The end of the Cold War

1985-1991

On 26 December, 1991, the hammer-and-sickle flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. Yet, just six years earlier, when Mikhail Gorbachëv became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and chose Eduard Shevardnadze as his foreign minister, the Cold ...

Guide to intellectual property

what it is, how to project it, how to exploit it

Intellectual Property (IP) is often a company s single most valuable asset. And yet IP is hard to value, widely misunderstood and frequently under-exploited. IP accounts for an estimated $5trn of GDP in the US alone. It covers patents, trademarks, domain names, copyrights, designs and ...

Economics

making sense of the modern economy

The world of economics is changing. Years of turmoil in the global economy mean that nothing will ever be quite the same again. This is the starting point and theme of this radically revised Economist books classic, now available for the first time in America ...

The great diruption

how business is coping with turbulent times

The Great Disruption is a collection drawn from Adrian Wooldridge's influential Schumpeter columns in The Economist addressing the causes and profound consequences of the unprecedented disruption of business over the past five years. The Great Disruption has many causes. The internet is spreading faster ...

Other people's money

the real business of finance

The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to ...

Business strategy

a guide to effective decision-making

The effectiveness of a good strategy well implemented determines a business' future success or failure. Yet history is full of strategic decisions, big and small, that were ill-conceived, poorly organized and consequently disastrous. This updated guide looks at the whole process of strategic decision-making, from ...

Guide to organisation design

creating high-performing and adaptable enterprises

There are many designs and theories for how to best structure companies, but not all prove successful. In America alone between 1990 and 2000, there were over 6.3 million business start-ups and 5.7 million business shutdowns. This new guide in The Economist series ...

Princes at war

the bitter battle inside britain's royal family in the darkest days of WWII

In 1936, the British monarchy faced the greatest threats to its survival in the modern era—the crisis of abdication and the menace of Nazism. The fate of the country rested in the hands of George V’s sorely unequipped sons: •a stammering King George ...

Feeling smart

why our emotions are more rational than we think

Which is smarter--your head or your gut? It's a familiar refrain: you're getting too emotional. Try and think rationally. But is it always good advice? In this surprising book, Eyal Winter asks a simple question: why do we have emotions? If they lead ...

Unhappy union

how the euro crisis, and Europe, can be fixed

The euro was supposed to create an unbreakable bond between the nations and people of Europe. But when the debt crisis struck, the flaws of the half-built currency brought the European Union close to breaking point after decades of post-war integration. Deep fault-lines have opened ...

Frugal innovation

how to do more with less

Frugal innovation is a way that companies can create high-quality products with limited resources. Once the preserve of firms in poor markets, Western companies are now seeking ways to appeal to cost-conscious and environmentally-aware consumers at home. With an estimated trillion-dollar global market for frugal ...

guide to emerging markets

the business outlook, opportunities and obstacles

The growth that companies can achieve from their operations in home and developed world markets has for many years been modest. Real opportunities to take a business to a higher level exist in identifying and cultivating emerging markets. For many years, The Economist Corporate Network ...

The chief financial officer

what CFOs do, the influence they have, and why it matters

The rapid rise in importance of the role of the chief financial officer—from back-office accountant to front-line executive—is unrivaled by that of any other corporate position. With access to every facet of the business, CFOs now wield a level of influence matched only ...

Guide to country risk

how to identify, manage and mitigate the risks of doing business across borders

Country risk explains the things that can go wrong when business is conducted across borders. It's not just multinational companies, with factories worldwide and complex operations, that need to understand sudden changes in business conditions. These can affect any small firm that may be ...

Guide to analysing companies

In today's volatile, complex and fast-moving business world, it can be difficult to gauge how sound a company really is. An apparently strong balance sheet and impressive reported profits may be hiding all sorts of problems that could even spell bankruptcy. So how do ...

The attacker's advantage

turning uncertainty into breakthrough opportunities

The forces driving today's world of structural change create sharp bends in the road that can lead to major explosions in your existing market space. But exponential change also offers exponential opportunities. How do you leverage change to go on the offense? "The Attacker ...

The culture map

decoding how people think, lead, and get things done across cultures

An international business expert helps you understand and navigate cultural differences in this insightful and practical guide, perfect for both your work and personal life. Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans ...

America's fiscal constitution

its triumph and collapse

What would Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Truman, and Eisenhower have done about today's federal debt crisis? America's Fiscal Constitution tells the remarkable story of fiscal heroes who imposed clear limits on the use of federal debt, limits that for two centuries ...

The tragedy of the European Union

disintegration or revival?

The European Union could soon be a thing of the past. Xenophobia is rampant and commonly reflected in elections across the continent. Great Britain may hold a referendum on whether to abandon the union altogether. Spurred by anti-EU sentiments due to the euro crisis, national ...

The seven sins of Wall Street

big banks, their Whasington lackeys, and the Next financial crisis

We all know that the financial crisis of 2008 came dangerously close to pushing the United States and the world into a depression rivaling that of the 1930s. But what is astonishing--and should make us not just afraid but very afraid--are the shenanigans of the ...