Best of
Economics

1989

Liar's Poker


Michael Lewis - 1989
    The place was Wall Street. The game was called Liar’s Poker. Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms. During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush. Liar’s Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years—a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business. From the frat-boy camaraderie of the forty-first-floor trading room to the killer instinct that made ambitious young men gamble everything on a high-stakes game of bluffing and deception, here is Michael Lewis’s knowing and hilarious insider’s account of an unprecedented era of greed, gluttony, and outrageous fortune. .

Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government


Robert Higgs - 1989
    To understand why government has grown, Robert Higgs asserts, one must understand how it has grown. This book offers a coherent, multi-causal explanation, guided by a novel analytical framework firmly grounded in historical evidence. More than a study of trends in governmental spending, taxation, and employment, Crisis and Leviathan is a thorough analysis of the actual occasions when and the specific means by which Big Government developed in the United States. Naming names and highlighting the actions of significant individuals, Higgs examines how twentieth-century national emergencies--mainly wars, depressions, and labor disturbances--have prompted federal officials to take over previously private rights and activities. When the crises passed, a residue of new governmental powers remained. Even more significantly, each great crisis and the subsequent governmental measures have gone hand in hand with reinforcing shifts in public beliefs and attitudes toward the government's proper role in American life. Integrating the contributions of scholars in diverse disciplines, including history, law, political philosophy, and the social sciences, Crisis and Leviathan makes compelling reading for all those who seek to understand the transformation of America's political economy over the past century.

Money & Capital Markets


Peter S. Rose - 1989
    This book discuses various major types of financial institutions and financial instruments present along with how and why the system of money and capital markets is changing. It also provides a descriptive explanation of how interest rates and security values are determined.

Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350


Janet L. Abu-Lughod - 1989
    In this reading of history, China and Japan, the kingdoms of India, Muslim caliphates, the Byzantine Empire and European maritime republics alike enjoyed no absolute dominance over their neighbours and commercial partners - and the egalitarian international trading network that they built endured until European advances in weaponry and ship types introduced radical instability to the system.Abu-Lughod's portrait of a more balanced world is a masterpiece of synthesis driven by one highly creative idea: her world system of interlocking spheres of influence quite literally connected masses of evidence together in new ways. A triumph of fine critical thinking.

For the Common Good: Redirecting the economy toward community, the environment, and a sustainable future.


Herman E. Daly - 1989
    Winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order 1992, Named New Options Best Political BookEconomist Herman Daly and theologian John Cobb, Jr., demonstrate how conventional economics and a growth-oriented industrial economy have led us to the brink of environmental disaster, and show the possibility of a different future.Named as one of the Top 50 Sustainability Books by University of Cambridges Programme for Sustainability Leadership and Greenleaf Publishing.

Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution In Economics And Technology


George Gilder - 1989
    Leading scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs provide vivid accounts of the latest inventions, revealing how the new international balance of power really lies in information technology.

Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization


Alice H. Amsden - 1989
    This timely book examines South Korean growth as an example of late industrialization, a process in which a nation's industries learn from earlier innovator nations, rather than innovate themselves. Discussing state intervention, shop floor management, and big business groups, Amsden explores the reasons for South Korea's phenomenal growth, paying special attention to the principle of reciprocity in which the government imposes strict performance standards on those industries and companies that it aids. She thereby shows how South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan were able to grow faster than other emerging nations such as Brazil, Turkey, India, and Mexico. With its new insights, Asia's Next Giant is essential reading for anyone concerned with global competition and the world economy.

Human Scale Development: Conception, Application and Further Reflections


Manfred Max-Neef - 1989
    Presents a people-centred approach to development.

More Heat Than Light: Economics as Social Physics: Physics as Nature's Economics


Philip Mirowski - 1989
    The author traces the development of the energy concept in Western physics and its subsequent effect on the invention and promulgation of neoclassical economics, the modern orthodox theory.

Competition and Currency: Essays on Free Banking and Money


Lawrence H. White - 1989
    White deals with a major issue of the 1990s--reprivatization of money. He makes a cogent argument and presents evidence that private, competing currencies would provide more monetary stability than do central banks. Surprisingly enough, modern private money may emerge first in Eastern Europe, where the gap between the economy's need and the government's money is greates.--Richard Rahn, Vice President and Chief Economists, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.Boldly, White makes a persuasive case for free banking....In time, we may well look back and regard Competition and Currency as crucial in the development of the economy and economic thought of the future.-- The New York City TribuneWhite is a leading analyst of a laissez-faire monetary system featuring a privately issued money supply. HIs perceptive insights force a rethinking of our present regulated monetary system and of what kind of reforms will remedy its defects. Avery worthwhile collection of essays for all students of monetary theory.--Philip Cagan, Columbia UniversityWhite is a leading analyst of a laissez-faire monetary system featuring a privately issued money supply. HIs perceptive insights force a rethinking of our present regulated monetary system and of what kind of reforms will remedy its defects. A very worthwhile collection of essays for all students of monetary theory.--Phillip Cagan, Columbia UniversityNewcomers to the literature...would be recommended to start with White's volume, where each paper is self-contained in its handling of particular aspects of free banking...Highly recommended as clear, well-argued expositions of the case for free banking, challenging assumptions common to much of monetary economics. It is particularly apposite that these assumptions be questioned at a time when institutional reform is so much on the agenda.--Sheila C. Dow, The Economic Journal

Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective


Russell Kirk - 1989
    America's market economy—a heritage to cherish and the key to tomorrow's prosperity—is the unifying theme of Economics: Work and Prosperity.  Contrasting the free enterprise system to the system that kills the goose that laid the golden eggs, the author takes the cheerful view that the market economy can continue to produce abundantly for years if people will learn to understand it and care for it properly.  This enlightening text will help students become informed citizens, able to make wise decisions about the crucial area of economics.

Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics


Nancy L. Stokey - 1989
    Stokey, Lucas, and Prescott develop the basic methods of recursive analysis and illustrate the many areas where they can usefully be applied.After presenting an overview of the recursive approach, the authors develop economic applications for deterministic dynamic programming and the stability theory of first-order difference equations. They then treat stochastic dynamic programming and the convergence theory of discrete-time Markov processes, illustrating each with additional economic applications. They also derive a strong law of large numbers for Markov processes. Finally, they present the two fundamental theorems of welfare economics and show how to apply the methods developed earlier to general equilibrium systems.The authors go on to apply their methods to many areas of economics. Models of firm and industry investment, household consumption behavior, long-run growth, capital accumulation, job search, job matching, inventory behavior, asset pricing, and money demand are among those they use to show how predictions can he made about individual and social behavior. Researchers and graduate students in economic theory will find this book essential.--back cover

Lectures on Macroeconomics


Olivier J. Blanchard - 1989
    While the authors' perspective is broad, they clearly state their assessment of what is important and what is not as they present the essence of macroeconomic theory today.The main purpose of Lectures on Macroeconomics is to characterize and explain fluctuations in output, unemployment and movement in prices. The most important fact of modern economic history is persistent long term growth, but as the book makes clear, this growth is far from steady. The authors analyze and explore these fluctuations.Topics include consumption and investment; the Overlapping Generations Model; money; multiple equilibria, bubbles, and stability; the role of nominal rigidities; competitive equilibrium business cycles, nominal rigidities and economic fluctuations, goods, labor and credit markets; and monetary and fiscal policy issues. Each of chapters 2 through 9 discusses models appropriate to the topic. Chapter 10 then draws on the previous chapters, asks which models are the workhorses of macroeconomics, and sets the models out in convenient form. A concluding chapter analyzes the goals of economic policy, monetary policy, fiscal policy, and dynamic inconsistency.Written as a text for graduate students with some background in macroeconomics, statistics, and econometrics, Lectures on Macroeconomics also presents topics in a self contained way that makes it a suitable reference for professional economists.

Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism


Carlos Tablada Pérez - 1989
    Quoting extensively from Guevara's writings and speeches on building socialism, this book presents the interrelationship of the market, economic planning, material incentives, and voluntary work; and why profit and other capitalist categories cannot be yardsticks for measuring progress in the transition to socialism.

Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery


Robert William Fogel - 1989
    Now he presents the dramatic rise and fall of the "peculiar institution," as the abolitionist movement rose into a powerful political force that pulled down a seemingly impregnable system.

The Rape Of Justice America's Tribunals Exposed


Eustace Clarence Mullins - 1989
    "When an American citizen comes into court today, he is not faced with the power or majesty of the law...Instead, he finds that he is facing the power of money, and the power of political influence,"

A History of Marxian Economics, Volume II: 1929-1990


Michael Charles Howard - 1989
    Beginning with Marxian analyses of the Great Depression and Stalinism, it explores the theories developed to explain the "long boom" in Western capitalism after the Second World War. Later chapters deal with post-Leninist theories of imperialism and continuing controversies in value theory and the theory of exploitation. After outlining recent work on the "second slump, " the integration of rational-choice theory into Marxism, and the political economy of socialism, the book concludes with a review and evaluation of Marxian theory over the whole period since Marx's death. Praise for the first volume: "Howard and King have done an excellent job.... One comes away with the impression of Marxian economics being a vibrant subject, relevant to the problems of these times and useful in practical matters."--Meghnad Desai, The Times Higher Education Supplement

Macroeconomics


David N. Hyman - 1989
    However, it does not sacrifice intellectual rigor in its quest for accessibility.

An Introduction to the World-System Perspective


Thomas R. Shannon - 1989
    Incorporating most leading arguments of world-system theorists, he addresses the fall of the Eastern Bloc as well as such current topics as relations with indigenous peoples, cultural analysis, methodology, women, and race. He discusses world-system analysis as a flexible and changing paradigm and considers future directions in the field.This advanced undergraduate and graduate-level text is the only book that provides an introduction to the world-system approach to the study of modern social change. Tracing the general antecedents of world-system theory and describing its major tenets, Shannon focuses on the basic characteristics and components of the world-system and the economic and political relationships within it. He characterizes changes within the system, including social and economic trends, cycles of great power leadership, and events and policies by which states rise or fall in importance.

Three Faces of Power


Kenneth E. Boulding - 1989
    Boulding argues that threat power should not be seen as fundamental since it is not effective unless reinforced by economic and integrative power.

Liberalisms: Essays in Political Philosophy


John N. Gray - 1989
    Gives a coherent and comprehensive analytical guide to liberal thinking over the past century and considers its dominance in Anglo-American political philosophy over the past twenty years.

Staking a Claim: Jake Simmons, Jr. and the Making of an African-American Oil Dynasty


Jonathan Greenberg - 1989
    

Global Formation: Structures Of The World Economy


Christopher Chase-Dunn - 1989
    The author shows how these seemingly new developments fit with earlier patterns of global formation and change, extending the influential model that drew wide attention to this award-winning book. The new edition also evaluates recent major studies of the modern world-system and assesses the implications for the future of the contemporary system.

Monetary Nationalism and International Stability


Friedrich A. Hayek - 1989
    

The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism


Gøsta Esping-Andersen - 1989
    Gøsta Esping-Andersen, one of the foremost contributors to current debates on this issue, here provides a new analysis of the character and role of welfare states in the functioning of contemporary advanced Western societies. Esping-Andersen distinguishes three major types of welfare state, connecting these with variations in the historical development of different Western countries. He argues that current economic processes, such as those moving toward a postindustrial order, are shaped not by autonomous market forces but by the nature of states and state differences. Fully informed by comparative materials, this book will have great appeal to all those working on issues of economic development and postindustrialism. Its audience will include students of sociology, economics, and politics.

Cases in Engineering Economy


Ted G. Eschenbach - 1989
    An ideal supplement to your engineering economic text, this casebook helps students to hone their analytical, logical, and communicative skills. The cases are authored by Ted Eschenbach and William Peterson, with contributions from engineering economy professors from ten different universities.

Fragments of Labour: The Story Behind the Labour Government


Bruce Jesson - 1989
    

Bayesian Forecasting and Dynamic Models


Mike West - 1989
    We describe the structure and theory of classes of dynamic models and their uses in forecasting and time series analysis. The principles, models and methods of Bayesian forecasting and time - ries analysis have been developed extensively during the last thirty years. Thisdevelopmenthasinvolvedthoroughinvestigationofmathematicaland statistical aspects of forecasting models and related techniques. With this has come experience with applications in a variety of areas in commercial, industrial, scienti?c, and socio-economic ?elds. Much of the technical - velopment has been driven by the needs of forecasting practitioners and applied researchers. As a result, there now exists a relatively complete statistical and mathematical framework, presented and illustrated here. In writing and revising this book, our primary goals have been to present a reasonably comprehensive view of Bayesian ideas and methods in m- elling and forecasting, particularly to provide a solid reference source for advanced university students and research workers.

Our Own Time: A History of American Labor and the Working Day


David R. Roediger - 1989
    It argues that the length of the working day has been the central issue for the American labor movement during its most vigorous periods of activity, uniting workers along lines of craft, gender and ethnicity. The authors hold that the workweek is likely again to take on increased significance as workers face the choice between a society based on free time and one based on alienated work and unemployment.

High Trail Cookery: All-Natural, Home-Dried, Palate-Pleasing Meals for the Backpacker


Linda Frederick Yaffe - 1989
    Simple easy-to-follow recipes explain how to dehydrate food at home, and store it, and pack it along on your next camping trip.

Building Sustainable Communities: Tools and Concepts for Self-Reliant Economic Change


C. George Benello - 1989
    It presents the underlying ideas and essential institutions for building sustainable communities. The three major sections of the book deal with community land trusts and other forms of community ownership of natural resources; worker-managed enterprises, and other techniques of community self-management; and community currency and banking.

Commerce and Coalitions: How Trade Affects Domestic Political Alignments


Ronald Rogowski - 1989
    Testing his hypothesis chiefly against the evidence of the last century and a half, but extending it also to the ancient world and the sixteenth century, he finds a surprising degree of confirmation and some intriguing exceptions.

Dutch Primacy in World Trade 1585-1740


Jonathan I. Israel - 1989
    This is the first general account of Dutch world-trade hegemony in all its aspects from its origins as a depot for "bulk-carrying" in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries down to its collapse during the course of the eighteenth.

Monetary Economics: Theory and Policy


Bennett T. McCallum - 1989
    

South Africa's War Against Capitalism


Walter E. Williams - 1989
    The author argues, in contrast to prevailing views held both in South Africa and the West, that rather than resulting from capitalism, apartheid is the antithesis of capitalism. In short, Williams asserts, the evolution of apartheid can be seen as a struggle against market forces in order to confer privilege and status on South African whites.Williams begins with a brief overview of South African history, the racial and ethnic diversity of its peoples, and the development of thinking about apartheid. He then highlights some of South Africa's legal institutions, particularly its racially discriminatory laws, and traces the historical forces behind racially discriminatory labor law. Subsequent chapters apply standard economic analysis to apartheid in business and the labor market and consider market challenges to apartheid and governmental responses. Finally, Williams summarizes recent changes to apartheid laws and offers a general discussion of the lessons about racial relations that can be drawn from the South African experience.

Midnight Economist: Choices, Prices, And Public Policy


William R. Allen - 1989
    

Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation-Building State Changes Its Mind


Michael Pusey - 1989
    Michael Pusey undertakes a detailed analysis of top bureaucrats in Canberra who have been responsible for this recasting of national policy. He concludes that economist rationalist view dominate each of the key ministries, and have altered the traditional balance between the economy, the state and society. The book also discusses the social significance of economic rationalisation and public sector reform from a theoretical perspective, contributing to contemporary understanding of modernisation, public morality and citizenship in the new global order.

The Economic Role of the State


Joseph E. Stiglitz - 1989
    

Institutional Economics: Its Place in Political Economy, Volume 1


John Rogers Commons - 1989
    Commons opened Institutional Economics by declaring: "My point of view is based on my participation in collective activities, from which I here derive a theory of the part played by collective action in control of individual action." This sentence well summarizes the three key elements of this book--its theoretical intent, the importance Commons gave to his own experience in institutional reform in shaping these ideas, and the focus on the concept of the institution as a collective constraint on individual action.

History of Japanese Economic Thought


Tessa Morris-Suzuki - 1989
    However, Japanese thinkers had already developed, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a variety of interesting approaches to issues such as the causes of inflation, the value of trade, and the role of the state in economic activity. Tessa Morris-Suzuki provides the first comprehensive English language survey of the development of economic thought in Japan. She considers how the study of neo-classical and Keynesian economics was given new impetus by Japan's 'economic miracle' while Marxist thought, particularly well established in Japan, was developing along lines that are only now beginning to be recognized by the West. She concludes with an examination of the radical rethinking of fundamental economic theory currently occuring in Japan and outlines some of the exciting new approaches which are emerging from this 'shaking of the foundations.

A Century of Debt Crises in Latin America: From Independence to the Great Depression, 1820-1930


Carlos Marichal - 1989
    Marichal shows that the present debt crisis is only a part of an overall pattern in Latin American history--cycles of loan boom and subsequent debt crisis that are heavily influenced by fluctuations of international trade and capital flows. He also reveals the significant role played by those who implement debt policies. Examining the strategies of both lenders and borrowers, he makes it clear that foreign loan negotiations are not only financial tools but also political instruments with broad economic and social consequences.The book analyzes in detail the four major debt crises that took place in Latin America during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Marichal's focus is comparative, since the contracting of foreign loans and their repayment were problems common to virtually all nations of the region. He devotes special attention to explaining the links of these debt crises to the international financial panics of 1825, 1873, 1890, and 1929. The epilogue compares the debt crises of the past with the contemporary Latin American debt crisis.

Calvin And The Foundations Of Modern Politics


Ralph C. Hancock - 1989
    With new pref.

Explorations into Constitutional Economics


James M. Buchanan - 1989
    Buchanan's work on the constitutional economics paradigm he founded. Following the earlier collection, Economics: Between Predictive Science and Moral Philosophy, these essays include many that appeared in journals not easily accessible as well as some which have not previously been published. The volume is organized in two parts: theoretical foundations and applications. The latter part includes papers on aspects of voting, monetary and fiscal constitutions, public goods supply, taxation and public debt, and property rights and externalities. This edition provides easier access and gives a wider exposure to a set of arguments and ideas that mark important steps in Buchanan's building of the Constitutional Economics Paradigm. The vision of a new political economy developed and applied in the contributions of this volume will be of interest to scholars and students of economics as well as other disciplines from political science to philosophy, providing a valuable perspective and orientation to anyone who is concerned with the practical issues of policy making.

Community Development In Perspective


James A. Christenson - 1989
    

The Review of Austrian Economics, Volume 3


Murray N. Rothbard - 1989
    

Institutional Economics: Its Place in Political Economy, Volume 2


Commons - 1989
    Commons' pragmatism, the role of scarcity and conflict in economics as opposed to a presumed harmony of interest, and the importance of custom and common law as opposed to individual pleasures and pains.

People, Cities and Wealth


E.A. Wrigley - 1989
    

Lindbergh On the Federal Reserve - The Economic Pinch


Charles A. Lindbergh Sr. - 1989
    

Money, Information and Uncertainty


Charles A.E. Goodhart - 1989
    It is unique in linking theoretical findings to policy issues and events, and extends conventional analyses of financial intermediation and monetary theory. Money, Information and Uncertainty bridges the gap between introductory textbooks and the latest journal articles, clarifying the macroeconomic significance of a series of innovative developments in the economics of information and the analysis of financial markets and institutions. Goodhart brings out the key implications of ideas such as information asymmetries and market-completion services for problems relating to money and banking, making it easier for banking specialists who don't follow the financial literature to understand where their field is moving.The book's 18 chapters are organized around the theme that monetary phenomena can be properly understood only against a background of uncertainty and information costs, and around the premise that portfolio theory is the most appropriate analytical tool. The first 9 chapters focus on microeconomic issues, such as the role of and the demand for money and the role and functions of banks and of the Central Bank. The final 9 chapters take up macroeconomic issues, such as the transmission mechanisms of monetary policy and international monetary problems. Chapters new to this edition cover the nature of markets, credit rationing, the functions of central banks, financial regulation the determination of interest rates, and floating exchange rates.

Universities in the Business of Repression: The Academic-Military-Industrial Complex in Central America


Jonathan Feldman - 1989
    An essential guide for students and academics seeking to expose university complicity with militarism and repression in the Third World.

Ricardos Economics: A General Equilibrium Theory of Distribution and Growth


Michio Morishima - 1989
    The author concentrates on Ricardo's main work, The Principles, and shows that his economics is the prototype of mathematical economics without the symbols and formulae. Morishima then translates Ricardo's economics into mathematical language to find a general equilibrium system concealed within. The analysis contradicts the conventional view that marginalism emerged in opposition to classical economics, showing instead that Ricardian analysis is firmly based on marginalist principles, using prices, wages, and profits rather than labor values. The book ends with a discussion of the historical character of economic theory and an attempt to specify the epoch of Ricardian economics.

Real Exchange Rates, Devaluation, and Adjustment: Exchange Rate Policy in Developing Countries


Sebastian Edwards - 1989
    It develops a theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium real exchange rates, takes up the question of why devaluations are the most controversial policy measures in poorer nations, and discusses what determines their success or failure.In a lucid fashion, Edwards organizes vast amounts of data on exchange rates - both real and nominal - and discusses their effect on net trade balances, net asset positions, output growth, real wages, and rates of price inflation, analyzed both in time series and through cross country comparisons. Edwards's investigation singles out 39 major devaluation episodes for before and after comparative analyses while simultaneously isolating the separate effects of other important explanatory variables, such as bank credit expansion and changes in the terms of trade.The first part of the book focuses on theoretical models of devaluation and real exchange rate behavior in less developed countries. Special attention is paid to intertemporal channels in the transmission of disturbances. The second part uses a large cross country data set to analyze the way the real exchange rate has behaved in these nations. The data are also used to test the implications of several theories of real exchange rate determination. The third part analyzes actual devaluation experiences between 1962 and 1982. These chapters examine the events leading to a balance of payments crisis and to a devaluation, exploring the relation between macroeconomic disequilibrium, and the imposition of trade and exchange controls. They also investigate the effect of nominal devaluation on key variables such as the balance of payments, the current account, the real exchange rate, real output real wages, and income distribution.

The Imf, the World Bank and the African Debt: The Economic Impact


Bade Onimode - 1989
    

Health and Efficiency: a sociology of health economics


Malcolm Ashmore - 1989
    

The Peasant Soul Of Japan


Shōichi Watanabe - 1989