Long before the financial meltdown and the red alert on climate change, some far-sighted innovators diagnosed the fatal flaws in an economic system driven by greed and fear. Across the global North and South, diverse people - financial wizards, economists, business people and social activists - have been challenging the "free market" orthodoxy. They seek to recover the virtues of bazaars from the tyranny of a market model that emerged about two centuries ago. This widely praised book is a chronicle of their achievements. From Wall Street icon George Soros and VISA card designer Dee Hock we get an insider critique of the malaise. Creators of community currencies and others, like the father of microfinance, Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus, explore how money can work differently. The doctrine of self-interest is re-examined by looking more closely at Adam Smith through the eyes of Amartya Sen. Mahatma Gandhi's concept of 'Trusteeship' gathers strength as the socially responsible investing phenomenon challenges the power of capital. Pioneers of the open source and free software movement thrive on cooperation to drive innovation. The Dalai Lama and Ela Bhatt demonstrate that it is possible to compete compassionately and to nurture a more mindful market culture. This sweeping narrative takes you from the ancient Greek agora, Indian choupal, and Native American gift culture, on to present-day Wall Street to illuminate ideas, subversive and prudent, about how the market can serve society rather than being its master. In a world exhausted by dogma, Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom is an open quest for possible futures. This fully updated and revised UK version of the 2009 Vodafone Crossword Book Award winner for non-fiction is a rare and epic narrative about those who have been quietly forging solutions and demonstrating that a more compassionate market culture is both possible and desirable.

Climate change isn’t just transforming our physical environment, it’s permanently shifting the landscape of energy, farming, technology and business. It’s eroding ancient ways of life, shaking up global finance and driving a historic new wave of mass migration.

In this extraordinary journey across twenty-six countries, Simon Mundy meets the people embroiled in a race that is already reshaping the modern world.

• WHY is a maverick scientist building a home for engineered mammoths in northeast Siberia?
• HOW is China's green energy push driving a hazardous mining rush in Congo?
• COULD an Israeli fake meat startup make a fortune while helping to save the Amazon?
• HOW is Greenland’s melting sea ice putting its people at the centre of a global power struggle?
• WHO are the entrepreneurs chasing breakthroughs in fusion power, electric cars, and technology to suck carbon from the atmosphere?

As the impacts of climate change cascade through the planet and the global economy, who is battling to survive the worst impacts – and who is chasing the most lucrative rewards?

Filled with richly reported human stories from every inhabited continent, this is an account of disaster, of promise, of frantic adaptation and relentless innovation, of hope, of survival, and of the forces that will define our future.

The global financial crisis, which began in 2007, was probably the biggest shock to hit the UK economy in living memory. Since the beginning of this crisis, much has happened that might previously have been thought impossible: the virtual nationalization of two of the UK s largest banks, a government deficit in double digits, a negative watch on the UK s AAA credit rating, a Bank of England base rate 150 basis points below its previous all-time low, and a 200,000m. programme of quantitative easing. These momentous events have demanded a fundamental reworking of the traditional analysis of the UK economy.

The publication of UK Economy: The Crisis in Perspective meets this need for a radical new analysis of the UK economic system. The book is an edited collection of papers presented to a European Commission seminar held in June 2010 to discuss prospects for the UK economy, the book includes chapters by some of the most prominent and respected commentators on the UK economy, including Christopher Pissarides, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for economics sciences, Martin Weale, recently appointed to the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee and Dave Ramsden, Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury.

The chapters cover:

• fiscal policy and its impact on growth and wealth distribution
• monetary policy and the Bank of England's unprecedented stimulus programme
• a detailed decomposition of the sources of UK growth between 1973 and 2009
• the structural excess of consumption that fuelled the UK's long boom
• the UK's labour market performance.

The highly distinguished group of authors, coverage and analysis of issues central to recent UK economic history, along with the European Commission's assessment of UK economic prospects make this essential reading for economists, business and financial people, academics and students, as well for all those interested in the historical background of, and prospects for, the UK economy.

Information in the chapters will be supplemented by a number of charts and tables offering information in graphic form.

The contributors are: Gabriele Giudice, Head of the Unit responsible for the UK, Estonia and Latvia in the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) at the European Commission; Robert Kuenzel, an Economist in DG ECFIN; Thomas Springbett, UK country desk officer in DG ECFIN, responsible for forecasting and surveillance; Christopher Pissarides, professor of economics at the London School of Economics and holder of the Norman Sosnow Chair in Economics; Ray Barrell, professor at Brunel University; Philip Davis, senior fellow at the National Institute for Economic and Social Research; Martin Weale, an independent member of the Bank of England s Monetary Policy Committee; Xavier Ramos, associate professor at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona; Dave Ramsden, Managing Director of Macroeconomic and Fiscal Policy at HM Treasury and joint Head of the UK Government Economic Service.

Longlisted for the FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2015. In September 2008, HBOS, with assets larger than Britain's GDP, was on the edge of bankruptcy. Its collapse would have created the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s and a major political disaster for the Labour government. With the help and support of Gordon Brown, HBOS was rescued by Lloyds TSB, one of the country's strongest banks, in circumstances that have since become the stuff of City legend. In the highly acclaimed Black Horse Ride, veteran financial journalist Ivan Fallon brings together the accounts of all the power players involved in this dramatic saga for the first time, including the key roles played by the Governor of the Bank of England, the Prime Minister and the Treasury. Through a compelling cast of prominent bankers, politicians and investors, Fallon reveals what really occurred in the aftermath of the crash of Lehman Brothers, perhaps the worst single day in banking history.

The global financial crisis of 2007-09, and the Great Recession that it engendered, were both a challenge and an opportunity for Asia. The region not only remained unharmed by the global financial crisis initially but also recovered the fastest. In addition, it was also the principal driver of the global recovery.

This book analyzes the impact of the global financial crisis and the Great Recession on the Asian economy. Chapters look at the most significant issues related to the Asian economy during the crisis, how it coped with them and how it eventually emerged from them. Dilip K. Das discusses how the Asian economy, particularly the emerging-market economies, spearheaded the recovery of the global economy from the global financial crisis and recession, and goes on to look at how this is of historical significance.

Written in a clear, comprehensive and critical manner, this book covers the contemporary academic and policy debates on Asia 's role in the world economy. As such, it is an essential read for students, researchers and public policy professionals interested in Asian Economics as well as studies in the International Political Economy.

In this intimate account of one of the world's most productive inland fisheries, Troubling the Water explores how the rapid destruction of a single lake in Cambodia is upending the lives of millions. The abundance of Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake helped grow the country for millenia and gave rise to the Kingdom of Angkor. Fed by the rich, mud-colored waters of the powerful Mekong River, the lake owes its vast bounty to an ecological miracle that has captivated poets, artisans, and explorers throughout history. But today, the lake is dying. Hydropower dams hold back billions of gallons of water and disrupt critical fish migration paths. On the lake, illegal fishing abetted by corruption is now unstoppable. A fast-changing climate, meanwhile, has seen a string of devastating droughts. Troubling the Water follows ordinary Cambodians coping with the rapid erasure of a long-held way of life. Drawing on years of reporting in Cambodia, Abby Seiff traces the changes on the Tonle Sap - weaving together vivid stories of those most affected with sharp insight into the one of the most threatened lakes in the world. For the millions who depend on it, the stakes couldn't be higher.

The United States has endured eleven recessions since the end of World War II, including the recession of 2007-2009. This book focuses on the performance of the economy and the actions taken during the expansion period before the onset of each recession. It's goal is to help prevent or at least lessen the severity of possible future recessions. Well-known economics writer Arthur Frumkin analyzes each of the eleven contemporary recessions to determine: What weaknesses appeared in the economy during the twelve months preceding the onset of the recession? What were economic forecasters predicting? What economics policy actions were taken by the Federal Reserve, the president, and Congress? Incorporating extensive real-time data, Frumkin points to persistent failures over the past sixty years by the Federal Reserve and the president to forecast or to acknowledge the possibility of future recessions. Based on these findings, he concludes with a range of policy recommendations for avoiding or ameliorating future recessions.

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book investigates the presence of Chinese and Indian companies in Europe and the impact that the current global financial crisis has had on their corporate behaviour and strategies. Have investments been cancelled or postponed? Has the crisis created new opportunities for investment? Is the behaviour of Chinese and Indian firms to these new circumstances similar? In addressing these challenging questions the authors used a proprietary data base encompassing over 1,500 investments (greenfield operations, mergers-and-acquisitions, joint ventures, horizontal/vertical extensions) made throughout Europe by companies from China (Mainland and Hong Kong) and India since the 1990s. Comparisons were made according to several criteria (eg: spatial patterns, modes of entry, sector and function distribution) -- to pinpoint differences and likenesses. In addition, face-to-face interviews were conducted in order to elaborate congruent case studies in traditional sectors (textile/clothing), or in new sectors (software for Chinese companies). The crisis had an impact on both investors in the following terms: lower amounts of investment, more merger-and-acquisition deals in absolute and relative terms, more focus on the largest economies (particularly the UK), and a targeting of specific assets such as critical technologies, international management capability, renowned brands and sale networks. In conclusion, in the years following the global financial crisis Indian investments in Europe have been more significantly affected than Chinese investments due, to a large extent, to the support of the Chinese state.

The coming financial apocalypse and what government and individuals can do to insulate themselves against the worst shocks In this controversial book a noted adherent of Austrian School of Economics theories advances the thesis that the United States is fast approaching the end stage of the biggest asset bubble in history. He describes how the bursting of the bubble will cause a massive interest rate shock that will send the US consumer economy and the US government pumped up by massive Treasury debt into bankruptcy, an event that will send shockwaves throughout the global economy. Michael Pento examines how policies followed by both the Federal Reserve and private industry have contributed to the impending interest rate disaster and highlights the similarities between the US and European debt crisis. But the book isn't all doom and gloom. Pento also provides well-reasoned solutions that, government, industry and individuals can take to insulate themselves against the coming crisis. * Paints an alarmingly vivid picture of the massive interest rate shock which soon will send consumers and the government into bankruptcy * Backed by a wealth of historical and economic data, Pento explains how the bubble was created and what the U.S. can do to mitigate the impending crisis * Provides investors with sound strategies for protecting themselves and their assets against the coming financial apocalypse * Explains why retirees, in particular, will be at risk as real estate prices decline, pensions weaken, and the bond bubble bursts

Debates over the role of government rage in the wake of America 's deepest financial crisis since the Depression. This book suggests new ways of appreciating the political, legal, and moral context that could bring about a more sound economic future. "Postcapitalism" analyzes the contemporary American predicament plaguing the economy: whether to leave the markets to their own devices or to allow government intervention. Instead of arguing for a capitalist or social democratic ideology, this book suggests that American pragmatism is indeed the choice we have made in the past century and that informs our current policies. This means that from the workplace to foreign aid, Americans are bound to cooperate with each other and collaborate rather than pursue their self-interest in competitive ways. Drawing on thinkers from Adam Smith to Keynes and Bernanke, Sassower shows how a new era of postideological capitalism can emerge in the wake of the current economic crisis.

Since the financial crisis, there have been numerous reports, articles and books highlighting the gloomy future ahead. Making Sense of Markets makes the case that received wisdom is still far too pessimistic, and that the future may be brighter than feared. A plain-speaking guide to keeping an open mind (and how to profit from it).

Debates over the role of government rage in the wake of America 's deepest financial crisis since the Depression. This book suggests new ways of appreciating the political, legal, and moral context that could bring about a more sound economic future. "Postcapitalism" analyzes the contemporary American predicament plaguing the economy: whether to leave the markets to their own devices or to allow government intervention. Instead of arguing for a capitalist or social democratic ideology, this book suggests that American pragmatism is indeed the choice we have made in the past century and that informs our current policies. This means that from the workplace to foreign aid, Americans are bound to cooperate with each other and collaborate rather than pursue their self-interest in competitive ways. Drawing on thinkers from Adam Smith to Keynes and Bernanke, Sassower shows how a new era of postideological capitalism can emerge in the wake of the current economic crisis.

Fiscal federalism has long been an important topic of inquiry in applied public economics, and interest in the functioning of intergovernmental fiscal relationships in multi-tiered public sector structures does not seem to be fading. Rather, the recent economic downturn and sovereign debt crisis have brought the analysis of multi-level fiscal governance to the forefront of academic discourse and stimulated the search for tax assignments that ease coordination between authorities at different tiers while preserving local fiscal autonomy and minimizing the harmful effects of taxation on the prospects of economic recovery. This Element examines the recent empirical work in this area and discusses the most critical issues that future research will need to address in order to push further the frontier of econometric analysis in fiscal federalism.

We are living in a time of crisis which has cascaded through society. Financial crisis has led to an economic crisis of recession and unemployment; an ensuing fiscal crisis over government deficits and austerity has led to a political crisis which threatens to become a democratic crisis. Borne unevenly, the effects of the crisis are exacerbating class and gender inequalities. Rival interpretations a focus on austerity and reduction in welfare spending versus a focus on financial crisis and democratic regulation of finance are used to justify radically diverse policies for the distribution of resources and strategies for economic growth, and contested gender relations lie at the heart of these debates. The future consequences of the crisis depend upon whether there is a deepening of democratic institutions, including in the European Union. Sylvia Walby offers an alternative framework within which to theorize crisis, drawing on complexity science and situating this within the wider field of study of risk, disaster and catastrophe. In doing so, she offers a critique and revision of the social science needed to understand the crisis.

What effects will the current economic crisis have on the long-term development of our societies? What does the future hold in store when we emerge from the crisis? These two questions lie at the heart of this important new book by the leading French sociologist Alain Touraine. In an era dominated by the global economy and the triumph of individualism, our society has broken away from the old model of integration in place since the industrial revolution. We no longer see ourselves as players in an economic system around which every aspect of society is ordered but rather as individuals with our own rights, capable of creating our own lives in a world in which cultural values prevail. The financial crisis and the growing autonomy of speculative and financial imperatives have exacerbated the rift between the economy and society and could push this long-term tendency in either of two directions. On the one hand, individuals who find themselves unemployed, impoverished and stripped of their savings may feel increasingly excluded and incapable of reacting politically, which would explain the silence of many victims of the crisis. On the other hand, individuals could also find themselves transformed into social actors who are defined increasingly in moral and universal terms, in which case the crisis could help to precipitate a long-term cultural evolution. We are facing a future as yet undecided, a future hovering between catastrophe and radical reform. This book explores the factors that could tip the balance.

'We need to organise politically to defend the weak, empower the many and prepare the ground for reversing the absurdities of capitalism.' - Yanis Varoufakis 'Capitalism over the past twenty-five years has been an incredible moral good.' - David Brooks The Munk debate on capitalism There is a growing belief that the capitalist system no longer works. Inequality is rampant. The environment is being destroyed for profits. In some western nations, life expectancy is even falling. Political power is wielded by wealthy elites and big business, not the people. But for proponents of capitalism, it is the engine of progress, not just making all of us materially better off, but helping to address everything from women's rights to political freedoms. We seem to stand at a crossroads: do we need to fix the system as a matter of urgency, or would it be better to hold our nerve?

This title surveys contributions to the economics of bankruptcy. It offers a comprehensive compilation of work by both legal scholars and economists working in the fields of corporate and consumer finance beginning with Baird, Jackson and Rea before showcasing papers that extend, test and revise their theories.

In this latest volume of the Critical Perspectives on International Public Sector Management series, Professors John Diamond and Joyce Liddle have gathered leading scholars and new research to help discern some immediate areas of public policy making that have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. With this new profoundly different context, “business as normal” is seen as no longer viable. Reimagining Public Sector Management delves into the crisis and emergency management of the pandemic, exploring the ways in which different agencies responded to the pandemic and the lessons learnt in terms of disaster planning and co-ordination. Chapters analyse the ways in which health services and the associated work linked to vaccine development provided significant lessons for those involved in public policy making and analysis before highlighting the emergence of a new consensus on the role of public agencies and institutions could play in the post pandemic environment as captured in the slogan “Build Back Better”.

Investment banks have disappeared overnight, industrial firms have gone bankrupt, and the financial order has been shaken to the core: our world is in the grips of the most calamitous economic crisis since the Great Depression with its epicentre is the imperial USA. Many around may wonder if another world is possible, but few are mapping out potential avenues - and flagging wrong turns - en route to a post-capitalist future. In this groundbreaking analysis, renowned radical political economists Albo, Gindin and Panitch lay bare the roots of the crisis, which they locate in the dynamic expansion of capital on a global scale over the last quarter century - and in the inner logic of capitalism itself. In and Out of Crisis challenges the call by much of the Left for a return to a mythical Golden Age of economic regulation as a check on finance capital and shows how neo-liberal free markets have been sustained by massive state intervention. With clarity and erudition, they argue that given the balance of social forces regulation is not a means of fundamentally reordering power in society, but rather a way of preserving markets. Contrary to those who believe US hegemony is on the wane, Albo, Gindin and Panitch contend that the meltdown has, in fact, reinforced the centrality of the American state as the dominant force within global capitalism, while simultaneously increasing the difficulties entailed in managing its imperial role. In conclusion, the authors argue that it's time to start thinking about genuinely transformative alternatives to capitalism - and how to build the collective capacity to get us there. We should be thinking bigger and preparing to go further.

A Great Deal of Ruin provides an accessible introduction to the enduring problem of financial crises. Illustrated with historical analysis, case studies, and clear economic concepts, this book explains in three parts what financial crises are, how they are caused and what we can learn from them. It begins with a taxonomy of crises and a list of factors that increase the risk for countries experiencing a financial crisis. It then examines five of the most important crises in modern economic history, beginning with the Great Depression and ending with the subprime crisis in the United States and its evolution into a debt crisis in the Eurozone. The book concludes with a set of lessons that can be learnt from the crises of the past. It will appeal to university students as well as general readers who are curious to learn more about the recent subprime crisis and other financial crises.

In September 2008, beset by mounting losses on high-risk mortgages and mortgage securities, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation teetered on the brink of insolvency. Fearing that confidence in the housing market would collapse completely if Freddie Mac and its competitor Fannie Mae failed, the US government made the difficult decision to place the two firms into conservatorship, taking control away from shareholders. Although the taxpayer commitment of hundreds of billions was meant to stabilize the housing finance system, Freddie's fall at the start of the financial crisis set off shockwaves around the world. In Days of Slaughter, Susan Wharton Gates, a former 19-year Freddie Mac employee and vice president of public policy, provides a vivid eyewitness account of the competing economic and political forces that led to massive losses for shareholders, investors, homeowners-and taxpayers. With a keen eye to the policy landscape, Gates relates the fateful decisions that led to Freddie Mac's downfall and desperate rescue. She also examines today's worrisome headlines about potential future bailouts, the uneven housing recovery, and stymied congressional reform efforts. Throughout the book, Gates argues convincingly that policymakers will be unable to safely reform the massive housing finance system that currently rests squarely on taxpayer shoulders without addressing deeper issues of ideology, moral hazard, and interest group politics. The first book to tell the story of Freddie Mac from an insider perspective-while casting a prophetic eye to the future-this first-hand account of housing policies, complex financial transactions, and the crazy quilt of federal and state actors involved in the Great Recession is a must-read. A cautionary tale of failed policies and corporate mismanagement that compellingly addresses previously unexplored issues of political ideology, organizational dynamics, and ethics, Days of Slaughter will appeal to readers everywhere who want a fuller explanation of what went awry in the US housing market.

The world economy is currently in the throes of a global economic crisis reminiscent of the great depressions of the 1930s and the 1870s. As back then, the crisis has exposed the major structural imbalances in financial and credit markets in addition to global trade forcing many governments, developed and developing, to impose debilitating austerity measures that are exacerbating the structural weaknesses that caused the crisis in the first place.

This volume offers historical insights into the origins of the contemporary crisis as well as detailed analyses of the financial and trade dimensions, an assessment of the technological and innovation context along with perspectives on the implications for unemployment and gender imbalances.

A rare analytical look at the financial crisis using simple analysis

The economic crisis that began in 2008 revealed the numerous problems in our financial system, from the way mortgage loans were produced to the way Wall Street banks leveraged themselves. Curiously enough, however, most of the reasons for the banking collapse are very similar to the reasons that Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), the largest hedge fund to date, collapsed in 1998. "The Crisis of Crowding" looks at LTCM in greater detail, with new information, for a more accurate perspective, examining how the subsequent hedge funds started by Meriwether and former partners were destroyed again by the lapse of judgement in allowing Lehman Brothers to fail.

Covering the lessons that were ignored during LTCM's collapse but eventually connected to the financial crisis of 2008, the book presents a series of lessons for hedge funds and financial markets, including touching upon the circle of greed from homeowners to real estate agents to politicians to Wall Street.Guides the reader through the real story of Long-Term Capital Management with accurate descriptions, previously unpublished data, and interviewsDescribes the lessons that hedge funds, as well as the market, should have learned from LTCM's collapseExplores how the financial crisis and LTCM are a global phenomena rooted in failures to account for risk in crowded spaces with leverageExplains why quantitative finance is essential for every financial institution from risk management to valuation modeling to algorithmic tradingIs filled with simple quantitative analysis about the financial crisis, from the Quant Crisis of 2007 to the failure of Lehman Brothers to the Flash Crash of 2010

A unique blend of storytelling and sound quantitative analysis, "The Crisis of Crowding" is one of the first books to offer an analytical look at the financial crisis rather than just an account of what happened. Also included are a layman's guide to the Dodd-Frank rules and what it means for the future, as well as an evaluation of the Fed's reaction to the crisis, QE1, QE2, and QE3.

The global financial crisis and its aftermath saw boom-bust cycles in cross-border capital flows of astounding magnitude. Issues of capital account liberalization and the imposition of capital controls are back in the headlines, and on researchers' agendas. This comprehensive and timely research review covers many of the themes central to the issue of capital account liberalization, and provides a balanced assessment of the role that capital controls might play in the effective management of capital flows to reap their benefits.