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Books > Business & Economics > Economics
South Africa is facing an extraordinary ‘polycrisis’. The dimensions of this crisis include an energy collapse; a failing rail network; weak education outcomes; an interrupted water supply; and the effects of decades of endemic corruption that have brought much of government to a halt.
But the country also has incredible assets: a wealth of sought-after minerals; an enviable Constitution that protects rights and advocates social inclusion; an advanced financial and services sector; thriving agricultural and auto industries that compete with the best in the world; a prosecution service that is rapidly rebuilding; and, most of all, strong-willed people determined to make life better through hard work, entrepreneurship and hustling.
The choice is stark: we either build on the positives and take the country forward or we will be overwhelmed by the negatives and end up as another Zimbabwe or Venezuela. We have the people, the policies and the resources. What is missing is the political will to make the difficult choices that will save South Africa from disaster.
This book takes you on a journey that ends with one of three possible future scenarios: the Good, the Bad or the Ugly. Compiled by The Brenthurst Foundation and In Transformation Initiative, and workshopped with high-powered leaders in business and politics, the scenarios have stimulated intense public interest as the country grapples with its mounting problems.
The good news is that there is a clear road towards a positive future. It will take courageous leadership and smart thinking to get there, but the ‘Good’ scenario is tantalisingly within grasp.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) was one of the brightest stars of the
eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment. An Inquiry into the
Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was his most important
book. First published in London in March 1776, it had been eagerly
anticipated by Smith's contemporaries and became an immediate
bestseller. That edition sold out quickly and others followed.
Today, Smith's Wealth of Nations rightfully claims a place in the
Western intellectual canon. It is the first book of modern
political economy, and still provides the foundation for the study
of that discipline. But it is much more than that. Along with
important discussions of economics and political theory, Smith
mixed plain common sense with large measures of history,
philosophy, psychology, sociology, and much else. Few texts remind
us so clearly that the Enlightenment was very much a lived
experience, a concern with improving the human condition in
practical ways for real people. A masterpiece by any measure,
Wealth of Nations remains a classic of world literature to be
usefully enjoyed by readers today.
The complexity of the American economy and polity has grown at an
explosive rate in our era of globalization. Yet as the 2008
financial crisis revealed, the evolution of the American state has
not proceeded apace. The crisis exposed the system's manifold
political and economic dysfunctionalities.
Featuring a cast of leading scholars working at the intersection of
political science and American history, The Unsustainable American
State is a historically informed account of the American state's
development from the nineteenth century to the present. It focuses
in particular on the state-produced inequalities and administrative
incoherence that became so apparent in the post-1970s era.
Collectively, the book offers an unsettling account of the growth
of racial and economic inequality, the ossification of the state,
the gradual erosion of democracy, and the problems deriving from
imperial overreach. Utilizing the framework of sustainability, a
concept that is currently informing some of the best work on
governance and development, the contributors show how the USA's
current trajectory does not imply an impending collapse, but rather
a gradual erosion of capacity and legitimacy. That is a more
appropriate theoretical framework, they contend, because for all of
its manifest flaws, the American state is durable. That durability,
however, does not preclude a long relative decline.
With the security services under resourced for the demands now
being placed upon them, the Government have decided, as a temporary
measure, to recruit some suitably experienced former Senior NCOa s
to fulfil this role. As they are to have a slightly different role
from that of MI5 and Special Branch they are to be referred to as
the a Praetoriansa which of course was the name given to the elite
guard given to those protecting the Roman Generals in ancient
times. In the following story we follow the adventures of one of
these men as he endeavours to protect his Minister both here in the
United Kingdom and on her journeys overseas.
The Business Environment provides a flexible and comprehensive
learning experience for modern PESTLE-driven courses by using a
two-tier approach. The book offers an accessible introduction to
the business environment model, taking into account curriculum and
blended learning developments. For those new to business and
business economics it introduces the key concepts, theory and
examples (covering marketing, human resource management, operations
management, finance), whilst also maintaining the depth and rigour
needed for both undergraduate and postgraduate level study. The
accompanying CourseMate offers a host of practical material mapped
specifically to each chapter, and provides the overall product with
unrivalled depth and coverage for the levels targeted.
Marketing: A Global Perspective is the much-anticipated EMEA
edition of Grondslagen van de Marketing, the market leader in the
Netherlands for over 25 years. In this bestseller, Dr Bronis
Verhage strikes the right balance between marketing theory and
practice. The text features perspectives from Europe, the Middle
East, Africa and the wider world, embedded in a global context,
offering a cutting-edge review of new priorities in marketing, as
illustrated by a diverse selection of analyses of world-class
companies' customer-focused strategies. This
attractively-illustrated, full-colour edition includes a range of
case vignettes assessing small and medium-sized enterprises and
large global corporations such as L'Oreal, Philips and Google,
encompassing the entire field of marketing, including services
marketing, B2B and green marketing.
With a GDP that just reached $2.6 trillion, India is poised to
become the world's third largest economy in less than a decade. In
doing so, it will have moved one step closer to reclaiming its
pre-industrial glory when it accounted for one-sixth of the global
output and ranked second in economic size. This rapid movement in
the absolute size of the economy will be insufficient, however, to
bring prosperity to India's vast population. Today, 44% of the
country's workforce remains in agriculture and another 42% in small
enterprises with fewer than twenty workers. Labor productivity of
both sets of workers remains low and they live overwhelmingly on
subsistence-level incomes. In New India: Reclaiming the Lost Glory,
Arvind Panagariya outlines a concise strategy to transform India
from a primarily rural and agricultural economy to an urban and
industrial economy with well-paid jobs for those with limited
skills. Panagariya argues that the creation of good jobs requires
the emergence of medium and large enterprises in industry and
services, especially labor-intensive sectors such as apparel,
footwear, and other light manufactures. He explains that India
needs policies conducive to the growth of firms from small to
medium, medium to large, and large to larger still. Such policies
include greater outward orientation; more flexible land, labor, and
capital markets; concerted effort to improve the quality of higher
education; faster urbanization; and improved governance at all
levels. Written by a preeminent authority on the Indian economy,
New India: Reclaiming the Lost Glory provides a data-driven and
persuasive roadmap for India to eliminate abject poverty,
accelerate economic growth, and return to its historically
prominent position in the global economy.
Over the past century, new farming methods, feed additives, and
social and economic structures have radically transformed
agriculture around the globe, often at the expense of human health.
In Chickenizing Farms and Food, Ellen K. Silbergeld reveals the
unsafe world of chickenization-big agriculture's top-down,
contract-based factory farming system-and its negative consequences
for workers, consumers, and the environment. Drawing on her deep
knowledge of and experience in environmental engineering and
toxicology, Silbergeld examines the complex history of the modern
industrial food animal production industry and describes the
widespread effects of Arthur Perdue's remarkable agricultural
innovations, which were so important that the US Department of
Agriculture uses the term chickenization to cover the
transformation of all farm animal production. Silbergeld tells the
real story of how antibiotics were first introduced into animal
feeds in the 1940s, which has led to the emergence of
multi-drug-resistant pathogens, such as MRSA. Along the way, she
talks with poultry growers, farmers, and slaughterhouse workers on
the front lines of exposure, moving from the Chesapeake Bay
peninsula that gave birth to the modern livestock and poultry
industry to North Carolina, Brazil, and China. Arguing that the
agricultural industry is in desperate need of reform, the book
searches through the fog of illusion that obscures most of what has
happened to agriculture in the twentieth century and untangles the
history of how laws, regulations, and policies have stripped
government agencies of the power to protect workers and consumers
alike from occupational and food-borne hazards. Chickenizing Farms
and Food also explores the limits of some popular alternatives to
industrial farming, including organic production, nonmeat diets,
locavorism, and small-scale agriculture. Silbergeld's provocative
but pragmatic call to action is tempered by real challenges: how
can we ensure a safe and accessible food system that can feed
everyone, including consumers in developing countries with new
tastes for western diets, without hurting workers, sickening
consumers, and undermining some of our most powerful medicines?
Despite the rhetoric, the people of Sub-Saharan Africa are becoming
poorer. From Tony Blair's Africa Commission, the G7 finance
ministers' debt relief, the Live 8 concerts, the Make Poverty
History campaign and the G8 Gleneagles promises, to the United
Nations 2005 summit and the Hong Kong WTO meeting, Africa's gains
have been mainly limited to public relations. The central problems
remain exploitative debt and financial relationships with the
North, phantom aid, unfair trade, distorted investment and the
continent's brain/skills drain. Moreover, capitalism in most
African countries has witnessed the emergence of excessively
powerful ruling elites with incomes derived from
financial-parasitical accumulation. Without overstressing the
'mistakes' of such elites, this title contextualises Africa's
wealth outflow within a stagnant but volatile world economy.
Developed for the new International A Level specification, these
new resources are specifically designed for international students,
with a strong focus on progression, recognition and transferable
skills, allowing learning in a local context to a global standard.
Recognised by universities worldwide and fully comparable to UK
reformed GCE A levels. Supports a modular approach, in line with
the specification. Appropriate international content puts learning
in a real-world context, to a global standard, making it engaging
and relevant for all learners. Reviewed by a language specialist to
ensure materials are written in a clear and accessible style. The
embedded transferable skills, needed for progression to higher
education and employment, are signposted so students understand
what skills they are developing and therefore go on to use these
skills more effectively in the future. Exam practice provides
opportunities to assess understanding and progress, so students can
make the best progress they can.
Shinzo Abe entered politics burdened by high expectations: that he would change Japan. In 2007, seemingly overwhelmed, he resigned after only a year as prime minister. Yet, following five years of reinvention, he masterfully regained the premiership in 2012, and now dominates Japanese democracy as no leader has done before.
Abe has inspired fierce loyalty among his followers, cowing Japan's left with his ambitious economic program and support for the security and armed forces. He has staked a leadership role for Japan in a region being rapidly transformed by the rise of China and India, while carefully preserving an ironclad relationship with Trump's America.
The Iconoclast tells the story of Abe's meteoric rise and stunning fall, his remarkable comeback, and his unlikely emergence as a global statesman laying the groundwork for Japan's survival in a turbulent century.
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