The World's Best Book Summaries
What is the PetroSaudi 1MDB controversy about? How did it all begin? How was Jho Low involved? In Billion Dollar Whale, Tom Wright and Bradley Hope explain how a young Malaysian businessman convinced his country’s prime minister to invest billions of dollars in a deal with PetroSaudi. The deal ultimately led to what we now know as the PetroSaudi 1MDB controversy. Read on to learn about the PetroSaudi 1MDB business deal, according to Wright and Hope.
How did former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib’s 1MDB scandal fall apart? What did he do once the scandal was exposed? Billion Dollar Whale describes the shocking story of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s involvement in the 1MDB scandal and how it all fell apart. Authors Tom Wright and Bradley Hope unravel the exploits of Jho Low and his relationship with Najib as they stole from Malaysia’s sovereign funds. Read on to learn how Najib’s 1MDB scandal fall apart, according to Wright and Hope.
Are your thoughts leading you in directions that you truly want to go? What do you wish you could replace your fears with? Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is a classic guide to success. First published in 1937, following the Great Depression, the book was immediately welcomed as an antidote to hard times and remained a bestseller for decades. Continue reading to find several Think and Grow Rich exercises that will help you understand and apply the book’s ideas.
What are the consequences of a lack of money? How does an insufficiency of financial resources affect other areas of one’s life? A scarcity of financial resources has overarching consequences for our whole lives. In their book Scarcity, behavioral science researchers Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir highlight five areas most affected by financial scarcity: health, parenting, memory, work productivity, and sleep. Here’s a look at the effects of financial scarcity, according to Mullainathan and Shafir.
How does a lack of money affect economic decision-making? Why are poor people more rational decision-makers? According to behavioral science researchers Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, financial scarcity forces people to become experts at making a dollar stretch further. As a result, poor people tend to make more rational economic decisions. Here’s how a lack of money affects economic decision-making.
How does a country make money? What separates a wealthy country from a poor country? Many economists consider Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations one of the major foundational texts of their discipline. Writing in 1776, Smith argues that free markets are the best institution for cultivating a nation’s wealth. Keep reading to learn the basics of how a country makes money.
Could you live your life without ever buying something that someone else produces? What do you produce that others buy? In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith lays much of the groundwork for the field of economics. He makes the case for free markets, and he puts forward his theories on what markets exchange and how they’re able to facilitate this exchange. One of his theories is that labor is the basis of value. Let’s take a look at Adam Smith’s labor theory of value.
How are prices set? What role does competition play in an economy? Do markets actually regulate themselves if they’re free? In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith argues that free markets are the most efficient way of directing the production and exchange of goods to grow a nation’s wealth (and thereby enable the specialization of labor). He explains the mutually-beneficial interplay of markets and prices. Read more to understand Smith’s argument that market self-regulation really works.
Why are prices so high right now? When will inflation go down? Will prices go back to normal anytime soon? Inflation, which took off in 2021, has surprised economists with its durability, remaining at levels not seen in 40 years. Recently, though, it’s started to decrease—however, prices for everything are so high that consumers are left wondering if they’ll ever return to normal. Read on to learn why prices are so high right now and what economists predict will happen in the coming year.
How is ethical taxation achieved? How can taxes be less disruptive to the economy? In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith shares his general principles for how taxes ought to be collected and assessed. He also analyzes specific forms of taxation in light of his principles and explains how each tax is problematic in its own way. Let’s review Adam Smith’s principles of taxation and his analysis of three common tax policies.