Africa’s Odious Debts

How Foreign Loans and Capital Bled a Continent

James Boyce, Léonce Ndikumana

In Africa’s Odious Debts, Boyce and Ndikumana reveal the shocking fact that, contrary to the popular perception of Africa being a drain on the financial resources of the West, the continent is actually a net creditor to the rest of the world. The extent of capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa is remarkable: more than $700 billion in the past four decades. But Africa’s foreign assets remain private and hidden, while its foreign debts are public, owed by the people of Africa through… (more information)

Beyond the Bubble

Imagining a New Canadian Economy

James Laxer

With the onset of the current economic crisis, one chapter in the economic history of the world is ending and new one is beginning. What role will Canada play in this vastly altered world? James Laxer examines the anatomy of the crash: the forces that have controlled the global system and the forces that have the capacity to usher in a new global system as the U.S.-centered age of globalization comes to an end. He explores what needs to be done to combat the crash in Canada, and poses the questions… (more information)

Birth of Capitalism

A Twenty-First-Century Perspective

Henry Heller

In the light of the deepening crisis of capitalism and continued non-Western capitalist accumulation, Henry Heller re-examines the debates surrounding the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe and elsewhere. Focusing on arguments about the origin, nature and sustainability of capitalism, Heller offers a new reading of the historical evidence and a critical interrogation of the transition debate. He advances the idea that capitalism must be understood as a political as well as an economic… (more information)

Community Economic Development

Building for Social Change

Edited by Eric Shragge, Michael Toye

Having made major gains in practice and having built local capacities through innovation, Community Economic Development practice now stands at a crossroads. In Building for Social Change, Eric Shragge, Michael Toye and colleagues from across the country offer a timely critical examination of CED practices and debates. This book is designed for CED practitioners, for others working in community-based organizations and those being trained. The goal of this book is to describe and analyze… (more information)

Crash of International Finance

Capital and its Implications for the Third World

Dani Wadada Nabudere

The Crash of International Finance-Capital and its Implications for the Third World was first published in 1989 in response to the financial crisis of 1987. Professor Nabudere’s analysis of the causes of that crisis has extraordinary parallels with the contemporary financial and economic meltdown that has caused panic in the West and devastated the lives of millions in the Third World. Nabudere traces the historical evolution of money and finance-capital and demonstrates the inevitability… (more information)

Decent Capitalism

A Blueprint for Reforming our Economies

Sebastien Dullien, Hansjörg Herr, Christian Kellermann

The recent crisis, created by finance capitalism, has brought us to the economic abyss. The excessive freedom of international markets has rapidly transformed into international panic, with states struggling to rescue and bail out a globalised financial sector. Reform is promised by our leaders, but in governments dominated by financial interests there is little hope of meaningful change. Decent Capitalism argues for a response that addresses capitalism’s systemic tendency towards crisis,… (more information)

Ecological Rift

Capitalism’s War on the Earth

John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, Richard York

Humanity in the twenty-first century is facing what might be described as its ultimate environmental catastrophe: the destruction of the climate that has nurtured human civilization and with it the basis of life on earth as we know it. All ecosystems on the planet are now in decline. Enormous rifts have been driven through the delicate fabric of the biosphere. The economy and the earth are headed for a fateful collision — if we don’t alter course. (more information)

Economics for Everyone

A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism

Jim Stanford

Economics is too important to be left to economists. This brilliantly concise and readable book provides nonspecialist readers with all the information they need to understand how capitalism works (and how it doesn’t). Jim Stanford’s book is an antidote to the abstract and ideological way that economics is normally taught and reported. Key concepts such as finance, competition and wage labour are explored, and their importance in everyday life is revealed. Stanford answers questions… (more information)

Food versus Fuel

An Informed Introduction to Biofuels

Francis Johnson, Frank Rosillo-Calle

Food versus Fuel presents a high-level introduction to the science and economics behind a well-worn debate, that will debunk myths and provide quality facts and figures for academics and practitioners in development studies, environment studies, and agricultural studies. Compiled by an internationally renowned scientist and authority, and to include perspectives from ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ biofuels experts and activists, from the North and South, the aim of this book is to bring… (more information)

Global Minotaur

America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the future of the World Economy

Yanis Varoufakis

In this remarkable and provocative book, Yanis Varoufakis explodes the myth that financialization, ineffectual regulation of banks, greed and globalization were the root causes of the global economic crisis. Rather, they are symptoms of a much deeper malaise which can be traced all the way back to the Great Crash of 1929, then on through to the 1970s: the time when a ‘Global Minotaur’ was born. Just as the Athenians maintained a steady flow of tributes to the Cretan beast, so the &lsquo… (more information)

Global Trade

Past Mistakes, Future Choices

Greg Buckman

Trade, along with the free movement of capital, is at the heart of today’s international economy. But international trade is an intensely political and contested subject. This book traces the history of global trade, the impact of current global trading arrangements on poverty, inequality and the environment, its hugely differential consequences for high-income and low-income countries, and future options for revised trading arrangements. It argues that factors like future fossil fuel costs… (more information)

Invisible Handcuffs of Capitalism

How Market Tyranny Stifles the Economy by Stunting Workers

Michael Perelman

Mainstream, or more formally, neoclassical, economics claims to be a science. But as Michael Perelman makes clear, nothing could be further from the truth. While a science must be rooted in material reality, mainstream economics ignores or distorts the most fundamental aspect of this reality: that the vast majority of people must labor on behalf of others, transformed into nothing but a means to the end of maximum profits for their employers. Perelman describes this illusion as the “invisible… (more information)

Life without Money

Building Fair and Sustainable Economies

Edited by Anitra Nelson, Frans Timmerman

The money-based global economy is failing. The credit crunch undermined capitalism’s ability to ensure rising incomes and prosperity while market-led attempts to combat climate change are fought tooth and nail by business as environmental crises continue. We urgently need to combat those who say ‘there is no alternative’ to the current system, but what would an alternative look like? The contributors to Life Without Money argue that it is time radical, non-market models were… (more information)

No-Nonsense Guide to Global Finance

Peter Stalker

“Meltdown,” “crisis,” “downturn,” and the dreaded “R-word” – recession. These words have migrated from business sections to headline news. From barter to coins, from the origins of banking to today’s credit crunch, this highly topical book explores cash and borrowing and lending, and delves into the dark side of the global financial system. But as we teeter on the brink of a global depression, space develops for new thinking. From doing… (more information)

Problem With Banks

Lena Rethel, Timothy Sinclair

Banks of all sorts are troubled institutions. The cost of public bail-outs associated with the subprime crisis in the United States alone may be as high as US$2 trillion. What is the problem with banks? Why do they seem to be at the centre of economic and financial turmoil down through the ages? In this provocative and timely book, Sinclair and Rethel seek answers to these questions, arguing that banks suffer from perennial problems, and that developments in the financial markets and government… (more information)

Saving Global Capitalism

Interrogating Austerity and Working Class Responses to Crises

Edited by Carlo Fanelli, Chris Hurl, Priscillia Lefebvre, Gulden Ozcan

What began as an unprecedented housing meltdown centered in the United States in the summer of 2007, quickly turned into a global insolvency crisis throughout 2008, and later the most significant economic crisis since the Great Depression. Despite monumental bailouts and extraordinary coordination by all major capitalist countries led by the U.S. Treasury, the public purse that salvaged the making of global capitalism is now being undermined by the very financial markets that were rescued. A new… (more information)

Socialist Register 2011

The Crisis This Time

Edited by Greg Albo, Vivek Chibber, Leo Panitch

The challenge for socialist analysis is to reveal both the nature of the contradictions of capitalism in the neo-liberal era of globalized finance, and their consequences in our time. Crises need to be understood as turning points that open up opportunities. What implications does the crisis this time have in terms of capitalist economic and political restructuring? What possibilities do these open up for the revival of capital accumulation and the renewal of its political forms? Does… (more information)

Stolen Fruit

The Tropical Commodities Disaster

Peter Robbins

Many countries in the South have been encouraged to grow coffee, sugar, cotton and other crops, but small farmers get only a tiny share of the final price of these commodities in the North. As prices collapse, the terms of trade between North and South have widened. This investigation, by one of the leading authorities on commodity trading, analyzes the current trading arrangements and their disastrous effect on foreign exchange earnings, tax revenues and economic growth in developing countries.… (more information)

The Economics Anti-Textbook

A Critical Thinker’s Guide to Microeconomics

Rod Hill, Tony Myatt

Mainstream textbooks present economics as an objective science free from value judgments. The Anti-Textbook argues that this is a myth–one that is not only dangerously misleading but also bland and boring. Challenging the mainstream textbooks’ assumptions, arguments, models and evidence, this book puts the controversy and excitement back into economics to reveal a fascinating and a vibrant field of study–one which is more an ‘art of persuasion’ than it is a science.… (more information)

The Money Changers

A Guided Tour Through Global Currency Markets

Robert G. Williams

Currency markets, worth almost $2 trillion per day in trade, link the world together. Yet few people know how they work and why they are prone to instability and bouts of panic. This book, neither a technical manual nor a get-rich-quick tract, takes the reader on a guided tour of the places, the machines, the circuitry and the people involved in moving the world’s money. From the simple to the complex, currency traders, market analysts, money managers and payments systems architects show their… (more information)

Why Doesn’t Microfinance Work?

The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism

Milford Bateman

Since its emergence in the 1970s, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, movie stars, royalty, high-profile politicians and ‘troubleshooting’ economists. In this provocative and controversial analysis, Milford Bateman reveals that microfinance doesn’t actually work. In fact, the case for it has been largely built on hype, on egregious half-truths and – latterly… (more information)