This authoritative A–Z provides a wealth of up-to-date information on every country in the world, including dependent territories. Each entry provides a brief history of the country and outlines its political, economic, and social issues. A quick-reference fact box provides comparative information on land area, people, language, religion, life expectancy, GDP, gender equality, and environmental performance. Supplementary material includes detailed indicator tables showing income and povert...

Bankers and speculators build castles in the air but when they come crashing down ordinary people have to pick up the tab. How we've made such a mess of our money system is explained, from the earliest banks right through to "collateralized debt obligations." The author suggests the framework for a fairer financial world: the practical ideas, required regulations, and real-life examples.Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who no...

An incisive introduction to global finance—where money comes from, the current mechanisms, and the need for control and reform. It traces the origins of money as a source of exchange and a store of value and the many weird forms it now takes—visible and invisible.The guide sets recent events into context, indicating how the flows of money directed by an unaccountable elite increasingly shape economic, political, and social activity.Peter Stalker is a former...

Virtually any commodity can move around the world to satisfy demand, but human beings have far less freedom. Many would-be migrants are forced to risk life and limb traveling illegally. Yet most rich countries are short of workers, have shrinking populations, and need more immigrants. This is a timely guide to a major issue that is never far from the political headlines.Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a cons...

A provocative view of economic growth in the Third World argues that the countries that have achieved steady economic growth—including future economic superpowers India and China—have done so because they have resisted the American ideology of free markets.The American government has been both miracle worker and villain in the developing world. From the end of World War II until the 1980s poor countries, including many in Africa and the Middle East, enjoyed a modic...

The United States has a problem – a big problem. Due to costs associated with the massive bailout of financial institutions deemed "too big to fail," on-going armed conflicts, and a move towards socialism, another even bigger bubble is about to burst – the debt bubble. The Great Super Cycle: Profit from the Coming Inflation Tidal Wave and Dollar Devaluation is an intriguing look at the relationship between Washington and Wall Street; the history of political shifts in power and ho...

What will happen if Britain leaves the EU, and how will it affect you? Europe: vital for Britain's economy and global standing or a bureaucratic monster hell-bent on destroying our national sovereignty? And why is no one talking about what leaving Europe would actually mean? Addressing the real issues surrounding a potential exit from the EU - including jobs, travel, immigration, investment, sovereignty and justice - this book investigates the consequences both for the country and for the ...

China's Silent Army is a revealing and gripping piece of investigative journalism into the unknown extent of China's global power, from China-based reporters Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto AraújoThis book stems from the remarkable, determined work of these two China-based journalists who, frustrated by the facile, pro-business commentary of so much writing on China and the evasions of Beijing's official pronouncements, took a drastic decision: to see fo...

Renowned as a passionate Canadian, bestselling author Mel Hurtig has combed through world statistics to see how Canada really measures up — and the results are astonishing, and often shocking.This book is about how Canada has changed, very much for the worse, in the last twenty years. As a result of these profound (often hidden) changes, we are no longer the people we think we are. To take one example, the Canadian media usually leaves us with the impression that Canadians are real...

The author of How Asia Works follows the money. "Alarming . . . enlightening . . . Joe Studwell should be named chief myth buster for Asian business" ( Financial Times).Hong Kong and Southeast Asia are home to five hundred million people, yet their economies are dominated by only fifty families whose interests range from banking to real estate, shipping to sugar, gambling to lumber. At their peak, eight of the world's two dozen richest men were So...

Economic growth does not demand a secret formula. Good development examples now abound in East Asia and further afield in others parts of Asia, and in Central America. But why then has Africa failed to realise its potential in half a century of independence? Why Africa is Poor demonstrates that Africa is poor not because the world has denied the continent the market and financial means to compete: far from it. It has not been because of aid per se. Nor is African poverty solely a ...

George Buckley & Sumeet Desai: What You Need To Know About EconomicsEconomics Matters. But with confusing things like GDP and interest rates, it's often hard to get you head around.So What do you really need to know about economics? Find out:What economic growth is and why it mattersHow inflation happensHow jobs are created and lostHow the property market worksWhat central banks...