Fifty years ago—on April 26, 1956—the freighter Ideal X steamed from Berth 26 in Port Newark, New Jersey. Flying the flag of the Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company, she set out for Houston with an unusual cargo: 58 trailer trucks lashed to her top deck. But they weren’t trucks—they were...

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Eating People Is Wrong -- 2. "Sufficiency and Sufficiency and Sufficiency" -- 3. Markets and Famines -- 4. Great Leap into Great Famine -- 5. Famine Is Not the Problem - For Now -- Bibliography -- Index

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Section One. No Banks without States, and No States without Banks -- 1. If Stable and Efficient Banks Are Such a Good Idea, Why Are They So Rare? -- 2. The Game of Bank Bargains -- 3. Tools of Conquest and Survival Why States Need Banks -- 4. Privileges with...

A frank assessment of economists’ blindness before the financial crash in 2007–2008 and what must be done to avert a sequel The failure of economists to anticipate the global financial crisis and mitigate the impact of the ensuing recession has spurred a public outcry. Economists are under...

Nineteenth-century Brazil’s constitutional monarchy credibly committed to repay sovereign debt, borrowing repeatedly in international and domestic capital markets without default. Yet it failed to lay the institutional foundations that private financial markets needed to thrive. This study...

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- One. Lombard Street, Old and New -- Two. Origins of the Present System -- Three. The Age of Management -- Four. The Art of the Swap -- Five. What Do Dealers Do? -- Six. Learning from the Crisis -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References --...

This book is the first comprehensive political and economic account of the birth and development of the Euro. Today the Euro is the supranational currency for sixteen European countries and the world’s second-largest reserve currency. David Marsh tells the story of the rivalries, intrigues,...