The True Wealth Of Nations

The True Wealth of Nations arises from the conviction that implementing a morally adequate vision of the economy will generate sustainable prosperity for all. It sets forth the beginnings of an architecture of analysis for relating economic life and Christian faith-intellectually and experientially-and helps social scientists, theologians, and all persons of faith to appreciate the true wealth of any nation.

Bestselling author Riane Eisler (The Chalice and the Blade, which has sold more than 500,000 copies sold) shows that at the root of all of society's big problems is the fact that we don't value what matters. She then presents a radical reformulation of economics priorities focused on the home.

Interest in the work of the early 19th century French political theorist Louis de Bonald has increased in recent years, due in part to renewed concerns about politics for promoting and sustaining the goods of marriage and family. This colletion of Bonald's essays, translated by Christopher Blum, will introduce readers to Bonald's thought with respect to the key areas of Catholic Social Teaching.

The #1 New York Times–bestselling political humorist reads Adam Smith’s classic economic treatise—so you don’t have to. Recognized almost instantly on its publication in 1776 as the fundamental work of economics, The Wealth of Nations was also recognized as really long. The original edition totaled over nine hundred pages in two volumes—including the blockbuster sixty-seven-page “Digression concerning the Variations in the Value of Silver during the Course of the Four last Centuries,” which, to those uninterested in the historiography of currency supply, is like reading Modern Maturity in Urdu. Although daunting, Adam Smith’s tome is still essential to understanding such current hot topics as outsourcing, trade imbalances, and Angelina Jolie. In this witty, approachable, and insightful examination of Smith and his groundbreaking work, P. J. O’Rourke puts his trademark wit to good use, and shows us why Smith is still relevant, why what seems obvious now was once revolutionary, and why the pursuit of self-interest is so important. “If there is anyone on the planet who can make Adam Smith as entertaining and informative as he was prophetic, it’s P. J. O’Rourke.” —The Weekly Standard “Hilarious . . . Learning history while better understanding the current economy—and laughing while doing it? Hard to ask for more.” —Rocky Mountain News

Three decades after publishing his classic The Making of a Counter Culture -- and after two brushes with death -- Theodore Roszak was forced to confront his mortality and that of a generation of baby boomers who never realized they were subject to the same laws of aging as their predecessors.In Longevity Revolution, Roszak turns his critical eye to what he calls "the implications of mass longevity as a social phenomenon". Revised for paperback publication, the book counters conventional views of elders as burdens, seeing them instead as the culture's great resource. Roszak explores in detail such critical issues as economics, politics, medicine, ethics, biotechnology, the class divide, and the fetish for youthfulness that dominate American culture. He envisions a world in which elders are honored for their insights, values, and abilities in creating a more compassionate society.

What exactly is it that enables us to live as we do today? Is it that we work harder? Or, that we have more money? The simple truth is that we can live differently from how we lived a hundred years ago and a thousand years ago because of the accumulated sum of new ideas encapsulated in new technology. Money is in this sense only one small part of new technology, the myriad of ideas and inventions that support our way of living today.Why then are most solutions and even problems formulated in terms where "money" is essential? It is because it is the way we have been taught to think. Concepts used in economics, often grossly misinterpreted, have become our prison leading us into a very inhumane world. And we do not even see the prison bars that confines us to certain solutions because we think this is just how it must be. We think it is established science. And because we do not even see the prison bars we become our own wardens.We have thus been beguiled by economists to think that money is wealth and this creates an inhumane world. Instead we should focus on ideas and our true needs as the source of creating true wealth. But if we are to get away from the present focus on money and speculation to get more money we must change how we think and for that we need new ideas, concepts and models.However, new ways of thinking about economic matters will not come from the economists or the greedy rich. They simply have too much to loose. Economists would loose a lot of prestige or even their jobs and the rich would loose the easy ways they have invented to become rich by creating bubble money. We need new ways of viewing what is true wealth and how such is created. This way, and only this way, can we break free from the prison of economic thoughts that today dominate us.By applying his long experience in modeling the author shows alternate ways of viewing wealth, true wealth, based on modern research and sound principles of modeling. And that is thus what this book is all about.This book contain some mathematics. If you prefer a book without mathematical expressions, I recommend my book A New Monetary System.

We are well aware of the rise of the 1% as the rapid growth of economic inequality has put the majority of the world’s wealth in the pockets of fewer and fewer. One much-discussed solution to this imbalance is to significantly increase the rate at which we tax the wealthy. But with an enormous amount of the world’s wealth hidden in tax havens—in countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands—this wealth cannot be fully accounted for and taxed fairly. No one, from economists to bankers to politicians, has been able to quantify exactly how much of the world’s assets are currently hidden—until now. Gabriel Zucman is the first economist to offer reliable insight into the actual extent of the world’s money held in tax havens. And it’s staggering. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations, Zucman offers an inventive and sophisticated approach to quantifying how big the problem is, how tax havens work and are organized, and how we can begin to approach a solution. His research reveals that tax havens are a quickly growing danger to the world economy. In the past five years, the amount of wealth in tax havens has increased over 25%—there has never been as much money held offshore as there is today. This hidden wealth accounts for at least $7.6 trillion, equivalent to 8% of the global financial assets of households. Fighting the notion that any attempts to vanquish tax havens are futile, since some countries will always offer more advantageous tax rates than others, as well the counter-argument that since the financial crisis tax havens have disappeared, Zucman shows how both sides are actually very wrong. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations he offers an ambitious agenda for reform, focused on ways in which countries can change the incentives of tax havens. Only by first understanding the enormity of the secret wealth can we begin to estimate the kind of actions that would force tax havens to give up their practices. Zucman’s work has quickly become the gold standard for quantifying the amount of the world’s assets held in havens. In this concise book, he lays out in approachable language how the international banking system works and the dangerous extent to which the large-scale evasion of taxes is undermining the global market as a whole. If we are to find a way to solve the problem of increasing inequality, The Hidden Wealth of Nations is essential reading.