An exceptionally sensible, clear-headed and original thinker' The Financial Times 'The best book on the future of the global economy'***** The International Economy magazine

The tectonic plates of the global order are shifting, creating new pressures that will strain long-standing financial structures.

BUT WHERE WILL THE WORLD'S NEW ECONOMIC FAULT LINES EMERGE?
AND HOW DISRUPTIVE WILL THEY BE?

In a clear and far-reaching reckoning, The Fractured Age lays bare the threats and opportunities that will shape the world economy over the coming decade. It charts the emergence of geopolitical blocs in a world undergoing profound change - blocs whose relative size and economic diversity will be pivotal in reordering everything from goods trade and investment flows to technology transfers and access to critical minerals.

As the world enters another period of seismic upheaval and a new global order emerges, understanding which economies will benefit, and which will bear the costs, will be critical for effective decision-making throughout boardrooms and the halls of government.

As C hief Economist of one of the world's leading providers of independent macroeconomic and market research, Neil Shearing lays out a stark vision of the peaks and rifts that will unfold, and how they will fundamentally reshape the global economy in this fractured age.

April 2025 - Author has been on Bloomberg, BBC News, CNN, Channel 4 News and in The Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian

Orthodox international relations theory considers foreign affairs to be the exclusive purview of national governments. Yet as Rodrigo Tavares demonstrates, the vast majority of leading sub-states and cities are currently practicing foreign affairs, both bilaterally and multilaterally. Subnational governments in Asia, the Americas, Europe and Africa are changing traditional notions of sovereignty, diplomacy, and foreign policy as they carry out diplomatic endeavors and establish transnational networks around areas such as education, healthcare, climate change, waste management, or transportation. In fact, subnational activity and activism in the international arena is growing at a rate that far exceeds that carried out by the traditional representatives of sovereign states. Paradiplomacy is the definitive first practitioner's guide to foreign policy at the subnational level. In this seminal work, Tavares draws from a unique pool of best practices and case studies from all over the world to provide a comprehensive and critical overview of the conceptual, juridical, operational, organizational, governmental and diplomatic parameters of paradiplomacy.

Since the rational expectations revolution in macroeconomics, the subject has evolved in a major way, adopting the principles behind the revolution and building on them in spectacular fashion. In this thoroughly revised and updated second edition, the authors provide a complete and up-to-date textbook designed to guide students through the mathematical and conceptual maze of modern macroeconomics. The updated second edition includes: Explanation of the historical development of the subject Introduction to traditional macro-classical/adaptive expectations Demonstration of how rational expectations are handled in macro models and in finance An explanation of the importance of structural, micro-founded models Key examples of structural models examined in detail, and with extension to the open economy Discussion of policy implications throughout Methodology for testing models against macro data behaviour, complete with the latest evidence on these models' success Coverage of key topics, including the supply-side, unemployment, growth and the open economy. By explaining the basics of each topic, and providing the solid grounding for students to tackle more complex and detailed material, this textbook will be an invaluable resource for both postgraduate and upper level undergraduate students of macroeconomics alike.

"In Caring for Our Own, Sandra Levitsky has written a moving and perceptive account of the dilemma facing those who provide care for frail family members. Based on in-depth interviews and participant observation with family caregivers and the social workers that attempt to ameliorate their burden, this book uncovers the complex ideological and political factors that have made long term care the neglected stepchild of the welfare state in the United States."-Jill Quadagno, Mildred and Claude Pepper Eminent Scholar in Social Gerontology, Florida State University Aging populations and dramatic changes in health care provision, household structure, and women's labor force participation over the last half century have created what many observers have dubbed a "crisis in care": demand for care of the old and infirm is rapidly growing, while the supply of private care within the family is substantially contracting. And yet, despite the well-documented adverse effects of contemporary care dilemmas on the economic security of families, the physical and mental health of family care providers, the bottom line of businesses, and the financial health of existing social welfare programs, American families have demonstrated little inclination for translating their private care problems into political demands for social policy reform. Caring for Our Own inverts an enduring question of social welfare politics. Rather than asking why the American state hasn't responded to unmet social welfare needs by expanding social entitlements, this book asks: Why don't American families view unmet social welfare needs as the basis for demands for new state entitlements? How do traditional beliefs in family responsibility for social welfare persist even in the face of well-documented unmet need? The answer, this book argues, lies in a better understanding of how individuals imagine solutions to the social welfare problems they confront and what prevents new understandings of social welfare provision from developing into political demand for alternative social arrangements. Caring for Our Own considers the powerful ways in which existing social policies shape the political imagination, reinforcing longstanding values about family responsibility, subverting grievances grounded in notions of social responsibility, and in some rare cases, constructing new models of social provision that would transcend existing ideological divisions in American social politics.

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.

Following the catastrophic events of the 2008 global financial crisis, an anonymous hacker released Bitcoin to claw back power from commercial and central banks. It quickly garnered an enthusiastic following who sought to forge a stable and democratic global economy—a world free from hierarchy and control. In their eyes, Bitcoin's underlying architecture, blockchain, hailed the dawn of decentralisation. Money Code Space shatters these emancipatory claims. In their place, Jack Parkin constructs a new framework for revealing the geographies of power that lie behind blockchain networks. Drawing on first-hand experience in cryptocurrency communities and start-up companies from Silicon Valley to London, Parkin untangles the complex web of culture, politics, and economics that truly drive decentralisation.

This book brings together a series of papers and responses to papers presented at a conference on the minimum core content of socio-economic rights in Pretoria, South Africa, during August 2000.

The papers describe, first from an international law perspective and then from a South African perspective, these socio-economic rights. In the process, the normative content of rights concerned is given flesh: the authors identify particular obligations that can be said to form the core of rights, such as the right to housing, the right to food, rights to education and social security and assistance. At the same time, the concept of a minimum core obligations of economic and social rights is problematised and the difficulties of using concepts, developed within the general and abstract realm of international law, in the more particular and concrete context of domestic rights adjudication are explored.

As a result, this book contains a great deal of practical information and is useful for human rights practitioners, both legal and non-legal. It also provides some critical reflection on the conceptual framework from which it is derived.

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.

While the depth and sophistication of South Africa’s financial and capital markets are lauded by indices the world over, South Africa is also considered to be the most unequal society in the world. The Economy On Your Doorstep probes the reasons for this tragic paradox of South African life and tries to go through and beyond the graphs, margin calls, trading updates, indices and earnings reports to explain how economic ‘actions’ frame the lives of South Africans in a transitional society faced with the challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality.

The economy is and always has been primarily about ‘people’. How they live, what they produce, under what conditions and what social, political and environmental factors influence decisions of consumption, investment and distribution – and how they act under conditions of uncertainty, scarcity, need and crisis. After all, economies are about people coming together to produce, exchange, distribute and consume goods and services that emerge from their communities and those of others. How and under what conditions can we ensure the expansion of our productive forces, while expanding access to the base of assets, services and support that allow for the social reproduction of our entire society and workforce?

Ayabonga Cawe outlines some key areas that can and should define a policy agenda towards a ‘people’s economy’ in South Africa and the long-term objectives of such a policy programme, and engages with the political economy of 21st century South Africa through an analysis of a few selected areas of the economy and the implications of this for policy action. This is what this book is about – an exposition of what we see around us and an explanation and discussion of possible ways beyond it.

In this well-researched book, Ayabonga Cawe, a development economist, columnist and broadcaster, makes sense of the post-apartheid political economy through the lives of the many people who live and survive in it every day.

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "Extremely wide-ranging and well researched . . . In a tradition of protest literature rooted more in William Blake than in Marx." -Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker The epic story of how coffee connected and divided the modern world Coffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world. But few coffee drinkers know this story. It centers on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of Manchester, England, founded one of the world's great coffee dynasties at the turn of the twentieth century. Adapting the innovations of the Industrial Revolution to plantation agriculture, Hill helped turn El Salvador into perhaps the most intensive monoculture in modern history-a place of extraordinary productivity, inequality, and violence. In the process, both El Salvador and the United States earned the nickname "Coffeeland," but for starkly different reasons, and with consequences that reach into the present. Provoking a reconsideration of what it means to be connected to faraway people and places, Coffeeland tells the hidden and surprising story of one of the most valuable commodities in the history of global capitalism.

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.

In microeconomics, the decisions and functioning of individual consumers and households (what to do, what to buy, etc.), and firms or other organisations (what goods to produce, how to produce them, what prices to charge, etc.) are considered. It includes the study of the demand, supply and prices of individual goods and services such as petrol, maize, haircuts and medical services.

Understanding microeconomics is a comprehensive introduction to microeconomics in general, set against a contemporary South African background. The easy style and many practical examples make the content extremely accessible. The book covers all the material usually prescribed for introductory courses, and it lays a solid foundation for intermediate and advanced studies in economics.

This second edition is a thoroughly revised and slightly expanded version of the original one. Examples have been adjusted (where necessary), a few new topics are introduced and review questions are provided at the end of each chapter.

Whether it's pumping oil, mining resources or shipping commodities across oceans, the global economy runs on extraction. Promises of frictionless trade and lucrative speculation are the hallmarks of our era, but the backbone of globalisation is still low-cost labour and rapacious corporate control. Extractive capitalism is what made - and is still making - our unequal world.

Professor Laleh Khalili reflects on the hidden stories behind late capitalism, from seafarers abandoned on debt-ridden container ships to the nefarious reach of consultancy firms and the cronyism that drives record-breaking profits.

Piercing, wry and constantly revealing, Extractive Capitalism brings vividly to light the dark truths behind the world's most voracious industries.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Professor Fikret Berkes provides a unique introduction to the social and interdisciplinary dimensions of biodiversity conservation. Examining a range of approaches, new ideas, controversies and debates, he demonstrates that biodiversity loss is not primarily a technical issue, but a social problem that operates in an economic, political and cultural context. Berkes concludes that conservation must be democratized in order to broaden its support base and build more inclusive constituencies for conservation. Key features include: focus on Indigenous peoples' rights, knowledge and practices discussion of commons governance, co-management and responsibility exploration of the history of conservation and the nature stewardship traditions a broad view of conservation that encompasses the well-being of humans as well as ecosystems Taking an interdisciplinary social science approach that includes conservation science concepts, this Advanced Introduction will benefit students of environmental studies, geography, ecology and conservation. It will also be a useful resource for conservation organizations.

The first and second volumes of Xi Jinping's The Governance of China have received an enthusiastic response from China and other parts of the world.

Since the 19th CPC National Congress, Xi Jinping has put forward many original ideas drawn from his experiences in state governance in the new era, charting the course in line with the times and further enriching the theoretical base of the Party. To help officials and the public understand and apply Xi Jinping's thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, to strengthen their commitment to the Four Consciousnesses, the Four-sphere Confidence and the Two Upholds, and also to help the international community gain a full appreciation of the thought and the reasons for the success of the CPC, Marxism and Chinese socialism, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council Information Office, with the support of the Research Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee and China International Publishing Group, have compiled a third volume of The Governance of China.

This volume contains a compilation of 92 of Xi Jinping's spoken and written works from October 18, 2017 to January 13, 2020, along with 41 photographs. It is divided into 19 sections by topic, with the articles in each section arranged in chronological order.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world'AEos leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. New institutional economics (NIE) is a powerful tool for understanding real world phenomena. This Advanced Introduction explores NIE'AEos answers to fundamental questions about the organization, growth and development of economies, such as why are some countries rich and others poor? Why are activities organized as firms or markets or through alternative organizational solutions? When are shared resources overexploited? Key Features: Elucidates the essence of NIE'AEos main branches, focusing on the governance of transactions and organizations (identified with Oliver Williamson), the fundamental institutional environment (Douglass North), and the role of communal institutions and collective action (Elinor Ostrom) Explores how NIE has transformed perspectives on collective action, state and legal institutions, public policy and regulation, and economic growth Extensive references to allow interested readers to dive deeper into specific topics Authored by scholars associated early on with leading figures in NIE and the development of NIE'AEos research agenda. This Advanced Introduction is an ideal read for advanced students of economics, political science, management, law and sociology interested in learning about new institutional economics. Policy makers, especially those responsible for business and utility regulation and development policy and assistance, will also benefit from this concise yet detailed book.

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.