Market Forces

Author: Richard K. Morgan
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345457765
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Book Description
From the award-winning author of Altered Carbon and Broken Angels–a turbocharged new thriller set in a world where killers are stars, media is mass entertainment, and freedom is a dangerous proposition . . . A coup in Cambodia. Guns to Guatemala. For the men and women of Shorn Associates, opportunity is calling. In the superheated global village of the near future, big money is made by finding the right little war and supporting one side against the other–in exchange for a share of the spoils. To succeed, Shorn uses a new kind of corporate gladiator: sharp-suited, hard-driving gunslingers who operate armored vehicles and follow a Samurai code. And Chris Faulkner is just the man for the job. He fought his way out of London’s zone of destitution. And his kills are making him famous. But unlike his best friend and competitor at Shorn, Faulkner has a side that outsiders cannot see: the side his wife is trying to salvage, that another woman–a porn star turned TV news reporter–is trying to exploit. Steeped in blood, eyed by common criminals looking for a shot at fame, Faulkner is living on borrowed time. Until he’s given one last shot at getting out alive. . . .

The Market for Force

Author: Deborah D. Avant
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139446549
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Book Description
The legitimate use of force is generally presumed to be the realm of the state. However, the flourishing role of the private sector in security over the last twenty years has brought this into question. In this book Deborah Avant examines the privatization of security and its impact on the control of force. She describes the growth of private security companies, explains how the industry works, and describes its range of customers – including states, non-government organisations and commercial transnational corporations. She charts the inevitable trade-offs that the market for force imposes on the states, firms and people wishing to control it, suggests a new way to think about the control of force, and offers a model of institutional analysis that draws on both economic and sociological reasoning. The book contains case studies drawn from the US and Europe as well as Africa and the Middle East.

Neoliberalism and Market Forces in Education

Author: Magnus Dahlstedt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429894015
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
Neoliberalism and Market Forces in Education provides a wide perspective on the dramatic transformation of education policy in Sweden that has taken place during the last 30 years, with a specific focus on marketization. The marketization of education in Sweden is set in the wider international context of changes in education systems. With contributions from researchers across a wide range of scientific disciplines, the book provides examples of the consequences of market orientation in education in terms of increase in inequality as well as in terms of what the market orientation means for principals, teachers and students. It considers how Sweden has developed one of the most marketized education systems in the world and the possible consequences of such processes, as identified by research. Neoliberalism and Market Forces in Education will be of great interest to educational practitioners, politicians, scholars in the field, and postgraduate and research students in education.

Momentum: How Companies Become Unstoppable Market Forces

Author: Ricci
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781578515226
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
When it comes to new products and services, what moves customers to buy? Why do they choose one product over another? What makes them bank on a company’s future? These are the billion-dollar questions facing all companies competing in highly connected markets—and today’s answers will determine tomorrow’s market leaders. In this book, marketing and communications experts Ron Ricci and John Volkmann argue that the unique features of digital products—and of consumer goods that contain digital components—force customers to consider the viability of the company behind the solution to their problems. Picking a losing company could mean getting stuck with products that can’t be upgraded or services that can’t be extended. So customers buy from the company that they believe will be the long-term—indeed, the inevitable—winner. They buy from the company that has what the authors call momentum. More than sheer motion, momentum is mass, speed, and direction, combined in a value proposition so compelling that all constituents in a given marketplace believe it—and want to go with it. Ricci and Volkmann provide a practical formula—borrowed from the world of physics and proven in the marketplace—for how companies build and sustain momentum. Drawing upon their intensive study of 20,000 consumer and corporate buyers, the authors also reveal the “six forces of digital differentiation” that characterize “inevitable” market winners in the customer’s mind. Ricci and Volkmann introduce a “momentum index” that will enable senior management, product marketers, and marketing communication strategists to: - Measure a brand’s momentum against that of its competitors Diagnose a company’s strengths and weaknesses as a market contender - Develop an action plan for sustaining or strengthening a competitive position - Apply momentum strategies to the digital features of traditional offerings For anyone responsible for managing or communicating about a company and its brands, this book shows how companies can ride momentum to industry dominance. Ron Ricci is Vice President of Marketing for Cisco Systems. John Volkmann is Vice President of Strategic Communications at Advanced Micro Devices.

No Ordinary Disruption

Author: Richard Dobbs
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610397622
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Our intuition on how the world works could well be wrong. We are surprised when new competitors burst on the scene, or businesses protected by large and deep moats find their defenses easily breached, or vast new markets are conjured from nothing. Trend lines resemble saw-tooth mountain ridges. The world not only feels different. The data tell us it is different. Based on years of research by the directors of the McKinsey Global Institute, No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Forces Breaking all the Trends is a timely and important analysis of how we need to reset our intuition as a result of four forces colliding and transforming the global economy: the rise of emerging markets, the accelerating impact of technology on the natural forces of market competition, an aging world population, and accelerating flows of trade, capital and people. Our intuitions formed during a uniquely benign period for the world economy -- often termed the Great Moderation. Asset prices were rising, cost of capital was falling, labour and resources were abundant, and generation after generation was growing up more prosperous than their parents. But the Great Moderation has gone. The cost of capital may rise. The price of everything from grain to steel may become more volatile. The world's labor force could shrink. Individuals, particularly those with low job skills, are at risk of growing up poorer than their parents. What sets No Ordinary Disruption apart is depth of analysis combined with lively writing informed by surprising, memorable insights that enable us to quickly grasp the disruptive forces at work. For evidence of the shift to emerging markets, consider the startling fact that, by 2025, a single regional city in China -- Tianjin -- will have a GDP equal to that of the Sweden, of that, in the decades ahead, half of the world's economic growth will come from 440 cities including Kumasi in Ghana or Santa Carina in Brazil that most executives today would be hard-pressed to locate on a map. What we are now seeing is no ordinary disruption but the new facts of business life -- facts that require executives and leaders at all levels to reset their operating assumptions and management intuition.

The Malign Hand of the Markets: The Insidious Forces on Wall Street that are Destroying Financial Markets – and What We Can Do About it

Author: John Staddon
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 0071797416
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH WALL STREET? And How Do We Fix It? Even after the global financial meltdown of 2008, economists have clung to Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” theory of an always selfregulating market that benefits private and public interests alike. But Duke University professor John Staddon is here to tell that there’s also another, darker force at work on Wall Street—a “Malign Hand” that guides all human interactions, including our finances. Combining psychology, behavioral economics, and other sciences, Staddon’s explosive new theory reveals the underlying principles behind the economic crisis, exposing the invisible mechanisms that drive our markets today. You’ll learn how we can: Prevent market bubbles from building Distinguish voluntary from involuntary market risk and regulate them differently Simplify and restore Glass-Steagall Understand market mechanisms through Darwinian dynamics Moderate boom and bust cycles and make financial markets sustainable Using economic theory, global market trends, and psychological research, Staddon’s electrifying book is both analytical and prescriptive—with a number of possible solutions to our most pressing economic concerns. You’ll learn about the wrong assumptions that underlie our present system, basic rules for managing risk, and the real reasons behind the market’s greatest successes and biggest disasters. You’ll hear surprising insights into the delicate relationship between Wall Street and Washington—with assessments of the bailouts, the Dodd-Frank bill, and other attempts at financial regulation. Best of all, you’ll discover realistic solutions that can stop the boom-and-bust cycle once and for all. Compelling, controversial, and remarkably thorough, The Malign Hand of the Markets will change the way we plan our future, manage our finances, and build our fortunes.

Gaining Ground

Author: Clifford Winston
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815739338
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
Focusing on ways that markets work with, rather than against, governments to enhance public welfare. The optimal mix of market forces and government intervention to allocate resources is one of the longest-standing problems facing human civilization. At the theoretical extremes, resources in centrally planned economies are allocated by the government, while resources in capitalist economies are allocated by private markets. In practice, market forces and government interventions co-exist to allocate goods and services in a political environment with shifting pressures to give one approach more responsibility than the other. Current public attitudes toward markets are at a low point in the wake of the Great Recession and the growth in income inequality that began in the 1970s. However, in this book, noted Brookings economist Clifford Winston argues that it is a serious mistake to overlook that markets will be a critical part of the solution to any public objective—whether it be to reduce inequality, stimulate long-term growth, slow climate change, or eliminate COVID 19. In Winston's view, policymakers should be much more aware of the many ways that markets help government to achieve economic and social goals and the potential that markets have to provide greater assistance in achieving those goals. Winston synthesizes the empirical evidence on the efficacy of markets in helping to protect consumers against anti-competitive behavior and when technology appears to prevent price competition; to enable individuals to make more informed decisions; and to reduce negative externalities, improve public production, and encourage innovations. Importantly, Winston presents evidence indicating how markets can also help to reduce poverty, promote fairness in labor markets, and provide merit goods. Winston subjects his assessment to a robustness test by explaining how market forces have helped to address the COVID-19 pandemic by, for example, finding new ways for people to work safely and providing incentives for pharmaceutical companies to develop safe and effective vaccines. Winston takes a proactive approach in his conclusion by suggesting the formation of a major “Commission” composed of academics, policymakers, and businesspeople. Such a panel could explore how market forces could provide greater help to government to address economic and social problems and could provide specific recommendations to facilitate market solutions where appropriate.

Adapt and Be Adept

Author: Terry L. Anderson
Publisher: Hoover Press
ISBN: 0817924566
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Book Description
How can markets help us adapt to the challenges of climate change? Editor Terry L. Anderson brings together this collection of essays featuring the work of nine leading policy analysts, who argue that market forces are just as important as government regulation in shaping climate policy—and should be at the heart of our response to helping societies adapt to climate change. Anderson notes in his introduction that most current climate policies such as the Paris Agreement require hard-to-enforce collective action and focus on reducing or mitigating greenhouse gases rather than adapting to their negative effects. Adaptive actions can typically deliver much more, faster and more cheaply than any realistic climate policy. The authors tackle a range of issues: the hidden costs of renewable energy sources, the political obstacles surrounding climate change policy, insurance and financial instruments for pricing risk of exposure to the effects of climate change, and more. Reliance on emerging renewable energies and a carbon tax are not enough to prevent the effects of global warming, they argue. We must encourage more private action and market incentives to adapt to a rapidly changing climate.

The Economics of U.S. Health Care Policy: The Role of Market Forces

Author: Frank W. Musgrave
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317457242
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Book Description
Designed as a primary text for courses in health care economics and policy analysis, this comprehensive work places the issues and economic analysis of the health care industry in the context of market forces driving the industry, including negotiated markets, managed care, and the growing influence of oligopolies. Written in accessible prose, without the aid of technical jargon and mathematical formulations, the content is rich with applicable, understandable economic concepts and analysis, and examples of market failure and government involvement. Some of the major policy issues covered are drug pricing, Medicare and Medicaid reform, the medically uninsured, for-profit hospital monopoly price power, managed care competitive pricing, and new negotiated markets. The relevant economic concepts employed in the text include price elasticity of demand/supply, market structure from competitive to oligopolistic markets, monopoly pricing power, measures of health care inflation and the biases of the CPI, demand and supply factors, inverse relationship of present health care expenditures as a percentage of GDP, measures/concepts of efficiency, and the role of government in a market era.

The Brussels Effect

Author: Anu Bradford
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190088591
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 425

Book Description
For many observers, the European Union is mired in a deep crisis. Between sluggish growth; political turmoil following a decade of austerity politics; Brexit; and the rise of Asian influence, the EU is seen as a declining power on the world stage. Columbia Law professor Anu Bradford argues the opposite in her important new book The Brussels Effect: the EU remains an influential superpower that shapes the world in its image. By promulgating regulations that shape the international business environment, elevating standards worldwide, and leading to a notable Europeanization of many important aspects of global commerce, the EU has managed to shape policy in areas such as data privacy, consumer health and safety, environmental protection, antitrust, and online hate speech. And in contrast to how superpowers wield their global influence, the Brussels Effect - a phrase first coined by Bradford in 2012- absolves the EU from playing a direct role in imposing standards, as market forces alone are often sufficient as multinational companies voluntarily extend the EU rule to govern their global operations. The Brussels Effect shows how the EU has acquired such power, why multinational companies use EU standards as global standards, and why the EU's role as the world's regulator is likely to outlive its gradual economic decline, extending the EU's influence long into the future.