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Reading Ireland
October 5, 2011 The Irish boom was real, up to a point, but the Irish crash is real too.
Like her boom, Ireland’s subsequent problems have spawned a substantial
literature – here we provide a guide to some of the more interesting. On 15 August, 1971, President Richard Nixon unilaterally
ended the international system of rules that had governed the financing of
international trade and investment since the end of World War II. Have you ever read a
book or article about a topic in which you have some expertise and realised
that much of what you have read is dead wrong? A central theme of this book is that such a dramatic expansion of trade could not have occurred without an international currency with which to pay for it. The gold standard – national currencies convertible into gold at fixed prices – provided such a world currency and other virtues as well. UCLA Professor of History Emeritus Joyce Appleby has written a history
of capitalism that is broad in its coverage of the subject, novel in its
interpretation of capitalism’s effects, and, because of a lack of
constant documentation and reference to literature, a book that happily
takes on the tone of a story Have you ever encountered a book in your field of inquiry that upon
reading, you knew the book should be put on that special shelf reserved
for favourites? That the book was so fundamentally good and strong that
you would be reading it again and again and referring others to do the
same? Cambridge University Economic History Professor Martin Daunton has
pulled off the astounding feat of writing not just one, but two books
about the history of taxation that are not only thoroughly researched
and thoughtful but are written in such a lively style and illustrated
with so many ...
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