Economie

Macro-economische visie op een toekomst waarin welvaart niet hoeft samen te hangen met economische groei.

Bestaat er nog ongerepte natuur in Nederland? Landschappen met woeste gronden, ondoordringbare bossen, gevaarlijke moerasgebieden, getijdenstromen, kliffen, ongetemde stranden en wolfskuilen? Kunnen we naar ons land kijken vanuit het perspectief van de wildernis? Nederland is door mensenhand gemaakt. Toch telt het land plekken waar de wildernis heerst, waar de roep van de natuur klinkt. Kester Freriks doorkruiste het land op zoek naar de wilde weelde van het ongerepte, en hij vond die op onverwachte plekken. Behalve het woeste landschap vormen oude land- en waterkaarten zijn inspiratiebronnen. Vele hiervan zijn in dit boek afgebeeld. Jan W.H. Werner, conservator van de kaartencollectie van de Universiteit van Amsterdam, behandelt in vogelvlucht de geschiedenis van de cartografie in Nederland. Het resultaat is een reisverslag en een liefdesverklaring. "Verborgen wildernis" is een pleidooi voor het behoud van het kostbaarste bezit van ons land: de vrije, wilde natuur, al denken we dat die getemd is.

In this real-life political thriller, former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou tells the inside story of the six years during which the Greek drama changed Europe and riveted the world. It is the story of a country forced by past mistakes into unprecedented actions with enormously painful consequences. A story about the people who shaped events by trying to respond to rapidly evolving circumstances often beyond their control. About decisions - good and bad, right and wrong - taken in official and behind-the-scenes gatherings in Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, London, New York, Washington and Athens; in Luxembourg châteaux courtyards, Davos kitchens and Bilderberg gatherings; in elegant offices and dreary basement meetings rooms.

The story begins in October 2009 in Athens, when after a landslide victory, the new government shocks the world by announcing a fiscal deficit of an alarming size, until then kept secret. The "accident waiting to happen" since the launch of the Euro is finally here - but there are no contingency plans to deal with it, and the systemic nature of the crisis is initially not fully appreciated. When a bailout mechanism is finally put together, it fails to convince markets that the Eurozone will do whatever it takes to prevent the bankruptcy of one of its members. The bluff is called, and Greece is forced to apply in May 2010 for a massive loan from the Eurozone and the IMF, and accept a harsh austerity program. As the first loan installment arrives one day before the country declares default, the first wage and pension cuts produce riots and social unrest which leave three people dead.

But the crisis is not over - it mutates. Delays in recognizing the problem and mistakes in the way it is dealt with end up opening the gates of hell for the entire Eurozone. Ireland is forced into a bailout - Portugal follows. And in Greece, the initial good program results are soon swept away by the concern in international markets that Greece might exit the Eurozone. Meanwhile the continuing austerity leads to an ever-deeper recession, rapidly rising unemployment, increasing social tensions, and real suffering.

Six years down the road since the crisis erupted, Greece is in its third bailout, still in a severe social and economic crisis, and there are so many questions. Were other solutions available? Should Greece have threatened to default in order to get a better deal? Should there have been debt relief from the beginning? Would Greece have been better off if it had left the Euro? Has Greece saved the Euro but not itself? The book addresses these questions with the eye of someone at the heart of decision-making during the crisis.

This is the breath-taking story of an incredible period, told for the first time not by an outside observer, but by one of its protagonists.

The fateful span of Japan's modern history, in which it has undergone as dramatic a transformation as any country has known.

Who makes most money from the demand for cappuccinos early in the morning at Waterloo Station? Why is it impossible to get a foot on the property ladder? How does the Mafia make money from laundries when street gangs pushing drugs don't? Who really benefits from immigration? How can China, in just fifty years, go from the world's worst famine to one of the greatest economic revolutions of all time, lifting a million people out of poverty a month?

Looking at familiar situations in unfamiliar ways, THE UNDERCOVER ECONOMIST is a fresh explanation of the fundamental principles of the modern economy, illuminated by examples from the streets of London to the booming skyscrapers of Shanghai to the sleepy canals of Bruges. Leaving behind textbook jargon and equations, Tim Harford will reveal the games of signals and negotiations, contests of strength and battles of wit that drive not only the economy at large but the everyday choices we make.

Nancy McKinstry, bestuursvoorzitter van informatieleverancier Wolters Kluwer, over de razendsnelle technologische veranderingen, de daaruit voortvloeiende ethische vraagstukken en het belang van diversiteit en inclusiviteit voor ondernemingen als Wolters Kluwer.00Dit boek bevat de Nederlandse vertaling plus het Engelse origineel - uitgebreid en geannoteerd - van de vijfde EW Economie-lezing die de bestuursvoorzitter van informatieleverancier Wolters Kluwer Nancy McKinstry donderdagavond 10 maart 2022 heeft uitgesproken in debatcentrum De Rode Hoed in Amsterdam.00De Amerikaanse McKinstry (63) is sinds september 2003 CEO en voorzitter van de raad van bestuur van informatieleverancier Wolters Kluwer. Toonaangevende media hebben haar herhaaldelijk een van de machtigste vrouwen in het bedrijfsleven genoemd. Ze staat op de lijst van Fortune International?s Most Powerful Women in Business en is opgenomen in HBR?s 2019-lijst van ?de meest effectieve CEO?s van de wereld?.00In de jaarlijkse EW Economie-lezing geven ondernemers, bestuurders van bedrijven en economen hun visie op ontwikkelingen in de samenleving. De EW Economie-lezing is eerder uitgesproken door Ben van Beurden (Shell), Pieter Elbers (KLM), Frans van Houten (Philips) en Jacco Vonhof (MKB-Nederland). Nancy McKinstry vertegenwoordigt bij dit eerste lustrum een dubbele primeur: zij is de eerste vrouw én de eerste niet-Nederlander die de EW Economie-lezing verzorgt.0.

"Failed states" Chomsky writes, are those "that do not protect their citizens from violence and perhaps even destruction, that regard themselves as beyond the reach of domestic or international law, and that suffer from a 'democratic deficit,' having democratic forms but with limited substance." Exploring recent U.S. foreign and domestic policies, Chomsky assesses Washington's escalation of the nuclear risk, the dangerous consequences of the occupation of Iraq; and America's self-exemption from international law. He also examines an American electoral system that frustrates genuine political alternatives, thus impeding any meaningful democracy.

There has been much talk about family values in recent years, but little examination of the economic forces that are exploding family life and limiting the caregiving that families can provide. As Folbre points out in her provocative and insightful new book, every society must confront the problem of balancing self-interested pursuits with care for others--including children, the elderly, and the infirm. Historically, most societies enjoyed an increased supply of care by maintaining strict limits on women's freedom. But as these limits happily and inevitably give way, there are many consequences for those who still need care.

Using the image of "the invisible heart" to evoke the forces of compassion that must temper the forces of self-interest, Folbre argues that if we don't establish a new set of rules defining our mutual responsibilities for caregiving, the penalties suffered by the needy--our very families--will increase. Intensified economic competition may drive altruism and families out of business.

A leading feminist economist, Nancy Folbre writes in a lively, personal style--Molly Ivins cheek-to-cheek with John Kenneth Galbraith--and develops a distinctive approach to the economics of care. Unlike others who praise family values, Folbre acknowledges the complicated relationship between women and altruism. Her book offers new interpretations of such policy issues as welfare reform, school finance, and progressive taxation, and it confronts the challenges of globalization, outlining strategies for developing an economic system that rewards both individual achievement and care for others.

In this volume, eminent economist Charles Kindleberger sets out to challenge the widespread belief that the market for seafarers, in the days before steam, was efficient, conforming more or less to a strong prior belief in the neo-classical economic model of supply and demand. 

Maritime history is traditionally strewn with references to crimping or shanghaiing, naval press-gangs, desertion, mutiny, marooning and shipwrecks due to drunkenness or negligence. In contrast, Kindleberger examines issues of recruitment and pay, the treatment of seamen, and the question of government intervention and its impact on efficiency, in the engaging narrative style that is his trademark. 

Offering an original and informative account of the markets for seafarers in the age of sail, Mariners and Markets will be welcomed by economic and maritime historians alike.

In February of 2008, amid the looming global financial crisis, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France asked Nobel Prize-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, along with the distinguished French economist Jean Paul Fitoussi, to establish a commission of leading economists to study whether Gross Domestic Product (GDP)--the most widely used measure of economic activity--is a reliable indicator of economic and social progress. The Commission was given the further task of laying out an agenda for developing better measures.

Mismeasuring Our Lives is the result of this major intellectual effort, one with pressing relevance for anyone engaged in assessing how and whether our economy is serving the needs of our society. The authors offer a sweeping assessment of the limits of GDP as a measurement of the well-being of societies--considering, for example, how GDP overlooks economic inequality (with the result that most people can be worse off even though average income is increasing); and does not factor environmental impacts into economic decisions.

In place of GDP, Mismeasuring Our Lives introduces a bold new array of concepts, from sustainable measures of economic welfare, to measures of savings and wealth, to a "green GDP." At a time when policymakers worldwide are grappling with unprecedented global financial and environmental issues, here is an essential guide to measuring the things that matter.

In this revolutionary, acclaimed book, bestselling economist Tim Harford introduced us to a selection of fifty radical inventions that changed the world.

Now Harford once again brings us an array of remarkable, memorable, curious and often unexpected things, inventions, that teach us lessons by turns intimate and sweeping about the complex world economy we live in today. From the brick, blockchain and the bicycle to fire, the factory and fundraising, and from solar PV and the pencil to the postage stamp, this brilliant and enlightening collection resonates, fascinates and stimulates. It is a wonderful blend of insight and inspiration from one of Britain's finest non-fiction storytellers.

"Bedrijven die niet bijdragen aan een betere wereld hebben geen bestaansrecht. Ze moeten zich op het goede richten, de wereld beter maken, het geld komt dan vanzelf. Na de door hebzucht en overmoed gekenmerkte crisis van 2008 wordt deze boodschap van de nieuwe CEO van Unilever met gejuich ontvangen. Onverbiddelijk en onvermoeibaar legt Paul Polman uit: multinationals als Unilever spelen een hoofdrol in het uitbannen van armoede en het aanpakken van het klimaatprobleem. Dit is het grote gevecht om de ziel van het kapitalisme. Maar de moedige pionier loopt zo ver voor de troepen uit dat ?zijn? duurzame Unilever in 2017 dreigt te worden opgeslokt door concurrent Kraft-Heinz. Na deze ?bijna-doodervaring? gaat Polman op zoek naar een veilige haven voor zijn experiment. Door dagkoersen geregeerde Britse aandeelhouders en Nederlandse politici versperren de slecht luisterende ?CEO-priester? de weg. Zijn poging om er eindelijk echt één bedrijf van te maken met één hoofdkantoor in Nederland, mislukt op dramatische wijze. 0In 'Het drama Ahold' (2004) en 'De Prooi' (2008) reconstrueerde Jeroen Smit hoe falend leiderschap, opgejaagd door op snelle winst gerichte aandeelhouders, veel waarde vernietigde. De wereld snakt naar een bedrijfsleven dat zich over de grote vraagstukken van deze tijd ontfermt. In 'Het Grote Gevecht' laat Smit zien dat we daarvoor allemaal, als consumenten, werknemers en vooral ook als beleggers, een grote draai moeten maken.

Stanley Fischer served as First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from 1994 to 2001. IMF Essays from a Time of Crisis collects sixteen essays written for the most part during his time at the IMF, each updated with Fischer's later reflections on the issues raised. The IMF drew much criticism for some of its actions during Fischer's tenure, and he vigorously defends the "battlefield medicine" practiced by the IMF during a series of economic crises, which included the problems of economic transition in the former Soviet bloc and the Asian financial crisis. Fischer addresses the subsequent calls for reform of the international financial system and makes the case for the IMF as an international lender of last resort.

The first section of essays, "The Role of the IMF and the Reform of the International Financial System," considers the IMF's role in the international financial system in light of the crises of the 1990s. The second section, "Macroeconomic Policy, Stabilization, and Transition," examines such topics as exchange rate regimes, inflation, and Eastern Europe's relation to the European Union. The final section, "Poverty and Development," reflects Fischer's basic belief that economic policies should explicitly target poverty reduction. These engaging and accessible essays will appeal not only to economics students, economists, and policymakers but also to the general reader interested in the international monetary system.

Once upon a time, students who were willing and able to work hard could obtain an affordable, high-quality education at a public university. Those times are gone. Intensified admissions competition coupled with opposition to public spending has scorched every campus. Budget cuts, tuition hikes, and debt burdens are undermining the best path to upward mobility that this country ever built.

But despite all of this, Americans still embrace ideals of equal opportunity and know that higher education represents a public good. Students, faculty, staff, and advocates are beginning to build political coalitions and develop new strategies to improve access, enhance quality, and simplify financial aid. This book celebrates and will fortify their efforts.

In Saving State U, economist Nancy Folbre brings the national debates of education experts down to the level of trying to teach--and trying to learn--at major state universities whose budgets have repeatedly been slashed, restored, and then slashed again. Here is a brilliant firsthand account of the stakes involved, the politics, and the key debates raging through public campuses today. In a passionate, accessible voice, Folbre also offers a sobering vision of the many possible futures of public higher education and their links to the fate of our democracy while looking at the practical ways in which change is now possible.

Over bezuinigingen is veel geschreven, over het bedrijfsleven nog meer en over de bankensector misschien wel het meest. Maar boeken over de financin van heel Nederland zijn er nauwelijks. Uit evenwicht In Een rijk land moet rijk leven laat Martin ten Cate zien dat Nederland de langdurige economische crisis vooral aan zichzelf te wijten heeft. We houden met elkaar niet alleen de financile onevenwichtigheden in stand, maar vergroten die zelfs. Met onze enorme spaardrift en het daarmee samenhangende enorme, structurele overschot op de lopende rekening van de betalingsbalans brengen we onszelf eerder schade toe dan dat we onze problemen oplossen. Als particulier of als bedrijf kan je sparen, maar als samenleving is dat onmogelijk. De financin blijken in Nederland wezenlijk anders te zijn gestructureerd dan bij onze Europese partners. Financin Een rijk land moet rijk leven is bestemd voor genteresseerden in economie en het debat rondom onze nationale economie. Ten Cate belicht verschillende themas binnen de financin, zoals het Nederlandse pensioenstelsel en de huizenmarkt. Ook heeft het boek oog voor de financin op Europees niveau. Willen we meer of minder Europa? En hoe zit het met financile solidariteit binnen de Europese Unie? Ten Cate hoop met deze bijdrage een breed nationaal debat over het spaaroverschot in Nederland op gang te brengen. Het boek besluit met een aantal stevige conclusies en grensverleggende aanbevelingen. In de pers Ten Cate was op 4 maart te gast bij Henk Steenhuis in het programma Achter het boek op Amsterdam FM. Luister het gesprek hier terug.

From the brightest minds in the field—a revealing look at how countries use their currencies to achieve prosperity . . . and the coming repercussions

Bloomberg Television's Sara Eisen sheds light on the complex global financial system through this illuminating collection of essays. She hand selected the crème de la crème of authors from the world's most prestigious academic institutions and esteemed professional organizations to share--for the first time in print-- their observations and deductions on the topics that matter most to you and your future wealth, including:

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CURRENCIES AND FINANCIAL CRISES
THE FLAWS WITHIN THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE RATE SYSTEM AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES
HOW EMERGING MARKETS FIT INTO THE CURRENT AND FUTURE EXCHANGE RATE FRAMEWORK
THE IMPACT EXCHANGE RATES HAVE ON FREE TRADE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
WHAT DEFINES A "SAFE HAVEN" CURRENCY AND ITS ROLE
POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS TO THE CURRENT ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

"Today's fiat currency system is based upon trust among market participants, politicians, and central bankers--and that trust is assembled around the reserve currency that enjoys an exorbitant privilege. The reserve status is in doubt in a post financial crisis era but alternatives are lacking. . . . This book is a great guide on how the global currency system is morphing into a potential new standard, but not without the necessary volatility." -- Ben Emons, Senior Vice President, Portfolio Manager, PIMCO

In 2011, the International Monetary Fund invited prominent economists and economic policy makers to consider the brave new world of the post-crisis global economy. The result is a book that captures the state of macroeconomic thinking at a transformational moment. The crisis and the weak recovery that has followed raise fundamental questions concerning macroeconomics and economic policy. For instance, to what extent are financial markets efficient and self-correcting? How crucial is low and stable inflation for growth and the real stability of the economy? How strong is the case for open capital markets? Too often, the standard models provided insufficient guidance on how to respond to the unprecedented situations created by the crisis. As a result, policy makers have been forced to improvise. What to do when interest rates reach the zero floor? How best to provide liquidity to segmented financial institutions and markets? How much to use fiscal policy starting from high levels of debt? These top economists discuss future directions for monetary policy, fiscal policy, financial regulation, capital account management, growth strategies, and the international monetary system, and the economic models that should underpin thinking about critical policy choices. Among the new realities they consider are the swing of the pendulum toward regulation; the need for new theoretical approaches, incorporating advances in agency theory, behavioral economics, and understanding of credit markets and finance based on theories of imperfect information; and the importance for macroeconomic policy to target not just inflation but also output and financial stability. This title is copublished with The MIT Press. For more information, please visit www.mitpress.mit.edu.

In the past fifteen years, inflation has been conquered by many advanced countries. History reveals, however, that it has been conquered before and returned. In The Conquest of American Inflation, Thomas J. Sargent presents a groundbreaking analysis of the rise and fall of U.S. inflation after 1960. He examines two broad explanations for the behavior of inflation and unemployment in this period: the natural-rate hypothesis joined to the Lucas critique and a more traditional econometric policy evaluation modified to include adaptive expectations and learning. His purpose is not only to determine which is the better account, but also to codify for the benefit of the next generation the economic forces that cause inflation.

Sargent begins with an explanation of how American policymakers increased inflation in the early 1960s by following erroneous assumptions about the exploitability of the Phillips curve--the inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment. In subsequent chapters, he connects a sequence of ideas--self-confirming equilibria, least-squares and other adaptive or recursive learning algorithms, convergence of least-squares learners with self-confirming equilibria, and recurrent dynamics along escape routes from self-confirming equilibria. Sargent synthesizes results from macroeconomics, game theory, control theory, and other fields to extend both adaptive expectations and rational expectations theory, and he compellingly describes postwar inflation in terms of drifting coefficients. He interprets his results in favor of adaptive expectations as the relevant mechanism affecting inflation policy.

Providing an original methodological link between theoretical and policy economics, this book will engender much debate and become an indispensable text for academics, graduate students, and professional economists.

This bestselling and hilarious book blew the doors off Wall Street's boardrooms and introduced the world to the writing of Michael Lewis. In this shrewd and wickedly funny book, Michael Lewis describes an astonishing era and his own rake's progress through a powerful investment bank. From an unlikely beginning (art history at Princeton?) he rose in two short years from Salomon Brothers trainee to Geek (the lowest form of life on the trading floor) to Big Swinging Dick, the most dangerous beast in the jungle, a bond salesman who could turn over millions of dollars' worth of doubtful bonds with just one call. With the eye and ear of a born storyteller, Michael Lewis shows us how things really worked on Wall Street. In the Salomon training program a roomful of aspirants is stunned speechless by the vitriolic profanity of the Human Piranha; out on the trading floor, bond traders throw telephones at the heads of underlings and Salomon chairman Gutfreund challenges his chief trader to a hand of liar's poker for one million dollars; around the world in London, Tokyo, and New York, bright young men like Michael Lewis, connected by telephones and computer terminals, swap gross jokes and find retail buyers for the staggering debt of individual companies or whole countries. The bond traders, wearing greed and ambition and badges of honor, might well have swaggered straight from the pages of Bonfire of the Vanities. But for all their outrageous behavior, they were in fact presiding over enormous changes in the world economy. Lewis's job, simply described, was to transfer money, in the form of bonds, from those outside America who saved to those inside America who consumed. In doing so, he generated tens of millions of dollars for Salomon Brothers, and earned for himself a ringside seat on the greatest financial spectacle of the decade: the leveraging of America. - Publisher.

There were only a few women economists who made it to the surface and whose voices were heard in the history of economic thought of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Maynard Keynes, and Milton Friedman – right? Wrong!

In this book, distinguished economist Edith Kuiper shows us that the history of economic thought is just that, a his-story, by telling the herstory of economic thought from the perspective of women economic writers and economists. Although some of these women were well known in their time, they were excluded from most of academic economics, and, over the past centuries, their work has been neglected, forgotten, and thus become invisible. Edith Kuiper introduces the reader to an amazing crowd of female pioneers and reveals how their insights are invaluable to understanding areas of economics ranging from production, work, and the economics of the household, to income and wealth distribution, consumption, public policy, and much more.

This pathbreaking book presents a whole new perspective on the development of economic thought. It will be essential reading for all students and scholars of the history of economic thought and feminist economics.

No one has more authority to call the shots the way they really are than Paul Krugman, whose provocative New York Times columns are keenly followed by millions. One of the world's most respected economists, Krugman has been named America's most important columnist by the Washington Monthly and columnist of the year by Editor and Publisher magazine.

In this long-awaited work containing Krugman's most influential columns along with new commentary, he chronicles how the boom economy unraveled: how exuberance gave way to pessimism, how the age of corporate heroes gave way to corporate scandals, how fiscal responsibility collapsed. From his account of the secret history of the California energy crisis to his devastating dissections of dishonesty in the Bush administration, Krugman tells the uncomfortable truth about how the United States lost its way. And he gives us the road map we will need to follow if we are to get the country back on track.

The story of this storm in the global markets is the story of how government intervention to solve previous crises laid the foundation for a new one, writes Johan Norberg in his important new book. Tracing the causes of our current financial crisis with liveliness and clarity, Financial Fiasco shows the mistakes made in Washington, on Wall Street, and in communities across America that led to the economic meltdown. While many analysts have placed the blame solely on Wall Street, Norberg exposes the crucial role government regulation played in creating the opportunities and incentives that led to the financial collapse. In six concise chapters, Financial Fiasco tells the complex story of the crisis, showing how monetary policy, housing policy, and financial innovations combined to create financial catastrophe. The final two chapters describe the government's mismanagement of the crisis and how we are now dangerously repeating many of the very same mistakes that caused it. An understanding of the roots of the financial crisis is crucial for every American who has felt its effects - and would like to prevent the same disaster from happening again. Financial Fiasco provides that understanding, with great insight, clarity, and wit. Just as important, the book serves as a profound warning against pursuing the wrong solutions. After government authorities had helped create the worst financial crisis in generations, the climate of ideas has now shifted dramatically in the direction of bigger and more active government," Norberg writes. Financial Fiasco is the perfect antidote to those ideas, a cautionary tale on how to stop confusing the disease with the cure."--Jacket.

Geschiedenis van de Amerikaanse economie en de financiële markt in de Verenigde Staten vanaf de jaren tachtig tot en met de kredietcrisis van 2008.

Oorzaken en gevolgen van de kredietcrisis van 2008 en een beschrijving van de in de ogen van de auteur te nemen maatregelen.

Leiderschap verandert en het aantal managers neemt af. Wat zijn banen van de toekomst? Welke branches verdwijnen en welke nieuwe ontstaan er? Welke toekomst hebben organisaties in het MKB en multinationals? Hoe worden we straks beoordeeld en beloond voor werk? Hoe worden we gemotiveerd? Hoe vindt werving van personeel plaats? Waardoor wordt straks je promotie bepaald?

Er komt een andere toekomst voor sociale zekerheid; vakbonden en werkgeversorganisaties eroderen. Leren wordt anders. Welke toekomst hebben freelancers? Hoe organiseer je je arbeidzame leven als je 120 jaar oud wordt in perfecte conditie? Komen gilden terug? Technologie verandert werk ingrijpend, bijvoorbeeld de baan van de secretaresse, maar ook in fabrieken werken straks meer robots dan mensen. De snelheid van veranderen groeit. Hoe word je employee of choice in deze nieuwe tijd? Hoe verlopen twee carrieres in een huwelijk straks? Hoe functioneert de expat van de toekomst?

In dit boeiende nieuwe boek, met een aantal zelftests, bundelen trendwatcher Adjiedj Bakas en HR-professional Martijn van der Woude acht megatrends over de toekomst van werk. Met een agenda voor de toekomst: waar moet je morgen aan beginnen om klaar te zijn voor de toekomst?

In search of a fresh perspective on the modern economy, Extreme Economies takes the reader off the beaten path, introducing people living at the world's margins. From disaster zones and displaced societies to failed states and hidden rainforest communities, the lives of people who inhabit these little-known places tend to be ignored by economists and policy makers. Leading economist Richard Davies argues that this is a mistake, and explains why the world's overlooked extremes offer a glimpse of the forces that underlie human resilience, help markets to function and cause them to fail, and will come to shape our collective future. Whether trekking with Punjabi migrants through the lawless Panamanian jungle or revealing the clever trick Syrians use to underpin trade in the world's most entrepreneurial refugee camp, Richard Davies brings a storyteller's eye to places where the economy has been destroyed, distorted, and even turbocharged. In adapting to circumstances that would be unimaginable to most of us, the people he encounters have become economic pioneers whose lives help us reflect on our own. At once intimate and analytical, Extreme Economies draws the lines between personal narratives and global trends, shedding light on today's biggest economic questions and providing vital lessons for our turbulent future.

Ondanks de dramatische verhalen over reddingsplannen voor de banken, faillissementen, groeiende werkloosheid en kapitalistische hebzucht bleven we geloven in optimistische modellen over marktwerking en rationeel economisch keuzegedrag. Maar wat als de markt faalt? In zijn scherpzinnige boek beschrijft John Cassidy de invloed van het utopisch denken in de economie - een denken dat blind is voor hoe mensen van vlees en bloed handelen, en dat de ogen sluit voor de rampzalige onbedoelde effecten die een ongereguleerde vrije markt kan hebben. Met de economische crisis als achtergrond laat Cassidy zien hoe irrationele gedragspatronen en motieven (zoals jaloezie, kopieergedrag, hebzucht en overmoed) leiden tot mondiale economische problemen - van piekende olieprijzen en een onbeheersbare huizenmarkt tot graaigedrag van ceo's.

An analysis of how technological, economic, and social change are steering us toward a depression provides a personal economic survival plan that includes hundreds of investment tips and forecasts and a list of troubled and sound banks.

Michael Covel reveals the "underground" network of little-known traders and hedge fund managers who've been using trend following for decades. He introduces its fundamental concepts and techniques, showing why market prices contain all the information investors need, and how to understand price movements well enough to profit from them. Using 100 pages of easy-to-understand charts from top trend followers, Covel proves the strategy works - and shows why only a technical system based on following price trends can win over the long term. Covel presents more than a decade's worth of data: information you'd otherwise pay a fortune to see presented this clearly. He also shows even more backtested trend following results, so you can gain even greater confidence in the method. Along the way, Covel thoroughly debunks misinformation and failed advice from pros who ought to know better. This timely book capitalizes on today's intense volatility and uncertainty to give investors what they're desperately searching for: a strategy that really works.

The world's leading economies are facing not just one but many crises. The financial meltdown may not be over, climate change threatens major global disruption, economic inequality has reached extremes not seen for a century, and government and business are widely distrusted. At the same time, many people regret the consumerism and social corrosion of modern life. What these crises have in common, Diane Coyle argues, is a reckless disregard for the future--especially in the way the economy is run. How can we achieve the financial growth we need today without sacrificing a decent future for our children, our societies, and our planet? How can we realize what Coyle calls "the Economics of Enough"?

Running the economy for tomorrow as well as today will require a wide range of policy changes. The top priority must be ensuring that we get a true picture of long-term economic prospects, with the development of official statistics on national wealth in its broadest sense, including natural and human resources. Saving and investment will need to be encouraged over current consumption. Above all, governments will need to engage citizens in a process of debate about the difficult choices that lie ahead and rebuild a shared commitment to the future of our societies.

Creating a sustainable economy--having enough to be happy without cheating the future--won't be easy. But The Economics of Enough starts a profoundly important conversation about how we can begin--and the first steps we need to take.

Vaak zien wij Nederlanders onszelf als een degelijk en spaarzaam volk en we leggen de schuld van de huidige financiële crisis maar al te graag bij de Amerikanen. Die zouden maar raak besteden en zichzelf onbeperkt in de schulden steken. Jaap van Duijn laat in De schuldenberg echter zien dat de schulden van Nederlandse gezinnen veel groter zijn dan die van Amerikaanse gezinnen en dat Amerikaanse banken veel meer eigen vermogen hebben dan Nederlandse. Van Duijn voorspelt bovendien dat de schuldenberg een terugkeer naar financiële degelijkheid zal forceren, iets wat na eerdere schuldexplosies ook altijd is gebeurd. Het is onvermijdelijk dat banken minder gemakkelijk geld zullen uitlenen aan gezinnen en dat huizenkopers weer moeten leren sparen en eerder hun leningen zullen moeten aflossen. En we moeten ook nog op de blaren zitten: van eerdere crises weten we dat niet iedere overheid, niet iedere bank en niet iedere onderneming haar schulden zal afbetalen. De schuldenberg opent genadeloos onze ogen voor de penibele situatie waarin we ons momenteel bevinden. Het is een glasheldere analyse van onze economische situatie en bovendien een kritische evaluatie van de aangekondigde bezuinigingen van het kabinet-Rutte.