Author: Utsa Patnaik
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
ISBN: 1583678905
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384
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Book Description
A comprehensive survey of capitalism's colonialist roots and uncertain future Those who control the world’s commanding economic heights, buttressed by the theories of mainstream economists, presume that capitalism is a self-contained and self-generating system. Nothing could be further from the truth. In this pathbreaking book—winner of the Paul A. Baran-Paul M. Sweezy Memorial Award—radical political economists Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik argue that the accumulation of capital has always required the taking of land, raw materials, and bodies from noncapitalist modes of production. They begin with a thorough debunking of mainstream economics. Then, looking at the history of capitalism, from the beginnings of colonialism half a millennium ago to today’s neoliberal regimes, they discover that, over the long haul, capitalism, in order to exist, must metastasize itself in the practice of imperialism and the immiseration of countless people. A few hundred years ago, write the Patnaiks, colonialism began to ensure vast, virtually free, markets for new products in burgeoning cities in the West. But even after slavery was generally abolished, millions of people in the Global South still fell prey to the continuing lethal exigencies of the marketplace. Even after the Second World War, when decolonization led to the end of the so-called “Golden Age of Capitalism,” neoliberal economies stepped in to reclaim the Global South, imposing drastic “austerity” measures on working people. But, say the Patnaiks, this neoliberal economy, which lives from bubble to bubble, is doomed to a protracted crisis. In its demise, we are beginning to see—finally—the transcendence of the capitalist system.
Author: Leah Platt Boustan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022616389X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 419
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Book Description
This volume honours the contributions Claudia Goldin has made to scholarship and teaching in economic history and labour economics. The chapters address some closely integrated issues: the role of human capital in the long-term development of the American economy, trends in fertility and marriage, and women's participation in economic change.
Author: Thomas Piketty
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674979850
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 817
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Book Description
What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this work the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. He shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality--the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth--today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values if political action is not taken. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, the author says, and may do so again. This original work reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.
Author: Paul Alan Gompers
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 9781578513260
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 282
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Book Description
When the economy was booming and dot-coms were flying high, venture capitalists were admired as impresarios of innovation. Then the market tanked, start-ups fizzled, and those same deal-makers were rebuked as predators out for a quick score. So which portrayal is accurate? Where is this much-hyped industry heading? And what will it mean for the future of innovation in the global economy? In this definitive book, industry experts Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner provide the first cool-headed explanation of the venture capital industry and the role it plays in our economy. They underscore that, regardless of the economic conditions, innovation is incredibly difficult to finance, take to market, and translate into value. While venture capital has evolved to address these problems-the industry has fueled innovation, economic growth, and wealth creation for decades-features of the venture industry have left it vulnerable to boom-and-bust cycles. In the near future, say the authors, the industry must transform dramatically, with important implications for industry players and the entrepreneurs and organizations they serve. Drawing from compelling research and industry "war stories," Gompers and Lerner present a series of practical frameworks for understanding the relationships among venture capital, innovation, and entrepreneurial success. They demystify how the venture capital world operates, and outline the opportunities and obstacles faced by all players in this evolving arena. They explore: · The problems entrepreneurs encounter in securing financing, and how the venture capital model can help innovators to resolve them · How venture capitalists can effectively pursue promising opportunities while building a sustainable franchise · How corporations, nonprofits, and government institutions can harness the power-and avoid the pitfalls-of the venture capital model when applying it in their own sectors Whether the industry is enjoying an incredible growth spurt or weathering an economic slowdown, readers will find this book an immensely practical guide to leveraging the venture capital model to turn innovation into value. Paul A. Gompersis a Professor of Business Administration and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School.Josh Lerneris a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Both authors live in the Boston area.
Author: Tariq Omar Ali
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691202575
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 266
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Book Description
Before the advent of synthetic fibers and cargo containers, jute sacks were the preferred packaging material of global trade, transporting the world's grain, cotton, sugar, tobacco, coffee, wool, guano, and bacon. Jute was the second-most widely consumed fiber in the world, after cotton. While the sack circulated globally, the plant was cultivated almost exclusively by peasant smallholders in a small corner of the world: the Bengal delta. This book examines how jute fibers entangled the delta's peasantry in the rhythms and vicissitudes of global capital. Taking readers from the nineteenth-century high noon of the British Raj to the early years of post-partition Pakistan in the mid-twentieth century, Tariq Omar Ali traces how the global connections wrought by jute transformed every facet of peasant life: practices of work, leisure, domesticity, and sociality; ideas and discourses of justice, ethics, piety, and religiosity; and political commitments and actions. Ali examines how peasant life was structured and restructured with oscillations in global commodity markets, as the nineteenth-century period of peasant consumerism and prosperity gave way to debt and poverty in the twentieth century. A Local History of Global Capital traces how jute bound the Bengal delta's peasantry to turbulent global capital, and how global commodity markets shaped everyday peasant life and determined the difference between prosperity and poverty, survival and starvation.
Author: Peter L. Bernstein
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118523989
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 375
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Book Description
Capital Ideas traces the origins of modern Wall Street, from the pioneering work of early scholars and the development of new theories in risk, valuation, and investment returns, to the actual implementation of these theories in the real world of investment management. Bernstein brings to life a variety of brilliant academics who have contributed to modern investment theory over the years: Louis Bachelier, Harry Markowitz, William Sharpe, Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, Robert Merton, Franco Modigliani, and Merton Miller. Filled with in-depth insights and timeless advice, Capital Ideas reveals how the unique contributions of these talented individuals profoundly changed the practice of investment management as we know it today.
Author: Spencer E. Ante
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1422129519
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 299
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Book Description
Venture capitalists are the handmaidens of innovation. Operating in the background, they provide the fuel needed to get fledgling companies off the ground--and the advice and guidance that helps growing companies survive their adolescence. In Creative Capital, Spencer Ante tells the compelling story of the enigmatic and quirky man--Georges Doriot--who created the venture capital industry. The author traces the pivotal events in Doriot's life, including his experience as a decorated brigadier general during World War II; as a maverick professor at Harvard Business School; and as the architect and founder of the first venture capital firm, American Research and Development. It artfully chronicles Doriot's business philosophy and his stewardship in startups, such as the important role he played in the formation of Digital Equipment Corporation and many other new companies that later grew to be influential and successful. An award-winning Business Week journalist, Ante gives us a rare look at a man who overturned conventional wisdom by proving that there is big money to be made by investing in small and risky businesses. This vivid portrait of Georges Doriot reveals the rewards that come from relentlessly pursuing what-if possibilities--and offers valuable lessons for business managers and investors alike.
Author: Steven H. Jaffe
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231169108
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
From Revolutionary-era bank notes and stock and bond trading during the Civil War to the invention of modern mortgages and the 2008 financial collapse, Capital of Capital explores how New York City gave rise to a banking industry that in turn made the American and worldÕs economy. In addition to exploring the frequently contentious evolution of the banking industry, the book examines the role of banks in making New York City an international economic center and its influence on AmericaÕs economy, politics, society, and culture. Based on a major exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, Capital of Capital profiles the key leaders and critics of banking, such as Alexander Hamilton, the Rockefellers, and the Occupy Wall Street protesters. The book also covers the key events and controversies that have shaped the history of banking and includes a fascinating array of primary materials ranging from speeches and political documents to advertisements and journalistic accounts. Lavishly illustrated, Capital of Capital provides a multifaceted, original understanding of the profound impact of banking on the life of New York City and the worldÕs economy.
Author: Ian Baucom
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822387026
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 399
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Book Description
In September 1781, the captain of the British slave ship Zong ordered 133 slaves thrown overboard, enabling the ship’s owners to file an insurance claim for their lost “cargo.” Accounts of this horrific event quickly became a staple of abolitionist discourse on both sides of the Atlantic. Ian Baucom revisits, in unprecedented detail, the Zong atrocity, the ensuing court cases, reactions to the event and trials, and the business and social dealings of the Liverpool merchants who owned the ship. Drawing on the work of an astonishing array of literary and social theorists, including Walter Benjamin, Giovanni Arrighi, Jacques Derrida, and many others, he argues that the tragedy is central not only to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the political and cultural archives of the black Atlantic but also to the history of modern capital and ethics. To apprehend the Zong tragedy, Baucom suggests, is not to come to terms with an isolated atrocity but to encounter a logic of violence key to the unfolding history of Atlantic modernity. Baucom contends that the massacre and the trials that followed it bring to light an Atlantic cycle of capital accumulation based on speculative finance, an economic cycle that has not yet run its course. The extraordinarily abstract nature of today’s finance capital is the late-eighteenth-century system intensified. Yet, as Baucom highlights, since the late 1700s, this rapacious speculative culture has had detractors. He traces the emergence and development of a counter-discourse he calls melancholy realism through abolitionist and human-rights texts, British romantic poetry, Scottish moral philosophy, and the work of late-twentieth-century literary theorists. In revealing how the Zong tragedy resonates within contemporary financial systems and human-rights discourses, Baucom puts forth a deeply compelling, utterly original theory of history: one that insists that an eighteenth-century atrocity is not past but present within the future we now inhabit.
Author: Rawi Abdelal
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674034554
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 250
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Book Description
"The rise of global financial markets in the last decades of the twentieth century was premised on one fundamental idea: that capital ought to flow across country borders with minimal restriction and regulation. Freedom for capital movements became the new orthodoxy. In an intellectual, legal, and political history of financial globalization, Rawi Abdelal shows that this was not always the case. Transactions routinely executed by bankers, managers, and investors during the 1990s—trading foreign stocks and bonds, borrowing in foreign currencies—had been illegal in many countries only decades, and sometimes just a year or two, earlier. How and why did the world shift from an orthodoxy of free capital movements in 1914 to an orthodoxy of capital controls in 1944 and then back again by 1994? How have such standards of appropriate behavior been codified and transmitted internationally? Contrary to conventional accounts, Abdelal argues that neither the U.S. Treasury nor Wall Street bankers have preferred or promoted multilateral, liberal rules for global finance. Instead, European policy makers conceived and promoted the liberal rules that compose the international financial architecture. Whereas U.S. policy makers have tended to embrace unilateral, ad hoc globalization, French and European policy makers have promoted a rule-based, “managed” globalization. This contest over the character of globalization continues today."
