Most Popular Books by Simon Johnson

Unveil the incredible story behind the Man who Saved the Union. Standing as a leading figure in the American Civil War and 18th President of the United States, few people have led a life as influential as Ulysses S. Grant. As a tireless civil rights advocate and a prominent politician behind the campaign to abolish slavery, Ulysses S. Grant guided the course of America as a nation - and his legacy can still be felt in the modern day. Providing an in-depth exploration of Grant's role in the Civil War and the campaign that led the Union to victory, this biography unveils the deeply fascinating life of this general-turned-president. Examining his childhood, his role during the Mexican-American War, his time serving under President Abraham Lincoln, and the key victories that saved the Union during the Civil War, inside you'll discover a one-of-a-kind glimpse into the legacy Ulysses S. Grant left behind him. As a must-read for anyone interested in American history, Ulysses S. Grant: A Fascinating Biography pays tribute to his achievements and the lasting impact he's had on both America and the world, making it perfect for aspiring history buffs, Civil War enthusiasts, students, and more. Scroll up and buy now to unveil the story behind Ulysses S. Grant today.

The Essential Guide to the 2017 Income Tax Reforms for U.S. Taxpayers takes readers through the most important income tax changes for individual U.S. taxpayers in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (Pub. Law. No. 115-97), the most important reforms to the Internal Revenue Code since 1986. This treatise provides detailed and comprehensive coverage of the new I.R.C. § 199A(a) deduction, including decisions charts and examples that make sense of this complex but important provision, and the regulations which implement it. It provides essential answers and guidance allowing taxpayers to take maximum advantage of this new deduction, and the other changes to the federal income tax law, with extensive citations to authority. With clear and usable guidance tax law changes and how they interact, the treatise covers the most significant domestic provisions as the affecting corporations, tax passthroughs, investors, senior managers, estates, tax exempts, and their professional advisors. Coverage also includes the new limitations on passthrough losses, changes to the "net operating loss" rules, limits on business interest deductions, more limited application of '1031' exchanges, increased bonus depreciation, elective expensing and changes to real property recovery periods, changes to the 'alternative minimum tax', changes to a flat corporate tax rate, changes to provisions governing charitable contributions, estate tax, changes to small business accounting rules, the requirement of conformity to financial accounting, and the taxation of "carried interests" - a provision reaching more taxpayers than just venture capitalists. The Essential Guide to the 2017 Income Tax Reforms for U.S. Taxpayers provides detailed coverage of the changes in 33 important areas of tax law, how these provisions existed before the changes, whether the change is permanent or, if it sunsets, when it sunsets, and other essential concepts for taxpayers to take maximum advantage of the planning opportunities while avoiding the pitfalls these important revisions provide. This important work is an essential resource for students, managers, tax practitioners, investors and business owners alike. Includes I.R.C. § 199A decision charts and an Index.

2020-2024 Five Year Planner Personal Planners Daily Weekly And Monthly: Calendar Schedule agenda Organizer and Journal Notebook (Month Start from January 2020 through December 2024).This classic planner will help you schedule your appointments and daily activities, plan events, set goals, and get things done. It will also make a great gift for family and friends. Features: - Elegant minimalist design - January 2020 - December 2024- 8.5" x 11" - 60 months (2 pages per month) - Yearly reference calendars- Extra lined pages to record notes - Pages to write down important dates - Contacts page - Laminated cover, matte finish - Perfect binding

This paper sheds light on two problems in the Penn World Table (PWT) GDP estimates. First, we show that these estimates vary substantially across different versions of the PWT despite being derived from very similar underlying data and using almost identical methodologies; that this variability is systematic; and that it is intrinsic to the methodology deployed by the PWT to estimate growth rates. Moreover, this variability matters for the cross-country growth literature. While growth studies that use low frequency data remain robust to data revisions, studies that use annual data are less robust. Second, the PWT methodology leads to GDP estimates that are not valued at purchasing power parity (PPP) prices. This is surprising because the raison d'etre of the PWT is to adjust national estimates of GDP by valuing output at common international (purchasing power parity [PPP]) prices so that the resulting PPP-adjusted estimates of GDP are comparable across countries. We propose an approach to address these two problems of variability and valuation.

In countries with weak legal systems, there is a great deal of tunnelling by the entrepreneurs who control publicly traded firms. However, under some conditions entrepreneurs prop up their firms, i.e., they use their private funds to benefit minority shareholders. We provide evidence and a model that explains propping. In particular, we suggest that issuing debt can credibly commit an entrepreneur to propping, even though creditors can never take possession of any underlying collateral. This helps to explain why emerging markets with weak institutions sometimes grow rapidly and why they are also subject to frequent economic and financial crises

In December 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a G7-led coalition of countries imposed a $60 per barrel price cap on the sales of Russian oil that use western services. This paper provides a theoretical and quantitative analysis of this new tool. We build a tractable equilibrium model in which the financially constrained exporter of a non-renewable resource optimally exerts market power, and the price of the resource varies stochastically. An important insight from this framework is that the supply curve is inelastic and can even be downward sloping, rationalizing the patterns we observe in the data. Contrary to the fears that an introduction of the price cap will cause a damaging oil supply shock, the exporter may have strong incentives to increase extraction following the introduction of a binding price cap. In fact, when the producer is large and has market power, a price cap that applies to all or most sales significantly limits the degree to which market power is used in equilibrium and stabilizes world oil prices. But if the cap is poorly enforced, or if the sanctioned state has access to a non-compliant "shadow" fleet, the cap is less effective at stabilizing world prices.

Tunnelling is defined as the transfer of assets and profits out of firms for the benefit of their controlling shareholders. We describe the various forms that tunnelling can take, and examine under what circumstances it is legal. We discuss two important legal principles -- the duty of care and the duty of loyalty -- which courts use to analyze cases involving tunnelling. Several important legal cases from France, Belgium, and Italy illustrate how and why the law accommodates tunnelling in civil law countries, and why certain kinds of tunnelling are less likely to pass legal scrutiny in common law countries.

Start Good Days Start with Gratitude is a 50days guide to cultivate an attitude of gratitude! Start each day by writing down three things you are thankful Do it daily and make it a habit to focus on the blessings you have been given! Grab a copy for a friend and share the journey together This book is a self exploration journal designed to focus on being thankful for what we have, the good things in life, as well as the simple joys.

The Coase theorem implies that, in a world of positive transaction costs, any of a number of strategies, including judicially enforced private contracts, judicially enforced laws, or even government regulation, may be the cheapest way to bring about efficient resource allocation. Unfortunately, some Coasians have ignored the possibility that the last of these strategies may sometimes be the best. This paper compares the regulation of financial markets in Poland and the Czech Republic in the 1990s, when the judicial systems remained underdeveloped in both countries. In Poland, strict enforcement of the securities law by an independent Securities and Exchange Commission was associated with rapid development of the stock market. In the Czech Republic, hands-off regulation was associated with a near collapse of the stock market. These episodes illustrate the centrality of law enforcement in making markets work, and the possible role of regulators in law enforcement.

We argue that the question of whether and when policy reform works should be investigated together with the political economy factors responsible for distortionary policies in the first place. These not only determine the initial distortions, but also often shape policy in the post-reform environment. Distortionary policies are more likely to be adopted when politicians are unconstrained and unaccountable to citizens. This reasoning implies that policy reform should have modest effects in societies where the political system already places constraints on politicians. It also implies, however, that in societies with weak political constraints, which are often those adopting the most distortionary policies, policy reforms may be ineffective because the underlying political economy problems are not typically altered by these reforms. Policy reform should therefore have its largest effect in societies with intermediate levels of constraints. In addition, when policy reform is (partly) effective, it may lead to a deterioration in other (unreformed) components of policy in order to satisfy the underlying demands on politicians - a phenomenon we call the seesaw effect. We provide reduced-form evidence consistent with these ideas by looking at the effect of central bank independence on inflation. The evidence is consistent with the notion that central bank reforms have reduced inflation in societies with intermediate constraints and have had no or little effects in countries with the high and low levels of constraints. We also present some evidence suggesting that, consistent with the seesaw effect, in countries where central bank reforms reduce inflation, government expenditure tends to increase.

We conducted a survey covering 20% of villages with 200-1000 population in rural Guinea-Bissau. We interviewed household heads, care-givers of children, and their teachers and schools. We analysed results from 9,947 children, aged 7-17, tested for literacy and numeracy competency. Only 27% of children were able to add two single digits, and just 19% were able to read and comprehend a simple word. Our unannounced school checks found 72% of enrolled children in grades 1-4 attending their schools, but the schools were poorly equipped. Teachers were present at 86% of schools visited. Despite surveying 351 schools, we found no examples of successful schools where children reached reasonable levels of literacy and numeracy for age. Our evidence suggests that interventions that raise school quality in these villages, rather than those which target enrollment, may be most important to generate very sharp improvements in children's educational outcomes.

Is investment constrained more by insecure property rights or by limited external finance; For five transition economies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union we find that weak property rights limit the reinvestment of profits in startup manufacturing firms. Access to credit does not appear to explain differences in investment. At least in the early stages of post-communist reform, retained earnings appear to have been enough to finance the investments that managers wanted to make.