulous logic with compelling personal stories to draw everyone - from the super-rich to the super-riled - into one of the most critical public debates of our times. Read it." —Kate Raworth, bestselling author of Doughnut Economics "Limiting extreme wealth is an idea whose time has surely come and Ingrid Robeyns makes a powerful case for why this should be a priority for public and political debate. Limitarianism builds on what the epidemiology shows so clearly - inequality damages all of us and it needs to be tackled with the greatest urgency." —Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Livel "Robeyns proves that in a true democracy there are no rights without duties – no wealth without limits. Limitarianism offers a way to re-democratize wealth and thus re-socialize the richest 1%." —Marlene Engelhorn, author of Geld and co-founder of taxmenow "Many people accept that there is a threshold that no one should fall below. But few have thought that there is a threshold that no one should be free to soar above. In this wonderful book, Ingrid Robeyns presents a novel and nuanced set of arguments for just such an upper threshold. This is a model of how to bring rigorous analysis to bear on practical issues, and to do so in an engaging, humane and accessible way." —Debra Satz, author of Why Some Things Should Not Be For Sale"Ingrid Robeyns raises what, historically, would be a tendentious question because in the Industrial Age a rising tide of wealth tended to lift yachts and dinghies alike. But in our Digital Age yachts proliferate while dinghies get swamped. Robeyns’ argument that top heavy wealth is sinking living standards for the many, spreading economic fear that authoritarians exploit is sound and her thoughtful ideas for reining in extreme wealth are provocative."—David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Perfectly Legal, Free Lunch, and It's Even Worse Than You Think"Effortlessly navigating between ethics, political theory, economics and public policy, Ingrid Robeyns’ nuanced and persuasive defence of limitarianism is also a much-needed manifesto for reimagining political institutions." —Lea Ypi, author of Free: Coming of Age at the End of History "Robeyns delivers an urgent, thought provoking treatise that is both a compelling critique of limitless inequality and an imaginative account of a world without the superrich." —Peter Geoghegan, author of Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics "The best case I've read for putting an upper limit on the accumulation of wealth. Even the super-rich might be glad if there was a finishing line!" —Richard Wilkinson, bestselling author of The Spirit Level and The Inner Level (with Kate Pickett)"There is a limit beyond which additional wealth can’t do much to enhance its owner’s life or happiness. But our economic system generates fortunes far beyond any such limit. Is the existence of billionaires and multi-millionaires a necessary feature of a system that makes everyone better off in the long run? Or is it one of the sources of the growing inequality and political breakdown that we see today? Ingrid Robyens makes a convincing case that an upper limit on wealth would be good for society as a whole and even for the wealthy themselves." —John Quiggin, author of Zombie Economics"Ingrid Robeyns makes a compelling case for limiting extreme wealth, along economic, political and moral lines—and outlines the structural, fiscal and ethical actions required to achieve this. This argument has never been more important, and this book is a persuasive call to action." —Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts AmherstTable of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1: How much is too much?Chapter 2: Keeping the poor poor while inequalities growChapter 3: Dirty moneyChapter 4: Undermining democracyChapter 5: Setting the world on fireChapter 6: Nobody deserves to be a multimillionaireChapter 7: There’s so much we can do with excess moneyChapter 8: Philanthropy is not the answerChapter 9: The rich will benefit, tooConclusion: the road ahead

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Book SynopsisCentral banks are supposed to stabilize markets, yet decades of mounting central bank power have seen wave after wave of financial crisis. Leon Wansleben offers novel explanations for the rise of central banks and the problematic implications of their finance-dependent policies.Trade ReviewThe Rise of Central Banks shines light on the agency of bureaucrats and calls upon society and elected leaders to direct these actors’ efforts toward more progressive goals. * Politics Today *A laudable undertaking…Wansleben is breaking new ground. He has something to offer that you do not find in mainstream economic literature. -- Niels Bünemann * Central Banking *The Rise of Central Banks is a smart, well-researched book about central banks and their prominent role in economic governance during the recent era of financialized capitalism. Wansleben does a fine job weaving together many events, episodes, and details into a coherent story. Audiences interested in the Fed, central banking, economic policy, and financialization will certainly want to read this book. -- Bruce G. Carruthers, Northwestern UniversityThis is an impressive work that adds substantially to our scholarly understanding of modern central banks and why they have come to have such a dominant impact on our everyday lives. -- Kathleen R. McNamara, Georgetown UniversityToday’s economies are profoundly shaped by what central banks do, the decisions they take, and their blindspots. Wansleben’s superb book brings new depth, scholarship, and sophistication to the study of these hugely important organizations. -- Donald MacKenzie, University of EdinburghAmbitious and well-researched. Wansleben dissects the growing operational entanglements between monetarist governing techniques, the expansion of financial markets, and neoliberal economic policies in a world where central banks have become more powerful than ever. The outcome is a bloated financial sphere that is dangerously reliant on central banks’ actions to preserve its explosive power. A chilling, but incredibly important, account. -- Marion Fourcade, author of Economists and Societies: Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain, and France, 1890s to 1990s

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a radically different argument for what has caused, and likely will continue to cause, the collapse of emerging market economies. Pettis combines the insights of economic history, economic theory, and finance theory into a comprehensive model for understanding sovereign liability management and the causes of financial crises. He examines recent financial crises in emerging market countries along with the history of international lending since the 1820s to argue that the process of international lending is driven primarily by external events and not by local politics and/or economic policies. He draws out the corporate finance implications of this approach to argue that most of the current analyses of the recent financial crises suffered by Latin America, Asia, and Russia have largely missed the point. He then develops a sovereign finance model, analogous to corporate finance, to understand the capital structure needs of emerging market countries. Using this model, heTrade ReviewA source of new and enlightening perspectives for a wide range of the subjects of financial analysis and policy making for emerging financial markets. * The Financial Regulator *A cogent and compelling essay on the dynamics of emerging market crises ... Pettis's book offers invaluable insights into the dynamics of emerging market crises and provides important lessons for emerging market policy makers, investors, rating agencies, international institutions and anyone interested in emerging market finance. Moreover he has succeeded in delivering a punchy and highly readable volume * The Business Economist *The Volatility Machine provides a welcome departure from the sterile academic debate on the subject of financial crisis. Economists may quibble ... but would be wise not to ignore [Pettis's] insights into how they can exacerbate external risks. * Institutional Investor *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I. The Structure of Financial Crises 1: Capital Structure and Policy Collapse: The Financial Crisis of the Late 1990s 2: Market Structure Issues Part II. Global Liquidity and Capital Flows 3: Why Does Ric-Country Capital Flow to Poor Countries? 4: 180 Years of Liquidity Expansion and International Lending 5: The Contraction of International Lending Part III. The Corporate Finance of Crises 6: The Theory of Capital Structure and Financial Risk 7: The Capital Structure Trap 8: Toward a Theory of Sovereign Capital Structure Management 9: Debt Restructurings within a Corporate Finance Framework Part IV. Conclusion 10: Conclusion: The New Financial Architecture Appendix: The Option Characteristics of Sovereign Debt Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis'A very good guide to the state we're in' Paul Krugman, New York Review of Books'A well-written, thought-provoking book by one of America's leading economic thinkers and progressive champions.' Huffington PostDo you recall a time when the income of a single schoolteacher or baker or salesman or mechanic was enough to buy a home, have two cars, and raise a family?Robert Reich does - in the 1950s his father sold clothes to factory workers and the family earnt enough to live comfortably. Today, this middle class is rapidly shrinking: American income inequality and wealth disparity is the greatest it's been in eighty years.As Reich, who served in three US administrations, shows, the threat to capitalism is no longer communism or fascism but a steady undermining of the trust modern societies need for growth and stability.With an exclusive chapter for Icon's edition, Saving Capitalism is passionate yet practical, sweeping yet exactingly argued, a revelatory indictment of the economic status quo and an empowering call to action.Trade ReviewA riveting guide to how our economic and political system has become so badly flawed. -- Joseph StiglitzReich makes a very good case that widening inequality largely reflects political decisions that could have gone in very different directions... Saving Capitalism is a very good guide to the state we're in. * Paul Krugman, The New York Review of Books *One of Reich's finest works, and is required reading for anyone who has hope that a capitalist system can indeed work the many, and not just the few. * Salon *Arresting, thought-provoking... Readily understandable language... Powerful. * Publishers Weekly *Like any good teacher, Robert Reich knows that making a simple yet crucial idea stick often takes much time and many presentations of the concept... In Saving Capitalism, Reich drives home a basic fact that, if widely understood, could lift America from today's destructive political standoff. * Chicago Tribune *Reich has both the stature and eloquence to make a compelling case... Highly recommended to all readers... Insightful. * Library Journal, starred review *

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Book SynopsisA powerful analysis of how the bias towards wealth that is woven into the very fabric of American capitalism is damaging people, the economy, and the planet, and what the foundations of a new economy could be.This bold manifesto exposes seven myths underlying wealth supremacy, the bias that institutionalizes infinite extraction of wealth by and for the wealthy, and is the hidden force behind economic injustice, the climate crisis, and so many other problems of our day: The Myth of Maximizing: No amount of wealth is ever enough. The Myth of Fiduciary Duty: Corporate managers? most sacred duty is to expand capital. The Myth of Corporate Governance: Corporate membership must be reserved for capital alone. The Myth of the Income Statement: Income to capital must always be increased, while income to labor must always be decreased. The Myth of Materiality: Profit?material gain?alone is real, while social and environmental damages are not. The Myth of Takings: The first duty of government must be the protection of private property. The Myth of the Free Market: There should be no limits on the field of action of corporations and capital. Kelly argues instead for the democratization of ownership: public ownership of vital services, worker-owned businesses, and more. And she sketches the outlines of a non-extractive capitalism that would be subordinate to the public interest. This is an ambitious reimagining of the very foundations of our economy and society.

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Book SynopsisA pocket is formed when two or more people come together in agreement. The resistance is against the inhumanity of the new world economic order. This work features essays about - Rembrandt, Palaeolithic cave painters, a Romanian peasant, ancient Egyptians, an expert in the loneliness of certain hotel bedrooms, and a man in a radio station.Trade Review"John Berger writes: 'The pocket in question is a small pocket of resistance. A pocket is formed when two or more people come together in agreement. The resistance is against the inhumanity of the new world economic order. The people coming together are the reader, me and those the essays are about - Rembrandt, Palaeolithic cave painters, a Romanian peasant, ancient Egyptians, an expert in the loneliness of certain hotel bedrooms, dogs at dusk, a man in a radio station. And unexpectedly, our exchanges strengthen each of us in our conviction that what is happening to the world today is wrong, and that what is often said about it is a lie. I've never written a book with a greater sense of urgency.'

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Book SynopsisThe fascinating story of the enemy brothers behind Adidas and Puma, whose rivalry shaped the modern sports businessAdidas and Puma are two of the biggest global brands in sports, paying stars, clubs, and competitions to show off their labels in stadiums and across magazine pages. In Sneaker Wars, journalist Barbara Smit reveals the dramatic, character-driven story of these two powerhouses. Started in their mother’s laundry room in Germany, Adi and Rudi Dassler’s shoe business was an instant success. But a vicious feud soon pulled them apart: by the end of World War II, the brothers split the company, dividing their family and hometown.Adidas and Puma then revolutionized the world of sport, their rivalry introducing behind-the-scenes deals and multimillion-dollar contracts. A page-turning narrative, Sneaker Wars is a riveting blend of family drama, business, sports, and history.“What does David Beckham&

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Book SynopsisIn this enormously influential book, Jurgen Habermas examines the deep tensions and crisis tendencies which underlie the development of contemporary Western societies and develops a powerful analysis of the legitimation problems faced by modern states.Table of ContentsTranslator's Introduction. Preface. Part I: A Social - Scientific Concept of Crisis:. 1. System and Life = World. 2. Some Constituents of Social Systems. 3. Illustration of Social Principles of Organization. 4. System Crisis Elucidated Through the Example of the. Liberal-Capitalist Crisis Cycle. Part II: Crisis Tendencies in Advanced Capitalism:. 1. A Descriptive Model of Advanced Capitalism. 2. Problems Resulting from Advanced - Capitalist Growth. 3. A Classification of Possible Crisis Tendencies. 4. Theorems of Economic Crisis. 5. Theorems of Rationality Crisis. 6. Theorems of Legitimation Crisis. 7. Theorems of Motivation Crisis. 8. A Backward Glance. Part III: On the Logic of Legitimation Problems:. 1. Max Weber's Concept of Legitimation. 2. The Relation of Practical Questions to Truth. 3. The Model of the Suppression of Generalizable Interests. 4. The End of the Individual?. 5. Complexity and Democracy. 6. Partiality for Reason. Notes. Index.

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Book SynopsisPresents a rebuttal of the cultural reductionism of Max Weber and others who have tried to explain the politics and society of the Middle East by reference to some unchanging entity called 'Islam,' typically characterised as instinctively hostile to capitalism. This work looks at the facts, analysing economic texts with his customary common sense.Trade Review'In Islam and Capitalism, we can see a powerful mind wrestling with some of the largest questions which concern, not just the peoples of the Middle East but also those who wish to understand their economies, their societies and their ideologies, and to chart their progress.' Roger Owen

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Book SynopsisTo keep pace with today's connected customers, your company must become a connected company. That means deeply engaging with workers, partners, and customers, changing how work is done, how you measure success, and how performance is rewarded.

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Book SynopsisContemporary societies have more vibrant markets than past ones. Yet they are more heavily populated by private and public regulators. This book explores the features of such a regulatory capitalism, its tendencies to be cyclically crisis-ridden, ritualistic and governed through networks. New ways of thinking about resultant policy challenges are developed.At the heart of this latest work by John Braithwaite lies the insight by David Levi-Faur and Jacint Jordana that the welfare state was succeeded in the 1970s by regulatory capitalism. The book argues that this has produced stronger markets, public regulation, private regulation and hybrid private/public regulation as well as new challenges such as a more cyclical quality to crises of market and governance failure, regulatory ritualism and markets in vice. However, regulatory capitalism also creates opportunities for better design of markets in virtue such as markets in continuous improvement, privatized enforcement of regulation, open source business models, regulatory pyramids with networked escalation and meta-governance of justice.Regulatory Capitalism will be warmly welcomed by regulatory scholars in political science, sociology, history, economics, business schools and law schools as well as regulatory bureaucrats, policy thinkers in government and law and society scholars.Trade Review'In this sprawling and ambitious book John Braithwaite successfully manages to link the contemporary dynamics of macro political economy to the dynamics of citizen engagement and organisational activism at the micro intestacies of governance practices. This is no mean feat and the logic works. . .' -- Stephen Bell, The Australian Journal of Public Administration'Everyone who is puzzled by modern "regulocracy" should read this book. Short and incisive, it represents the culmination of over twenty years' work on the subject. It offers us a perceptive and wide-ranging perspective on the global development of regulatory capitalism and an important analysis of points of leverage for democrats and reformers.' -- Christopher Hood, All Souls College, Oxford, UK'It takes a great mind to produce a book that is indispensable for beginners and experts, theorists and policymakers alike. With characteristic clarity, admirable brevity, and his inimitable mix of description and prescription, John Braithwaite explains how corporations and states regulate each other in the complex global system dubbed regulatory capitalism. For Braithwaite aficionados, Regulatory Capitalism brings into focus the big picture created from years of meticulous research. For Braithwaite novices, it is a reading guide that cannot fail to inspire them to learn more.' -- Carol A. Heimer, Northwestern University, US'Reading Regulatory Capitalism is like opening your eyes. John Braithwaite brings together law, politics, and economics to give us a map and a vocabulary for the world we actually see all around us. He weaves together elements of over a decade of scholarship on the nature of the state, regulation, industrial organization, and intellectual property in an elegant, readable, and indispensable volume.' -- Anne-Marie Slaughter, Princeton University, USTable of ContentsContents: Foreword by David Levi-Faur Preface 1. Neoliberalism or Regulatory Capitalism? 2. The Cyclical Nature of the Challenges of Regulatory Capitalism 3. Privatized Enforcement and the Promise of Regulatory Capitalism 4. The Nodal Governance Critique of Responsive Regulation 5. Regulatory Capitalism, Business Models and the Knowledge Economy with Janet Hope and Dianne Nicol 6. Can Regulatory Ritualism be Transcended? 7. Metagovernance of Justice 8. Is Regulatory Capitalism a Good Thing? References Index

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Book SynopsisIn what ways are cities central to the evolution of contemporary global capitalism? And in what ways is global capitalism forged by the urban experience? This book provides a response to these questions, exploring the multifaceted dimensions of the city-capitalism nexus.Trade Review"Ugo Rossi offers a highly original analysis of the current urban condition. The book plays imaginatively on the complex relationships linking cities, neoliberal capitalism and globalization and extracts from these materials a remarkably informative and incisive diagnosis." - Allen J. Scott, UCLA "In this historically grounded, highly current and well-argued volume, Rossi combines critical reviews of diverse theoretical currents and empirical analyses to highlight recent trends, crises and struggles in and beyond the capitalist heartlands. He explores the growing links between neoliberalism and globalization, making cities ever more critical as sites of everyday resistance as well as crucial spaces of accumulation. Enjoy reading this book and acting upon it." - Bob Jessop, Lancaster University "Rossi provides a remarkably comprehensive, clear, and tremendously useful survey of theorizations of the relation between cities and capitalism. As he does so, he offers the reader a rich exploration of the many facets of that complex and mutually constitutive relation." - Miranda Joseph, The University of Arizona "Reading contemporary global capital from the perspective of the city, Ugo Rossi's Cities in Global Capitalism presents a critical geography, rich in analysis and haunted with spectral figures. Rossi shows how the city - the site of historical struggle, artistic and social innovations, and revolutionary uprisings - has been shaped by capital and its state partners with new spatial inequalities, potentialities, and peripheries. As the city once again becomes the destination for the global rich, economic innovation becomes a leading edge of gentrification and the abandoned warehouses of Fordist production become the ghost towers haunting the urban sky - vast areas the mega rich own but rarely inhabit as the ever-expanding homeless below pass by." - Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Columbia University "Cities in Global Capitalism presents an impressive tour de force on the mutually reinforcing relationship between cities, on the one hand, and the capitalist system on the other. Sifting through a wide range of work from across numerous disciplines, Ugo Rossi's account of the contemporary global urban condition is conceptually sophisticated, geographically nuanced and historically sensitive!" - Kevin Ward, University of Manchester "Ugo Rossi's book is a clear and illuminating overview of the complex relationships between globalized capitalism and urban spaces. A valuable contribution to the project of critically reflecting on our contemporary condition." - Nick Srnicek, author of Platform Capitalism and Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work"The Introduction alone is worth the price of admission. It provides an original, up-to-the-minute […], creative framework and overview of cities in global capitalism that is rare. Others in the field of urban studies provide narrower depictions, specific in-depth explanations. But Rossi gives you the whole show; tries to explain it all. It takes chutzpah. […] As a project, Rossi's is ambitious and sweeping, but it is never out of control, the arguments always systematic and tightly drawn." - Trevor J. Barnes, Papers in Regional ScienceTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Emergences 2. Extensions 3. Continuities 4. Diffusions 5. Variations Conclusion: Living in the age of ambivalence

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Book SynopsisIn this series of essays, Ayn Rand presents her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This is the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constitutes a major philosophic revolution. Here is a challenging new look at modern society by one of the most provocative intellectuals on the American scene.   This edition includes two articles by Ayn Rand that did not appear in the hardcover edition: “The Wreckage of the Consensus,” which presents the Objectivists’ views on Vietnam and the draft; and “Requiem for Man,” an answer to the Papal encyclical Progresso Populorum.

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Book Synopsis“A riveting account that reaches beyond the market landscape to say something universal about risk and triumph, about hubris and failure.”—The New York TimesNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUSINESSWEEKIn this business classic—now with a new Afterword in which the author draws parallels to the recent financial crisis—Roger Lowenstein captures the gripping roller-coaster ride of Long-Term Capital Management. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein explains not just how the fund made and lost its money but also how the personalities of Long-Term’s partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the culture of Wall Street itself contributed to both their rise and their fall. When it was founded in 1993, Long-Term was hailed as the most impressive hedge fund in history. But after four years in which the firm dazzled Wall Stree

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Book SynopsisFinance is widely seen as an obstacle to a better world. Principles of Sustainable Finance explains how the financial sector can be mobilized to counter this. Using finance as a means to achieve social goals we can divert the planet and its economy from its current path to a world that is sustainable for all. Written for undergraduate, graduate, and executive students of finance, economics, business, and sustainability, this textbook combines theory, empirical data, and policy to explain the sustainability challenges for corporate investment. It shows how finance can steer funding to certain companies and projects without sacrificing return and thus speed up the transition to a sustainable economy. It analyses the Sustainable Development Goals as a strategy for a better world and provides evidence that environmental, social, and governance factors matter, explaining in detail how to incorporate these factors in the corporate and financial sectors.Tailored for students, Principles of Sustainable Finance starts each chapter with an overview and learning objectives to support study. It includes suggestions for further reading, lists and definitions of key concepts, and extensive uses of figures, boxes, and tables to enhance educational goals and clarify concepts.Principles of Sustainable Finance is also supported by an online resource that includes teaching materials and cases.Trade ReviewSustainable finance has emerged as a major new field for practitioners, but has largely bypassed the classroom for lack of a good textbook. Principles of Sustainable Finance is an impressive textbook that fills this important gap. It lucidly explains the fundamental challenge climate change poses for financial markets. It is extremely well-informed about the latest developments and weaves together a coherent account of widely dispersed approaches, including research that is otherwise inaccessible to the layman. It is essential reading for any student seeking to understand the main ideas and trends in sustainable finance. * Patrick Bolton, Professor of Business at Columbia University *The financial system is integral to achieving a smooth transition to a low carbon economy. Based on their extensive careers in finance and academia, Schoenmaker and Schramade set out an insightful vision for a sustainable financial sector, one where social and environmental dimensions are integrated within financial decisions. At a time when the need for a sustainable financial system becomes ever more pressing, this book furthers the debate on how to get there and what role each financial market participant has to play. * Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Englad *The UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 are predicated on the idea that current and future generations have the resources needed to ensure access to clean water, food, shelter, health, education and energy, irrespective of the place of birth, while caring and preserving our common home: The Earth. In Principles of Sustainable Finance, Dirk Schoenmaker and Willem Schramade discuss the importance of sustainable finance and how it can help allocate resources to individual and social needs, over time, while respecting our planetâs boundaries. It is an indispensable read for students, professionals and policy-makers. * Vitor Gaspar, Director Fiscal Affairs Department at the International Monetary Fun *I am sometimes asked what a biologist is doing at the Ministry of Finance. The answer is simple: there is no better place for a biologist than working with finance. With the monumental challenges we are facing, such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity, mainstream finance needs to become truly sustainable. This implies that a larger skillset is needed for those dealing with economics. This textbook contributes to the change needed. * Per Bolund, Minister for Financial Markets in Sweden *The investment decisions of today shape our future. We have a choice. Do we maximise short-term returns, or create long-term sustainable value? It is becoming increasingly clear that society is reaching ecological and social boundaries, and that we can only prosper if we respect these boundaries. Principles of Sustainable Finance provides investors and financiers with the tools to make the right decisions, now and in the future. * Eloy Lindeijer, Chief Investment Office at PGGM *With this work, Schoenmaker and Schramade make an invaluable contribution to the role of finance in the transition of the global economy to a low carbon growth path. It should be required reading in the C-suite of any bank grappling with what climate change means for its lending strategy. * Stewart James, Managing Director Public Affairs at HSBC *Principles of Sustainable Finance comes with a perfect timing: all around the planet a new, long-term and responsible capitalism is emerging. It requires to combine both a new academic perspective and attention to its concrete implementation. This is exactly what this important book achieves and makes it so valuable for both students, researchers and practitioners. * Fred Samama, Co-Head of Institutional Clients at Amundi *Table of ContentsPart I: What is Sustainability and Why Does it Matter? 1: Sustainability and the Transition ChallengePart II: Sustainability's Challenges to corporates 2: Externalities - Internalisation 3: Governance and Behaviour 4: Coalitions for Sustainable Finance 5: Strategy and Intangibles - Changing Business Models 6: Integrated Reporting - Metrics and DataPart III: Financing Sustainability 7: Investing for Long-Term Value Creation 8: Equity - Investing with an Ownership Stake 9: Bonds - Investing without voting power 10: Banking - New Forms of Lending 11: Insurance - Managing Long-Term RiskPart IV: How To Get There? 12: Transition Management and Integrated Thinking

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Book SynopsisEvery aspect of the anti-capitalist world is covered in this helpful guide, from WOMBLES to Zapatistas, NGOs to environmentalism, Paris 1968 to Seattle, and beyond. Picking up where Naomi Klein left off, this is not so much a manifesto as a roadmap, which captures the essence of the movement, and also articulates a range of possibilities for future alternatives to the corporate domination of our planet.Trade Review"This is clear, helpful and enlightening. I have learnt a lot from this book, and I'm sure that you will do so as well." George Monbiot, Guardian columnist and author of The Age of Consent "A useful account of the failure of hyper-capitalism, and of those who oppose it." Paul Kingsnorth, author of One No, Many Yeses and Real England: The Battle Against the Bland "I strongly support this book, it is a good critical (or self-critical) guide to the movement and exactly what the movement needs at its current stage." Boris Kagarlitsky, Director, Institute of Globilization and Social Movements, MoscowTable of ContentsIntroduction: ‘Beginning’ anti-capitalism 1. The hows and whys of the thing called ‘capitalism’ 2. Why ‘Seattle’? 1968, the ‘end of history’ and the birth of contemporary anti-capitalism 3. A ‘movement of movements’ (i): ‘reformism’ or ‘globalisation with a human face’ 4. A ‘movement of movements’ (ii): renegades, radicals and revolutionaries 5. The future(s) of anti-capitalism: problems and perspectives Glossary of key terms, thinkers and movements Contemporary anti-capitalism: a timeline Index

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Book SynopsisAchieve rapid acceleration and transformation with the Value Flywheel Effect.Today, every business is a technology business; every leader is a technology leader. As we enter this new era, organizations must learn to harness technology to drive innovation and power change. In The Value Flywheel Effect, David Anderson, Michael O'Reilly, and Mark McCann enable leaders to create an adaptive organization built upon embracing strategic thinking, team focus, and reduced time to value to drive business results and navigate a migration to the modern cloud. Using Wardley Mapping and other sense-making approaches, The Value Flywheel Effect helps organizations anticipate market changes and user needs. As the flywheel starts to turn, each small win builds momentum. This continuous momentum builds situational awareness, breaks new boundaries, and catapults companies to sustainable, long-term success. Learn to understand and utilize the sociotechnical intersection between business, technology, and people with the Value Flywheel Effect. Give your organization the edge it needs to navigate future challenges and build maximum velocity.Trade Review“If you wish to survive and thrive in this fourth industrial age, if you wish to understand the landscapes you are competing in, if you wish to understand how modern practices will change your organization, then I would recommend that you read and study this book carefully.” -- Simon Wardley, creator of Wardley Maps“...a big part of my job has been to try to explain and apply the ideas developed at Netflix and Amazon to other organizations and applications, big and small. This book is the best distillation of how to do that, that I've encountered.” -- Adrian Cockcroft, former VP of Amazon Sustainability Architecture“The Value Flywheel Effect is a timely and hugely valuable book providing a set of principles and ways of working to navigate and exploit the fast-changing technology and business landscape. Without sensemaking capabilities, organizations are increasingly struggling to act effectively in the modern disruptive technology context, so much so that the ideas in The Value Flywheel Effect amount to a kind of ‘survival handbook' for the next decade or two. The Value Flywheel Effect is essential reading for any leader or practitioner who wants to help their organization to survive and thrive.” -- Matthew Skelton, coauthor of Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow“I'm delighted to see that David, Mark, and Michael have taken the time and considerable trouble to explain how they architected and delivered serverless innovation at Liberty Mutual. Why? because change is the only constant, and the pace of technology innovation is accelerating this change. As J.F. Kennedy said ‘those that look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future'. This book is required reading if you want to leverage serverless technology.” -- Dr. Jacqui Taylor, CEO and Co-Founder FlyingBinary“The future for company creation and innovation relies on speed, scalability, and sustainability. To nurture thriving products, organizations, and cultures, you need to understand the landscape you're competing in, along with the path to choose to succeed. Packed with real-world examples, case studies, and practical tools applied to complex domains, The Flywheel Effect is required reading to plot your future and the business you want to be.” -- Barry O'Reilly, Co-Founder Nobody Studios, author of Unlearn and Lean Enterprise“The journey to the cloud is one of leadership and change management rather than purely a technical pathway. The Value Flywheel Effect is a great foundation for any organization on a modern cloud journey. Based on how it's applied in the real world, to real problems, there are great insights into how to navigate waves of change.” -- Seamus Cushley, VP Product Development, Bazaarvoice“Serverless architecture combined with clarity of purpose is a lethal combination for winning in today's competitive landscape. The Value Flywheel Effect provides powerful insights on how you can leverage these modern practices to navigate an enterprise cloud transformation and accelerate the delivery of value.” -- Drew Firment, SVP at A Cloud Guru“Required reading for every level of an organization adopting modern cloud, and grounded in unparalleled lived experience of transformation. I'm sure I'll be referencing this for years” -- Ben Ellerby, Founder of Aleios & AWS Serverless Hero“The Value Flywheel Effect shares a surprising collection of leadership and transformation practices that are sure to help you stir up the right kind of trouble, no matter where you are in the organization. Also an excellent reference for your Wardley Mapping practice, with helpful guidance, plenty of examples, and new things to try as well!” -- Ben Mosior, LearnWardleyMapping.com“The Value Flywheel Effect presents a practical road map to innovation, focusing on a modernization strategy that takes full advantage of modern cloud capabilities. Engineers and their leadership will learn real-world techniques based on the authors' experience evolving a value-first approach at a Fortune 100 company to reinvent traditional enterprise development.” -- Sam Dengler, AWS Principal Developer AdvocateTable of ContentsForeword by Adrian CockcroftForeword by Simon WardleyIntroduction Part I: Starting Our JourneyChapter 1: The Flywheel EffectChapter 2: Practices and Principles of MappingChapter 3: Illustration of the Value Flywheel in Action Part II: Phase One - Purpose and VisionChapter 4: Finding Your North StartChapter 5: Obsess over Time to ValueChapter 6: Map the Market CompetitionChapter 7: A Cloud Guru Case Study Part III: Phase Two - Challenge and LandscapeChapter 8: Environment for SuccessChapter 9: Socio-Technical View of the SystemChapter 10: Map Your Org CapabilityChapter 11: Workgrid Case Study Part IV: Phase Three - Today's Next Best Action: ServerlessChapter 12: The Serverless EdgeChapter 13: Frictionless Dev ExperienceChapter 14: Map Your SolutionChapter 15: Liberty Mutual Case Study Part V: Phase Four - Long-Term ValueChapter 16: Problem Prevention Culture through the Well-Architected FrameworkChapter 17: Future Trends and SustainabilityChapter 18: Map the Emerging ValueChapter 19: BBC Case Study Conclusion Bonus: 100 Day PlanAfterward: History of the Authors and MappingResourcesBibliographyNotesIndexAcknowledgmentsAbout the Authors

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Book SynopsisThe future of business is digital, yet most organizations (including many with high-tech origins) are struggling to adapt despite high levels of planning and multiyear investments. As it turns out, the key to digital transformation is hidden in plain sight Stop trying to predict the future. Instead, create the conditions for unanticipated innovations (AKA happy accidents) to occur and then rapidly exploit them. APIs and optionality are what make this path possible.Unbundling the Enterprise provides a blueprintproven but until now unarticulatedon how to architect your business for success in the digital economy. In this book, you will learn the power of using APIs to unlock your organization''s existing business capabilities to accumulate optionality, and how that optionality can drive innovation and create new organic growth inside of your enterprise.In Unbundling the Enterprise, digital strategists Matt McLarty and Stephen Fishm

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Book SynopsisThis timely book contributes to discussions about the nature of property and capital in an era dominated by neoliberalism and resource privatization. Raising broad questions about the distribution of wealth and wealth inequality, this timely book will set the agenda in modern property theory.

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Book SynopsisThe solution to inequality, environmental degradation, and other deficits of capitalism is better capitalism. The Power of Creative Destruction draws on cutting-edge research to argue that what we need today is not revolution but reform: pro-competitive policies that enable innovation while compensating for the disruption it causes.Trade ReviewSweeping, authoritative and—for the times—strikingly upbeat…The overall argument is compelling and, with creative destruction falling out of political favor, it carries a trace of Schumpeterian subversion. * The Economist *[An] important book…[It] is lucid, empirically grounded, wide-ranging, and well-argued…Schumpeter himself feared capitalism would perish. So far, he seems to have been wrong. Another possibility is that democracy will die, as plutocracy allies with demagoguery. Either way, the civilizations of the contemporary high-income democracies would perish. By promoting a better understanding, this book could, with wisdom and luck, help us avoid that fate. -- Martin Wolf * Financial Times *Successfully navigating the supply chain disruptions created by COVID-19 requires strong political leaders to implement smart policies, but not leaders so strong that they can suppress organizational innovations that will disfavor them or their allies. The authors explain these dynamics and more in an eminently accessible fashion. -- Barry Eichengreen * Foreign Affairs *Marvelous…Consistently thoughtful and, in its way, fearless. In The Power of Creative Destruction, readers will find much that transcends the facile arguments and moral posturing that too often characterizes today’s economic debates. -- Milton Ezrati * City Journal *Gather a group of economists together and ask what most concerns them, and a wide variety of topics would soon emerge…Decade after decade, numerous books have been written about each of these issues. But here we have in one compact package a blockbuster book that deals with all of them…A magisterial book with something new and imaginative to say on such a wide and important range of topics. -- Robert J. Gordon * Business History Review *[A] rigorous education in the economics of innovation…Extend[s] economic analysis to illuminate a wide range of contemporary political and cultural issues. -- William H. Janeway * Project Syndicate *An impressive study…It convinces, to my mind, on what the path to a better world, with less inequality, injustice, environmental catastrophe might look like. -- Bridget Rosewell * Society of Professional Economists *An important book for the times…The authors succinctly connect politics to economics and argue that ‘Innovation Needs Democracy.’…To paraphrase a quote referring to Keynes, another famous economist, this book may convince readers that we should all be Schumpeterians now. -- Craig R. Roach * New York Journal of Books *Offers Americans much needed insight into the sources of economic growth and the kinds of policies that will promote it…All in Washington would do well to read this volume carefully. -- Milton Ezrati * Forbes *Philippe Aghion is one of the founders of the new growth theory focused on the origins and implications of technological progress. This book, based on thirty years of research, shows the richness and usefulness of this approach. It is a fundamental document for thinking about the nature of growth, industrial policy, and the organization of the labor market. -- Olivier Blanchard, Peterson Institute for International Economics and former Chief Economist, International Monetary FundAccelerating technological change, global warming, pandemics, individual and national stagnation, over-indebtedness: this century decidedly provokes anxiety. Armed with legitimate concerns, anti-globalization protestors and neo-Luddites look inwards and denigrate innovation. The Power of Creative Destruction offers another vision, more persuasive and based on the innovation that creates wealth and jobs. Philippe Aghion, Céline Antonin, and Simon Bunel dismantle contemporary myths about such economic phenomena as secular stagnation and the impact of automation on employment. They show the need for competition and the fight against rents. They advocate a regulated capitalism that will allow us to keep society prosperous and the planet green. They explain, in short, how to manage the creative destruction that over the past two centuries has brought to our society a previously unimaginable prosperity. Provocative and rigorous, this book is an important milestone in our reflections on the future of our societies. A must-read. -- Jean Tirole, Nobel Laureate, Toulouse School of EconomicsThe term ‘creative destruction’ expresses a contradiction at the core of capitalism; creation brings innovation, growth, and prosperity while the destruction that it demands engenders resistance and stagnation. Philippe Aghion, Céline Antonin, and Simon Bunel are the leaders in exploring and understanding this story of action and reaction. Their insights are essential if policy is to restore growth in today’s faltering capitalism. -- Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate in Economic SciencesAnyone curious about where modern capitalism is going and whether economic growth can be sustained should read this book. In accessible prose, based on cutting-edge economic analysis, the authors dissect the dynamics of the modern economies. They show brilliantly how capitalism in the twenty-first century is indeed as creative as it is destructive, and how innovation will affect modern economies and hence the life of every human on the planet, for better and for worse. Deeply researched and intelligently written, this is a genuine tour de force. -- Joel Mokyr, Northwestern UniversityPhilippe Aghion has been the leader of modern growth theory for the last three decades. He has shown that innovation and disruption, Schumpeter’s creative destruction, are at the heart of the productivity and power of a capitalist economy. In this book that story is clearly and compellingly told, but now he and his colleagues go still deeper into the kind of society we want to build, whilst keeping the power of creative destruction. We really can create a prosperous future which brings a supportive community and social cohesion, and a much better environment, climate, and biodiversity. This fine and crucially important book is ultimately optimistic about what we can do, but challenges us as to whether we will. -- Nicholas Stern, London School of EconomicsThe authors…argue that the socioeconomic problems revealed during the global pandemic—welfare, health, inequality, and many others—will not be fixed by abolishing capitalism but rather by inventing a better capitalism through the power of creative destruction, which they define as innovations that disrupt and lift societies. -- Satya Nadella * Fast Company *A refreshing take on large, important societal questions. By making the case for a rightful role for government, institutions, civil society organizations, and issues of equity and fairness in the production of capitalist society, the authors produce a justification for a new political economy—one in which capitalism’s innovative power to produce novel, entertaining, and imaginative products is harnessed to increasing collective welfare and a more interesting and secure future for citizenry. -- Neil Fligstein * Administrative Science Quarterly *An ambitious story of how Western countries escaped the Malthusian population-growth trap, hitting upon an innovation-lead growth trajectory that has so far resulted in immense improvements in longevity and quality of life for the vast majority of humankind. It was a pleasure to read this well-written book, which is full of easy examples and background data. -- Paul Frijters * Economic Record *

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisFrom Finland to Kenya to Stockton, California, more and more governments and private philanthropic organizations are putting the idea of a Universal Basic Income to the test. But can the reality live up to the hype? The motivating idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is radically simple: give people cash and let them do whatever they want with it. But does this simple idea have the potential to radically transform our society? Is a UBI the ultimate solution to the problem of poverty? Is it the solution to automation-induced unemployment? Can it help solve gender and racial inequality?This book provides the average citizen with all the information they need to understand current debates about the UBI. It recounts the history of the idea, from its origins in the writings of 18th century radical intellectuals to contemporary discussions centered on unemployment caused by technological advances such as artificial intelligence. It discusses current pilot programs in the United States and Trade ReviewIn this important book, Zwolinski and Fleischer provide a clear and comprehensive introduction to universal basic income in all its forms, including stakeholder grants, the earned income tax credit, and the child tax credit. As UBI spreads across the United States and the world, this new work is essential reading. * Anne Alstott, Yale Law School *A complete, thorough, and practical breakdown of UBI. Whether you're a supporter or a skeptic, Zwolinski and Fleischer's work is a must-read. * Andrew Yang, Entrepreneur and Former 2020 Presidential Candidate *This book provides a balanced, comprehensive exploration of Universal Basic Income, deftly tackling its many facets in an approachable manner. Without getting mired in excessive detail, it covers many frequently asked questions, serving as an essential primer for anyone wanting to participate in this crucial policy discussion. An accessible, bipartisan guide, it is an ideal starting point for better understanding this transformative idea that I personally believe is the most important policy discussion of all to be having this century. * Scott Santens, Senior Advisor for Humanity Forward *Universal Basic Income provides a fair and balanced explanation of an important topic...it would be good for our society. * Religion & Liberty *The book is quite simply a tour de force. It's clear, concise, and can easily be digested by anyone sufficiently curious: no academic background in economics, social science, or politics required. * David J. Herbert, Religion & Liberty Online *

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