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This short guide brings together five crucial Economist briefs on aspects of the financial crisis and its consequences i...
This short guide brings together five crucial Economist briefs on aspects of the financial crisis and its consequences into a single, easily-digestible volume. With an introduction by the Economist's Editor-in-Chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, this is an essential read for anyone interested in the financial crisis and its global repercussions. A free companion work-ebook for teachers and students is available, to extend the discussions raised by the book's varied topics, which include: Zanny Minton Beddoes' Introduction. Minton Beddoes explains the significance of the financial crisis for the current state of the global economy and its prospects. The origins of the financial crisis. The effects of the financial crisis are still being felt five years on. What were its causes? The dangers of debt. The role debt and deleveraging have played in the turmoil. Monetary policy after the crash. The unconventional methods central bankers have adopted to stimulate growth in the wake of the crisis. Stimulus v. austerity. The surge in public debt and the debate about how quickly governments should cut back. Making banks safe. The best way to make banks safer without killing lending. Author: Zanny Minton-Beddoes ISBN:9781781253786
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On 9 August 2007 France's largest bank announced that it had had to suspend trading in two huge investment funds it cont...
On 9 August 2007 France's largest bank announced that it had had to suspend trading in two huge investment funds it controlled. The same day three German banks revealed that they were close to collapse. A few days later came the first run on a British bank since the 1860s as vast queues of worried investors besieged Northern Rock. Within weeks, the Government were being forced to bail out this previously little-known bank to the tune of £30 billion, share prices in other mortgage lenders were plummeting, and alarming news about the state of several of the biggest US banks was crossing the Atlantic. What lay behind this series of crippling disasters? In The Crunch, award-winning journalist Alex Brummer painstakingly traces the course of the crisis from its origins in the US 'subprime' market to its explosion on to the international scene. It's a story of greed, mismanagement and dithering in which bankers seeking to make a quick buck, regulators engaged in turf wars and blame-avoidance, and governments paralysed by the sheer scale of the problem all conspired to bring the banking system almost to its knees. It's also a story of victims: the millions of people in the US who have already been thrown out of their houses, the entire population of the UK who have been co-opted to guarantee Northern Rock with £30 billion of public money, borrowers everywhere who are now finding credit more expensive and harder to get. And, as Alex Brummer convincingly argues, now that recession looms, this is only the beginning. Author: Alex Brummer ISBN:9781847940094
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Air bags cause accidents, because well-protected drivers take more risks. This well-documented truth comes as a surprise...
Air bags cause accidents, because well-protected drivers take more risks. This well-documented truth comes as a surprise to most people, but not to economists, who have learned to take seriously the proposition that people respond to incentives. In The Armchair Economist, Steven E. Landsburg shows how the laws of economics reveal themselves in everyday experience and illuminate the entire range of human behavior. Why does popcorn cost so much at the cinema? The 'obvious' answer is that the owner has a monopoly, but if that were the whole story, there would also be a monopoly price to use the toilet. When a sudden frost destroys much of the Florida orange crop and prices skyrocket, journalists point to the 'obvious' exercise of monopoly power. Economists see just the opposite: If growers had monopoly power, they'd have raised prices before the frost. Why don't concert promoters raise ticket prices even when they are sure they will sell out months in advance? Why are some goods sold at auction and others at pre-announced prices? Why do boxes at the football sell out before the standard seats do? Why are bank buildings fancier than supermarkets? Why do corporations confer huge pensions on failed executives? Why don't firms require workers to buy their jobs? Landsburg explains why the obvious answers are wrong, reveals better answers, and illuminates the fundamental laws of human behavior along the way. This is a book of surprises: a guided tour of the familiar, filtered through a decidedly unfamiliar lens. This is economics for the sheer intellectual joy of it. Author: Steven Landsburg ISBN:9781471101311
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize joins a leading expert on the global economy to present an incisive narra...
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize joins a leading expert on the global economy to present an incisive narrative of the risks and opportunities that are emerging as the balance of power shifts around the world between governments and markets -- and the battle over globalization comes front and center. A brilliant narrative history, The Commanding Heights is about the most powerful economic forces at work in the world today, and about the people and the ideas that are shaping the future. Across the globe, it has become increasingly accepted dogma that economic activities should be dominated by market forces, not political concerns. With chapters on Europe, the US, Britain, the Third World, the Arab States, Asia, China, India, Latin America, and the former communist countries, Yergin and Stanislaw provide an incisive overview of the state of the economy, and of the battles between governments and markets in each region. Now updated throughout and with two new chapters, The Commanding Heights explains a revolution which is unfolding before our very eyes. Author: Daniel Yergin ISBN:9780684835693
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