Rubrics » BOOKracy
Development Exposed
Ian Goldin’s book entitled The Pursuit of Development. Economic Growth, Social Change, and Ideas was originally published in English in 2016 by Oxford University Press and was translated in Romanian (În căutarea dezvoltării: creșterea economică, schimbările sociale și ideile) in 2017 by Comunicare.ro Publishing House (introduction: Paul Dobrescu; translation from English: Viorela Dima-coordinator, Raluca-Elena Hurduzeu and Elena Tălmăcian). More
Banks as Money Labs
A year has passed since the publishing of Mervyn King’s book The End of Alchemy. Money, Banking and the Future of the Global Economy, by Little Brown, London. Why, then, review it today? As readers will see for themselves, the book is definitely topical, not only as money and banks and global economy are leading characters on the world stage, but also as it is written in such a manner as to allow the (un)initiated peruser to gain (further, deeper) insight into the intricacies of world economy and how it came to be what it is today. More
The Drunkenness of Words and the Drunkenness of Reason
There are books and authors about which you somehow feel they must exist even if you have not met them yet. Under an avalanche of cultural nonsense, you are still waiting for the emergence of some intelligent voices, educated and courageous, to reconfirm the criteria, to affirm, without fear or uneasiness, that white is white and black is black, voices which are not intimidated by the spirit of time, by false academic requirements or endlessly cultural whims, and to write well and make an indispensable artistic recovery effort, in the spirit once proclaimed by T.S. Eliot, “elucidation of works of art and the correction of taste”. More
State-Building and Breaking
We live in a world beset by inequalities. The differences between the highest and the lowest are, in stark economic terms, the highest they have ever been. Moving closer to the middle of the pack, we also see the frustrating persistence of lesser differences, that are nonetheless significant for politics, migration and consumption. This is apparent in the EU and is also apparent in the United States. The differences between parts of an interlinked system create a flow, generating energy that, in the case of society, may translate into vibrancy, creativity and entrepreneurship, or tensions, recrimination and violence. The “what” and the “who” of the matter stare us in the face every day and sometimes rile us from the polls and the voting booths. The “how” and the “why” are still open to discussions, and true answers are not forthcoming because they will invariably reflect our preconceptions. More
The Deep State behind the Democracy
The results of the presidential elections in the US and the Brexit referendum in the UK are argument enough to read Peter Dale Scott’s books. Beyond the official media narrative, both of these events can be interpreted as a revolt against the crony capitalism that ties together technocrats from specialized institutions of the state (intelligence agencies, central banks, regulators etc.) and from transnational organizations (IMF, World Bank, European Commission etc.) who were not elected to their positions but named, and the private sector decision makers, from financial and banking institutions (Wall Street), Big Law, Big Oil and others. More
The Piketty-ism – a Childhood Illness for the 21st Century
The destiny of Piketty’s book was dictated by the subject he analyzed, the amount of ideology he reflected on and the style used to express his thoughts. In other words, Capital in the Twenty-First Century will find adherence and appreciation from all those who think, act and design their joys of life similar to its author. More