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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Economic systems
Brazil, Russia, India and China are four of the largest and most dynamic contemporary emerging economies in the world. Strong economic growth in each of these economies has been accompanied by the expansion of the advertising and consumer goods sectors. Using a series of country studies, this book explores the dynamics of global capitalism from the perspective of global advertising. The book highlights the on-going expansion of advertising and consumerism against the wider socio-economic, political and cultural contexts. It provides fresh insights about contemporary global priorities, and argues that advertising plays a key role linking culture and the economy. By presenting individual case studies of advertising campaigns, it offers examples of the globalisation of specific brands. Environmental implications of the expansion of advertising and its role in stimulating consumerism are explored in the context of the four emerging economies. The book compares and contrasts the individual country profiles, and makes an assessment of the validity of the argument regarding their projected importance and the likelihood of their future dominance of the global economy.
First published in 1964, Was Stalin Really Necessary? is a thought-provoking work which deals with many aspects of the Soviet political economy, planning problems and statistics. Professor Nove starts with an attempt to evaluate the rationality of Stalinism and discusses the possible political consequences of the search for greater economic efficiency, which is followed by a controversial discussion of Kremlinology. The author goes on to analyse the situation of the peasants as reflected in literary journals, then looks at industrial and agricultural problems. There are elaborate statistical surveys of occupational patterns and the purchasing power of wages, followed by an examination of the irrational statistical reflection of irrational economic decisions. Professor Nove 's essay on social welfare was, unlike some of his other work, used in the Soviet press as evidence against over-enthusiastic cold-warriors, among whom the author was not always popular. Finally, the author seeks to generalise about the evolution of world communism.
First published in 1987, Administered Protection in America follows calls in the United States, at that time, for the protection of American industries and the preservation of jobs threatened by foreign competition. Professor Rugman's and Dr Anderson's work presents evidence that the United States already has a system of administered protection in place in the form of escape clauses, countervailing duty and anti-dumping procedures. The book argues that the application of these procedures by a largely decentralised administration has reduced United States state policy to a state of near anarchy. Rugman and Anderson argue that this is counterproductive for the United States and extremely harmful for America's trading partners in Europe, Canada and the Far East. The conclusion looks at discussions of trade negotiations with Canada, in which Canada was pursuing a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States.
First published in 1961, The Soviet Economy is a well informed work which seeks to acquaint students with the structure and problems of the economy of the USSR. In a balanced and perceptive analysis, Alexander Nove describes the organisation of economic life and of the planning system, analysing the practical and theoretical problems within the institutional structure of the Soviet system, and introducing the student to Soviet economic ideas and concepts. The subject is then related to the growth of the Soviet economy and to the extent to which both the institutions and the problems reflect the historical peculiarities of the USSR. The author does not try to argue for or against the system or to provide answers but aims to stimulate the reader to enquire further into the more important questions raised by the strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet economy.
This book examines the major issues arising from the Korean financial crisis of 1997. It considers the strong prospects for rapid economic recovery and the emerging changes in Korea's international economic relations and business environment. The authors investigate the causes of the financial crisis and provide an evaluation of remedial measures and reforms currently being introduced in both private and public sectors of the Korean economy. The book identifies a paradigm shift in Korean economic policy and discusses Korea's new role in both the regional and global economy. It also examines the major developments reshaping Korea's international business environment through fundamental policy shifts in trade, foreign direct investment, labor relations, management practices and the emerging trends in e-commerce. Korea's Economic Prospects will be of interest not only to academics and policy advisors but also to individuals and corporations attempting to capitalize on emerging business opportunities in Korea.
Only our limited idea of money is keeping us poor. David Boyle introduces us to alternative cash and people who can conjure money - that is, spending power - out of nothing. Until recently, the growth of alternative cash had been the province of big business: phone cards, stamps, air miles and Tesco's clubcard points all have purchasing power, yet are not cash as we know it. Now, locally created money systems like 'time dollars', 'Womanshare' and 'Ithaca hours' are being invented by communities for communities. With clarity and great humour, Boyle tells the story of this extraordinary revolution: he travels to the USA to visit the people behind local money systems; relates their vision of the future; and describes how to set up your own currency. This is no dry theoretical tome: Boyle writes about his subject in a way that is concrete, illuminating, often very funny and always highly readable. This paperback edition includes a new epilogue with an update on the latest alternative currency ideas: 'You just have to cast doubt on the real existence of the money markets and they could just shrivel away. Anything could happen.' A revolution is underway now: this book tells the story of its leaders and the ideas that inspired them.
First published in 1986, this work challenges underdevelopment analyses of Africaa (TM)s past experiences and future prospects, and builds upon a very wide range of recent historical research to argue that the impact of Capitalism has resulted in economic progress and significant improvements in living standards. In marked contrast to the dependency approach, they propose that the important political and economic differences between the experiences of developing countries should be stressed and analysed. The argument is supported by a detailed look at the emergence since 1900 of capitalist social relations of production in nine different countries.
Finance, Governance and Economic Performance in Pacific and South East Asia focuses on key aspects of government policy, financial systems and their links to the economic miracle in Pacific and South East Asia. It also considers the financial crises that have affected those economies and their economic progress. The contributors examine the success of governance in the form of government involvement with the macroeconomy and with the deregulation of markets. Attention is drawn not only to the need for further liberalisation, but also the need to introduce regulatory structures to produce orderly markets. The book includes contributions on financial market opening in developing countries, the impact of FDI on the economic growth of the ASEAN economies, governance, human capital, labour and endogenous growth in Asia Pacific and lessons from the financial crisis as well as an overview of finance, development and growth. This book will be welcomed by those interested in financial economics and reform, the recent Asian crisis, and growth and development in the region.
A myth-dispelling, comprehensive guide to the Chinese economy and its path to ascendancy. China's economy has been booming for decades now. A formidable and emerging power on the world stage, the China that most Americans picture is only a rough sketch, based on American news coverage, policy, and ways of understanding. Enter Keyu Jin: a world-renowned economist who was born in China, educated in the U.S., and is now a tenured professor at the London School of Economics. A person fluent in both Eastern and Western cultures, and a voice of the new generation of Chinese who represent a radical break from the past, Jin is uniquely poised to explain how China became the most successful economic story of our time, as it has shifted from primarily state-owned enterprise to an economy that is thriving in entrepreneurship, and participation in the global economy. China’s economic realm is colorful and lively, filled with paradoxes and conundrums, and Jin believes that by understanding the Chinese model, the people, the culture and history in its true perspective, one can reconcile what may appear to be contradictions to the Western eye. What follows is an illuminating account of a burgeoning world power, its past, and its potential future.
Once in a while the world astonishes itself. Anxious incredulity replaces intellectual torpor and a puzzled public strains its antennae in every possible direction, desperately seeking explanations for the causes and nature of what just hit it. 2008 was such a moment. Not only did the financial system collapse, and send the real economy into a tailspin, but it also revealed the great gulf separating economics from a very real capitalism. Modern Political Economics has a single aim: To help readers make sense of how 2008 came about and what the post-2008 world has in store. The book is divided into two parts. The first part delves into every major economic theory, from Aristotle to the present, with a determination to discover clues of what went wrong in 2008. The main finding is that all economic theory is inherently flawed. Any system of ideas whose purpose is to describe capitalism in mathematical or engineering terms leads to inevitable logical inconsistency; an inherent error that stands between us and a decent grasp of capitalist reality. The only scientific truth about capitalism is its radical indeterminacy, a condition which makes it impossible to use science's tools (e.g. calculus and statistics) to second-guess it. The second part casts an attentive eye on the post-war era; on the breeding ground of the Crash of 2008. It distinguishes between two major post-war phases: The Global Plan (1947-1971) and the Global Minotaur (1971-2008). This dynamic new book delves into every major economic theory and maps out meticulously the trajectory that global capitalism followed from post-war almost centrally planned stability, to designed disintegration in the 1970s, to an intentional magnification of unsustainable imbalances in the 1980s and, finally, to the most spectacular privatisation of money in the 1990s and beyond. Modern Political Economics is essential reading for Economics students and anyone seeking a better understanding of the 2008 economic crash.
First published in 1985, Theories of Modern Capitalism provides a succinct study of Marxist and non-Marxist theories of Capitalism, its recent development, and the prospects of a transition to socialism. The study begins with a critical examination and comparison of four major theories of capitalism, in the works of Marx, Weber, Schumpeter and Hayek. This is followed by an analysis of the most recent phase of capitalism which has been conceptualised by Marxists thinkers in various ways as 'organised capitalism'', 'state monopoly', or 'late capitalism'. Finally, Bottomore considers the question of a 'transition to socialism' in the diverse interpretations which have been offered by Marxists on one side, and by Weber, Schumpeter and Hayek on the other. Theories of Modern Capitalism will be valuable in a wide range of courses in social and political theory, and will also have an appeal to a broader readership concerned with issues of social and economic policy.
WINNER OF THE 2019 MADAME DE STAEL PRIZE AND THE 2018 LEONTIEF PRIZE FOR ADVANCING THE FRONTIERS OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT SHORTLISTED FOR THE FT & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 Who really creates wealth in our world? And how do we decide the value of what they do? At the heart of today's financial and economic crisis is a problem hiding in plain sight. In modern capitalism, value-extraction is rewarded more highly than value-creation: the productive process that drives a healthy economy and society. From companies driven solely to maximize shareholder value to astronomically high prices of medicines justified through big pharma's 'value pricing', we misidentify taking with making, and have lost sight of what value really means. Once a central plank of economic thought, this concept of value - what it is, why it matters to us - is simply no longer discussed. Yet, argues Mariana Mazzucato in this penetrating and passionate new book, if we are to reform capitalism - radically to transform an increasingly sick system rather than continue feeding it - we urgently need to rethink where wealth comes from. Which activities create it, which extract it, which destroy it? Answers to these questions are key if we want to replace the current parasitic system with a type of capitalism that is more sustainable, more symbiotic - that works for us all. The Value of Everything reigniteS a long-needed debate about the kind of world we really want to live in.
'Powerful' - Silvia Federici It's in our food, our cosmetics, our fuel and our bodies. Palm oil, found in half of supermarket products, has shaped our world. Max Haiven uncovers how the gears of capitalism are literally and metaphorically lubricated by this ubiquitous elixir. From its origins in West Africa to today's Southeast Asian palm oil superpowers, Haiven's sweeping, experimental narrative takes us on a global journey that includes looted treasures, the American system of mass incarceration, the history of modern art and the industrialisation of war. Beyond simply calling for more consumer boycotts, he argues for recognising in palm oil humanity's profound potential to shape our world beyond racial capitalism and neo-colonial dispossession. One part history, one part dream, one part theory, one part montage, this kaleidoscopic and urgent book asks us to recognise the past in the present and to seize the power to make a better world.
An urgent and galvanizing argument for an Economic Bill of Rights—and its potential to confer true freedom on all Americans. Since the Founding, Americans have debated the true meaning of freedom. For some, freedom meant the provision of life’s necessities, those basic conditions for the “pursuit of happiness.†For others, freedom meant the civil and political rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights and unfettered access to the marketplace—nothing more.  As Mark Paul explains, the latter interpretation—thanks in large part to a particularly influential cadre of economists—has all but won out among policymakers, with dire repercussions for American society: rampant inequality, endemic poverty, and an economy built to benefit the few at the expense of the many. In this book, Paul shows how economic rights—rights to necessities like housing, employment, and health care—have been a part of the American conversation since the Revolutionary War and were a cornerstone of both the New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement. Their recuperation, he argues, would at long last make good on the promise of America’s founding documents. By drawing on FDR’s proposed Economic Bill of Rights, Paul outlines a comprehensive policy program to achieve a more capacious and enduring version of American freedom. Among the rights he enumerates are the right to a good job, the right to an education, the right to banking and financial services, and the right to a healthy environment. Replete with discussions of some of today’s most influential policy ideas—from Medicare for All to a federal job guarantee to the Green New Deal—The Ends of Freedom is a timely and urgent call to reclaim the idea of freedom from its captors on the political right—to ground America’s next era in the country’s progressive history and carve a path toward a more economically dynamic and equitable nation. Â
The collapse of centrally administered socialism in Russia and Eastern Europe resulted in what is commonly referred to as the transition problem: the transformation from a centrally administered socialist economic system to one that is market-based. Economic science has been faced with the challenge of developing an appropriate body of analysis, advice, and direction to help other nations that may be undergoing this process. In this volume, John Marangos adopts a political economy approach that yields alternative models of transition. The volume develops transition models from what Marangos defines as the primary elements of six variables: (1) economic analysis; (2) definitions of the Good Society; (3) speed of transition; (4) political structure; (5) ideological structure; and (6) initial conditions. The models developed include: the shock therapy model, the neoclassical gradualist model of transition, the post Keynesian model, the pluralistic market, the socialist model, and the non-pluralistic market socialist model. After identifying the primary elements of each transition model, Marangos considers the elements of each model with respect to the desirable reforms. An essential element of the transition process is not only to identify the necessary reforms but also a sequence in which the reforms should be introduced. For each transition model developed in this book, a set of primary and secondary elements were provided in conjunction with a sequence of reforms. Analyzing the transition problem from a political economy perspective, Marangos shows that it is possible to have inconsistencies within each transition model and between transition models yet be able to identify the potential for implementation and maintenance of necessary reforms each model recommends. This volume contributes to the understanding of the process of transition, with the objective of identifying an optimal model of transition.
In language that is understandable to non-economists, this work introduces readers to the interrelationship of politics and economics in America - how economics influences public policy and how public policy can impact the economy. Readers learn how the U.S. economy works (domestically and in its global connectedness), how to measure economic performance, how government intervenes in the market to influence economic performance and redistribute resources, and how policymakers act to protect the public interest in an economic system based on private interests. The author provides historical background for contemporary problems. He explains basic economic and policymaking concepts in an issue-relevant context, with concrete examples inspired by ongoing policy debates in Washington regarding production and employment, commodity prices, Social Security and Medicare, budget deficits, national debt, trade deficits, and more.
An Economist Book of the Year A Financial Times Book of the Year A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year A Prospect Best Book of the Year A ProMarket Book of the Year An Omidyar Network "8 Storytellers Informing How We've been Reimagining Capitalism" Selection "Brilliant...Poses all the important questions about our future." -Gordon Brown "A scholar of inequality warns that while capitalism may have seen off rival economic systems, the survival of liberal democracies is anything but assured." -The Economist We are all capitalists now. For the first time in human history, the world is dominated by one economic system. At some level capitalism has triumphed because it works: it delivers prosperity and gratifies our desire for autonomy. But this comes at a moral price, pushing us to treat material success as the ultimate goal, and offers no guarantee of stability. While Western liberal capitalism creaks under the strains of inequality and excess, some are flaunting the virtues of political capitalism, exemplified by China, which may be more efficient, but is also vulnerable to corruption and social unrest. One of the outstanding economists of his generation, Branko Milanovic mines the data to tell his ambitious and compelling story. Capitalism gets a lot wrong, he argues, but also much right-and it isn't going away anytime soon. Our task is to improve it in the hopes that a more equitable capitalism can take hold. "Erudite, illuminating...Engaging to read...As a virtuoso economist, Milanovic is superb when he is compiling and assessing data." -Robert Kuttner, New York Review of Books "Leaves little doubt that the social contract no longer holds. Whether you live in Beijing or New York, the time for renegotiation is approaching." -Edward Luce, Financial Times
Today, despite many significant achievements in science, technology, medicine, transportation and communications, and a vast increase in world trade, the globalized world economy is facing serious socio-economic, political, cultural and environmental problems, of potentially catastrophic proportions. Although many attempts have been made by international organizations like the World Bank and IMF to raise living standards, the dire poverty of billions of people and the widening gap between rich and poor, both within and between countries, point to the failure of these policies. Consequently, we face global crises of inequality, injustice, poverty, marginalization, exclusion and environmental degradation. There has also been a huge rise in crime, corruption and now terrorism. Economic and political failures have resulted in mass migrations across national borders, causing further problems of xenophobia, fear, mistrust, racism and intolerance, which are threatening the fabric of societies all over the world. So, what has gone wrong? Dr Mofid, who has taught economics at university for over 20 years, argues that the root of the problem lies in the way economics is taught, with its narrow focus on "self-interest" and "competition" as the sole motivating factors in economic activity. This ignores equally important considerations like compassion, co-operation and the common good, which are essential for a prosperous and harmonious society. Globalization today is regarded by many as a means of securing for richer individuals, corporations and nations an ever larger slice of the wealth produced, polluting the environment in their greedy pursuit of more, and locking billions into hopeless poverty. In "Globalisation for the Common Good", the author argues that it is possible to achieve a balance between economically efficient production and an equitable distribution of the wealth in a sustainable environment, so that everybody who is willing to work can share in the benefits of globalization. He puts forward an alternative economic model which has firm theological, spiritual and ethical foundations.
An influential sociologist revives materialist explanations of class, while accommodating the best of rival cultural theory. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, analysis of class and other basic structures of capitalism was sidelined by theorists who argued that social and economic life is reducible to culture-that our choices reflect interpretations of the world around us rather than the limitations imposed by basic material facts. Today, capitalism is back on the agenda, as gross inequalities in wealth and power have pushed scholars to reopen materialist lines of inquiry. But it would be a mistake to pretend that the cultural turn never happened. Vivek Chibber instead engages cultural theory seriously, proposing a fusion of materialism and the most useful insights of its rival. Chibber shows that it is possible to accommodate the main arguments from the cultural turn within a robust materialist framework: one can agree that the making of meaning plays an important role in social agency, while still recognizing the fundamental power of class structure and class formation. Chibber vindicates classical materialism by demonstrating that it in fact accounts for phenomena cultural theorists thought it was powerless to explain. But he also shows that aspects of class are indeed centrally affected by cultural factors. The Class Matrix does not seek to displace culture from the analysis of modern capitalism. Rather, in prose of exemplary clarity, Chibber gives culture its due alongside what Marx called "the dull compulsion of economic relations."
The Social Costs approach to the globalised capitalist market economy has gained new relevance in recent years. The present situation is one of widespread and increasing deterioration of the social, cultural, democratic, and environmental frameworks of advanced capitalist market societies. This deterioration is indicated by the threats of unemployment, precarious working conditions and increasing income/status inequality, uneven geographical developments, and the exploitation and undermining of the institutional fabric of the society. It is aggravated by the rapid extension - at local, national, regional and global scales - of ecological disruption. So the global capitalist market economy is characterised by a great deal of instability and so-called true uncertainty, which largely undermine its coordinating and welfare-enhancing capacity. The view suggested by Karl William Kapp's seminal evolutionary open-systems approach is that these processes and problems are the outcome of a widening gap between private individualist economic, and societal values or, to use Karl Polanyi's terms, of the ever increasing disembeddedness of the economy from society and of the subjugation of society to the economy. The key actor in this process is business or, more specifically, it is the increasingly dominant, globalised, deregulated and disembedded hierarchical and power system of business enterprise. Current analyses of the global capitalist market economy are overdue to be undertaken making use of the powerful analytic frame of Karl William Kapp's open systems economics. 'Social Costs and Public Action in Modern Capitalism' examines this approach from a theoretical, conceptual, empirical, policy and case study level.
Devine begins with an analysis of the theory and practice of capitalist planning, central planning and 'market socialism'. He argues that, while market socialism is currently favoured by many economists who reject both capitalism and the command planning of the Soviet model, it cannot fulfil the promises held out for it. In the remainder of the bo
Tackling the most pressing problem of our time - how capitalism, and business, can provide a future of wealth, equity and ecological integrity, this book is destined to be one of the most important business, economics and politics books of the year. Sir Jonathon Porritt, CBE, Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, is a leading influence on business and industry, the UK government's premier adviser on sustainable development and a top author, broadcaster and visionary. As our great economic machine grinds relentlessly forward into a future of declining fossil fuel supplies, climate change and ecosystem failure, humanity, by necessity, is beginning to question the very structure of the economy that has provided so much wealth, and inequity, across the world. In this fresh, politically charged analysis, Jonathon Porritt wades in on the most pressing question of the 21st century - can capitalism, as the only real economic game in town, be retooled to deliver a sustainable future?
The formation and management of capital are among the central issues in economic growth, especially in 'under-developed' countries, and form the main theme in this volume. The societies examined vary widely, both geographically and also in terms of types of social and economic structures. First published in 1964.
A great classic of British anthropology, Primitive Polynesian
Economy is structured as follows:
Bridging a gap between macro- and micro- viewpoints, the work shows
the ways in which an economy is socially and historically
determined. Subsistence is shown to be not only a form of
agriculture but a determinant economic organisation and particular
attention is paid to the problem of understanding patterns of
distribution and the constitution of the surplus in the peasant
economy. |
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