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From the author of 'Steve Jobs', this is the astonishingly intimate story of Elon Musk, the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era: a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter. When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist. His father's impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive. At the beginning of 2022, after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth, Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. "I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life," he said. It was a wistful comment, not a New Year's resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world's ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground. For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress? Published 12th September 2023 - Order Now. -
Author of national bestseller Life After Google and generation-defining Wealth and Poverty, venture capitalist, futurist, and pioneering thinker extraordinaire George Gilder pinpoints how the clash of creativity with power at the heart of economic systems leads to global cognitive dissonance and argues that the creation of the novel taps capitalism's infinite promise and is humanity's only path of escape from stagnation and tyranny. Gilder once more rocks the archetypes of modern information theory and economics with a paradigm-shifting salvo of sheer brilliance. The capitalist era is over-get ready for life after capitalism. For more than two hundred years, capitalism spread wealth around the globe, bringing unprecedented prosperity and progress, liberating human potential. But something has gone terribly wrong in the world economy. Creativity and faith in the future-capitalism's crucial ingredients-seem to have run out. The elites think they can maintain a nation's wealth by printing money and investing it in favored industries. Their trust in bureaucratic experts, their cautionary paranoia, and their delusional belief that they can "control" everything from the spread of a virus to the weather, are sucking the life out of the economy. Ordinary people, their freedoms restricted, their prospects dim, are losing their faith in their institutions. Such misguided corporatism and pride, confusion and despair, are the result of a deep misunderstanding of capitalism itself. The bestselling futurist and venture capitalist George Gilder explains why economics is not an incentive system to be manipulated but an information system to be freed. Material resources are essentially as plentiful as the atoms of the universe. What drives economic growth in a free market is our limitless human ingenuity and creativity. Prophetic, inspiring, and paradigm-shifting, Life after Capitalism is a once-in- a-generation classic. -
Jen McAdam was a victim of the OneCoin global cryptocurrency fraud, which stole an estimated $27 billion from ordinary people around the world. The poor became poorer. The brutal plundering led by self-styled Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova defied all legal and banking barriers bamboozling financial authorities - until Jen McAdam fought back. With a £15,000 inheritance from her father, saved from a careful life in a west of Scotland mining town, Jen wanted to invest wisely for her family's future and was enraptured by the possibilities offered by OneCoin's promotional material and convincing endorsements from celebrities and financial institutions. They, like all Dr Ruja's flamboyant promises, were bogus. Jen McAdam was the first victim brave enough to fight back and despite death threats and an intimidating campaign to shut her down, and through a debilitating illness, strived tirelessly for justice - for herself, her family and friends, and the millions around the world who lost everything. She created and continues to lead victims 'support groups and in 2023, as the OneCoin bandits were being punished by international courts, spearheaded a move to get financial compensation for the many whose life hopes were cruelly crushed by the Cryptoqueen. This is a true David-and-Goliath story. It shows us the power we can have as individuals, even when things seem hopeless. -
This is not a book about business strategy. Strategy changes like the seasons. This is a book about something much more permanent. At the very heart of all the success and failure I've been exposed to - both my own entrepreneurial journey and through the thousands of interviews I've conducted on my podcast - are a set of principles that can stand the test of time, apply to any industry, and be used by anyone who is search of building something great or becoming someone great. These are the fundamental laws that will ensure excellence. They are rooted in psychology and behavioral science, are based on the wisdom of tens of thousands of people I've surveyed across every continent and age group, and of course, drawn from the conversations I've had on my chart-topping podcast with the world's most successful people. Published 31st August 2023 - Order Now. -
Pyramid of Lies charts the meteoric rise and spectacular downfall of Lex Greensill and his company. He had a simple idea that disrupted a trillion dollar industry and drew in Swiss bankers, global CEOs, and world leaders, including former British Prime Minister, David Cameron. But a staid business model concealed dubious practices, as Greensill made increasingly risky loans to fraudulent companies using other people's money. Financial journalist Duncan Mavin, who helped expose Greensill, tells the incredible story of how a former sugar-cane farmer became one of the world's richest men before falling back to earth. With a globe-circling narrative full of scandal and intrigue, Pyramid of Lies reveals how the grubby world of shadow banking really operates. 'Forensic and riveting' - the New Statesman -
Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future. These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. But most of us take them completely for granted. In Material World, Ed Conway travels the globe - from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe, to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan, to the eerie green pools where lithium originates - to uncover a secret world we rarely see. Revealing the true marvel of these substances, he follows the mind-boggling journeys, miraculous processes and little-known companies that turn the raw materials we all need into products of astonishing complexity. As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future. This is the story of civilisation - our ambitions and glory, innovations and appetites - from a new perspective: literally from the ground up. -
Marx and Engels were right when they observed in the Communist Manifesto that free markets had in a short time created greater prosperity and more technological innovation than all previous generations combined. A century and a half later, all the evidence shows that capitalism has lifted millions and millions from hunger and poverty. Today's story about global capitalism, shared by right-wing and left-wing populists, but also by large sections of the political and economic establishment, does not deny that prosperity has been created, but it says it ended up in far too few hands. This in turn has made it popular to talk about the global economy as a geopolitical zero-sum game, where we have to fight to control new innovations, introduce trade barriers and renationalise value chains. While, more broadly, capitalism is accused of fuelling glaring inequality, populist revolts, climate change and China's global conquest. In this incisive and passionate investigation, Johan Norberg instead states the case for capitalism and the vital role played by the free market in today's uncertain world. Ultimately, he argues that that a move away from global capitalism would not only squeeze the growth out of the economy but also deepen an already large social exclusion for the vulnerable - for the world's poor, it would be a killing blow. -
Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling financial journalist Gretchen Morgenson and policy analyst Joshua Rosner investigate the insidious debt-laden world of private equity, revealing how it leeches profits from everyday Americans, tanks the companies it acquires, and puts our entire economic system at risk. Much has been written about the widening gulf between rich and poor, the pernicious effects our deepening income inequality has on the US's well-being, and how our style of capitalism has failed to provide a living wage for so many Americans. But nothing has fully detailed the crucial role a small cohort of elite financiers has played in this dispiriting outcome over the past thirty years. Until now. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Gretchen Morgenson, with coauthor Joshua Rosner, unmask the small group of celebrated Wall Street financiers who use excessive debt and dubious practices to undermine our nation's economy while enriching themselves: private equity. These Are the Plunderers lucidly and maddeningly traces the thirty-year history of corporate takeovers in America and private equity's increasing dominance. Morgenson and Rosner investigate some of the biggest names in private equity, exposing how they buy companies, load them with debt, and then bleed them of assets and profits. Private equity relies on debt-and lots of it. Morgenson and Rosner show how companies absorbed by private equity have worse outcomes for everyone but the financiers: patients at private equity-owned nursing homes are more likely to die; companies owned by private equity are more likely to go bankrupt; healthcare costs are higher at private equity-owned operations; workers at private equity-owned companies across the nation are more likely to have their benefits and pensions slashed or lose their jobs; retirees from private industry as well as school teachers, firefighters, medical technicians, and other public workers have lower returns on their pensions because of the fees private equity extracts from their investments. You're worse off because of private equity. These Are the Plunderers exposes the greed and pillaging in private equity, revealing the many ways these billionaires have bled our economy. -
In the spring of 2021, when news outlets feasted on "the Facebook Files," Frances Haugen went public as the former employee who blew the whistle on the company by copying tens of thousands of documents. She testified to Congress and spoke to the media. She was hailed at President Biden's first State of the Union Address. She made sure everyone understood exactly what the documents revealed: Facebook not only set its algorithm to reward extremism, it knew that its customers were using the platform to foment violence, to spread falsehoods, to diminish the self-esteem of young people, and more. But how was it that Frances was the only employee at the company who dared to step forward? The answer to that question is an inspiring tale of one young woman's life. She grew up in an unhappy home and threw herself into schoolwork and her high school debate team. She made the unusual decision to join the founding class of a new engineering school in Massachusetts, even though it wasn't yet accredited. Prior to attending Harvard Business School, she out-hustled a raft of candidates to win a coveted job at Google as a product manager in a department that was 88% male-and a huge challenge for a woman to survive. In business school, she again didn't fit in. But at each step of the way, including at Pinterest and Yelp, she focused on what mattered, and ignored her critics. She learned the hard way that you can't please everyone, and you have to fight the battles that matter. The Power of One is equally inspiring-the story of a woman who went against the grain, again and again, and changed the world-and horrifying, as the culture and practices of Facebook are brought to the bright light of day, for the first time. -
hat can the ideas of history's greatest economists tell us about the most important issues of our time?'The best place to start to learn about the very greatest economists of all time' Professor Tyler Cowen, author of The Complacent Class and The Great StagnationSince the days of Adam Smith, economists have grappled with a series of familiar problems - but often their ideas are hard to digest, before we even try to apply them to today's issues. Linda Yueh is renowned for her combination of erudition, as an accomplished economist herself, and accessibility, as a leading writer and broadcaster in this field; and in The Great Economists she explains the key thoughts of history's greatest economists, how their lives and times affected their ideas, how our lives have been influenced by their work, and how they could help with the policy challenges that we face today. In the light of current economic problems, and in particular economic growth, Yueh explores the thoughts of economists from Adam Smith and David Ricardo through Joan Robinson and Milton Friedman to Douglass North and Robert Solow. Along the way she asks, for example: what do the ideas of Karl Marx tell us about the likely future for the Chinese economy? How does the work of John Maynard Keynes, who argued for government spending to create full employment, help us think about state investment? And with globalization in trouble, what can we learn about handling Brexit and Trumpism?In one accessible volume, this expert new voice provides an overarching guide to the biggest questions of our time. ISBN 9780241974476 -
Money. It's as fundamental to our lives as air, water, fire and earth. It is the fifth element, without which humankind would struggle to survive. Now, global economist David McWilliams has written a brilliantly original book exploring our relationship with money and how it sustains the existence of civilisation as we know it. In Money, McWilliams aims to do for cash what David Attenborough did for the Planet: to unlock its mysteries, its limitations and its awesome power. We journey all across the world, through the present and the past, to survey the ever-evolving dynamics of money in a way that has never been seen before. We'll go from the birthplace of money in the Middle East to where trade began along the silk road to China; we'll explore markets from Marrakech to Wall Street. We'll uncover the dawn of our relationship with money and track its history to more fully understand man's current relationship with it, and its impact on the world right now. The story of money is the story of modernity. It's the story of our desires, our genius and our downfalls, and has shaped the very essence of what it means to be human. And yet despite money's primacy, most of us don't truly understand it. Where does money come from? How much is out there? Who controls it? Nothing we've invented as a species has defined our own evolution so thoroughly and changed the direction of our planet's history so dramatically. Money is power - and power beguiles, power sparkles and power unleashes our deepest cravings. So then, the story of Money is the story of earth's most inventive, destructive and dangerous animal, Homo Sapiens. Our story. Published 31st August 2023. Order Now. ISBN 9781471195433 -
Money. It's as fundamental to our lives as air, water, fire and earth. It is the fifth element, without which humankind would struggle to survive. Now, global economist David McWilliams has written a brilliantly original book exploring our relationship with money and how it sustains the existence of civilisation as we know it. In Money, McWilliams aims to do for cash what David Attenborough did for the Planet: to unlock its mysteries, its limitations and its awesome power. We journey all across the world, through the present and the past, to survey the ever-evolving dynamics of money in a way that has never been seen before. We'll go from the birthplace of money in the Middle East to where trade began along the silk road to China; we'll explore markets from Marrakech to Wall Street. We'll uncover the dawn of our relationship with money and track its history to more fully understand man's current relationship with it, and its impact on the world right now. The story of money is the story of modernity. It's the story of our desires, our genius and our downfalls, and has shaped the very essence of what it means to be human. And yet despite money's primacy, most of us don't truly understand it. Where does money come from? How much is out there? Who controls it? Nothing we've invented as a species has defined our own evolution so thoroughly and changed the direction of our planet's history so dramatically. Money is power - and power beguiles, power sparkles and power unleashes our deepest cravings. So then, the story of Money is the story of earth's most inventive, destructive and dangerous animal, Homo Sapiens. Our story. Published 31st August 2023. Order Now. ISBN 9781471195440
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From CIA to CEO is an ops manual for entrepreneurs that reveals how the esoteric techniques of the CIA can help anyone find their voice, discover their potential, and thrive in the world of business. Agent-turned-entrepreneur Rupal Patel shares the unique skills she developed as a woman and as a field agent in the high-octane, alpha-male world of the CIA, and combines those clandestine insights with her experience as a business leader and mentor. She reveals how methods such as Profiling and Situational Awareness help amplify strengths and build resilience. How game-changing new frameworks like Identity Driven Leadership and Personal Energy Mapping instil drive, purpose and conviction. And how the CIA mindset encourages you to remake the rules to find your own path and reach your goals. Full of motivating stories and unique exercises, From CIA to CEO will equip you with the all the tools you'll need for achieving Mission Success. ISBN 9781788706742 -
We are living through a cost of living crisis, with interest rate hikes and the prices of everyday consumables and energy bills sky-rocketing. Why is this happening? Sometimes we are told that wages are too high, or that the government has "printed" too much money or that events far away, such as the war in Ukraine, are solely to blame. The plain argument that high prices go together with high profits, falling wages, and weak production is often distorted and hidden by mainstream commentary in the media and elsewhere. This plain-speaking pamphlet tells it straight: the big businesses dominating production and distribution make huge profits out of high inflation, while working people lose out. It sets out factual evidence to illustrate that the source of record profits is the fall in real wages as inflation rises. A large part of the income of working people is being transferred directly into the profits of big business. The pamphlet shows that the deeper roots of the "cost of living crisis" lie in the very low investment and poor productivity growth for many years. The basic steps to resolving the crisis are simple: prices, especially of essentials, must be brought down, and wages, salaries, benefits, and pensions must be increased. Paperback / softback 80 pages ISBN 9781804293843 -
A bold and illuminating vision of the future, from one of Europe's foremost speakers on global trends in economics, business and society. What will the world look like in 2050? How will complex forces of change - demography, the environment, finance, technology and ideas about governance - affect our global society? And how, with so many unknowns, should we think about the future? One of Europe's foremost voices on global trends in economics, business and society, Hamish McRae takes us on an exhilarating journey through the next thirty years. Drawing on decades of research, and combining economic judgement with historical perspective, Hamish weighs up the opportunities and dangers we face, analysing the economic tectonic plates of the past and present in order to help us chart a map of the future. A bold and vital vision of our planet, The World in 2050 is an essential projection for anyone worried about what the future holds. For if we understand how our world is changing, we will be in a better position to secure our future in the decades to come. 'A dazzling history of the future - Hamish McRae has given us a tour de force' - Tim Harford. ISBN 9781526600066 -
Internationally bestselling author Dan Ariely brings his unique perspective to bear on a maelstrom of life's problems - from how to deal with a Christmas card list that's fast becoming unmanageable to whether or not you should have children. Ariely changed the way we view ourselves, how we think and how we act, with his book Predictably Irrational. In his immensely popular Wall Street Journal advice column, where readers "Ask Ariely" for his help with various dilemmas, he provides a logical view on the seemingly illogical, shedding light on the most curious minutiae of human behaviour. With a helping hand from legendary New Yorker cartoonist William Haefeli, Ariely's new book will make you laugh at the ridiculous aspects of our daily existence just as you gain a new perspective on how to handle the inevitable challenges that life brings us all. ISBN 9781780748177 -
In 2008, Elon Musk's SpaceX became the first private company to build a low-cost rocket that could reach orbit. Suddenly Silicon Valley, not NASA, was the epicentre of the new Space Age. Ashlee Vance follows four pioneering companies - Astra, Firefly, Planet Labs and Rocket Lab - as they race to control access to outer space. While the space tourism ambitions of billionaires such as Bezos and Branson make headlines, these under-the-radar companies are striving to monetise Earth's lower orbit; to connect, analyse and monitor everything on Earth. With unprecedented access to private company headquarters, labs and top-secret launch locations - from the US to New Zealand, Ukraine to India - Vance presents a gripping account of private jets, communes, gun-toting bodyguards, drugs, espionage investigations and multimillionaires guzzling booze as their fortunes disappear. This is the most pressing and controversial technology story of our time. Welcome to the new Wild West above the clouds. ISBN 9780753557778 -
For the last century, financial crash after financial crash has sent shockwaves through our world. It's time we learned from them. There is very little that is certain in economics, except this: there will be another financial crisis. But while we may not be able to stop the next one, we can predict and contain it. The Great Crashes tells the stories of ten historic financial events - from the Wall Street Crash and the dot com boom and bust to the COVID pandemic - and what we can learn from them. Combining her clear-eyed analysis with compelling storytelling, renowned economist Professor Linda Yueh uses these meltdowns to extract a critical three-step framework to help us to recognise the early signs of a crash, mitigate the effects and even prevent them in the future. It is a book that offers urgent lessons for the modern world. ISBN 9780241422762
