World Economics

The practice of charging interest on loans has been controversial since it was first mentioned in early recorded history. Lending is a powerful economic tool, vital to the development of society but it can also lead to disaster if left unregulated. Prohibitions against excessive interest, or usury, have been found in almost all societies since antiquity. Whether loans were made in kind or in cash, creditors often were accused of beggar-thy-neighbor exploitation when their lending terms put borrowers at risk of ruin.

From Wall Street to the West Coast, from blue-collar billionaires to blue-blood fortunes, from the Google guys to hedge fund honchos, All the Money in the World gives us the lowdown on, among other things: the all-time richest Americans, who made and lost the most money in the past 25 years, the fields and industries that have produced the greatest wealth, the biggest risk takers, the most competitive players, the most wasteful family feuds, the trophy wives.

Starting in late 2012, Westerners working in Syria -- journalists and aid workers -- began disappearing without a trace. A year later the world learned they had been taken hostage by the Islamic State. Throughout 2014, all the Europeans came home, first the Spanish, then the French, then an...

In a sweeping narrative that takes listeners from the production of Stone Age axes, to the invention of chocolate chip cookies, to the experience of Burning Man, Philip Auerswald argues that the key driver of human history is the advance of code. At each major stage in the advance of code over the span of centuries, shifts in the structure of society have challenged human beings to reinvent not only how we work, but who we are. We are at one of those stages now.

In recent years, small Greece, often associated with ancient philosophers and marble ruins, whitewashed villages and cerulean seas, has been at the center of a debt crisis that has sown economic and social ruin, spurred panic in international markets, and tested Europe's decades-old project of forging a closer union. In The Full Catastrophe, James Angelos makes sense of the contrasting images of Greece, a nation both romanticized for its classical past and castigated for its dysfunctional present.

This didn’t just happen. In Life Inc., award-winning writer, documentary filmmaker, and scholar Douglas Rushkoff traces how corporations went from being convenient legal fictions to being the dominant fact of contemporary life. Indeed, as Rushkoff shows, most Americans have so willingly...

The World Is Curved reveals how today's risky environment came to be - and why the mortgage mess is a symptom of potentially far more devastating trouble. He wrestles with the two questions on everyone's mind: How bad could things really get in today's volatile economy? And what can we do about it?

An Indien scheiden sich die Geister. Obwohl oder gerade weil kaum jemand im Westen dieses widersprüchliche Land versteht. Zwischen Slums und Prunk, zwischen Yoga und Hightech, zwischen Bollywoodkultur und Kastenwesen ist uns das Land, dessen Bedeutung für die Weltgemeinschaft immer größer wird, ein Rätsel geblieben.

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.

Have you ever wondered what this "Bitcoin" craze is all about? What is a cryptocurrency, really? Is it something that you should be interested in or know anything about, or is it another fad that will be gone in a few years? In this audiobook, you will have all these questions - and more - answered. Are you ready to be able to talk about cryptocurrency like you really understand it? You’re in the right place. Learn more about how Bitcoin is changing the future and the world of money altogether so that you can make an educated decision about your own investments.

Saga Brasileira, a luta de um povo por sua moeda, de Miriam Leitão, é um audiolivro definitivo sobre a história da economia recente do país. Misturando análise econômica com relatos individuais, Miriam traça a trajetória da moeda no Brasil desde a hiperinflação, passando por variadas indexações, congelamentos, confisco de poupança e planos econômicos diversos. A autora mostra ainda como a busca pela estabilidade monetária tornou-se elemento fundamental na construção de um caráter nacional.

Just as Thomas Piketty offered a sweeping critique and progressive reassessment of capitalism, former World Bank Group chief financial officer Bertrand Badré looks at the destructive role finance played in the global economic crisis of 2007–2008 and offers a bold prescription for making it a force for good. Badré says that finance is inherently neither good nor bad. It's just a tool—the most powerful tool on earth. Used correctly, it can be at the heart of the way we address many of the world's biggest problems, ranging from climate change to the eradication of poverty to building much-needed infrastructure. He describes innovations in financial tools and approaches that are already happening around the world and looks at the role regulation can play in channeling the power of finance in a positive direction. He details options for strengthening international cooperation for financial stability and prosperity and overcoming the blinkered nationalism currently on the rise. And he tells what is working and what needs to change in financing the sustainable development of the world.

Globalization, long considered the best route to economic prosperity, is not inevitable. An approach built on the principles of free trade and, since the 1980s, open capital markets is beginning to fracture. With disappointing growth rates across the Western world, nations are no longer willing to sacrifice national interests for global growth, nor are their leaders able - or willing - to sell the idea of pursuing a global agenda of prosperity to their citizens.

Elmira Bayrasli's colorful narrative brings listeners inside the world of high-growth entrepreneurs as they overcome vexing obstacles to build businesses that create jobs and economic growth and - perhaps most important - shift mindsets. Here are the people who personify the transformative force of entrepreneurship from parts of the world that will be the source of the overwhelming amount of economic growth over the next 25 years.

Our world seems to be experiencing stagnant economic growth, climatic deterioration, dwindling natural resources, and an unsustainable level of population growth. The world is doomed, they argue, and there are just too many problems to overcome. But is this really the case? In Fewer, Richer, Greener, author Laurence B. Siegel reveals that the world has improved - and will continue to improve - in almost every dimension imaginable.

This is the first book of its kind to combine the challenges of socio-economic disparity with the spiritual values of equality and compassion. You’ll discover a vision for a new socio-economic reality and a viable, practical solution to the collective problems that we face. There has never been a more important time in history for this work to be brought forward. Combining cryptocurrency with spiritual leadership, we are presented with a promising path to a future where many of the byproducts of an unjust world are addressed and overcome.

In this ambitious and groundbreaking history of the dollar, financial journalist and economic scholar Brendan Greeley makes a new argument about the origins of our money—and the people and nations who have surrendered to it. America’s money is global money—nearly every nation in the world...

Il 1° gennaio 1958 nasce la Comunità economica europea, primo fondamentale passo verso l'Europa unita. Già nei primi anni '60 gli scambi commerciali fra paesi comunitari aumentano del 30% e nel periodo 1958-1970 raddoppiano percentualmente rispetto a quelli del commercio mondiale nel suo complesso. Le misure di liberalizzazione via via adottate hanno portato a una consistente espansione del commercio intracomunitario, che è giunto a toccare circa il 60% di tutti gli scambi della Comunità.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) began in 1995, but even in the first 10 years of its existence it generated debate, controversy, and even outrage. Rulings on beef hormones and tuna-dolphin cases provide graphic examples of how the organization regulates and intrudes into areas of individual consumer choice, ethical preferences, and cultural habits. This deep and far-ranging impact of the WTO on peoples' everyday lives means that it is not just an institution of interest to economists, but to everyone.

Noch gehört Deutschland zu den reichsten Ländern der Welt. Ob Eurokrise, Flüchtlingswelle, Corona-Pandemie und Beginn des Ukrainekriegs – die deutsche Wirtschaft zeigte sich robust. Doch die fetten Jahre sind vorbei, es geht immer weiter abwärts. Überall. Und das hat nicht nur mit externen Krisen zu tun. Der wirtschaftliche Niedergang und der Kaufkraftverlust, der weite Teile der deutschen Bevölkerung trifft, ist hausgemacht.