by David Smith
2 customers reviewed this article averaging 4.0

The economy is central to all our lives, but for many of us it is shrouded in mystery.Why do house prices rise and stock markets fall? How does it affect us when interest rates go up, and why? What is deflation, and is it worse that inflation? Does a budget deficit matter? Free Lunch is a guide to economics organized like a convivial meal with friends, and will guide you through these mysteries, leaving you nourished and enlightened….

The Writing on the Wall: Why We Must Embrace China as a Partner or Face It as an Enemy

by Will Hutton
8 customers reviewed this article averaging 5.0

The prevailing view of China is that the country is an economic juggernaut sure to become the dominant power of the twenty-first century. In this provocative and stimulating book critically acclaimed author Will Hutton warns instead that China is running up against a set of daunting challenges from within its own political and economic system that could well derail its rise, leading to a massive shock to the global economy. The United States, he argues, must recognize that it has a vital stake in…

by Thomas C. Schelling
7 customers reviewed this article averaging 4.5

by Jonas Ridderstrale
26 customers reviewed this article averaging 4.0

Oh dear. A book called Funky Business by two Swedish academics. At first glance, it has all the allure of Benny and Bjorn’s (from Abba) sadly never-released concept album about life as a middle manger in a multinational conglomerate. There is something earnestly hip about the way Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle of the Stockholm School of Economics present themselves. “They do gigs not seminars. These gigs sell out. They have…

by Donald A. Norman
4 customers reviewed this article averaging 3.5

From best-selling author Donald A. Norman, the long-awaited sequel to The Design of Everyday Things: a critical look at the new dawn of “smart” technology, from smooth-talking GPS units to cantankerous refrigerators.

Donald A. Norman, a popular design consultant to car manufacturers, computer companies, and other industrial and design outfits, has seen the future and is worried. In this long-awaited follow-up to The Design…

by Jonas Ridderstrale
26 customers reviewed this article averaging 4.0

In the best-selling Funky Business Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale launch a manifesto for difference in business. Move it. In 1995, 1000 new soft drinks were launched on the Japanese market. A year later, 1% of them were still for sale. Move it fast. If you are driving a 1990 model car, approximately six years were spent developing it. Today, most companies do that job in two years. Move it faster. At Hewlett Packard, the majority revenues come from products that did not exist a year age….

by Paul M. Kennedy
56 customers reviewed this article averaging 4.0

About national and international power in the “modern” or Post Renaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen and fallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the “new monarchies” in W. Europe.

by Rich Gold
3 customers reviewed this article averaging 3.5

We live with a lot of stuff. The average kitchen, for example, is home to stuff galore, and every appliance, every utensil, every thing, is compound–composed of tens, hundreds, even thousands of other things. Although each piece of stuff satisfies some desire, it also creates the need for even more stuff: cereal demands a spoon; a television demands a remote. Rich Gold calls this dense, knotted ecology of human-made stuff the “Plenitude.” And in this book–at once cartoon treatise, autobiographical…