Constructing the Spanish Empire in Havana examines the political economy surrounding the use of enslaved laborers in the capital of Spanish imperial Cuba from 1762 to 1835. In this first book-length exploration of state slavery on the island, Evelyn P. Jennings demonstrates that the Spanish state's policies and practices in the ownership and employment of enslaved workers after 1762 served as a bridge from an economy based on imperial service to a rapidly expanding plantation economy in the nineteenth century. The Spanish state had owned and exploited enslaved workers in Cuba since the early 1500s. After the humiliating yearlong British occupation of Havana beginning in 1762, however, the Spanish Crown redoubled its efforts to purchase and maintain thousands of royal slaves to prepare Havana for what officials believed would be the imminent renewal of war with England. Jennings shows that the composition of workforces assigned to public projects depended on the availability of enslaved workers in various interconnected labor markets within Cuba, within the Spanish empire, and in the Atlantic world. Moreover, the site of enslavement, the work required, and the importance of that work according to imperial priorities influenced the treatment and relative autonomy of those laborers as well as the likelihood they would achieve freedom. As plantation production for export purposes emerged as the most dynamic sector of Cuba's economy by 1810, the Atlantic networks used to obtain enslaved workers showed increasing strain. British abolitionism exerted additional pressure on the slave trade. To offset the loss of access to enslaved laborers, colonial officials expanded the state's authority to sentence deserters, vagrants, and fugitives, both enslaved and free, to labor in public works such as civil construction, road building, and the creation of Havana's defensive forts. State efforts in this area demonstrate the deep roots of state enslavement and forced labor in nineteenth-century Spanish colonialism and in capitalist development in the Atlantic world. Constructing the Spanish Empire in Havana places the processes of building and sustaining the Spanish empire in the imperial hub of Havana in a comparative perspective with other sites of empire building in the Atlantic world. Furthermore, it considers the human costs of reproducing the Spanish empire in a major Caribbean port, the state's role in shaping the institution of slavery, and the experiences of enslaved and other coerced laborers both before and after the beginning of Cuba's sugar boom in the early nineteenth century.

Economic democracy is essential for creating a truly democratic political sphere. This engaging book uses Marxist theory to hypothesise that capitalism is not a democratic system, and that a modern socialist system of producer cooperatives and democratically managed enterprises is urgently needed. A New Model of Socialism focuses on the current crisis of the political Left, a result of the collapse of the Soviet model of society and the decline of statism and kingship. Bruno Jossa expands on existing theories to explore Marx?s notions on economic democracy in a modern setting. He advocates a move away from the centralised planning form of economic socialism towards a self-management system for firms that does not prioritise the interests of one class over another, in order to achieve greater economic democracy. It is argued that the establishment of such a system of democratic firms is the precondition for reducing intervention in the economy, thus enabling the State to perform its ultimate function of serving the public interest. This timely book is ideal for advanced scholars of Marxist, radical and heterodox economic theory, as well as academics with an interest in the rise of socialism in our modern world. Indeed, it will also be of value to all those seeking a viable and practical alternative to existing capitalist and socialist thinking.

Focusing on the developing economic challenges confronting Korea and the US in response to the aging of their populations, this timely book examines how public policies are evolving in light of demographic changes, the impact of aging on governmental expenditures, and transitions in the labor force associated with aging. International contributors comparatively analyze government approaches to population aging, illustrating the similar challenges faced across nations. Chapters draw attention to those particular issues that public policy plans must surmount, including funding pressures on retirement plans and the effects of an aging labor force on economic growth and productivity. They offer evidence on the scale of these challenges in Korea and the US and empirically evaluate how governments, employers, and individuals may respond to these issues in the years to come. Addressing fiscal sustainability and key social security programs, including the implications of the 2015 Korean pension reform and the economic difficulties entailed by the future of Medicare, this book investigates the implications of managing and sustaining welfare for an aging population. This cutting-edge book will be ideal reading for economists focusing on public policy and welfare programs, benefiting from the comparative approach to fiscal accountability and sustainability. It will also appeal to practitioners and policymakers seeking insights into the consequences of an aging population and hoping to develop innovative methods and approaches to welfare.

Apple isn’t just a brand; it’s the world’s most valuable company and creator of the 21st century’s defining product. The iPhone has revolutionized the way we live, work and connect. But Apple is now a victim of its own success, caught in the middle of a new Cold War between two superpowers.

On the brink of bankruptcy in 1996, Apple shifted its operations offshore. By 2003 it was lured to China by the promise of affordable, ubiquitous labour. As the iPod and iPhone transformed Apple’s fortunes, their sophisticated production played a seminal role in financing, training, supervising, and supplying Chinese manufacturers – skills Beijing is now weaponizing against the West.

Investigative journalist Patrick McGee draws on 200 interviews with former Apple executives and engineers to reveal how Cupertino’s choice to anchor its supply chain in China has increasingly made it vulnerable to the regime’s whims. Both an insider’s historical account and a cautionary tale, Apple in China is the first history of Apple to go beyond the biographies of its top executives and set the iPhone’s global domination within an increasingly fraught geopolitical context.

The public space of democracies is constructed in a context that is marked by the digital transformation of the economy and society. This construction is carried out primarily through deliberation. Deliberation informs and guides both individual and collective action. To shed light on the concept of deliberation, it is important to consider the rationality of choice; but what type of rationality is this? References to economic reason are at once widespread, crucial and controversial. This book therefore deals with arguments used by individuals based on the notions of preferential choice and rational behavior, and also criticizes them. These arguments are examined in the context of the major themes of public debate that help to construct the contemporary public space: "populism", social insurance, social responsibility and environmental issues. Economic Reason and Political Reason underlines the importance of the pragmatist shift of the 2000s and revisits, through the lens of this new approach, the great utilitarian and Rawlsian normative constructs that dominated normative political economics at the end of the 20th century. Alternative approaches, based on the concept of deliberative democracy, are proposed and discussed.

How have the most influential political economists of the past three centuries theorized about sovereign borrowing and shaped its now widespread use? This important question receives a comprehensive answer in this original work, featuring careful textual analysis and illuminating exhibits of public debt empirics since 1700. Beyond its value as a definitive, authoritative history of thought on public debt, this book rehabilitates and reintroduces a realist perspective into a contemporary debate now heavily dominated by pessimists and optimists alike. The book simultaneously explicates and critiques the most prominent theories concerning why states borrow in the first place, whether or not they borrow productively, the incidence of their debts, why they sometimes borrow too much and why they often default, whether explicitly or implicitly. The author classifies major public debt theorists as pessimists, optimists or realists. This book also examines the influence of regime types, especially why most modern welfare states tend not only to over-issue bonds but also to incur even larger implicit obligations via unfunded, off-balance sheet liabilities. Scholars and undergraduate and graduate students in economics and political science, as well as policymakers, will find this analysis of public debt and public spending insightful and revealing.

From one of tech's boldest thinkers and his longtime deputy, this is a sweeping indictment of Silicon Valley and treatise on how the West has slid into a culture of complacency - even as we enter a new era of mounting global threats.

Once upon a time, the most brilliant engineering minds once collaborated with government to advance world-changing technologies. Their efforts secured the West's dominance and kept its people safe. Now, our relationship with new technologies has become shallow-and the repercussions could not be more perilous.

Today, engineers and founders build photo-sharing apps and marketing algorithms, furthering the ambitions of whoever can exploit them. This complacency has spread into academia, politics, and the boardroom. The result? An entire generation for whom the narrow-minded pursuit of the whims of a late capitalist economy has become their calling.

In this groundbreaking treatise, one of tech's boldest thinkers and his longtime deputy offer a searing critique of our collective abandonment of ambition. Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska argue that in order for the West to retain its global edge-and preserve the freedoms we take for granted-the software industry must renew its commitment to addressing our most urgent challenges, including the new arms race of artificial intelligence. Governmen , in turn, must embrace the most effective features of the engineering mindset that have propelled Silicon Valley's success.

Above all, leaders must reject intellectual fragility and preserve space for ideological confrontation. A willingness to risk the disapproval of the crowd, Karp and Zamiska contend, has everything to do with technological and economic outperformance.

At once iconoclastic and rigorous, this book will also lift the veil on Palantir and its broader political project from the inside, offering a passionate call for the West to wake up to our new reality.

The development of information technology in supply chains has shown that this digital revolution can be a source of performance for enterprises and governments. Among these technologies is blockchain. The application of blockchains in cryptocurrency reduces information security risks and eliminates several processing and transaction fees and allows countries with volatile currencies to have a more stable currency. Blockchain Applications in Cryptocurrency for Technological Evolution features a collection of contributions related to the application of blockchain technology in cryptocurrency. It further explains the ways in which these applications have affected the industry. Covering topics such as crypto mining attacks, data processing architecture, and purchase power, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for business leaders and executives, IT managers, logistics specialists, students and faculty of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

This Handbook discusses theoretical approaches to migration studies in general, as well as confronting various issues in international migration from a distinctive and unique international political economy perspective. With a focus on the relation between globalization and migration, the international political economy (IPE) theories of migration are systematically addressed. Original new contributions from leading migration scholars offer a complete overview of international migration. They examine migration as part of a global political economy whilst addressing the theoretical debates relating to the capacity of the state to control international migration and the so called 'policy gap' or 'gap hypothesis' between migration policies and their outcomes. An examination of the relationship between regional integration and migration, with examples from Europe, North America, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as South-East Asia - is also included. Aimed at political scientists and political economists with an interest in globalization and EU policymaking this collection will be accessible to students, academic and policymakers alike. Contributors: R.G. Anghel, A. Balch, M. Fauser, C. Finotelli, A. Geddes, W.J. Haller, F. Jurje, O. Korneev, S. Lavenex, A.I. Leon, S. McMahon, E. Nadalutti, H. Overbeek, F. Pasetti, H. Pellerin, M. Piracha, T. Randazzo, R. Roccu, M. Samers, G. Sciortino, K. Surak, L.S. Talani, R. Zapata-Barrero

SUNDAY TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR

an ECONOMIST Politics and Current Affairs book of the year

and a DAILY MAIL and TIMES book of the year

'You cannot understand power, wealth and poverty without knowing about Moneyland.' Simon Kuper, New Statesman

2019: democracy is eating itself, inequality is skyrocketing, the system is breaking apart. Why?

Because in 1962, some bankers in London had an idea that changed the world. That idea was called 'offshore'. It meant that, for the first time, thieves could dream big. They could take everything.

Join investigative journalist Oliver Bullough on a journey into the hidden world of the new global kleptocrats.

See the poor countries where public money is stolen and the rich ones where it is laundered and invested. Watch the crooks at work and at play, and meet their respectable, white-collar enablers. Learn how the new system works and begin to see how we can tackle it.