In the search for explanations for three of the most pressing crises of the early twenty-first century (the housing meltdown and financial crisis, the Gulf oil spill, and the nuclear disaster at Fukushima), commentators pointed to the structure of the regulatory agencies charged with overseeing the associated industries, noting that the need to balance competing regulatory and non-regulatory missions undermined each agency's ability to be an effective regulator. Christopher Carrigan challenges this critique by employing a diverse set of research methods, including a statistical analysis, an in-depth case study of US regulatory oversight of offshore oil and gas development leading up to the Gulf oil spill, and a formal theoretical discussion, to systematically evaluate the benefits and concerns associated with either combining or separating regulatory and non-regulatory missions. His analysis demonstrates for policymakers and scholars why assigning competing non-regulatory missions to regulatory agencies can still be better than separating them in some cases.

Structured to Fail is a fact-based novel that examines the Eurodollar, Hedge Funds, and subprime financial disasters that led to the evaporation of $23 trillion in global wealth between 2006 and 2014, far exceeding the losses of the Great Depression. The subprime fiasco alone tanked the U.S. housing market, stock market and ultimately the global economy. Many believe that these dramatic events resulted from a banking conspiracy. In fact, it was a conspiracy of ignorance, stupidity, greed, and hubris at the highest levels of banks and governments. Wesley Stanton is a man on a mission. He predicted all three financial debacles and worked tirelessly to contain them and keep the American and world economy intact. Through him, you’ll learn about the inner workings of major corporations, banks, governments, and the Federal Reserve Bank in the face of the largest financial collapses in history. "Structured to Fail" is both a primer on financial management and a treasure trove of case studies for how investment banking should and should not be managed.

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New ideas, products and services can be a tremendous business opportunity. Or they can be a yawning black hole into which your organisation can pour money, manpower and resources with only limited (realistic) hope of return.Pretotyping combines a new mindset and a set of practical tools that help you fail often and fail fast when developing new business ideas – but in accordance with a carefully designed plan that’ll help roll back risk, reduce development costs, speed up innovation processes and boost success rates.Developed at Google and now taught at Stanford University, pretotyping is a supremely effective market-validation tool that helps you radically recalibrate all kinds of bring-to-market equations, as well as revitalising your organisation’s ability to respond quickly to changing commercial circumstances.

From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented merger and acquisition activity to scandal, greed, and, ultimately, recession -- we've learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. By outlining the process organizations have used to achieve transformational goals and by identifying where and how even top performers derail during the change process, Kotter provides a practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work.

About the reasons for structural collapse, including earthquakes, metal fatigue, and terrorism.

Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.