Dead Firms

Why do firms die? This volume explores international and cross-disciplinary perspectives, carrying out a forensic examination of 'how and why' companies die in order to understand the lessons 'dead firms' may have to offer.

Unlike most investors, who live in fear of failure, Scott Fearon actively seeks it out. He has earned millions of dollars for his hedge fund over the last thirty years shorting the stocks of businesses he believed were on their way to bankruptcy. In Dead Companies Walking, Fearon describes his methods for spotting these doomed businesses, and how they can be extremely profitable investments. In his experience, corporate managers routinely commit six common mistakes that can derail even the most promising companies: they learn from only the recent past; they rely too heavily on a formula for success; they misunderstand their target customers; they fall victim to the magical storytelling of a mania; they fail to adapt to tectonic shifts in their industry; and they are physically or emotionally removed from their companies' operations. Fearon has interviewed thousands of executives across America, many of whom, unknowingly, were headed toward bankruptcy – from the Texas oil barons of the 80s to the tech wunderkinds of the late 90s to the flush real estate developers of the mid-2000s. Here, he explores recent examples like JC Penney, Herbalife and Blockbuster Entertainment to help investors better predict the next booms and busts—and come out on top.

A death game where players are forced to kill one another until there's only one person left standing! This is the story of Ryosuke Miyauchi, a young man who survived a real-life battle royale game three years ago, and who has been struggling to live a normal life since then. One day, Ryosuke was scouted by the enormously popular game developer EDC, who asked him, "Why don't you use your special experience to make a game?"

Ryosuke Miyauchi may have survived a real-life death game three years ago, but that brush with death is only the first of many to come. When he's recruited by major game developer EDC on the basis of his prior 'experience,' he soon realizes that they're the ones responsible for his trauma, all while they grow profits and slaughter innocents as they run other death games all around the world. Now, his late girlfriend's sister Kyo has joined a death game of her own accord, and Ryosuke dedicates himself to keeping her safe — no matter the cost. But when he's offered a chance to strike back against the company that took everything away from him, Ryosuke finds himself torn. Can he trust the people who claim they want to take EDC down? As everything begins to fall apart, will he be able to protect Kyo while knowing that her goal is to avenge her sister's killer? Ryosuke readies to risk it all in this thrilling final volume of Dead Company!

Why do firms die? This volume explores international and cross-disciplinary perspectives, carrying out a forensic examination of 'how and why' companies die in order to understand the lessons 'dead firms' may have to offer.

The first volume of edited papers from the Tenth World Congress of the Econometric Society 2010.

The distribution of food played a considerable yet largely unrecognized role in the economic history of Victorian and Edwardian Britain. In the midst of rapid urbanization and industrialization, retail competition intensified and the channels by which food made it to the market became vital to the country's economic success. Illustrating the pivotal importance of food distribution in Britain between 1830 and 1914, The Social Cost of Cheap Food argues that labour exploitation in the distribution system was the key to cheap food. Through an analysis of labour dynamics and institutional changes in the distributive sector, Sébastien Rioux demonstrates that economic development and the rising living standards of the working class were premised upon the growing insecurity and chronic poverty of street sellers, shop assistants, and small shopkeepers. Rioux reveals that food distribution, far from being a passive sphere of economic activity, provided a dynamic space for the reduction of food prices. Positing food distribution as a core element of social and economic development under capitalism, The Social Cost of Cheap Food reflects on the transformation of the labour market and its intricate connection to the history of food and society.