INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A cri de coeur that takes aim at the tech industry for abandoning its history of helping America and its allies.--The Wall Street Journal

From the Palantir co-founder, one of tech's boldest thinkers and The Economist's best CEO of 2024, and his deputy, a sweeping indictment of the West's culture of complacency, arguing that timid leadership, intellectual fragility, and an unambitious view of technology's potential in Silicon Valley have made the U.S. vulnerable in an era of mounting global threats.

Not since Allan Bloom's astonishingly successful 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind--more than one million copies sold--has there been a cultural critique as sweeping as Karp's.--George F. Will, The Washington Post

Silicon Valley has lost its way.

Our most brilliant engineering minds once collaborated with government to advance world-changing technologies. Their efforts secured the West's dominant place in the geopolitical order. But that relationship has now eroded, with perilous repercussions.

Today, the market rewards shallow engagement with the potential of technology. Engineers and founders build photo-sharing apps and marketing algorithms, unwittingly becoming vessels for the ambitions of others. This complacency has spread into academia, politics, and the boardroom. The result? An entire generation for whom the narrow-minded pursuit of the demands of a late capitalist economy has become their calling.

In this groundbreaking treatise, Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska offer a searing critique of our collective abandonment of ambition, arguing that in order for the U.S. and its allies to retain their global edge--and preserve the freedoms we take for granted--the software industry must renew its commitment to addressing our most urgent challenges, including the new arms race of artificial intelligence. The government, in turn, must embrace the most effective features of the engineering mindset that has propelled Silicon Valley's success.

Above all, our leaders must reject intellectual fragility and preserve space for ideological confrontation. A willingness to risk the disapproval of the crowd, Karp and Zamiska contend, has everything to do with technological and economic outperformance.

At once iconoclastic and rigorous, this book will also lift the veil on Palantir and its broader political project from the inside, offering a passionate call for the West to wake up to our new reality.

A revelatory and unexpected history of the rise of American capitalism--and an argument that entrepreneurial leaders in government, not the mythical free market, created the most dynamic economy the world has ever known.

For many decades, a sacred myth has ruled the minds of policymakers and business leaders: free markets, untouched by the soiled hands of government, bring us prosperity and stability. But it's wrong. American policy makers, on the right and the left, have spent much of the past century actively shaping our markets for social and political goals. Their work behind the scenes and out of the headlines has served as a kind of marketcraft, resembling the statecraft of international relations.

Economist and writer Chris Hughes takes us on a journey through the modern history of American capitalism, relating the captivating stories of the most effective marketcrafters and the ones who bungled the job. He reveals how both Republicans and Democrats have consistently attempted to organize markets for social and political reasons, like avoiding gasoline shortages, reducing inflation, fostering the American aviation and semiconductor industries, fighting climate change, and supporting financial innovation.

In recent decades, the art of marketcraft has been lost to history, replaced by the myth that markets work best when they are unfettered and free. Hughes argues that by rediscovering the triumphs and failures of past marketcrafters, we can shape future markets, such as those in artificial intelligence and clean power production, to be innovative, stable, and inclusive. Groundbreaking, timely, and illuminating, this is a must-read for anyone interested in economic policy, financial markets, and the future of the American economy.

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is a seminal work in economics that revolutionized our understanding of the market system and laid the foundation for modern capitalism. Smith explores the principles of division of labor, free markets, and the invisible hand, shaping economic thought for centuries to come.

Discover the groundbreaking work that shaped modern economics. Explore Adam Smith's profound insights on the market system. Learn about the principles of division of labor and specialization. Gain a deep understanding of the concept of the invisible hand. Explore the impact of The Wealth of Nations on economic thought.

From award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters comes a revelatory look at the inner workings of the world's most powerful royal family, and how the struggle for succession produced Saudi Arabia's charismatic but ruthless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS.​

35-year-old Mohammed bin Salman's sudden rise stunned the world. Political and business leaders such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair and WME chairman Ari Emanuel flew out to meet with the crown prince and came away convinced that his desire to reform the kingdom was sincere. He spoke passionately about bringing women into the workforce and toning down Saudi Arabia's restrictive Islamic law. He lifted the ban on women driving and explored investments in Silicon Valley.

But MBS began to betray an erratic interior beneath the polish laid on by scores of consultants and public relations experts like McKinsey & Company. The allegations of his extreme brutality and excess began to slip out, including that he ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent by holding 300 people, including prominent members of the Saudi royal family, in the Ritz-Carlton hotel and elsewhere for months, he continued to exhibit his extreme wealth, including buying a $70 million chateau in Europe and one of the world's most expensive yachts. It seemed that he did not understand nor care about how the outside world would react to his displays of autocratic muscle--what mattered was the flex.

Blood and Oil is a gripping work of investigative journalism about one of the world's most decisive and dangerous new leaders. Hope and Scheck show how MBS' precipitous rise coincided with the fraying of the simple bargain that had been at the head of US-Saudi relations for more than 80 years: oil, for military protection. Caught in his net are well-known US bankers, Hollywood figures, and politicians, all eager to help the charming and crafty crown prince.

The Middle East is already a volatile region. Add to the mix an ambitious prince with extraordinary powers, hunger for lucre, a tight relationship with the White House through President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner, and an apparent willingness to break anything--and anyone--that gets in the way of his vision, and the stakes of his rise are bracing. If his bid fails, Saudi Arabia has the potential to become an unstable failed state and a magnet for Islamic extremists. And if his bid to transform his country succeeds, even in part, it will have reverberations around the world.

Longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

Award-winning economist Mariana Mazzucato's famously incisive international bestseller debunking the pervasive myth of the inept state versus an innovative private sector--with a new preface by the author

According to conventional wisdom, innovation is best left to the bold entrepreneurs of the private sector, and government should get out of the way. But what if that wasn't case? What if, from the inventions of Silicon Valley to medical breakthroughs, the public sector has actually been the most courageous and valuable risk-taker of all?

Critically acclaimed and influential thinker and scholar Mariana Mazzucato argues comprehensively against the myth of a lumbering, bureaucratic state versus a dynamic, innovative private sector with remarkable original and deep research. In a series of case studies--from nanotechnology to the emerging green tech of today--Mazzucato reveals that the opposite is true: the private sector only finds the courage to invest after an entrepreneurial state has made the high-risk investments. The Entrepreneurial State reveals how every technology that makes the iPhone so smart was actually funded by the government--from the Internet and GPS technology, to touch-screen displays and voice-activated Siri.

In the history of modern capitalism, the State has not only fixed market failures, but has also actively shaped and created markets. In doing so, it sometimes wins and sometimes fails. Yet by not admitting the State's role in active risk taking, we've created an innovation system where the public sector socializes risks while privatizing reward, as Mazzucato controversially argues. This bold and provocative book considers how we adopted this dysfunctional dynamic, and then how we can overcome it so that economic growth can be not only smart but inclusive as well.

Countless national security leaders agree: No one knows this process like Arnold Punaro.

Drawing on nearly 50 years of experience with the Senate confirmation process, Punaro has written this one-of-a-kind book chronicling the Senate's constitutional advice and consent role. This book serves as a reference guide for both military and civilian national security nominees who find themselves about to face the confirmation gauntlet. Readers will walk away with a better understanding of how the U.S. government really functions and how to be successful should they find themselves on the opposite side of the Senate dais.

Punaro offers unique insights into the good, the bad, and the ugly about the process and how it has changed over time. He proposes innovative and practical solutions to fix this increasingly dysfunctional system. Ensuring that America gets the best people into these critical positions of power is fundamental to our national security and our nation's success now and in the future.

First published in 1776, The Wealth of Nations is generally regarded as the foundation of contemporary economic thought. Adam Smith, a Scottish professor of moral philosophy, expounded the then-revolutionary doctrine of economic liberalism. The book's importance was immediately recognized by Smith's peers, and later economists have shown an unusual consensus in their admiration for his ideas.

Combining economics, political theory, history, philosophy, and practical programs, Smith assumes that human self-interest is the basic psychological drive behind economics and that a natural order in the universe makes all the individual, self-interested strivings add up to the social good. His conclusion, that the best program is to leave the economic process alone and that government is useful only as an agent to preserve order and to perform routine functions, is now known as laissez-faire economics or noninterventionism.

In noting for the first time the significance of the division of labor and by stating the hypothesis that a commodity's value correlates to its labor input, Smith anticipated the writings of Karl Marx. Like Marx's Das Capital and Machiavelli's The Prince, his great book marked the dawning of a new historical epoch.

For more than half a century, the United States has led the world in developing major technologies that drive the modern economy and underpin its prosperity. In America, Inc., Linda Weiss attributes the U.S. capacity for transformative innovation to the strength of its national security state, a complex of agencies, programs, and hybrid arrangements that has developed around the institution of permanent defense preparedness and the pursuit of technological supremacy. She examines how that complex emerged and how it has evolved in response to changing geopolitical threats and domestic political constraints, from the Cold War period to the post-9/11 era.Weiss focuses on state-funded venture capital funds, new forms of technology procurement by defense and security-related agencies, and innovation in robotics, nanotechnology, and renewable energy since the 1980s. Weiss argues that the national security state has been the crucible for breakthrough innovations, a catalyst for entrepreneurship and the formation of new firms, and a collaborative network coordinator for private-sector initiatives. Her book appraises persistent myths about the military-commercial relationship at the core of the National Security State. Weiss also discusses the implications for understanding U.S. capitalism, the American state, and the future of American primacy as financialized corporations curtail investment in manufacturing and innovation.

Entrepreneurship, personal responsibility, and upward mobility: These traditions are at the heart of the free enterprise system, and have long been central to America's exceptional culture. In recent years, however, policymakers have dramatically weakened these traditions -- by exploding the size of government, propping up their corporate cronies, and trying to reorient our system from rewarding merit to redistributing wealth.

In The Road to Freedom, American Enterprise Institute President Arthur C. Brooks shows that this trend cannot be reversed through materialistic appeals about the economic efficiency of capitalism. Rather, free enterprise requires a moral defense rooted in the ideals of earned success, equality of opportunity, charity, and basic fairness. Brooks builds this defense and demonstrates how it is central to understanding the major policy issues facing America today.

The future of the free enterprise system has become a central issue in our national debate, and Brooks offers a practical manual for defending it over the coming years. Both a moral manifesto and a prescription for concrete policy changes, The Road to Freedom will help Americans in all walks of life translate the philosophy of free enterprise into action, to restore both our nation's greatness and our own well-being in the process.

America Was Founded Upon Belief In: A small decentralized government based on laws (The Constitution) where free enterprise is rewarded, where freedom of speech is sacrosanct, where taxes are fairly apportioned, where there are no secret proceedings and no special interest are represented above those of the people, and where the people have the right to bear arms as a last defense against a corrupt government Never have these beliefs and freedoms been in more peril: Than in these times when an all powerful One World Government threatens to impose a global dictatorship and become the master of us all This Book Will Allow You To: Understand The Policies Coming Out of Washington and even more importantly it will provide Real World Common Sense Solutions for how to restore Economic Stability and the principles upon which America was founded IT Will: Enable You To: Identify what has been done to usurp our liberty. And it will put names and faces to those who are responsible so we know who to hold accountable Provide An Action Plan For The Restoration of America: So we the people will be empowered to regain our economic and civil liberties and restore America to greatness Rally Public Support For New Leadership: The carrier politicians in Washington must be voted out of office (both Democrats and Republicans) to be replaced by new leaders which are committed to supporting election reform and policies intended to uphold the Constitution and the principles upon which America was founded Defuse The Governments Attempts To Create Racial and Socioeconomic Tension For Political Gain: By exposing the government's agenda and providing an alternate solution Embolden The People To Peacefully Resist The Tyrants Which Would Enslave Us

In How Markets Fail, veteran New Yorker staff writer John Cassidy offers a provocative take on the misguided economic thinking that produced the 2008 financial crisis--now with a new preface addressing how its lessons remain unheeded in the present.

A Pulitzer Prize Finalist
An Economist Book of the Year
A Businessweek Best Book of the Year

For fifty years, economists have been developing elegant theories or how markets facilitate innovation, create wealth, and allocate society's resources efficiently. But what about when they fail, when they lead us to stock market bubbles, glaring inequality, polluted rivers, and credit crunches?

In this updated and expanded edition of How Markets Fail, John Cassidy describes the rising influence of utopian economies--the thinking that is blind to how real people act and that denies the many ways an unregulated free market can bring on disaster. Combining on-the-ground reporting and clear explanations of economic theories Cassidy warns that in today's economic crisis, following old orthodoxies isn't just misguided--it's downright dangerous.

While it has been pointed to time and again by governments and pundits promoting laissez-faire economics, The Wealth of Nations actually shows that Adam Smith viewed capitalism with a deep suspicion, and tempered his celebration of a self-regulating market with a darker vision of the dehumanizing potential of a profit-oriented society. Smith did not write an economics textbook, but rather a panoramic narrative about the struggle for individual liberty and general prosperity in history. This edition includes generous selections from all five books of The Wealth of Nations. It also provides full notes and a commentary that places Smith's work within a rich interdisciplinary context.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Unlock the essential skills of lobbying

Hardball Advocacy is a must-read for political science students, lobbying practitioners, or anyone intrigued by the intersection of power, policy, and persuasion.

Essential skills you will acquire:

• Navigating the legislative process
• Mastering lobbying tools
• Stopping legislation in its tracks
• Crafting persuasive messages and honing communication strategies
• Securing and keeping clients
• Managing media effectively

Prepare to journey through the corridors of power, witness the mechanics of policymaking, and explore the fine line between advocacy and influence. Hardball Advocacy: Secrets of the Lobby is more than a guide-it's a rare glimpse into the forces shaping our world.

Solutions to increase trust and empower better decision making in a data-rich world

Fact Forward: The Perils of Bad Information and the Promise of a Data-Savvy Society explores how a growing deluge of data has led to a data-rich world with abundant new opportunities and a precipitous decline in trust due to the problems we face in producing, communicating, and consuming data. This book takes readers on a journey through the data ecosystem, showing how data producers, data consumers, and data disseminators all have a role to play in creating a more data-savvy society.

Written by Dan Gaylin, president and CEO of NORC at the University of Chicago, a leading research organization in the field of social science and data science, this book demonstrates the urgent need for:

• greater transparency on the part of data producers
• increased data literacy on the part of data communicators and data consumers
• a societal commitment to data education and infrastructure

Fact Forward: The Perils of Bad Information and the Promise of a Data-Savvy Society earns a well-deserved spot on the bookshelves of leaders across industries and all individuals who want to build a better society and world by improving the way we present, analyze, and make use of data.

Do you need to transform your communications department into a specialist digital and social media team? The newly revised Public Sector Marketing Pro is the definitive guide for government and public sector agencies, politicians, political parties and NGOs on how to successfully reach and engage with the public in the Digital Age. With over 20 years' experience in journalism, digital marketing, and communications, Joanne Sweeney highlights how communication has changed in our post-pandemic world. New and updated chapters include case studies from public health officials on how they modified their tactics as the public demanded more information quicker than ever before. This crash course in digital public engagement will teach you how to:

- Transform outdated communications strategy into agile digital plans

- Respond to the public in real time on social media-even if you're understaffed

- Effectively respond to crises online

- Leverage digital communications to meet your organisation's larger objectives

- Understand and adapt to the changes that occurred during the pandemic

Public Sector Marketing Pro is your ultimate training manual to becoming a skilled leader in your field and online.

Countless national security leaders agree: No one knows this process like Arnold Punaro.

Drawing on nearly 50 years of experience with the Senate confirmation process, Punaro has written this one-of-a-kind book chronicling the Senate's constitutional advice and consent role. This book serves as a reference guide for both military and civilian national security nominees who find themselves about to face the confirmation gauntlet. Readers will walk away with a better understanding of how the U.S. government really functions and how to be successful should they find themselves on the opposite side of the Senate dais.

Punaro offers unique insights into the good, the bad, and the ugly about the process and how it has changed over time. He proposes innovative and practical solutions to fix this increasingly dysfunctional system. Ensuring that America gets the best people into these critical positions of power is fundamental to our national security and our nation's success now and in the future.

America's $34 trillion national debt is more than just a number-it's a ticking time bomb. With the debt ratio now exceeding the nation's gross domestic product by 26 percent, Howard Mick offers a crucial exploration of how we got here and what it means for our future.

Drawing on government data and the insights of influential economists, Mick takes readers on a journey through the history of America's fiscal policies, revealing how even well-meaning decisions have contributed to the unsustainable growth of our national debt. He advocates for a fact-based discussion, moving beyond partisan rhetoric. He makes a compelling case that this trajectory, if left unchecked, could have devastating effects on our economy and quality of life.

But Mick doesn't stop at a diagnosis; he tackles the tough questions, exploring the impact of fiscal policies on wealth concentration and proposing actionable strategies to reverse the debt ratio's rise. He also confronts the government's inaction, leaving readers with a powerful mandate: it's up to the voters to demand change.

In this concise yet comprehensive book, Mick provides the critical insights needed to understand and address the fiscal crisis that threatens America-one that too few are willing to acknowledge, but that we can no longer afford to ignore.

The Consulting Trap does a deep dive into how governments have become hooked on private consultancy firms with dire consequences for democratic decision-making, public accountability and accessible public services. Hurl and Werner contend that firms like McKinsey, Accenture, KPMG and Deloitte increasingly take responsibility for core public services, trapping governments in cycles of dependency. Through orchestrating tax avoidance for the wealthy while engineering austerity for the rest, they show how these firms have created the foundations for the deepening privatization of the public services, further entrenching their power.

Drawing on case studies from Canada and around the world, Hurl and Werner investigate how big consultancies leverage social networks, institutionalize relationships, mine and commodify data, and establish policy pipelines that facilitate the quick diffusion of ideas across jurisdictions. Drawing from real world examples, The Consulting Trap offers strategies for how these powerful firms can be resisted using people's audits, public consultations, access to information requests, and social network analysis.

This book is a first-hand account of the plots and sub-plots, that started way back in the early 1980s, by Emmerson Mnangagwa which eventually led to him unseating President Robert Mugabe through a military coup in November 2017. That development was disastrous for Zimbabwe in a multi-dimensional way and can be compared to a dark cloud covering the sun like a devastating storm. Many people in Zimbabwe now face economic, political and social conditions far worse than under Mugabe.
Mnangagwa used the political positions of utmost trust that he occupied under the rule of Robert Mugabe to place people loyal to him in key positions so they would cooperate and assist him in executing an undemocratic takeover of power from Mugabe. Mnangagwa had lost a series of elections and had realized that he could not win free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, yet he had a burning desire to rule Zimbabwe. The plots he started in the 1980s were meant to ultimately get him into power through undemocratic means.
The book is written by Lovemore Mukandi in the form of his autobiography to reveal how he gained access to the information. He served in the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) for 18 years in various capacities, culminating in his appointment by Mugabe to the position of Deputy Director General of the CIO. In this capacity and in other roles he had direct private access to Mugabe and interacted with Mnangagwa and other senior security and defense officials, hence this first-hand account.
This book contains valuable factual information that is not in the public domain and that is very useful to fill the gaps in existing accounts of the history of Zimbabwe.

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, generally referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1776, the book offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth, and is today a fundamental work in classical economics. By reflecting upon the economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the book touches upon such broad topics as the division of labour, productivity, and free markets. (source: Wikipedia)