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Financial crises happen time and again in post-industrial economies—and they are extraordinarily damaging. Building on insights gleaned from many years of work in the banking industry and drawing on a vast trove of data, Richard Vague argues that such crises follow a pattern that makes them both predictable and avoidable. A Brief History of Doom examines a series of major crises over the past 200 years in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, and China—including the Great Depression and the economic meltdown of 2008. Vague demonstrates that the over-accumulation of private debt does a better job than any other variable of explaining and predicting financial crises. In...
Current debates about economic crises typically focus on the role that public debt and debt-fueled public spending play in economic growth. This illuminating and provocative work shows that it is the rapid expansion of private rather than public debt that constrains growth and sparks economic calamities like the financial crisis of 2008. Relying on the findings of a team of economists, credit expert Richard Vague argues that the Great Depression of the 1930s, the economic collapse of the past decade, and many other sharp downturns around the world were all preceded by a spike in privately held debt. Vague presents an algorithm for predicting crises and argues that China may soon face disaster. Since American debt levels have not declined significantly since 2008, Vague believes that economic growth in the United States will suffer unless banks embrace a policy of debt restructuring. All informed citizens, but especially those interested in economic policy and history, will want to contend with Vague's distressing arguments and evidence.
"An illustrated business history of the United States from colonial times to the present"--
We were drowning in in record levels of debt before the COVID-19 crisis, and we are now deluged in it. U.S. private-sector loans have tripled relative to income since 1950 – and government debt is also at an all-time high. Soaring debt burdens individuals, stifles growth, compounds inequality, and brings falling living standards for millions. Richard Vague’s new book argues that, contrary to mainstream assumptions, we cannot simply hope that the trend will correct itself. Mounting debt is a feature of our economic system, not a bug: debts perpetually grow and compound, polarizing and impoverishing economies if not overtly dealt with. He offers a detailed plan for how we can restructure a range of debts – such as student loans, auto loans, medical debt and more – and offer hard-pressed debtors a ‘jubilee’ now, not in some utopian future. Vague’s bold polemic contains a wealth of ideas that will free millions from modern-day debt peonage, reduce inequality and bring new vigor to the economy as it struggles to emerge from the pandemic.
When we talk about debt and its economic impact, we usually centre on "government debt," and overlook the debt owed by individuals and firms that is vital to truly understanding the economy. In this iconoclastic book, Richard Vague examines the assets, liabilities, and incomes of the American economy as a whole, not just of the government. The book shows that debt growth in excess of GDP growth is a feature of modern economic systems, not a bug—and thus ever-increasing leverage is built into the very structure of the economy. Vague uses the data presented in the book to show that rising debt is the primary source of economic growth, new money creation, and wealth creation—but that it also brings heightened inequality and can bring economic calamity when left unchecked. Vague also compares and contrasts the financial data of the U.S. to the world's other largest economies. As an expert on the role of private debt in the global economy, Vague offers an innovative set of policies to try to manage this debt paradox. Whether you are a policymaker or a private citizen looking to understand these dynamics, this book is an indispensable guide.
In his debut volume, Richard Meier risks "an affront to the personal" by dismantling and reassembling the lyric "I." His poems demonstrate a dizzying grace while uncovering a terrain less vague than tremendously powerful. The emotional tenor of Meier's poems work with the strong intellect behind them to produce a captivating collection. Winner of the 2000 Verse Prize, selected by Tomaz Salamun.
*A BOOK OF THE MONTH RADIO 2 STEVE WRIGHT IN THE AFTERNOON PICK**AN OBSERVER DEBUT OF 2022**AS FEATURED ON FRONT ROW*When we go through something impossible, someone, or something, will help us, if we let them . . .It is October 1966 and William Lavery is having the night of his life at his first black-tie do. But, as the evening unfolds, news hits of a landslide at a coal mine. It has buried a school: Aberfan.William decides he must act, so he stands and volunteers to attend. It will be his first job as an embalmer, and it will be one he never forgets.His work that night will force him to think about the little boy he was, and the losses he has worked so hard to forget. But compassion can h...
'A remarkable and deeply moving book' Henry Marsh, bestselling author of Do No Harm 'A breathtaking, extraordinary work of non-fiction' Times Literary Supplement On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake sent a 120-foot-high tsunami smashing into the coast of north-east Japan. It was Japan's greatest single loss of life since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, lived through the earthquake in Tokyo, and spent six years reporting from the epicentre. Learning about the lives of those affected through their own personal accounts, he paints a rich picture of the impact the tsunami had on day to day Japanese life. Heart-breaking and hopeful, this intimate account of a tragedy unveils the unique nuances of Japanese culture, the tsunami's impact on Japan's stunning and majestic landscape and the psychology of its people. Ghosts of the Tsunami is an award-winning classic of literary non-fiction. It tells the moving, evocative story of how a nation faced an unimaginable catastrophe and rebuilt to look towards the future. **WINNER OF THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE**
RICHARD H. THALER: WINNER OF THE 2017 NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS Shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award ECONOMIST, FINANCIAL TIMES and EVENING STANDARD books of the year From the renowned and entertaining behavioural economist and co-author of the seminal work Nudge, Misbehaving is an irreverent and enlightening look into human foibles. Traditional economics assumes that rational forces shape everything. Behavioural economics knows better. Richard Thaler has spent his career studying the notion that humans are central to the economy - and that we're error-prone individuals, not Spock-like automatons. Now behavioural economics is hugely influential, cha...
"This engaging book is about beech trees, but it is also about numerous other issues, including global warming and the importance of trees in the landscape. Trees are the largest and most significant organisms on our planet.