World Economics

America's middle class, the driver of so much of our economic success and political stability, is rapidly disappearing, forcing us to confront the fear that we are slipping as a nation - that our children and grandchildren will enjoy fewer opportunities and face a lower standard of living than we did. It's the dark flipside of the American Dream - an American Nightmare of our own making.

A Million a Minute is the inside story of the mysterious and wildly influential world of trading. In our interconnected global markets, traders have become the front-line, free-market warriors closest to the money, closest to the action. Their reactions to world events can topple governments and cause currencies to rise or plummet. They affect the prices we pay for the food we eat, the gasoline we use, even our homes and mortgages.

In American Mojo: Lost and Found, Peter D. Kiernan, the award-winning author of the New York Times best-seller Becoming China's Bitch, focuses on America's greatest challenge and opportunity: restoring the middle class to its full promise and potential. Our educated, skilled, and motivated middle class was the cornerstone of America's postwar economic might, but the country's dynamic core has struggled and changed dramatically through the last three decades.

Crash tells the story of the Great Depression, from the sweeping fallout of the market collapse to the more personal stories of those caught up in the aftermath. Packed with photographs, primary documents, and firsthand accounts, Crash shines a spotlight on pivotal moments and figures across ethnic, gender, racial, social, and geographic divides, reflecting many different experiences of one of the most turbulent decades in American history.

All managers today are Internet managers, whether they're ready to admit it or not. It doesn't matter if their business is large or small, old economy or new. In a faster, electronic, and more direct economy, every manager needs help. And here it is. The 10-Second Internet Manager offers quick, no-nonsense tips, tactics, and strategies for succeeding fast in the Internet age from Mark Breier, an on-line expert willing to share the practical lessons he learned as an executive on the front lines of the e-commerce wars.

The implausible truth: Over one billion people in the world are hungry and over one billion are overweight. Far from complete opposites, hunger and obesity are in fact different manifestations of the same problem: It's increasingly difficult to find and eat nutritious food. By examining the global industrial food system using the deceptively simple template of a classic American dinner, We the Eaters not only outlines the root causes for this bizarre and troubling dichotomy, but also provides a blueprint of actionable solutions.

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.

Here is a fascinating compact history of Chinese political, economic, and cultural life, ranging from the origins of civilization in China to the beginning of the 21st century. Historian Paul Ropp combines vivid story-telling with astute analysis to shed light on some of the larger questions of Chinese history. Offering a global perspective, the book tells how China's nomadic neighbors to the north and west influenced much of the political, military, and even cultural history of China.

In responding to the financial crash of 2008, both the Bush administration and the Obama administration have relied on prescriptions developed by John Maynard Keynes, the most important economist since Marx. But should we be relying on Keynes? What did Keynes actually say? Did he make his case? Hunter Lewis concludes that he did not. If Keynes was wrong then so are the economic policies of virtually all world governments today.

Real life stories about consumers who demand that companies make a diffence in the world with their products.

We're overusing the earth's finite resources, and yet excessive consumption is failing to improve our lives. In Enough Is Enough, Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill lay out a visionary but realistic alternative to the perpetual pursuit of economic growth-an economy where the goal is not more but enough.

With 1.1 billion residents, the world's largest democracy is poised to dominate the world stage. One of India's wealthiest men gives an insider's view into his country's dynamic transformation, revealing the forces and unique characteristics behind India's meteoric rise.

Discover how you can use your purchasing power to create and encourage sustainable change. Not sure what sustainability actually means? This eye-opening book walks you through the products and industries that come with huge hidden price tags. Sustainability shouldn't be a dirty word, but rather an open educational conversation about how the unrestrained usage of raw materials and natural resources doesn't work in the long term and why that should matter to every consumer. Join the conversation about how to change your buying habits to save the world one decision at a time.

It tracks the money machine of wealthy foundations and individuals who give instructions along with their money and explores how donors manipulate eco-ideology, attack selected industries, and influence government regulations by supporting agreeable experts as advisors to powerful agencies. Here are sound ideas to crack open the barriers that hide Big Green and its dangers to America's free society, our continuing achievements, and a desirable future.

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?

George Washington: general, statesman...businessman? Most people don't know that Washington was the country's first true entrepreneur, responsible for innovations in several industries. In George Washington, Entrepreneur, John Berlau presents a fresh, surprising take on our forefather's business pursuits. History has depicted Washington as a gifted general and political pragmatist, not an intellectual heavyweight. But he was a serious inventor and inveterate tinkerer and just as intelligent as Jefferson or Franklin.

The bigger picture of the ongoing financial crisis has now started to evolve. Easy Money captures this big picture. The history of money and the financial system as it has evolved over the centuries stand at the heart of this endeavor. It explores the idea that the evolution of money over centuries has led to an easy money policy being followed by governments and central banks across the world, which in turn has fueled humongous Ponzi schemes, which have now started to unravel, bringing the whole world on the brink of a financial disaster.

We all know the bad news. The heady promise of the Arab Spring has given way to repression, civil war, and an epic refugee crisis. Economic growth is sputtering. Income inequality is rising around the world. And the threat of ISIS and other extremist groups keeps spreading. We are living in an age of unprecedented, irreversible decline - or so we're constantly being told. Jonathan Tepperman's The Fix presents a very different picture.

Bailout Nation offers one of the clearest looks at the financial lenders, regulators, and politicians responsible for the financial crisis of 2008. Written by Barry Ritholtz, one of the most popular economic bloggers and a well-established industry pundit, this book skillfully explores how the United States evolved from a rugged independent nation to a soft Bailout Nation - where financial firms are allowed to self-regulate in good times, but are bailed out by taxpayers in bad times.

Simon Anholt has spent decades helping countries, from Austria to Zambia, to improve their international standing. Using colorful descriptions of his experiences - dining with Vladimir Putin at his country home, taking a group of Felipe Calderon’s advisors on their first Mexico City subway ride, touring a beautiful new government hospital in Afghanistan that nobody would use because it was in Taliban-controlled territory - he tells how he began finding answers to that question.