The growing gap between the most affluent Americans and the rest of society is changing the country into one defined-more than almost any other developed nation-by exceptional inequality of income, wealth, and opportunity. This book reveals that an infrastructure of inequality, both open and hidden, obstructs the great majority in pursuing happiness, living healthy lives, and exercising basic rights. A government dominated by finance, corporate interests, and the wealthy has undermined democracy, stunted social mobility, and changed the character of the nation. In this tough-minded dissection of the gulf between the super-rich and the working and middle classes, Ronald P. Formisano explores how the dramatic rise of income inequality over the past four decades has transformed America from a land of democratic promise into one of diminished opportunity. Since the 1970s, government policies have contributed to the flow of wealth to the top income strata. The United States now is more a plutocracy than a democracy. Formisano surveys the widening circle of inequality's effects, the exploitation of the poor and the middle class, and the new ways that predators take money out of Americans' pockets while passive federal and state governments stand by. This data-driven book offers insight into the fallacy of widespread opportunity, the fate of the middle class, and the mechanisms that perpetuate income disparity.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen major advances in recent years. While machines were always central to the Marxist analysis of capitalism, AI is a new kind of machine that Marx could not have anticipated. Contemporary machine-learning AI allows machines to increasingly approach human capacities for perception and reasoning in narrow domains. This book explores the relationship between Marxist theory and AI through the lenses of different theoretical concepts, including surplus-value, labour, the general conditions of production, class composition and surplus population. It argues against left accelerationism and post-Operaismo thinkers, asserting that a deeper analysis of AI produces a more complex and disturbing picture of capitalism's future than has previously been identified. Inhuman Power argues that on its current trajectory, AI represents an ultimate weapon for capital. It will render humanity obsolete or turn it into a species of transhumans working for a wage until the heat death of the universe; a fate that is only avoidable by communist revolution.

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.

Labour focuses on the issues and problems concerning the efficient full employment of labour in a free market economy. The discussion is largely about the conditions (including comparative wages) underlying industrial efficiency and maximum production from various labour resources at least cost. By estimating man-power, analysing the human factor and measuring labour efficiency, the book summarizes recent evidence on employment conditions for or against efficiency and the effect upon the incidence of unemployment.

In the intellectuality of capitalism there are two alternative ways to conceive of reality: the moderate one, which mediates dialectically, and the revolutionary one, which also comprises ruptures with disappearance. The former conforms to, and helps shape, the metaphysics of capitalism itself. The second is akin to the mode of progressing of nature in general, and forms the basis for materialism. Moderate positions tend to be intolerant because they do not recognize the other, which is constantly compelled to mediate. Revolutionary positions instead, recognizing the other, are tolerant and intrinsically non-violent. In capitalism as we know it liberalism, Marxism and anarchism would potentially be revolutionary. But they have been transformed in moderate modes of thought, similar for instance to nationalism, communitarianism, Christian ideas, fascism, socialism. Thus capitalism has become an intolerant world that seems built to block, by means of mediations, its own historical evolution. The outcome is a fascistic economy and polity.

With the radical growth in the ubiquity of digital platforms, the sharing economy is here to stay. This Handbook explores the nature and direction of the sharing economy, interrogating its key dynamics and evolution over the past decade and critiquing its effect on society. Using an interdisciplinary perspective, this Handbook analyses labour, governance, trust and consumption in the contemporary sharing economy. It questions the apparent contradiction between its components: the moral economy of small-scale communal sharing versus the far-flung reaches of the market economy. Chapters explore ways to resolve this paradox, theorizing hybrid economic forms and considering the replacement of human trust inherent in the sharing economy with a transactional reputation economy. Featuring a variety of both conceptual explorations and empirical investigations in a variety of different cross-cultural contexts, this Handbook illustrates how and, more importantly, why the sharing economy has reshaped marketplaces, and will continue to disrupt them as it develops. Written in an accessible style, this thorough Handbook offers crucial insights for researchers across a variety of disciplines interested in the trajectories of modern consumption, as well as students studying the sharing economy. Practitioners, policy makers and public speakers working in and around the sharing economy will also benefit from this book's unique analysis of trends in consumer economics. Contributors include: A. Arvidsson, G. Avram, F. Bardhi, H. Bartling, M. Baz Radwan, R. Belk, H.H. Chang, A. Chattopadhyay, R. Corten, D. Dalli, A. DeCrop, N. Drozdova, G. Eckhardt, T. Eriksson, E. Fischer, F. Fortezza, A. Gandini, A. Gessinger, A. Graul, A. Gruen, A.J. Hawley, I. Kleppe, S. Kurtmollaiev, M. Laamanen, C. Laurell, C.X. Li, A. Light, R.J. Lutz, J. Mallarge, K. Mikolajewska-Zaj c, L. Mimoun, M. Moehlmann, O. Mont, J. Morales, A. Mukherjee, C. Oberg, L.K. Ozanne, E. Papaoikonomou, G. Patsiaouras, C. Pitt, K. Plangger, M. Rocas-Royo, A. Ryan, C. Sandstrom, M. Saren, K. Strzyczkowski, W. Suetzl, T. Teubner, C. Valor, P. van den Bussche, G. von Richthofen, Y. Voytenko Palgen, S. Wahlen, T. Widlok, P. Zidda, L. Zvolska

In this colorful and consistently engaging work, law and economics professor Gillian Hadfield picks up where New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman left off in his influential 2005 book, The World is Flat. Friedman was focused on the infrastructure of communications and technology-the new web-based platform that allows business to follow the hunt for lower costs, higher value and greater efficiency around the planet seemingly oblivious to the boundaries of nation states. Hadfield peels back this technological platform to look at the 'structure that lies beneath'-our legal infrastructure, the platform of rules about who can do what, when and how. Often taken for granted, economic growth throughout human history has depended at least as much on the evolution of new systems of rules to support ever-more complex modes of cooperation and trade as it has on technological innovation. When Google rolled out YouTube in over one hundred countries around the globe simultaneously, for example, it faced not only the challenges of technology but also the staggering problem of how to build success in the context of a bewildering and often conflicting patchwork of nation-state-based laws and legal systems affecting every aspect of the business-contract, copyright, encryption, censorship, advertising and more. Google is not alone. A study presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2011 found that for global firms, the number one challenge of the modern economy is increasing complexity, and the number one source of complexity is law. Today, even our startups, the engines of economic growth, are global from Day One. Put simply, the law and legal methods on which we currently rely have failed to evolve along with technology. They are increasingly unable to cope with the speed, complexity, and constant border-crossing of our new globally inter-connected environment. Our current legal systems are still rooted in the politics-based nation state platform on which the industrial revolution was built. Hadfield argues that even though these systems supported fantastic growth over the past two centuries, today they are too slow, costly, cumbersome and localized to support the exponential rise in economic complexity they fostered. While everything else in the economy strives to become cheaper, sleeker and faster, our outdated approach to law hampers the invention of new products, the development of new business models, the structuring of global supply chains, the management of the risks posed by complex technologies, the evolution of financial, ecological, and other systems, as well as the protection of people and businesses as they and their products travel around the globe. They also fail to address looming challenges such as global warming and the reduction of poverty and oppression in the developing countries that are the backyard of global business. The answer to our troubles with law, however, is not the one critics usually reach for-to have less of it. Recognizing that law provides critical infrastructure for the cooperation and collaboration on which economic growth is built is the first step, Hadfield argues, to building a legal environment that does more of what we need it to do and less of what we don't. Through a sweeping review of first the invention and then the evolution of law over thousands of years of human development and the ways in which rule systems have consistently adapted to higher levels of complexity, Hadfield stresses that the state-based legal systems governing us today are not the only way to build the planks of a legal platform. Going back to fundamentals, she shows how historically, law's primary purpose has been to help societies to cope with the essential issues of trust, commitment, risk-allocation, and distribution that we face in coordinating cooperative ventures. While nation-state laws will never disappear, the time has come for us to supplement our legal infrastructure with rules developed on the same global platform as our economy. Hadfield offers a model for a more market- and globally-oriented legal system that fosters greater participation of end-users, market actors, and other non-governmental entities. Combining an impressive grasp of the empirical details of economic globalization with an ambitious re-envisioning of our global legal system, Rules for a Flat World promises to be a crucial and influential intervention into the debates surrounding how best to manage the evolving global economy.

This book presents an enquiry into the interface between nature, economy and society, which is still in its early stages, notwithstanding the commendable progress and advances made in the field of environmental and natural resource economics within the ever-expanding boundaries of economics as a discipline. It further delineates the evolution of an inter-disciplinary framework for analyzing the status, the future goals, mechanisms and policy instruments that can help move towards a more ecologically sustainable, economically beneficial and socially just future. A pre-requisite for preparing a comprehensive and coherent framework involves unfolding the multiple layers of interconnectedness between the three systems nature, economy and society, each of which has its own internal consistencies as well as externalities. Against this backdrop, the book presents scholarly contributions that focus on four broadly defined building blocks, namely: i) accounting for ecosystems services for life and human well-being; ii) impacts of economic growth on ecosystems; iii) social norms, equity, and governance; and iv) alternative approaches to green and socio-economic systems. The analyses, presented by some of the most eminent national and international scholars, address the major environmental challenges that nations around the world face today and consider which specific policy directions at the international and national level are needed. In particular, the choices India and South Asia now face, as development and environment both need to be addressed adequately, touch on many of these challenges.

Rural poverty is a phenomenon that is widespread yet often ignored by policy makers and researchers. This edited volume looks critically at rural poverty in Central Eastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, China and Vietnam in relation to land reform, farm restructuring and the development of rural markets and in the context of a large gap between rural and urban incomes and deteriorating rural social services and infrastructure. Although in most countries rural poverty has been decreasing in the past few years, economic growth in rural areas is slow, and rural incomes are not 'catching up' with the rapid overall growth rates of these transition economies. In general, the livelihoods of rural dwellers remain relatively poor. Next to comparative studies, the chapters in this book explore various aspects of agrarian reform, and analyze the interlocking or interlinking (land, input and output) markets that are crucial for rural development that have often remained weakly developed in transition economies, including case studies from Russia, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Vietnam and China and a wealth of detailed analysis. These chapters reflect the striking differences between transition countries in their processes of rural reform and development of rural poverty. These differences are generally dependent on the initial conditions at the eve of transition, the policies implemented, the sequencing of reforms, and the importance that was given to the sector in the overall development strategy, such as can be seen if the Asian transition economies (ATEs) are compared with many of those in Eastern Europe.

The Circular Economy: Case Studies about the Transition from the Linear Economy explores examples of the circular economy in action. Unlike other books that provide narrow perceptions of wide-ranging and highly interconnected paradigms, such as supply chains, recycling, businesses models and waste management, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the circular economy from various perspectives. Its unique insights into the approaches, methods and tools that enable people to make the transformation to a circular economy show how recent research, trends and attitudes have moved beyond the "call to arms" approach to a level of maturity that requires sound scientific thinking.

How the history of a word sheds new light on capitalism and modern politics What exactly is capitalism? How has the meaning of capitalism changed over time? And what's at stake in our understanding or misunderstanding of it? In Capitalism, Michael Sonenscher examines the history behind the concept and pieces together the range of subjects bound up with the word. Sonenscher shows that many of our received ideas fail to pick up the work that the idea of capitalism is doing for us, without us even realizing it. "Capitalism" was first coined in France in the early nineteenth century. It began as a fusion of two distinct sets of ideas. The first involved thinking about public debt and war finance. The second involved thinking about the division of labour. Sonenscher shows that thinking about the first has changed radically over time. Funding welfare has been added to funding warfare, bringing many new questions in its wake. Thinking about the second set of ideas has offered far less room for manoeuvre. The division of labour is still the division of labour and the debates and discussions that it once generated have now been largely forgotten. By exploring what lay behind the earlier distinction before it collapsed and was eroded by the passage of time, Sonenscher shows why the present range of received ideas limits our political options and the types of reform we might wish for.

In this 36th volume of Research in Economic History, editors Christopher Hanes and Susan Wolcott assemble a cohort of experts to present new historical data, analyses of historical questions, and an investigation of historians' networks. The volume covers a range of ideas, beginning with a look in to new data from the sources of Swiss comparative advantage in the time of the first globalization, and of funding for investments in Russian human capital from the late imperial period to the present. A third paper turns to a newly-created database of articles published in major economic history journals from 1980-2018, demonstrating the breadth of scholars' networks and the types of questions they asked. Then, the volume pivots to North American economic development. Looking at deflators when estimating Canadian economic growth between 1870-1900, a new, more complete price index for Canada is presented which should alter scholars' views on the contributions of the country to the North Atlantic economy. Another paper expands the literature on the unusual US system of state and local banks in the early 20th century. Finally, the volume presents new estimates on the number and value of slaves entering the US during the Antebellum period.

Coming at a critical juncture for the euro, the book takes stock of the ECB's experience during its first ten years and discusses the way ahead. The articles are written by well-known experts in the field and provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of relevant policy issues, including the ECB's communication and its monetary strategy and instruments.

This volume in Advances in Econometrics showcases fresh methodological and empirical research on the econometrics of networks. Comprising both theoretical, empirical and policy papers, the authors bring together a wide range of perspectives to facilitate a dialogue between academics and practitioners for better understanding this groundbreaking field and its role in policy discussions. This edited collection includes thirteen chapters which covers various topics such as identification of network models, network formation, networks and spatial econometrics and applications of financial networks. Readers can also learn about network models with different types of interactions, sample selection in social networks, trade networks, stochastic dynamic programming in space, spatial panels, survival and networks, financial contagion, spillover effects, interconnectedness on consumer credit markets and a financial risk meter. The topics covered in the book, centered on the econometrics of data and models, are a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers in the field. The collection is also useful for industry professionals and data scientists due its focus on theoretical and applied works.

The breakup of the Soviet Union and the attempted transformation of Russia into a democracy and a market economy constitute one of the most significant events of our time. A transformation could hardly be greater, yet judgments vary from failure to substantial achievement. This book clarifies that Russia has actually become a market economy. Anders slund provides the most detailed and insightful assessment to date of the Russian transformation from a socialist economy to a market economy. His account covers the period from the formation of the Russian reform government in November 1991 through the autumn of 1994. He discusses the preconditions of economic reform, the formation of a reform program, relations with other former Soviet republics, liberalization, macroeconomic stabilization, and privatization. The final chapter evaluates the transformation. As a longtime specialist on the Soviet economy and an economic adviser to the Russian government during most of this period, slund analyzes the original intentions of the government, what they were able to accomplish, and why they fell short. The book's general conclusion is that the greater the speed, consistency, and determination, the more impressive the results. The main threat to the reform process was the resistance from the state enterprise managers, who wanted to enrich themselves at the expense of the state. The reformers could only win if they acted swiftly and firmly. According to slund, the Russian transformation has not been too quick, as many maintain, but rather too slow.

In her recent book Suiting Themselves, bestselling author Sharon Beder exposed how the global corporate elite have brazenly rewritten the rules of the global economy to line their pockets. In this new book she trains her sights on the insidious underbelly of this global trend to show how they have also orchestrated a mass propaganda campaign to manipulate community values and convince us that their interest - co-opting and controlling all of us in the name of the free market - is in our interest. During the 20th century, business associations coordinated mass propaganda campaigns combining 20th century American PR methods with revitalized free market ideology from 18th century Europe. The aim was to persuade people to eschew their own power as workers and citizens, and forego their democratic power to restrain and regulate business activity. Sophisticated corporate-funded think tanks augmented these campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s, promoting free enterprise and business-friendly policies. Thesefree market missionaries now seek to change individual and institutional values through bolder strategies such as expanding share ownership and manipulating wider public concerns. In each case the goal is the same: the triumph of business values over community values. Beder's is an intellectual call to arms: challenge the ideology of the free market missionaries or be converted to it.

A common belief is that the European welfare states are in a position of crisis or heading towards one with the process of globalization removing any hopes of eventual worldwide welfare. This book challenges this assumption arguing that a proper understanding of the future role of the welfare state requires a broader social perspective that encompasses the interaction of economic, political and social processes. The Future of the Welfare State provides an interdisciplinary analysis of the practical and theoretical challenges which the welfare state (and progress towards world welfare) can and must meet in the future.

The Treasury is one of Britain's oldest, most powerful and secretive institutions, one that has played a central role in shaping the country's economic system. But all too often it has escaped public scrutiny when it comes to investigating the ups and downs of the UK economy. When portrayed, it is usually as a bedrock of government stability in times of crisis, repeatedly rescuing the nation's finances from the hands of posturing politicians and the combustions of world financial markets. However, there is another side to the story. In between the highs there have been many lows, from botched privatizations to dubious private finance initiatives, from failing to spot the great financial crisis to facilitating ever-growing inequalities. Davis's book goes behind the scenes to offer an inside history of the Treasury, in the words of the chancellors, advisors and civil servants themselves. It shows the shortcomings as well as the successes, the personalities and the thinking which have shaped Britain's economy since the mid-1970s. Based on interviews with over fifty key figures, it offers a fascinating, alternative insight on how and why the UK economy came to function as it does today, and why reform is long overdue. -- .

Entrepreneurship is a key element in the development of market based economies and one of the potential drivers of change in countries that are in the process of transformation to market based systems. This book describes and critically assesses the nature and extent of female entrepreneurship in European economies that until 1990 were operating under central planning. At the core of the book are 7 country based chapters which provide an overview of the development of entrepreneurship and small firms since 1990, including a review of the institutional and policy context; an assessment of the role of women within the society during the socialist period; and any major changes afterwards. Each chapter also includes a thematic section (each one addressing a different issue) based on unique empirical data drawn from original research.

Renowned political economist Samir Amin, engaged in a unique lifelong effort both to narrate and affect the human condition on a global scale, brings his analysis up to the present--the world of 2013. The key events of our times--financial crisis, the emerging nations, globalization, financialization, political Islam, Euro-zone implosion--are related in a coherent, historically based, account. Changes in contemporary capitalism require an updating of definitions and analysis of social classes, class struggles, political parties, social movements and the ideological forms in which they express their modes of action in the transformation of societies. Amin meets this challenge and lays bare the reality of monopoly capitalism in its general, global form. Ultimately, Amin demonstrates that this system is not viable and that the implosion in progress is unavoidable. Whether humanity will rise to the challenge of building a more humane global order free of the contradictions of capital, however, is yet to be seen.

Strategy to Reality brings together a vast number of perspectives and experiences, offering business leaders the straight talk necessary to clarify, simplify, and humanize business architecture with Whynde Kuehn's practical and actionable approach. Whynde Kuehn's vision can be summed up in one word: big. She loves climbing mountains-physical and metaphorical-and her most successful summit can be found in Business Architecture, an aspect of business development that she has pioneered, explored, and mastered. She is a passionate guide for business architecture leaders and practitioners around the world who are motivated to achieve goals, implement effective strategies, and provide measurable results. Her approach can be implemented by organizations of any size: from an NGO, government organization, or Fortune 500 company, to a non-profit or startup. Within Strategy to Reality, Whynde Kuehn offers a well-informed, holistic view that can transform and reshape the world. She arms Business Architecture Practitioners and Strategy Execution Leaders with the in-house training and tools they need to close the gap between strategy and successful execution. Whynde believes that every organization needs to build their own capacity for continuous change, and it is her goal that they reach their goals, while gaining the "vision" they need to see the clearest course of action and to weave it all together. It is Whynde Kuehn's goal to help the leaders of today and tomorrow build better organizations and unlock new ways of executing strategies, increasing collaboration, and creating value, growth, and profits. Those who seek to be a catalyst for change in their company, who relentlessly seek ways to do things better, and who always ask, "Why?" and "What if?" will find the strategies they need to enact that change in Strategy to Reality.

This edited volume analyses the channels through which EU membership contributed to the convergence process of member countries in the Baltics, Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. These channels include trade, investment, finance, labour, and laws and institutions. Global integration has certainly played an important role. A large part of FDI flows and financial integration in the world have been persistent features of globalization. Have these countries experienced more intensive integration through these channels because of EU membership, with its much tighter institutional and political anchorage, than their fundamentals and global trends would suggest? Contributions by lead researchers of the area address different aspects of this question. .