Last edition Elsevier Based on the series produced for the BBC World Service Who thought up paper money? How did the contraceptive pill change the face of the legal profession? Why was the horse collar as important for human progress as the steam engine? How did the humble spreadsheet turn the world of finance upside-down? The world economy defies comprehension. A continuously-changing system of immense complexity, it offers over ten billion distinct products and services, doubles in size every fifteen years, and links almost every one of the planet’s seven billion people. It delivers astonishing luxury to hundreds of millions.
Last Edition
ISBN 13: 9780349142630
Imprint: Aabacus Educational Services
Language: English
Authors: Tim Harford
Pub Date: 07/2018
Pages: 352
Illus: Illustrated
Weight: 320.000 grams
Size: h 129 X 197 mm
Product Type: Softcover
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- • It also leaves hundreds of millions behind, puts tremendous strains on the ecosystem, and has an alarming habit of stalling.
- • Nobody is in charge of it. Indeed, no individual understands more than a fraction of what's going on. How can we make sense of this bewildering system on which our lives depend? From the tally-stick to Bitcoin, the canal lock to the jumbo jet, each invention in Tim Harford's fascinating new book has its own curious, surprising and memorable story, a vignette against a grand backdrop.
- • Step by step, readers will start to understand where we are, how we got here, and where we might be going next. Hidden connections will be laid bare: how the barcode undermined family corner shops; why the gramophone widened inequality; how barbed wire shaped America. We'll meet the characters who developed some of these inventions, profited from them, or were ruined by them.
- • We'll trace the economic principles that help to explain their transformative effects. And we'll ask what lessons we can learn to make wise use of future inventions, in a world where the pace of innovation will only accelerate.
- • Tim Harford is a master at picking out the perfect little story that explains some huge economic principle ... he's been my go-to guy for learning about the economics and math behind the world at large... perfectly crafted to light up the pleasure centres of my nerd brain -- Roman Mars, 99% Invisible Tim Harford, always excellent, turns his eye towards inventions. The plough, the gramophone, the pill, the Billy bookcase.
- • Over and over, Harford shows us, inventions have all sorts of knock-on effects * Evening Standard * Harford's richness of detail bespeaks skill both as an economic analyst and as a popular commentator.
- • His sections on barbed wire, passports, the contraceptive pill, infant formula, the bar code and even that IKEA staple, the Billy bookcase, are well researched, racily written and genuinely thou
- Tim Harford is an award-winning journalist, economist, and broadcaster. He’s the author of the bestselling The Undercover Economist, Messy, The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, Adapt, and The Logic of Life. Harford is currently a senior columnist at the Financial Times and host of the BBC Radio 4 program More or Less. He has been named Economics Commentator of the Year (2014), has won the Rybczynski Prize (2014–15) for the best business-relevant economics writing, and has won the Bastiat Prize for economic journalism (2006). He’s a visiting fellow of Nuffield College at Oxford University and lives in Oxford with his family.
- • Cover • Also by Tim Harford • Copyright • Contents • Dedication
- • 1. The Plough
- • Introduction
- • I. Winners and Losers • 2. The Gramophone • 3. Barbed Wire • 4. Seller Feedback • 5. Google Search • 6. Passports • 7. Robots • 8. The Welfare State
- • II. Reinventing How We Live
- • 9. Infant Formula • 10. TV Dinners • 11. The Pill • 12. Video Games • 13. Market Research • 14. Air Conditioning • 15. Department Stores
- • III. Inventing New Systems
- • 16. The Dynamo • 17. The Shipping Container • 18. The Barcode • 19. The Cold Chain • 20. Tradable Debt and the Tally Stick • 21. Billy Bookcase • 22. The Elevator
- • IV. Ideas About Ideas
- • 23. Cuneiform • 24. Public Key Cryptography • 25. Double-Entry Bookkeeping • 26. Limited Liability Companies • 27. Management Consulting • 28. Intellectual Property • 29. The Compiler
- • V. Where Do Inventions Come From?
- • 30. The iPhone • 31. Diesel Engines • 32. Clocks • 33. The Haber-Bosch Process • 34. Radar • 35. Batteries • 36. Plastic
- • VI. The Visible Hand
- • 37. The Bank • 38. Razors and Blades • 39. Tax Havens • 40. Leaded Petrol • 41. Antibiotics in Farming • 42. M-Pesa • 43. Property Registers
- • VII. Inventing the Wheel
- • 44. Paper • 45. Index Funds • 46. The S-bend • 47. Paper Money • 48. Concrete • 49. Insurance
- • Conclusion: Looking forward
- • 50. Epilogue: The Light Bulb
- • Notes
- • Acknowledgements • Index
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