Economics

[close] The Robin Hood Foundation is a charitable organization focused on alleviating poverty in New York City. Michael M. Weinstein, in his role as Robin Hood’s chief program officer, developed a metrics-based approach, called “relentless monetization,” to ensure that the money the foundation receives and grants is used most effectively. Ralph M. Bradburd has served as long-time consultant to Robin Hood on matters of metrics.

In this book, Weinstein and Bradburd describe their approach and explain how any nonprofit organizations or philanthropic donor can use it to achieve the greatest benefit from every philanthropic dollar. Drawing on their extensive knowledge, the authors devote specific chapters to the difficulties most frequently encountered by donors trying to measure the benefits of their initiatives. This book provides straightforward, targeted advice for funding smart nonprofit programs. [close]

[close] "A great introduction to the big ideas of economics. In his brief and breezy style, without a single equation or graph, Ben Mathew explains how the economy works. A truly remarkable book about a remarkable story."
- N. Gregory Mankiw, Professor of Economics, Harvard University, and author of Principles of Economics

Clueless about economics? Fear no more! This little book will fill you in on the basics in no time. Get a new and powerful understanding of the world around you. Save yourself from the nonsense spouted by politicians, TV pundits, right-wingers, left-wingers, shamans, uncles, and best friends.

***Signed Advance Review Copy*** [close]

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Eye-opening and compelling, the overlooked world of freight shipping, revealed as the foundation of our civilization

On ship-tracking websites, the waters are black with dots. Each dot is a ship; each ship is laden with boxes; each box is laden with goods. In postindustrial economies, we no longer produce but buy. We buy, so we must ship. Without shipping there would be no clothes, food, paper, or fuel. Without all those dots, the world would not work.

Freight shipping has been no less revolutionary than the printing press or the Internet, yet it is all but invisible. Away from public scrutiny, shipping revels in suspect practices, dubious operators, and a shady system of “flags of convenience.” Infesting our waters, poisoning our air, and a prime culprit of acoustic pollution, shipping is environmentally indefensible. And then there are the pirates.

Rose George, acclaimed chronicler of what we would rather ignore, sails from Rotterdam to Suez to Singapore on ships the length of football fields and the height of Niagara Falls; she patrols the Indian Ocean with an anti-piracy task force; she joins seafaring chaplains, and investigates fishing trawlers and the harm they are inflicting on endangered whales.

Sharply informative and entertaining, Ninety Percent of Everything reveals the workings and perils of an unseen world that holds the key to our economy, our environment, and our very civilization. [close]