Robert E. Wright – författare

A wonderfully irreverent and endlessly entertaining guide—with more than 80,000 copies sold worldwide in multiple languages—about the indicators most investors aren''t following, but should be!

In order to make the best possible investment decisions, savvy investors know that they must pay close attention to economic indicators. But while most are looking at conventional barometers like unemployment rates and housing statistics, the smartest investors are following the curious and often ignored indicators that offer a true sense of where the economy is and where it''s heading. These factors have been proven to provide the vital information needed to beat the market.

Dow Jones columnist Simon Constable and respected financial historian Robert E. Wright offer valuable tips and insight to help investors forecast and exploit sea changes in the global macroeconomic climate. Unlike other investment handbooks, Constable and Wright’s guide explores the little-known economic indicators that the smartest investors watch closely in order to beat the stock market—from “Big Macs” to “zombie banks.” This valuable and informative read entertains and enlightens while offering essential advice on navigating the global economic climate.

Like its current citizens, the United States was born in debt-a debt so deep that it threatened to destroy the young nation. Thomas Jefferson considered the national debt a monstrous fraud on posterity, while Alexander Hamilton believed debt would help America prosper. Both, as it turns out, were right.

One Nation Under Debt explores the untold history of America''s first national debt, which arose from the immense sums needed to conduct the American Revolution. Noted economic historian Robert Wright, Ph.D. tells in riveting narrative how a subjugated but enlightened people cast off a great tyrant-“but their liberty, won with promises as well as with the blood of patriots, came at a high price.” He brings to life the key events that shaped the U.S. financial system and explains how the actions of our forefathers laid the groundwork for the debt we still carry today.

As an economically tenuous nation by Revolution''s end, America''s people struggled to get on their feet. Wright outlines how the formation of a new government originally reduced the nation''s debt-but, as debt was critical to this government''s survival, it resurfaced, to be beaten back once more. Wright then reveals how political leaders began accumulating massive new debts to ensure their popularity, setting the financial stage for decades to come.

Wright traces critical evolutionary developments-from Alexander Hamilton''s creation of the nation''s first modern capital market, to the use of national bonds to further financial goals, to the drafting of state constitutions that created non-predatory governments. He shows how, by the end of Andrew Jackson''s administration, America''s financial system was contributing to national growth while at the same time new national and state debts were amassing, sealing the fate for future generations.

Today''s financial crisis is the result of dismal failures on the part of regulators, market analysts, and corporate executives. Yet the response of the American government has been to bail out the very institutions and individuals that have wrought such havoc upon the nation. Are such massive bailouts really called for? Can they succeed?Robert E. Wright and his colleagues provide an unbiased history of government bailouts and a frank assessment of their effectiveness. Their book recounts colonial America''s struggle to rectify the first dangerous real estate bubble and the British government''s counterproductive response. It explains how Alexander Hamilton allowed central banks and other lenders to bail out distressed but sound businesses without rewarding or encouraging the risky ones. And it shows how, in the second half of the twentieth century, governments began to bail out distressed companies, industries, and even entire economies in ways that subsidized risk takers while failing to reinvigorate the economy. By peering into the historical uses of public money to save private profit, this volume suggests better ways to control risk in the future.Additional Columbia / SSRC books on the privatization of risk and its implications for Americans:Health at Risk: America''s Ailing Health System--and How to Heal ItEdited by Jacob S. HackerLaid Off, Laid Low: Political and Economic Consequences of Employment InsecurityEdited by Katherine S. NewmanPensions, Social Security, and the Privatization of RiskEdited by Mitchell A. Orenstein

In Little Business on the Prairie: Entrepreneurship, Prosperity, and Challenge in South Dakota, economic historian Robert Wright reviews the state's economic history through the lenses of its public policies, politics, and institutions of governance.

The book demonstrates that an economy that suffers from palpable disadvantages, like long distance from major markets and low population density, will still thrive if it is governed efficiently. In other words, crucial public goods like education, infrastructure, and justice should be provided at minimal cost, and entrepreneurs should not be burdened with excessive regulatory and tax expense.

Economic performance suffers when governance is poor and public goods are provided at an unnecessarily high cost. This Wright shows by comparing South Dakota to other states and by examining the economies of the state's Indian reservations. Public goods provisions on reservations is spotty and generally very poor and, not surprising, reservation economies lag far behind that of the state even though individual Native Americans have shown considerable entrepreneurial skill.

Little Business on the Prairie concludes with Wright's prescription for confronting the economic and governance challenges that lie ahead for South Dakota.