General Books

The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Thomas L. Friedman

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“One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal,” the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in The New York Times, reviewing The World is Flat in 2005. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman brilliantly demystifies the new flat world for listeners, making sense of the advances in technology and communications that challenge us to run even faster just to stay in place. For these updated and expanded editions, Friedman has added more hours of commentary, fresh stories and insights. New material includes:
 
• The reasons the flattening of the world “will be seen in time as one of those fundamental shifts or inflection points, like the invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, or the Industrial Revolution”
 
• A mapping of the New Middle—the places and spaces in the flat world where middle-class jobs will be found—and portraits of the character types who will find success as New Middlers
 
• An account of the qualities American parents and teachers need to cultivate in young people so that they will be able to thrive in the flat world
 
• An account of the “globalization of the local”: how the flattening of the world is actually strengthening local and regional identities rather than homogenizing the world
 
          More than ever, The World Is Flat is an essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.

The Wealth of Nations (Bantam Classics)

Adam Smith

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The Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith

It is symbolic that Adam Smith’s masterpiece of economic analysis, The Wealth of Nations, was first published in 1776, the same year as the Declaration of Independence.

In his book, Smith fervently extolled the simple yet enlightened notion that individuals are fully capable of setting and regulating prices for their own goods and services. He argued passionately in favor of free trade, yet stood up for the little guy. The Wealth of Nations provided the first--and still the most eloquent--integrated description of the workings of a market economy.

The result of Smith’s efforts is a witty, highly readable work of genius filled with prescient theories that form the basis of a thriving capitalist system. This unabridged edition offers the modern reader a fresh look at a timeless and seminal work that revolutionized the way governments and individuals view the creation and dispersion of wealth--and that continues to influence our economy right up to the present day.

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It

Paul Collier

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Global poverty, Paul Collier points out, is actually falling quite rapidly for about eighty percent of the world. The real crisis lies in a group of about 50 failing states, the bottom billion, whose problems defy traditional approaches to alleviating poverty.
In The Bottom Billion, Collier contends that these fifty failed states pose the central challenge of the developing world in the twenty-first century. The book shines a much needed light on this group of small nations, largely unnoticed by the industrialized West, that are dropping further and further behind the majority of the world's people, often falling into an absolute decline in living standards. A struggle rages within each of these nation between reformers and corrupt leaders--and the corrupt are winning. Collier analyzes the causes of failure, pointing to a set of traps that snare these countries, including civil war, a dependence on the extraction and export of natural resources, and bad governance. Standard solutions do not work against these traps, he writes; aid is often ineffective, and globalization can actually make matters worse, driving development to more stable nations. What the bottom billion need, Collier argues, is a bold new plan supported by the Group of Eight industrialized nations. If failed states are ever to be helped, the G8 will have to adopt preferential trade policies, new laws against corruption, and new international charters, and even conduct carefully calibrated military interventions.
As former director of research for the World Bank and current Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, Paul Collier has spent a lifetime working to end global poverty. In The Bottom Billion, he offers real hope for solving one of the great humanitarian crises facing the world today.

A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market

Jim Rogers

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If the twentieth century was the American century, then the twenty-first century belongs to China. Now the one and only Jim Rogers shows how any investor can get in on the ground floor of “the greatest economic boom since England’s Industrial Revolution.”

In this indispensable new book, one of the world’s most successful investors, Jim Rogers, brings his unerring investment acumen to bear on this huge and unruly land now being opened to the world and exploding in potential.

Rogers didn’t just wake up a Sinophile yesterday. He’s been tracking the Chinese economy since he first went to China in 1984 in preparation for his round-the-world motorcycle trip and then again, later, when he saw Shanghai’s newly reopened stock exchange (which looked like an OTB office). In the decades that followed–especially in recent years, with the easing of Communist party financial dictates–the facts speak for themselves:

• The Chinese economy’s growth rate has averaged 9 percent since the start of the 1980s.
• China’s savings rate is over 35 percent (in America, it’s 2 percent).
• 40 percent of China’s output goes to exports (so there’s no crippling foreign debt).
• $60 billion a year in direct foreign investment, combined with a trade surplus, has brought Beijing’s foreign currency reserves to over $1 trillion.
• China’s fixed assets–ports, bridges, and roads–double every two and a half years.

In short, if projections hold, China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy in as little as twenty years. But the time to act is now. In A Bull in China, you’ll learn what industries offer the newest and best opportunities, from power, energy, and agriculture to tourism, water, and infrastructure. In his trademark down-to-earth style, Rogers demystifies the state policies that are driving earnings and innovation, takes the intimidation factor out of the A-shares, B-shares, and ADRs of Chinese offerings, and encourages any reader to trust his or her own expertise (if you’re a car mechanic, check out their auto industry).

A Bull in China also features fascinating profiles of “Red Chip” companies, such as Yantu Changyu, China’s largest winemaker, which sells a “Healthy Liquor” line mixed with herbal medicines. Plus, if you want to export something to China yourself–or even buy land there–Rogers tells you the steps you need to take.

No other book–and no other author–can better help you benefit from the new Chinese revolution. Jim Rogers shows you how to make the “amazing energy, potential, and entrepreneurial spirit of a billion people” work for you.

The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It: Make a Fortune by Investing in Gold and Other Hard Assets

James Turk, John Rubino

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Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

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The dollar is in trouble. Its value on foreign exchange markets has been falling for the past six years, and now its gradual decline is about to become a rout. This spells big trouble for the American economy—but potential riches for smart investors. In The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It, financial gurus James Turk and John Rubino show how the dollar arrived at this precipice, why it will continue to plunge, and how you can profit from the resulting financial crisis.

The United States today is the world’s biggest debtor nation. To finance this mountain of debt, we’re flooding the world with dollars. The resulting oversupply of dollars will cause its value to decline until it is displaced as the world’s dominant currency. Precious metals will soar in value, and gold will reclaim its monetary role at the center of the global financial system.

James Turk, a leading gold authority and the founder of GoldMoney.com, and John Rubino, editor of the popular Web site DollarCollapse.com offer strategies for investing in gold coins, gold stocks, gold-based digital currencies, and other hard assets to create a profitable portfolio.

The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It is a must read for every citizen and investor.

International Business: Managing Globalization

John S. Hill

Amazon Price: $89.95 List Price: $89.95 Not yet published By: Sage Publications, Inc

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Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

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“This is a wonderful text, remarkable for its breadth and freshness of approach. Hill links the often arcane world of international business to society and history. He has a good eye for the telling detail and the illuminating quotation. I shall be recommending this to my friends who are teaching, saying 'read this and get your students to stay curious.’”

-John Stopford, Emeritus, London Business School


Reflecting a strong managerial orientation, a corporate emphasis, and a true global-local focus, International Business: Managing Globalization explains the whats and whys of global differences as it covers industries, competitors, regions, and markets from the perspectives of practicing managers. Author John S. Hill reviews the geographic and historic backgrounds of regions and markets in a way that no other text has done, with special focus on global supply chains, global branding, and world religions as they affect management at the local level.

Key Features

• Integrates business topics and environmental analysis into a strategic, global-local framework
• Places current events in focus by covering history and geography as they affect international business
• Includes a unique chapter on global industry and competitor analysis-a common business tool-but a topic not covered in other texts
• Covers religion as a key determiner of behaviors worldwide to help readers understand why behaviors differ depending on the local context
• Focuses on corporate analysis, planning, and internationalization-vital corporate practices rarely covered in other textbooks
• Includes both shorter and longer, more complex cases, thus appealing to both introductory and advanced courses

Intended Audience
International Business: Managing Globalization is ideal for the Introduction to Business course or for courses focusing on international or global business strategy.

The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us

Robyn Meredith

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Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Very Interesting View From 30,000 Feet 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I very much enjoyed the opening chapters as Meredith spewed out statistics and opinions and history of how China and India have come to be in their current economic situations. This was very well written and extremely easy to read as well as quite engaging. Reading these two chapters is worth the trip to the library for this book as they provide a fascinating expose of why socialistic ideals, while bred from trying to do well, provide the opposite in practice. Capitalism and democracy when put in place with the least amount of lawmaker interference will bring out the best in people and the land on which they are living.

However, in the chapters explaining the outsourcing of service jobs to India and factory jobs to China, I began to look at the footnotes. Many footnotes reference the same work over and over and over again. This isn't necessarily bad, but the viewpoint from the author is somewhat simplified and with only a limited number of sources, there isn't the in depth look at the statistics or the line of reasoning. For instance, on page 85, the author mentions that economists are locked in arguments about how vast the changes will be due to "offshoring". However, Meredith only quotes one source and therefore one side of the argument and the source is one that has been quoted previously in the same debate. This is common throughout the book.

The chapter on "disassembly lines" was very good as a beginning look at Supply Chain economics. But again, it didn't go far enough with comparisons on how long things take to manufacture from start to finish as compared to before China and after China. Maybe I'm too tough on comparisons, but in telling this type of information, I like to see more of both sides of the equation.

The last chapter is interesting and brings up some discussion points, but some of it is pretty far out there. Going on and on about how China affects our housing pricing due to their holding of dollars is quite a stretch. After all, they were still holding dollars as interest rates went up and then down. There are many external factors that are closer to the United States and have a more immediate impact. And again, she is rambling in opinion without any reference points. Complaining that China is over-polluting and should be using Ethanol while pointing out that China has a water/irrigation problem and is gobbling up farmland for manufacturing just doesn't make any sense - going to Ethanol will only make the food supply more scarce.

I could go on chapter by chapter, but you get my point. There isn't enough of the thoughtful interplay that I would expect in this type of book. Where are both sides of the story? Where is the depth? In Chapter Three about China financing its growth of infrastructure, Meredith begins to scratch the surface about the banking problems that might arise from the demands of the Chinese government to hand out loans to whomever they (the government) see fit. This would have been a wonderful place to explore the differences of how various governments finance infrastructure and to do a compare and contrast with China, India and maybe the U.S. or Great Britain.

I guess I'm looking for the next step. This book is a very good start of this topic, but it doesn't go far enough for me. I wanted more of the details. Maybe that isn't what the author was attempting. I did notice that much of the reference material was on-line website information or magazine articles. Some were direct interviews and that always leaves me wondering. Meredith is a good magazine article writer and wrote this book in a similar manner. The subject material is such a current interest; I hope that someone writes something with more substance. If it's out there, I'd appreciate a comment with some other readings that have more depth.

Editorial Review:

"A comprehensive primer on the development of these Asian tigers."—Noam Lupu, San Francisco Chronicle

The Elephant and the Dragon is the essential guide to understanding how India and China are reshaping our world. With labor now unbound from geographic borders, we're seeing startling shifts in how—and where—nearly everything we buy is made. In a compelling mix of history and on-the-ground reporting, veteran journalist Robyn Meredith untangles the complex web of business and politics, as well as environmental and cultural issues that entwine India, China, and the West. She also outlines how Americans—business leaders, workers, politicians, even parents—can understand the vast changes coming and thrive in this new age.

Making Globalization Work

Joseph E. Stiglitz

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"A damning denunciation of things as they are, and a platform for how we can do better."—Andrew Leonard, Salon

Four years after he outlined the challenges our increasingly interdependent world was facing in Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz offered his agenda for reform. Now in paperback, Making Globalization Work offers inventive solutions to a host of problems, including the indebtedness of developing countries, international fiscal instability, and worldwide pollution. Stiglitz also argues for the reform of global financial institutions, trade agreements, and intellectual property laws, to make them better able to respond to the growing disparity between the richest and poorest countries. Now more than ever before, globalization has gathered the peoples of the world into one community, bringing with it a need to think and act globally. This trenchant, intellectually powerful book is an invaluable step in that process. This paperback edition contains a brand-new preface.

The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Exam the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade

Pietra Rivoli

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Praise for THE TRAVELS OF A T-SHIRT IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

"Engrossing . . . (Rivoli) goes wherever the T-shirt goes, and there are surprises around every corner . . . full of memorable characters and vivid scenes."
—Time

"An engaging and illuminating saga. . . . Rivoli follows her T-shirt along its route, but that is like saying that Melville follows his whale. . . . Her nuanced and fair-minded approach is all the more powerful for eschewing the pretense of ideological absolutism, and her telescopic look through a single industry has all the makings of an economics classic."
—The New York Times

"Rarely is a business book so well written that one would gladly stay up all night to finish it. Pietra Rivoli's The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is just such a page-turner."
—CIO magazine

"Succeeds admirably . . . T-shirts may not have changed the world, but their story is a useful account of how free trade and protectionism certainly have."
—Financial Times

"[A] fascinating exploration of the history, economics, and politics of world trade . . . The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is a thought-provoking yarn that exhibits the ugly, the bad, and the good of globalization, and points to the unintended positive consequences of the clash between proponents and opponents of free trade."
—Star-Telegram (Fort Worth)

"Part travelogue, part history, and part economics, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is ALL storytelling, and in the grand style. A must-read."
—Peter J. Dougherty, Senior Economics Editor, Princeton University Press author of Who's Afraid of Adam Smith?

"A readable and evenhanded treatment of the complexities of free trade . . . As Rivoli repeatedly makes clear, there is absolutely nothing free about free trade except the slogan."
—San Francisco Chronicle

Global Business Today

Charles W. L. Hill

Amazon Price: $120.00 Not yet published By: McGraw-Hill/Irwin

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Charles Hill’s Global Business Today, 6e (GBT) has become an established text in the International Business market for several key reasons: (1) it is comprehensive and up-to-date, (2) it goes beyond an uncritical presentation and shallow explanation of the body of knowledge, (3) it maintains a tight, integrated flow between chapters, (4) it focuses on managerial implications, (5) it makes important theories accessible and interesting to students, and (6) it incorporates ancillary resources that enliven the text and make it easier to teach.

The success of the first five editions of Global Business Today has been based in part upon the incorporation of leading edge research into the text, the use of the up-to-date examples and statistics to illustrate global trends and enterprise strategy, and the discussion of current events within the context of the appropriate theory.

Our research has shown that students and instructors alike enjoy the interesting, informative, and accessible writing style of GBT – so much so that the writing has become Charles Hill’s trademark. In addition to boxed material which provides deep illustrations in every chapter, Hill carefully weaves interesting anecdotes into the narrative of the text to engage the reader.