The year is 1560, the Inquisition in Madrid has turned on the conversos in Al-Andalus, and the Benzions must flee to their holdings in Palermo.Don Miguel Benzion, a former Captain in the employ of the Duke of Sienna, and the son of a wealthy converso family in Granada, Spain must sell the family business before he is trapped by the inquisition and is forced to flee to Cuba.On the voyage to Cuba, Don Miguel meets the lovely and vivacious Senorita Imelda, who tames this famous ...

Macroeconomics is your guide to how economics shape how the world functions today. But too often our understanding is based on orthodox, dogmatic analysis. This distinctive book draws upon years of critical questioning and teaching and exposes how macroeconomic theory has evolved from its origins to its current impoverished and extreme state.Moving from the Keynesian Revolution to the Monetarist Counter-Revolution, through to New Classical Economics and New Consensus Macroeconomics...

Microeconomics: A Critical Companion offers students a clear and concise exposition of mainstream microeconomics from a heterodox perspective. Covering topics from consumer and producer theory to general equilibrium to perfect competition, it sets the emergence and evolution of microeconomics in both its historical and interdisciplinary context.From the culmination of 40 years of teaching, research and policy advice on political economy, Ben Fine critically exposes the methodologic...

'This expert guide to the political economy of Marx's Capital has always been the very best available' - David HarveyThis brilliantly concise book is the classic companion to Karl Marx's most well-known work, Capital. In print now for over a quarter of a century, and translated into many languages, this new edition has been fully revised and updated, making it an ideal modern introduction to one of the most important texts in political and economic thought today.The authors...

Any student, academic or practitioner wanting to succeed in development studies, radical or mainstream, must understand the World Bank's role and the evolution of its thinking and activities. The Political Economy of Development provides tools for gaining this understanding and applies them across a range of topics.The research, practice and scholarship of development are always set against the backdrop of the World Bank, whose formidable presence shapes both development practice a...

Moving beyond abstract economic models and superficial descriptions of the market, Beyond the Developmental State analyses the economic, political and ideological interests which underpin current socio-economic processes.Through this approach, the contributors show the close interrelation between states and markets in both national and international contexts. Drawing on a wide range of case studies and themes, the book exposes the theoretical and empirical limitations of the develo...

This excellent book, newly available in paperback, addresses the growing dissatisfaction with the neo-liberal post-Washington consensus. The concern of the contributors in writing this collection was that this consensus has established itself as a new orthodoxy, more powerful and widespread than its predecessor. This broad-ranging critique explains that without a much broader political economy the consensus is unlikely to provide a coherent framework for successful development policies.

Understanding consumption requires looking at the systems by which goods and services are provided – not just how they are produced but the historically evolved structures, power relations and cultures within which they are located. The Systems of Provision approach provides an interdisciplinary framework for unpacking these complex issues.This book provides a comprehensive account of the Systems of Provision approach, setting out core concepts and theoretical origins alongside num...

The idea of Social Capital is an attempt to incorporate social considerations into mainstream economic thinking. Its proponents feel that social factors are properly quantifiable. So, they use the compex algebra and statistics beloved of mainstream economic theory and measure 'units' of health care or education in the same way that they would machinery or transport.Ben Fine's main argument in this book is that such concers cannot be judged in terms of mathematical m...

Consumption has become one of the leading topics across the social sciences and vocational disciplines such as marketing and business studies. In this comprehensively updated and revised new edition, traditional approaches as well as the most recent literature are fully addressed and incorporated, with wide reference to theoretical and empirical work. Fine's refreshing and authoritative text includes a critical examination of such themes as: * economics imperialism and globalization * the ...

This collection offers pathbreaking framing of the material culture of financialisation. It begins with a tight definition of financialisation in order to distinguish the phenomenon of financialisation from its effects and from the looser associations prevalent within much of the literature such as the presence of credit or even simply (more extensive) monetary relations. To locate financialisation within economic and social reproduction, of which material culture is a part, close attentio...

Tournament Games features seven short tales of old set in the middle ages.From whimsical Knights to battle hardened warriors; a murder mystery to the fall of Camelot; mythical creatures & ghosts; even a young girls deepest desire for the prized zither at the tournament, each story offers a glimpse into an age gone by.