'One of the most important books I've ever read - an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.' BILL GATES 'Hans Rosling tells the story of "the secret silent miracle of human progress" as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.' MELINDA GATES Factfulnes s: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends - why the world's population is increasing; how many young women go to school; how many of us live in poverty - we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness , Professor of International Health and a man who can make data sing, Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens, and reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world.
A guide to the economy in graphic novel format traces the history of Western economic thought from its beginnings to the world economy in the twenty-first century.
We all have the sense that our economy tilts toward big business, but, as Joseph E. Stiglitz explains in People, Power, and Profits , a few corporations now dominate entire sectors, contributing to skyrocketing inequality and slow growth. This is how the financial industry has managed to write its own regulations, tech companies have accumulated reams of personal data without oversight, and the government has negotiated trade deals that fail to represent the interests of workers. Too many have made their wealth through exploitation of others rather than through wealth creation. New technologies may make matters worse, increasing inequality and unemployment. Stiglitz identifies the true sources of wealth and of increases in standards of living, based on learning, advances in science and technology, and the rule of law. He shows that the assault on the judiciary, universities, and the media undermines the very institutions that have long been the foundation of economic prosperity and democracy. He sets out the economic solutions which will exploit the benefits of markets while taming their excesses, and how a decent middle-class life can once again be attainable for all.
What is economics?br>What can - and can''t - it explain about the world? br>Why does it matter?br>br>Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at Cambridge University, and writes a column for the Guardian. The Observer called his book 23 Things They Don''t Tell You About Capitalism, which was a no.1 bestseller, ''a witty and timely debunking of some of the biggest myths surrounding the global economy.'' He won the Wassily Leontief Prize for advancing the frontiers of economic thought, and is a vocal critic of the failures of our current economic system.>
Why are some nations more prosperous than others? This book sets out to answer this question, with a compelling and elegantly argued new theory: that it is not down to climate, geography or culture, but because of institutions. It explains why the world is divided into nations with wildly differing levels of prosperity.
Why is the city-state better than the nation-state, and why is what we call "efficient" is not efficient at all? Why should you write your resignation letter before starting on the job? How did the sinking of the Titanic save lives? This title shows us that improbable and unpredictable events underlie everything about our world.
We can''t stop shopping but we must stop shopping - the consumer dilemma that defines our lives and our future. What would happen if we did? We are using up the planet at almost double the rate it can regenerate. To support our economies, we''re told we must shop now like we''ve never shopped before. And whilst we can do it more responsibly, the scale of our consumption remains the biggest factor in the ruination of the planet. Yet our reliance on stuff continues to grow. But what would our world look like if we stopped? Would civilisation collapse? Would the planet''s ecology be reborn? What would happen to the way we think, make products, use time, express our individuality? Would life be better - or worse? Visiting places where economies have experienced temporary shut-downs, artisan producers, zero-consumption societies and bringing together a host of expert views, this is both a deeply reported thought-experiment, a history of our relationship with consumption, and a story about the future. Our private choices are putting the world in peril. The Day the World Stops Shopping is an essential exploration of who we are and what we use, and a vision of a more sustainable world.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 ROYAL SOCIETY INSIGHT INVESTMENT SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 FINANCIAL TIMES AND McKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD An urgent analysis of global gender inequality and a passionately argued case for change by a pioneer in the movement for women''s economic empowerment. ''A compelling and actionable case for unleashing women''s economic power.'' MELINDA GATES ''Passionate and timely . . . in a world where so many of us stick to criticising the status quo, it''s heartening to read someone willing to offer viable solutions.'' CAROLINE CRIADO-PEREZ, OBSERVER (author of Invisible Women ) The Cost of Sexism is an urgent analysis of global gender inequality and a fervently argued case for change by a pioneer in the movement for women''s economic empowerment. Drawing on decades of statistical evidence, original research and global on-the-ground experience, Linda Scott outlines a revolutionary, actionable plan to remove economic barriers against women, and in the process combat humankind''s most pressing problems. ''Shocking.'' ADAM RUTHERFORD, BBC INSIDE SCIENCE ''Scholarly and impassioned.'' FINANCIAL TIMES ''Essential.'' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ''Powerful.'' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW ''A rallying cry for global female equality.'' GUARDIAN ''Pulls no punches.'' IRISH INDEPENDENT *** The Cost of Sexism was previously published in 2020 in hardback under the title The Double X Economy .
What would a fair and equal society look like? The world-renowned economist and bestselling author Yanis Varoufakis presents his radical and subversive answer. Imagine it is now 2025 and that years earlier, in the wake of the world financial crisis of 2008, a new post-Capitalist society had been born. In this ingenious book, Yanis Varoufakis draws on the greatest thinkers in European culture from Plato to Marx, as well as the great thought-experiments of science fiction, to offer us a dramatic and tantalising glimpse of a brave new world where the principles of democracy, equality and justice are truly embedded in our economy. Through the eyes of three characters - a liberal economist, a radical feminist and a left-wing technologist - we come to see what would be needed to forge such a world but also at what cost. This transformative vision forces each of us to confront the profound questions and trade-offs that underpin all societies: how do we balance freedom with fairness? How do we unleash the best that humanity has to offer without opening the door to the worst? Another Now offers answers to some of the most pressing questions of today. It also challenges us to consider how far we are willing to go in pursuit of our ideals.
FROM THE WINNERS OF THE 2019 NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS 'Wonderfully refreshing . . . A must read' Thomas Piketty In this revolutionary book, prize-winning economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. From immigration to inequality, slowing growth to accelerating climate change, we have the resources to address the challenges we face but we are so often blinded by ideology. Original, provocative and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times offers the new thinking that we need. It builds on cutting-edge research in economics - and years of exploring the most effective solutions to alleviate extreme poverty - to make a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. A much-needed antidote to polarized discourse, this book shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.
Now in paperback, the updated and expanded edition : David Graebers 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.
This landmark study of the transatlantic slave trade by pioneering economic historian Eric Williams offers a boldly revisionist view of racism, imperialism and emancipation.br>br>Tracing the rise and fall of slavery through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Williams examines how the trade laid the foundations of global capitalism and fuelled Europe''s industrial development. He reveals how racism arose as a result, providing a means of rationalising a profoundly immoral but lucrative practice. And he lays bare the economic self-interest that drove the early abolitionists, exploding the myth of emancipation as a mark of Britain''s moral progress.br>br>''If one criterion of a classic is its ability to reorient our most basic way of viewing an object or a concept, Eric Williams''s study supremely passes that test'' Seymour Drescher>
Economics is broken, and the planet is paying the price.
Unforeseen financial crises. Extreme wealth inequality. Relentless pressure on the environment. Can we go on like this? Is there an alternative?
In Doughnut Economics, Oxford academic Kate Raworth lays out the seven deadly mistakes of economics and offers a radical re-envisioning of the system that has brought us to the point of ruin. Moving beyond the myths of 'rational economic man' and unlimited growth, Doughnut Economics zeroes in on the sweet spot: a system that meets all our needs without exhausting the planet.
The demands of the 21st century require a new shape of economics. This might just be it.
*The Sunday Times Bestseller* *A Financial Times and Forbes Book of the Year* *Winner of the Transmission Prize 2018* *Longlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2017* 'The John Maynard Keynes of the 21st century.' George Monbiot, Guardian 'This is sharp, significant scholarship . . . Thrilling.' Times Higher Education 'Raworth's magnum opus . . . A fascinating reminder to business leaders and economists alike to stand back at a distance to examine our modern economics.' Books of the Year, Forbes 'There are some really important economic and political thinkers around at the moment - such as Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics.' Andrew Marr, Guardian 'An admirable attempt to broaden the horizons of economic thinking.' Martin Wolf, Books of the Year, Financial Times 'A compelling and timely intervention.' Caroline Lucas MP, Books of the Year, The Ecologist
Economic thinking - about climate change, immigration, austerity, automation and much more - in its most digestible formbr>br> For decades, a single free market philosophy has dominated global economics. But this is bland and unhealthy - like British food in the 1980s, when bestselling author and Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang first arrived in the UK from South Korea. Just as eating a wide range of cuisines contributes to a balanced diet, so too is it essential we listen to a variety of economic perspectives.br>br> In Edible Economics, Chang makes challenging economic ideas more palatable by plating them alongside anecdotes about food from around the world. Beginning each chapter with a menu, Chang uses the stories behind key ingredients - where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures - to explore economic theory. For Chang, strawberries are delicious with cream, but they also prophesise a jobless future; chocolate is a wonderful pudding, but more exciting are the insights it offers into post-industrial knowledge economies. Explaining everything from the hidden cost of care work to the misleading language of the free market as he cooks dishes like anchovy and egg toast, Gambas al Ajillo and Korean dotori mook, Ha-Joon Chang serves up an easy-to-digest feast of bold ideas.br>br> Myth-busting, witty and thought-provoking, Edible Economics shows that getting to grips with the economy is like learning a recipe: if we understand it, we can change it - and, with it, the world.>
Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we put a price on human life to decide how much pollution to allow? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, outsourcing inmates to forprofit prisons, auctioning admission to elite universities, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay?
In What Money Can't Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes up one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Isn't there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don't belong? What are the moral limits of markets?
In recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life-medicine, education, government, law, art, sports, even family life and personal relations. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society.
In Justice, an international bestseller, Sandel showed himself to be a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our everyday lives. Now, in What Money Can't Buy, he provokes a debate that's been missing in our market-driven age: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society, and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honor and money cannot buy?
The extraordinary efforts that took mankind to the moon 50 years ago were more than a scientific feat of aeronautics. They required new forms of collaboration between the public sector (notably, NASA) and private companies. This book asks: what if the same level of boldness - the boldness that set inspirational goals, took risks and explicitly recognized that this requires large spending but will be worthwhile in terms of long-term growth - was applied to the biggest problems of our time, climate change, disease and inequality, to name only a few? Mariana Mazzucato argues that applying innovation to societal goals and structuring government budgets more explicitly to the long-term, as the moon programme did, we can do government differently.>
What have the invention of the wheel, Pompeii, the Wall Street Crash, Harry Potter and the internet got in common? Why are all forecasters con-artists? And, what can Catherine the Great's lovers tell us about probability? This book shows us how to stop trying to predict everything and take advantage of uncertainty.
The New York Times -bestselling author of Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last , and Together Is Better offers a bold new approach to business strategy by asking one question: are you playing the finite game or the infinite game? In The Infinite Game , Sinek applies game theory to explore how great businesses achieve long-lasting success. He finds that building long-term value and healthy, enduring growth - that playing the infinite game - is the only thing that matters to your business.
