Book reviews

A review of “Failing States Collapsing Systems – Biophysical Triggers of Political Violence” by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 2017

19 October 2017

This is an excellent book, but it, in my opinion, generally arrives at the right conclusions by the wrong path. The key problem is the focus of the author on the increasing cost of extraction of fossil fuels and the arrival of “peak oil” in a number of major oil provinces. I think that five, or [read more]

Review of Dark Money by Jane Mayer

1 October 2017

Pub. Scribe, Melbourne and London, 2017 Jane Mayer is a well-known American journalist who wrote The Dark Side, a book dealing with the negative effects on American life of the conduct of the so-called war on terror, and has co-authored two other books. She says, “In many ways, the research on [read more]

Review of The Retreat of Western Liberalism by Edward Luce

23 September 2017

Pub. Little Brown, London 2017 Edward Luce’s previous book, “Time to Start Thinking: America and the Sceptre of Decline” was a timely account of the decline of the American state, this book, appears to be primarily a commentary on the rise of populism, with particular reference to the [read more]

Review of “No is Not Enough”, by Naomi Klein, 2017, Alfred A Knopf

16 July 2017

Washington DC Protest – Vlad Tchompalov “No is Not Enough” is a very different book from Naomi Klein’s previous book “This Changes Everything”, as she says herself “No is Not Enough” was written and published extremely quickly. At the time of publishing it was very much [read more]

A Review of “Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” by J D Vance

16 July 2017

Pub. William Collins, London, 2016 Hillbilly Elegy has received a number of very positive reviews, The Economist said that “You will not read a more important book about America this year”, The New York Times said that it is, “Essential Reading”, The Times (London) called it, “Clear-eyed [read more]

A Review of “Grave New World”, by Stephen D King

4 July 2017

Published: Yale University Press (2017) I was looking forward to reading this book, Stephen D King has an excellent reputation and he has a key role at HSBC, while also advising the House of Commons Treasury Committee. The advance notices were also excellent and the author is writing about an [read more]

Review of Michael Lewis’ “The Undoing Project”

7 January 2017

W W Norton & Co., New York, 2017 There are a few books that one enjoys from beginning to end, often one has reservations about aspects work, the praise may be leading, the author may not express his arguments clearly, or she may be plain wrong; however, Michael Lewis has once more produced a [read more]

Review of “Industries of the Future” – Alec Ross

7 January 2017

Simon & Schuster, New York, 2016 This book was published in 2016 and the author is described as one of America’s leading experts on innovation. Ross acted as senior advisor for innovation to Hillary Clinton for four years, and the book is peppered with references to this experience; at [read more]

Review of “National Competitiveness and Economic Growth, The Changing Determinants of Economic Performance in the World Economy” – Timo J Hämäläin

29 October 2016

Pub. 2003 Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, England and Northampton, Massachusetts This book is, in my opinion, is one of the most important economic books published in the last few years. The title fails to hint at the explosive contents of the book and its price unfortunately puts it out of the reach [read more]

Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World

19 October 2016

In his book, “Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World”, Raghuram G. Rajan identified two main fault lines in the global economy. Firstly, the willingness to supply credit to those who had not benefitted from rising GDP. He says, “the political response to rising [read more]

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Pakistan’s water shortage is a myth

7 June 2018 // 0 Comments

Daanish Mustafa, Thursday June 7th, 2018 The country’s water scarcity is socially constructed, and large farmers engaged in agricultural exports are the culprits and the [read more]
Economies have to decarbonise to stay competitive: former UNFCCC chief

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The Breaking Storm – the real threats to the Global Economy

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How the world’s water changed between 2002 and 2016

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The World in Crisis

threats & challenges