Economics of specific sectors Books

Book SynopsisGroundbreaking call to action by Donella Meadows, the bestselling author of Thinking in Systems! Limits to Growth was right. New research shows we're nearing collapse the Guardian The updated edition of the groundbreaking classic that kickstarted the movement for environmental and ecological reform! Perfect for fans of The Uninhabitable Earth and There is No Planet B It is no unknown fact that at the present rate of climate change, population growth and capitalistic expansion, we are over-exceeding our planet’s resources. We’re stretched pretty thin and if we continue at the present rate we’ll soon be headed towards irreversible consequences as a result of unchecked growth on a finite planet. Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers and Dennis Meadows, three imminent environmental leaders, foresaw the early signs of wear and tear on our planet. They come together in Limits to Growth to offer an analysis of present and future trends in resource use and assess a variety of possible outcomes. Citing climate change as the most tangible example of our current overshoot, the scientists now provide us with a plan to reduce our needs to meet the carrying capacity of the planet. In many ways, the message contained in Limits to Growth is a warning. Rampant resource exhaustion cannot be sustained without collapse. But as the authors are careful to point out, there is reason to believe that humanity can still reverse some of the damage to Earth if we reduce inefficiency and waste. Limits to Growth is a work of stunning intelligence that has exposed the critical line between human growth and human development.Trade ReviewJohn N. Cooper, for AxisofLogic.com- This is a wonderful book. Originally published in 1972 as Limits to Growth and refreshed in 1992 in Beyond the Limits, the authors have now issued a 30-year appraisal [Chelsea Green Publishing, ISBN 1-931498-58-X], in which they examine the progress made both in their understanding of the mechanisms underlying the impact of humanity on the world ecology and of steps taken toward remediating the accelerating approach to trainwreck that is mankind's ill-managed and uncontrolled 'footprint' on this planet's environment. Briefly, humanity has overshot the limits of what is physically and biologically sustainable. That overshoot WILL lead to the collapse of the planetary environment's ability to support not only our species but much of the rest of the biosphere if we do not act rapidly and effectively to reduce our footprint. These conclusions provide reasons for both optimism and alarm: optimism because humanity has demonstrated its capacity to act appropriately in one specific instance; and alarm because thirty years have been largely wasted since the consequences of our failing to act were detailed. There is still time but the need to act quickly and effectively is urgent. The authors demonstrate that the most critical areas needing immediate attention are: population; wasteful, inefficient growth; and pollution. They show how attention to all three simultaneously can result in returning the human footprint on the environment to manageable, sustainable size, while sharply reducing the disparity between human well-being and fostering a generous quality-of-life worldwide. Absent this, the prospects are grim indeed. The book is divided into three sections, the first outlining in principle the authors' systems analytical approach to understanding the planet's ecology. Their presentation is clear and comprehensible with an abundance of charts and figures that make visualizing the concepts easy. They successfully avoid the pitfalls of many technical presentations by using familiar analogies and largely avoiding professional jargon. As a result readers come away with insights not just into global interconnectedness of inputs, outputs, accumulation and feedback but also the significance of such dynamics in local, even personal, situations. The second section deals with the authors' updated and revised modeling program, World3, which they utilize to test the plausible effects of changes in human political, economic and social behavior on the environment. Their discussion of World3 focuses on the assumptions for, and results of, a variety calculational scenarios. Details of their latest programming revisions are reserved for an index. Repeatedly they emphasize that their results are NOT prescriptive, but merely descriptive in general terms of likely consequences of humanity's failure or success in rising to meet the issues cited. Again excellent graphics for the various scenarios allow the reader to see at a glance what different approaches toward rectifying past, present and future environmental damage may have. The final chapters describe options open to humanity that the authors believe have the best chance of avoiding social, economic and probably political collapse in the next century or so. We have a choice: the human experiment, possibly even the biological experiment, that is life on this planet can yet succeed and persist in a sustainable way. But to do so will require our species as whole consciously and deliberately to take immediate, remediating steps, now, seriously and adequately to address the issues we have so far failed to do so effectively. It IS up to us. © Copyright 2005 by AxisofLogic.com. -- John N. Cooper"In 1972, The Limits to Growth was published as a clarion call to begin changing the way the world worked so we safely made it to 2050-2070. The authors were clear that the path of change needed to begin "now" so we made a course correction within the next 30 years. Sadly, the message they wrote got badly misunderstood and by 30 years later, scores of critiques to the book claimed the authors warned that the world would run out of oil and other scare resources by 1990 or 2000. It is time for the world to re-read Limits to Growth! The message of 1972 is far more real and relevant in 2004 and we wasted a valuable 30 years of action plans by misreading the message of the first book."--Matthew R. Simmons, energy analyst and founder, Simmons & Company International, The world's largest energy investment banking practiceTable of Contents1. Overshoot 2. The driving force: exponential growth 3. The limits: sources and sinks 4. World3: the dynamics of growth in a finite world 5. Back from beyond the limits: the ozone story 6. Technology, markets, and overshoot 7. Transitions to a sustainable system 8. Tools for the transition to sustainability

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“A convincing book that could make a big difference in the way we think about modern economic problems.”—Peter Passell, New York Times Book Review

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Book SynopsisPhelps explores what makes nations prosper--and why the sources of that prosperity are under threat today. Why did prosperity explode in some nations between the 1820s and 1960s, creating not just unprecedented material wealth but "flourishing"--meaningful work, self-expression, and personal growth for more people than ever before?Trade ReviewWinner of the 2014 Gold Medal in Economics, Axiom Business Book Awards One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014 One of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of 2014, chosen by chosen by Bjorn Wahlroos One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2013 A "Best Business Book of the Year for 2013" selected on LinkedIn by Matthew Bishop, Economics Editor of The Economist "[W]ide-ranging."--Benjamin Friedman, New York Review of Books "The book eloquently discusses the culture of innovation, which can refer to both an entrepreneurial mind-set and the cultural achievements during an age of change... The dismal science becomes a little brighter when Mr. Phelps draws the connections between the economic ferment of the industrial age and the art of Beethoven, Verdi and Rodin."--Edward Glaeser, Wall Street Journal "[I]nquiring readers, not just academics and social scientists, will enjoy the vast learning in Phelps's sophisticated, sometimes sardonic, look at homo economicus."--Publishers Weekly "Phelps, a Nobel laureate in economics, defies categorisation. In this extraordinary book--part history, part economics and part philosophy--he proclaims individual enterprise as the defining characteristic of modernity. But he fears this dynamism is lost. One does not have to agree to recognise that Phelps has addressed some of the big questions about our future."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "Phelps has written a book that transcends the materialist walls of standard economics... It is a book J.M. Keynes would have admired."--Paul DeRosa, American Interest "[F]ascinating, versatile and profound."--Felix Martin, New Statesman "A great book that will annoy big business and absolutely infuriate the left. I loved it."--Diana Hunter, Financial World "Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps' latest book should be read by those seeking a broader context to the challenges currently facing the global economies. In his wide-ranging and insightful book, Professor Phelps draws on historical trends and cultural shifts to present his hypothesis that a lack of dynamism in modern economies lies at the root of the current malaise... Indeed, this remarkable book addresses the central economic question of why some economies thrive while others languish."--Declan Jordan, London School of Economics Review of Books "Few leading economists ... have tried to develop Marx's contention that there is an ineluctable relationship between human psychology and market participation. This relationship is what Phelps describes as human 'flourishing.'"--Andrew Godley, International Journal of the Economics of Business "Phelps has produced an insightful work that bridges gaps among economics, sociology, and philosophy to identify countries that have the capabilities to prosper and flourish. This book is an essential read for individuals interested in better assessing countries' economies and competitive advantages."--Library Journal "The author ranges extremely widely and any student of any age will gain something from it, irrespective of political views."--Samuel Brittan, Financial Times "Phelps's book deserves credit for showing that the strength of an economy doesn't depend on small differences in the tax rate, or the tactics of a country's central bank. Phelps rightly points out that economic dynamism depends on much deeper issues like a culture's affinity for risk taking and respect for individual achievement. And he wields convincing statistics that suggest actors in our political economy, from our government, to corporations, to workers, have to some extent lost their reverence for these values."--Chris Matthews, Time.com Money & Business "I ... find his values-driven view of national prosperity fascinating--and applicable to corporate and personal prosperity. If innovation and the prosperity it yields stem from the values to which we subscribe as individuals, organizations, and nations, it stands to reason that we should be paying a great deal of attention to the particular values we adopt and espouse."--Theodore Kinni, Strategy-Business.com "[E]xciting."--William Watson, National Post "[W]ide-ranging... Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge and Change, a distillation of years of research and thought about the changes in values and attitudes that once unleashed wide-scale creativity and risk-taking and which are under severe threat today."--Brian Milner, Globe & Mail "The book is wide-ranging and highly eclectic: in just two pages (pp. 280-281) you'll find references to Cervantes, Shakespeare, Hume, Voltaire, Jefferson, Keats, William Earnest Henley, William James, Walt Whitman, Abraham Maslow, Rawls, Nietzsche, and Lady Gaga! ... Anyone interested in the synthesis of free markets and social justice will find this eminent thinker's distinctive version of that synthesis both illuminating and thought-provoking."--Brink Lindsey, Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog "Phelps has given us a clear warning of the dangers of corporatism. I hope that more people hear and heed the warning."--Arnold Kling, Econlog "[I]t wasn't until today that I started looking at Mass Flourishing by Edmund Phelps, about the central role of innovation in modern growth and, more, in the enabling of the good life. Obviously I should have read it last week. It looks right on theme, and it is pleasing to pick up an economics book that has a chapter on Aristotle."--Enlightened Economist "One does not have to agree to recognise that Phelps has addressed some of the big questions about our future."--Financial Times "Mass Flourishing offers a brilliant dissection of the origins, causes, and eventual decline of modern capitalism--an inclusive economy characterized by the complex unfettered interactions among diverse indigenous innovators, entrepreneurs, financiers, and consumers... This book should be accessible to general readers and is especially stimulating for graduate students and those interested in economics, sociology, history, political science, and psychology."--Choice "It applies many important aspects of Virginia political economy, making a contribution to understanding not only the positive, but also the normative implications of the rules of the game."--Rosolino Candela, Public Choice "It challenges many of our prized assumptions about what makes economies succeed."--David P Goldman, Standpoint "This is a recommended read, not only because it was written by Edmund Phelps, the 2006 Nobel Laureate in economics, but for encouraging reflection on fundamental issues related to modern life and the contemporary interpretation of Aristotle's 'the good life'. The author is such an experienced and iconic guide that it makes the journey through the subjects covered in the book an excellent read for anyone."--Jacek Klich, Central Banking Journal "It is a marvelous book that deserves to be read by everyone, but particularly those entrusted with the design of the European future."--Bjorn Wahlroos, Bloomberg Businessweek "Phelps masterfully utilizes aggregate data on cross-comparative national economic productivity and adeptly complements it with international individual employee satisfaction survey results give the reader a rich empirical tapestry that support his theme."--Thomas A. Hemphill, Cato JournalTable of ContentsPreface vii Introduction: Advent of the Modern Economies 1 PART ONE The Experience of the Modern Economy 1 How Modern Economies Got Their Dynamism 19 2 Material Eff ects of the Modern Economies 41 3 The Experience of Modern Life 55 4 How Modern Economies Formed 77 PART TWO Against the Modern Economy 5 The Lure of Socialism 113 6 The Third Way: Corporatism Right and Left 135 7 Weighing the Rivals on Their Terms 170 8 The Satisfaction of Nations 193 PART THREE Decay and Refounding 9 Markers of Post-1960s Decline 219 10 Understanding the Post-1960s Decline 237 11 The Good Life: Aristotle and the Moderns 268 12 The Good and the Just 289 Epilogue: Regaining the Modern 310 Timeline: Modernism and Modernity 325 Bibliography 337 Acknowledgments 351 Index 353

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Book SynopsisArgues, the financial crisis, a dysfunctional international monetary system, and US policies have paradoxically strengthened the dollar's importance. This book examines how the dollar came to have a central role in the world economy and demonstrates that it will remain the cornerstone of global finance for the foreseeable future.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2015 Gold Medal in Economics, Axiom Business Book Awards Honorable Mention for the 2015 PROSE Award in Business, Finance & Management, Association of American Publishers One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2014, chosen by Martin Wolf One of China Business News' Financial Books of the Year for 2014 "Thoughtful."--Jeff Sommer, New York Times "[A] surprising argument... [L]ucid."--David Wessel, Wall Street Journal "Richly detailed study of global finances, examining how and why the dollar became the favored currency of international trade."--Kirkus "To understand how the world of international finance works, what the agendas are and what is at stake, this work is indispensable."--Henny Sender, Financial Times "In his authoritative new book on the dollar, Eswar Prasad ... argues that China and other foreign countries that own around half the outstanding US federal government debt are trapped in a risky game where the US may be tempted to renege on its debt obligations by printing more dollars."--John Plender, Financial Times "A lively and compelling analysis on currency wars in the wake of the financial crisis--and the likely persistence of the U.S. dollar as the world's pre-eminent currency."--Harold James, Central Banking Journal "Highly recommended especially for those interested in understanding the paradigm shifts that happened in the international monetary regime in the 1970s and 1980s."--Mehmet Kerem Caban, Asian Journal of Public AffairsTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables ix Preface xi PART ONE Setting the Stage 1. Prologue 3 2. What Is So Special about the Dollar? 11 PART TWO Building Blocks 3. The Paradox of Uphill Capital Flows 31 4. Emerging Markets Get Religion 47 5. The Quest for Safety 63 6. A Trillion Dollar Con Game? 89 PART THREE Inadequate Institutions 7. Currency Wars 125 8. Seeking a Truce on Currency Wars 158 9. It Takes Twenty to Tango 171 10. The Siren Song of Capital Controls 188 11. Safety Nets with Gaping Holes 201 PART FOUR Currency Competition 12. Is the Renminbi Ready for Prime Time? 229 13. Other Contenders Nipping at the Dollar's Heels 262 14. Could the Dollar Hit a Tipping Point and Sink? 283 15. Ultimate Paradox: Fragility Breeds Stability 299 Appendix 309 Notes 317 References 375 Acknowledgments 393 Index 395

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Book Synopsis “People who thought the 2008 financial collapse was over a long time ago need to meet the people Jessica Bruder got to know in this scorching, beautifully written, vivid, disturbing (and occasionally wryly funny) book.” — Rebecca Solnit Trade Review"Stirring reportage." -- O Magazine"A remarkable book of immersive reporting... Bruder is an acute and compassionate observer." -- Margaret Talbot - The New Yorker" Bruder is a poised and graceful writer." -- Parul Sehgal - The New York Times"[A] devastating, revelatory book." -- Timothy R. Smith - The Washington Post"Stunning and beautifully written... brilliant and haunting…" -- Arlie Russell Hochschild - The New York Times Book Review"A first-rate piece of immersive journalism." -- San Francisco Chronicle"At once wonderfully humane and deeply troubling, the book offers an eye-opening tour of the increasingly unequal, unstable, and insecure future our country is racing toward." -- Astra Taylor - The Nation"This [Nomadland] is not some lookie-loo movie, condescendingly imagining the poor: Zhao and McDormand did the legwork—as did journalist Jessica Bruder, whose book inspired the film—entering communities and engaging with them in order to better tell their stories." -- Vanity Fair"I thought the book [“Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century,” by Jessica Bruder] was a very important document." -- David Strathairn - Los Angeles Times"Bruder’s lively, thoroughly reported book of the same name..." -- AO Scott - The New York Times"Ms. Zhao based her screenplay on Jessica Bruder’s 2018 book of the same name, an exceptional piece of nonfiction that emphasized social and economic upheaval in the wake of the Great Recession... Ms. Bruder’s book staked out the territory and brought its shifting population to life with calm, empathetic reporting." -- The Wall Street Journal

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This book will make you fret and question your moral integrity.”—Financial Times“Guilluy, whose work is not universally admired in France, particularly by academic geographers and many on the left, seems to have seen it all coming. So there will be considerable interest in his latest work, published in French as Le Crépuscule de la France d’en haut in 2016 and now, by Yale. In a further development of his now-familiar argument, he tackles head on – and with great virulence – the flip side of La France périphérique, those he considers largely responsible for the country’s profound social, economic and political dislocation: hipsters, who the French call bourgeois-bohèmes or bobos.”— Jon Henley, The Guardian“An indispensable guide to understanding the fears and frustrations of an increasingly permanent underclass—not just in France, but throughout the world. . . . Disturbing and affecting . . . [Guilluy] has hit on something profound that extends well beyond the borders of France.”—Jonathan A. Knee, New York Times“[Guilluy] argues that France now has all the conditions in place for a ‘slave rebellion.’ . . . [His] polemic seems all the more prescient in light of the gilets jaunes protesters, who have caused havoc in Paris.”—Philip Delves Broughton, Wall Street Journal"This is a book with direct relevance outside France. Observing that metropolisation is “the domestic corollary of globalisation”, Guilluy cites London as “the quintessential ... citadel city”. Condemning elites, speaking up for the disregarded, he writes scathing, analytical Marxist class history very effectively...essential reading"— David Sexton, Evening Standard"This is indeed a remarkably prescient and powerful work, which not only is a frightening and accurate analysis of what seems to be happening right now in France, but also may well be an insight into what happens next." — Andrew Hussey, Literary Review“Written long before the riots began, this acute analysis explains the gilets jaunes” —Peter Conradi, Sunday Times (London)“Writing two years before the advent of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests), Guilluy convincingly shows how, once again, it’s all about class struggle.”—Pepe Escobar, Asia Times“There is much that is true in Guilluy’s book” —Lara Marlowe, The Irish Times “The book is already a cultural phenomenon” — John Tomaney, LSE Review of Books

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction xiii Chapter One: Where Buffett and Silicon Valley Billionaires Agree 1 Chapter Two: Dividing Up the Turf 21 Chapter Three: What Monopolies and King Kong Have in Common 35 Chapter Four: Squeezing the Worker 63 Chapter Five: Silicon Valley Throws Some Shade 87 Chapter Six: Toll Roads and Robber Barons 111 Chapter Seven: What Trusts and Nazis Had in Common 137 Chapter Eight: Regulation and Chemotherapy 167 Chapter Nine: Morganizing America 195 Chapter Ten: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle 211 Conclusion: Economic and Political Freedom 233 Notes 249 Acknowledgments 283 About the Authors 285 Index 287

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Book SynopsisA leading economic historian presents a new history of financial crises, showing how some led to greater globalization while others kept nations apartTrade Review“[A] fascinating book. . . . James’s surprising conclusion is that supply shocks promote globalisation, while demand shocks inhibit it.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times, “Best Books of 2023—Economics”“A very enjoyable new book . . . applies the lens of whether each the seven advanced or set back the process of globalization to crises ranging from famines and blights in the 1840s via wars and depressions, commodity price hikes in the 1970s, the GFC and the Covid lockdowns and Russian invasion of Ukraine. . . . Masterly concise essays.”—Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist (blog)“James’ analysis is persuasive, and his book offers an illuminating history of how our world became so globalized.”—Mark Buchanan, Nature“Seven Crashes . . . offer(s) necessary and sober updates to the literature on financial crises.”—Rémi Meehan, International Affairs“Seven Crashes . . . sheds light on our most recent period of economic uncertainty.”— Kyle Scott, LSE Review of Booksshortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize, sponsored by the Munk Centre for International Studies “An audacious historical interpretation of how global mega-shocks have driven globalization cycles over the last two centuries. Anyone hoping to forecast the future of the world economy should read it.”—Maurice Obstfeld, Class of 1958 Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley“Those who cherish economics will be fascinated by Harold James’s exploration of financial crises, and the ways in which they have validated the views of those economists who saw them coming.”—Edmund Phelps, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and director of the Center on Capitalism and Society, Columbia University“A brilliant book—James shows how economists often draw the wrong lessons from the past and why globalization is unlikely to vanish in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.”—Odd Arne Westad, author of The Cold War: A World History“James’s masterful account sheds new light on how globalization has been shaped by economic crises since the nineteenth century and deepens our understanding of globalization’s opportunities and its challenges.”—Linda Yueh, author of The Great Crashes: Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent Them“If you are looking for a book that puts the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic into historical context and considers what it means for the economy’s future, this is it.”—Mark Zandi, author of Paying the Price: Ending the Great Recession and Ensuring a New American Century

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Book SynopsisExplains how the poor find solutions to their everyday financial problems by conducting year-long interviews with impoverished villagers and slum dwellers in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa - records that track penny by penny how specific households manage their money.Trade Review"A fascinating discussion of the finances of the world's poor."--Nicholas Kristof, NYTimes.com "Ten years ago, the authors of this unusual study began collecting detailed yearlong 'financial diaries' from households in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa... The diarists did things that might seem irrational--borrowing in order to save; paying interest on savings--but that made sense given their unpredictable incomes and limited options. While the authors do offer prescriptions for how to expand those options, it's their scrupulous attention to actual behavior that makes this book invaluable."--New Yorker "The book's methodology and conclusions are fascinating."--Publishers Weekly "The authors of Portfolios of the Poor found that a 'triple whammy' characterizes the financial lives of the poor. Incomes are not only low; they are also irregular and unpredictable... The authors' account suggests much that can be done to ease the financial conditions of poor people."--Anirudh Krishna, Science "A refreshingly distinct path. Portfolios of the Poor ... avoid[s] the big picture and zoom[s] in on the basics of daily poverty, exploring how poor families manage their money... The diaries reveal a 'real, ongoing, and substantial demand' for better financial services, which poor families need to provide better health care and schooling for their children... Rather than waiting for the world to debate and accept their ideas, these authors have taken them up on their own. In the war against global poverty, that feels like one small battle won."--Carlos Lozada, Washington Post "The research provides evidence of the sophistication with which poor people think about their finances."--The Economist "I recommend this book to anyone who has interest in improving the lives of the poor."--Melinda Gates, Co-chair, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Huffington Post "This is a very interesting book, which examines the quite sophisticated financial system developed by poor households to adjust their spending relative to their income."--Choice "A masterly assessment of the financial needs of people on very low incomes ... stuffed full of interesting and surprising insights, and should be read by anyone concerned with economic development and poverty reduction. I can't praise it highly enough. This is a model of the careful collection of evidence with important practical consequences."--Diane Coyle, The Enlightened Economist "A good overview of how the world's poor intersect with financial institutions at the micro level."--Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "This book is a major contribution to the understanding of the situation of the poor in developing countries and should be a 'must reading' for both academics and policymakers concerned with ways of improving developmental policies."--Werner Baer, Enterprise and Society "[A] fascinating and humanizing insight into the economic lives of the global poor, and a valuable resource for attempting to improve those lives."--Ethics & International Affairs "The book is written in a non-technical style accessible to the lay reader... [I]t makes a compelling case about the desperation of poverty, as well as the ingenuity of the people who live under conditions of poverty."--Sajeda Amin, Population and Development Review "Portfolios of the Poor should be read by anyone interested in microfinance, but also who interested in poverty more generally and in how the poor manage their day-to-day lives."--Isabelle Guerin, Enterprise, Development and Microfinance "[T]his is a great book. It remains an excellent survey of the poors' realities, certainly a 'must-have' for all researchers interested in the financial practices of the poor and microfinance."--Marek Hudon, Development and Change "[T]he book is enlightening, methodologically credible and accessible; it is recommended."--Roger MacGinty, Round Table "[W]e learn much about how the poor manage whatever little money they have. On that ground alone I highly recommend the book."--Rolf A.E. Muller, Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture "As Collins, Morduch, Rutherford, and Ruthven summarize their argument, 'Not having enough money is bad enough. Not being able to manage whatever money you have is worse.' Their book is a detailed effort to understand how poor people manage--and, frequently, mismanage--the meager resources at their disposal. They draw on more than 250 financial diaries collected in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa that tracked how money was earned and spent, along with interviews with the diarists. The result is a unique window onto what poverty means for these households."--Timothy Besley, Foreign Affairs "The authors of Portfolios of the Poor ... make a convincing case both for the importance of finance in the lives of the extremely poor and for there being room to improve the provision of financial services to them."--Danny Reviews "One of my favourite books. It gathers new evidence about the financial services people on very low incomes need--and the answers are sometimes surprising. Should be read by anyone with views on microcredit and/or payday loans."--Enlightened Economist "A terrific book."--Diane Coyle, Enlightened EconomistTable of ContentsList of Tables vii List of Figures ix Chapter One: The Portfolios of the Poor 1 Chapter Two: The Daily Grind 28 Chapter Three: Dealing with Risk 65 Chapter Four: Building Blocks: Creating Usefully Large Sums 95 Chapter Five: The Price of Money 132 Chapter Six: Rethinking Microfinance: The Grameen II Diaries 154 Chapter Seven: Better Portfolios 174 Appendix 1: The Story behind the Portfolios 185 Appendix 2: A Selection of Portfolios 211 Acknowledgments 243 Notes 247 Bibliography 265 Index 273

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Book SynopsisIn the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, motor vehicles, air travel, and television transformed households and workplaces. But has that era of unprecedented growth come to an end? Weaving together a vivid narrative, historTrade ReviewWinner of the 2017 Excellence in Financial Journalism Book Award, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants Winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in U.S. History, Association of American Publishers A New York Times Bestseller One of Bloomberg View's "Five Books to Change Conservatives' Minds," chosen by Cass Sunstein #36 on Bloomberg's "50 Most Influential" List One of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2016 One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2016 One of The Economist's Economics and Business Books of the Year 2016 One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy One of Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2016 in History One of Bloomberg View's Great History Books of 2016 One of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2016 One of The Wall Street Journal's "The 20 Books That Defined Our Year" 2016 One of Foreign Affairs' Editors' Picks 2016 One of the Washington Post's Best Economics Books 2016 Shortlisted for the 2016 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award One of The NewYorker.com Page-Turner blog's "The Books We Loved in 2016" Longlisted for the 2016 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, McGill University "The Rise and Fall of American Growth... is the Thomas Piketty-esque economic must read of the year."--Rana Foroohar, Time "This is a book well worth reading--a magisterial combination of deep technological history, vivid portraits of daily life over the past six generations and careful economic analysis... [The Rise and Fall of American Growth] will challenge your views about the future; [and] it will definitely transform how you see the past."--Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review "[An] authoritative examination of innovation through the ages."--Neil Irwin, New York Times "Robert Gordon has written a magnificent book on the economic history of the United States over the last one and a half centuries... The book is without peer in providing a statistical analysis of the uneven pace of growth and technological change, in describing the technologies that led to the remarkable progress during the special century, and in concluding with a provocative hypothesis that the future is unlikely to bring anything approaching the economic gains of the earlier period... If you want to understand our history and the economic dilemmas faced by the nation today, you can spend many a fruitful hour reading Gordon's landmark study."--William D. Nordhaus, New York Review of Books "Mr. Gordon uses exhaustive historic data to buttress his thesis."--Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] is full of wonder for the miraculous things that America has accomplished."--Edward Glaeser, Wall Street Journal "A masterful study to be read and reread by anyone interested in today's political economy."--Kirkus "Normally, these kinds of big-think books end with a whimper, as the author totally fails to identify solutions to the problem he is writing about. But Gordon's conclusion offers some admirably definitive policy advice."--Matthew Yglesias, Vox "Magnificent... Gordon presents his case... with great style and panache, supporting his argument with vivid examples as well as econometric data... Even if history changes direction... this book will survive as a superb reconstruction of material life in America in the heyday of industrial capitalism."--Economist "Every presidential candidate should be asked what policies he or she would offer to increase the pace of U.S. productivity growth and to narrow the widening gap between winners and losers in the economy. Bob Gordon's list is a good place to start."--David Wessel, WSJ.com's Think Tank blog "[W]hat may be the year's most important book on economics has already been published... What Gordon has provided is not a rejection of technology but a sobering reminder of its limits."--Robert Samuelson, Washington Post "Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth is an extraordinary work of economic scholarship... Moreover, this is one of the rare economics books that is on the one hand deeply analytical ... And on the other a pleasure to read... [A] landmark work."--Lawrence Summers, Prospect "Ambitious... The hefty tome, minutely detailed yet dauntingly broad in scope, offers a lively portrayal of the evolution of American living standards since the Civil War."--Eduardo Porter, New York Times "Two years ago a huge book on economics took the world by storm. Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century ... became a surprise bestseller... Robert Gordon's tome on American economic growth stretches to 768 pages and its central message is arguably more important."--David Smith, Sunday Times "A landmark new book."--Gavin Kelly, The Guardian "Looking ahead, judging presidents by policies rather than outcomes may be all the more important. In a new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, the economist Robert Gordon argues that we are in the midst of an era of meager technological change. Yes, we now have smartphones and Twitter, but previous generations introduced electric lighting, indoor plumbing and the internal combustion engine. In Mr. Gordon's view, technological change is just not what it used to be, and we had better get used to slower growth in productivity and incomes."--N. Gregory Mankiw, New York Times "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is likely to be the most interesting and important economics book of the year. It provides a splendid analytic take on the potency of past economic growth, which transformed the world from the end of the nineteenth century onward... Gordon's book serves as a powerful reminder that the U.S. economy really has gone through a protracted slowdown and that this decline has been caused by the stagnation in technological progress."--Tyler Cowen, Foreign Affairs "[A]n important new book."--Martin Ford, Huffington Post "[A] lightning bolt of a new book."--Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect "So powerful and intriguing are the facts and arguments marshaled by Gordon that even informed critics who think he is wrong recommend that readers plow through his The Rise and Fall of American Growth, with its 60 graphics and 64 tables spread over more than 700 pages. You don't need to be an economist to appreciate or understand the book. His thesis is straightforward."--David Cay Johnston, Al Jazeera America.com "What is novel about Gordon's approach to this problem is that he doesn't try to find political causes for our economic woes... [E]xhaustive and sweeping in scope, and novel in its thinking about growth."--Chris Matthews, Fortune.com "[A] fascinating new book."--Jeffrey Sachs, Boston Globe "One of the most important books of recent years... Powerful and impressive."--Cass R. Sunstein, Bloomberg View "This is a tremendous, sobering piece of research, which does a lot to explain the febrile, nervous state of modern Western democracies."--Marcus Tanner, The Independent "A new book by economist Robert Gordon--The Rise and Fall of American Growth--is causing quite a stir."--City A.M. "If he's right, and one links this with growing income inequality, our would-be leaders will have difficulty in making the case for achieving the American dream through steady incremental progress achieved through collaboration and political compromise."--Michael Hoffmann, Desert Sun "Robert Gordon's new book on productivity in the U.S. economy, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, is masterful... Gordon skillfully lays out myriad information about the history and trends of productivity. One can learn a great deal."--Edward Lotterman, St. Paul Pioneer Press "[I]mpressive."--Peter Martin, Sydney Morning Herald "In his unsettling new book, Gordon, who teaches at Northwestern, weighs in on the role of technology in the U.S. over the past century-and-a-half. He does so forcefully, so forcefully, in fact, as to wipe the smiles off the faces of most techno-optimists, myself included."--Peter A. Coclanis, Charlotte Observer "[A] thoughtful new book."--David D. Haynes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] is this year's equivalent to Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century: an essential read for all economists, who are unanimously floored by its boldness and scope even if they don't agree with its conclusions."--Adam Davidson, New York Times Magazine "Gordon makes a compelling case for why the era of fast growth in America ended around 1970 and will not return in the foreseeable future, if ever."--Dick Meyer, DecodeDC "Gordon argues that we are not going to get another surge soon and that there are several headwinds that are going to work against faster growth, including income inequality, education as a differentiator and not an equalizer, the debt overhang, and demography."--John Mason, TheStreet.com "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] challenges every political claim, and every pundit's remedy, regarding how to get the lackluster American economy to boom again in the decades ahead, as it once did a half-century or more ago... [The book] represents the culmination of Gordon's many years of investigation into this key economic question of our age, namely: 'Why is it that the American economy has never been able to return to the happy boom years of our grandparents' time?' Why is it that, decade after decade, administration after administration, annualized productivity growth has only been about one-half to one-third that of the age of Truman and Eisenhower?"--Paul Kennedy, Tribune Content Agency "[M]asterful... Gordon skillfully lays out information about the history and trends of productivity. One can learn a great deal... The Rise and Fall of American Growth is a rare example of a work with solid economics that can be understood, and enjoyed, by nearly any lay person."--Ed Lotterman, Idaho Statesman "As an economic historian, Gordon is beyond reproach."--Edward Luce, Financial Times "Provocative."--Associated Press "The Rise and Fall of American Growth, is a deep dive into the past with an eye to the future... [The book] is part of a fascinating debate about future prospects for the American economy."--Knowledge@Wharton "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] has set the wonky world of economics aflame."--Ryan Craig, TechCrunch "Magisterial."--John Kay, Financial Times "[A] contentious new book."--Margaret Wente, The Globe & Mail "[A] fabulous new book... [I]mpressive."--Dr. Mike Walden, Morganton News Herald "Northwestern Bob Gordon's new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, offers a deeper explanation for the underlying mechanics behind slowed economic growth."--Jon Hartley, Forbes.com "So much of what the presidential candidates and the American people want to accomplish over the next four years and beyond depends on the U.S. economy growing faster, and more inclusively, than it has in recent years. This year's hot economics book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by one of America's most distinguished macroeconomists, Robert Gordon, casts a pall on whether this is possible, arguing that the U.S. had a golden century of increasing innovation from roughly 1870 to 1970, but this was unique."--Robert Litan, Fortune.com "Gordon's book offers the definitive account of how the many technological innovations between 1870 and 1940 dramatically improved life in the United States."--Richard A. Epstein, Hoover Institution's Defining Ideas blog "[M]agiserial... The Northwestern University professor lays out the case that the productivity miracle underlying the American way of life was largely a one-time deal."--Matt Phillips, Quartz "Robert Gordon's new book The Rise and Fall of American Growth has taken the economics world by storm this winter."--Myles Udland, Business Insider "[M]assive."--Ben Casselman, FiveThirty Eight "[G]roundbreaking."--Zeeshan Aleem, Mic "With a painstaking--and fascinating--historical analysis of American productivity, [Gordon] argues that the innovations of today pale in comparison to earlier in our history and that we might actually be entering a period of prolonged stagnation. He may very well be right."--Greg Satell, Forbes.com "[P]rovocative."--Barrie McKenna, The Globe & Mail "[I]nfluential."--Martin Neil Baily, Fortune.com "[A] stimulating book."--George Will, Washington Post "Compulsive reading."--Andrew Hilton, Financial World "Gordon is not an alarmist, far from it. His is a sober voice of concern, of caution, which needs to be heard by those in the helm in America. And a fascinating lesson for ambitious and growing countries like India."--Dr R Balashankar, Sunday Guardian "[A] fascinating convergence of green and mainstream thought."--Tom Horton, Chesapeake Bay Journal "[T]his panoramic book makes good reading."--Shane Greenstein, Harvard Magazine "The book's great contribution is the tapestry it weaves of all the innovations that changed most Americans' lives beyond recognition in the century from 1870 to 1970."--Martin Sandbu, Financial Times "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is unquestionably an important book that raises fundamental questions about the United States' economy and society."--New Criterion "[A] masterpiece."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "[An] impressive book... Gordon's book provides sufficient ammunition to show the colossal problems facing capitalism."--Socialism Today "Rich with detailed information, meticulous observations, and even anecdotes and stories ... a fascinating read."--Ricardo F. Levi, Corriere della Sera "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is essential reading for anyone interested in economics."--Choice "In an important new book, economist Robert Gordon makes the case for pessimism. He believes that technologies like smartphones, robots, and artificial intelligence aren't going to have the kind of big impact on the economy that earlier inventions--like the internal combustion engine and electricity--did."--Timothy B. Lee, Vox "Robert Gordon has written an engaging economic-based history of America... Gordon is to be commended for helping to stimulate a national debate on the current low level of economic productivity."--Allan Hauer, Innovation: The Journal of Technology & Commercialization "If you want to see how far we have come and how tough life was a century and a half ago, read Gordon's book."--David R. Henderson, Regulation "A fantastic read."--Bill Gates, GatesNotes "The book is well written, and one can only be in awe of Gordon's mastery of the factual history of the American standard of living."--Robert A. Margo, EH.net "Monumental."--John Cassidy, NewYorker.com "Zeitgeist-defining."--Myles Udland, Business Insider "[A] magisterial treatise."--Nick Gillespie, Reason.com "[A]n essential read for anyone interested not only in US economic history but also American economic prospects ... a tremendous achievement."--Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist "A comprehensive history of American economic growth."--Eric Rauchway, American Prospect "Professor Robert J. Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth is a magisterial volume that will benefit any serious student of economics, demographics or history."--Wendell Cox, New Geography "A wonderful new book."--Jeff Sachs, Boston Globe "The most important economics book of 2016."--Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune "This spectacular history traces the rise and the plateau of the American economy since industrialization."--Jay Weiser, Weekly Standard "[A] landmark book... An impressive history of how the American people progressed in their standards of living and productivity in the 'golden century' of 1870-1970."--Stephen M. Millett, Strategy & Leadership "Gordon's encyclopedic The Rise and Fall of American Growth, a new history of modern U.S. economic life, [is] perhaps the best yet written."--Jonathan Levy, Dissent "One of our greatest economic historians... Gordon's exhaustive research program ... has knocked me back on my intellectual heels."--J. Bradford DeLong, Strategy + Business "This is the most important book on economics in many years."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth set out a thesis of technological diminishing returns that does much to explain an age of economic pessimism."--Lorien Kite, Financial Times "In the course of Gordon's book, a vivid picture of everyday life as our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents lived it emerges... What lingers in my mind, alongside these ideas, is a new, weightier sense of the past, and of what the people who lived in it ate, touched, heard, saw, and did. Reading The Rise and Fall of American Growth, I thought a lot about my grandparents. Gordon's book has made their lives more real to me."--Joshua Rothman, NewYorker.com's Page-Turner blog "Magisterial... While the book has gotten attention because of its bold projection of slow growth in the future, this is actually just one small element of a magnificent and detailed presentation of how our economy has changed since 1870. Most people don't fully appreciate what life was like in the past and Gordon gives a blow-by-blow description of how people lived in America from 1870 on. In addition, he carefully explains how each new innovation was created and how its adoption changed people's lives."--Stephen Rose, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas "Gordon constructs a strong case using conventional economic principles and exacting data measurement."--Don Pittis, CBC News "Gordon's genius is to weave together economic history with the story of the technology, know-how, politic, demographics and medicine that made the astonishing progress of the US perhaps the most remarkable ever."--Sean O'Grady, The Independent "The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Robert Gordon, is that rarest thing: a work of densely researched macroeconomics that is compulsively readable."--Bill Morris, The MillionsTable of ContentsPreface ix 1. Introduction: The Ascent and Descent of Growth 1 PART I. 1870-1940-THE GREAT INVENTIONS CREATE A REVOLUTION INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE HOME 25 2. The Starting Point: Life and Work in 1870 27 3. What They Ate and Wore and Where They Bought It 62 4. The American Home: From Dark and Isolated to Bright and Networked 94 5. Motors Overtake Horses and Rail: Inventions and Incremental Improvements 129 6. From Telegraph to Talkies: Information, Communication, and Entertainment 172 7. Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Illness and Early Death 206 8. Working Conditions on the Job and at Home 247 9. Taking and Mitigating Risks: Consumer Credit, Insurance, and the Government 288 Entr'acte. The Midcentury Shift from Revolution to Evolution 319 PART II. 1940-2015-THE GOLDEN AGE AND THE EARLY WARNINGS OF SLOWER GROWTH 329 10. Fast Food, Synthetic Fibers, and Split-Level Subdivisions: The Slowing Transformation of Food, Clothing, and Housing 331 11. See the USA in Your Chevrolet or from a Plane Flying High Above 374 12. Entertainment and Communications from Milton Berle to the iPhone 409 13. Computers and the Internet from the Mainframe to Facebook 441 14. Antibiotics, CT Scans, and the Evolution of Health and Medicine 461 15. Work, Youth, and Retirement at Home and on the Job 498 Entr'acte. Toward an Understanding of Slower Growth 522 PART III. THE SOURCES OF FASTER AND SLOWER GROWTH 533 16. The Great Leap Forward from the 1920s to the 1950s: What Set of Miracles Created It? 535 17. Innovation: Can the Future Match the Great Inventions of the Past? 566 18. Inequality and the Other Headwinds: Long-Run American Economic Growth Slows to a Crawl 605 Postscript: America's Growth Achievement and the Path Ahead 641 Acknowledgments 653 Data Appendix 657 Notes 667 References 717 Credits 741 Index 745

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Co-Winner of the 2018 Allan Sharlin Memorial Award, Social Science History Association""Finalist for the 2017 Hayek Prize, The Manhattan Institute""Honorable Mention for the 2017 PROSE Award in European and World History, Association of American Publishers""One of MIT Technology Review’s Best Books of 2016""Fascinating.... [Mokyr] reminds us that the skirmishing of philosophers and their ideas, the preoccupation of popular historians, is in many ways a sideshow—that the revolution that gave Europe dominance was, above all, scientific, and that the scientific revolution was, above all, an artisanal revolution."---Adam Gopnik, New Yorker"A fine book. . . . One of our country's great economic historians has helped us better understand the greatest transformation in human welfare our planet has ever seen."---Richard Vedder, Wall Street Journal"Wide-ranging and erudite. . . . Mokyr offers a useful corrective to excessively deterministic and materialistic treatments of economic history, emphasizing ideas—the West, he argues, had a uniquely positive view about subjugating nature to human control—and individual agency in shaping broad socioeconomic shifts." * Publishers Weekly *"Ultimately, without the impetus of science, economic growth would have fizzled out after 1815. A Culture of Growth is certainly making me rethink."---Brad DeLong, Nature"A Culture of Growth is a brilliant book. You should buy it and even read it. It’s long, but consistently interesting, even witty."---Deirdre McCloskey, Prospect"In pointing to growth-boosting factors that go beyond either the state or the market, Mokyr's book is very welcome."---Victoria Bateman, Times Higher Education"Mokyr . . . dives into the mystery of how the world went from being poor to being so rich in just a few centuries. . . . Drawing on centuries of philosophy and scientific advancements, Mokyr argues that there's a reason the Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe and not, for example, in China, which had in previous centuries shown signs of more scientific advancement: Europe developed a unique culture of competitive scientific and intellectual advancement that was unprecedented and not at all predestined."---Ana Swanson, WashingtonPost.com's Wonkblog"The sheer elegance of Mr. Mokyr's theory . . . has much to commend it. And it is refreshing that an economist is taking seriously the idea that ideas and culture make a difference to economic growth." * The Economist *"Mokyr has written a book to read slowly and chew over thoroughly. . . . He is a wonderfully well-read lucid and continuously interesting guide to a vast literature and invariably thought provoking."---Alan Ryan, Literary Review"Someone needed to write a book like this, and there could have been no better author to do so than Mokyr."---Peer Vries, Foreign Affairs"Economic historian Joel Mokyr has written a capstone work on the dynamics of the industrial revolution."---Arnold Kling, Econlib"It is not often that a book leaves me gasping in admiration for the breadth and depth of an author's reading and knowledge, but this one did."---Ted Nield, Geoscientist Online"This book is the latest example of Mokyr's ability to explicate complex issues, illustrating his big-picture thesis with a myriad of fascinating details. He writes with clarity--enjoyable for the general reader as well as for the specialist in economic history. A Culture of Growth is a must-read for anyone interested in how Western society got where it is today and what this implies for the spread of technology in the global economy of the future." * Finance & Development *"A Culture of Growth is a book of immense importance for us Indians especially when we are getting comfortable, forever playing victim to the depredations of British imperialism instead of wholeheartedly focusing on beating the West at its game as the Chinese are doing. . . . Well worth tackling."---Uday Balakrishnan, Hindu Business Line"A Culture of Growth is an insightful quest into the economic history of the last five centuries. Mokyr’s historical laboratory is early modern Europe, when a small mass of highly skilled artisans, entrepreneurs, financiers and merchants laid the roots of what was to become the Industrial Revolution." * Progressive Post *"One has to admire the depth of knowledge and the subtlety of Mokyr’s argument. . . . For serious students of the Enlightenment itself, Mokyr’s magnum opus will be required reading for a long time to come."---Nicholas Crafts, History Today"A fresh historical treatment."---Darcy Allen, IPA Review"This is a tour d'horizon of an exciting new area of inquiry, which offers important insights into the future of our civilization and the evolution of an increasingly technical world. Mokyr's book is so rich and stimulating that no brief review can do it justice. So, dear reader, read the book!"---Wolfgang Kasper, Policy"The book represents recognition that culture has finally arrived as an important and legitimate concept in discussions of economic growth. In this endeavor, the book is an important landmark. . . . Students and scholars working in the field will benefit from the intelligent and rich discussion provided in A Culture of Growth."---Mark Koyama, Independent Review"What stands out from Mokyr’s approach is the highly contingent character of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. They happened because a lot ofdifferent things happened to fall into place; small deviations in the course of events could have given us an entirely different world of technological and economic power."---Diane Coyle, Financial Times"After reading this book, chances are that you won’t look at the economic, social, and political world in quite the same way as before."---Pierre Lemieux, Regulation"An important body of work. It contains ideas, propositions, historical facts, biographies of influential scholars, writersand scientists, and it is a confirmation of the author's expertise of a broad range of topics in the economics of culture and comparative economic history of an emerging Europe and China."---Dr Meltem Ince-Yenilmez, Rest Journal

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Felix Salmon represents the last bastion of old-school journalism, combining intellectual curiosity, a breadth of knowledge, and, crucially, razor-like intuition.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan “Like its author, this take on our post-pandemic world is wise, witty, and filled with unexpected observations about our portfolios, our politics, our homes, and our hearts. The best part—you’ll come away feeling more optimistic about the world that Covid has wrought.” — Rana Foroohar, Financial Times columnist, CNN analyst, and author of Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post-Global World “A refreshing, thoughtful, and witty look into what’s changed and what’s ahead, The Phoenix Economy explores a lot more than economics and finance. It rightly warns that we live in a more unpredictable world and that ‘the unexpected isn’t over.’ Whether you are a policymaker, corporate leader, investor, or student, this is an important read.” — Mohamed A El-Erian, president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and author of When Markets Collide “Felix Salmon is the Daniel Defoe of our time, reminding us of what we lived through during the Covid-19 pandemic and telling us how the world will change as a result.” — Joseph E. Stiglitz, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) “Felix Salmon is the rarest trifecta—thinker, reporter, storyteller. From lobster rolls to Etch A Sketch, The Phoenix Economy is your witty, knowing field guide to our new normal.” — Mike Allen, cofounder of Axios

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Book SynopsisThis is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Agriculture, Diversification, and Gender in Rural Africa uses a longitudinal cross-country comparative approach to contribute to the understanding of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Relying on unique household level data collected in six African countries since 2002, it addresses the dynamics of intensification and diversification within and outside agriculture in contexts where women have much poorer access to agrarian resources than men.Despite a growing interest in smallholder agriculture in Africa, this interest has not been matched by the research on the subject. While recent policies focus on reducing poverty through encouraging smallholder agriculture, there are few studies showing how livelihoods have changed since this time, and especially how such changes may have affected male and female headed households differently. Moreover, agriculture is often viewed in isolation from other types of income generating opportunities, like small scale trading. Agriculture, Diversification, and Gender in Rural Africa looks at how livelihoods have changed over time and how this has affected the relationship between agricultural and non-agricultural sources of livelihoods. In general, women have much poorer access to agricultural sources of income, and for this reason the interplay between farm and non-farm sources of income is especially important to analyse.Providing suggestions for more inclusive policies related to rural development, this edited volume outlines current weaknesses and illustrates potential opportunities for change. It offers a nuanced alternative to the current dominance of structural transformation narratives of agricultural change through adding insights from gender studies as well as village-level studies of agrarian development. It positions change in relation to broader livelihood dynamics outside the farm sector and contextualises them nationally and regionally to provide a necessary analytical adaption to the unfolding empirical realities of rural Africa.Table of Contents1: Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt, Fred Mawunyo Dzanku, and Aida Isinika: Introduction- theoretical and methodological framing of the book 2: Magnus Jirström, Maria Archila Bustos, and Sarah Alobo Loison: African smallholder farmers on the move: farm and non-farm trends for six sub-Saharan African countries, 2002-2015 3: Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt: Assets, gender, and rural livelihoods 4: Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt: Gender and rural livelihoods: agricultural commercialization and farm non-farm diversification 5: Göran Djurfeldt, Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt, Ola Hall, and Maria Archila Bustos: Agrarian change and structural transformation: drivers and distributional outcomes 6: Elibariki Msuya, Aida Isinika, and Fred Mawunyo Dzanku: Agricultural intensification response to agricultural input subsidies in Tanzania: a spatial-temporal and gender perspective 2002-2015 7: Peter Mvula and Wapulumuka Mulwafu: Intensification, crop diversification and gender relations in Malawi 8: Ellen Hillbom and Martin Prowse: Policies or prices? A gendered analysis of drivers of maize production in Malawi and Zambia, 2002-2013 9: Fred Mawunyo Dzanku and Daniel Bruce Sarpong: Spatial and gendered linkages between non-farm diversification and farm productivity in Ghana 10: Stephen K. Wambugu, Joseph T. Karugia , and Willis O. Kosura: Technology use, gender, and impact of non-farm income on agricultural investment: an empirical analysis of maize production in two regions of Kenya 11: Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt, Fred Mawunyo Dzanku, and Aida Isinika: Gender, Agriculture, and Diversification in Rural Africa: What Lessons Can We Learn?

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Book SynopsisThis interdisciplinary work explores the complex intersections of technology, class, gender, and ecology in the transnational milieu of Mexico's maquiladoras.Trade ReviewPeña's book, the result of more than ten years of field research, delineates the political, cultural, and environmental effects of Mexico's borderside maquiladoras.... Through his critique of these foreign-owned assembly plants, Peña argues persuasively for the implementation of new methods of economic growth that may be both ecologically sustainable and culturally appropriate, and therefore beneficial to communities on both sides of the border. * Hispanic *Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgments Part One. The Terror of the Machine 1. “No Terrors, to a Certain Kind of Mind” 2. From Dark, Satanic Mills to Maquilas 3. (Mis)Measuring the Ignorant Part Two. Terrains of Struggle 4. Like Turtles on the Line 5. The Mirror of Exploitation Part Three. Mothers of Invention 6. Mexican Thinkwork 7. Marginality as Inventive Force Part Four. Back to the Future 8. Mexico in the Fast Lane? 9. Promised Land or Wasteland? Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThis book studies young people who are Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET); a prime concern among policymakers. Moving past common interpretations of NEETs as a homogeneous group, it asks why some youth become NEET, whereas other do not. The authors analyse diverse school-to-work patterns of young NEETs in five typical countries and investigate the role of individual characteristics, countries' institutions and policies, and their complex interplay.Readers will come to understand youth marginalization as a process that may occur during the transition from school, vocational college, or university to work. By studying longitudinal analyses of processes and transitions, readers will gain the crucial insight that NEETs are not equally vulnerable, and that most NEETs will find their way back to the labour market. However, they will also see that in all countries, a group of long-term NEETs exists. These exceptionally vulnerable young people are sidelined from soTable of Contents1. Not in Employment, Education, or Training around the World 2. NEET during the School-to-Work Transition in the Netherlands 3. NEET in Germany: Labour Market Entry Patterns and Gender Differences 4. Patterns in NEET Statuses during the School-to-Work Transition in France 5. NEETs in England 6. NEET in Japan: Focusing on Gender and Cohort 7. Policy Interventions Targeting NEETs in Different Institutional Settings 8. The Role of Education Systems in Preventing NEETs 9. Can Labour Market Policies Help to Reduce Long-term NEETs? 10. How Long-term NEET are Explained by Family Policies in OECD Countries 11. Conclusions and Discussion

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Book SynopsisDebate surrounding the employability of graduates has been around for many decades, and interest in this area has grown particularly since the start of this century. Tackling this relevant area of scholarship, this book uses an innovative approach to analyse the relationship between the university and the labour market from different perspectives, taking into account both sociological and economic theories. Key areas explored include work transition, graduate employability, and the effects of public interventions/initiatives which are aimed at matching the competences of graduates to labour market needs. The chapters summarise several years of author original research, including study on the employability of graduates in Poland more specifically, and the effects of their public interventions to increase graduate employment and facilitate entry into the workforce (e.g. Commissioned Fields of Study, Competences Development Programme). More generally, university labour marTable of ContentsPart 1 The Transition from Graduation to Work – Theoretical Perspectives 1 Human Capital Theory 2 Education as a Positional Good 3 Social Closure Models Summary Part 2 Structural-Institutional Settings, Individual Characteristics and University-Work Transition 4 Employability Skills Agenda, Skills Race and IVth Industrial Revolution 5 Individual Characteristics and University to Work Transition 6 Structural-Institutional Settings And University to Work Transition Annexe II Summary Part 3 University-Work Transition And Public Interventions – The Case of Competence Development Program in Poland 7 The Competence Development Program – Genesis and Characteristics 8 The Competence Development Program – Effects of Intervention Annexe III.1 Summary Annexe III.2

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Book SynopsisThis title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Pressâs mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1958.

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Book SynopsisIn The New Geography of Jobs, award-winning Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti looks at the major shifts taking place in the US economy and reveals the surprising winners and losers ​— ​specifically, which kinds of jobs will drive economic growth and where they’ll be located ​— ​while exploring how communities can transform themselves into dynamic innovation hubs.“A timely and smart discussion of how different cities and regions have made a changing economy work for them ​— ​and how policymakers can learn from that to lift the circumstances of working Americans everywhere.” ​— ​Barack Obama We’re used to thinking of the United States in opposing terms: red versus blue, haves versus have-nots. But today there are three Americas. At one extreme are the brain hubs ​— ​cities like San Francisco, Boston, and Durham ​— ​with workers who are among the most productive, creative, and best paid on the planet. At the other extreme are former manufacturing capitals, which are rapidly losing jobs and residents. The rest of America could go either way. For the past thirty years, the three Americas have been growing apart at an accelerating rate. This divergence is one the most important developments in the history of the United States and is reshaping the very fabric of our society, affecting all aspects of our lives, from health and education to family stability and political engagement. But the winners and losers aren’t necessarily who you’d expect. Enrico Moretti’s groundbreaking research shows that you don’t have to be a scientist or an engineer to thrive in one of the brain hubs. Carpenters, taxi drivers, teachers, nurses, and other local service jobs are created at a ratio of five-to-one in the brain hubs, raising salaries and standard of living for all. Dealing with this split ​— ​supporting growth in the hubs while arresting the decline elsewhere ​— ​is the challenge of the century, and The New Geography of Jobs lights the way.

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Book SynopsisA practical, deeply reported survival guide for the age of AI, written by the New York Times tech columnist who has introduced millions to the promise and pitfalls of artificial intelligence. “Artificial intelligence can be terrifying, but Kevin Roose provides a clear, compelling strategy for surviving the next wave of technology with our jobs—and souls—intact.”—Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of HabitIt’s time to get real about AI. After decades of hype and sci-fi fantasies, AI—artificial intelligence—is leaping out of research labs and into the center of our lives. Millions of people now use tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 to write essays, create art and finish coding projects. AI programs are already beating humans in fields like law, medicine and entertainment, and they’re getting better every day. But AI doesn’t just threaten our jobs. It shapes our entire human experience, steering our behavior and influencing our choices about which TV shows to watch, which clothes to buy, and which politicians to vote for. And while many experts argue about whether a robot apocalypse is near, one critical question has gone unanswered: In a world where AI is ascendant, how can humans survive and thrive? In Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation, New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose shares the secrets of people and organizations that have successfully navigated waves of technological change, and explains what skills are necessary to stay ahead of the curve today, with lessons like • Be surprising, social, and scarce• Resist machine drift• Leave handprints• Demote your devices• Treat AI like a chimp army Roose rejects the conventional wisdom that in order to compete with AI, we have to become more like robots ourselves—hyper-efficient, data-driven workhorses. Instead, he says, we should focus on being more human, and doing the kinds of creative, inspiring, and meaningful things even the most advanced algorithms can’t do.

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Book SynopsisDemonstrating how candidates and their campaigns affect the economic vote, this book provides a different way of understanding past elections - and predicting future ones. It offers a theory of campaigns that explains why electoral victory requires more than simply being the candidate favored by prevailing economic conditions.Trade Review"This is not just another book about the impact of the economy on elections. The Message Matters breaks new ground in showing how presidential candidates effectively use the economy when it works in their favor and how some candidates win even when the economy is working against them."--Stanley B. Greenberg, American Prospect "Lucid writing sheds light on a subject often neglected, and readers can glean some useful information."--Choice "This is an impressive book. Vavreck's main contributions are to offer a coherent theory of how economic context should condition campaign effects, to document what types of campaigns presidential candidates have run, and to show that those candidates running the campaigns she suggests have influenced the election in their favor."--Jonathan Nagler, Political Science Quarterly "Vavreck's book is an interesting and very readable contribution for people with an interest in media and election studies. The themes candidates use within American election cycles are now much better illuminated and Vavreck opens the door for a host of exciting analyses that will likely be built on The Message Matters' foundation."--Anders B. Rasmussen, MedieKulturTable of ContentsList of Figures xi List of Tables xiii Acknowledgments xvii Prologue xxi CHAPTER ONE: Presidential Campaigns 1 Basic Questions 2 What's Coming 3 PART I CHAPTER TWO: How and Why Campaigns Matter 9 The Challenge 10 Something's Happening in America 11 The Importance of the Economy 12 The Importance of the Media 14 A Theory of Campaign Effects 15 Integrating Literatures 16 Spatial Voting: The Past as Predictor of the Future 18 Retrospective Voting and Campaign Effects 22 Individual-Level Characteristics and Campaign Effects 23 CHAPTER THREE: Context Matters: A Campaign Typology 26 Theoretical Predictions 28 A Campaign Typology 31 Clarifying Campaigns 31 Insurgent Campaigns 32 When the Economy Is Mixed 33 Predicting Campaign Types, 1952-2000 35 PART II CHAPTER FOUR: The Media Disconnect:Media and Candidate Messages 43 Candidates' Messages and How to Measure Them 46 Advertisements and Speeches 46 Newspaper Coverage 48 Coding the Ads, Speeches, and News Coverage 53 The Content of Modern Campaigns 57 The Media Disconnect 58 CHAPTER FIVE: The Message Matters: Candidate-Level Tests of the Theory 67 Clarifying Campaigns: Dominating Economic Discussion 69 Insurgent Campaigns: Issue Selection Matters 71 Stevenson 1952 and 1956: Second Time Same as the First 76 Goldwater 1964: Just Enough Power to Get the Job Done 78 Carter 1980 and Mondale 1984:War through Strength 80 Dukakis 1988: An Unfocused American Dream 82 Insurgent Candidates Making Wise Choices 83 Kennedy 1960: High Hopes 83 Nixon 1968: Freedom from Fear or Racial Appeal? 86 Carter 1976: Outside and Honest 90 Two More Tests of the Theory at the Candidate Level 105 A More Rigorous Test of Compliance 105 Explaining the Errors in Forecasting Models 107 PART III CHAPTER SIX: The Message Matters:Microlevel Tests of the Theory 113 Clarifying Candidate Campaign Effects: Do Campaign Messages Shape Voters' Evaluations of Candidates? 115 High Fidelity? 116 Ads:Messages That Matter 120 Clarifying Candidate Campaign Effects: Do Campaign Messages Help Voters Learn about Candidates' Issue Positions? 123 Measuring Uncertainty 125 Reducing Uncertainty 128 Campaign Learning about the Economy 131 Insurgent-Candidate Campaign Effects: Changing the Debate by Increasing the Importance of Issues 134 The Most Important Problem in the Nation 137 Most Important Problem and Vote Choice 140 Insurgent Candidate Campaign Effects: Being Closer to Most Voters on the Insurgent Issue 144 The Difference in Distances 144 Differences in Distances and Vote Choice 151 The Message and Its Effects 155 CHAPTER SEVEN: Candidates Creating Context 159 Can Candidates Create the Context? 160 Creating Salience: Finding the Right Insurgent Issue 163 Appendix 167 References 191 Index 199

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Book SynopsisIn the fall of 2008, fifteen of the world's leading economists - representing the broadest spectrum of economic opinion - gathered at New Hampshire's Squam Lake. Their goal: the mapping of a long-term plan for financial regulation reform. This title distills the wealth of insights from the collaboration that began at these meetings.Trade ReviewRobert J. Shiller, Co-Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics Raghuram Rajan, Winner of the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics 2013, The Center for Financial Studies "If you asked me to recommend one thing to read on reforming financial regulation, [The Squam Lake Report] would be it."--Clive Crook, The Atlantic "The Squam Lake Report [is] a slim volume that contains the best prescriptions of the brightest minds of economics about how to save the financial system."--Heidi N. Moore, CNNMoney.com "The Squam Lake Report is a slight volume of ten chapters and just 157 pages--practically anorexic by the standards of many tomes about the credit crunch--but it makes heavyweight claims. It is the product of 15 of the leading financial economists in the United States, who first met on a weekend retreat to New Hampshire's remote and scenic Squam Lake, and offers their prescriptions for regulatory reform to stave off future collapses."--New Statesman "Fifteen prominent academic US economists developed this concise set of recommendations for financial regulation reform in Fall 2008 in a desire to prevent a recurrence of the financial crisis that developed in 2007 and whose effects continue to the present. The introductory chapter provides an excellent summary of the cascade of financial catastrophes precipitated initially by losses on mortgage-backed securities... [A] useful volume for its historical overview and coverage of key issues."--Choice "The Squam Lake Report is an important book in a growing library of commentary on the worst financial crisis since the Depression. It delivers good and clearly written recommendations and reviews most of the key issues surrounding the crisis."--Mark S. Rzepczynski, Financial Analysts JournalTable of ContentsPreface vii Acknowledgments xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: A Systemic Regulator for Financial Markets 33 Chapter 3: A New Information Infrastructure for Financial Markets 44 Chapter 4: Regulation of Retirement Savings 53 Chapter 5: Reforming Capital Requirements 67 Chapter 6: Regulation of Executive Compensation in Financial Services 75 Chapter 7: An Expedited Mechanism to Recapitalize Distressed Financial Firms: Regulatory Hybrid Securities 86 Chapter 8: Improving Resolution Options for Systemically Important Financial Institutions 95 Chapter 9: Credit Default Swaps, Clearinghouses, and Exchanges 109 Chapter 10: Prime Brokers, Derivatives Dealers, and Runs 122 Chapter 11: Conclusions 135 List of Contributors 153 Index 157

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Brazil is the world's sixth-largest economy and fifth-largest nation, and its transformation has long piqued the interest of scholars and observers. In this engaging book, Alston and his Brazilian colleagues Melo, Mueller, and Pereira examine this transformation by asking how Brazil became an emerging power during the 20th century... Brazil in Transition is a valuable contribution to the understanding of why nations develop and the struggles they face in the process."--Choice "Brazil in Transition is an intriguing book that holds the reader's attention throughout."--Leonardo Weller, EH.netTable of ContentsList of Illustrations xi List of Tables xiii Preface xv Abbreviations xvii Part I. An Overview of Brazil in Transition: Beliefs, Leadership, and Institutional Change 1 Chapter 1. Introduction 3 Economic Development and Critical Transitions 3 Brazil: This Time for Real? 7 A Sketch of the Conceptual Framework 14 Analytical Narratives and Economic Development 16 Road Map for the Book 19 Chapter 2. A Conceptual Dynamic for Understanding Development 24 Beliefs, Leadership, Dominant Network, and Windows of Opportunity 24 Difference in Difference in Changing Beliefs 28 Overview of Dominant Network, Beliefs, and Institutions in Brazil from 1964 to 2014 33 1964-1984 33 1985-1993 36 1994-2014 38 Summary 39 Part II. Introduction to the Case Study of Brazil, 1964-2014 41 Identifying Beliefs 45 Appendix: A Primer on the Brazilian Political System 50 Chapter 3. From Disorder to Growth and Back: The Military Regime (1964-1984) 54 From Chaos to a Short Period of Order 54 From Order to Unsustainable Growth 59 The Miracle Fades 64 Back to Disorder 67 The Decline of Developmentalism 70 Chapter 4. Transition to Democracy and the Belief in Social Inclusion (1985-1993) 71 A New Belief Emerges 71 The Transition to Democracy 72 Codifying Beliefs: The Constitution of 1988 76 The Constitution-Making Process 78 The Constitution's Delegation of Powers to the President 87 Back to Uncertainty and Chaos 90 Failures of the Brazilian Economic Plans before the Real 91 The Collor Government: Great Hope, Huge Disappointment 93 Chapter 5. Cardoso Seizes a Window of Opportunity (1993-2002) 97 The Real Plan 99 Early Institutional Deepening: Constitutional Amendments 103 Coalition Management under Cardoso 107 Asserting Fiscal Control over States 108 Staying the Course against the Early Opposition to the Real Plan 110 Sustaining Stability in the Face of External Shocks 116 Cardoso's Second Term: Combining Macro Orthodoxy with Social Inclusion 117 The Reassertion of Presidential Fiscal Authority 119 Conclusions 120 Chapter 6. Deepening Beliefs and Institutional Change (2002-2014) 122 The Uncertain Transition 122 Continuity in Change 126 Deepening the Social Contract 128 Checks and Balances vs. Strong Presidential Powers 138 The New Economic Matrix and Dilma's Policy Switch 150 Beliefs? Really? ... Really! 154 The Messy Process of Dissipative Inclusion 161 Conclusion 165 Part III. A General Inductive Framework for Understandin Critical Transitions 169 Chapter 7. A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Critical Transitions 171 Understanding Critical Transitions 172 How Does Our Framework Fit in the Literature? 173 The Building Blocks of Our Conceptual Framework 176 Windows of Opportunity 176 Dominant Network 177 Beliefs 180 Leadership 186 Institutions 189 Economic and Political Outcomes 190 Dynamics 191 Argentina: An Illustrative Use of the Framework 199 The Camelot Years: 1912-1930 200 Electoral Fraud and the Rise of Peron: 1930-1946 201 Instability Is the Rule: Oscillations between Populism and Military Rule: 1946-Present 204 Concluding Remarks 207 Chapter 8. Conclusion 209 Better and Worse at the Same Time 210 Assessing the Framework 214 Brazil and the Critical Transition 216 Afterword 221 References 227 Index 243

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Book SynopsisThe U.S. dollar's dominance seems under threat. The near collapse of the U.S. financial system in 2008-2009, political paralysis that has blocked effective policymaking, and emerging competitors such as the Chinese renminbi have heightened speculation about the dollar's looming displacement as the main reserve currency. Yet, as The Dollar Trap poweTrade ReviewWinner of the 2015 Gold Medal in Economics, Axiom Business Book Awards Honorable Mention for the 2015 PROSE Award in Business, Finance & Management, Association of American Publishers One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2014, chosen by Martin Wolf One of China Business News' Financial Books of the Year for 2014 "Thoughtful."--Jeff Sommer, New York Times "[A] surprising argument... [L]ucid."--David Wessel, Wall Street Journal "Richly detailed study of global finances, examining how and why the dollar became the favored currency of international trade."--Kirkus "To understand how the world of international finance works, what the agendas are and what is at stake, this work is indispensable."--Henny Sender, Financial Times "In his authoritative new book on the dollar, Eswar Prasad ... argues that China and other foreign countries that own around half the outstanding US federal government debt are trapped in a risky game where the US may be tempted to renege on its debt obligations by printing more dollars."--John Plender, Financial Times "A lively and compelling analysis on currency wars in the wake of the financial crisis--and the likely persistence of the U.S. dollar as the world's pre-eminent currency."--Harold James, Central Banking JournalTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables ix Preface to the Paperback Edition xi Preface xvii PART ONE Setting the Stage 1. Prologue 3 2. What Is So Special about the Dollar? 11 PART TWO Building Blocks 3. The Paradox of Uphill Capital Flows 31 4. Emerging Markets Get Religion 47 5. The Quest for Safety 63 6. A Trillion Dollar Con Game? 89 PART THREE Inadequate Institutions 7. Currency Wars 125 8. Seeking a Truce on Currency Wars 158 9. It Takes Twenty to Tango 171 10. The Siren Song of Capital Controls 188 11. Safety Nets with Gaping Holes 201 PART FOUR Currency Competition 12. Is the Renminbi Ready for Prime Time? 229 13. Other Contenders Nipping at the Dollar's Heels 262 14. Could the Dollar Hit a Tipping Point and Sink? 283 15. Ultimate Paradox: Fragility Breeds Stability 299 Appendix 309 Notes 317 References 375 Acknowledgments 393 Index 395

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Book SynopsisAdair Turner became chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority just as the global financial crisis struck in 2008, and he played a leading role in redesigning global financial regulation. In this eye-opening book, he sets the record straight about what really caused the crisis. It didn't happen because banks are too big to fail--our addictiTrade ReviewOne of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2015, chosen by Martin Wolf One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy One of The Independent's Best Economics Books 2015 One of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of 2015, chosen by Vitor Constancio "Whether you agree with Turner's proposal or not, [Between Debt and the Devil] represents an important challenge to economic orthodoxy, which, as he rightly notes, has already failed us once."--John Cassidy, The New Yorker "Extensively researched and well-written."--Edward Chancellor, Wall Street Journal "[A] remarkable new book."--Will Hutton, Observer "Lucid and forcefully-argued."--Peter Thal Larsen, Reuters Breakingviews "Turner offers a convincing account of the debt-fuelled global economic cycle of the last 15 years or so. I found myself skimming over large sections and nodding in agreement."--Erik Britton, Management Today "An overdue challenge to a taboo against monetary finance held sacred for too long."--Giles Wilkes, Financial Times "Adair Turner, the former chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority and described by The Economist as a man for all policy crises, upends financial orthodoxy in Between Debt and the Devil. He argues that nothing regulators have done thus far has addressed the fundamental underlying cause of financial instability... Turner's book is tightly argued and is packed with insights about the financial markets as well as the real economy."--Brenda Jubin, Investing.com "If developed economies fall back into recession, people may hear quite a bit more about Lord Turner's ideas."--The Economist "This is an important book because Turner thinks clearly where much analysis has been fuzzy ... [a] stimulating book."--Ben Chu, The Independent "Adair Turner's Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit and Fixing Global Finance--out this month--joins a select group of books that provide as clear an explanation of the financial crisis as one could hope for."--Diane Coyle, The Enlightened Economist "Some astonishingly original ideas."--Alex Brummer, Daily Mail "[A] brilliant new book... [The] prose crisply conveys analysis of real force."--Tom Clark, Guardian "[A] scintillating individual [contribution] to the debate not just on the future of finance but how we should run our economy."--Felix Martin, New Statesman "Adair Turner's new book Between Debt and the Devil is definitely worth your time."--Clive Crook, Bloomberg View "A challenging but relentlessly logical book about the flaws of the system that led us to the Great Recession: excess finance, excessive indebtedness. He adds to the literature that explains why more and more finance is not always good. The proposed cure requires going beyond the present financial regulatory reform. A bold and thought provoking book."--Vitor Constancio, Vice president, European Central Bank, one of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2015 "This book lays down a challenge which subsequent accounts of monetary policy will have to address."--David Willetts, Prospect "[An] excellent book."--Nick Butler, Financial Times "[H]is extensive work both at financial institutions and in academia, have given Turner an insider's view of the world of finance and economics. But his conclusions--that the banking system needs to be fundamentally restructured, and that periodically, instead of a government running up debt, the central bank should just print money for the government to spend--are far from conventional."--Matt Phillips, Quartz "This is a good book, well worth reading... It is well and clearly written and supported by good, non-technical analysis and empirical evidence."--Charles Goodhart, Financial World "These provocative and insightful arguments are particularly valuable at a time when austerity retains its intellectual luster despite its manifest failures."--Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs "Turner's book should make policymakers and commentators sit up and take notice."--TT Ram Mohan, Economic & Political Weekly "[An] excellent book."--Zagreb International Review of Econ & Business "A strong narrative and powerful argument for reform."--Sean O'Grady, The Independent "This seminal book details an important reality of today's economy: generating enough demand to absorb potential supply depends on explosive increases in indebtedness-private or public, or both."--Martin Wolf, Financial TimesTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Preface: The Crisis I Didn't See Coming xi Introduction: Too Important to Be Left to the Bankers 1 Part I Swollen Finance 17 1 The Utopia of Finance for All 19 2 Inefficient Financial Markets 34 Part II Dangerous Debt 49 3 Debt, Banks, and the Money They Create 51 4 Too Much of the Wrong Sort of Debt 61 5 Caught in the Debt Overhang Trap 74 6 Liberalization, Innovation, and the Credit Cycle on Steroids 88 7 Speculation, Inequality, and Unnecessary Credit 108 Part III Debt, Development, and Capital Flows 131 8 Debt and Development: The Merits and Dangers of Financial Repression 133 9 Too Much of the Wrong Sort of Capital Flow: Global and Eurozone Delusions 149 Part IV Fixing the System 161 10 Irrelevant Bankers in an Unstable System 163 11 Fixing Fundamentals 175 12 Abolishing Banks, Taxing Debt Pollution, and Encouraging Equity 186 13 Managing the Quantity and Mix of Debt 195 Part V Escaping the Debt Overhang 211 14 Monetary Finance-Breaking the Taboo 213 15 Between Debt and the Devil-A Choice of Dangers 231 Epilogue: The Queen's Question and the Fatal Conceit 241 Notes 253 Bibliography 277 Index 289

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of the 2017 PROSE Award in U.S. History, Association of American Publishers A New York Times Bestseller Winner of the 2017 Excellence in Financial Journalism Book Award, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants One of Bloomberg View's Great History Books of 2016 One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2016 One of Foreign Affairs' Editors' Picks 2016 One of The Economist's Economics and Business Books of the Year 2016 One of The Wall Street Journal's "The 20 Books That Defined Our Year" 2016 One of Bloomberg View's "Five Books to Change Conservatives' Minds," chosen by Cass Sunstein #36 on Bloomberg's "50 Most Influential" List One of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2016 One of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2016 One of Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2016 in History One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy One of the Washington Post's Best Economics Books 2016 Shortlisted for the 2016 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award One of The NewYorker.com Page-Turner blog's "The Books We Loved in 2016" Longlisted for the 2016 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, McGill University "The Rise and Fall of American Growth... is the Thomas Piketty-esque economic must read of the year."--Rana Foroohar, Time "This is a book well worth reading--a magisterial combination of deep technological history, vivid portraits of daily life over the past six generations and careful economic analysis... [The Rise and Fall of American Growth] will challenge your views about the future; [and] it will definitely transform how you see the past."--Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review "[An] authoritative examination of innovation through the ages."--Neil Irwin, New York Times "Robert Gordon has written a magnificent book on the economic history of the United States over the last one and a half centuries... The book is without peer in providing a statistical analysis of the uneven pace of growth and technological change, in describing the technologies that led to the remarkable progress during the special century, and in concluding with a provocative hypothesis that the future is unlikely to bring anything approaching the economic gains of the earlier period... If you want to understand our history and the economic dilemmas faced by the nation today, you can spend many a fruitful hour reading Gordon's landmark study."--William D. Nordhaus, New York Review of Books "Mr. Gordon uses exhaustive historic data to buttress his thesis."--Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] is full of wonder for the miraculous things that America has accomplished."--Edward Glaeser, Wall Street Journal "A masterful study to be read and reread by anyone interested in today's political economy."--Kirkus "Normally, these kinds of big-think books end with a whimper, as the author totally fails to identify solutions to the problem he is writing about. But Gordon's conclusion offers some admirably definitive policy advice."--Matthew Yglesias, Vox "Magnificent... Gordon presents his case... with great style and panache, supporting his argument with vivid examples as well as econometric data... Even if history changes direction... this book will survive as a superb reconstruction of material life in America in the heyday of industrial capitalism."--Economist "Every presidential candidate should be asked what policies he or she would offer to increase the pace of U.S. productivity growth and to narrow the widening gap between winners and losers in the economy. Bob Gordon's list is a good place to start."--David Wessel, WSJ.com's Think Tank blog "[W]hat may be the year's most important book on economics has already been published... What Gordon has provided is not a rejection of technology but a sobering reminder of its limits."--Robert Samuelson, Washington Post "Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth is an extraordinary work of economic scholarship... Moreover, this is one of the rare economics books that is on the one hand deeply analytical ... And on the other a pleasure to read... [A] landmark work."--Lawrence Summers, Prospect "Ambitious... The hefty tome, minutely detailed yet dauntingly broad in scope, offers a lively portrayal of the evolution of American living standards since the Civil War."--Eduardo Porter, New York Times "Two years ago a huge book on economics took the world by storm. Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century ... became a surprise bestseller... Robert Gordon's tome on American economic growth stretches to 768 pages and its central message is arguably more important."--David Smith, Sunday Times "A landmark new book."--Gavin Kelly, The Guardian "Looking ahead, judging presidents by policies rather than outcomes may be all the more important. In a new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, the economist Robert Gordon argues that we are in the midst of an era of meager technological change. Yes, we now have smartphones and Twitter, but previous generations introduced electric lighting, indoor plumbing and the internal combustion engine. In Mr. Gordon's view, technological change is just not what it used to be, and we had better get used to slower growth in productivity and incomes."--N. Gregory Mankiw, New York Times "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is likely to be the most interesting and important economics book of the year. It provides a splendid analytic take on the potency of past economic growth, which transformed the world from the end of the nineteenth century onward... Gordon's book serves as a powerful reminder that the U.S. economy really has gone through a protracted slowdown and that this decline has been caused by the stagnation in technological progress."--Tyler Cowen, Foreign Affairs "[A]n important new book."--Martin Ford, Huffington Post "[A] lightning bolt of a new book."--Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect "So powerful and intriguing are the facts and arguments marshaled by Gordon that even informed critics who think he is wrong recommend that readers plow through his The Rise and Fall of American Growth, with its 60 graphics and 64 tables spread over more than 700 pages. You don't need to be an economist to appreciate or understand the book. His thesis is straightforward."--David Cay Johnston, Al Jazeera America.com "What is novel about Gordon's approach to this problem is that he doesn't try to find political causes for our economic woes... [E]xhaustive and sweeping in scope, and novel in its thinking about growth."--Chris Matthews, Fortune.com "[A] fascinating new book."--Jeffrey Sachs, Boston Globe "One of the most important books of recent years... Powerful and impressive."--Cass R. Sunstein, Bloomberg View "This is a tremendous, sobering piece of research, which does a lot to explain the febrile, nervous state of modern Western democracies."--Marcus Tanner, The Independent "A new book by economist Robert Gordon--The Rise and Fall of American Growth--is causing quite a stir."--City A.M. "If he's right, and one links this with growing income inequality, our would-be leaders will have difficulty in making the case for achieving the American dream through steady incremental progress achieved through collaboration and political compromise."--Michael Hoffmann, Desert Sun "Robert Gordon's new book on productivity in the U.S. economy, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, is masterful... Gordon skillfully lays out myriad information about the history and trends of productivity. One can learn a great deal."--Edward Lotterman, St. Paul Pioneer Press "[I]mpressive."--Peter Martin, Sydney Morning Herald "In his unsettling new book, Gordon, who teaches at Northwestern, weighs in on the role of technology in the U.S. over the past century-and-a-half. He does so forcefully, so forcefully, in fact, as to wipe the smiles off the faces of most techno-optimists, myself included."--Peter A. Coclanis, Charlotte Observer "[A] thoughtful new book."--David D. Haynes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] is this year's equivalent to Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century: an essential read for all economists, who are unanimously floored by its boldness and scope even if they don't agree with its conclusions."--Adam Davidson, New York Times Magazine "Gordon makes a compelling case for why the era of fast growth in America ended around 1970 and will not return in the foreseeable future, if ever."--Dick Meyer, DecodeDC "Gordon argues that we are not going to get another surge soon and that there are several headwinds that are going to work against faster growth, including income inequality, education as a differentiator and not an equalizer, the debt overhang, and demography."--John Mason, TheStreet.com "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] challenges every political claim, and every pundit's remedy, regarding how to get the lackluster American economy to boom again in the decades ahead, as it once did a half-century or more ago... [The book] represents the culmination of Gordon's many years of investigation into this key economic question of our age, namely: 'Why is it that the American economy has never been able to return to the happy boom years of our grandparents' time?' Why is it that, decade after decade, administration after administration, annualized productivity growth has only been about one-half to one-third that of the age of Truman and Eisenhower?"--Paul Kennedy, Tribune Content Agency "[M]asterful... Gordon skillfully lays out information about the history and trends of productivity. One can learn a great deal... The Rise and Fall of American Growth is a rare example of a work with solid economics that can be understood, and enjoyed, by nearly any lay person."--Ed Lotterman, Idaho Statesman "As an economic historian, Gordon is beyond reproach."--Edward Luce, Financial Times "Provocative."--Associated Press "The Rise and Fall of American Growth, is a deep dive into the past with an eye to the future... [The book] is part of a fascinating debate about future prospects for the American economy."--Knowledge@Wharton "[The Rise and Fall of American Growth] has set the wonky world of economics aflame."--Ryan Craig, TechCrunch "Magisterial."--John Kay, Financial Times "[A] contentious new book."--Margaret Wente, The Globe & Mail "[A] fabulous new book... [I]mpressive."--Dr. Mike Walden, Morganton News Herald "Northwestern Bob Gordon's new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, offers a deeper explanation for the underlying mechanics behind slowed economic growth."--Jon Hartley, Forbes.com "So much of what the presidential candidates and the American people want to accomplish over the next four years and beyond depends on the U.S. economy growing faster, and more inclusively, than it has in recent years. This year's hot economics book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by one of America's most distinguished macroeconomists, Robert Gordon, casts a pall on whether this is possible, arguing that the U.S. had a golden century of increasing innovation from roughly 1870 to 1970, but this was unique."--Robert Litan, Fortune.com "Gordon's book offers the definitive account of how the many technological innovations between 1870 and 1940 dramatically improved life in the United States."--Richard A. Epstein, Hoover Institution's Defining Ideas blog "[M]agiserial... The Northwestern University professor lays out the case that the productivity miracle underlying the American way of life was largely a one-time deal."--Matt Phillips, Quartz "Robert Gordon's new book The Rise and Fall of American Growth has taken the economics world by storm this winter."--Myles Udland, Business Insider "[M]assive."--Ben Casselman, FiveThirty Eight "[G]roundbreaking."--Zeeshan Aleem, Mic "With a painstaking--and fascinating--historical analysis of American productivity, [Gordon] argues that the innovations of today pale in comparison to earlier in our history and that we might actually be entering a period of prolonged stagnation. He may very well be right."--Greg Satell, Forbes.com "[P]rovocative."--Barrie McKenna, The Globe & Mail "[I]nfluential."--Martin Neil Baily, Fortune.com "[A] stimulating book."--George Will, Washington Post "Compulsive reading."--Andrew Hilton, Financial World "Gordon is not an alarmist, far from it. His is a sober voice of concern, of caution, which needs to be heard by those in the helm in America. And a fascinating lesson for ambitious and growing countries like India."--Dr R Balashankar, Sunday Guardian "[A] fascinating convergence of green and mainstream thought."--Tom Horton, Chesapeake Bay Journal "[T]his panoramic book makes good reading."--Shane Greenstein, Harvard Magazine "The book's great contribution is the tapestry it weaves of all the innovations that changed most Americans' lives beyond recognition in the century from 1870 to 1970."--Martin Sandbu, Financial Times "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is unquestionably an important book that raises fundamental questions about the United States' economy and society."--New Criterion "[A] masterpiece."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "[An] impressive book... Gordon's book provides sufficient ammunition to show the colossal problems facing capitalism."--Socialism Today "Rich with detailed information, meticulous observations, and even anecdotes and stories ... a fascinating read."--Ricardo F. Levi, Corriere della Sera "The Rise and Fall of American Growth is essential reading for anyone interested in economics."--Choice "In an important new book, economist Robert Gordon makes the case for pessimism. He believes that technologies like smartphones, robots, and artificial intelligence aren't going to have the kind of big impact on the economy that earlier inventions--like the internal combustion engine and electricity--did."--Timothy B. Lee, Vox "Robert Gordon has written an engaging economic-based history of America... Gordon is to be commended for helping to stimulate a national debate on the current low level of economic productivity."--Allan Hauer, Innovation: The Journal of Technology & Commercialization "If you want to see how far we have come and how tough life was a century and a half ago, read Gordon's book."--David R. Henderson, Regulation "A fantastic read."--Bill Gates, GatesNotes "The book is well written, and one can only be in awe of Gordon's mastery of the factual history of the American standard of living."--Robert A. Margo, EH.net "Monumental."--John Cassidy, NewYorker.com "Zeitgeist-defining."--Myles Udland, Business Insider "[A] magisterial treatise."--Nick Gillespie, Reason.com "[A]n essential read for anyone interested not only in US economic history but also American economic prospects ... a tremendous achievement."--Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist "A comprehensive history of American economic growth."--Eric Rauchway, American Prospect "Professor Robert J. Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth is a magisterial volume that will benefit any serious student of economics, demographics or history."--Wendell Cox, New Geography "A wonderful new book."--Jeff Sachs, Boston Globe "The most important economics book of 2016."--Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune "This spectacular history traces the rise and the plateau of the American economy since industrialization."--Jay Weiser, Weekly Standard "[A] landmark book... An impressive history of how the American people progressed in their standards of living and productivity in the 'golden century' of 1870-1970."--Stephen M. Millett, Strategy & Leadership "Gordon's encyclopedic The Rise and Fall of American Growth, a new history of modern U.S. economic life, [is] perhaps the best yet written."--Jonathan Levy, Dissent "One of our greatest economic historians... Gordon's exhaustive research program ... has knocked me back on my intellectual heels."--J. Bradford DeLong, Strategy + Business "This is the most important book on economics in many years."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times "Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth set out a thesis of technological diminishing returns that does much to explain an age of economic pessimism."--Lorien Kite, Financial Times "In the course of Gordon's book, a vivid picture of everyday life as our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents lived it emerges... What lingers in my mind, alongside these ideas, is a new, weightier sense of the past, and of what the people who lived in it ate, touched, heard, saw, and did. Reading The Rise and Fall of American Growth, I thought a lot about my grandparents. Gordon's book has made their lives more real to me."--Joshua Rothman, NewYorker.com's Page-Turner blog "Magisterial... While the book has gotten attention because of its bold projection of slow growth in the future, this is actually just one small element of a magnificent and detailed presentation of how our economy has changed since 1870. Most people don't fully appreciate what life was like in the past and Gordon gives a blow-by-blow description of how people lived in America from 1870 on. In addition, he carefully explains how each new innovation was created and how its adoption changed people's lives."--Stephen Rose, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas "Gordon constructs a strong case using conventional economic principles and exacting data measurement."--Don Pittis, CBC News "Gordon's genius is to weave together economic history with the story of the technology, know-how, politic, demographics and medicine that made the astonishing progress of the US perhaps the most remarkable ever."--Sean O'Grady, The IndependentTable of ContentsPreface ix 1. Introduction: The Ascent and Descent of Growth 1 PART I. 1870-1940-THE GREAT INVENTIONS CREATE A REVOLUTION INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE HOME 25 2. The Starting Point: Life and Work in 1870 27 3. What They Ate and Wore and Where They Bought It 62 4. The American Home: From Dark and Isolated to Bright and Networked 94 5. Motors Overtake Horses and Rail: Inventions and Incremental Improvements 129 6. From Telegraph to Talkies: Information, Communication, and Entertainment 172 7. Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Illness and Early Death 206 8. Working Conditions on the Job and at Home 247 9. Taking and Mitigating Risks: Consumer Credit, Insurance, and the Government 288 Entr'acte. The Midcentury Shift from Revolution to Evolution 319 PART II. 1940-2015-THE GOLDEN AGE AND THE EARLY WARNINGS OF SLOWER GROWTH 329 10. Fast Food, Synthetic Fibers, and Split-Level Subdivisions: The Slowing Transformation of Food, Clothing, and Housing 331 11. See the USA in Your Chevrolet or from a Plane Flying High Above 374 12. Entertainment and Communications from Milton Berle to the iPhone 409 13. Computers and the Internet from the Mainframe to Facebook 441 14. Antibiotics, CT Scans, and the Evolution of Health and Medicine 461 15. Work, Youth, and Retirement at Home and on the Job 498 Entr'acte. Toward an Understanding of Slower Growth 522 PART III. THE SOURCES OF FASTER AND SLOWER GROWTH 533 16. The Great Leap Forward from the 1920s to the 1950s: What Set of Miracles Created It? 535 17. Innovation: Can the Future Match the Great Inventions of the Past? 566 18. Inequality and the Other Headwinds: Long-Run American Economic Growth Slows to a Crawl 605 Postscript: America's Growth Achievement and the Path Ahead 641 Acknowledgments 653 Data Appendix 657 Notes 667 References 717 Credits 741 Index 745

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewOne of The Independent's Best Economics Books of the Year Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of the Year Financial Times Best Economics Books of of the Year One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2015, chosen by Martin Wolf One of the Strategy+Business Best Business Books 2016 in Economy One of The Independent's Best Economics Books 2015 One of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of 2015, chosen by Vitor Constancio "[Between Debt and the Devil] represents an important challenge to economic orthodoxy, which, as [Turner] rightly notes, has already failed us once."--John Cassidy, New Yorker "Extensively researched and well-written."--Edward Chancellor, Wall Street Journal "[A] remarkable new book."--Will Hutton, Observer "Lucid and forcefully-argued."--Peter Thal Larsen, Reuters Breakingviews "Turner offers a convincing account of the debt-fuelled global economic cycle of the last 15 years or so. I found myself skimming over large sections and nodding in agreement."--Erik Britton, Management Today "Turner is more than just another thinker merrily seeking to provoke his audience; he is an experienced British policymaker accustomed to weighing up the angles... [Between Debt and the Devil] is as good as it can be, an overdue challenge to a taboo against monetary finance held sacred for too long."--Giles Wilkes, Financial Times "Adair Turner, the former chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority and described by The Economist as a man for all policy crises, upends financial orthodoxy in Between Debt and the Devil. He argues that nothing regulators have done thus far has addressed the fundamental underlying cause of financial instability... Turner's book is tightly argued and is packed with insights about the financial markets as well as the real economy."--Brenda Jubin, Investing.com "If developed economies fall back into recession, people may hear quite a bit more about Lord Turner's ideas."--Economist "This is an important book because Turner thinks clearly where much analysis has been fuzzy ... [a] stimulating book."--Ben Chu, The Independent "Adair Turner's Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit and Fixing Global Finance--out this month--joins a select group of books that provide as clear an explanation of the financial crisis as one could hope for."--Diane Coyle, The Enlightened Economist "Some astonishingly original ideas."--Alex Brummer, Daily Mail "[A] brilliant new book... [The] prose crisply conveys analysis of real force."--Tom Clark, Guardian "[A] scintillating individual [contribution] to the debate not just on the future of finance but how we should run our economy."--Felix Martin, New Statesman "Adair Turner's new book Between Debt and the Devil is definitely worth your time."--Clive Crook, Bloomberg View "A challenging but relentlessly logical book about the flaws of the system that led us to the Great Recession: excess finance, excessive indebtedness. He adds to the literature that explains why more and more finance is not always good. The proposed cure requires going beyond the present financial regulatory reform. A bold and thought provoking book."--Vitor Constancio, Vice president, European Central Bank, one of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2015 "This book lays down a challenge which subsequent accounts of monetary policy will have to address."--David Willetts, Prospect "[An] excellent book."--Nick Butler, Financial Times "[H]is extensive work both at financial institutions and in academia, have given Turner an insider's view of the world of finance and economics. But his conclusions--that the banking system needs to be fundamentally restructured, and that periodically, instead of a government running up debt, the central bank should just print money for the government to spend--are far from conventional."--Matt Phillips, Quartz "This is a good book, well worth reading... It is well and clearly written and supported by good, non-technical analysis and empirical evidence."--Charles Goodhart, Financial World "These provocative and insightful arguments are particularly valuable at a time when austerity retains its intellectual luster despite its manifest failures."--Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs "Turner's book should make policymakers and commentators sit up and take notice."--TT Ram Mohan, Economic & Political Weekly "This seminal book details an important reality of today's economy: generating enough demand to absorb potential supply depends on explosive increases in indebtedness-private or public, or both."--Martin Wolf, Financial TimesTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Preface: The Crisis I Didn't See Coming xi Introduction: Too Important to Be Left to the Bankers 1 Part I Swollen Finance 17 1 The Utopia of Finance for All 19 2 Inefficient Financial Markets 34 Part II Dangerous Debt 49 3 Debt, Banks, and the Money They Create 51 4 Too Much of the Wrong Sort of Debt 61 5 Caught in the Debt Overhang Trap 74 6 Liberalization, Innovation, and the Credit Cycle on Steroids 88 7 Speculation, Inequality, and Unnecessary Credit 108 Part III Debt, Development, and Capital Flows 131 8 Debt and Development: The Merits and Dangers of Financial Repression 133 9 Too Much of the Wrong Sort of Capital Flow: Global and Eurozone Delusions 149 Part IV Fixing the System 161 10 Irrelevant Bankers in an Unstable System 163 11 Fixing Fundamentals 175 12 Abolishing Banks, Taxing Debt Pollution, and Encouraging Equity 186 13 Managing the Quantity and Mix of Debt 195 Part V Escaping the Debt Overhang 211 14 Monetary Finance-Breaking the Taboo 213 15 Between Debt and the Devil-A Choice of Dangers 231 Epilogue: The Queen's Question and the Fatal Conceit 241 Notes 253 Bibliography 277 Index 289

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Book SynopsisA varied and wide-ranging set of perspectives on economic policy past, present and future. The papers are grouped into six sections each representing a different perspective: money, structure, sectors, regions, international and political economy.

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