Global Discord: Values and Power in a Fractured World Order
By: Paul Tucker – Harvard Kennedy School
Can the international economic and legal system survive today’s fractured geopolitics? Democracies are facing a drawn-out contest with authoritarian states that is entangling much of public policy with global security issues. In Global Discord, Paul Tucker lays out principles for a sustainable system of international cooperation, showing how democracies can deal with China and other illiberal states without sacrificing their deepest political values. Drawing on three decades as a central banker and regulator, Tucker applies these principles to the international monetary order, including the role of the U.S. dollar, trade and investment regimes, and the financial system.
Paul Tucker writes with the erudition of a scholar and the realism of a practitioner. Connecting political theory, economics, history, and international relations, he sketches possible futures for the global system while nudging the reader toward an international order that must pass a legitimacy test within democracies. This book packs a powerful argument—common sense yet radical in its implications.
Dani Rodrik, Harvard University
Climate Future: Averting and Adapting to Climate Change
By: Robert S. Pindyck – MIT
Whatever climate policies are adopted, there will be a great deal of uncertainty over what will happen as a result. In Climate Future, Robert Pindyck, an authority on the economics of climate change and global catastrophes, explains what we know and what we don’t know about the extent of climate change and its impact, why there is so much uncertainty, and what it means for climate policy. This book shows that given the economic and political realities, it is simply not realistic to expect emission reductions needed to avert substantial global warming. Pindyck argues that investments in adaptation-developing new hybrid crops, discouraging building in flood-prone or wildfire-prone areas, building sea walls and dikes, and geoengineering-are needed to insure against catastrophic climate change events. We should invest now in adaptation, and Pindyck shows how that can be done.
Politicians and Economic Experts The Limits of Technocracy
By: Anna Killick – University College London
In recent years politics has seen an increasing role in economic policymaking for a technocracy of experts. How do politicians feel about this and how do they balance their political and ethical aims with economic expertise? Anna Killick offers an in-depth study of how politicians engage with economists and economic opinion. Based on interviews with politicians from the main parties in France, Germany, Denmark, the UK and USA, the book highlights the role economic opinion plays in politics and the tension that can arise between democracy and technocracy. Deferring to the experts is shown to be neither viable nor desirable, and that we should trust politicians to take the lead role in solving economic problems.
The New Goliaths: How Corporations Use Software to Dominate Industries, Kill Innovation, and Undermine Regulation
By: James Bessen – Boston University
Historically, competition has powered progress under capitalism. Companies with productive new products rise to the top, but sooner or later, competitors come along with better innovations and disrupt the threat of monopoly. Dominant firms like Walmart, Amazon, and Google argue that this process of “creative destruction” prevents them from becoming too powerful or entrenched.
But the threat of competition has sharply decreased over the past twenty years, and today’s corporate giants have come to power by using proprietary information technologies to create a tilted playing field. This development has increased economic inequality and social division, slowed innovation, and allowed dominant firms to evade government regulation. In the face of increasing calls to break up the largest companies, James Bessen argues that a better way to restore competitive balance and dynamism is to encourage or compel these companies to share technology, data, and knowledge.
Information technologies—from the early bar code to cloud computing and artificial intelligence—are transforming our economy. Do firms use these technologies for the greater good or do they take advantage of lax oversight to increase their power and harm workers, consumers, and citizens? How should we regulate the New Goliaths of the digital age? Jim Bessen uses his broad experience and deep knowledge to shed light on these fundamental and contentious issues.
Thomas Philippon, New York University
