Economics Books

This memoir is a must-read for anyone interested in politics, leadership, and the incredible transformation of Singapore. Through the eyes of Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of modern Singapore, you'll gain insights into his visionary leadership and the strategies he employed to turn a small, resource-poor nation into a thriving global hub. Lee's candid and pragmatic approach to governance will leave you inspired and in awe of Singapore's success story.

When P.V. Narasimha Rao became the unlikely prime minister of India in 1991, he inherited economic crisis, violent insurgencies and a nation adrift. Despite being unloved by his people, mistrusted by his party, a minority in Parliament and ruling under the shadow of 10 Janpath, Rao reinvented India, at home and abroad. Few world leaders have achieved so much with so little power.With exclusive access to Rao’s never-before-seen personal papers as well as over a hundred interviews, this definitive biography provides new revelations on the Indian economy, nuclear programme, foreign policy and the Babri Masjid. While tracing Rao’s life from a village in Telangana through his years in power and humiliation in retirement, the book never loses sight of the inner man, his difficult childhood, his corruptions and love affairs, his lingering loneliness.

In 2006, while travelling in Argentina, young entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie encountered children too poor to afford shoes, who developed injuries on their feet that often led to serious health problems. Blake knew he wanted to help, but rather than start a charity, he went against conventional wisdom and created a for profit business to help the children who he met. With the help of a local shoemaker, Blake struck out to merge activism and fashion in the form of a local canvas shoe worn by farmers and gauchos alike, called the alpargata. Blake called his creation TOMS Shoes (which stands for "Tomorrow's Shoes") and promised to give a pair of new shoes to a child in need for every pair that he sold. Starting with only two hundred pairs of handmade shoes, optimism, and entrepreneurial charisma, Blake successfully launched TOMS into the high fashion world. They can now be seen adorning the feet of celebrities such as Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johansson, and Tobey Maguire.Blake's mission is to prove that you can achieve financial success and make the world a better place at the same time. In this book, he shares the six counterintuitive principles that have guided the growth of TOMS for the past threeMake business personalBe resourceful without resourcesReverse retirementKeep it simpleStay humbleGive more, advertise lessThe result is an inspiring account of a young man whose entrepreneurial spirit was able to affect change in the world, and a call to others to be inspired to do the same.As part of the One for One initiative, Random House will provide a new book to a child in need with every copy of Start Something That Matters purchased.

Perhaps economist Galbraith--the epitome of the public intellectual--was always the amused observer, even of himself, that his memoirs would have us think. Perhaps his private life was so placid that there is nothing to tell. But the book is pinched: fascinating for all that he did & perceived, consistently entertaining because he's a witty, sardonic raconteur, tantalizing because you haven't heard all those stories of famous people before. Why dither? It's History. What it isn't, tho, is a drama of growth & change. By p.3, you know virtually everything you're ever going to know about him--the "inherent insecurity" of the Ontario farm-boy, the sense of intellectual superiority & compulsion to demonstrate same--except his strategems for success. The life can then be divided, as he very nearly does, into slightly overlapping circles. There's academe--an unloved ag-school alma mater; brief, happy sojourns at Berkeley & Cambridge; distasteful Princeton; "Harvard before democracy" &--very little improved--afterwards. There's economics--Veblen; Keynes; eminent, idiosyncratic contemporaries; his reconstruction of US economic life. There's government service in DC--preeminently as WWII price czar, surmounting the "disaster" of "my" design for price stabilization. There's government service abroad--surveying the meager economic effects of strategic bombing. There's a stint on Fortune--where he learns, from H. Luce, how to measure his words. Then he returns to Harvard, sets out "to repair my academic reputation," begins work on what will ultimately be The Affluent Society & signs on with Stevenson in 1952 to write speeches. There's a gathering sense, now, of engagement in great matters, along with sharp assessments of the greats. Adlai Stevenson "spent his adult life in a persuasive attempt to present himself"--erroneously--"as a harried, wavering intellectual lost in the harsh, demanding, dogmatic world of politics." JFK "was one of the few public men who was wholly satisfied with his own personality." (Why, he reflects, do we call one president by his initials, another by name?) Come Kennedy's election, he goes to India as ambassador--where (as he didn't tell in Ambassador's Journal) he aborts CIA activities & defuses the India-China border conflict. Finally, in 1967, he opts out--scoring, in one of the book's truly bitter, truly felt passages, "those who drew Lyndon Johnson away from these preoccupations"--the War on Poverty, civil rights--"into Vietnam." A little more such passion, a little more openness as per his encounter with psychiatry, would have given the book the breadth of the life.--Kirkus (edited)

"Karen’s interviewees were a veritable who’s who in Asia … Entrepreneurs who reflect the diversity of Asia, the different routes and paths to success, but who are bound together by common themes on life, family and values. This is what Power Talk has managed to capture, and in essence, what Channel NewsAsia was meant to do … I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand entrepreneurship in Asia." Debra Soon Chief Customer Officer, Mediacorp Pte Ltd What drives success in Asia? How did the pioneers do what they did, how are they planning their succession? What are their views on life and family? After six seasons of Channel News Asia's Power List Asia, with 73 episodes high-powered guests, over 26,000 manhours of pre- and post-production and 130,000 airmiles, comes Power Talk. Distilling the very best and most memorable conversations with various head honchos, Karen Lam sits down (not on television this time) to compile the best business ideas, personal philosophies, attitudes and intriguing stories into common themes of leadership and entrepreneurship in Asia. Featuring more than 20 Powerlisters and a range of topics such as crisis management, brand building, expanding westward and succession planning, Power Talk is a must-read for any Asian entrepreneur on the cusp of that next league.

From America’s preeminent columnist, named by the Financial Times the most influential commentator in the nation, the long-awaited collection of Charles Krauthammer’s essential, timeless writings.   A brilliant stylist known for an uncompromising honesty that challenges conventional wisdom at every turn, Krauthammer has for decades daz­zled readers with his keen insight into politics and government. His weekly column is a must-read in Washington and across the country. Now, finally, the best of Krauthammer’s intelligence, erudition and wit are collected in one volume.   Readers will find here not only the country’s leading conservative thinker offering a pas­sionate defense of limited government, but also a highly independent mind whose views—on feminism, evolution and the death penalty, for example—defy ideological convention. Things That Matter also features several of Krautham­mer’s major path-breaking essays—on bioeth­ics, on Jewish destiny and on America’s role as the world’s superpower—that have pro­foundly influenced the nation’s thoughts and policies. And finally, the collection presents a trove of always penetrating, often bemused re­flections on everything from border collies to Halley’s Comet, from Woody Allen to Win­ston Churchill, from the punishing pleasures of speed chess to the elegance of the perfectly thrown outfield assist.   With a special, highly autobiographical in­troduction in which Krauthammer reflects on the events that shaped his career and political philosophy, this indispensible chronicle takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the fashions and follies, the tragedies and triumphs, of the last three decades of American life.

Lee Kuan Yew's personal perspective adds depth and authenticity. 3. Reveals the challenges and strategies behind Singapore's transformation. 4. Offers valuable insights for leaders and policymakers.

A rare perspective on the personal philosophy, business savvy, and future of the chairman of the most admired company in the worldJack Welch, chairman of General Electric, is due to retire this spring. Welch has transported GE into the new economy with his management style, his forward-thinking approach to new technology, and by encouraging creativity among his employees. This book provides a look at what the innovative powerhouse executive has brought to American business and what will ultimately be his legacy. Thorough, authoritative, and absorbing, Welch: An American Icon includes interviews with CEOs at other leading companies who have worked under Welch and been trained by him, as well as interviews with other GE executives.Janet Lowe (Del Mar, CA) is an investment writer and author who has written sixteen business and biographical works, including the recent Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire-Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger (0-471-24473-2). Ms. Lowe is past editor of the San Diego Daily Transcript and Financial Editor of the San Diego Tribune. More than 200 of her business articles have appeared in such publications as Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle.