The Plundered Planet, Reconciling Prosperity with Nature
Building on his book The Bottom Billion Paul Collier explores the economics and ethics of using natural resources while protecting future generations.
Sustainable Economics
With The Plundered Planet Paul Collier is contributing to new thinking on the economics of sustainability on an increasingly crowded planet. With the increasing affluence of the major populations of India, China and Brazil joining the developed nations in exploiting natural resources that new thinking is needed. Without it future generations will be impoverished and standards of living of the major economies, including the newly affluent, could suffer.
Professor Collier breaks his analysis and argument out across five headings.
Part I – The Ethics of Nature
The first part of the book describes what is meant by plunder in the context of the book’s title: The Plundered Planet and the nature of poverty especially for the bottom billion. The author examines the value put on natural resources by current economic theory and starts to explore the options.
India, a Portrait by Patrick French
India, a Portrait. An Intimate Biography of 1.2 Billion People
In India, a Portrait Patrick French creates a personal picture to of modern India. It is a very readable addition to a growing collection of works on the history and development of India as its economy emerges to become a major force.
Patrick French structures India, a Portrait ,into three part each of four chapters: Rashtra: Nation, Lakshmi: Wealth and Samaj: Society.
Rashtra : Nation
Nation provides an accelerated history of India, the consequences of violence and India’s disputes with its neighbours. It covers the internal conflicts and the role of the family in Indian politics. In particular, the Nehru/Gandhi dynasty and its role in the Congress party that still has a major influence on national politics.
Too Big To Fail, the Battle to Save Wall Street
Too Big To Fail is a welcome antidote to the many rather dry books analysing the economic and regulatory failure of the financial markets. It is a genuinely good read.
How Markets Fail, Logic of Economic Calamities
In How Markets Fail, John Cassidy has set out a very readable history of Economic theory and practice and how they created the conditions for the 2007-2008 Credit Crunch.
