World Economics

China today is visible everywhere: In the news, in the economic pressures battering America, in the workplace, and in every trip to the store. Provocative, timely, and essential, this dramatic account of China's growing dominance as an industrial super-power by journalist Ted C. Fishman explains how the profound shift in the global economic order has occurred, and why it already affects us all.

From the 1830s onward, a succession of well-born Britons headed west to the great American wilderness to find adventure and fulfillment. They brought their dogs, sporting guns, valets, and all the attitudes and prejudices of their class. Prairie Fever explores why the West had such a strong romantic appeal for them at a time when their inherited wealth and passion for sport had no American equivalent.

Fruto del espectacular avance de la ciencia en los últimos decenios, la globalización está transformando de forma radical el orden social y económico del siglo XXI. En un mundo más pequeño y conectado, el progreso y el bienestar llegan hasta el último rincón del planeta, rescatando de la miseria a cientos de millones de personas. Sin embargo, la nueva economía virtual, sumada a la progresiva sustitución del trabajo humano por robots y computadoras, ha generado también un incremento de la desigualdad de tal dimensión que preocupa incluso a quienes no la padecen.

Pela primeira vez, conhecemos a mulher por trás da filantropa. Melinda escreve sobre sua vida pessoal, sua história e as dificuldades que supera dia a dia na busca por equidade no próprio casamento. Ela conta as lições mais emocionantes que aprendeu com as pessoas extraordinárias que conheceu ao longo de sua jornada, as experiências transformadoras que viveu e os desafios que enfrentou nessas quase duas décadas de atuação junto à Fundação Bill & Melinda Gates.

Less than 21 years after the end of the First World War, the Second World War broke out in September 1939 when, on the third day of that month, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany, which had invaded Poland two days earlier. The Second World War would last for nearly six years (although some historians consider the war to have started in Asia in 1937), and all of Europe was ravaged.

We are at a crossroads of immense proportions. Nationally, internationally, and globally, we areliving in a manner that is absolutely, unconditionally, irrevocably unsustainable. Our global economic stability is in jeopardy, our planet’s ecosystems are under attack, and our health is deteriorating. Huge changes are coming whether or not we want them, whether or not we are ready for them. How can we lead the charge to introduce innovations and solutions to meet the inevitable challenges of new kinds of economic forces?

This is not your father's financial system. Jimmy Stewart, the trustworthy, honest banker in the movie, It's a Wonderful Life, is dead. And so is his small-town bank, Bailey Savings & Loan. Instead, we're watching It's a Horrible Mess with Wall Street (aka the Vegas Strip) playing ever larger craps with our economy and our tax dollars. This audiobook, written by one of the world's most respected economists, describes in lively, humorous, simple, but also deadly serious terms the big con underlying the big game. But is also proposes a solution - Limited Purpose Banking.

In the American healthcare system, ignorance is not bliss. We are all paying the price for ever-increasing medical costs and the accompanying loss of quality care.

If the financial crisis has taught us anything, it is that Americans save too little, spend too much, and borrow excessively. What can we learn from East Asian and European countries that have fostered enduring cultures of thrift over the past two centuries? Beyond Our Means tells for the first time how other nations aggressively encouraged their citizens to save by means of special savings institutions and savings campaigns.

With in-depth research, interviews, and provocative analysis, Mira Kamdar offers a penetrating view of India and its cultural and economic impact on the United States and the world. From Bollywood to the Indian diaspora to India's effect on global politics, she reports on the people, companies, and places shaping the new India. Kamdar examines the challenges India faces while celebrating India's tremendous vitality and the opportunities this Asian democracy has to shape its own and all of our destinies.

In Chasing the White Dog, journalist Max Watman traces the historical roots and contemporary story of hooch. He takes us to the backwoods of Appalachia and the gritty nip joints of Philadelphia, from a federal courthouse to Pocono Speedway, profiling the colorful characters who make up white whiskey's lore. Along the way, Watman chronicles his hilarious attempts to distill his own moonshine - the essential ingredients and the many ways it can all go wrong - from his initial ill-fated batch to his first successful jar of 'shine.

In one lifetime GDP, or gross domestic product, has ballooned from a narrow economic tool into a global article of faith. It is our universal yardstick of progress. As The Little Big Number demonstrates, this spells trouble. While economies and cultures measure their performance by it, GDP ignores central facts such as quality, costs, and purpose.

Halfway through the twentieth century, the United States towered over the world in industrial might. After winning the 1948 election, Harry Truman hoped to use this economic strength to build on FDR’s achievements with new liberal reforms. But then, in just ten months between September 1949 and June 1950, the president’s ambitions were overtaken by events that left the country gripped by rage and fear. In the Shadow of Fear is an innovative and gripping history of this pivotal moment.

Respected scholar William Bennett reacquaints America with its heritage in the second volume of America: The Last Best Hope (Volume II). This engaging narrative slices through the cobwebs of time, memory, and prevailing cynicism to reinvigorate America with an informed patriotism.

With command and wit, William J. Bennett reacquaints Americans with their heritage in an engaging narrative that cuts through the cobwebs of time, memory, and prevailing cynicism. Washington, Franklin, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and others reemerge not as marble icons or dust-dry names in a textbook, but as full-blooded, heroic pioneers whose far-reaching vision forged a nation that attracted - that still attracts - millions yearning to breathe free.

In our daily lives, we're surrounded by wires, pipes, utility poles, cell phone towers, and myriad other infrastructure that facilitates almost everything we do. Even though these systems are essential, when was the last time you gave them much thought? In On the Grid, Scott Huler sets out to understand all of the systems that shape our society - from transportation, water, and garbage to the Internet coming through our cable lines.

Did you know that subsidized goods often cost us more than we'd pay for them in the free market? In fact, we sometimes pay for goods that will never exist at all. It turns out that the free market in America is anything but. How did a system designed to safeguard American farmers turn into the nation's biggest scam?Most of us don't know what subsidies are and don't think they affect us directly, so we tune out. But they have an enormous impact on all of us.

How will we live well in a super-networked, information-soaked, yet predictably irrational world? The only way to know is to understand how the way we think is changing. As economist Tyler Cowen boldly shows in Create Your Own Economy, the way we think now is changing more rapidly than it has in a very long time. Not since the Industrial Revolution has a man-made creation - in this case, the World Wide Web - so greatly influenced the way our minds work and our human potential.

Facebook's founding is legend: In a Harvard dorm, wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg invented a new way to connect with friends...and the rest is history. But for the people who actually molded this great idea into a game-changing $300 billion company, the experience was far more tumultuous and uncertain than we might expect. Mike Hoefflinger was one of those Facebook insiders.

Today’s major technology companies - Google, Facebook, Amazon, Tesla, and others - wield more power than national governments. In this comprehensive, engaging, and prescriptive audiobook, Alexis Wichowski considers their growing and unavoidable influence in our lives, showing in eye-opening detail how these net states are conquering countries, disrupting reality, and jeopardizing our future - and what we can do to regulate and reform the industry before it does irreparable harm to the way we think, how we act, and how we’re governed.