This book provides a unique study of the differences in economic behaviour according to the phases of the economic cycle in the countries of the European Union. It presents a comprehensive analysis of asymmetry in the EU over the last forty years, and shows that the problems in the global financial crisis were readily predictable.
The authors use empirical research and panel data to show how much economic behaviour changes between the up and down phases of the business cycle, and the difficulties this creates for monetary, fiscal and labour market policies. The volume demonstrates how prescient the asymmetric design of the Stability and Growth Pact was in trying to offset countries understandable optimism in fiscal policy, and the consequent tendency not to manage debt successfully. It also reveals the inherent problems for managing unemployment in an asymmetric labour market.

Understand how to protect your critical information infrastructure (CII). Billions of people use the services of critical infrastructure providers, such as ambulances, hospitals, and electricity and transport networks. This number is increasing rapidly, yet there appears to be little protection for many of these services. IT solutions have allowed organisations to increase their efficiency in order to be competitive. However, do we even know or realise what happens when IT solutions are not working - when they simply don't function at all or not in the way we expect? This book aims to teach the IT framework from within, allowing you to reduce dependence on IT systems and put in place the necessary processes and procedures to help protect your CII. Lessons Learned: Critical Information Infrastructure Protection is aimed at people who organise the protection of critical infrastructure, such as chief executive officers, business managers, risk managers, IT managers, information security managers, business continuity managers and civil servants. Most of the principles and recommendations described are also valid in organisations that are not critical infrastructure service providers. The book covers the following: - Lesson 1: Define critical infrastructure services. - Lesson 2: Describe the critical infrastructure service and determine its service level. - Lesson 3: Define the providers of critical infrastructure services. - Lesson 4: Identify the critical activities, resources and responsible persons needed to provide the critical infrastructure service. - Lesson 5: Analyse and identify the interdependencies of services and their reliance upon power supplies. - Lesson 6: Visualise critical infrastructure data. - Lesson 7: Identify important information systems and assess their importance. - Lesson 8: Identify and analyse the interconnections and dependencies of information systems. - Lesson 9: Focus on more critical services and prioritise your activities. - Lesson 10: Identify threats and vulnerabilities. - Lesson 11: Assess the impact of service disruptions. - Lesson 12: Assess the risks associated with the service and information system. - Lesson 13: Implement the necessary security measures. - Lesson 14: Create a functioning organisation to protect CII. - Lesson 15: Follow regulations to improve the cyber resilience of critical infrastructure services. - Lesson 16: Assess the security level of your information systems yourself and ask external experts to assess them as well. - Lesson 17: Scan networks yourself and ask external experts to scan them as well to find the systems that shouldn't be connected to the Internet but still are. - Lesson 18: Prepare business continuity and disaster recovery plans and test them at reasonable intervals. - Lesson 19: Establish reliable relations and maintain them. - Lesson 20: Share information and be a part of networks where information is shared. - Lesson 21: Train people to make sure they are aware of cyber threats and know the correct behaviour. - Lesson 22: If the CII protection system does not work as planned or give the desired output, make improvements. - Lesson 23: Be prepared to provide critical infrastructure services without IT systems. If possible, reduce dependence on IT systems. If possible, during a crisis, provide critical services at reduced functionality and/or in reduced volumes. Author Toomas Viira is a highly motivated, experienced and results-orientated cyber security risk manager and IT auditor. He has more than 20 years' experience in the IT and cyber security sectors.

Presenting a concise overview of the post-war decline in popularity of the Austrian school of economics and its subsequent revival in the late twentieth century, this updated second edition offers a theoretical and historical introduction to the ideas of the Austrian school and its intellectually distinguishing qualities. Featuring fresh and insightful comparisons between the Austrian school and other schools of thought, this enhanced second edition includes an expanded discussion on the evolution of the Austrian school in the 21st century. The Advanced Introduction considers the field's key originators and proponents and reflects on the acceleration in interest in the last two decades. Key features include: An illustration of the key arguments that have defined heterodox economics, including the Austrian school's role in the socialist calculation debate In-depth discussions of entrepreneurship and the role of the firm in the scholarship of the Austrian school New material relating Austrian economics to other schools of thought. Undergraduate and graduate students in economics and political science will find this Advanced Introduction indispensable for understanding the revival of the Austrian school. Policymakers will also benefit from its concise and sharp overview of the school and its insights into the key features and debates.

From Consent to Coercion examines the increasing assault against trade union rights and freedoms in Canada by federal and provincial governments. Centring the struggles of Canadian unionized workers, this book explores the diminution of the welfare state and the impacts that this erosion has had on broader working-class rights and standards of living. The fourth edition witnesses the passing of an era of free collective bargaining in Canada - an era in which the state and capital relied on obtaining the consent of workers and unions to act as subordinates in Canada's capitalist democracy. It looks at how the last twenty years have marked a return to a more open reliance of the state and capital on coercion - on force and on fear - to secure that subordination. From Consent to Coercion considers this conjuncture in the Canadian political economy amid growing precarity, poverty, and polarization in an otherwise indeterminate period of austerity. This important edition calls attention to the urgent task of rebuilding and renewing socialist politics - of thinking ambitiously and meeting new challenges with unique solutions to the left of social democracy.

This book uses facts and data to prove that socialist public sectors are still in a predominant position in China. Based on previous research and studies, a set of methods for measuring the structure of public or non-public owned economy is offered in this book. As is remarked by the authors, China's basic economic system, namely the system with the public sector remaining dominant and diverse sectors of the economy developing side by side, represents an efficient approach towards mutual benefit, common prosperity and peaceful co-existence.

Powerful financial forces have supported the neoliberal project since the 1980s to advance their interests; but there are now signs that these forces have a new face and a new strategy. The majority of the British finance sector threw its support behind Britain leaving the European Union, a flagship institution of neoliberalism. Beyond this counterintuitive move, what was really happening and why? Alt-Finance examines a new authoritarian turn in financialised democracies, focusing on the City of London, revealing a dangerous alternative political project in the making. In a clash with traditional finance, the new behemoths of financial capital - hedge funds, private equity firms and real estate funds - have started to cohere around a set of political beliefs, promoting libertarian, authoritarian, climate-denying and Eurosceptic views. Protecting investments, supressing social dissent and reducing state interference are at the core of their mission for a new world order. By following the money, the authors provide indisputable evidence of these worrying developments. Through a clear analysis of the international dealings of this new authoritarian-libertarian regime, not just in Britain but in the US and Brazil, we can understand how our world is being shaped against our will by struggles between dominant groups.

Today's financial system is considerably more complex than in years past, as new financial instruments have been introduced that are not well understood even by the people and institutions that invest in them. Numerous high-risk opportunities are available, and the number of people who unwittingly wander into such ventures seems to grow daily. There is also the realization that people's lives are affected by the financial system without their overt participation in it. Despite no active participation, pensions can be emasculated by a sudden decline in interest rates, or a rise in rates can increase the monthly payments on a mortgage, credit cards or other debt. This book looks at the history of the American banking system, including the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, the implementation of deposit insurance, along with certain other provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, the Bretton-Woods agreements, the forces of technological innovation and the Dodd-Frank Act, passed by Congress in 2010 for regulatory reform. This book will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate level students that want to gain a broad understanding of how the financial system works, why it is important to the economy as a whole, and what its strengths and weaknesses are. Also, readers should gain an understanding of what the Federal Reserve, other regulators and other central banks are doing, and will be in a position to critique their actions and say with some depth of understanding why they agree or disagree with them.

This book sheds new light on how lobbying works in the European Union. Drawing on the first-hand professional experience of lobbyists, policymakers, and corporate and institutional stakeholders, combined with a sound academic foundation, it offers insights into successful lobbying strategies, such as how alliances are formed by interest groups in Brussels. The authors present key case studies, e.g. on the shelved EU-US trade deal Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), lobbying scandals, and the role of specific interest groups and EU Think-Tanks. Furthermore, they highlight efforts to improve transparency and ethical standards in EU decision-making, while also underscoring the benefits of lobbying in the context of decision-making. Understanding the tools and techniques of effective lobbying, as well as the dynamics and trends in EU lobbying, will allow professionals involved in the lobbying process, such as policymakers and corporate and institutional stakeholders, to improve their performance and achieve better results when pursuing their respective interests.

For mainstream economics, cultural production raises no special questions: creative expression is to be harvested for wealth creation like any other form of labour. As Karl Marx saw it, however, capital is hostile to the arts because it cannot fully control the process of creativity. But while he saw the arts as marginal to capital accumulation, that was before the birth of the mass media. Engaging with the major issues in Marxist theory around art and capitalism, From Printing to Streaming traces how the logic of cultural capitalism evolved from the print age to digital times, tracking the development of printing, photography, sound recording, newsprint, advertising, film and broadcasting, exploring the peculiarities of each as commodities, and their recent transformation by digital technology, where everything melts into computer code. Showing how these developments have had profound implications for both cultural creation and consumption, Chanan offers a radical and comprehensive analysis of the commodification of artistic creation and the struggle to realise its potential in the digital age.

The problems of today's Europe can be traced directly to the rewriting of the "rules of the economic game" that has taken place over several decades under the strong influence of neoliberalism. If Europe is to return to the innovative and dynamic economy it once had-and if there is to be shared prosperity, social solidarity and justice across Europe-the rules must be rewritten once again. With the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), Joseph E. Stiglitz lays out comprehensive programmes and policies designed to relieve the suffering of Europeans and restore a prosperous and equitable European Union.

Beginning in 2010, there has been a consolidating cooperation among existing powers in the Euro-Mediterranean in face of the rapid de-stabilization of the Arab region. This fact alone accelerated the hesitant responses by the EU towards emerging hegemons, particularly Russia and China, who in-turn applied traditional mechanisms of increasing regional economic influence to bolster their political influence, but with the difference that a normative influence is missing, in contrast to the EU's and US' influence, which is strongly centered on universal norms pertaining to political, economic and social-cultural norms. This book examines the Arab Spring not only from its intra but also inter-regional geo-political and strategic implications by analyzing the Euro-Mediterranean region following the onset of the Arab Spring. It aims to connect the broader economic and political strands of power shifts that have taken place since the Arab Spring, making it of interests to political scientists and policy-makers concerned with the Mediterranean and Euro-Arab relations.

This book offers a detailed, critical account of the economic transformation of the Czech Republic since 1989. It follows the development and implementation of a reform strategy based on 'shock' therapy and rapid privatisation, set against the background of turbulent political change and conflict. The aim of the government in the mid 1990s was the creation of a 'Czech' capitalism, with Czech-owned business empires and banks. A detailed analysis of developments in banking and industrial enterprises shows how the chosen strategy led instead to continuing inefficiency, flawed management decisions and uncontrolled profiteering. These combined factors contributed to serious economic difficulties in the latter part of the decade, with success stories largely confined to foreign-owned firms. After 1998, a new government attempted to encourage economic revival based upon a fresh strategy which emphasised the sale of banks and industrial enterprises to foreign owners. Even with this new reform strategy, the author concludes that the results were, at best, mixed. Throughout the analysis, the author provides in-depth commentary on a variety of topics including the sources of economic growth, the role of the central bank, developments in banking and industrial enterprises and the impact of inward direct investment. It is rare to find such a comprehensive book which assesses the economic transformations of a single country. The detailed analysis and pertinent conclusions will be welcomed by academics and researchers with an interest in transition economies, European integration, international finance and political science.

This book has a dual purpose. First, it analyses the concept of economic crises within economic theory, showing the various theoretical foundations and controversies amongst different schools of economic thought. Second, it presents an empirical analysis of the Great Recession in Spain, addressing the growth period of 1995 to 2007-08, the subsequent depression until 2013-14 and the recovery that followed. It also shows the way in which the inner contradictions of capital manifests itself in an European peripheral economy under a real estate bubble, emphasizing the role of the Spanish economy in European capitalism. This theoretical and empirical heterodox approach will be of interest to students and scholars in political economy, and those with an interest in the Eurozone.

Mutant Ecologies traces the spinning of new synthetic threads into the web of life. It is a critical cartography of the shifting landscapes of capital accumulation conjured by recent developments in genomic science, genome editing and the biotech industry. CRISPR crops, fast-growing salmons, heat-resistant Slick (TM) cows, Friendly (TM) Mosquitoes, humanised mice, pigs growing human organs - these are but a few of the dazzling new life-forms that have recently emerged from corporate and university laboratories around the world, all promising to lubricate the circuits of capital accumulation in distinct ways. The deliberate induction of genetic mutations is increasingly central to business operations in a number of sectors, from agriculture to pharmaceuticals. While the Nobel Committee recently proclaimed the life sciences to have entered 'a new epoch', the authors show how these technological innovations continue to operate within a socio-historical context defined by the iron rules of capitalist competition and exploitation. Capital no longer contents itself with simply appropriating the living bodies of plants and animals. It purposefully designs their internal metabolism, and in that way it redesigns the countless living vectors that constitute the global biosphere. It is driving a biological revolution, which will ripple through the everyday lives of people everywhere.

Financial crises have been pervasive for many years. Their frequency in recent decades has been double that of the Bretton Woods Period (1945-1971) and the Gold Standard Era (1880-1993), comparable only to the period during the Great Depression. Nevertheless, the financial crisis that started in the summer of 2007 came as a great surprise to most people. What initially was seen as difficulties in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, rapidly escalated and spilled over first to financial markets and then to the real economy. The crisis changed the financial landscape worldwide and its full costs are yet to be evaluated. One important reason for the global impact of the 2007-2009 financial crisis was massive illiquidity in combination with an extreme exposure of many financial institutions to liquidity needs and market conditions. As a consequence, many financial instruments could not be traded anymore, investors ran on a variety of financial institutions particularly in wholesale markets, financial institutions and industrial firms started to sell assets at fire sale prices to raise cash, and central banks all over the world injected huge amounts of liquidity into financial systems. But what is liquidity and why is it so important for firms and financial institutions to command enough liquidity? This book brings together classic articles and recent contributions to this important field of research. It is divided into five parts. These are (i) liquidity and interbank markets; (ii) the public provision of liquidity and regulation; (iii) money, liquidity and asset prices; (iv) contagion effects; (v) financial crises and currency crises. The aim is to provide a comprehensive coverage of role of liquidity in financial crises.

Capitalism has been a controversial concept. In the second half of the 20th century, many historians have either not used the concept at all, or only in passing. Many regarded the term as too broad, holistic and vague or too value-loaded, ideological and polemic. This volume brings together leading scholars to explore why the term has recently experienced a comeback and assess how useful the term can be in application to social and economic history. The contributors discuss whether and how the history of capitalism enables us to ask new questions, further explore unexhausted sources and discover new connections between previously unrelated phenomena. The chapters address case studies drawn from around the world, giving attention to Europe, Africa and beyond. This is a timely reassessment of a crucial concept, which will be of great interest to scholars and students of economic history.

The great demonstrations at Seattle and Genoa have shown that we are in a new era of protest. The neo-liberal economic policies pursued by the Group of Seven leading industrial countries and the international institutions they control are provoking widespread resistance. Growing numbers of people in all five continents are rejecting the values of the market and the vision of a world made safe for the multinational corporations.

But what does the anti-globalization movement stand for? Is it, as its most common name suggests, against globalization itself? Is it opposed merely to the neo-liberal Washington Consensus that became dominant in the 1980s and 1990s, or is its real enemy the capitalist system itself? The World Social Forum at Porto Alegre has popularized the slogan 'Another World is Possible'. But what is that world?

Alex Callinicos seeks to answer these questions in "An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto," He analyses the development of the movement, distinguishes between the different political forces within it, and explores the strategic dilemmas - notably over violence and the nation-state - that it increasingly confronts. He argues that the movement is directed against capitalism itself. The logic of competitive accumulation that drives this system is not only increasing global inequality and economic instability, but threatens ecological catastrophe and appalling conflict. To meet the challenge of global capitalism the new protest movement requires, according to Callinicos, a creative synthesis of its own inclusive and dynamic style and the best of the classical Marxist tradition.

This edited volume analyzes land utilization data from farm surveys taken in China between 1929 and 1933. This data, which was the foundation for John Lossing Buck's seminal work Land Utilization in China (1937), was thought lost to history until rediscovered in 2000. The book presents the first modern analyses of agricultural economics in Republican China using Buck's micro-data, covering important topics such as nutritional poverty, tenancy issues, land productivity, surplus labor, workers' incomes, credit supply, and regional differences. Through using modern analytical methods, this book presents a more accurate picture of the agricultural economy in the Republican Era and will be of particular interest to agricultural economists, economic historians, and Chinese studies scholars.

Throughout the 1990s, Russian households experienced a dramatic fall in their traditional sources of subsistence: wages and social benefits. Many commentators have argued that households have adopted 'survival strategies' that enable them to make ends meet, particularly taking second jobs, growing their own food and calling on the help of family and friends. This book reviews the available data to analyse the forms, scale and incidence of these phenomena. The author finds that so-called 'survival strategies' merely represent a continuation of traditional soviet practices. He demonstrates that they disproportionately benefit the better off and that they do not provide a means by which those who have suffered misfortune can compensate for a fall in their earnings. Instead, he illustrates that most Russian households have adapted simply by cutting expenditure rather than by finding new sources of income. The author concludes by arguing that the notion of a 'household survival strategy' is inappropriate for the study of post-soviet society. Based on the analysis of a wide range of qualitative and quantitative data, Making Ends Meet in Contemporary Russia provides a comprehensive analysis of the means by which Russian households have secured their subsistence in the face of a collapse in wages and employment since the end of the soviet system. It will be required reading for all students, scholars and researchers of transition studies, development studies and human geography.

This book explores the dynamics of China's new united front work in Hong Kong. Mainland Chinese penetrative politics can be seen in the activities of local pro-Beijing political parties, clans and neighborhood associations, labor unions, women and media organizations, district federations, and some religious groups. However, united front work in the educational and youth sectors of civil society has encountered strong resistance because many Hong Kong people are post-materialistic and uphold their core values of human rights, the rule of law and transparency. China's new united front work in Hong Kong has been influenced by its domestic turn toward "hard" authoritarianism, making Beijing see Hong Kong's democratic activists and radicals as political enemies. Hong Kong's "one country, two systems" is drifting toward "one country, two mixed systems" with some degree of convergence. Yet, Taiwan and some foreign countries have seen China's united front work as politically destabilizing and penetrative. This book will be of use to scholars, journalists, and observers in other countries seeking to reckon with Chinese influence.

How can an environment be created in Cuba in which safety is not sacrificed for more open markets and politics? This book examines present security conditions in Cuba and forecasts the effects that economic and social liberalization could have on levels of criminality. For decades, Cuban citizens have enjoyed relatively good security, as a consequence of surveillance and tight political control by an authoritarian state. However, economic liberalization necessitated by the loss of Soviet support has resulted in illicit activities and increased criminality including drugs, contraband and human trafficking. Today, relatively good security and a stable political system coexist with widespread illegality. But as restrictions are eased, the average citizen is becoming less secure. Cuba's privileged geographical location, combined with economic scarcity, the remnants of the communist system and the local criminal organizations it created, also makes it vulnerable to more dangerous foreign criminal groups. Based on both quantitative and qualitative data including in-depth interviews with experts on Cuba and democratization and observational research in Cuba itself, the book seeks to identify the risks associated with liberalization and to explore workable solutions. More broadly, it aims to shed light on how the negative consequences of social and economic liberalization can be minimized for the average citizen during periods of political transition from authoritarian systems. How can an environment be created in which safety is not sacrificed for more open markets and politics?

This book by influential policymaker Chi Fulin lays out in issue-oriented and detailed chapters, at a time when China is at a crossroads, exactly how the government plans to deal with the social, political and economic issues the world's second-largest economy faces. From managing the decline of industry, to urbanization, to managing consumption, to social security and education, Chi offers a roadmap for the years ahead. This book will be particularly fascinating to Western scholars of China who speculate on the inner workings of the Chinese policymaking elite, with the ambition of China's central planners here laid out for the world to see.

This unique book - informed by ten years' research - focuses on intellectual property and charts the global transition towards intellectual capitalism with technology-based corporations as prime movers. The book gives a comprehensive overview of the history and fundamentals of intellectual property as well as a textbook introduction to the field. The book sheds new light on the economics and management of intellectual property in large corporations in Europe, Japan and the US. Special emphasis is given to strategies for the acquisition and commercialization of new technologies, patent strategies and strategies for secrecy and trademark, technology intelligence and corporate management of intellectual property. It includes an in-depth study of leading large corporations in Japan - including Canon, Hitachi, Toshiba and Sony. In conclusion, it explores the possible evolution of intellectual property management towards a distributed intellectual capital management in the context of a wider transition to intellectual capitalism, fueled by new technologies in general and new infocom technologies in particular. The book will have particular appeal to practitioners such as managers, economists, engineers and lawyers as well as students and scholars of industrial organization, economics of innovation and technical change, and management of technology.