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The Commanding Heights

The Battle Between Government And The Marketplace

About The Book

The most powerful force in the world economy today is the redefinition of the relationship between state and marketplace - a process that goes by the name of privatization though this term is inadequate to express its far-reaching changes. We are moving from an era in which governments sought to seize and control the 'commanding heights' of the economy to an era in which the idea of free markets is capturing the commanding heights of world economic thinking. Basic views of how society ought to be organized are undergoing rapid change, trillions of dollars are changing hands and so is fundamental political power. Great new wealth is being created - as are huge opportunities and huge risks. Taking a worldwide perspective, including Britain, where the process began with Mrs Thatcher, Europe and the former USSR, China, Latin America and the US, THE COMMANDING HEIGHTS shows how a revolution in ideas is transforming the world economy - why it is happening, how it can go wrong and what it will mean for the global economy going into the twenty-first century.

About The Authors

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Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and the Global Energy Expert for the CNBC business news network, is a highly respected authority on energy, international politics, and economics. Dr. Yergin received the Pulitzer Prize for the number one bestseller The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, which was also made into an eight-hour PBS/BBC series seen by 20 million people in the United States. The book has been translated into 12 languages. It also received the Eccles Prize for best book on an economic subject for a general audience.

Of Dr. Yergin’s subsequent book, Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy, the Wall Street Journal said: “No one could ask for a better account of the world’s political and economic destiny since World War II.” This book has been translated into 13 languages and Dr. Yergin led the team that turned it into a six-hour PBS/BBC documentary — the major PBS television series on globalization.  The series received three Emmy nominations, a CINE Golden Eagle Award and the New York Festival’s Gold World Medal for best documentary. Dr. Yergin’s other books include Shattered Peace, an award-winning history of the origins of the Cold War, Russia 2010 and What It Means for the World (with Thane Gustafson), and Energy Future: The Report of the Energy Project at the Harvard Business School, which he edited with Robert Stobaugh.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (December 26, 2008)
  • Length: 512 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781847375919

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