Belt and Road
A Chinese World Order
Reviewer: Rosemary Connell
China’s Belt and Road strategy is acknowledged to be the most ambitious geopolitical initiative of the age. Covering almost seventy countries by land and sea, it will affect every element of global society, from shipping to agriculture, digital economy to tourism, politics to culture.
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The Regulation of the London Clearing Banks, 1946‑1971
Stability and Compliance
Reviewer: William A Allen, National Institute of Economic & Social Research
This book explores the way in which banks were regulated in the UK in the period from 1946 until 1971. It focuses upon a group of 11 banks known as the London clearing banks. These banks included the ‘Big Five’ – Barclays, Lloyds, Midland, National Provincial and Westminster – and were the equivalent to today’s retail banks.
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The Chinese Economy
Adaption and Growth
Reviewer: Lavan Mahadeva, Research Director, CRU
The new edition of a comprehensive overview of the modern Chinese economy, revised to reflect the end of the “miracle growth” period.
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The Cost‑Benefit Revolution
Reviewer: Jonah P Adaun
Why policies should be based on careful consideration of their costs and benefits rather than on intuition, popular opinion, interest groups, and anecdotes. Opinions on government policies vary widely. Some people feel passionately about the child obesity epidemic and support government regulation of sugary drinks. Others argue that people should be able to eat and drink whatever they like. Some people are alarmed about climate change and favor aggressive government intervention. Others don't feel the need for any sort of climate regulation. In The Cost-Benefit Revolution, Cass Sunstein argues our major disagreements really involve facts, not values
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Federal Central Banks
A comparison of the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank
Reviewer: James Smith, Director of Research, Resolution Foundation
Federal Central Banks is a unique study that critically examines the role and impact of central banks in federal and confederal political systems.
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Adam Smith: What He Thought and Why It Matters
Reviewer: Bridget Rosewell
Adam Smith is now widely regarded as 'the father of modern economics' and the most influential economist who ever lived. But what he really thought, and what the implications of his ideas are, remain fiercely contested. Was he an eloquent advocate of capitalism and the freedom of the individual? Or a prime mover of 'market fundamentalism' and an apologist for inequality and human selfishness? Or something else entirely? Jesse Norman's brilliantly conceived \book gives us not just Smith's economics, but his vastly wider intellectual project. Against the turbulent backdrop of Enlightenment Scotland, it lays out a succinct and highly engaging account of Smith's life and times, reviews his work as a whole and traces his influence over the past two centuries.
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Red Flags
Why Xi’s China Is In Jeopardy
Reviewer: Keith Wade, Chief Economist, Schroders
A trusted economic commentator provides a penetrating account of the threats to China's continued economic rise Under President Xi Jinping, China has become a large and confident power both at home and abroad, but the country also faces serious challenges. In this critical take on China's future, economist George Magnus explores four key traps that China must confront and overcome in order to thrive: debt, middle income, the Renminbi, and an aging population.
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Populism and Economics
Reviewer: Dame Kate Barker, Chairman of Trustees, British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme
Populism and Economics, Charles Dumas' latest book, examines the reasons for the rise in populism - Brexit and the election of Trump among other events - and how this discontent with the status quo has affected economics, both perceptions and reality.
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The Value of Everything
Making and Taking in the Global Economy
Reviewer: Rosemary Connell
Who really creates wealth in our world? And how do we decide the value of what they do? In modern capitalism, value-extraction - the siphoning off of profits, from shareholders' dividends to bankers' bonuses - is rewarded more highly than value-creation- the productive process that drives a healthy economy and society. We misidentify takers as makers, and have lost sight of what value really means. Yet, argues Mariana Mazzucato in this penetrating and passionate new book, if we are to reform capitalism we urgently need to rethink where wealth comes from. Who is creating it, who is extracting it, and who is destroying it?
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The Growth Delusion
The Wealth and Well‑Being of Nations
Reviewer: Dr Rebecca Harding, CEO, Coriolis Technologies
In The Growth Delusion, author and prize-winning journalist David Pilling explores how economists and their cult of growth have hijacked our policy-making and infiltrated our thinking about what makes societies work. Our policies are geared relentlessly towards increasing our standard measure of growth, Gross Domestic Product. By this yardstick we have never been wealthier or happier. So why doesn't it feel that way? Why are we living in such fractured times, with global populism on the rise and wealth inequality as stark as ever?
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