Top Economic eBooks

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1929 - Andrew Ross Sorkin Cover Art

1929

1929 Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “It is one of the best narrative histories I’ve read.” — The Wall Street Journal A New York Times Notable Book of 2025 • One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2025 • Named a BEST BOOK OF 2025 by The Washington Post , TIME , The Economist , Air Mail , Bloomberg , Fast Company , Katie Couric Media, and History From the bestselling author of Too Big to Fail , “the definitive history of the 2008 banking crisis,” ( The Atlantic ) comes a riveting narrative of the most infamous stock market crash in history—one with ripple effects that still shape our society today. In 1929 , the world watched in shock as the unstoppable Wall Street bull market went into a freefall, wiping out fortunes and igniting a depression that would reshape a generation. But behind the flashing ticker tapes and panicked traders, another drama unfolded—one of visionaries and fraudsters, titans and dreamers, euphoria and ruin. With unparalleled access to historical records and newly uncovered documents, New York Times bestselling author Andrew Ross Sorkin takes readers inside the chaos of the crash, behind the scenes of a raging battle between Wall Street and Washington and the larger-than-life characters whose ambition and naïveté in an endless boom led to disaster. The dizzying highs and brutal lows of this era eerily mirror today’s world—where markets soar, political tensions mount, and the fight over financial influence plays out once again. This is not just a story about money. 1929 is a tale of power, psychology, and the seductive illusion that this time is different. It’s about disregarded alarm bells, financiers who fell from grace, and skeptics who saw the crash coming—only to be dismissed until it was too late. Hailed as a landmark book, Too Big to Fail reimagined how financial crises are told. Now, with 1929 , Sorkin delivers an immersive, electrifying account of the most pivotal market collapse of all time—with lessons that remain as urgent as ever. More than just a history, 1929 is a crucial blueprint for understanding the cycles of speculation, the forces that drive financial upheaval, and the warning signs we ignore at our peril.

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Too Big to Fail - Andrew Ross Sorkin Cover Art

Too Big to Fail

Too Big to Fail The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin

NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLER • The definitive account of the 2008 economic crisis, from the award-winning financial columnist and founder of DealBook, with unparalleled behind-the-scenes access to the key players on Wall Street and in Washington “ Too Big to Fail is too good to put down. . . . It is the story of the actors in the most extraordinary financial spectacle in [over] 80 years, and it is told brilliantly.” — The Economist NOW AN HBO FILM One of the most gripping financial stories in decades, Too Big to Fail delivers a blow-by-blow account of the epochal economic crisis that brought the world to the brink. Through unprecedented access to the players involved, Andrew Ross Sorkin re-creates all the drama and turmoil of those turbulent days, revealing never-before-disclosed details and recounting how—motivated as often by ego and greed as by fear and self-preservation—the most powerful men and women in finance and politics decided the fate of the world's economy. This edition has been updated with a new afterword reflecting on the tenth anniversary of the crisis.

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The Money Illusion - Scott Sumner Cover Art

The Money Illusion

The Money Illusion Market Monetarism, the Great Recession, and the Future of Monetary Policy by Scott Sumner

The first book-length work on market monetarism, written by its leading scholar. Is it possible that the consensus around what caused the 2008 Great Recession is almost entirely wrong? It's happened before. Just as Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz led the economics community in the 1960s to reevaluate its view of what caused the Great Depression, the same may be happening now to our understanding of the first economic crisis of the 21st century. Forgoing the usual relitigating of problems such as housing markets and banking crises, renowned monetary economist Scott Sumner argues that the Great Recession came down to one thing: nominal GDP, the sum of all nominal spending in the economy, which the Federal Reserve erred in allowing to plummet. The Money Illusion is an end-to-end case for this school of thought, known as market monetarism, written by its leading voice in economics. Based almost entirely on standard macroeconomic concepts, this highly accessible text lays the groundwork for a simple yet fundamentally radical understanding of how monetary policy can work best: providing a stable environment for a market economy to flourish.

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Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order - Ray Dalio Cover Art

Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order

Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order Why Nations Succeed and Fail by Ray Dalio

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * MORE THAN ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD “A provocative read...There are few tomes that coherently map such broad economic histories as well as Mr. Dalio’s. Perhaps more unusually, Mr. Dalio has managed to identify metrics from that history that can be applied to understand today.” —Andrew Ross Sorkin, The New York Times From legendary investor Ray Dalio, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Principles , who has spent half a century studying global economies and markets, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order examines history’s most turbulent economic and political periods to reveal why the times ahead will likely be radically different from those we’ve experienced in our lifetimes—and to offer practical advice on how to navigate them well. A few years ago, Ray Dalio noticed a confluence of political and economic conditions he hadn’t encountered before. They included huge debts and zero or near-zero interest rates that led to massive printing of money in the world’s three major reserve currencies; big political and social conflicts within countries, especially the US, due to the largest wealth, political, and values disparities in more than 100 years; and the rising of a world power (China) to challenge the existing world power (US) and the existing world order. The last time that this confluence occurred was between 1930 and 1945. This realization sent Dalio on a search for the repeating patterns and cause/effect relationships underlying all major changes in wealth and power over the last 500 years. In this remarkable and timely addition to his Principles series, Dalio brings readers along for his study of the major empires—including the Dutch, the British, and the American—putting into perspective the “Big Cycle” that has driven the successes and failures of all the world’s major countries throughout history. He reveals the timeless and universal forces behind these shifts and uses them to look into the future, offering practical principles for positioning oneself for what’s ahead.

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The Richest Man in Babylon - George S. Clason & GP Editors Cover Art

The Richest Man in Babylon

The Richest Man in Babylon 9789387669369 by George S. Clason & GP Editors

The Richest Man in Babylon is considered as the greatest of all inspirational works on the subject of thrift, financial planning, and personal wealth. Revealed inside are the secrets to acquiring money, keeping money, and making money earn more money.Providing financial wisdom through parables, 'The Richest Man in Babylon' was originally a set of pamphlets, written by the author and distributed by banks and insurance companies. These pamphlets were later bundled together, giving birth to a book. In this new rendering by Charles Conrad, the classic tale is retold in clear, simple language for today's readers. These fascinating and informative stories set you on a sure path to prosperity and its accompanying joys.

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Our Dollar, Your Problem - Kenneth Rogoff Cover Art

Our Dollar, Your Problem

Our Dollar, Your Problem by Kenneth Rogoff

A National Bestseller • Recommended by Financial Times as “What to Read in 2025”   “The central argument of Our Dollar, Your Problem —that the greenback’s pre-eminence was never guaranteed and might plausibly be overturned—could hardly be more timely.”— The Economist   A leading economist explores the global rise of the U.S. dollar and shows why its future stability is far from assured   Our Dollar, Your Problem argues that America’s currency might not have reached today’s lofty pinnacle without a certain amount of good luck. Drawing in part on his own experiences, including with policymakers and world leaders, Kenneth Rogoff animates the remarkable postwar run of the dollar—how it beat out the Japanese yen, the Soviet ruble, and the euro—and the challenges it faces today from crypto and the Chinese yuan, the end of reliably low inflation and interest rates, political instability, and the fracturing of the dollar bloc. Americans cannot take for granted that the Pax Dollar era will last indefinitely, not only because many countries are deeply frustrated with the system, but also because overconfidence and arrogance can lead to unforced errors. Rogoff shows how America’s outsized power and exorbitant privilege can spur financial instability—not just abroad but also at home.

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The Big Myth - Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway Cover Art

The Big Myth

The Big Myth How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway

"[A] scorching indictment of free market fundamentalism . . . and how we can change, before it's too late."-Esquire The bestselling authors of Merchants of Doubt offer a profound, startling history of one of America's most tenacious-and destructive-false ideas: the myth of the "free market." In their landmark book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway revealed the origins of climate change denial. Now, they unfold the truth about another disastrous dogma: the "magic of the marketplace." In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with "big government" and up with unfettered markets. With trenchant archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. They detail the ploys that turned hardline economists Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman into household names; recount the libertarian roots of the Little House on the Prairie books; and tune into the General Electric-sponsored TV show that beamed free-market doctrine to millions and launched Ronald Reagan's political career. By the 1970s, this propaganda was succeeding. Free market ideology would define the next half-century across Republican and Democratic administrations, giving us a housing crisis, the opioid scourge, climate destruction, and a baleful response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Only by understanding this history can we imagine a future where markets will serve, not stifle, democracy.

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The Price of Time - Edward Chancellor Cover Art

The Price of Time

The Price of Time The Real Story of Interest by Edward Chancellor

Winner of the 2023 Hayek Book Prize Longlisted for the 2022 Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award A comprehensive and profoundly relevant history of interest from one of the world’s leading financial writers, The Price of Time explains our current global financial position and how we got here In the beginning was the loan, and the loan carried interest. For at least five millennia people have been borrowing and lending at interest. The practice wasn’t always popular—in the ancient world, usury was generally viewed as exploitative, a potential path to debt bondage and slavery. Yet as capitalism became established from the late Middle Ages onwards, denunciations of interest were tempered because interest was a necessary reward for lenders to part with their capital. And interest performs many other vital functions: it encourages people to save; enables them to place a value on precious assets, such as houses and all manner of financial securities; and allows us to price risk. All economic and financial activities take place across time. Interest is often described as the “price of money,” but it is better called the “price of time:” time is scarce, time has value, interest is the time value of money. Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, interest rates have sunk lower than ever before. Easy money after the global financial crisis in 2007/2008 has produced several ill effects, including the appearance of multiple asset price bubbles, a reduction in productivity growth, discouraging savings and exacerbating inequality, and forcing yield starved investors to take on excessive risk. The financial world now finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place, and Edward Chancellor is here to tell us why. In this enriching volume, Chancellor explores the history of interest and its essential function in determining how capital is allocated and priced.

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The New China Playbook - Keyu Jin Cover Art

The New China Playbook

The New China Playbook Beyond Socialism and Capitalism by Keyu Jin

“Keyu Jin is a brilliant thinker.” —Tony Blair, former prime minster of the United Kingdom A myth-dispelling, comprehensive guide to the Chinese economy and its path to ascendancy. China's economy has been booming for decades now. A formidable and emerging power on the world stage, the China that most Americans picture is only a rough sketch, based on American news coverage, policy, and ways of understanding.  Enter Keyu Jin: a world-renowned economist who was born in China, educated in the U.S., and is now a tenured professor at the London School of Economics. A person fluent in both Eastern and Western cultures, and a voice of the new generation of Chinese who represent a radical break from the past, Jin is uniquely poised to explain how China became the most successful economic story of our time, as it has shifted from primarily state-owned enterprise to an economy that is thriving in entrepreneurship, and participation in the global economy. China’s economic realm is colorful and lively, filled with paradoxes and conundrums, and Jin believes that by understanding the Chinese model, the people, the culture and history in its true perspective, one can reconcile what may appear to be contradictions to the Western eye. What follows is an illuminating account of a burgeoning world power, its past, and its potential future.

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The Power of Your Subconscious Mind - Joseph Murphy Cover Art

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy

"The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" will open a world of success, happiness, prosperity, and peace for you. It is one of the most brilliant and beloved spiritual self-help works of all time which can help you heal yourself, banish your fears, sleep better, enjoy better relationships and just feel happier. The techniques are simple and results come quickly. You can improve your relationships, your finances, your physical well-being. In this book, the author fuses his spiritual wisdom and scientific research to bring to light how the sub-conscious mind can be a major influence on our daily lives. Once you understand your subconscious mind, you can also control or get rid of the various phobias that you may have in turn opening a brand new world of positive energy.

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The Doom Loop - Eswar S. Prasad Cover Art

The Doom Loop

The Doom Loop Why the World Economic Order Is Spiraling into Disorder by Eswar S. Prasad

The acclaimed economist and author of The Future of Money argues that the forces meant to stabilize the world’s economy are in fact driving global instability “An excellent survey of some of the most important issues in international affairs today.” — Financial Times Global economic power is shifting, liberal market-oriented democracies face growing domestic turmoil, and international trade and financial integration is crumbling. How did we get here? In The Doom Loop , economist Eswar Prasad argues that the very forces that we long believed could stabilize the world order are fueling its destabilization. Rather than promoting shared prosperity, globalization has instead deepened economic inequality, stoked political backlash, and prompted escalating trade wars. Institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization, founded to foster international cooperation, have failed to adapt to twenty-first-century realities. The rise of “middle power” countries like India, Brazil, and Indonesia once suggested a stable multipolar future, but today, such nations are increasingly forced to pick sides as the United States and China fight for global dominance. Prasad argues that we are caught in a destructive feedback loop between economics, domestic politics, and geopolitics. The Doom Loop offers a clear-eyed and bracing account of a world spiraling into disorder, and makes it clear that old solutions cannot pull us out—we need radically new solutions to solve the world’s problems.

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On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition - William Zinsser Cover Art

On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition

On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser

"On Writing Well is a bible for a generation of writers looking for clues to clean, compelling prose." —New York Times A beloved classic and the definitive volume on the art of writing nonfiction On Writing Well, which grew out of a course that William Zinsser taught at Yale, has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity, and for the warmth of its style. It is a book for anybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts, or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you both fundamental principles as well as the insights of a distinguished practitioner. With over a million copies in print, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valued resource for writers and would-be writers.

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NeuroSelling - Jeff Bloomfield Cover Art

NeuroSelling

NeuroSelling Mastering the Customer Conversation Using the Surprising Science of Decision-Making by Jeff Bloomfield

Your business lives and dies by your customer conversations. Shouldn’t you have those down to a science? If you’re tired of having to justify your price...of offering discounts to close the deal...of long sales cycles...of customers who can’t seem to make a decision, then you need NeuroSelling®, the only customer conversation tool grounded in neuroscience and behavioral psychology. But NeuroSelling® is more than just theory—it’s a step-by-step, practical communication methodology honed by years of field experience, resulting in millions in new revenue in industries as diverse as biotech, financial services, manufacturing, and engineering. Start communicating in a way that: -Builds personal and professional trust faster -Naturally drives urgency to buy -Creates an automatic commitment to change In this book, you’ll also read the stories of a sales rep who went from the bottom half of his sales organization to becoming rep of the year, as well as the dark-horse executive candidate who became CEO, chosen over three more experienced leaders. No matter your situation, successful selling begins and ends with the customer conversation.

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SuperFreakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner Cover Art

SuperFreakonomics

SuperFreakonomics Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Freakonomics lived on the New York Times bestseller list for an astonishing two years. Now authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with more iconoclastic insights and observations in SuperFreakonomics —the long awaited follow-up to their New York Times Notable blockbuster. Based on revolutionary research and original studies, SuperFreakonomics promises to once again challenge our view of human behavior and the way the world really works. Applying their signature economic approach, Levitt and Dubner tackle a new set of provocative questions: Behavioral Economics: Why do street prostitutes have more in common with a department-store Santa than you’d think, and what can monkeys teach us about the stock market? Counterintuitive Thinking: Explore the real data behind life-and-death decisions, from whether it’s safer to walk drunk or drive drunk to why a suicide bomber might buy life insurance. Unintended Consequences: Discover how the arrival of cable TV empowered women in rural India and why the invention of the car seat may not be the simple lifesaver we assume it is. Cheap and Simple Fixes: From a simple hand-washing protocol that saved thousands of lives to a garden hose that could reverse global warming, learn why the best solutions are often the easiest.

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Договориться не проблема. Как добиваться своего без конфликтов и ненужных уступок - Крис Восс & Милена Илиева Cover Art

Договориться не проблема. Как добиваться своего без конфликтов и ненужных уступок

Договориться не проблема. Как добиваться своего без конфликтов и ненужных уступок by Крис Восс & Милена Илиева

Переговорные техники, описанные Крисом Воссом, родились из сокрушительных поражений ФБР, когда стало понятно, что традиционные методики не работают в экстремальных ситуациях. Поэтому ФБР начало усиленно искать принципиально новые подходы. В результате появилось 9 принципов, изложенные автором этой книги – топ-переговорщиком ФБР с двадцатилетним стажем. Эта книга – потрясающе увлекательное и одновременно простое руководство по любым переговорам. Не важно, идет ли речь о покупке международной корпорации или ремонте стиральной машинки, методика Криса Восса научит вас добиваться своего. При любых условиях. При любых раскладах. Без необходимости идти на компромисс. В формате a4.pdf сохранен издательский макет. Книга также выходит в альтернативном оформлении: https://www.litres.ru/book/kris-voss/dogovoritsya-ne-problema-kak-dobivatsya-svoego-bez-konfliktov-i-70732852/

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Hacia una economía moral - Andrés Manuel López Obrador Cover Art

Hacia una economía moral

Hacia una economía moral by Andrés Manuel López Obrador

«El paradigma que estamos construyendo se basa en la convicción de que es más fuerte la generosidad que el egoísmo, más poderosa la empatía que el odio, más eficiente la colaboración que la competencia, más constructiva la libertad que la prohibición y más fructífera la confianza que la desconfianza. Tenemos la certeza de que los principios éticos y vanguardistas de nuestro pueblo son las claves del nuevo pacto social y del modelo de desarrollo para el México que está renaciendo tras la larga y oscura noche del neoliberalismo». Este libro permite entender con claridad la propuesta del presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador de una economía nacional basada en la prosperidad general de la población y la restructuración de los organismos, las instituciones y, sobre todo, las prácticas políticas y sociales para servir al bien común y propiciar un verdadero Estado de bienestar.

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212 The Extra Degree - Sam Parker & Mac Anderson Cover Art

212 The Extra Degree

212 The Extra Degree Extraordinary Results Begin with One Small Change by Sam Parker & Mac Anderson

A Simple Truths #1 bestseller with over 1 MILLION COPIES sold! The concept is simple: At 211º, water is hot. At 212º, it boils. And with boiling water comes steam. And steam can power a locomotive. The one extra degree makes the difference. This analogy reflects the ultimate definition of excellence. The one extra degree of effort, in business and life, can separate the good from the great. The 212º concept is vividly illustrated for every aspect of your life through powerful stories that will inspire and motivate yourself or your team to the next level of success. 212º The Extra Degree is a must-have in every personal and business library.

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The Great Transformation - Karl Polanyi Cover Art

The Great Transformation

The Great Transformation The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by Karl Polanyi

In this classic work of economic history and social theory, Karl Polanyi analyzes the economic and social changes brought about by the "great transformation" of the Industrial Revolution. His analysis explains not only the deficiencies of the self-regulating market, but the potentially dire social consequences of untempered market capitalism. New introductory material reveals the renewed importance of Polanyi's seminal analysis in an era of globalization and free trade.

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Rainmaking Made Simple: What Every Professional Must Know - Mark M. Maraia Cover Art

Rainmaking Made Simple: What Every Professional Must Know

Rainmaking Made Simple: What Every Professional Must Know by Mark M. Maraia

Rainmaking Made Simple: What Every Professional Must Know is the definitive how-to guide for professionals on growing their business.  It demystifies the process of building client relationships, making it simple to grasp, retain and put into practice.

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Less is More - Jason Hickel Cover Art

Less is More

Less is More How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel

'A powerfully disruptive book for disrupted times ... If you're looking for transformative ideas, this book is for you.' KATE RAWORTH, economist and author of Doughnut Economics A Financial Times Book of the Year ______________________________________ Our planet is in trouble. But how can we reverse the current crisis and create a sustainable future? The answer is: DEGROWTH . Less is More is the wake-up call we need. By shining a light on ecological breakdown and the system that's causing it, Hickel shows how we can bring our economy back into balance with the living world and build a thriving society for all. This is our chance to change course, but we must act now. ______________________________________ 'A masterpiece... Less is More covers centuries and continents, spans academic disciplines, and connects contemporary and ancient events in a way which cannot be put down until it's finished.' DANNY DORLING, Professor of Geography, University of Oxford 'Jason Hickel shows that recovering the commons and decolonizing nature, cultures, and humanity are necessary conditions for hope of a common future in our common home.' VANDANA SHIVA, author of Making Peace With the Earth 'This is a book we have all been waiting for. Jason Hickel dispels ecomodernist fantasies of "green growth". Only degrowth can avoid climate breakdown. The facts are indisputable and they are in this book.' GIORGIS KALLIS, author of Degrowth 'Capitalism has robbed us of our ability to even imagine something different; Less is More gives us the ability to not only dream of another world, but also the tools by which we can make that vision real.' ASAD REHMAN, director of War on Want 'One of the most important books I have read ... does something extremely rare: it outlines a clear path to a sustainable future for all.' RAOUL MARTINEZ, author of Creating Freedom 'Jason Hickel takes us on a profound journey through the last 500 years of capitalism and into the current crisis of ecological collapse. Less is More is required reading for anyone interested in what it means to live in the Anthropocene, and what we can do about it.' ALNOOR LADHA, co-founder of The Rules 'Excellent analysis...This book explores not only the systemic flaws but the deeply cultural beliefs that need to be uprooted and replaced.' ADELE WALTON

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Superabundance - Marian L. Tupy & Gale L. Pooley Cover Art

Superabundance

Superabundance The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet by Marian L. Tupy & Gale L. Pooley

Generations of people have been taught that population growth makes resources scarcer. In 2021, for example, one widely publicized report argued that “The world's rapidly growing population is consuming the planet's natural resources at an alarming rate . . . the world currently needs 1.6 Earths to satisfy the demand for natural resources … [a figure that] could rise to 2 planets by 2030.” But is that true? After analyzing the prices of hundreds of commodities, goods, and services spanning two centuries, Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley found that resources became more abundant as the population grew. That was especially true when they looked at “time prices,” which represent the length of time that people must work to buy something. To their surprise, the authors also found that resource abundance increased faster than the population―a relationship that they call superabundance. On average, every additional human being created more value than he or she consumed. This relationship between population growth and abundance is deeply counterintuitive, yet it is true. Why? More people produce more ideas, which lead to more inventions. People then test those inventions in the marketplace to separate the useful from the useless. At the end of that process of discovery, people are left with innovations that overcome shortages, spur economic growth, and raise standards of living. But large populations are not enough to sustain superabundance―just think of the poverty in China and India before their respective economic reforms. To innovate, people must be allowed to think, speak, publish, associate, and disagree. They must be allowed to save, invest, trade, and profit. In a word, they must be free.

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In FED We Trust - David Wessel Cover Art

In FED We Trust

In FED We Trust Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic by David Wessel

“Whatever it takes” That was Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s vow as the worst financial panic in more than fifty years gripped the world and he struggled to avoid the once unthinkable: a repeat of the Great Depression. Brilliant but temperamentally cautious, Bernanke researched and wrote about the causes of the Depression during his career as an academic. Then when thrust into a role as one of the most important people in the world, he was compelled to boldness by circumstances he never anticipated. The president of the United States can respond instantly to a missile attack with America’s military might, but he cannot respond to a financial crisis with real money unless Congress acts. The Fed chairman can. Bernanke did. Under his leadership the Fed spearheaded the biggest government intervention in more than half a century and effectively became the fourth branch of government, with no direct accountability to the nation’s voters. Believing that the economic catastrophe of the 1930s was largely the fault of a sluggish and wrongheaded Federal Reserve, Bernanke was determined not to repeat that epic mistake. In this penetrating look inside the most powerful economic institution in the world, David Wessel illuminates its opaque and undemocratic inner workings, while revealing how the Bernanke Fed led the desperate effort to prevent the world’s financial engine from grinding to a halt. In piecing together the fullest, most authoritative, and alarming picture yet of this decisive moment in our nation’s history, In Fed We Trust answers the most critical questions. Among them: • What did Bernanke and his team at the Fed know–and what took them by surprise? Which of their actions stretched–or even ripped through–the Fed’s legal authority? Which chilling numbers and indicators made them feel they had no choice? • What were they thinking at pivotal moments during the race to sell Bear Stearns, the unsuccessful quest to save Lehman Brothers, and the virtual nationalization of AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac? What were they saying to one another when, as Bernanke put it to Wessel: “We came very close to Depression 2.0”? • How well did Bernanke, former treasury secretary Hank Paulson, and then New York Fed president Tim Geithner perform under intense pressure? • How did the crisis prompt a reappraisal of the once-impregnable reputation of Alan Greenspan? In Fed We Trust is a breathtaking and singularly perceptive look at a historic episode in American and global economic history.

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The Divide - Jason Hickel Cover Art

The Divide

The Divide Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets by Jason Hickel

Global inequality doesn’t just exist; it has been created. More than four billion people—some 60 percent of humanity—live in debilitating poverty, on less than $5 per day. The standard narrative tells us this crisis is a natural phenomenon, having to do with things like climate and geography and culture. It tells us that all we have to do is give a bit of aid here and there to help poor countries up the development ladder. It insists that if poor countries would only adopt the right institutions and economic policies, they could overcome their disadvantages and join the ranks of the rich world. Anthropologist Jason Hickel argues that this story ignores the broader political forces at play. Global poverty—and the growing inequality between the rich countries of Europe and North America and the poor ones of Africa, Asia, and South America—has come about because the global economy has been designed over the course of five hundred years of conquest, colonialism, regime change, and globalization to favor the interests of the richest and most powerful nations. Global inequality is not natural or inevitable, and it is certainly not accidental. To close the divide, Hickel proposes dramatic action rooted in real justice: abolishing debt burdens in the global South, democratizing the institutions of global governance, and rolling out an international minimum wage, among many other vital steps. Only then will we have a chance at a world where all begin on more equal footing.

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The Two-Parent Privilege - Melissa S. Kearney Cover Art

The Two-Parent Privilege

The Two-Parent Privilege How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind by Melissa S. Kearney

The surprising story of how declining marriage rates are driving many of the country’s biggest economic problems. In The Two-Parent Privilege , Melissa S. Kearney makes a provocative, data-driven case for marriage by showing how the institution’s decline has led to a host of economic woes—problems that have fractured American society and rendered vulnerable populations even more vulnerable. Eschewing the religious and values-based arguments that have long dominated this conversation, Kearney shows how the greatest impacts of marriage are, in fact, economic: when two adults marry, their economic and household lives improve, offering a host of benefits not only for the married adults but for their children. Studies show that these effects are today starker, and more unevenly distributed, than ever before. Kearney examines the underlying causes of the marriage decline in the US and draws lessons for how the  US can reverse this trend to ensure the country’s future prosperity. Based on more than a decade of economic research, including her original work, Kearney shows that a household that includes two married parents—holding steady among upper-class adults, increasingly rare among most everyone else—functions as an economic vehicle that advantages some children over others. As these trends of marriage and class continue, the compounding effects on inequality and opportunity grow increasingly dire. Their effects include not just children’s behavioral and educational outcomes, but a surprisingly devastating effect on adult men, whose role in the workforce and society appears intractably damaged by the emerging economics of America’s new social norms. For many, the two-parent home may be an old-fashioned symbol of the idyllic American dream. But The Two-Parent Privilege makes it clear that marriage, for all its challenges and faults, may be our best path to a more equitable future. By confronting the critical role that family makeup plays in shaping children’s lives and futures, Kearney offers a critical assessment of what a decline in marriage means for an economy and a society—and what we must do to change course.  

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The Technology Trap - Carl Benedikt Frey Cover Art

The Technology Trap

The Technology Trap Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation by Carl Benedikt Frey

"Made me look at the industrial revolution, invention, sleeping beauties, contexts and the forces that shape our societies differently."—David Byrne, New York Times Book Review How the history of technological revolutions can help us better understand economic and political polarization in the age of automation From the Industrial Revolution to the age of artificial intelligence, The Technology Trap takes a sweeping look at the history of technological progress and how it has radically shifted the distribution of economic and political power among society’s members. As Carl Benedikt Frey shows, the Industrial Revolution created unprecedented wealth and prosperity over the long run, but the immediate consequences of mechanization were devastating for large swaths of the population. Middle-income jobs withered, wages stagnated, the labor share of income fell, profits surged, and economic inequality skyrocketed. These trends, Frey documents, broadly mirror those in our current age of automation, which began with the Computer Revolution. Just as the Industrial Revolution eventually brought about extraordinary benefits for society, artificial intelligence systems have the potential to do the same. But Frey argues that this depends on how the short term is managed. In the nineteenth century, workers violently expressed their concerns over machines taking their jobs. The Luddite uprisings joined a long wave of machinery riots that swept across Europe and China. Today’s despairing middle class has not resorted to physical force, but their frustration has led to rising populism and the increasing fragmentation of society. As middle-class jobs continue to come under pressure, there’s no assurance that positive attitudes to technology will persist. The Industrial Revolution was a defining moment in history, but few grasped its enormous consequences at the time. The Technology Trap demonstrates that in the midst of another technological revolution, the lessons of the past can help us to more effectively face the present.

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The Essential Keynes - John Maynard Keynes & Robert Skidelsky Cover Art

The Essential Keynes

The Essential Keynes by John Maynard Keynes & Robert Skidelsky

The essential writings of the 20th century’s most influential economist, collected in one volume Today, John Maynard Keynes is best remembered for his pioneering development of macroeconomics, and for his advocacy of active fiscal and monetary government policy. This uniquely comprehensive selection of his work, edited by Keynes’s award-winning biographer Robert Skidelsky, aims to make his work more accessible to both students of economics and the general reader. All of Keynes’s major economic work is included, yet the selection goes beyond pure economics. Here too are Keynes’s essential writings on philosophy, social theory and policy, and his futurist vision of a world without work. As Robert Skidelsky writes in his introduction: “People talk of the need for a new Keynes. But the old Keynes still has superlative wisdom to offer for a new age.” For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Fusion Strategy - Vijay Govindarajan & Venkat Venkatraman Cover Art

Fusion Strategy

Fusion Strategy How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future by Vijay Govindarajan & Venkat Venkatraman

Two world-renowned experts on innovation and digital strategy explore how real-time data and AI will radically transform physical products—and the companies that make them. Tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, and Google can collect real-time data from billions of users. For companies that design and manufacture physical products, that type of fluid, data-rich information used to be a pipe dream. Now, with the rise of cheap and powerful sensors, supercomputing, and artificial intelligence, things are changing—fast. In Fusion Strategy , world-renowned innovation guru Vijay Govindarajan and digital strategy expert Venkat Venkatraman offer a first-of-its-kind playbook that will help industrial companies combine what they do best—create physical products—with what digitals do best—use algorithms and AI to parse expansive, interconnected datasets—to make strategic connections that would otherwise be impossible. The laws of competitive advantage are changing, rewarding those who have the most robust, data-driven insights rather than the most valuable assets. To compete in the new digital age, companies need to use real-time data to turbocharge their products, strategies, and customer relationships. Those that don't risk falling on the wrong side of the next great digital divide. Fusion Strategy is the way forward.

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How Progress Ends - Carl Benedikt Frey Cover Art

How Progress Ends

How Progress Ends Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations by Carl Benedikt Frey

Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award How 1,000 years of global history show why technological and economic progress is often followed by stagnation and even collapse In How Progress Ends , Carl Benedikt Frey challenges the conventional belief that economic and technological progress is inevitable. For most of human history, stagnation was the norm, and even today progress and prosperity in the world’s largest, most advanced economies—the United States and China—have fallen short of expectations. To appreciate why we cannot depend on any AI-fueled great leap forward, Frey offers a remarkable and fascinating journey across the globe, spanning the past 1,000 years, to explain why some societies flourish and others fail in the wake of rapid technological change. By examining key historical moments—from the rise of the steam engine to the dawn of AI—Frey shows why technological shifts have shaped, and sometimes destabilized, entire civilizations. He explores why some leading technological powers of the past—such as Song China, the Dutch Republic, and Victorian Britain—ultimately lost their innovative edge, why some modern nations such as Japan had periods of rapid growth followed by stagnation, and why planned economies like the Soviet Union collapsed after brief surges of progress. Frey uncovers a recurring tension in history: while decentralization fosters the exploration of new technologies, bureaucracy is crucial for scaling them. When institutions fail to adapt to technological change, stagnation inevitably follows. Only by carefully balancing decentralization and bureaucracy can nations innovate and grow over the long term—findings that have worrying implications for the United States, Europe, China, and other economies today. Through a rich narrative that weaves together history, economics, and technology, How Progress Ends reveals that managing the future requires us to draw the right lessons from the past.

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Markets and the Environment, Second Edition - Nathaniel O. Keohane & Sheila M. Olmstead Cover Art

Markets and the Environment, Second Edition

Markets and the Environment, Second Edition by Nathaniel O. Keohane & Sheila M. Olmstead

A clear grasp of economics is essential to understanding why environmental problems arise and how we can address them. So it is with good reason that Markets and the Environment has become a classic text in environmental studies since its first publication in 2007. Now thoroughly revised with updated information on current environmental policy and real-world examples of market-based instruments, the primer is more relevant than ever.   The authors provide a concise yet thorough introduction to the economic theory of environmental policy and natural resource management. They begin with an overview of environmental economics before exploring topics including cost-benefit analysis, market failures and successes, and economic growth and sustainability. Readers of the first edition will notice new analysis of cost estimation as well as specific market instruments, including municipal water pricing and waste disposal. Particular attention is paid to behavioral economics and cap-and-trade programs for carbon.   Throughout, Markets and the Environment is written in an accessible, student-friendly style. It includes study questions for each chapter, as well as clear figures and relatable text boxes. The authors have long understood the need for a book to bridge the gap between short articles on environmental economics and tomes filled with complex algebra. Markets and the Environment makes clear how economics influences policy, the world around us, and our own lives. 

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The Next Age of Uncertainty - Stephen Poloz Cover Art

The Next Age of Uncertainty

The Next Age of Uncertainty How the World Can Adapt to a Riskier Future by Stephen Poloz

*WINNER OF THE 2023 NATIONAL BUSINESS BOOK AWARD* *FINALIST FOR THE 2023 OTTAWA BOOK AWARD* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE SHAUGHNESSY COHEN PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 DONNER PRIZE* NATIONAL BESTSELLER From the former Governor of the Bank of Canada, a far-seeing guide to the powerful economic forces that will shape the decades ahead. The economic ground is shifting beneath our feet. The world is becoming more volatile, and people are understandably worried about their financial futures. In this urgent and accessible guide to the crises and opportunities that lie ahead, economist and former Governor of the Bank of Canada Stephen Poloz maps out the powerful tectonic forces that are shaping our future, and the ideas that will allow us to master them. These forces include an aging workforce, mounting debt, and rising income inequality. Technological advances, too, are adding to the pressure, putting people out of work, and climate change is forcing a transition to a lower-carbon economy. It is no surprise that people are feeling uncertain. The implications of these tectonic tensions will cascade throughout every dimension of our lives—the job market, the housing market, the investment climate, as well as government and central bank policy, and the role of the corporation within society. The pandemic has added momentum to many of them.  Poloz skillfully argues that past crises, from the Victorian Depression in the late 1800s to the more recent downturn in 2008, give a hint of what is in store for us in the decades ahead. Unlike the purely destructive power of earthquakes, the upheaval that is sure to come in the decades ahead will offer unexpected opportunities for renewal and growth. Filled with takeaways for employers, investors, and policymakers, as well as families discussing jobs and mortgage renewals around the kitchen table, The Next Age of Uncertainty is an indispensable guide for those navigating the fault lines of the risky world ahead.

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The Permanent Problem - Brink Lindsey Cover Art

The Permanent Problem

The Permanent Problem The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing by Brink Lindsey

In The Permanent Problem, Brink Lindsey reshapes our understanding of the vital but complex relationship between material prosperity and human flourishing. The advanced capitalist democracies of the 21st century are the richest, freest, healthiest, best educated, and best governed societies in history. Why then does it seem like everything is falling apart? Economic stagnation is spreading, class divisions are deepening, birth rates are collapsing, mental health problems are on the rise, faith in democracy is in decline, and pessimism about the future abounds. In The Permanent Problem, Brink Lindsey argues that these gathering difficulties reflect the stresses and strains of a great and uncompleted historical transition-from mass material prosperity to mass human flourishing. Capitalism's immense productive powers have raised our expectations of what life can be, but for most of us reality is coming up short. What's more, the arrival of mass prosperity has pushed both economic and cultural change in directions that make the transition to mass flourishing much harder to achieve. According to Lindsey, 21st century capitalism is in the grip of three interrelated crises: a crisis of inclusion, as vital social ties and personal connections are breaking down; a crisis of dynamism, as capitalism's engines of innovation and wealth creation have begun to sputter and seize; and a crisis of politics, as the mechanisms for collective decision-making needed to address capitalism's growing problems have been degraded by the very same dynamics that underlie those problems. A much brighter future is possible, and Lindsey charts an intriguing path to get there. There is no need to concoct a radical new social system. Instead, capitalism needs to be refocused on its core mission of extending the technological frontier, and rebalanced through the revitalization of face-to-face communities. Weaving together insights from history, economics, sociology, and philosophy, The Permanent Problem offers a synoptic overview of our fateful present moment and a provocative glimpse at what may lie ahead.

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Understanding Tariffs - Russel Ison Cover Art

Understanding Tariffs

Understanding Tariffs by Russel Ison

The world of international trading rattled when the Trump Administration announced sweeping reforms to its international trading policy: the introduction of much higher tariffs and the elimination/suspension of the de minimis law. It has affected even the world of online international selling both from the seller and buyer's perspective. But rather than let's say abandoning or curtailing online selling to Americans, it is rather best to accept that it is now just a cost of doing business these days and make the best of the new trading laws from America. This book aims to shed some light into what tariffs are and how it affects both the sellers and the buyers...

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The Lords of Easy Money - Christopher Leonard Cover Art

The Lords of Easy Money

The Lords of Easy Money How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy by Christopher Leonard

The Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The New York Times bestselling business journalist Christopher Leonard infiltrates one of America’s most mysterious institutions—the Federal Reserve—to show how its policies spearheaded by Chairman Jerome Powell over the past ten years have accelerated income inequality and put our country’s economic stability at risk. If you asked most people what forces led to today’s unprecedented income inequality and financial crashes, no one would say the Federal Reserve. For most of its history, the Fed has enjoyed the fawning adoration of the press. When the economy grew, it was credited to the Fed. When the economy imploded in 2008, the Fed got credit for rescuing us. But the Fed also has a unique power to reshape the American economy for the worse, which it did, fatefully, on November 4, 2010 through a radical intervention called quantitative easing. In just a few short years, the Fed more than quadrupled the money supply with one goal: to encourage banks and other investors to extend more risky debt. Leaders at the Fed knew that they were undertaking a bold experiment that would produce few real jobs, with long-term risks that were hard to measure. But the Fed proceeded anyway...and then found itself trapped. Once it printed all that money, there was no way to withdraw it from circulation. The Fed tried several times, only to see market start to crash, at which point the Fed turned the money spigot back on. That’s what it did when COVID hit, printing 300 years’ worth of money in two short months. Which brings us to now: Ten years on, the gap between the rich and poor has grown dramatically, stock prices are trading far above what’s justified by actual corporate profits, corporate debt in America is at an all-time high, and this debt is being traded by big banks on Wall Street, leaving them vulnerable—just as they were during the mortgage boom. Middle-class wages have barely budged in a decade, and consumers are buried under credit card debt, car loan debt, and student debt. The Lords of Easy Money tells the shocking, riveting tale of how quantitative easing is imperiling the American economy through the story of the one man who tried to warn us. This will be the first inside story of how we really got here—and why we face a frightening future.

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How Economics Explains the World - Andrew Leigh Cover Art

How Economics Explains the World

How Economics Explains the World A Short History of Humanity by Andrew Leigh

“If you read just one book about economics, make it Andrew Leigh's clear, insightful, and remarkable (and short) work.” —Claudia Goldin, recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics and Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University A sweeping, engrossing history of how economic forces have shaped the world—all in under 200 pages One of The Economist 's Best Books of the Year In How Economics Explains the World , Harvard-trained economist Andrew Leigh presents a new way to understand the human story through the lens of microeconomics and macroeconomics. From the dawn of agriculture to AI, here is story of how ingenuity, greed, and desire for betterment have, to an astonishing degree, determined our past, present, and future.  This small book indeed tells a big story. It is the story of capitalism – of how our modern market system developed. It is the story of the discipline of economics, and some of the key figures who formed it. And it is the essential story of how powerful economic forces have shaped our world history. Why didn’t Africa colonize Europe instead of the other way around? What happened when countries erected trade and immigration barriers in the 1930s? Why did the Allies win World War II? Why did inequality in many advanced countries fall during the 1950s and 1960s? How did property rights drive China’s growth surge in the 1980s? How does climate change threaten our future prosperity? You’ll find answers to these questions and more in How Economics Explains the World. “Can a short book survey the full history of something so vast and remain readable? To find out, read How Economics Explains the World , by Andrew Leigh. In simple, clear language—and less than 200 pages—it does exactly what its title promises. … Leigh canters through the history of human progress, pausing briefly to explain the economic forces and ideas that drove it forward. … Along the way, readers meet the big economic thinkers who sought to explain these forces. Both finance aficionados and mere novices will read, savour and return to this book.” – The Economist , “The Best New Books to Read about Finance” This engaging overview of economics explains the fundamental concepts that drive our world: Economic History: Follow the development of our market system, from the dawn of agriculture and the industrial revolution to the age of globalization and AI. Key Economic Models: Understand the essential frameworks economists use, from supply and demand to market failures, and see how they apply to everything from trade to climate change. Major Economic Thinkers: Meet the figures who shaped the discipline, from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes, and grasp their most important ideas without dense jargon. A New Look at World History: Discover surprising economic answers to captivating questions, like why the Allies won World War II and why inequality fell in the 1950s and ’60s.

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Debt - David Graeber Cover Art

Debt

Debt The First 5,000 Years,Updated and Expanded by David Graeber

Now in paperback, the updated and expanded edition: David Graeber’s “fresh . . . fascinating . . . thought-provoking . . . and exceedingly timely” (Financial Times) history of debt  Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it.

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Why Nations Fail - Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson Cover Art

Why Nations Fail

Why Nations Fail The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson

NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER • From two winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, “who have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity” “A wildly ambitious work that hopscotches through history and around the world to answer the very big question of why some countries get rich and others don’t.”— The New York Times FINALIST: Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Economist, BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor, The Plain Dealer Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, or geography that determines prosperity or poverty? As Why Nations Fail shows, none of these factors is either definitive or destiny.   Drawing on fifteen years of original research, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is our man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or the lack of it). Korea, to take just one example, is a remarkably homogenous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created those two different institutional trajectories. Acemoglu and Robinson marshal extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, among them:   • Will China’s economy continue to grow at such a high speed and ultimately overwhelm the West?   • Are America’s best days behind it? Are we creating a vicious cycle that enriches and empowers a small minority? “This book will change the way people think about the wealth and poverty of nations . . . as ambitious as Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel .”— BusinessWeek

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The Big Short - Michael Lewis Cover Art

The Big Short

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

The #1 New York Times bestseller: "It is the work of our greatest financial journalist, at the top of his game. And it's essential reading."—Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking. Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar's Poker. Out of a handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our time.

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Basic Economics - Thomas Sowell Cover Art

Basic Economics

Basic Economics A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell

The bestselling citizen’s guide to economics  “Thomas Sowell is the nation’s greatest living economist.” — American Spectator     Basic Economics is a citizen’s guide to economics, written for those who want to understand how the economy works but have no interest in jargon or equations. Bestselling economist Thomas Sowell explains the general principles underlying different economic systems: capitalist, socialist, feudal, and so on. In readable language, he shows how to critique economic policies in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the goals they proclaim. With clear explanations of the entire field, from rent control and the rise and fall of businesses to the international balance of payments, this is the first book for anyone who wishes to understand how the economy functions. Drawing on lively examples from around the world and from centuries of history, Sowell explains basic economic principles for the general public in plain English.  

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How Africa Works - Joe Studwell Cover Art

How Africa Works

How Africa Works Success and Failure on the World's Last Developmental Frontier by Joe Studwell

“[O]ne of the most original and important books on Africa in years.”— Financial Times “Challenges outdated narratives and makes a compelling case for the continent's economic potential.”—Bill Gates The acclaimed author of How Asia Works brings his “pithy, well-written and intellectually vigorous” ( Financial Times ) reporting to Africa, revealing essential, promising lessons about the engines of economic growth across the continent The culmination of twenty years spent studying Asian economics, Joe Studwell’s celebrated How Asia Works revealed the key policies behind the meteoric growth of the “Asian tigers.” The question he kept hearing from those inspired by his clear-eyed understanding of global development: what about Africa? He was finally convinced to investigate further when the inquiries began coming from Africans themselves. A decade of research, travel and on-the-ground reporting began. Studwell expected that Africa’s challenging geography and its crippling legacies of colonialism would necessitate a unique developmental recipe. Yet to his astonishment, the African countries that succeeded did so by embracing the very same strategies their Asian counterparts had—strategies that are far different from those foisted on Africa by the international community. He explores these winning policies via four countries that have seen exceptional economic growth (Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia and Rwanda) and that demonstrate both the promise and the particular challenge of the African context. Highlighting the achievements of local leaders, Studwell argues that prosperity is well within reach and that the rapidly rising population—seen as alarming by so many—will be foundational to Africa’s flourishing. How Africa Works is essential, optimistic reading for anyone looking to understand the next chapter of global development.

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Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises - Ray Dalio Cover Art

Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises

Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises by Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio, the legendary investor and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Principles —whose books have sold more than five million copies worldwide— shares his unique template for how debt crises work and principles for dealing with them well. This template allowed his firm, Bridgewater Associates, to antic­ipate 2008’s events and navigate them well while others struggled badly. As he explained in his #1 New York Times best­seller Principles , Ray Dalio believes that most everything happens over and over again through time so that by studying patterns one can understand the cause-effect relationships behind events and develop principles for dealing with them well. In this three-part research series, he does just that for big debt crises and shares his template in the hopes of reducing the chances of big debt crises hap­pening and helping them be better managed in the future. The template comes in three parts: 1. The Archetypal Big Debt Cycle (which explains the template) 2. Three Detailed Cases (which examines in depth the 2008 financial crisis, the 1930s Great Depression, and the 1920s infla­tionary depression of Germany’s Weimar Republic) 3. Compendium of 48 Cases (which is a compendium of charts and brief descriptions of the worst debt crises of the last 100 years) Whether you’re an investor, a policy maker, or are simply interested in debt, this unconventional perspective from one of the few people who navigated the crisis successfully, Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises will help you understand the economy and markets in revealing new ways.

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Barbarians at the Gate - Bryan Burrough & John Helyar Cover Art

Barbarians at the Gate

Barbarians at the Gate The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough & John Helyar

#1 New York Times bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco at the hands of a massive leveraged buyout from investment firm KKR. A book that stormed both the bestseller list and the public imagination, a book that created a genre of its own, and a book that gets at the heart of 1980s Wall Street and the culture it helped define, Barbarians at the Gate is a modern classic—a masterpiece of investigative journalism and a rollicking true story of corporate derring-do and financial swordsmanship. The fight to control RJR Nabisco during October and November of 1988 was more than just the largest corporate takeover in Wall Street history. Marked by brazen displays of ego not seen in American business for decades, it became the high point of a new gilded age and its repercussions are still being felt. The tale remains the ultimate story of greed and glory—a real-life corporate drama and a cast of characters that determined the course of global business and redefined how deals would be done and fortunes made in the decades to come. Barbarians at the Gate is the gripping account of these two frenzied months, of powerful deal makers and publicity flaks, of an old-line industrial powerhouse (home of such familiar products as Oreos and Camels) that became the victim of the ruthless and rapacious style of high-stakes finance in the 1980s. As reporters for The Wall Street Journal , Burrough and Helyar had extensive access to all the characters in this M&A drama. They take the reader behind the scenes at strategy meetings and society dinners, into boardrooms and bedrooms, providing an unprecedentedly detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era. At the center of the huge power struggle is RJR Nabisco's president, the high-living Ross Johnson. It's his secret plan to buy out the company that sets the frenzy in motion, attracting the country's leading takeover players: Henry Kravis, the legendary leveraged-buyout king of investment firm KKR, whose entry into the fray sets off an acquisitive commotion; Peter Cohen, CEO of Shearson Lehman Hutton and Johnson's partner, who needs a victory to propel his company to an unchallenged leadership in the lucrative mergers and acquisitions field; the fiercely independent Ted Forstmann, motivated as much by honor as by his rage at the corruption he sees taking over the business he cherishes; Jim Maher and his ragtag team, struggling to regain credibility for the decimated ranks at First Boston; and an army of desperate bankers, lawyers, and accountants, all drawn inexorably to the greatest prize of their careers—and one of the greatest prizes in the history of corporate finance. Written with the bravado of a novel and researched with the diligence of a sweeping cultural history, Barbarians at the Gate is present at the front line of every battle of the campaign. Here is the unforgettable story of that corporate takeover in all its brutality. In a new afterword specially commissioned for the story's 20th anniversary, Burrough and Helyar return to visit the heroes and villains of this epic business saga, tracing the fallout of the deal, charting the subsequent success and failure of those involved, and addressing the incredible impact this story—and the book itself—made on the world.

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The Spider Network - David Enrich Cover Art

The Spider Network

The Spider Network How a Math Genius and a Gang of Scheming Bankers Pulled Off One of the Greatest Scams in History by David Enrich

SHORT-LISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR The term “Libor” is obscure, but it determines a good deal of our financial lives-the interest rate on our credit card; our student loans; our mortgages; our car payments. How did a math genius, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system conspire to pickpocket you? They were in your wallet to already.  In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world’s largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor—the London interbank offered rate, which determines interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide—was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries.  Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a shadowy team that used hook and crook to take over the process and set rates that made them a fortune, no matter the cost to others. Among the motley crew was a French trader nicknamed “Gollum”; the broker “Abbo,” who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a Kazakh chicken farmer turned something short of financial whiz kid; an executive called “Clumpy” because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed “Big Nose.” Eventually known as the “Spider Network,” Hayes’s circle generated untold riches —until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion. Praised as reading “like a fast-paced John le Carré thriller” (New York Times), “compelling” (Washington Post) and “jaw-dropping” (Financial Times), The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but a provocative examination of a financial system that was warped and shady throughout. This riveting work of investigative journalism reveals: A Global Financial Conspiracy: How a shadowy team of traders and brokers, known as the “Spider Network,” realized they could manipulate the world’s most important number—and made a fortune doing it. The Math Genius Mastermind: The story of Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician who became the lynchpin of the scheme, only to watch it unravel in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion. Wall Street Culture Uncovered: A jaw-dropping look inside the corrupt world of global finance, populated by an oddball crew of characters nicknamed “Gollum,” “Clumpy,” and “Big Nose.” A Real-Life Financial Thriller: Praised by The New York Times as reading “like a fast-paced John le Carré thriller,” this is the definitive account of one of the greatest scams in history.

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Ultralearning - Scott H. Young Cover Art

Ultralearning

Ultralearning Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career by Scott H. Young

Now a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Learn a new talent, stay relevant, reinvent yourself, and adapt to whatever the workplace throws your way. Ultralearning EPB offers nine principles to master hard skills quickly. This is the essential guide to future-proof your career and maximize your competitive advantage through accelerated self-education. In these tumultuous times of economic and technological change, staying ahead depends on continual self-education—a lifelong mastery of fresh ideas, subjects, and skills. If you want to accomplish more and stand apart from everyone else, you need to become an ultralearner. The challenge of learning new skills is that you think you already know how best to learn, as you did as a student, so you rerun old routines and old ways of solving problems. To counter that, Ultralearning EPB offers powerful learning strategies to break you out of those mental ruts and introduces new training methods to help you push through to higher levels of retention. Scott H. Young incorporates the latest research about the most effective learning methods and the stories of other ultralearners like himself—among them Benjamin Franklin, chess grandmaster Judit Polgár, and Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman, as well as a host of others, such as little-known modern polymath Nigel Richards, who won the French World Scrabble Championship—without knowing French. Young documents the self-directed learning methods he and others have used to acquire knowledge and shows that, far from being an obscure skill limited to aggressive autodidacts, ultralearning is a powerful tool anyone can use to improve their career, studies, and life. Ultralearning EPB explores this fascinating subculture, shares a proven framework for a successful ultralearning project, and offers insights into how you can organize and exe - cute a plan to learn anything deeply and quickly, without teachers or budget-busting tuition costs. Whether the goal is to be fluent in a language (or ten languages), earn the equivalent of a college degree in a fraction of the time, or master multiple tools to build a product or business from the ground up, the principles in Ultralearning EPB will guide you to success. This practical guide details the nine core principles of ultralearning: Actionable Strategies: Go beyond theory with the nine principles of ultralearning, a step-by-step method for breaking down complex subjects and mastering hard skills in record time. Focus and Retention: Discover how to break out of mental ruts, eliminate distractions, and apply powerful training methods to remember what you learn for good. Direct Practice and Feedback: Learn by doing with project-based learning and immersive techniques that provide immediate, high-value feedback to accelerate your skill development. Real-World Case Studies: Learn from the successes of other ultralearners, from Benjamin Franklin to modern polymaths who master languages and complex skills without formal training. Career Acceleration: Future-proof your career by developing the ability to learn anything quickly, a critical skill for adapting to economic and technological change.

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Thinking Strategically - Avinash K. Dixit & Barry J. Nalebuff Cover Art

Thinking Strategically

Thinking Strategically The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life by Avinash K. Dixit & Barry J. Nalebuff

The international bestseller—don't compete without it! A major bestseller in Japan, Financial Times Top Ten book of the year, Book-of-the-Month Club bestseller, and required reading at the best business schools, Thinking Strategically is a crash course in outmaneuvering any rival. This entertaining guide builds on scores of case studies taken from business, sports, the movies, politics, and gambling. It outlines the basics of good strategy making and then shows how you can apply them in any area of your life.

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The Deficit Myth - Stephanie Kelton Cover Art

The Deficit Myth

The Deficit Myth Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy by Stephanie Kelton

A New York Times Bestseller A “clear and vigorously written book” ( Foreign Affairs), from the leading thinker of modern monetary theory, that delivers a bold new understanding for how to build a prosperous society Stephanie Kelton's brilliant exploration of modern monetary theory (MMT) dramatically changes our understanding of how we can best deal with crucial issues ranging from poverty and inequality to creating jobs, expanding health care coverage, climate change, and building resilient infrastructure. Any ambitious proposal, however, inevitably runs into the buzz saw of how to find the money to pay for it, rooted in myths about deficits that are hobbling us as a country. Kelton busts through the myths that prevent us from taking action: that the federal government should budget like a household, that deficits will harm the next generation, crowd out private investment, and undermine long-term growth, and that entitlements are propelling us toward a grave fiscal crisis. MMT, as Kelton shows, shifts the terrain from narrow budgetary questions to one of broader economic and social benefits. With its important new ways of understanding money, taxes, and the critical role of deficit spending, MMT redefines how to responsibly use our resources so that we can maximize our potential as a society. MMT gives us the power to imagine a new politics and a new economy and move from a narrative of scarcity to one of opportunity.

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Free To Choose - Milton Friedman & Rose Friedman Cover Art

Free To Choose

Free To Choose A Personal Statement by Milton Friedman & Rose Friedman

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A powerful and persuasive discussion about economics, freedom, and the relationship between the two, from today’s brightest economist. In this classic book on the free market, Milton and Rose Friedman explain how our freedom has been eroded and our affluence undermined through the explosion of laws, regulations, agencies, and spending in Washington. This important analysis of economic policy reveals what has gone wrong in America in the past and what is necessary for our economic health to flourish. The Friedmans offer a clear-eyed diagnosis and a prescription for restoring economic health: Capitalism and Freedom: A powerful case for why economic freedom is the essential prerequisite for political freedom. The Power of the Market: A brilliant explanation of how voluntary cooperation through the price system creates prosperity without central direction. The Tyranny of Controls: An analysis of how an explosion of laws and regulations undermines affluence and stifles innovation. Cradle to Grave: An incisive look at the unintended consequences of the welfare state and the erosion of individual responsibility.

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Fed Up - Danielle DiMartino Booth Cover Art

Fed Up

Fed Up An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America by Danielle DiMartino Booth

A Federal Reserve insider pulls back the curtain on the secretive institution that controls America’s economy After correctly predicting the housing crash of 2008 and quitting her high-ranking Wall Street job, Danielle DiMartino Booth was surprised to find herself recruited as an analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, one of the regional centers of our complicated and widely misunderstood Federal Reserve System. She was shocked to discover just how much tunnel vision, arrogance, liberal dogma, and abuse of power drove the core policies of the Fed. DiMartino Booth found a cabal of unelected academics who made decisions without the slightest understanding of the real world, just a slavish devo­tion to their theoretical models. Over the next nine years, she and her boss, Richard Fisher, tried to speak up about the dangers of Fed policies such as quanti­tative easing and deeply depressed interest rates. But as she puts it, “In a world rendered unsafe by banks that were too big to fail, we came to understand that the Fed was simply too big to fight.” Now DiMartino Booth explains what really happened to our economy after the fateful date of December 8, 2008, when the Federal Open Market Committee approved a grand and unprecedented ex­periment: lowering interest rates to zero and flooding America with easy money. As she feared, millions of individuals, small businesses, and major corporations made rational choices that didn’t line up with the Fed’s “wealth effect” models. The result: eight years and counting of a sluggish “recovery” that barely feels like a recovery at all. While easy money has kept Wall Street and the wealthy afloat and thriving, Main Street isn’t doing so well. Nearly half of men eighteen to thirty-four live with their parents, the highest level since the end of the Great Depression. Incomes are barely increasing for anyone not in the top ten percent of earners. And for those approaching or already in retirement, extremely low interest rates have caused their savings to stagnate. Millions have been left vulnerable and afraid. Perhaps worst of all, when the next financial crisis arrives, the Fed will have no tools left for managing the panic that ensues. And then what? DiMartino Booth pulls no punches in this exposé of the officials who run the Fed and the toxic culture they created. She blends her firsthand experiences with what she’s learned from dozens of high-powered market players, reams of financial data, and Fed docu­ments such as transcripts of FOMC meetings. Whether you’ve been suspicious of the Fed for decades or barely know anything about it, as DiMartino Booth writes, “Every American must understand this extraordinarily powerful institution and how it affects his or her everyday life, and fight back.”

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How Money Works - DK Cover Art

How Money Works

How Money Works The Facts Visually Explained by DK

It makes the world go round, but money can truly be an enigma. DK's visual approach breaks new ground. In graphics, charts, and diagrams, How Money Works demystifies processes and answers the hundreds of financial questions we all have. Money facilitates the billions of transactions that take place every day across the globe. Using 'need to know' boxes, step-by-step diagrams, and other eye-catching visuals, How Money Works shows you how this is possible. It explains economic theories, how governments raise and control money, what goes on in the stock exchange, how analysts predict where shares are heading, and many other issues. It busts jargon, explaining terms such as quantitative easing, cash flow, bonds, superannuation, and the open market. Our forefathers may have used simple bartering to exchange goods and services, but today we depend on complicated financial instruments for pensions, life assurance, mortgages, and more. How Money Works explains how these work, as well as how to avoid on-line fraud and where to invest. With information on the latest forms of funding and currencies such as Bitcoin, this comprehensive book will fast track you to financial literacy and getting the most from your hard-won cash.

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Eat Their Lunch - Anthony Iannarino Cover Art

Eat Their Lunch

Eat Their Lunch Winning Customers Away from Your Competition by Anthony Iannarino

The first ever playbook for B2B salespeople on how to win clients and customers who are already being serviced by your competition, from the author of The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need and The Lost Art of Closing. Like it or not, sales is often a zero-sum game: Your win is someone else's loss. Most salespeople work in mature, overcrowded industries, your offerings perceived (often unfairly) as commodities. Growth requires taking market share from your competitors, while they try to do the same to you. How else can you grow 12 percent a year in an industry that's only growing by 3 percent? It's not easy for any salesperson to execute a competitive displacement--or, in other words, "eat their lunch." You might think this requires a bloodthirsty "whatever it takes" attitude, but that's the opposite of what works. If you act like a Mafia don, you only make yourself difficult to trust and impossible to see as a long-term partner. Instead, this book shows you how to find and maintain a long-term competitive advantage by taking steps like: ranking prospective new clients not by their size or convenience to you, but by who stands to gain the most from your solution. understanding the different priorities for everyone in your prospect's organization, from the CEO to the accountants, and addressing their various concerns. developing a systematic contact plan for all those different stakeholders so you can win over the right people at the organization in the optimal sequence. Your competitors may be tough, but with the strategies you'll discover in this book, you'll soon be eating their lunch.

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Data - Mark o'Donnell, Angela Kalemis & Mark Stanley Cover Art

Data

Data Harness Your Numbers to Go from Uncertain to Unstoppable by Mark o'Donnell, Angela Kalemis & Mark Stanley

Your comprehensive guide to mastering The Data Component of your EOS Model—taking you from uncertain to unstoppable. Have you ever felt lost in knowing how your business is actually doing? Were you surprised by events that you didn’t see coming? Did you spend sleepless nights wondering whether or not your company was going to make it? Then Data is for you. This data-driven handbook is the third installment of the Traction Library’s EOS Mastery Series that provides all the tools you need to build an environment of transparency and get better results through clarity and accountability. Data will make you expert at: Using data in business Creating meaningful Scorecards Implementing Measurables for every member of your team And identifying ways to drive more cash into your company. As one of the six components of the EOS Model, The Data Component helps you refine, simplify, and achieve your vision of understanding the numbers behind how your business is operating. The Data Component is designed to help you objectively see where you are going—both as a leader and as a company. It takes assumptions, subjective opinions, emotions, and ego out of the equation. You’ll gain confidence in knowing that you are running the business and it’s not running you. Data will give you more control and assurance in getting more of what you really want out of your team, your EOS model, and your business.

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