This book could not be timelier, as Americans—whether as media pundits or while conversing at a party—talk past one another with ever-greater volume, heat, and disinterest in contrary opinions.Progressives, conservatives, and libertarians are like tribes speaking different languages. Political discussions do not lead to agreement. Instead, most political commentary serves only to increase polarization. The Three Languages of Politics is an accessible, precise, and...

Since the end of the second World War, economics professors and classroom textbooks have been telling us that the economy is one big machine that can be effectively regulated by economic experts and tuned by government agencies like the Federal Reserve Board. It turns out they were wrong. Their equations do not hold up. Their policies have not produced the promised results. Their interpretations of economic events -- as reported by the media -- are often of-the-mark, and unconvincing....

In Unchecked and Unbalanced, Arnold Kling provides a blueprint for those who are skeptical of political and financial elitism. At the heart of Kling's argument is the growing discrepancy between two phenomena: knowledge is becoming more diffuse, while political power is becoming more concentrated.Kling sees this knowledge/power discrepancy at the heart of the financial crisis of 2008. Financial industry executives and regulatory officials lacked the ability to fathom the c...

This book introduces the subject of economics using clear prose, rather than the graphs and equations common in many textbooks. The focus is on contemporary issues, particularly technological innovation and growth.To browse through the book or read some endorsements of the book, click here. The link below only gives you a brief excerpt.

The discipline of economics is not what it used to be. Over the last few decades, economists have begun a revolutionary reorientation in how we look at the world, and this has major implications for politics, policy, and our everyday lives. For years, conventional economists told us an incomplete story that leaned on the comfortable precision of mathematical abstraction and ignored the complexity of the real world with all of its uncertainties, unknowns, and ongoing evolution.What ...

From Nobel Prize–winning economist Jean Tirole, a bold new agenda for the role of economics in societyWhen Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, he suddenly found himself being stopped in the street by complete strangers and asked to comment on issues of the day, no matter how distant from his own areas of research. His transformation from academic economist to public intellectual prompted him to reflect further on the role economists and their discipl...

In February of 2008, amid the looming global financial crisis, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France asked Nobel Prize-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, along with the distinguished French economist Jean Paul Fitoussi, to establish a commission of leading economists to study whether Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—the most widely used measure of economic activity—is a reliable indicator of economic and social progress. The Commission was given the further task of laying out an...

From the author of Aftershock and The Work of Nations, his most important book to date—a myth-shattering breakdown of how the economic system that helped make America so strong is now failing us, and what it will take to fix it.Perhaps no one is better acquainted with the intersection of economics and politics than Robert B. Reich, and now he reveals how power and influence have created a new American oligarchy, a shrinking middle class, and the greatest income in...

SELECTED AS A 2008 BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST"ONE OF THE SMARTEST INVESTORS ON THE PLANET."--MONEY MAGAZINE“This book is an essential read for those whowish to understand the modern world of investing.”—Alan GreenspanWinner of the 2008 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year AwardWhen Markets Collide is a timely alert...

Markets, models, mechanisms and monopolies… most of us understand that economics is important, but what exactly is it – and what do economists do?In this fresh and engaging introduction, Oxford University’s James Forder skilfully presents the key concepts crucial to mastering the subject. Combining theory with dynamic, real-life examples, he shows us why economics matters and how it shapes our world.Economics: A Beginner’s Guide is the perfect introduction for anyo...

How GDP came to rule our lives—and why it needs to changeWhy did the size of the U.S. economy increase by 3 percent on one day in mid-2013—or Ghana's balloon by 60 percent overnight in 2010? Why did the U.K. financial industry show its fastest expansion ever at the end of 2008—just as the world’s financial system went into meltdown? And why was Greece’s chief statistician charged with treason in 2013 for apparently doing nothing more than trying to accurately repor...

What if our economic system – like a faulty operating system – had a little bug that was making it unsustainable economically, socially and environmentally? This cross-disciplinary work questions taken-for-granted assumptions and presents the Root Bug hypothesis If we got supply to actually meet demand in the labor market on the individual level and if we eliminated private monopolies (most notably that of land), we would have an economic system that is fair, self-stabilizi...