Books about Unsustainable from Amazon.com

When financial journalist Eamonn Fingleton anticipated the meltdown of the New Economy in the late nineties, his predictions were dismissed by mainstream economic writers as "farfetched." Now, with the New Economy in ruins and America mired in recession, Fingleton's avowedly contrarian take on mainstream economic thinking is all the more urgent. Written in clear, lucid prose that renders the complexity of the world economy clear to the general reader, Unsustainable is a masterly survey of how the U.S. economy's turn from manufacturing to a more service-based, "postindustrial" economy—based on finance, entertainment, and computer software—has been an unmitigated disaster for working- and middleclass America and threatens the long-term viability of the U.S. economy. Taking on free market ideologues like Thomas Friedman, Fingelton shows how those who claim that a global service economy is the key to America's salvation are living in a fool's paradise. Completely revised and updated, this timely contribution is an indispensable survey of American's economic downturn.

Aimed at an audience, including both budding social activists and young people studying the environment and international development, this book explains how these crises share the same historical roots. Brilliantly combining a huge amount of up-to-date information, visual charts, and clear explanation, Patrick Hossay shows how an historical path of colonialism, capitalist development and industrial growth has yielded bad results. He proposes a fundamental restructuring of the way business is done, and the book suggests ways in which we can work for lasting change.