She called it "disaster capitalism." Covering Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami, and New Orleans post-Katrina, she witnessed something remarkably similar. People still reeling from catastrophe were being hit again, this time with economic "shock treatment" losing their land and homes to rapid-fire corporate makeovers. The Shock Doctrine retells the story of the most dominant ideology of our time, Milton Friedman's free market economic revolution. In contrast to the popular myth of this movement's peaceful global victory, Klein shows how it has exploited moments of shock and extreme violence in order to implement its economic policies in so many parts of the world from Latin America and Eastern Europe to South Africa, Russia, and Iraq. At the core of disaster capitalism is the use of cataclysmic events to advance radical privatization combined with the privatization of the disaster response itself. By capitalizing on crises, created by nature or war, Klein argues that the disaster capitalism complex now exists as a booming new economy, and is the violent culmination of a radical economic project that has been incubating for fifty years.

    How did this marvel of self-organized complexity evolve? How is wealth created within this system? And how can wealth be increased for the benefit of individuals, businesses, and society? In The Origin of Wealth, Eric D. Beinhocker argues that modern science provides a radical perspective on these age-old questions, with far-reaching implications. According to Beinhocker, wealth creation is the product of a simple but profoundly powerful evolutionary formula: differentiate, select, and amplify. In this view, the economy is a "complex adaptive system" in which physical technologies, social technologies, and business designs continuously interact to create novel products, new ideas, and increasing wealth. Taking readers on an entertaining journey through economic history, from the Stone Age to modern economy, Beinhocker explores how "complexity economics" provides provocative insights on issues ranging from creating adaptive organizations to the evolutionary workings of stock markets to new perspectives on government policies. A landmark book that shatters conventional economic theory, The Origin of Wealth will rewire our thinking about how we came to be here—and where we are going.

    One was mathematician Claude Shannon, neurotic father of our digital age, whose genius is ranked with Einstein's. The other was John L. Kelly Jr., a Texas-born, gun-toting physicist. Together they applied the science of information theory—the basis of computers and the Internet—to the problem of making as much money as possible, as fast as possible.Shannon and MIT mathematician Edward O. Thorp took the "Kelly formula" to Las Vegas. It worked. They realized that there was even more money to be made in the stock market. Thorp used the Kelly system with his phenomenonally successful hedge fund, Princeton-Newport Partners. Shannon became a successful investor, too, topping even Warren Buffett's rate of return. Fortune's Formula traces how the Kelly formula sparked controversy even as it made fortunes at racetracks, casinos, and trading desks. It reveals the dark side of this alluring scheme, which is founded on exploiting an insider's edge.Shannon believed it was possible for a smart investor to beat the market—and Fortune's Formula will convince you that he was right.

    But only two things have ever been money gold and silver. When paper money becomes too abundant, and thus loses its value, man always turns back to precious metals. During these times there is always an enormous wealth transfer, and it is within your power to transfer that wealth away from you or toward you." --Michael Maloney, precious metals investment expert and historian; founder and principal, Gold & Silver, Inc. The Advanced Guide to Investing Gold and Silver tells readers: The essential history of economic cycles that make gold and silver the ultimate monetary standard.How the U.S. government is driving inflation by diluting our money supply and weakening our purchasing powerWhy precious metals are one of the most profitable, easiest, and safest investments you can makeWhere, when, and how to invest your money and realize maximum returns, no matter what the economy's stateEssential advice on avoiding the middleman and taking control of your financial destiny by making your investments directly.

    But what if the country is no longer a democracy at all? In "Democracy Incorporated," Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"?Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive--and where elites are eager to keep them that way. At best the nation has become a "managed democracy" where the public is shepherded, not sovereign. At worst it is a place where corporate power no longer answers to state controls. Wolin makes clear that today's America is in no way morally or politically comparable to totalitarian states like Nazi Germany, yet he warns that unchecked economic power risks verging on total power and has its own unnerving pathologies. Wolin examines the myths and mythmaking that justify today's politics, the quest for an ever-expanding economy, and the perverse attractions of an endless war on terror. He argues passionately that democracy's best hope lies in citizens themselves learning anew to exercise power at the local level."Democracy Incorporated" is one of the most worrying diagnoses of America's political ills to emerge in decades. It is sure to be a lightning rod for political debate for years to come."

    From "gun control myths" to "mealy mouth media" to "free lunch medicine," Sowell gets to the heart of the matters we all care about with his characteristically unsparing candor.

    Michael Mauboussin, one of Wall Street's most creative and influential minds offers provocative new ways of thinking about the stock market, investing, and how we make decisions.

    We can't go back in time and attend his New York seminar, or follow him to his speaking engagements that he held in the 50s and 60s. But thanks to this second volume in a thrilling series (here is volume one), we do have access to what he said. He is warm, funny, passionate, and learned. This book provides a candid look at the man and his teaching style. It demonstrates his dazzling command over the material, and teaches in a breezier way than his treatises. This volume contains nine lectures delivered over one week, from June 23, to July 3, 1952, at the San Francisco Public Library. Mises was at his prime as a teacher and lecturer. He shares a lifetime of learning on topics that were (and remain) central to American public life. As the title indicates, his main focus is on Marxism. He discusses Marx and his place in the history of ideas, the destruction wrought by his dangerous ideology, the manner in which his followers have covered up his errors, and how the Marxists themselves have worked for so long to save Marxism from itself. He discusses Marxist claims about history and refutes the smear of the industrial revolution.

    He demolishes many of the myths surrounding the industrial Revolution, shows why political freedom is impossible without economic freedom, points out the differances betweeen government and the market, and demonstrates how socialism destroys freedom.1 audio CD

    This book asks: How did this happen? Who's benefiting? And how can we stop it?

    In the first volume, Rothbard traces the history of economics from the ancient Greeks to Adam Smith; and in the second volume, he discusses British classical economics, the French school of classical liberalism, and Marxism.Rothbard rejects the Whig view, according to which the history of economics is a story of constant progress. To the contrary, he sees economics as a battle between two conflicting schools of thought. The correct one explains prices through subjective value: this approach culminates in the Austrian School. The other view explains prices by cost, especially labor cost.In the first volume, Rothbard stresses the great contributions of the Spanish Scholastics to the subjective tradition. Other great subjectivists included Turgot and Cantillon. Unfortunately, Adam Smith’s labor cost theories became the dominant view, especially in Britain. Rothbard regards Smith as largely a retrograde influence on economic theory.The second volume contains a brilliant critique of Ricardian economics, showing the constraints on theory entailed by Ricardo’s static and pseudo-mathematical method. Ricardo’s successor John Stuart Mill is the object of a devastating intellectual portrait. Marxism is subjected to a merciless demolition, and Rothbard shows the roots of this system in metaphysical speculation. The French classical liberals such as Bastiat, on the other hand, contributed to the subjectivist school. A further highlight of this volume is a discussion of the bullionist controversy: the views of the Banking and Currency Schools receive extensive analysis.

    This book shows you: Why the Internet has barely gotten stared and how to capitalize on it.Why the technology gap is whee you'll find the greatest economic potential.Why home- based business entrepreneurs will be among the richest in our new economy.Why recent changes in tax law have given home-based entrepreneurs the competitive edge.Why direct selling has become the wealthcreation vehicle of choice for millions.

    These new, Nobel Prize-winning theories, based on elegant mathematical models of markets, were not simply external analyses but intrinsic parts of economic processes.Paraphrasing Milton Friedman, MacKenzie says that economic models are an engine of inquiry rather than a camera to reproduce empirical facts. More than that, the emergence of an authoritative theory of financial markets altered those markets fundamentally. For example, in 1970, there was almost no trading in financial derivatives such as "futures." By June of 2004, derivatives contracts totaling $273 trillion were outstanding worldwide. MacKenzie suggests that this growth could never have happened without the development of theories that gave derivatives legitimacy and explained their complexities.MacKenzie examines the role played by finance theory in the two most serious crises to hit the world's financial markets in recent years: the stock market crash of 1987 and the market turmoil that engulfed the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. He also looks at finance theory that is somewhat beyond the mainstream -- chaos theorist Benoit Mandelbrot's model of "wild" randomness. MacKenzie's pioneering work in the social studies of finance will interest anyone who wants to understand how America's financial markets have grown into their current form.

    But whereas limited government libertarians argue in favor of political constraints, anarchist libertarians argue that, to check government against abuse, the state itself must be replaced by a social order of self-government based on contracts. Indeed, contemporary history has shown that limited government is untenable, as it is inherently unstable and prone to corruption, being dependent on the interest-group politics of the state's current leadership. Anarchy and the Law presents the most important essays explaining, debating, and examining historical examples of stateless orders.Section I, "Theory of Private Property Anarchism," presents articles that criticize arguments for government law enforcement and discuss how the private sector can provide law. In Section II, "Debate," limited government libertarians argue with anarchist libertarians about the morality and viability of private-sector law enforcement. Section III, "History of Anarchist Thought," contains a sampling of both classic anarchist works and modern studies of the history of anarchist thought and societies. Section IV, "Historical Case Studies of Non-Government Law Enforcement," shows that the idea that markets can function without state coercion is an entirely viable concept. Anarchy and the Law is a comprehensive reader on anarchist libertarian thought that will be welcomed by students of government, political science, history, philosophy, law, economics, and the broader study of liberty.

    In The Chinese Economy, Barry Naughton provides both an engaging, broadly focused introduction to China's economy since 1949 and original insights based on his own extensive research. The book will be an essential resource for students, teachers, scholars, business people, and policymakers. It is suitable for classroom use for undergraduate or graduate courses.After presenting background material on the pre-1949 economy and the industrialization, reform, and market transition that have taken place since, the book examines different aspects of the modern Chinese economy. It analyzes patterns of growth and development, including population growth and the one-child family policy; the rural economy, including agriculture and rural industrialization; industrial and technological development in urban areas; international trade and foreign investment; macroeconomic trends and cycles and the financial system; and the largely unaddressed problems of environmental quality and the sustainability of growth.The text is notable also for placing China's economy in interesting comparative contexts, discussing it in relation to other transitional or developing economies and to such advanced industrial countries as the United States and Japan. It provides both a broad historical and macro perspective as well as a focused examination of the actual workings of China's complex and dynamic economic development. Interest in the Chinese economy will only grow as China becomes an increasingly important player on the world's stage. This book will be the standard reference for understanding and teaching about the next economic superpower.

    Here are the chieftains who have run the railroads, including those who set about grabbing power and big salaries for themselves, and others who truly loved the industry.As a journalist and associate editor of Fortune magazine who covered the demise of Penn Central and the creation of Conrail, Rush Loving often had a front row seat to the foibles and follies of this group of men. He uncovers intrigue, greed, lust for power, boardroom battles, and takeover wars and turns them into a page-turning story for readers.Included is the story of how the chairman of CSX Corporation, who later became George W. Bush's Treasury secretary, was inept as a manager but managed to make millions for himself while his company drifted in chaos. Men such as he were shy of scruples, yet there were also those who loved trains and railroading, and who played key roles in reshaping transportation in the northeastern United States. This book will delight not only the rail fan, but anyone interested in American business and history.

    Post-Keynesian economics is founded on realistic assumptions and stylized facts, such as interest targeting by central banks or constant average variable costs in manufacturing and services. The author shows how these more realistic foundations give rise to macroeconomic implications that are entirely different from those of received wisdom with regards to employment, output growth, inflation and monetary theory. For instance, the author demonstrates that higher minimum wages or real wages can increase both labour employment and the corporate profit rates, and that faster output growth need not lead to higher inflation.

    But its sheer size (1441 pages!) is intimidating. After all, Rothbard systematically covers the whole of economic science.Fortunately, the young and brilliant economist Robert Murphy has come to the rescue!In writing the Study Guide to Man, Economy, and State, he had his students in mind. He wanted to design a great teaching tool, one that would reach students the same way a private tutor would. He wanted to help Rothbard's magnum opus have permanent impact on their thinking.He accomplished his goal! The guide provides a roadmap to this massive book, complete with summaries, technical notes, annotations of key contributions, and study questions. He puts it all into a manageable size, with a section devoted to each chapter of the Scholar's Edition (which includes both Man, Economy, and State and Power and Market).To write a guide of this sort is harder than it looks. Murphy first had to master the material in every way, enough so that he could write short summaries of the chapters.He then used his advanced training to discuss and elaborate some of the more technically difficult sections of the book. And because Rothbard often does not explain what is innovative in his own theories, Murphy draws attention to the unique contributions to economic science found therein. He tops if off with a series of thought-provoking questions that deal with the core lessons of each chapter.Murphy spent more than a year writing and editing this guide. As you will see, he is an excellent teacher and he set out to do this in a way that appeals to students of all ages.One of the goals of the Mises Institute has long been to make this book accessible to everyone, particularly people who are studying economics, and especially those who are interested in Austrian economics. This powerful guide makes the text open up as never before.It is ideal for classroom use, and also for private study. Another use didn't occur to the author until after he finished it: he uses it to prepare lectures for class! He says now that he doesn't know how he taught without it before.Murphy sought to write a teaching guide but he ended up writing a manual to Man, Economy, and State that will quickly become a staple of the literature. Would that every book of this size had such a guide (and, yes, he has now completed one for Human Action too!), and would that every guide were as clear and useful as this one.Professor Murphy is an extraordinary talent with a great gift for helping students understand economics. Now he can be your teacher, too.The chapters of this guide match the twelve of Man, Economy, and State and the seven of Power and Market; appendices are handled within each chapter. A typical chapter begins with a one-page summary, followed by a detailed outline, "contributions" or observations from the author, technical details, and, finally, ten study-guide questions.Robert Murphy writes in the introduction, "I strongly urge all those who take Austrian economics seriously to read (at least large portions of) Rothbard's treatise; I would go so far as to say that a modern academic cannot really call him- or herself an Austrian economist without doing so. For those who may be intimidated or discouraged by the massive volume, I hope that this study guide will at least "chart the territory" and allow them to begin in those topics that most interest them. At that point, I suspect, Rothbard's spell will overtake them and they will be compelled to read all 1,441 pages."To search for Mises Institute titles, enter a keyword and LvMI (short for Ludwig von Mises Institute); e.g., Depression LvMI

    It was the same in the 1930s.In this world before and after the Great Depression, there was a lone voice for sanity and freedom: Ludwig von Mises. He speaks in The Causes of the Economic Crisis, a collection of newly in print essays by Mises that have been very hard to come by, and are published for the first time in this format.Here we have the evidence that the master economist foresaw and warned against the breakdown of the German mark, as well as the market crash of 1929 and the depression that followed.He presents his business cycle theory in its most elaborate form, applies it to the prevailing conditions, and discusses the policies that governments undertake that make recessions worse. He recommends a path for monetary reform that would eliminate business cycles and provide the basis for a sustainable prosperity.In foreseeing the interwar economic breakdown, Mises was nearly alone among his contemporaries. In 1923, he warned that central banks will not "stabilize" money; they will distort credit markets and generate booms and busts. In 1928, he departed dramatically from the judgment of his contemporaries and sounded an alarm: "every boom must one day come to an end."Then after the Great Depression hit, he wrote again in 1931. His essay was called: "The Causes of the Economic Crisis." And the essays kept coming, in 1933 and 1946, each explaining that the business cycle results from central-bank generated loose money and cheap credit, and that the cycle can only be made worse by intervention.Credit expansion cannot increase the supply of real goods. It merely brings about a rearrangement. It diverts capital investment away from the course prescribed by the state of economic wealth and market conditions. It causes production to pursue paths which it would not follow unless the economy were to acquire an increase in material goods. As a result, the upswing lacks a solid base. It is not real prosperity. It is illusory prosperity. It did not develop from an increase in economic wealth. Rather, it arose because the credit expansion created the illusion of such an increase. Sooner or later it must become apparent that this economic situation is built on sand.Did the world listen? The German-speaking world knew his essays well, and he was considered a prophet, until the Nazis came to power and wiped out his legacy. In England, his student F.A. Hayek made the Austrian theory a presence in academic life.In the popular mind, the media, and politics, however, it was Keynes who held sway, with his claim that the depression was the fault of the market, and that it can only be solved through government planning.Just at the time he wanted to be fighting, Mises had to leave Austria, forced out by political events and the rising of the Nazis. He wrote from Geneva, his writings accessible to too few people. They were never translated into English until after his death. Even then, they were not circulated widely.The sad result is that Mises is not given the credit he deserves for having warned about the coming depression, and having seen the solution. His writings were prolific and profound, but they were swallowed up in the rise of the total state and total war.But today, we hear him speak again in this book.Bettina B. Greaves did the translations. It is her view that in the essays, Mises provides the clearest explanation of the Great Depression ever written. Indeed, he is crystal clear: precise, patient, and thorough. It makes for a gripping read, especially given that we face many of the same problems today.This book refutes the socialists and Keynesian, as well as anyone who believes that the printing press can provide a way out of trouble. Mises shows who was responsible for driving the world into economic calamity. It was the inevitable effects of the government's monopoly over money and banking.Just as in his attack on socialism, here he was brilliant and brave and prescient. Mises was there, before and after. He was writing about contemporary events. He issued the warnings that the world did not heed, the warnings we must heed today.

    It explains the core of the problem and shows how cycles can be forecast and how they are managed by central banks. The book concludes with detailed studies of how sub-sectors of stocks, bonds, hedge funds, private equity funds, gold, exchange rates, real estate, commodities, art and collectibles fluctuate over different categories of business cycles.

    That's why America's Founders guaranteed it in the Constitution. Yet in today's America, government tramples on this right in countless ways. Regulations forbid people to use their property as they wish, bureaucrats extort enormous fees from developers in exchange for building permits, and police departments snatch personal belongings on the suspicion that they were involved in crimes. In the case of Kelo v. New London, the Supreme Court even declared that government may seize homes and businesses and transfer the land to private developers to build stores, restaurants, or hotels. That decision was met with a firestorm of criticism across the nation. In this, the first book on property rights to be published since the Kelo decision, Timothy Sandefur surveys the landscape of private property in America's third century. Beginning with the role property rights play in human nature, Sandefur describes how America's Founders wrote a Constitution that would protect this right and details the gradual erosion that began with the Progressive Era's abandonment of the principles of individual liberty. Sandefur tells the gripping stories of people who have found their property threatened: Frank Bugryn and his Connecticut Christmas-tree farm; Susette Kelo and the little dream house she renovated; Wilhelmina Dery and the house she was born in, 80 years before bureaucrats decided to take it; Dorothy English and the land she wanted to leave to her children; and Kenneth Healing and his 17-year legal battle for permission to build a home. Thanks to the abuse of eminent domain and asset forfeiture laws, federal, state, and local governments have now come to see property rights as mere permissions, which can be revoked at any time in the name of the greater good. In this book, Sandefur explains what citizens can do to restore the Constitution's protections for this cornerstone of liberty.

    But as costs levitate, that argument becomes more difficult to make. Today, we spend twice as much as Japan on health care—yet few would argue that our health care system is twice as good.Instead, startling new evidence suggests that one out of every three of our health care dollars is squandered on unnecessary or redundant tests; unproven, sometimes unwanted procedures; and overpriced drugs and devices that, too often, are no better than the less expensive products they have replaced.How did this happen? In Money-Driven Medicine, Maggie Mahar takes the reader behind the scenes of a $2 trillion industry to witness how billions of dollars are wasted in a Hobbesian marketplace that pits the industry's players against each other. In remarkably candid interviews, doctors, hospital administrators, patients, health care economists, corporate executives, and Wall Street analysts describe a war of "all against all" that can turn physicians, hospitals, insurers, drugmakers, and device makers into blood rivals. Rather than collaborating, doctors and hospitals compete. Rather than sharing knowledge, drugmakers and device makers divide value. Rather than thinking about long-term collective goals, the imperatives of an impatient marketplace force health care providers to focus on short-term fiscal imperatives. And so investments in untested bleeding-edge medical technologies crowd out investments in information technology that might, in the long run, not only reduce errors but contain costs.In theory, free market competition should tame health care inflation. In fact, Mahar demonstrates, when it comes to medicine, the traditional laws of supply and demand do not apply. Normally, when supply expands, prices fall. But in the health care industry, as the number and variety of drugs, devices, and treatments multiplies, demand rises to absorb the excess, and prices climb. Meanwhile, the perverse incentives of a fee-for-service system reward health care providers for doing more, not less.In this superbly written book, Mahar shows why doctors must take responsibility for the future of our health care industry. Today, she observes, "physicians have been stripped of their standing as professionals: Insurers address them as vendors ('Dear Health Care Provider'), drugmakers and device makers see them as customers (someone you might take to lunch or a strip club), while . . . consumers (aka patients) are encouraged to see their doctors as overpaid retailers. . . . Before patients can reclaim their rightful place as the center—and indeed as the raison d'être—of our health care system," Mahar suggests, "we must once again empower doctors . . . to practice patient-centered medicine—based not on corporate imperatives, doctors' druthers, or even patients' demands," but on the best scientific research available.

    Andrew Kliman shows that the alleged inconsistencies are actually caused by misinterpretation. By modifying the standard interpretation of Marx's value theory in two simple ways, the recent 'temporal single-system interpretation' eliminates all of the alleged inconsistencies. Written especially for the non-specialist reader, in a clear, accessible style and with the bare minimum of mathematics, Reclaiming Marx's 'Capital' introduces readers to Marx's value theory and contrasting interpretations of it, the history of the internal inconsistency controversy, and interpretive standards and methods. Kliman then surveys Marx's falling-rate-of-profit theory, the relationship of prices to values (the 'transformation problem'), Marx's exploitation theory of profit, and other topics. The book ends with a discussion of why the myth of inconsistency persists, and a call to set the record straight.

    Author Steven Drobny demystifies how these star traders make billions for well-heeled investors, revealing their theories, strategies and approaches to markets. Drobny, cofounder of Drobny Global Advisors, an international macroeconomic research and advisory firm, has tapped into his network and beyond in order assemble this collection of thirteen interviews with the industry's best minds. Along the way, you'll get an inside look at firsthand trading experiences through some of the major world financial crises of the last few decades. Whether Russian bonds, Pakistani stocks, Southeast Asian currencies or stakes in African brewing companies, no market or instrument is out of bounds for these elite global macro hedge fund managers. Highly accessible and filled with in-depth expert opinion, Inside the House of Money is a must-read for financial professionals and anyone else interested in understanding the complexities at stake in world financial markets. "The ruminations of supposedly hush-hush hedge fund operators are richly illuminating." --New York Times

    A fun read! For more information, frequent updates, and to comment on the forthcoming book, visit William A. Barnett's weblog at http: //economistmind.blogspot.com/.Acclaim for Inside the Economist's Mind "In candid interviews, these great economists prove to be fabulous story tellers of their lives and times. Unendingly gripping for insiders, this book should also help non-specialists understand how economists think."Professor Julio Rotemberg, Harvard University Business School, and Editor, Review of Economics and Statistics. "Economics used to be called the 'dismal science'. It will be impossible for anybody to hold that view anymore ... This is science with flesh and blood, and a lot of fascinating stories that you will find nowhere else."Dr. Jean-Pascal Benassy, Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques, Paris, France "This book provides a rare and intriguing view of the personal and professional lives of leading economists ... It is like A Beautiful Mind, scaled by a factor of 16 [the number of interviews in the book]."Professor Lee Ohanian, University of California at Los Angeles " ... if you want an insider view of how economics has been developing in the last decades, this is the (only) book for you."Professor Giancarlo Gandolfo, University of Rome 'La Sapienza, ' Rome "Here we see the HUMAN side of path-breaking research, the personalities and pitfalls, the DRAMA behind the science."Professor Francis X. Diebold, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

    

    Yet it clings to a central belief in the dignity of the human person, the cornerstone of the doctrine of universal human rights to which even secular Westerners still cling. At the same time, the process of dehumanization so evident in the ideologies and totalitarianism of the twentieth century remains at work. Delsol charges that it is not enough to proclaim human rights as a sort of incantation but that, rather, one must understand what sort of being the human person is if humans are to be genuinely respected. In other words, if the philosophy of human rights is to form the basis of Western culture, it must rest on a truer understanding of the human person than that which is taught—both explicitly and implicitly—in the contemporary West.

    He coined the important economic concept of opportunity cost. His ideas have become the foundation for libertarian and the Austrian schools of thought.Most of Bastiat’s political writings were done during the years just before and immediately after the Revolution of February 1848 when France was rapidly turning to complete socialism. As a Deputy to the Legislative Assembly, Bastiat explained each socialist fallacy as it appeared and how socialism must inevitably degenerate into communism that it must fail.The same situation exists in China today as in the France of 1848 after China became the second power house by GDP. The China Model and the China Specialized Socialism and planed economy that were then adopted in France are now sweeping China with a peak confidence.In this essay, Mr. Bastiat explained how the interest on capital declines as it becomes more plentiful. His key contribution to Austrian capital theory is his explanation how the accumulation of capital results in the enrichment of the workers by raising marginal productivity of workers. Capital accumulation would also result in cheaper and better quality consumer goods and raise real wages. Thus, the interests of capitalists and labor are aligned together.Bastiat also explained in the essay why in a free market no one can accumulate capital unless he uses it in a way that benefits others.The Essay is already read more than a hundred years and it will still be read for another century due to its truths.

    This Handbook views political economy as a grand (if imperfect) synthesis of these various strands, treating political economy as the methodology of economics applied to the analysis of political behavior and institutions.This Handbook surveys the field of political economy, with fifty-eight chapters ranging from micro to macro, national to international, institutional to behavioral, methodological to substantive. Chapters on social choice, constitutional theory, and public economics are set alongside ones on voters, parties and pressure groups, macroeconomics and politics, capitalism and democracy, and international political economy and international conflict.

    His career has spanned seven decades, with a stint in the military during World War II. Alchian has left an indelible mark on economics and has taught and inspired generations of students. Liberty Fund is proud to present, in two volumes, The Collected Works of Armen A. Alchian, bringing together Alchian’s most influential essays, articles, editorials, and lectures to provide a comprehensive record of his thinking on a broad range of topics in economics. As various and as specific as some of this collection’s topics are, they are unified, as editor Daniel K. Benjamin writes, by “both a coherent methodology for doing economics, and a view of the world that celebrates the importance of individual liberty.” Benjamin goes on to state that, in Alchian’s view, “the purpose of theory is never theory in and of itself; it is instead to help individuals understand the world around them.” The first of two volumes, Choice and Cost under Uncertainty, is a collection of Alchian’s major scholarly articles, some short papers published in nontechnical periodicals, and some monographs from his years at the RAND Corporation. These papers range over topics from the energy crises to linear progress curves, yet all focus on the effect of the individual on markets and costs through various decision-making processes. This volume also presents Alchian’s unique work on the effects of inflation. The second volume of this collection, Property Rights and Economic Behavior, focuses on Alchian’s merging of law and economics, in particular the economics of property rights. Here Alchian, with assistance from Ronald Coase and Harold Demsetz, expands upon the economic rationale behind property rights and demonstrates that these are not distinct from human rights but rather are integral to them. These seminal works go against the grain of conventional wisdom, pointing out among other things the lack of wealth-maximization objectives in various levels of government and nonprofit organizations. Alchian’s powerful economic methodology resists the tide, for the sake of the individual and hence for all of society. As these volumes vividly illustrate, Armen Alchian has transformed the way economists think about the world. He is responsible, for example, for some of the earliest work on the economics of property rights, showing how governments and nonprofit organizations can be understood with the same tools that are applied to the private sector. He has also demonstrated the crucial importance of legal institutions in shaping economic decisionmaking and laid the foundations for the modern understanding of the business firm. Testimony to the scope and depth of Alchian’s work is that his papers continue to be influential decades after their initial publication. Armen A. Alchian is Professor Emeritus of Economics at UCLA. Daniel K. Benjamin is Professor of Economics at Clemson University.

    Taking into account the syllabuses and changes in the economic environment, this book is aimed at GCSE and IGCSE students, and is useful as a general introduction to economics.

    Locating a book for the non-specialist is even harder, and hence the purpose of this book. This pioneering text fully delivers what its title promises - Veblen in Plain English. For the non-specialist and student alike, Professor McCormick illuminates the ideas of Veblen in a manner that is well written and easy to understand. This is a refreshing and most welcome addition to literature on Veblen. The foreword is by Dr. Rick Tilman, another noted expert on Veblen.

     Spider-Man faces off against an explosive new teenage villain, has another run-in with the infamous Kingpin of Crime and meets the Black Cat, a curvaceous jewel thief who will complicate Spider-Man's career and Peter Parker's love life!

    Increasing wage gaps, different demographic futures, "everything but labor" globalization, and the continued employment growth in low skilled, labor intensive industries all contribute to the forces compelling labor to migrate across national borders. Pritchett analyzes the fifth irresistible force of "ghosts and zombies," or the rapid and massive shifts in desired populations of countries, and says that this aspect has been neglected in the discussion of global labor mobility. Let Their People Come provides six policy recommendations for unskilled immigration policy that seek to reconcile the irresistible force of migration with the immovable ideas in rich countries that keep this force in check. In clear, accessible prose, this volume explores ways to regulate migration flows so that they are a benefit to both the global North and global South.

    political economy from the early-1930s to the end of the Cold War, this resource refutes many popular myths about the Great Depression and New Deal, the World War II economy, and the postwar national-security state that is still so pervasive today. What accounts for the extraordinary duration of the Great Depression? How did the war alter relations between government and leaders of big business? What is Congress’s role in the military-industrial-congressional complex? This book answers these and other crucial questions by presenting new insights and analyses along with statistical evidence that defies mainstream interpretation of economic history.

    The author traces the transformation of the Indian business class from merchants to industrialists and, more recently, service providers. The focus of this volume is on the modern or that phase of Indian business in free India and response of Indian business to the call of globalization.

    However, reality is something else entirely: ravaged ecosystems and bankrupted local economies. The author expands on his existing case studies, near his homes in eastern Maine, and Sonora, Mexico, and links them to events in other parts of the world. The author's 30 years experience in fisheries and aquaculture qualifies him to weigh the rhetoric and sift out the truth of this story. In six years as a freelance journalist, writing for the New York Times, Yankee, National Fisherman, and other publications, he has managed to describe complex material in an interesting and palatable style.

    On that day a French doctoral student, Louis Bachelier, successfully defended his thesis Th�orie de la Sp�culation at the Sorbonne. The jury, while noting that the topic was "far away from those usually considered by our candidates," appreciated its high degree of originality. This book provides a new translation, with commentary and background, of Bachelier's seminal work.Bachelier's thesis is a remarkable document on two counts. In mathematical terms Bachelier's achievement was to introduce many of the concepts of what is now known as stochastic analysis. His purpose, however, was to give a theory for the valuation of financial options. He came up with a formula that is both correct on its own terms and surprisingly close to the Nobel Prize-winning solution to the option pricing problem by Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton in 1973, the first decisive advance since 1900.Aside from providing an accurate and accessible translation, this book traces the twin-track intellectual history of stochastic analysis and financial economics, starting with Bachelier in 1900 and ending in the 1980s when the theory of option pricing was substantially complete. The story is a curious one. The economic side of Bachelier's work was ignored until its rediscovery by financial economists more than fifty years later. The results were spectacular: within twenty-five years the whole theory was worked out, and a multibillion-dollar global industry of option trading had emerged.

    In 'Losing Our Democracy', Mark Green reveals in chilling detail how the far and religious right, a coalition of big business and, most shockingly, President Bush and his White House are in the process of sabotaging our democracy.

    Institutions are invoked to explain why some countries are rich and others poor, some democratic and others dictatorial. But arguments of this sort gloss over the question of what institutions are, how they come about, and why they persist. This book seeks to overcome these problems, which have exercised economists, sociologists, political scientists, and a host of other researchers who use the social sciences to study history, law, and business administration.

    

    "" The #1 question students of economics ask themselves is: "Why am I here, and will I ever use this"? Hubbard & O'Brien answer this question by demonstrating that real businesses use economics to make real decisions daily. This is motivating to all students, whether they are business majors or not. All students can relate to businesses they encounter in their everyday lives. Whether they open an art studio, do social work, trade on Wall Street, work for the government, or bartend at the local pub, students will benefit from understanding the economic forces behind their work.

    The availability of premium medicine, combined with patients who are insulated from costs, means Americans are not getting maximum value per dollar spent. Using basic economic concepts, Kling demonstrates that a greater reliance on private saving and market innovation would eliminate waste, contain health care costs and improve the quality of care. Kling proposes gradually shifting responsibility for health care for the elderly away from taxpayers and back to the individual. The idea of matching the health care funding system to needs is very simple, Kling writes. The very poor and the very sick need help paying for health care. The rest of us do not.

    The Zapatista movement and the Women’s Revolutionary Law, a charter that came to have tremendous symbolic importance for thousands of indigenous women, created the potential for renegotiating gender roles in Zapatista communities. Drawing on the original research of scholars with long-term field experience in a range of Mayan communities in Chiapas and featuring several key documents written by indigenous women articulating their vision, Dissident Women brings fresh insight to the revolutionary crossroads at which Chiapas stands—and to the worldwide implications of this economic and political microcosm.

    Without comprehensive reform, continental Western Europe's overprotected, overregulated economies will continue to slow--and its political influence will become negligible. This doesn't mean that Italy, Germany, France, and other now-prosperous countries will become poor; their standard of living will remain comfortable. But they will become largely irrelevant on the world scene. In The Future of Europe, Alesina and Giavazzi (themselves Europeans) outline the steps that Europe must take to prevent its economic and political eclipse.Europe, the authors say, has much to learn from the market liberalism of America. Europeans work less and vacation more than Americans; they value job stability and security above all. Americans, Alesina and Giavazzi argue, work harder and longer and are more willing to endure the ups and downs of a market economy. Europeans prize their welfare states; Americans abhor government spending. America is a melting pot; European countries--witness the November 2005 unrest in France--have trouble absorbing their immigrant populations. If Europe is to arrest its decline, Alesina and Giavazzi warn, it needs to adopt something closer to the American free-market model for dealing with these issues.Alesina and Giavazzi's prescriptions for how Europe should handle worker productivity, labor market regulation, globalization, support for higher education and technology research, fiscal policy, and its multiethnic societies are sure to stir controversy, as will their eye-opening view of the European Union and the euro. But their wake-up call will ring loud and clear for anyone concerned about the future of Europe and the global economy.

    American Taxation, American Slavery tackles this problem in a new way. Rather than parsing the ideological pronouncements of charismatic slaveholders, it examines the concrete policy decisions that slaveholders and non-slaveholders made in the critical realm of taxation. The result is surprising—that the enduring power of antigovernment rhetoric in the United States stems from the nation’s history of slavery rather than its history of liberty.            We are all familiar with the states’ rights arguments of proslavery politicians who wanted to keep the federal government weak and decentralized. But here Robin Einhorn shows the deep, broad, and continuous influence of slavery on this idea in American politics. From the earliest colonial times right up to the Civil War, slaveholding elites feared strong democratic government as a threat to the institution of slavery. American Taxation, American Slavery shows how their heated battles over taxation, the power to tax, and the distribution of tax burdens were rooted not in debates over personal liberty but rather in the rights of slaveholders to hold human beings as property. Along the way, Einhorn exposes the antidemocratic origins of the popular Jeffersonian rhetoric about weak government by showing that governments were actually more democratic—and stronger—where most people were free.            A strikingly original look at the role of slavery in the making of the United States, American Taxation, American Slavery will prove essential to anyone interested in the history of American government and politics.

    Yet the lay public almost never gets to hear what leading professional economists have to say about it. This volume brings together twenty-eight essays by some of the world leaders in the field, who were invited to tell the lay reader about the most important things they have learnt from their research that relate to poverty. The essays cover a wide array of topics: the first essay is about how poverty gets measured. The next section is about the causes of poverty and its persistence, andthe ideas range from the impact of colonialism and globalization to the problems of excessive population growth, corruption and ethnic conflict. The next section is about policy: how should we fight poverty? The essays discuss how to get drug companies to produce more vaccines for the diseases ofthe poor, what we should and should not expect from micro-credit, what we should do about child labor, how to design welfare policies that work better and a host of other topics. The final section is about where the puzzles lie: what are the most important anomalies, the big gaps in the wayeconomists think about poverty? The essays talk about the puzzling reluctance of Kenyan farmers to fertilizers, the enduring power of social relationships in economic transactions in developing countries and the need to understand where aspirations come from, and much else. Every essay is writtenwith the aim of presenting the latest and the most sophisticated in economics without any recourse to jargon or technical language.

    This useful book is a whirlwind tour of the world's largest market, and the tour guide is an expert storyteller, inserting numerous fascinating insights and quirky facts throughout the book. -John R. Taylor, Chairman, CEO and CIO, FX Concepts The book reflects the author's doctorate from the University of Chicago, several years' experience as an economics professor, and, most recently, a very successful decade as an executive at a huge international bank. These fundamental ingredients are seasoned with bits of wisdom and experience. What results is a very tasty intellectual stew. -Professor Jack Clark Francis, PhD, Professor of Economics and Finance, Bernard Baruch College In this book, Tim Weithers clearly explains a very complicated subject. Foreign Exchange is full of jargon and conventions that make it very hard for non-professionals to gain a good understanding. Weither's book is a must for any student or professional who wants to learn the secrets of FX. -Niels O. Nygaard, Director of Financial Mathematics, The University of Chicago An excellent text for students and practitioners who want to become acquainted with the arcane world of the foreign exchange market. -David DeRosa, PhD, founder, DeRosa Research and Trading, Inc., and Adjunct Professor of Finance, Yale School of Management Tim Weithers provides a superb introduction to the arcana of foreign exchange markets. While primarily intended for practitioners, the book would be a valuable introduction for students with some knowledge of economics. The text is exceptionally clear with numeric examples and exercises that reinforce concepts. Frequent references are made to the economic theory behind the trading practices. -John F. O'Connell, Professor of Economics, College of the Holy Cross

    Economies are represented realistically in a fully articulated system of national income and flow of funds accounts. The authors study how flows of income, expenditure and production are intertwined with stocks of assets and liabilities, determining how whole economies evolve through time. Starting with extremely simple stock-flow consistent models, the text describes a succession of increasingly complex models constructed with such rigor that, in harmony with its basis in accounting, there is always one equation which is implied logically by all the others. Readers will be able to download all the models and explore their properties for themselves.

    This is the most important book an independent writer/director/producer may ever read. Includes never before published interviews with low-budget mavericks such as Steven Soderbergh, Roger Corman, Jon Favreau, Henry Jaglom, and many more.

    Filling in the lacuna, this book presents cutting-edge research on the internal dynamics of electoral authoritarian regimes.

    Where regulation is often industry-specific and involves the direct setting of prices, product characteristics, or entry, antitrust law focuses more broadly on maintaining certain basic rules of competition. In these lectures Michael Whinston offers an accessible and lucid account of the economics behind antitrust law, looking at some of the most recent developments in antitrust economics and highlighting areas that require further research. He focuses on three areas: price fixing, in which competitors agree to restrict output or raise price; horizontal mergers, in which competitors agree to merge their operations; and exclusionary vertical contracts, in which a competitor seeks to exclude a rival.Antitrust commentators widely regard the prohibition on price fixing as the most settled and economically sound area of antitrust. Whinston's discussion seeks to unsettle this view, suggesting that some fundamental issues in this area are, in fact, not well understood. In his discussion of horizontal mergers, Whinston describes the substantial advances in recent theoretical and empirical work and suggests fruitful directions for further research. The complex area of exclusionary vertical contracts is perhaps the most controversial in antitrust. The influential Chicago School cast doubt on arguments that vertical contracts could be profitably used to exclude rivals. Recent theoretical work, to which Whinston has made important contributions, instead shows that such contracts can be profitable tools for exclusion. Whinston's discussion sheds light on the controversy in this area and the nature of those recent theoretical contributions.Sponsored by the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella

    The result of their effort is an original investment methodology called CROCI (Cash Return on Capital Invested), best described as a variation of the economic profit model. For over a decade now, Costantinis group at Deutsche Bank has been using this valuation tool every time it has had to take a view on the pricing of an equity asset, be it a market, a sector or an individual sharein other words, every single working day, since it is this groups job to advise institutional investors on equity valuation. Costantini describes in detail, accompanied by concrete examples in the form of charts and graphs, the precise investment results of the actual implementation of the CROCI approach in the global equity markets since 1996. Readers will enjoy taking this journey with Costantini to see how and why the model was developed, assess the results of ten years of actual implementation and measure the successes of using this model in stock picking and portfolio construction. This book will also make it easy for them to see how the CROCI approach can be used successfully by others now and in the future.The book is divided into four parts. The first part is a review and discussion of the fundamentals of investment analysis. The second part is dedicated to the construction of economic data, with the sole objective of calculating an economically meaningful asset multiple and relative return, the combination of which gives an economic PE ratio, the authors main stock selection tool. While the economic profit model is not exactly new, it is still largely ignored by the investment community. In essence, it does three things: it calculates the real amount of cash, or value created by a business; it compares the market value of an asset to an approximation of its replacement value; and it assumes that the former will converge to the latter through the arbitrage of investors and capital providers. The third part is dedicated to the analysis of economic data, and the last part deals with the actual implementation of the CROCI economic profit model, including real life examples. This final part also discusses how to use the output of the CROCI model with individual stocks, and then with investment portfolios. *Techniques are based on the authors performance record at Deutsche Bank since 1996 *Based on almost ten years of proprietary knowledge and implementation of these techniques*Factual illustrations of the results of the valuation techniques are provided at each step *Techniques are based on the author's performance record at Deutsche Bank since 1996 *Based on almost ten years of proprietary knowledge and implementation of these techniques*Factual illustrations of the results of the valuation techniques are provided at each step

    In this deft and revealing book, Stacy Mitchell illustrates how mega-retailers are fueling many of our most pressing problems, from the shrinking middle class to rising pollution and diminished civic engagement—and she shows how a growing number of communities and independent businesses are effectively fighting back. Mitchell traces the dramatic growth of mega-retailers—from big boxes like Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, Costco, and Staples to chains like Starbucks, Olive Garden, and Old Navy—and the precipitous decline of independent businesses. Drawing on examples from virtually every state in the country, she unearths the extraordinary impact of these companies and the big-box mentality on everything from soaring gasoline consumption to rising poverty rates, failing family farms, and declining voting levels. Along the way, Mitchell exposes the shocking role government policy has played in the expansion of mega-retailers and builds a compelling case that communities composed of many small, locally owned businesses are healthier and more prosperous than those dominated by a few large chains.More than a critique, Big-Box Swindle provides an invigorating account of how some communities have successfully countered the spread of big boxes and rebuilt their local economies. Since 2000, groups of ordinary citizens have halted more than two hundred big-box development projects, and scores of towns and cities have adopted laws that favor small-scale, local business development and limit the proliferation of chains. From cutting-edge land-use policies to innovative cooperative small-business initiatives, Mitchell offers communities concrete strategies that can stave off mega-retailers and create a more prosperous and sustainable future.

    The reader is introduced to the basics of numerical analysis as well as the use of computer programs such as Matlab and Excel in carrying out involved computations.

    What is Bush's "free trade?" It's an economic model that argues that by removing restrictions on multinational corporations, these companies will be freed to become engines of economic growth in countries around the world, but in fact bring vast wealth of a small number of global elites while entire populations suffer dislocation, poverty and violence, creating a perfect Petri dish for breeding terrorists. The instruments for this takeover include such corporations as Bechtel, Lockheed Martin, ChevronTexaco, Halliburton, and many others.This book addresses the history of U.S. economic relations throughout the world over the past 25 years, the key role of U.S. corporations, and the larger Bush economic agenda and what the potential impact of this agenda will be on the United States and the world. It concludes with specific alternatives to guide the U.S. on a more peaceful and sustainable course in the future. Using Naomi Klein's No Logo and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation as models, The Bush Agenda is based on hard analytic fact and presented so that it will not only be persuasive, but highly engaging and entertaining to a broad audience.

    Yet this has been accompanied by a range of social and personal disorders, including family breakdown, addiction, mental instability, crime, obesity, inequality, economic insecurity, and declining trust.Avner Offer argues that well-being has lagged behind affluence in these societies, because they present an environment in which consistent choices are difficult to achieve over different time ranges and in which the capacity for personal and social commitment is undermined by the flow of novelty. His approach draws on economics and social science, makes use of the latest cognitive research, and provides a detailed and reasoned critique of modern consumer society, especially the assumption that freedom of choice necessarily maximizes individual and social well-being.The book falls into three parts. Part one analyses the ways in which economic resources map on to human welfare, why choice is so intractable, and how commitment to people and institutions is sustained. It argues that choice is constrained by prior obligation and reciprocity. The second section then applies these conceptual arguments to comparative empirical studies of advertising, of eating and obesity, and of the production and acquisition of appliances and automobiles. Finally, in part three, Offer investigates social and personal relations in the USA and Britain, including inter-personal regard, the rewards and reversals of status, the social and psychological costs of inequality, and the challenges posed to heterosexual love and to parenthood by the rise of affluence.

    It describes how a flagship institution such as Grameen Bank accomplished a complete and effective overhaul of its system. The Poor Always Pay Back demystifies Grameen II to policymakers, practitioners and the larger development community and shows that, through the use of Grameen II, Grameen Bank is addressing the frontier issues in microfinance: open access savings, flexible loan products, self reliance and absence of donor dependency for funds, and product development to cater to the needs of the retirees (Grameen Pension Scheme) and their adult children (Higher Education Loans).

    Yet the problem, according to Gary Weiss, is not just a few isolated instances of malfeasance. The problem is in the very fabric of Wall Street and its practices that enable and even encourage corruption—practices that are so pervasive and so difficult to combat that they are in effect perfect crimes, with the small investor left holding the bag. In this blistering report from the front, Weiss describes how the ethos of Mafia chophouses, boiler rooms, and penny stock peddlers now permeates all of Wall Street. Protected from investor lawsuits by laughably corrupt arbitration systems, Wall Street firms are free to fleece unsuspecting clients with little or no risk. But as this empowering book shows, ordinary investors can fight back and come out on top—if they learn to recognize warning signs, filter media chatter, and spot looming corporate meltdowns in advance.Prepare to be surprised, get angry, and then get even. Wall Street Versus America is a wild ride you can’t afford to miss.

    Few, if any, of the providers or recipients of such advice can truly claim to understand the well-springs of such liquidity and the transmission mechanisms through which it impacts asset prices. This groundbreaking new book explores the belief that at the core of liquidity there is a force which exerts individuals to effect a financial transaction when they would not otherwise do so. Understanding this force of compulsion is a key to understanding a financial market when it appears to be behaving irrationally. This book will enable new and seasoned investors to develop an understanding of the factors, so that costly mistakes can be avoided without the lesson of experience.

    The book starts with a summary of basic skills and takes its readers as far as constrained optimisation helping them to become confident and competent in the use of mathematical tools and techniques that can be applied to a range of problems in economics and finance.Designed as both a course text and a handbook, the book assumes little prior mathematical knowledge beyond elementary algebra and is therefore suitable for students returning to mathematics after a long break. The fundamental ideas are described in the simplest mathematical terms, highlighting threads of common mathematical theory in the various topics.Features include:a systematic approach: ideas are touched upon, introduced gradually and then consolidated through the use of illustrative examples;several entry points to accommodate differing mathematical backgrounds;numerous worked examples and exercises to illustrate the theory and applications;full solutions to exercises, available to lecturers via the web.Vass Mavron is Professor of Mathematics in the Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Wales Aberystwyth. Tim Phillips is Professor of Mathematics and Professorial Fellow in the School of Mathematics at Cardiff University."

    This book shows how the economy can be restructured to remain within planetary limits and points the way to a sustainable future. It advocates change by shifting the dominant economic paradigm from growth to sustainability.

    Knowing and understanding economics requires both bookwork and mingling with other economists.Viewing the subject as a collection of conversations, Klamer examines fundamental disagreements over the nature and purpose of the discipline, addressing how it is that a discipline that so permeates daily life is at once 'soft' and scientific, powerful and ignored, noble and disdained and in a reader-friendly style - without eschewing academic methodology demonstrates economics to be a living, breathing discipline rooted in the real world.Whether you are a student, academician, journalist, practising economist or interested outsider, Speaking of Economics will get you interested in a conversation about economics.

    But in the nineteenth century, the degree of fraud and corruption in America approached that of today’s most corrupt developing nations, as municipal governments and robber barons alike found new ways to steal from taxpayers and swindle investors. In Corruption and Reform, contributors explore this shadowy period of United States history in search of better methods to fight corruption worldwide today.Contributors to this volume address the measurement and consequences of fraud and corruption and the forces that ultimately led to their decline within the United States. They show that various approaches to reducing corruption have met with success, such as deregulation, particularly “free banking,” in the 1830s. In the 1930s, corruption was kept in check when new federal bureaucracies replaced local administrations in doling out relief.  Another deterrent to corruption was the independent press, which kept a watchful eye over government and business. These and other facets of American history analyzed in this volume make it indispensable as background for anyone interested in corruption today.

    In Financial Econometrics, readers will be introduced to this growing discipline and the concepts and theories associated with it, including background material on probability theory and statistics. The experienced author team uses real-world data where possible and brings in the results of published research provided by investment banking firms and journals. Financial Econometrics clearly explains the techniques presented and provides illustrative examples for the topics discussed.Svetlozar T. Rachev, PhD (Karlsruhe, Germany) is currently Chair-Professor at the University of Karlsruhe. Stefan Mittnik, PhD (Munich, Germany) is Professor of Financial Econometrics at the University of Munich. Frank J. Fabozzi, PhD, CFA, CFP (New Hope, PA) is an adjunct professor of Finance at Yale University's School of Management. Sergio M. Focardi (Paris, France) is a founding partner of the Paris-based consulting firm The Intertek Group. Teo Jasic, PhD, (Frankfurt, Germany) is a senior manager with a leading international management consultancy firm in Frankfurt.

    Todd Smith traces the differing histories of Texas’s Native peoples. He begins in 1786, when the Spaniards concluded treaties with the Comanches and the Wichitas, among others, and traces the relations between the Native peoples and the various Euroamerican groups in Texas and the Near Southwest, an area encompassing parts of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. For the first half of this period, the Native peoples—including the Caddos, the Karankawas, the Tonkawas, the Lipan Apaches, and the Atakapas as well as emigrant groups such as the Cherokees and the Alabama-Coushattas—maintained a numerical superiority over the Euroamericans that allowed them to influence the region’s economic, military, and diplomatic affairs. After Texas declared its independence, however, the power of Native peoples in Texas declined dramatically, and along with it, their ability to survive in the face of overwhelming hostility. From Dominance to Disappearance illuminates a poorly understood chapter in the history of Texas and its indigenous people.

    Permanent Innovation is the process of doing it continuously, as a matter of strategy, method, and habit. It happens in organizations that embrace innovation as a core value, practice innovation as a core methodology, and produce innovation as a consistent output. The notion of permanent innovation may at first be startling, and it may even seem to be a contradiction. The concept of permanence implies stability and the absence of change, while the concept of innovation implies constancy of change and novelty. Combining these two, however, yields an important synthesis: the practice of innovation not as an occasional occurrence, but as a repeating process of value creation and organizational adaptation. In these times of accelerating change and increasing competition, Permanent Innovation is an absolute necessity. This book is about how to achieve it.

    Moreno offers a bold reinterpretation of the role of race and racial discrimination in the American labor movement. Moreno applies insights of the law-and-economics movement to formulate a powerfully compelling labor-race theorem of elegant simplicity: White unionists found that race was a convenient basis on which to do what unions do -- control the labor supply. Not racism pure and simple but the economics of discrimination explains historic black absence and under-representation in unions. Moreno's sweeping reexamination stretches from the antebellum period to the present, integrating principal figures such as Frederick Douglass and Samuel Gompers, Isaac Myers and Booker T. Washington, and W. E. B. Du Bois and A. Philip Randolph. He traces changing attitudes and practices during the simultaneous black migration to the North and consolidation of organized labor's power, through the confusing and conflicted post-World War II period, during the course of the civil rights movement, and into the era of affirmative action. Maneuvering across a wide span of time and a broad array of issues, Moreno brings remarkable clarity to the question of the importance of race in unions. He impressively weaves together labor, policy, and African American history into a cogent, persuasive revisionist study that cannot be ignored.

    Astep-by-step solution is provided for each problem to walk thereader through the necessary financial calculationsThe Real Deal--boxed inserts that emphasize the relevance ofthe book by linking financial concepts to fun facts associated withsituations students either have or will encounter in their everydaylivesConcept Checks--case studies that reinforce the materialspresented and enable students to practice their analytic andproblem-solving skillsHospitality Financial Management is the perfect book forundergraduate and graduate hospitality management students, hospitality industry managers, and owners of small hospitalitybusinesses.

    Bringing together Armen A Alchian's influential essays, articles, editorials, and lectures, this title provides a comprehensive record of his thinking on a broad range of topics in economics.

    The focus of the book is analytical and forward-looking. It shows that Islamic finance exists mainly as a form of rent-seeking legal-arbitrage. In every aspect of finance -- from personal loans to investment banking, and from market structure to corporate governance -- Islamic finance aims to replicate in Islamic forms the substantive functions of contemporary financial instruments, markets, and institutions. By attempting to replicate the substance of contemporary financial practice using pre-modern contract forms, Islamic finance has arguably failed to serve the objectives of Islamic law. This book proposes refocusing Islamic finance on substance rather than form. This approach would entail abandoning the paradigm of "Islamization" of every financial practice. It would also entail reorienting the brand-name of Islamic finance to emphasize issues of community banking, micro-finance, and socially responsible investment.

    Norman Fairclough adopts the approach of combining critical discourse analysis with cultural political economy to develop a new theory of the relationship between discourse and other dimensions of globalization. Using examples from a variety of countries such as the USA, Britain, Romania, Hungary and Thailand, Language and Globalization shows how the analysis of texts can be coherently integrated within political economic analysis. Fairclough incorporates topical issues such as the war on terror and the impact of the media on globalization into his discussion. Areas covered include:globalization and language: review of academic literaturediscourses of globalizationthe media, mediation and globalizationglobalization, war and terrorism. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in applied linguistics, language and politics and discourse analysis.

    When new labor laws and environmental standards came to Europe, the ship-breaking industry moved to places like Chittagong on the coast of Bangladesh-places where the lives of workers seem expendable, and the environment is someone else's problem. Breaking Ships follows the demise of the Asian Tiger, a ship destroyed at one of the twenty ship-breaking yards along the beaches of Chittagong. BBC Bangladesh correspondent Roland Buerk takes us through the process-from beaching the vessel to its final dissemination, from wealthy shipyard owners to poverty-stricken ship cutters, and from the economic benefits for Bangladesh to the pollution of its once pristine beaches.

    -- Robert Litzenberger, Hopkinson Professor Emeritus of Investment Banking, Univ. of Pennsylvania; and retired partner, Goldman Sachs A History of the Theory of Investments is about ideas -- where they come from, how they evolve, and why they are instrumental in preparing the future for new ideas. Author Mark Rubinstein writes history by rewriting history. In unearthing long-forgotten books and journals, he corrects past oversights to assign credit where credit is due and assembles a remarkable history that is unquestionable in its accuracy and unprecedented in its power.Exploring key turning points in the development of investment theory, through the critical prism of award-winning investment theory and asset pricing expert Mark Rubinstein, this groundbreaking resource follows the chronological development of investment theory over centuries, exploring the inner workings of great theoretical breakthroughs while pointing out contributions made by often unsung contributors to some of investment's most influential ideas and models.

    In this volume, John Robbins argues that political and economic freedom are the results of Biblical Christianity. Political freedom and capitalism arose in Northwestern Europe and North America after the Christian Reformation of the 16th Century, and they are unique in world history. The nations and peoples that heard and accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by the Reformers quickly became free and prosperous on a scale previously unimaginable.Some historians and economists have denied any causal connection between Christianity, freedom, and capitalism, but they are able to deny this connection only by ignoring clear philosophical, economic, legal, sociological, and historical evidence demonstrating that Christianity is the source of capitalism. Laissez-faire capitalism, which is the only moral economic system, is in fact the economic system of Christianity.

    For this reason, an increasing number of professors are incorporating experiments into their undergraduate courses. In his new text, Charles Holt begins each chapter with a lead-off experiment designed as an organizing device to introduce economic concepts such as the Winner's Curse, Asset Market Bubbles, and Rent Seeking. These experiments are easy to facilitate in the classroom, and may be run by hand or online via an internet browser. "

    This volume fills an important gap in his corpus of writing: a series of accessible articles on cutting-edge topics. His research and writing on roads, education, labor, secession, drugs, and money fill the scholarly journals, but these reductions bring this research to you in a format that is designed to persuade everyone.The book therefore extends the logic of liberty in new directions, helping the reader to come to a radical understanding of the implications of economic liberty for the social and political order. His mind is sharp as a tack in dealing with conventional objections.Block even tries his hand at taking on changes in language that subtly impact the position of liberty in our social and political lives, thereby picking up a project that Hayek had begun in the 1970s. Block alone seems to have seen the merit of this type of analysis and extended it into the age of political correctness.What first appears to be an eccentric collection of unpredictable opinions on a large range of provocative topics turns out to be a compelling presentation of the logic of liberty applied to a series of practical issues that surround us every day.One might see Building Blocks for Liberty as a bracing introduction to the power of libertarian logic to solve everyday problems.To search for Mises Institute titles, enter a keyword and LvMI (short for Ludwig von Mises Institute); e.g., Depression LvMI

    He discusses his life, work, and the social and political environment during the Second World War, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and its aftermath, and the post-socialist transition."

    Worry about making ends meet Can't find a decent jo Struggle with family problems Dread going to work Don't have enough hours in the day Fear for the future Social power is necessary for human health. Author and physician Susan Rosenthal reached this conclusion after decades of research, observation, and activism. In Power and Powerlessness, she explains that most people lack the healthy and fulfilling lives they deserve because they are kept powerless and mistakenly accept this state of affairs as natural or self-inflicted. As a medical psychotherapist, Rosenthal is immersed in powerlessness every day- people seek her help because they feel powerless to relieve their own suffering, and she feels powerless to change the social conditions that cause their pain. When she explains this, the usual response is, Why didn't anyone tell me this before? Written for a popular audience, Power and Powerlessness answers four basic questions: What's going on? How did this happen? Why do we put up with it? What will it take? An uncommon work...penetrates beneath the surface...well researched and gripping ...deserves to be widely read. Christopher Shelley

    This colletion of Bonald's essays, translated by Christopher Blum, will introduce readers to Bonald's thought with respect to the key areas of Catholic Social Teaching.

    The book is structured according to the social roles women played; as owners of property, companions (in and outside of marriage), participants in ritual, craftspeople, producers, and consumers. A final section moves from the ancient world to the modern, discussing the role of women as archaeologists in the early years of the Agora excavations.

    Income and Wealth focuses on who gets what and why. It explains the dynamics of income generation, how it is measured, and how such dramatic disparities in distribution come about. The book first defines various characteristics of income, with an emphasis on the gap between the rich and the poor, and reviews several theories to explain the disparities. Subsequent chapters discuss such timely topics as the vanishing middle class and the sky-high salaries of CEOs, Hollywood stars, and athletes. The final chapters consider the implications of policies, such as the minimum wage, taxes, immigration, and trade quotas, and expand the discussion to consider international comparisons. Featuring graphs and charts, a glossary of key terms, and a listing of references and resources, Income and Wealth explains the intricate, and often controversial, effects of economic policies on individuals, families, and communities. Moreover, it shows how the numbers can be manipulated by policymakers, pundits, journalists, and academics to promote various agendas--and shows readers how to recognize hyberbole and make better-informed decisions.

    Hakes (University of Northern Iowa) has prepared a study guide that will enhance student success. Each chapter of the study guide includes learning objectives, a description of the chapter's context and purpose, a chapter review, key terms and definitions, advanced critical-thinking questions, and helpful hints for understanding difficult concepts. Students can develop their understanding of the material by doing the practice problems and answering the short-answer questions. They can then assess their mastery of the key concepts with the self-test, which includes true/false and multiple-choice questions.

    Traditionally this shift has been accepted as the natural consequence of a dynamic and progressive city, such as Amsterdam, taking advantage of expanding commercial opportunities at the expense of a more conservative rival hampered by outmoded medieval practices. Yet, whilst this theory is widely accepted, is it accurate? In this groundbreaking study, Cl� Lesger argues that the shift of commercial power from Antwerp to Amsterdam was by no means inevitable, and that the highly specialized economy of the Low Countries was more than capable of adapting to the changing needs of international trade. It was only when the Dutch Revolt and military campaigns literally divided the Low Countries into separate states that the existing stable spatial economy and port system fell apart, and a restructuring was needed. Within this process of restructuring the port of Amsterdam acquired a function radically different to the one it had prior to the division of the Netherlands. Before the Revolt it had served as the northern outport in a gateway system centred on Antwerp, but with access of that port now denied to the new republic, Amsterdam developed as the main centre for Dutch shipping, trade and - crucially - the exchange of information. Drawing on a wide variety of neglected archival collections (including those of the Bank of Amsterdam), this study not only addresses specific historical questions concerning the commercial life of the Low Countries, but through the case study of Amsterdam, also explores wider issues of early modern European commercial trade and economic development.

    There are many such institutions; markets are the most familiar ones. Lawmakers, administrators and officers of private companies create institutions in orders to achieve desired goals. They seek to do so in ways that economize on the resources needed to operate the institutions, and that provide incentives that induce the required behaviors. This book presents systematic procedures for designing mechanisms that achieve specified performance, and economize on the resources required to operate the mechanism, i.e., informationally efficient mechanisms. Our systematic design procedures are algorithms for designing informationally efficient mechanisms. Most of the book deals with these procedures of design. When there are finitely many environments to be dealt with, and there is a Nash-implementing mechanism, our algorithms can be used to make that mechanism into an informationally efficient one. Informationally efficient dominant strategy implementation is also studied.

    

    Koch

    Passengers however appear to have been responsible for their own sustenance, the quarters were probably far from luxurious and of course loss of life by shipwreck unlike loss of freight entailed no financial loss to the carrier. -from "Chapter XVI: Commerce" In this classic work-an expansion of an earlier 1920 edition-a respected classical scholar sketches the economic life of the Roman culture through the republican period and into the fourth century of the empire. Though later books unfairly supplanted it, this volume remains an excellent introduction to the capital, commerce, labor, and industry of the immediate forerunner of modern civilization. In clear, readable language, Frank explores: .agriculture in early Latium .the rise of the peasantry .Roman coinage .finance and politics .the "plebs urbana" .the beginnings of serfdom .and much more. American historian TENNEY FRANK (1876-1939) was professor of Latin at Bryn Mawr College and Johns Hopkins University, and also wrote Roman Imperialism (1914) and A History of Rome (1923).

    It covers all core theories as well as new developments including: decision theory game theory mechanism design games of asymmetric information. Hannu Nurmi's text will prove to be invaluable to all students who wish to understand this increasingly technical field.

    Nonparametric Econometrics fills a major gap by gathering together the most up-to-date theory and techniques and presenting them in a remarkably straightforward and accessible format. The empirical tests, data, and exercises included in this textbook help make it the ideal introduction for graduate students and an indispensable resource for researchers.Nonparametric and semiparametric methods have attracted a great deal of attention from statisticians in recent decades. While the majority of existing books on the subject operate from the presumption that the underlying data is strictly continuous in nature, more often than not social scientists deal with categorical data--nominal and ordinal--in applied settings. The conventional nonparametric approach to dealing with the presence of discrete variables is acknowledged to be unsatisfactory.This book is tailored to the needs of applied econometricians and social scientists. Qi Li and Jeffrey Racine emphasize nonparametric techniques suited to the rich array of data types--continuous, nominal, and ordinal--within one coherent framework. They also emphasize the properties of nonparametric estimators in the presence of potentially irrelevant variables. Nonparametric Econometrics covers all the material necessary to understand and apply nonparametric methods for real-world problems.

    The handbook covers developments in how forecasts are constructed based on multivariate time-series models, dynamic factor models, nonlinear models and combination methods. The handbook also includes chapters on forecast evaluation, including evaluation of point forecasts and probability forecasts and contains chapters on survey forecasts and volatility forecasts. Areas of applications of forecasts covered in the handbook include economics, finance and marketing.

    This is equally true in low, middle and high income countries. One of the great challenges for public health practitioners is to understand and try to modify the relationship between the environment and health in the face of development. This book examines the underlying concepts, the history of environmental health, and the key factors that affect public health including: Air pollution Water contamination Industrial hazards Agricultural hazards The increasing impact of global environmental issues is explored as they affect countries throughout the world.Series Editors: Rosalind Plowman and Nicki Thorogood.

    Through a combination of country, regional, and topical studies, the book assesses trade and investment dynamics in the region, the rise of new powers, the ongoing processes of globalization, and the impact of economic interdependence on security, and evaluates how these trends are altering AsiaÂ's strategic environment.

    The strategies pursued by these actors in these political exchanges are influenced by existing wage bargaining institutions, the character of monetary policy and by the level and composition of social policy transfers.

    The authors trace both the common features and the differences between the Nordic welfare states. They do so by investigating the specific historical contexts in which the welfare systems were created. The analyses cover the core areas of the welfare state: old age pensions, health, the hospital sector, family policies, unemployment insurance, the position of women, and the role of the Social Democratic parties. Topics studied include: how the Nordic welfare states were constructed through co-operation, comparison and competition between politicians and civil servants; and the role of the Nordic model concept in the international community.

    This innovative book provides the first integrated treatment of ChinaOCOs market development, state regulation and the resulting transformation and creation of new urban spaces."

    The principles outlined in Sun Tzu's Art of War applied to resolve problems at work.

    Looking at life after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the book examines and contrasts why some countries have virtually completed their transformation to a liberal polity and economy, while others lag behind. Those that followed a strategy of early and steady reforms on economic, political, institutional and social dimensions have exhibited impressive results in economic performance, attracting foreign direct investment, dealing with the social costs of the transformation and establishing a liberal democracy. Unlike those that have moved gradually, with some countries in a frozen transition after being captured by powerful oligarch groups who have drained considerable state assets.

    Despite political authoritarianism, human rights violations, corruption, repression of labour unions, gender discrimination and mistreatment of ethnic minorities, the citizens of the East Asian economies have experienced improvements in income and general well-being unparalleled in human history. In this book, Ha-Joon Chang provides a fresh analysis of this spectacular growth. He considers East Asian economies’ unorthodox methods, and their rejection of ‘best practice’ and so-called Washington Consensus policies. East Asia, he claims, can teach us much about the whole process of economic development. Full of new facts and policy suggestions, this is a lively and unconventional introduction to a global phenomenon.

    Because it is so important, misperceptions about the black gold abound. Leonardo Maugeri clears the cobwebs by describing the colorful history of oil, and explaining the fundamentals of oil production. He delivers a unique, fascinating, and controversial perspective on the industry--as only an insider could. The history of the oil market has been marked, since its inception, by a succession of booms and busts, each one leading to a similar psychological climax and flawed political decisions. In a single generation, we've experienced the energy crisis of 1973; the dramatic oil countershock of 1986; the oil collapse of 1998-99 that gave rise to the idea of oil as just another commodity; and the sharp price increases following hurricane Katrina's devastation in the Gulf of Mexico. Today, we are experiencing a global oil boom that, paradoxically, seems to herald a gloomy era of scarcity exacerbated by growing consumption and the threat from Islamic terrorism in the oil-rich Middle East.Maugeri argues that the pessimists are wrong. In the second part of his book, he debunks the main myths surrounding oil in our times, addressing whether we are indeed running out of oil, and the real impact of Islamic radicalism on oil-rich regions. By translating many of the technical concepts of oil productions into terms the average reader can easily grasp, Maugeri answers our questions. Ultimately, he concludes that the wolf is not at the door. We are facing neither a problem of oil scarcity, nor an upcoming oil blackmail by forces hostile to the West. Only bad political decisions driven by a distorted view of current problems (and who is to blame for them) can doom us to a gloomy oil future.