Discusses the life, times, and writings of John Maynard Keynes. Consists of three parts. First, it summarizes Keynes' life by reproducing his 1946 obituary from The Times of London. Second, it recalls the dramatic economic events of the times in which he lived by presenting U.S. macroeconomic data from 1920 to 1940. Finally, it provides some insight into Keynes' views of economic behavior by recounting a number of excerpts from his key wr .....more

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 have enormous economic and political implications. Terrorism itself is a complicated phenomenon. A viable and successful strategy to deal with terrorism would depend on a good understanding of the origins and the mechanisms of terrorism. The case presents several perspectives on this issue.

The e-commerce explosion is turning the Internet, once a freewheeling medium of individual expression, into a sphere of intense corporate activity. Companies are shaping cyberspace to make electronic transactions more secure and consumer information easier to use--a development that has widespread ramifications. In Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, author Lawrence Lessig argues that if commercial interests have a free hand in determining the Internet's .....more

BP Amoco is the world's third-largest oil firm. Its CEO, Sir John Browne, broke with his industry colleagues in 1997 when he publicly declared that global climate change was a serious problem and pledged BP to play a significant role in the search for solutions. The company has committed itself to voluntary cutbacks of carbon dioxide, the main gas held responsible for global climate change. Browne and his fellow executives believe that their approach .....more

What's the verdict on the U.S. economy's greater reliance on free markets in recent decades? The data alone won't give us easy answers. As economist Frank Levy points out, the numbers on economic well-being are so diverse that analysts can usually find support for their points of view. Two new books are cases in point. Myths of Rich & Poor, by W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, is written with supply-side optimism and a combative faith .....more

Why do some countries have highly developed economies while other countries remain poor? David S. Landes's book, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, probes this phenomenon by surveying the economic development of the modern world. Reviewer David Warsh, economics columnist at the Boston Globe, positions the book in the context of other explanations of national development. Unlike economists, who ask only those questions that can be answered with .....more

Briefly examines the history of the Federal Reserve System up through 1970 and then delves into how the central bank, under the leadership of Arthur F. Burns, responded to the "stagflation" of the early 1970s. It culminates with the Federal Reserve's response to the severe 1974-1975 recession.

Free-market philosophy has triumphed in almost every corner of the globe since the end of the Cold War, creating pockets of prosperity from Shanghai to St. Petersburgh. But who controls the world economy? Can it be controlled? And what are the consequences of running global capitalism on automatic pilot? Such questions, which ought to be hotly debated by political and corporate leaders (but rarely are), are at the core of William Grieder's new .....more

Newsweek economics writer Marc Levinson reviews Lester C. Thurow's book The Future of Capitalism: How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World and takes the author to task for once again using a U.S. presidential election as the occasion for making dire economic predictions. But although he thinks Thurow's gloom is unwarranted, he credits him with asking the right question: How do you confront the widening inequality of incomes .....more

Much has been made of what American business can learn from Japan's manufacturing practices, but its service sector also has lessons to teach. E. Barry Keehn reviews two recent books showing how the Tsutsumi family defined consumerism in Japan: The Brothers: The Hidden World of Japan's Richest Family, by Lesley Downer, and Architects of Affluence: The Tsutsumi Family and the Seibu-Saison Enerprises in Twentieth-Century Japan, by Thomas R.H. .....more