"A comprehensive and profoundly relevant history of interest from one of the world's leading financial writers, The Price of Time explains our current global financial position and how we got here. In the beginning was the loan, and the loan carried interest. For at least five millennia people have been borrowing and lending at interest. The practice wasn't always popular-in the ancient world, usury was generally viewed as exploitative, a potential...

What is capitalism? Is capitalism the same everywhere? Is there an alternative? The word 'capitalism' is one that is heard and used frequently, but what is capitalism really all about, and what does it mean? This Very Short Introduction addresses questions such as 'what is capital?' before discussing the history and development of capitalism through several detailed case studies, ranging from the tulipomania of 17th century Holland, the Great Depression

...

"From the chief economics commentator of the Financial Times, a magnificent reckoning with how and why the marriage between democracy and capitalism is coming undone all over the world, and what can be done to reverse this terrifying dynamic. TARGET CONSUMER: Readers of Thomas Friedman, Paul Krugman, and Tim Snyder. Martin Wolf has long been one of the wisest voices on economic issues on the world stage. He has never been known as a sunny-side-up...

"Confronted by the terrifying trends of the early twenty-first century - widening inequality, environmental destruction, and the immiseration of millions of workers around the world - many economists and business leaders still preach dogmas that lack evidence and create political catastrophe: Private markets are always more efficient than public ones; investment capital flows efficiently to necessary projects; massive inequality is the unavoidable...

Outlines how the American economic system is failing, with increasing income inequality and a shrinking middle class, and reveals how a market designed for broad prosperity can reverse the trend toward diminished opportunity. --Publisher

"Klein argues that climate change isn't just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It's an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein ... builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies"--

Tommy is a vacuum cleaner salesman gripped by the fever of closing the deal. He lives on 'puffa puffa rice' stored in his glove compartment and listens to motivation tapes of his own voice shouting 'sell, sell, fuckin' sell'. He's sure the Golden Vac (the holy grail of vacuum salesmanship) can be his - if only he hadn't been saddled with Pete, a meek sales trainee trying to help his girlfriend quit stripping.

Some poor people in the Southern coasts of Iran do not have any place to live, and thus, they reside on an old, abandoned ship in the sea. Captain Nemat, their chief, tries to persuade the ship-owner and the official authorities not to get the ship back. On the other hand, he is selling the iron parts of the ship piece by piece. IRON ISLAND is the story of those whose ignorance makes them simply trust those who are always ready to abuse their trust....

After the last financial crisis everyone agreed that the system needed to change. But since then, our sense of distrust in the markets has grown. Now, with fears of another bust looming, what can be done to restore trust in the bankers? Since the 70s, the idea that self-regulation is the best and most efficient way to govern the markets has taken root. Even after the crash of 2008, there has been no major change in the way in which bankers work. Instead,...