In the critical decades following the First World War, the Canadian political landscape was shifting in ways that significantly recast the relationship between big business and government. As public pressures changed the priorities of Canada’s political parties, many of Canada’s most powerful businessmen struggled to come to terms with a changing world that was less sympathetic to their ideas and interests than before. Dominion of Capital offers a new account of relations between government and business in Canada during a period of transition between the established expectations of the National Policy and the uncertain future of the twentieth century. Don Nerbas tells this fascinating story through close portraits of influential business and political figures of this period – including Howard P. Robinson, Charles Dunning, Sir Edward Beatty, R.S. McLaughlin, and C.D. Howe – that provide insight into how events in different sectors of the economy and regions of the country shaped the political outlook and strategies of the country’s business elite. Drawing on business, political, social, and cultural history, Nerbas revises standard accounts of government-business relations in this period and sheds new light on the challenges facing big business in early twentieth-century Canada.

"Capital is the defining feature of modern economies, yet most people have no idea where it actually comes from. What is it, exactly, that transforms mere wealth into an asset that automatically creates more wealth? The Code of Capital explains how capital is created behind closed doors in the offices of private attorneys, and why this little-known fact is one of the biggest reasons for the widening wealth gap between the holders of capital and everybody else. In this revealing book, Katharina Pistor argues that the law selectively "codes" certain assets, endowing them with the capacity to protect and produce private wealth. With the right legal coding, any object, claim, or idea can be turned into capital - and lawyers are the keepers of the code. Pistor describes how they pick and choose among different legal systems and legal devices for the ones that best serve their clients' needs, and how techniques that were first perfected centuries ago to code landholdings as capital are being used today to code stocks, bonds, ideas, and even expectations--assets that exist only in law. A powerful new way of thinking about one of the most pernicious problems of our time, The Code of Capital explores the different ways that debt, complex financial products, and other assets are coded to give financial advantage to their holders. This provocative book paints a troubling portrait of the pervasive global nature of the code, the people who shape it, and the governments that enforce it."--Provided by publisher.

To create an enhanced quality of life, attract business relocation, and enhance equity in access to public infrastructure, governmental bodies must take certain precautions with their money. Budgeting at such a high level requires careful evaluation and research that addresses every aspect of financial management. Capital Management and Budgeting in the Public Sector provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of long-term capital planning, annual capital budgeting, capital budget execution, and public spending evaluation. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as fiscal federalism, political regime, and project execution management, this book is ideally designed for managers, accountants, professionals, practitioners, and researchers working in the areas of public finance and/or international development.

Americans often think of their nation’s history as a movement toward ever-greater democracy, equality, and freedom. Wars in this story are understood both as necessary to defend those values and as exceptions to the rule of peaceful progress. In The Dominion of War, historians Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton boldly reinterpret the development of the United States, arguing instead that war has played a leading role in shaping North America from the sixteenth century to the present. Anderson and Cayton bring their sweeping narrative to life by structuring it around the lives of eight men—Samuel de Champlain, William Penn, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur, and Colin Powell. This approach enables them to describe great events in concrete terms and to illuminate critical connections between often-forgotten imperial conflicts, such as the Seven Years’ War and the Mexican-American War, and better-known events such as the War of Independence and the Civil War. The result is a provocative, highly readable account of the ways in which republic and empire have coexisted in American history as two faces of the same coin. The Dominion of War recasts familiar triumphs as tragedies, proposes an unconventional set of turning points, and depicts imperialism and republicanism as inseparable influences in a pattern of development in which war and freedom have long been intertwined. It offers a new perspective on America’s attempts to define its role in the world at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

A "marvelous" (Economist) account of how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination. Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion-an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus-was to be worshipped as a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history. Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. As Tom Holland demonstrates, our morals and ethics are not universal but are instead the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Concepts such as secularism, liberalism, science, and homosexuality are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed. From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo, Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the modern world.

The Bank of Montreal is not only Canada's first bank: it has also occupied a prominent place in the pantheon of Canadian nation building. Whom Fortune Favours examines the trajectory of this extraordinary organization across the span of two centuries. The historian Laurence Mussio applies an analytical lens to a financial institution whose strategies fundamentally shaped, and were shaped by, the evolution of a country and a continent. The Bank of Montreal (BMO) represents an extremely rare institution, one that has both endured and adapted to fundamental change. The depth and breadth of the Bank's history offer a unique opportunity to analyze a singular organization over ten generations. As an institution, BMO played a critical part in the destiny of its home city and in the emergence of Canada on an international scene. Crucial to the development of Canadian and North American financial systems, BMO shaped the political economy of banking. Over the last half century, the institution's response to successive economic, technological, demographic, and regulatory shifts illustrates how Canadian and North American finance has adapted to the challenges before it. At its heart, Whom Fortune Favours presents a multifaceted story about the making of contemporary finance. This epic chronicle is the result of a massive research effort incorporating thousands of never-before-released internal documents. Mussio's accessible narrative will appeal to both scholars and executives who seek to understand the origins, development, and present-day implications of one of North America's great institutions.