The Currency Cold War: Cash and Cryptography, Hash Rates and Hegemony


Book Description

Money is changing and this may mean a new world order. David Birch sets out the economic and technological imperatives concerning digital money, and discusses its potential impact. Tensions will inevitably arise: between old and new, between public and private, and, most importantly, between East and West. This book contributes to the debate that we must have to shape the International Monetary and Financial System of the near future.




The Currency Cold War


Book Description




Currency Cold War


Book Description

The way that money works now is a blip. It's a temporary institutional arrangement agreed in response to specific political, technological and economic circumstances. As these circumstances change, so money must change. Many people think that it will undergo a pretty significant change in the very near future and we need to start planning for the coming era of digital currency. The historian Niall Ferguson wrote in 2019 that "if America is smart, it will wake up and start competing for dominance in digital payments". Competing for this new currency dominance could mean a new cold war in cyberspace with, for example, Facebook's private currency facing off against China's public currency facing off against a digital euro. Or would a digital dollar win this new space race?




Britain’s Cities, Britain’s Future


Book Description

Britain invented the modern industrial city in the nineteenth century. But by the late 20th century most British cities had become basket cases. Today London overshadows the rest of the country, as the UK's only 'world city'. No other large country is anything like as economically and politically centralized. This concentration of power damages Britain's economy and fuels the sense of discontent felt by the millions of people for whom the capital seems like another planet. Yet it is cities that are fuelling economic growth around the world. Mike Emmerich looks at the DNA of cities and how it expresses itself in their institutions, governance, public services, religion and culture. He argues that the UK needs a devolutionary ratchet, allowing major cities the freedom to seek devolution of any area of public spending that is not inherently national in nature (such as defence). Cities should have powers to raise some of their own taxes including business, property and sales based taxes and to increase them. He calls for sustained investment in transport and infrastructure, and also training. An innovation-centric industrial policy would also have an emphasis on the social fabric of cities and - crucially - their institutions.




Tokens


Book Description

**Longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year** --- Platform capitalism is coming for the money in your pocket Wherever you look, money is being re- placed by tokens. Digital platforms are issuing new kinds of money-like things: phone credit, shares, gift vouchers, game tokens, customer data-the list goes on. But what does it mean when online platforms become the new banks? What new types of control and discrimination emerge when money is tied to specific apps or actions, politics or identities? Tokens opens up this new and expanding world. Exploring the history of extra- monetary economies, Rachel O'Dwyer shows that private and grassroots tokens have always haunted the real economy. But as the large tech platforms issue new money-like instruments, tokens are suddenly everywhere. Amazon's Turk workers are getting paid in gift cards. Online streamers trade in wishlists. Foreign remittances are sent via phone credit. Bitcoin, gift cards, NFTs, customer data, and game tokens are the new money in an evolving economy. It is a development challenging the balance of power between online empires and the state. Tokens may offer a flexible even subversive route to compensation. But for the platforms them- selves they can be a means of amassing frightening new powers. An essential read for anyone concerned with digital money, inequality, and the future of the economy.




Driverless Cars: On a Road to Nowhere?


Book Description

Wolmar's entertaining polemic sets out the many technical, legal and moral problems that obstruct the path to a driverless future, and debunks many of the myths around that future's purported benefits.




Catastrophe and Systemic Change: Learning from the Grenfell Tower Fire and Other Disasters


Book Description

The Grenfell Tower tragedy was the worst residential fire in London since World War II. It killed seventy-two people in the richest borough of one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Like other catastrophic events before it and since, it has the power to bring about lasting change. But will it? The historical evidence is weighed against ‘lessons being learned’ in a meaningful or enduring way. In an attempt to understand why, despite enormous efforts, we persistently fail to learn from catastrophic events, this book uses the details of the Grenfell fire as a case study to consider why we don’t learn and what it would take to enable real systemic change. The book explores the myths, the key challenges and the conditions that inhibit learning, and it identifies opportunities to positively disrupt the status quo. It offers an accessible model for systemic change, not as a definitive solution but rather as a framework to evoke reflection, enquiry and proper debate. Catastrophe and Systemic Change is a must-read book for a wide range of readers including those interested in change management, leadership, policy-making, law, housing, construction and public safety.




Why Study Mathematics?


Book Description

Considering studying mathematics at university? Wondering whether a mathematics degree will get you a good job, and what you might earn? Want to know what it's actually like to study mathematics at degree level? This book tells you what you need to know. Studying any subject at degree level is an investment in the future that involves significant cost. Now more than ever, students and their parents need to weigh up the potential benefits of university courses. That's where the Why Study series comes in. This series of books, aimed at students, parents and teachers, explains in practical terms the range and scope of an academic subject at university level and where it can lead in terms of careers or further study. Each book sets out to enthuse the reader about its subject and answer the crucial questions that a college prospectus does not.




Housing


Book Description

Housing is a fundamental necessity, and yet it is generally acknowledged that we have a 'housing crisis' in the UK. The housing market has worked well for many people (who have enjoyed the steeply rising values of their homes), which is why change, especially new building, is resisted. But for increasing numbers it now works less well, as home ownership is out of reach. Government finds it easier to introduce short-term policies that are not really effective, meaning that the long-term issues are never really resolved. Reforms are urgently needed. --Page [4] of cover.




Technology Is Not Neutral


Book Description

It seems that just about every new technology that we bring to bear on improving our lives brings with it some downside, side effect or unintended consequence. These issues can pose very real and growing ethical problems for all of us. For example, automated facial recognition can make life easier and safer for us - but it also poses huge issues with regard to privacy, ownership of data and even identity theft. How do we understand and frame these debates, and work out strategies at personal and governmental levels? Technology Is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics addresses one of today's most pressing problems: how to create and use tools and technologies to maximize benefits and minimize harms? Drawing on the author's experience as a technologist, political risk analyst and historian, the book offers a practical and cross-disciplinary approach that will inspire anyone creating, investing in or regulating technology, and it will empower all readers to better hold technology to account.