The Corporation is a major vehicle of business activity worldwide. It incurs social costs and generates benefits that continually change - hence, whether it still provides a net benefit to society is contestable. Evidence-based observations of the last decade of corporate sagas and the role of accounting and auditing, suggests a serious rethink is needed about how commerce is pursued and, in particular, whether the current corporate form has passed its use-by-date.The authors of th...

The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to the search for new investment opportunities and the stewardship of existing ones, and far too much to secondary-market dealing in existing assets. Regulation has contributed more to the problems than th...

Nearly forty percent of humanity lives on an average of two dollars a day or less. If you've never had to survive on an income so small, it is hard to imagine. How would you put food on the table, afford a home, and educate your children? How would you handle emergencies and old age? Every day, more than a billion people around the world must answer these questions. Portfolios of the Poor is the first book to systematically explain how the poor find solutions to their everyday fin...

Where Does Money Come From? reveals how, contrary to public perception, the bulk of today's money supply is created and allocated by commercial banks in their role as providers of credit. The authors argue that this system is inherently unstable, with little effective regulation of how much credit is provided, or whether it is used for productive or speculative purposes. Based on detailed research and consultation with experts, including from the Bank of England, Where Does Mo...

The corporation is one of the most important and remarkable institutions in the world. It affects all our lives continuously. It feeds, entertains, houses and, employs us. It generates vast amounts of revenue for those who own it and it invests a substantial proportion of the wealth that we possess. But the corporation is also the cause of immense problems and suffering, a source of poverty and pollution, and its failures are increasing. How is the corporation failing us? Why is it happeni...

Bored with endless grandstanding and people being wise after the event? Then The Age of Instability is the one book you should read on the financial crisis. Setting the near collapse of the international financial markets and banking system in a global and historical context, Sunday Times economics editor and bestselling author David Smith looks not only at the political and economic factors that contributed to the fall of Lehmans, collapse of Iceland and disintegration o...

"One of the best financial books of 2011." National PostJohn Bogle’s journey from financial-industry pioneer to one of its toughest criticsArguably the greatest shareholder advocate in the history of Wall Steet, John Bogle not only created the first index mutual fund but has become the primary voice for change in an industry plagued by excess and complacency. Bogle stumbled upon mutual funds by accident in 1949 as a college student at Princeton...

Renowned economist Andrew Smithers offers prescriptive advice and economic theory on avoiding the next financial crisisIn The Road to Recovery, Andrew Smithers—one of a handful of respected economists to have accurately predicted the most recent global financial crisis—argues that the neoclassical consensus governing global economic decision-making must be revised in order to avoid the next financial collapse. He argues that the current low interest rates and budge...

This innovative textbook examines commercial law and the social and political context in which it develops. Topical examples, such as funding for terrorism, demonstrate this fast-moving field's relevance to today's concerns. This wide-ranging subject is set within a clear structure, with part and chapter introductions setting out the student's course of study. Recommendations for further reading at the end of every chapter point the reader to important sources for advanced study and revisi...

Business scandals are always with us from the South Sea Bubble to Enron and Parmalat. As accounting forms a central element of any business success or failure, the role of accounting is crucial in understanding business scandals. This book aims to explore the role of accounting, particularly creative accounting and fraud, in business scandals. The book is divided into three parts. In Part A the background and context of creative accounting and fraud is explored. Part B looks at a series of...

Each year we pay billions in fees to those who run our financial system. The money comes from our bank accounts, our pensions, our borrowing, and often we aren’t told that the money has been taken. These billions may be justified if the finance industry does a good job, but as this book shows, it too often fails us. Financial institutions regularly place their business interests first, charging for advice that does nothing to improve performance, employing short-term buying strategies th...

In the wake of the recent global financial collapse the timely new edition of this successful text provides students and business professionals with a welcome update of the key issues facing managers, boards of directors, investors, and shareholders.In addition to its authoritative overview of the history, the myth and the reality of corporate governance, this new edition has been updated to include:analysis of the financial crisis;the reasons for the global...