false economy a surprising economic history of the world

A lover of Adam Smith's invisible hand, Beattie criticises protectionist mollycoddling of inefficient industries. Beattie's analysis dazzles with particulars: he explains why Africa doesn't grow cocaine (poor infrastructure), why Peru grows most of the asparagus consumed in the US (good lobbyists), and why pandas (whose diet is almost exclusively bamboo) and command economies (which can function only under inefficient bureaucracies) are endangered by inflexibility. It is determined by people.' He insists that it is not destiny but the right and wrong decisions by political leaders that cause societies to rise and fall. Standing proudly against psychology, dialectical materialism and inevitability, Beattie writes: 'History is not determined by fate. But Alan Beattie, the world-trade editor at the Financial Times and a former economist for the Bank of England, resists this kind of reduction in False Economy, a thorough examination of economies from the age of empire to the age of the IMF. Authors risk sacrificing the intricacies of a scholarly discipline in the service of reader-friendly anecdotes.

Riverhead Pop social science - think Steven Levitt's and Stephen Dubner's Freakonomics or Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point - is tricky. In False Economy, Alan Beattie uses extraordinary stories of economic triumph and disaster to explain how some countries went wrong while others went right, and why it's so difficult to change course once you're on the path to ruin.False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World, Alan Beattie.

The path to prosperity is rarely obvious and the sources of success are often unexpected. Why did the USA succeed while Argentina stalled?Time and again, world leaders have failed to learn the lessons of economic history, and their mistakes continue to have surprising and catastrophic consequences. Why did Botswana became the world's fastest-growing economy while Sierra Leone suffered a decade of brutal civil war?For the past two hundred years Argentina had enjoyed a vista of economic opportunity almost identical to that of the USA but in 2001 Argentina's government bankrupted itself. *NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*Why do some countries succeed while others fail? What causes boom or bust? The World Trade Editor of the FT explains how the world really works.'A thorough examination of economies from the age of empire to the age of the IMF' The Washington PostWhy do oil and diamonds lead to economic disaster more often than boom? Why doesn't Africa grow cocaine? Why might believing in God be good for your balance-sheet?Botswana and Sierra Leone are both blessed with abundant diamonds.

False economy a surprising economic history of the world