Author: Eric Helleiner Publisher: Cornell University Press ISBN: 0801454662 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 289
Book Description
As an economic superpower, China has become an increasingly important player in the international monetary system. Its foreign exchange reserves are the largest in the world and its exchange rate policy has become a major subject of international economic diplomacy. The internationalization of the renminbi (RMB) raises critical questions in international policy circles: What kinds of power is China acquiring in international monetary relations? What are the priorities of the Chinese government? What explains its preferences? In The Great Wall of Money, a distinguished group of contributors addresses these questions from distinct perspectives, revealing the extent to which China’s choices, and global monetary affairs, will be shaped by internal political factors and affect world politics. The RMB is a likely competitor for the dollar in the next couple of decades; its emergence as an important international currency would have substantial effects on the balance of power between the United States and China. By illuminating the politics of China’s international monetary relations, this book provides a timely account of the global economy, the role of the renminbi in international relations, and the trajectory of China’s continuing ascendency in the coming decades.
Author: Dinny McMahon Publisher: HarperCollins ISBN: 1328846024 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 285
Book Description
A stunning inside look at how and why the foundations upon which China has built the world’s second largest economy, have started to crumble. Over the course of a decade spent reporting in China as a financial journalist, Dinny McMahon came to the conclusion that the widely held belief in China’s inevitable economic ascent is dangerously wrong. In this unprecedented deep dive, McMahon shows how, lurking behind the illusion of prosperity, China’s economic growth has been built on a staggering mountain of debt. While stories of newly built but empty cities, white elephant state projects, and a byzantine shadow banking system have all become a regular fixture in the press, McMahon goes beyond the headlines to explain how such waste has been allowed to flourish, and why one of the most powerful governments in the world has been at a loss to stop it. Through the stories of ordinary Chinese citizens, McMahon tries to make sense of the unique—and often bizarre—mechanics of the nation’s economy, whether it be the state’s addiction to appropriating land from poor farmers; or why a Chinese entrepreneur decided it was cheaper to move his yarn factory to South Carolina; or why ambitious Chinese mayors build ghost cities; or why the Chinese bureaucracy was able to stare down Beijing’s attempts to break up the state’s pointless monopoly over table salt distribution. Debt, entrenched vested interests, a frenzy of speculation, and an aging population are all pushing China toward an economic reckoning. China’s Great Wall of Debt unravels an incredibly complex and opaque economy, one whose fortunes—for better or worse—will shape the globe like never before.
Author: Burton G. Malkiel Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 0393333582 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 321
Book Description
Longtime friend and advisor to ordinary investors Burton G. Malkiel, together with a carefully selected team of coauthors, now gives them an investment strategy for accessing the world's fastest-growing economy. Drawing from the author team's on-the-ground experience in China, From Wall Street to the Great Wall details how average investors can tap into the opportunities China affords. Inside, readers will find: A compact tour of five hundred years of Chinese history and culture that offers readers a footing in this unique investing environment, with special emphasis on the Mao years and the rise of the reformist government of Deng Xiaoping, A hype-free, in-depth investigation of the Chinese stock market, estimating its efficiency and highlighting the best bets among Chinese firms and industries, Substantial coverage of the multinational corporations in the United States and elsewhere that stand to benefit from China's explosive growth, Overviews of the markets for commodities, real estate, and art and collectibles, as Malkiel leaves no investment possibility unexamined, Four fully realized and detailed investment strategies for China, drawn from Malkiel's broad experience and proven investment track record. Book jacket.
Author: Arthur Waldron Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 131626453X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 305
Book Description
This is the first full scholarly study of the Great Wall of China to appear in any language, and it challenges many deeply held ideas about Chinese history. Drawing both on primary sources and on the latest archaeology, the book first demonstrates that the standard account of the Great Wall is untrue and misleading and then presents a convincing new account. It begins by tracing the various walls and systems of frontier defences that existed in early Chinese history, and shows how the greatest of these achieved a mythical symbolic stature which long survived the Wall itself. A striking concluding chapter traces how the true history of the Wall was lost in the early twentieth century as it was gradually transformed into a Chinese national symbol explained through historical myth. The book is an important contribution to the history of China's defensive policy, and her ideological attitudes, and will be of interest both to students of Chinese history and of international relations in the pre-modern world.
Author: William Lindesay Publisher: Penguin Group Australia ISBN: 1760142468 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 330
Book Description
The culmination of a lifetime's field work and research, William Lindesay selects fifty artefacts from around the world to tell the story of the Great Wall from the second century BC to the late-twentieth century. Abraham Ortelius' pioneering world atlas, the unexpected origins of 'wolf smoke', the proliferation of the blunderbuss in the fifteenth century Great Wall theatre of war, even Kafka's classic short story 'At the Building of the Great Wall' are some of the unique objects that were shaped by China's most famous national landmark. Enhanced by stories of their discovery, and those of their modern-day keepers, The Great Wall in 50 Objects is a personal and historical exploration of a world wonder. 'William Lindesay has a knack for approaching the iconic Great Wall of China in ways that are creative, idiosyncratic, and deeply personal . . . He has succeeded again with The Great Wall in 50 Objects.' Peter Hessler, author of River Town and Oracle Bones 'William Lindesay shows us the Wall in a completely new light by looking at the smaller objects that make up its history . . . Through these objects we feel the Great Wall transform from architecture into a living part of the history and culture of China.' Jack Weatherford, author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World 'For years, Lindesay has hiked and studied the Great Wall with exceptional passion. To him, it seems, the Great Wall is not a mere structure, a political icon, or a cultural curiosity, but a treasure trove of stories.' Jaime FlorCruz, former Beijing bureau chief of Time magazine and CNN 'If you are going to China, and intend to see the Great Wall (or even if, unwisely, you don't), take this book on the plane with you, and absorb as many of its intriguing nuggets of Wall-lore and China-lore as you can – it will make your visit infinitely richer.' Prof. Christopher Cullen, Emeritus Director, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge 'William Lindesay lives and breathes Great Wall history and he exudes it with an engaging passion.' Mike Loades, author of Swords and Swordsmen 'Lindesay presents a coherent and highly informative account of the geography, history, and material culture of China's Great Wall. His compelling and well-written account is rich in profound and often quite unexpected insights.' Lothar von Falkenhausen, Professor of Chinese Archaeology and Art History, UCLA
Author: David Orrell Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 0231541678 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
The sharing economy's unique customer-to-company exchange is possible because of the way in which money has evolved. These transactions have not always been as fluid as they are today, and they are likely to become even more fluid. It is therefore critical that we learn to appreciate money's elastic nature as deeply as do Uber, Airbnb, Kickstarter, and other innovators, and that we understand money's transition from hard currencies to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin if we are to access their cooperative potential. The Evolution of Money illuminates this fascinating reality, focusing on the tension between currency's real and abstract properties and advancing a vital theory of money rooted in this dual exchange. It begins with the debt tablets of Mesopotamia and follows with the development of coin money in ancient Greece and Rome, gold-backed currencies in medieval Europe, and monetary economics in Victorian England. The book ends in the digital era, with the cryptocurrencies and service providers that are making the most of money's virtual side and that suggest a tectonic shift in what we call money. By building this organic time line, The Evolution of Money helps us anticipate money's next, transformative role.
Author: Eric Helleiner Publisher: Cornell University Press ISBN: 0801457491 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 267
Book Description
For half a century, the United States has garnered substantial political and economic benefits as a result of the dollar's de facto role as a global currency. In recent years, however, the dollar's preponderant position in world markets has come under challenge. The dollar has been more volatile than ever against foreign currencies, and various nations have switched to non-dollar instruments in their transactions. China and the Arab Gulf states continue to hold massive amounts of U.S. government obligations, in effect subsidizing U.S. current account deficits, and those holdings are a point of potential vulnerability for American policy. What is the future of the U.S. dollar as an international currency? Will predictions of its demise end up just as inaccurate as those that have accompanied major international financial crises since the early 1970s? Analysts disagree, often profoundly, in their answers to these questions. In The Future of the Dollar, leading scholars of dollar's international role bring multidisciplinary perspectives and a range of contrasting predictions to the question of the dollar's future. This timely book provides readers with a clear sense of why such disagreements exist and it outlines a variety of future scenarios and the possible political implications for the United States and the world.
Author: Julia Lovell Publisher: Picador Australia ISBN: 1741987318 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 448
Book Description
In this seminal and controversial debut, Julia Lovell tackles the history of China - and its relationship with the wider world - through the dramatic story of its most famous landmark. Fabled to be 2200 years old and 4300 miles long, the Great Wall seems to make an overwhelmingly confident physical statement about China's age-old sense of itself as an advanced civilisation anxious to draw a line, keeping the "barbarians" at its borders. But behind the Wall's intimidating exterior - and the myths that have built up around it - lies a complex history of China's view of the outside world, and itself. Lovell looks behind the modern mythology of the Great Wall, uncovering a three-thousand-year history far more fragmented, bloody and less illustrious than its crowds of visitors imagine today. The story of the Wall winds through that of the Chinese empire and the frontier policy that defined it. Lovell restores a human dimension to this astonishing structure, writing about the emperors who planned new phases of building, the people who constructed, lived next to and guarded the walls, and the millions who died - of overwork, starvation, cold and battle. The Great Wall is an epic history which explores the conquests and cataclysms of the Chinese empire over the past 3000 years. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand China's past, present and future.
Author: William Lindesay Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 9780674031494 Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 306
Book Description
"William Lindsey has spent three years travelling 35,000 km across North China, reconstructing vintage photographs - the earliest dating from 1871 - by retaking new images from the same viewpoints"-- OhioLink.
Author: Morgan Housel Publisher: Harriman House Limited ISBN: 085719769X Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 209
Book Description
Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.
Author: Eric Helleiner
Author: Dinny McMahon
Author: Burton G. Malkiel
Author: Arthur Waldron
Author: William Lindesay
Author: David Orrell
Author: Eric Helleiner
Author: Julia Lovell
Author: William Lindesay
Author: Morgan Housel