Extreme Economies
Survival, Failure, Future – Lessons from the World’s Limits
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
*Winner of the Enlightened Economist Prize 2019*
*Winner of Debut Writer of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020*
*Longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2019*
'Extreme Economies is a revelation - and a must-read.' Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England
To understand how humans react and adapt to economic change we need to study people who live in harsh environments. From death-row prisoners trading in institutions where money is banned to flourishing entrepreneurs in the world's largest refugee camp, from the unrealised potential of cities like Kinshasa to the hyper-modern economy of Estonia, every life in this book has been hit by a seismic shock, violently broken or changed in some way.
In his quest for a purer view of how economies succeed and fail, Richard Davies takes the reader off the beaten path to places where part of the economy has been repressed, removed, destroyed or turbocharged. He tells the personal stories of humans living in these extreme situations, and of the financial infrastructure they create. Far from the familiar stock reports, housing crises, or banking scandals of the financial pages, Extreme Economies reveals the importance of human and social capital, and in so doing tells small stories that shed light on today's biggest economic questions.
'A highly original approach to understanding what really makes economies tick.' Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Davies, a former economics editor of The Economist, debuts with a well-curated, globe-spanning study of nine irregular financial systems to understand where the modern world is headed. In the book's first section, Davies examines informal economies in Aceh, Indonesia, where tsunami survivors have transformed international aid into entrepreneurial success; the Syrian refugee camp Zaatari in northern Jordan, where smuggling fuels a thriving barter system; and the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where inmates have developed innovative currency markets. The second section investigates resource-rich sites the Darien Gap bridging South and Central America, Democratic Republic of Congo capital city Kinshasa, and Glasgow, Scotland where successful economies have either failed to develop or collapsed. The third and perhaps most compelling section examines the leading edge of societal trends including aging populations (Akita, Japan), advanced technologies (Tailin, Estonia), and extreme inequality (Santiago, Chile). In each location, Davies keeps his perspective on broad, and often disturbing, historical trends while celebrating the resourcefulness of the individuals and communities he profiles. His analysis is straightforward enough for general readers to understand, while businesspeople, economic forecasters, and policymakers will find his insights imminently applicable to their own work. This ambitious and thought-provoking guide helps to make sense of the economic future.
