Black Box Thinking

Superb' - Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add UpMoney is essential to the economy and how we live our lives, yet is inherently worthless. We can use it to build a home or send us to space, and it can lead to the rise and fall of empires. Few innovations have had such a huge impact on the development of humanity, but money is a shared fiction: a story we believe in so long as others act as if it is true.Money is rarely out of the headlines – from the invention of cryptocurrencies to the problem of high inflation, extraordinary interventions by central banks and the power the West has over the worldwide banking system. In Money in One Lesson, Gavin Jackson answers the most important questions on what money is and how it shapes our world, drawing on vivid examples from throughout history to demystify and show how societies and its citizens, both past and present, are always entwined with matters of money.‘A highly illuminating, well-researched and beautifully written book on one of humanity’s most important innovations’ – Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator, Financial Times

Around the world in Britain, the United States, Asia and the Middle East, there are people with power who are cashing in on chaos: exploiting bloodshed and catastrophe to brutally remake our world in their image. They are the shock doctors. Thrilling and revelatory, "The Shock Doctrine" cracks open the secret history of our era. Exposing these global profiteers, Naomi Klein discovered information and connections that shocked even her about how comprehensively the shock doctors' beliefs now dominate our world - and how this domination has been achieved. Raking in billions out of the tsunami, plundering Russia, exploiting Iraq - this is the chilling tale of how a few are making a killing while more are getting killed.

Ha-Joon Chang's 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism turns received economic wisdom on its head to show you how the world really works.In this revelatory book, Ha-Joon Chang destroys the biggest myths of our times and shows us an alternative view of the world, including:There's no such thing as a 'free' marketGlobalization isn't making the world richerWe don't live in a digital world - the washing machine has changed lives more than the internetPoor countries are more entrepreneurial than rich onesHigher paid managers don't produce better resultsWe don't have to accept things as they are any longer. Ha-Joon Chang is here to show us there's a better way.'Lively, accessible and provocative ... read this book'Sunday Times'A witty and timely debunking of some of the biggest myths surrounding the global economy'Observer'The new kid on the economics block ... Chang's iconoclastic attitude has won him fans'Independent on Sunday'Lucid ... audacious ... increasingly influential ... will provoke physical symptoms of revulsion if you are in any way involved in high finance'Guardian'Important ... persuasive ... an engaging case for a more caring era of globalization'Financial Times'A must-read ... incisive and entertaining'New Statesman Books of the YearHa-Joon Chang is a Reader in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge. He is author of Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective, which won the 2003 Gunnar Myrdal Prize, and Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World. Since the beginning of the 2008 economic crisis, he has been a regular contributor to the Guardian, and a vocal critic of the failures of our economic system.

FROM THE WINNERS OF THE 2019 NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS'Wonderfully refreshing . . . A must read' Thomas PikettyIn this revolutionary book, prize-winning economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. From immigration to inequality, slowing growth to accelerating climate change, we have the resources to address the challenges we face but we are so often blinded by ideology.Original, provocative and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times offers the new thinking that we need. It builds on cutting-edge research in economics - and years of exploring the most effective solutions to alleviate extreme poverty - to make a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. A much-needed antidote to polarized discourse, this book shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.