To overcome the economic aftermath of Covid-19 and empower people to "build back better", our world needs a new social paradigm. That model would need to launch humanity on to a moral growth path by enabling societies to survive the looming existential crises which, Fred Harrison reveals, will converge as a result of the peak in house prices in 2026. That paradigm exists, explains the author, in the form of a financial anti-dote to what economists call "rent seeking". In testing his thesis, the author discovered that the world's systemic crises originated in a single cause. Free riding is an anti-social form of behaviour that incubated the social, demographic and environmental threats to life on Earth. A single financial reform would deliver the synergy to simultaneously neutralise the cannibalistic phase into which free riding has consigned our world. It would do so by transforming governance to serve the common good. The author provides an enriched theory of evolution, which reveals the blueprint that would empower people to reframe behaviour and heal the damage inflicted on nature and society.

Presenting insights into how income and wealth are produced and distributed, this study analyzes how, despite two centuries of capital accumulation, poverty persists in rich nations. Relying on the theories of David Ricardo—a 19th-century economist credited with developing the theory of rent—a thorough presentation of the history of this economic law, from the inscriptions on the clay tablets of ancient Babylonian merchants to statistics that portray the modern economy, is provided. Presenting readers with conceptual tools that will motivate them to reengage in the democratic process, this examination dispels the myths of contemporary fiscal policy while providing keen insights into the history, and future, of economics.

The progressive economics writer redefines the national conversation about American freedom “Mike Konczal [is] one of our most powerful advocates of financial reform‚ [a] heroic critic of austerity‚ and a huge resource for progressives.”—Paul Krugman Health insurance, student loan debt, retirement security, child care, work-life balance, access to home ownership—these are the issues driving America’s current political debates. And they are all linked, as this brilliant and timely book reveals, by a single question: should we allow the free market to determine our lives? In the tradition of Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, noted economic commentator Mike Konczal answers this question with a resounding no. Freedom from the Market blends passionate political argument and a bold new take on American history to reveal that, from the earliest days of the republic, Americans have defined freedom as what we keep free from the control of the market. With chapters on the history of the Homestead Act and land ownership, the eight-hour work day and free time, social insurance and Social Security, World War II day cares, Medicare and desegregation, free public colleges, intellectual property, and the public corporation, Konczal shows how citizens have fought to ensure that everyone has access to the conditions that make us free. At a time when millions of Americans—and more and more politicians—are questioning the unregulated free market, Freedom from the Market offers a new narrative, and new intellectual ammunition, for the fight that lies ahead.

A flexible, topic-based conversation and listening course for adults and young adults.

The New York Times has praised Dave Chappelle as "an American folk hero" for his ability to communicate across lines of race, class, and culture at a time when Americans are more polarized than they have ever been.Dave Chappelle and Philosophy brings together twenty-five chapters by philosophers of diverse backgrounds and varying points of view, looking closely at the hilarious, annoying, exhilarating, upsetting, and thought-provoking aspects of Chappelle's wonderfully rich output. This volume of the Series serves as an invitation to think about some of the most urgent moral and political questions of our time.

Annotation Using the United Kingdom as a case study, this well-researched account shows how, for more than 200 years, a remarkably regular 18-year cycle of boom and bust can be traced to the peaks and troughs in land prices. This exploration reveals how governments, during the upswing of the cycle, are complicit in encouraging a belief that property prices will continue upwards indefinitely because of their skilled management of the economy and attributes the current crises to public policy on both sides of the Atlantic. An alternative plan to neutralize the next boomone that would lead to a more stable and environmentally friendly economy with a more equitable distribution of wealthis also presented.

The shocking true crime story of child murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Great Britain’s most horrific serial killers. During the early 1960s, just as Beatlemania was exploding throughout the United Kingdom, a pair of psychopathic British killers began preying on the very young, innocent, and helpless of Greater Manchester. Between 1963 and 1965, Ian Brady and his lover and partner, Myra Hindley, were responsible for the abduction, rape, torture, and murder of five young victims, ranging in age from ten to seventeen years old. The English press dubbed the grisly series of homicides “the Moors Murders,” named for the desolate landscape where three of the corpses were eventually discovered. Based in part on the author’s face-to-face prison interviews with the killers, Fred Harrison’s fascinating and disturbing true crime masterwork digs deeply into Brady and Hindley’s personal histories to examine the factors that led to their mutual attraction and their evolution into the UK’s most notorious pair of human monsters. It was during these interviews that new details about the killers’ terrible crimes surfaced, compelling the police to reopen what was arguably the most shocking and sensational homicide case in the annuls of twentieth-century British crime. With a new introduction by the author, meticulously researched and compellingly written, Brady and Hindley is the definitive account of Britain’s most hated serial killers.

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey's latest meticulous work examines how economics can become a more "human" science. Economic historian Deirdre Nansen McCloskey has distinguished herself through her writing on the Great Enrichment and the betterment of the poor—not just materially but spiritually. In Bettering Humanomics she continues her intellectually playful yet rigorous analysis with a focus on humans rather than the institutions. Going against the grain of contemporary neo-institutional and behavioral economics which privilege observation over understanding, she asserts her vision of “humanomics,” which draws on the work of Bart Wilson, Vernon Smith, and most prominently, Adam Smith. She argues for an economics that uses a comprehensive understanding of human action beyond behaviorism. McCloskey clearly articulates her points of contention with believers in “imperfections,” from Samuelson to Stiglitz, claiming that they have neglected scientific analysis in their haste to diagnose the ills of the system. In an engaging and erudite manner, she reaffirms the global successes of market-tested betterment and calls for empirical investigation that advances from material incentives to an awareness of the human within historical and ethical frameworks. Bettering Humanomics offers a critique of contemporary economics and a proposal for an economics as a better human science.

For decades, a secret army of tax attorneys, accountants and wealth managers has been developing into the shadowy Wealth Defence Industry. These ‘agents of inequality’ are paid millions to hide trillions for the richest 0.01%. In this book, inequality expert Chuck Collins, who himself inherited a fortune, interviews the leading players and gives a unique insider account of how this industry is doing everything it can to create and entrench hereditary dynasties of wealth and power. He exposes the inner workings of these “agents of inequality”, showing how they deploy anonymous shell companies, family offices, offshore accounts, opaque trusts, and sham transactions to ensure the world’s richest pay next to no tax. He ends by outlining a robust set of policies that democratic nations can implement to shut down the Wealth Defence Industry for good. This shocking exposé of the insidious machinery of inequality is essential reading for anyone wanting the inside story of our age of plutocratic plunder and stashed cash.