Can you save fire island before it’s too late? It was supposed to be a nice, relaxing weekend—with a little swimming, a lot of cocktails, and more hot bods than a year’s subscription to Men’s Health magazine. But when a vat of radioactive waste washes onto the beach, strange things start happening—and now an army of zombie drag queens is storming the coast! Can you save Fire Island before it’s too late? Or will you perish at the hands of a thousand shrieking divas? It all depends on the choices YOU make. If you run toward the nearest ferry terminal, turn to page 44. If you flirt with the cute twink, turn to page 55. If you throw caution to the wind and join the nearest circuit party, turn to page 80. What happens next? That depends on YOU! How does the story end? Only YOU can find out! Best of all, you can read this book again and again until you’ve had 29 amazing adventures!

Wall Street is a funny business. All you have is your reputation. Taint it and someone else will fill your shoes. Longevity comes from maintaining that reputation. Ask Jack Grubman, the All-Star telecom analyst from Salomon Smith Barney; uber-banker Frank Quattrone at CS First Boston; Morgan Stanley's Mary "Queen of the Net" Meeker; or Merrill Lynch's Henry Blodget. Well, they probably won't tell you anything. But have I got some great stories for you. Successful hedge fund manager Andy Kessler looks back on his years as an analyst on Wall Street and offers this cautionary tale of the intoxicating forces loose in the world of finance that overwhelmed sober analysis.

Travel as a concept is universally attractive and the opportunities for fun, engaging branding and marketing in this sector are arguably limitless. Glamour and appeal aside, travel is a hugely competitive, multi-million pound industry and marketers of all sectors can learn important lessons from it. Catering for mass consumer travel, from business travel and adventure travel, to specialist and niche interests, the providers of escape have been impacted as much by technology as they have by the changing habits and desires of travellers themselves. The Escape Industry presents an expert view of travel marketing and branding, focusing particularly on how travel has been utterly transformed for both consumers and providers since the beginning of the 21st century. Mark Tungate focuses on some of the travel industry's most famous brands and shares how all marketers can learn from the industry's rich experience of digital transition. Tungate traces the evolution of this fascinating industry, from nineteenth century trailblazers such as Thomas Cook and The Ritz, to today's innovations such as TripAdvisor, Couchsurfing and Airbnb, and explores the branding secrets that have enabled them to survive. A lively read full of incidents, anecdotes, unexpected encounters and a ground-breaking report from the final frontier and space tourism, The Escape Industry is at the cutting edge of this attractive sector, examining some of the biggest names in the industry. It will take travel and tourism students, as well as marketing and branding practitioners, on a journey to the heart of a rapidly changing business.

At the outset of the industrial revolution the Lancashire labour market was a model of thoroughgoing competition. Wages adjusted quickly and smoothly to changes in the demand for and supply of labour. Within two generations, however, workers and firms had retreated from the market. Instead of busting wages, firms paid fixed rates; instead of breaking ties on short notice, workers sought longer-term associations. Social norms - doing the right thing - protected and preserved the fresh labour market arrangements. This book explains the causes and effects of changes in the labour market in the context of developments in labour economics and fresh research in social and economic history.

A Nobel Prize–winning economist tells the remarkable story of how the world has grown healthier, wealthier, but also more unequal over the past two and half centuries The world is a better place than it used to be. People are healthier, wealthier, and live longer. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many has left gaping inequalities between people and nations. In The Great Escape, Nobel Prize–winning economist Angus Deaton—one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty—tells the remarkable story of how, beginning 250 years ago, some parts of the world experienced sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's disproportionately unequal world. Deaton takes an in-depth look at the historical and ongoing patterns behind the health and wealth of nations, and addresses what needs to be done to help those left behind. Deaton describes vast innovations and wrenching setbacks: the successes of antibiotics, pest control, vaccinations, and clean water on the one hand, and disastrous famines and the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the other. He examines the United States, a nation that has prospered but is today experiencing slower growth and increasing inequality. He also considers how economic growth in India and China has improved the lives of more than a billion people. Deaton argues that international aid has been ineffective and even harmful. He suggests alternative efforts—including reforming incentives to drug companies and lifting trade restrictions—that will allow the developing world to bring about its own Great Escape. Demonstrating how changes in health and living standards have transformed our lives, The Great Escape is a powerful guide to addressing the well-being of all nations.

Allowing herself to be hypnotized, fifteen-year-old Kira reveals memories of another time and place that may eventually cost her and her mother their lives.

China has become deeply integrated into the world economy. Yet, gradual marketization has facilitated the country’s rise without leading to its wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism. This book uncovers the fierce contest about economic reforms that shaped China’s path. In the first post-Mao decade, China’s reformers were sharply divided. They agreed that China had to reform its economic system and move toward more marketization—but struggled over how to go about it. Should China destroy the core of the socialist system through shock therapy, or should it use the institutions of the planned economy as market creators? With hindsight, the historical record proves the high stakes behind the question: China embarked on an economic expansion commonly described as unprecedented in scope and pace, whereas Russia’s economy collapsed under shock therapy. Based on extensive research, including interviews with key Chinese and international participants and World Bank officials as well as insights gleaned from unpublished documents, the book charts the debate that ultimately enabled China to follow a path to gradual reindustrialization. Beyond shedding light on the crossroads of the 1980s, it reveals the intellectual foundations of state-market relations in reform-era China through a longue durée lens. Overall, the book delivers an original perspective on China’s economic model and its continuing contestations from within and from without.