In 2000 No Logo described a vision of rapacious corporations building brands at the expense of impoverished third world employees and ripped-off first world consumers. Now, only eight years later, No Logo looks almost optimistic against the rise of a new and insidious club of global billionaires who are buying up once unfashionable industries like oil, steel, shipping and mining from distressed third-world nations and formerly Communist powers. Often backed by mafia money or dubious political connections, these oligarchs have no shareholders and no home nation - they are the sum total of their corporations. We are dependent on these men - they fuelled our recent boom. They come to us for our light taxation and our willingness to sell them class and influence via an Eton education for their kids and cheaply bought honours. These men are becoming ever richer as the rest of the world suffers credit crunch and recession. They deal in the commodities that the planet's economies need but which are becoming ever more scarce. There are no national governments that can control or legislate against them - they will simply move to another of their five or six palatial homes. In this recession, we are all acutely aware of our dwindling wealth and the spiralling prices of essentials. The fact that these are in fewer and nastier hands than ever before has rarely - if ever - been explained by the media. It's time for a book that points out the power of these individuals and how they are just the start of a deeply worrying trend. The buyers of Tescopoly and No Logo have long been aware of overly powerful corporations. The rise of men whose personal wealth and power far outranks most of the companies in these books should alarm these concerned citizens - and encourage them to find out more. This book will paint a vivid picture using interviews, first hand experience, expert comment and some futurology to give them the information they need.

Fewer than 100 people own and control more wealth than 50 per cent of the world’s population. The Handbook on Wealth and the Super-Rich is a landmark multidisciplinary evaluation of both the lives and lifestyles of the super-rich, as well as the processes that underpin super-wealth generation and its unequal distribution. Drawing on international case studies, leading experts from across the social sciences offer 22 accessible and coherently organized chapters, which critically analyse a range of topics including: • the legitimacy of extreme wealth from a moral economic perspective • biographies of illicit super-wealth • London’s housing markets • how the very wealthy fly • the environmental consequences of super-rich lives • crafting immigration policies to attract the rich. Students and scholars studying a host of topics such as development studies, economics, geography, history, political science and sociology will find this book eminently engaging. It will also be of great interest to public commentators, charitable organizations and NGOs concerned with wealth and income distributions.

One of the dark sides to democratization can be crime and corruption. This book looks at the way political liberalization affects these practices in a number of ways whilst also challenging some of the scare stories about democracy. The book also brings the politics of power back into an examination of corruption.

Billionaires in World Politics shows how the privatization of politics assumes a new dimension when billionaires wield power in world politics, which requires a re-thinking of individual agency in International Relations. Structural changes (globalization, neoliberalism, competition states, and global governance) have generated new opportunities for individuals to become extremely rich and to engage in politics across borders. The political agency of billionaires is being conceptualized in terms of capacities, goals, and power, which is contingent upon the specific political field a billionaire is trying to enter. Six case studies explore the power of billionaires in their pursuit of security, wealth, and esteem. The chapter on security analyzes Raj Rajaratnam's relationship to the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka, and Sheldon Adelson's transnational electioneering in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Regarding the economy, the book studies how the Koch brothers' political protection of fossil fuels is affecting climate change mitigation, and how Rupert Murdoch's opinion-shaping is valorizing conservatism across borders. The chapter on social entrepreneurship and esteem examines the role of Bill Gates in the governance of global health and George Soros's attempts to build open societies as a 'stateless statesman'. An analytical conclusion evaluates the prior findings in order to address three major questions: Is it more appropriate to see billionaires as 'super-actors', or as a global 'super-class'? What is the relative power of billionaires within the international system? What does the power of billionaires mean for the liberal norms of legitimate political order?

This book, the last volume in the Social Morphogenesis series, examines whether or not a Morphogenic society can foster new modes of human relations that could exercise a form of ‘relational steering’, protecting and promoting a nuanced version of the good life for all. It analyses the way in which the intensification of morphogenesis and the diminishing of morphostasis impact upon human flourishing. The book links intensified morphogenesis to promoting human flourishing based on the assumption that new opportunities open up novel experiences, skills, and modes of communication that appeal to talents previously lacking any outlet or recognition. It proposes that equality of opportunity would increase as ascribed characteristics diminished in importance, and it could be maintained as the notion of achievement continued to diversify. Digitalization has opened the cultural ‘archive’ for more to explore and, as it expands exponentially, so do new complementary compatibilities whose development foster yet further opportunities. If more people can do more of what they do best, these represent stepping stones towards the ‘good life’ for more of them.

Dawkins and Hitchens have convinced many western intellectuals that secularism is the way forward. But most people don't read their books before deciding whether to be religious. Instead, they inherit their faith from their parents, who often innoculate them against the elegant arguments of secularists. And what no one has noticed is that far from declining, the religious are expanding their share of the population: in fact, the more religious people are, the more children they have. The cumulative effect of immigration from religious countries, and religious fertility will be to reverse the secularisation process in the West. Not only will the religious eventually triumph over the non-religious, but it is those who are the most extreme in their beliefs who have the largest families. Within Judaism, the Ultra-Orthodox may achieve majority status over their liberal counterparts by mid-century. Islamist Muslims have won the culture war in much of the Muslim world, and their success provides a glimpse of what awaits the Christian West and Israel. Based on a wealth of demographic research, considering questions of multiculturalism and terrorism, Kaufmann examines the implications of the decline in liberal secularism as religious conservatism rises - and what this means for the future of western modernity.

Extensive compilation of data on the alleged power and influence of plutocracy of inherited wealth in America today, with facts and figures on numerous prominent families.

Many years of biblical study have showed John E. Hollywell that most people have never had an accurate explanation of biblical truths and do not know what an amazing inheritance the Bible says they may have once they make Jesus their Lord and Saviour. The chaos the world suffers was foretold in the Bible. Scientists offer explanations, but governments, politicians, and educators have no answers as to why there is such poverty, crime, war, disease, mental health problems, and other forms of misery in the world today. Are there solutions to all of these issues? Emphatically, the author says, Yes! Hosea 4:6 says that Gods people are destroyed through lack of knowledge. This book provides some such knowledge in a simple, readable format. The Answer: God's Covenants of Promise will have achieved its purpose if it can open a readers eyes to see the Word of God as it was meant to be understood, why seemingly good people worldwide are so hostile and inhumane to each other, and who Jesus is and what was His true purpose for coming. The Answer: God's Covenants of Promise was written for everyone who might seek to know where humanity came from, why we are here, and where we go in the future, into eternity. The Answer: God's Covenants of Promise seeks to answer such scientific, evolutionary, and spiritual questions as What is faith in God? to be found through Jesus of Nazareth, Gods son.