From a former senior advisor to Senator John McCain comes an urgent wake-up call about how new technologies are threatening America's military might.For generations of Americans, our country has been the world's dominant military power. How the US military fights, and the systems and weapons that it fights with, have been uncontested. That old reality, however, is rapidly deteriorating. America's traditional sources of power are eroding amid the emergence of new technologies and the growing military threat posed by rivals such as China. America is at grave risk of losing a future war.As Christian Brose reveals in this urgent wake-up call, the future will be defined by artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and other emerging technologies that are revolutionizing global industries and are now poised to overturn the model of American defense. This fascinating, if disturbing, book confronts the existential risks on the horizon, charting a way for America's military to adapt and succeed with new thinking as well as new technology. America must build a battle network of systems that enables people to rapidly understand threats, make decisions, and take military actions, the process known as "the kill chain." Examining threats from China, Russia, and elsewhere, The Kill Chain offers hope and, ultimately, insights on how America can apply advanced technologies to prevent war, deter aggression, and maintain peace Read more

In this compelling story of lies, greed and tarnished idealism, two Wall Street Journal reporters investigate a man who Bill Gates and Western governments entrusted with billions of dollars to make profits and end poverty but masterminded one of the biggest, most brazen frauds ever.Arif Naqvi was charismatic, inspiring, and self-made—all the qualities of a successful business leader. The founder of Abraaj, a Dubai-based private-equity firm, Naqvi was the Key Man to the global elite searching for impact investments to make money and do good. He persuaded politicians he could help stabilize the Middle East after 9/11 by providing jobs and guided executives to opportunities in cities they struggled to find on the map. Bill Gates helped him start a $1 billion fund to improve healthcare in poor countries and the UN and Interpol appointed him to boards. As Pope Francis blessed a move to harness capitalism for the good of the poor, Naqvi won the support of Obama's administration and investors, who compared him to Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible.In 2018, Simon Clark and Will Louch were contacted by an anonymous whistleblower who said Naqvi had swindled investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars and offered bribes to sustain his billionaire lifestyle. Digging into the claims, Clark and Louch uncovered hundreds of documents and exposed the wrongdoing. In April 2019—months after their exposé broke—Naqvi was arrested on charges of fraud and racketeering, and faces up to 291 years in jail. Populated by a cast of larger-than-life characters and moving across Asia, Africa, Europe and America, The Key Man is the story of how the global elite was duped by a capitalist fairytale. Clark and Louch shine a light on efforts to clean up global capital flows even as opaque private equity firms amass trillions of dollars and offshore tax havens cast a veil of secrecy which prevents regulators, investors and citizens from understanding what's really going on in the finance industry. Read more

A New York Times Bestseller!2019 was the last great year for the world economy.For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days - even hours - of when you decided you wanted it.America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.Globe-spanning supply chains are only possible with the protection of the U.S. Navy. The American dollar underpins internationalized energy and financial markets. Complex, innovative industries were created to satisfy American consumers. American security policy forced warring nations to lay down their arms. Billions of people have been fed and educated as the American-led trade system spread across the globe.All of this was artificial. All this was temporary. All this is ending.In The End of the World is Just the Beginning, author and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan maps out the next world: a world where countries or regions will have no choice but to make their own goods, grow their own food, secure their own energy, fight their own battles, and do it all with populations that are both shrinking and aging.The list of countries that make it all work is smaller than you think. Which means everything about our interconnected world - from how we manufacture products, to how we grow food, to how we keep the lights on, to how we shuttle stuff about, to how we pay for it all - is about to change.In customary Zeihan fashion, rather than yelling fire in the geoeconomic theatre, he narrates the accumulation of matchsticks, gasoline, and dynamite in the hands of the oblivious audience, suggesting we might want to call the fire department.A world ending. A world beginning. Zeihan brings readers along for an illuminating (and a bit terrifying) ride packed with foresight, wit, and his trademark irreverence. Read more

This audiobook, written and read by Alexis Madrigal, reveals how understanding Oakland explains the modern world.In The Pacific Circuit, the award-winning journalist Alexis Madrigal sculpts an intricate tableau of the city of Oakland that is at once a groundbreaking big-idea book, a deeply researched work of social and political history, and an intimate portrait of an essential American city that has been at the crossroads of the defining themes of the twenty-first century.Oakland’s stories encompass everything from Silicon Valley’s prominence and the ramifications of a compulsively digital future to the underestimated costs of technological innovation on local communities—all personified in this changing landscape for the city’s lifelong inhabitants.The Pacific Circuit holds a magnifying glass to the scars etched by generations of systemic segregation and the ceaseless march of technological advancement. These are not just abstract concepts; they are embedded in the very fabric of Oakland and its people, from dockworkers and community organizers to real estate developers and businesspeople chasing the highest possible profits. Madrigal delves into city hall politics, traces the intertwining arcs of venture capital and hedge funds, and offers unprecedented insight into Silicon Valley’s genesis and growth, all against the backdrop of Oakland—a city vibrating with untold stories and unexplored connections that can, when explored carefully, reveal exactly how our markets and our world really function.A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Read more

In a revelatory dispatch from the frontier of capitalist extremism, an acclaimed historian of ideas shows how free marketeers are realizing their ultimate goal: an end to nation-states and the constraints of democracy.Look at a map of the world and you’ll see a colorful checkerboard of nation-states. But this is not where power actually resides. Over the last decade, globalization has shattered the map into different legal spaces: free ports, tax havens, special economic zones. With the new spaces, ultracapitalists have started to believe that it is possible to escape the bonds of democratic government and oversight altogether.Crack-Up Capitalism follows the most notorious radical libertarians—from Milton Friedman to Peter Thiel—around the globe as they search for the perfect space for capitalism. Historian Quinn Slobodian leads us from Hong Kong in the 1970s to South Africa in the late days of apartheid, from the neo-Confederate South to the former frontier of the American West, from the medieval City of London to the gold vaults of right-wing billionaires, and finally into the world’s oceans and war zones, charting the relentless quest for a blank slate where market competition is unfettered by democracy.A masterful work of economic and intellectual history, Crack-Up Capitalism offers both a new way of looking at the world and a new vision of coming threats. Full of rich details and provocative analysis, Crack-Up Capitalism offers an alarming view of a possible future.A Macmillan Audio production from Metropolitan Books. Read more

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST's 50 NOTABLE WORKS OF NONFICTIONAn explosive, deeply reported exposé of McKinsey & Company, the international consulting firm that advises corporations and governments, that highlights the often drastic impact of its work on employees and citizens around the worldMcKinsey & Company is the most prestigious consulting company in the world, earning billions of dollars in fees from major corporations and governments who turn to it to maximize their profits and enhance efficiency. In When McKinsey Comes to Town, two prizewinning investigative journalists have written a portrait of the company sharply at odds with its public image. Often McKinsey's advice boils down to major cost-cutting, including layoffs and maintenance reductions, to drive up short-term profits, thereby boosting a company's stock price and the wealth of its executives who hire it, at the expense of workers and safety measures. McKinsey collects millions of dollars advising government agencies that also regulate McKinsey's corporate clients.Shielded by NDAs, McKinsey has escaped public scrutiny despite its role in advising tobacco and vaping companies, purveyors of opioids, repressive governments, and oil companies. McKinsey helped insurance companies' boost their profits by making it incredibly difficult for accident victims to get payments; worked its U.S. government contacts to let Wall Street firms evade scrutiny. And much more. When McKinsey Comes to Town is a landmark work of investigative reporting that amounts to a devastating portrait of a firm whose work has often made the world more unequal, more corrupt, and more dangerous. Read more

As our workplaces become increasingly global and diverse, being a culturally intelligent leader isn't just a bonus—it's essential.Whether you're negotiating a contract with a supplier on the other side of the world, managing an increasingly diverse workforce, expanding your business across borders, or developing and applying cultural intelligence (CQ), this classic resource provides you with the adaptability you need to motivate, negotiate, and accomplish results with anyone, anywhere.Having done consulting and research with leaders in more than 100 countries, David Livermore, founder of the Cultural Intelligence Center and professor at Boston University, has detailed the four CQ skills that are proven to maximize your leadership success in today’s diverse, global business environment:Drive—build your motivation and confidence to address cultural dilemmasKnowledge—learn how to read any cultural situationStrategy—create an inclusive, agile plan that accounts for diverse stakeholdersAction—adapt your leadership style without compromising effectivenessFeaturing the latest research, case studies, and new chapters on how to lead culturally intelligent organizations and teams, this new edition of Leading with Cultural Intelligence will help you thrive in any leadership environment—whether it's across the world or in your own back yard. Read more

We are in the midst of a devastating takeover of our world. The Global Coup d'État shows how, why, and what we can do to stop it. The year 2020 will go down in history as the year when the global coup d'état was initiated. In a historical context, the COVID-19 crisis, the murder of George Floyd by a police officer and subsequent riots, mass protests against government lockdowns, and the 2020 election appear rather as part of a well-directed chess game, with complete control of the whole planet as the final goal. During the crescendo of this drama, the powers behind the coup emerged quite openly, offering a techno–totalitarian and very far-reaching solution to the world. This solution, which they call the Great Reset, means that mankind must be fully integrated and merged with a worldwide technological system, through the application of the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution—all for our own safety, security, and well-being. Most people probably associate the phrase “coup d'état” with a sudden, violent takeover, with tanks around government buildings, takeover of media channels, purges of dissidents, arrests, and so on. But this is not always the case. The usurpers can also seize power without violence, in a completely legal and democratic way, with the consent or even enthusiasm of the people, as evidenced in 2020. There are many “existential threats” (climate crisis, refugee crises, terrorism, pandemics, etc.) that can be used to establish a firmer and more centralized governance. This can be a gradual process, barely perceivable until it’s almost a fait accompli. In The Global Coup d'État, author and researcher Jacob Nordangård shares the history, describes the process, reveals the methods, and identifies the agents of this worldwide takeover so that we can take action before it is too late. Read more

The untold story of how Japan became a cultural superpower through the fantastic inventions that captured - and transformed - the world’s imagination.“A masterful book driven by deep research, new insights, and powerful storytelling.” (W. David Marx, author of Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style)Japan is the forge of the world’s fantasies: karaoke and the Walkman, manga and anime, Pac-Man and Pokémon, online imageboards and emojis. But as Japan media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation, these novelties did more than entertain. They paved the way for our perplexing modern lives.In the 1970s and ’80s, Japan seemed to exist in some near future, gliding on the superior technology of Sony and Toyota. Then a catastrophic 1990 stock-market crash ushered in the “lost decades” of deep recession and social dysfunction. The end of the boom should have plunged Japan into irrelevance, but that’s precisely when its cultural clout soared - when, once again, Japan got to the future a little ahead of the rest of us.Hello Kitty, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and multimedia empires like Dragon Ball Z were more than marketing hits. Artfully packaged, dangerously cute, and dizzyingly fun, these products gave us new tools for coping with trying times. They also transformed us as we consumed them - connecting as well as isolating us in new ways, opening vistas of imagination and pathways to revolution. Through the stories of an indelible group of artists, geniuses, and oddballs, Pure Invention reveals how Japan’s pop-media complex remade global culture. Read more

From the author of Future Shock comes a striking way out of today's despair...a bracing, optimistic look at our new potentials.The Third Wave makes startling sense of the violent changes now battering our world. Its sweeping synthesis casts fresh light on our new forms of marriage and family, on today's dramatic changes in business and economics. It explains the role of cults, the new definitions of work, play, love, and success. It points toward new forms of 21st-century democracy. Read more

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In The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance, the most persecuted man on Earth, Alex Jones, gives you the good news about the failing plans of the globalists to control humanity. The expression “Get woke, go broke” has entered the common lexicon as we’ve seen company after company invoke the false gods of diversity, equity, and inclusion to their financial demise. But this surface discussion masks a much darker truth. What we are witnessing is nothing less than the failed plans of social Darwinists to capture free market capitalism and turn it toward their fascist aims of controlling and depopulating the globe. Working with New York Times bestselling author Kent Heckenlively, Jones masterfully gives you the deeper discussion about such hot button topics as the truth behind the globalists plans for artificial intelligence (AI), the central bank digital currency, social credit scores, Big Tech tyranny, censorship, fifteen-minute cities, the unholy alliance between big business and big government, the military-intelligence-industrial complex—which is hell-bent on eternal war—and the all-out assault on free speech and the Second Amendment. The good news is that these plans are destined to fail, if we wake up to the anti-human future the globalists have planned for us. The globalists hate freedom, and what they hate the most is the greatest freedom document in human history, the United States Constitution. Jones does not shy away from the darker parts of American history—the way we have been systematically deceived by the intelligence agencies since their assassination of President John F. Kennedy—but he provides example after example of people who have broken free from the matrix of lies to tell the truth. The people the globalists fear the most are the members of their own systems of control, who wake up and then decide to act against the machine. The globalists believe they’ve planned for every possible contingency, but they hadn’t counted on the conscience and love of truth, which lives in the souls of good people. St. Augustine once wrote: “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.” No figure in our modern times has roared louder against the enemies of freedom than Alex Jones. In the calm and dispassionate style that made his first book, The Great Reset: And the War for the World, such a smash hit, Alex lays out the flaws in the plans of the globalists and how they seek to create a world in direct opposition to God’s plans for our glorious human future. But God consistently works His will in our world, even through imperfect individuals like Donald Trump, Alex Jones, or you. If you want to read one book this year to understand your world and help lead humanity to the next great human renaissance, you need to order this book today. Read more

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A brilliant investigation of globalization, the most significant socioeconomic trend in the world today, and how it is affecting everything we do - economically, politically, and culturally - abroad and at home. As foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman crisscrosses the globe talking with the world's economic and political leaders, and reporting, as only he can, on what he sees. Now he has used his years of experience as a reporter and columnist to produce a pithy, trenchant, riveting look at the worldwide market forces that are driving today's economies and how they are playing out both internationally and locally. Globalization is the technologically driven expression of free-market capitalism, and as such is essentially an American creation. It has irrevocably changed the way business is done and has raised living standards throughout the world. But powerful local forces - of religion, race, ethnicity, and cultural identity - are in competition with technology for the hearts and minds of their societies. Finding the proper balance between the Lexus and the olive tree is the great game of globalization - and the ultimate theme of Friedman's challenging, provocative book, essential reading for all who care about how the world really works. Read more

From the acclaimed author of The Box, a new history of globalization that shows us how to navigate its futureGlobalization has profoundly shaped the world we live in, yet its rise was neither inevitable nor planned. It is also one of the most contentious issues of our time. While it may have made goods less expensive, it has also sent massive flows of money across borders and shaken the global balance of power. Outside the Box offers a fresh and lively history of globalization, showing how it has evolved over two centuries in response to changes in demographics, technology, and consumer tastes.Marc Levinson, the acclaimed author of The Box, tells the story of globalization through the people who eliminated barriers and pursued new ways of doing business. He shows how the nature of globalization changed dramatically in the 1980s with the creation of long-distance value chains. This new type of economic relationship shifted manufacturing to Asia, destroying millions of jobs and devastating industrial centers in North America, Europe, and Japan. Levinson describes how improvements in transportation, communications, and computing made international value chains possible, but how globalization was taken too far because of large government subsidies and the systematic misjudgment of risk by businesses. As companies began to account properly for the risks of globalization, cross-border investment fell sharply and foreign trade lagged long before Donald Trump became president and the coronavirus disrupted business around the world.In Outside the Box, Levinson explains that globalization is entering a new era in which moving stuff will matter much less than moving services, information, and ideas. Read more

From a pioneer in the field of complexity science and chaos theory, a plan for solving the world’s most pressing problems“Farmer convincingly argues that by using big data and today’s more powerful computers, we can build more realistic models and simulations of the global economy. . . . Farmer’s vision will undoubtedly be significant in how economics evolves.”—Tej Parikh, Financial Times, “Best New Books on Economics”“Both a manifesto for a revolution in economics and a memoir of an unusual career.”—Ed Ballard, Wall Street JournalWe live in an age of increasing complexity—an era of accelerating technology and global interconnection that holds more promise, and more peril, than any other time in human history. The fossil fuels that have powered global wealth creation now threaten to destroy the world they helped build. Automation and digitization promise prosperity for some, unemployment for others. Financial crises fuel growing inequality, polarization, and the retreat of democracy. At heart, all these problems are rooted in the economy, yet the guidance provided by economic models has often failed.Many books have been written about J. Doyne Farmer and his work, but this is the first in his own words. It presents a manifesto for how to do economics better. In this tale of science and ideas, Farmer fuses his profound knowledge and expertise with stories from his life to explain how we can bring a scientific revolution to bear on the economic conundrums facing society.Using big data and ever more powerful computers, we are now able for the first time to apply complex systems science to economic activity, building realistic models of the global economy. The resulting simulations and the emergent behavior we observe form the cornerstone of the science of complexity economics, allowing us to test ideas and make significantly better economic predictions—to better address the hard problems facing the world. Read more

PsyWar: Enforcing the New World Order exposes the history and tactics of modern psychological warfare on the American people and offers a way forward for citizens to resist totalitarian control.   PsyWar is when a government coordinates and directs deployment of propaganda, censorship, and psychological operations (psyops) tools in campaigns designed to manipulate public opinion. The authors address critical topics including:   Propaganda and Behavioral Control Psychological Bioterrorism Deep State Censorship Surveillance Capitalism Administrative State Objectives Fifth-Generation Warfare PsyWar Tactics Techno-Totalitarianism The New World Order and Global Control   Free speech is the most pragmatic tool we have for ascertaining truth. Only by examining all sides of an issue can the truth be chiseled out like a statue out of marble. We must defend all speech—whether untrue, hateful, or intolerable, as that is the only way to protect our right to understand the world.  As soon as free speech is restricted, that restriction will be used to sway public opinion.   Now is a time when America needs hope. But more than hope, we need to restore our Constitution and Bill of Rights as the foundational documents of our Republic. These documents support and protect our personal sovereignty and are at the core of our fundamental rights as Americans. We must work to make this country great again by restoring our commitment to these foundational principles and ethics.   Read more

China dominates manufacturing and is the world's largest retail market, but for companies outside of China, finding ways to do business in the country is increasingly uncertain in the face of rising US-China tension, combined with China's crackdowns on the tech and education sectors. Shaun Rein runs the China Market Research Group and has spent his career helping multinationals understand where the opportunities are in China. An American who's lived in Shanghai for 25 years, he has long been one of the biggest China bulls. He now argues that while China is not a must-go destination for all companies and investors, there are still many non-politically sensitive sectors where long-term opportunities can be sought.The Split analysis the geo-political split between the US and China, China's sharp turn towards socialism and how this will cut into fat margins in many sectors. It explains why corporations in sectors such as semiconductors and AI should stay clear of China and relocate to other countries like Vietnam, India and Mexico. Yet principally, Rein makes the case that that fears about China's shift are far overblown and that for most sectors it should remain the main growth driver for even the largest companies. Expert insights into China's national policy reforms, its rising middle class seeking to save and invest, and their focus on health and wellness, will inform the international strategic decisions for companies around the world  in sectors such as finance, consumer goods and auto. China will soon eclipse the United States as the world's largest economy and companies will lose out if they do not know how to invest in China properly. No company has been able to get into China for 3 years. Shaun Rein hasn't left. He's therefore uniquely positioned to advise now that China is opening up again.  The Split presents a unique and informed case for why the time is definitely now to capitalize on policy changes and trends in China that will support long-term opportunities for your business. Read more

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER"For anyone who wants to understand capitalism not as economists or politicians have pictured it but as it actually operates, this book will be invaluable."-Observer (UK) If you've wondered how we did not see the economic collapse coming, Ha-Joon Chang knows the answer: We didn't ask what they didn't tell us about capitalism. This is a lighthearted book with a serious purpose: to question the assumptions behind the dogma and sheer hype that the dominant school of neoliberal economists-the apostles of the freemarket-have spun since the Age of Reagan.Chang, the author of the international bestseller Bad Samaritans, is one of the world's most respected economists, a voice of sanity-and wit-in the tradition of John Kenneth Galbraith and Joseph Stiglitz. 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism equips readers with an understanding of how global capitalism works-and doesn't. In his final chapter, "How to Rebuild the World," Chang offers a vision of how we can shape capitalism to humane ends, instead of becoming slaves of the market. Read more

Winner of the United Association for Labor Education Book Award 2021, this is essential reading for everyone who wants to understand the role of Amazon in our economy and society. With Amazon, supply-chain, and unionization in the news, it is both timely and incredibly informative. Amazon is the most powerful corporation on the planet and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, has become one of the richest individuals in history, and one of the few people to profit from a global pandemic. Its dominance has reshaped the global economy itself: we live in the age of “Amazon Capitalism.”  “One-click” instant consumerism and its immense variety of products has made Amazon a worldwide household name, with over 60% of US households subscribing to Amazon Prime. In turn, these subscribers are surveilled by the corporation. Amazon is also one of the world's largest logistics companies, resulting in weakened unions and lowered labor standards. The company has also become the largest provider of cloud-computing services and home surveillance systems, not to mention the ubiquitous Alexa. With cutting-edge analyses, this book looks at the many dark facets of the corporation, including automation, surveillance, tech work, workers' struggles, algorithmic challenges, the disruption of local democracy and much more. The Cost of Free Shipping shows how Amazon represents a fundamental shift in global capitalism that we should name, interrogate, and be primed to resist.   Read more