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Discipline in the Global Economy?: International Finance and the End of Liberalism (New Political Economy)
by Jakob VestergaardIn Discipline in the Global Economy, Jakob Vestergaard investigates the currently prevailing regulation of international finance, launched in response to the financial crises of the 1990’s. At the core of this approach is a set of standards of ‘best practice’, ranging from banking supervision to corporate governance. Vestergaard argues that although these standards are presented as ‘international’, they comprise a norm for the ‘proper’ organization and regulation of economies which is intimately related to the Anglo-American model of capitalism. With this approach to the regulation of international finance, previous deregulation policies were replaced by a comprehensive system for the global disciplining of economies. This is a remarkable, if not paradoxical, occurrence in what is allegedly the heyday of neoliberalism and ‘free market economy’. Moreover, this mode of international financial regulation has proved ineffective, if not counter-productive, in terms of its objective to enhance the stability and resilience of the international financial system. Only by abandoning ‘laissez-fairy tales’ about liberalism may we begin to understand our present predicament– and open a space for critical thinking on modes of international economic governance that are at the same time more conducive to financial stability and more in line with the ethos of liberalism.
Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control
by Ryan HolidayAn inspiring anthem to the power, promise and challenges of self-control, the second in a series examining the timeless Stoic virtues from #1 New York Times bestselling author Ryan HolidayThe inscription on the Oracle of Delphi says: 'Nothing in excess.' C.S. Lewis described temperance as going to the 'right length but no further.' Easy to say, hard to practice - and if it was tough in 300 BCE, or in the 1940s, it feels all but impossible today. Yet it's the most empowering and important virtue any of us can learn.Drawing on ancient Stoic wisdom and examples across history and around the world, Ryan Holiday shows why self-control is so vital, and how to cultivate it in our own lives. Moderation is not about abstinence: it is about creativity, self-respect, focus and balance. Without it, even the most positive traits become vices. But with it, happiness and success are assured: it is the only way to live an extraordinary, fulfilled and effective life.
Discipline of Building Character
by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.What is the difference between an ethical decision and what the author, Harvard Business School Professor Joseph Badaracco, Jr., calls a defining moment? An ethical decision typically involves choosing between two options: one we know to be right and another we know to be wrong. A defining moment challenges us in a deeper way by asking us to choose between two or more ideals in which we deeply believe. Such decisions rarely have one "correct" response. Taken cumulatively over many years, they form the basis of an individual's character. Defining moments ask executives to dig below the busy surface of their lives and refocus on their core values and principles. Once uncovered, those values and principles renew their sense of purpose at the workplace and act as a springboard for shrewd, pragmatic, politically astute action. Three types of defining moments are particularly common in today's workplace. The first type is largely an issue of personal identity. The second type concerns groups as well as individuals. The third kind involves defining a company's role within society. By learning to identify each of those three situations, managers can learn to navigate right-versus-right decisions successfully. The author asks a series of practical questions that will help managers take time out to examine their values and then transform their beliefs into action. By engaging in this process of self-inquiry, managers will be gaining the tools to tackle their most elusive, challenging, and essential business dilemmas.
Disciplined Dreaming
by Josh LinknerA 5-part process that will transform your organization -- or your career -- into a non-stop creativity juggernautWe live in an era when business cycles are measured in months, not years. The only way to sustain long term innovation and growth is through creativity-at all levels of an organization. Disciplined Dreaming shows you how to create profitable new ideas, empower all your employees to be creative, and sustain your competitive advantage over the long term. Linkner distills his years of experience in business and jazz -- as well as hundreds of interviews with CEOs, entrepreneurs, and artists -- into a 5-step process that will make creativity easy for you and your organization. The methodology is simple, backed by proven results.Empowers individuals, teams, and organizations to meet creative challenges posed by the marketplaceTurns the mystery of creativity into a simple-to-use processShows how creativity can be used for everything from innovative, game-shifting breakthroughs to incremental advances and daily improvements to business processesOffers dozens of practical exercises, thought-starters, workouts to grow "creative muscles," and case studiesDisciplined Dreaming shows even the stuffiest corporate bureaucracies how to cultivate creativity in order to become more competitive in today's shifting marketplace.* #4 New York Times Best Seller (Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous)* #8 New York Times Best Seller (Hardcover Business)* #2 Wall Street Journal Best Seller (Hardcover Business)* #9 Wall Street Journal Best Seller (Hardcover Nonfiction)* #9 Washington Post Best Seller (Hardcover Nonfiction)* #1 USA Today Best Seller (Money)* #10 Entertainment Weekly Best Seller (Hardcover Nonfiction)* #10 Publishers Weekly Bestseller (Hardcover Nonfiction)
Disciplined Entrepreneurship
by Bill Aulet24 Steps to Success!Disciplined Entrepreneurship will change the way you think about starting a company. Many believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, but great entrepreneurs aren't born with something special - they simply make great products. This book will show you how to create a successful startup through developing an innovative product. It breaks down the necessary processes into an integrated, comprehensive, and proven 24-step framework that any industrious person can learn and apply. You will learn:Why the "F" word - focus - is crucial to a startup's successCommon obstacles that entrepreneurs face - and how to overcome themHow to use innovation to stand out in the crowd - it's not just about technologyWhether you're a first-time or repeat entrepreneur, Disciplined Entrepreneurship gives you the tools you need to improve your odds of making a product people want.Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as well as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management.For more please visit http://disciplinedentrepreneurship.com/
Disciplined Entrepreneurship Expanded & Updated: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup
by Bill AuletAn expanded & updated version of the award winning & bestselling one-stop entrepreneurial book used by hundreds of schools globally that has helped create or make better hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs Disciplined Entrepreneurship Expanded and Updated starts by combining the timeless and insightful principles of Disciplined Entrepreneurship with the practical tools found in the Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook into a single, comprehensive package. The book also has been updated with recent developments in the field and examples as well as a robust new library of additional resources. Author, entrepreneur, professor, and Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, Bill Aulet systematically walks readers through exactly how to create a successful startup. This book presents a detailed, sequential—but not linear—integrated and proven 24-step framework that any entrepreneur can apply immediately to improve their chances of entrepreneurial success. Readers will also find: The number-one process reason that new ventures fail Entrepreneurship is not an art, but rather a craft that can be learned How the best idea or product is no assurance at all that you will win—there is much more Perfect for aspiring founders and entrepreneurs within existing organizations, Disciplined Entrepreneurship Expanded & Updated is also an invaluable resource for anyone who has already begun their entrepreneurial journey and needs practical, hands-on tools to help them take their business to the next level.
Disciplined Entrepreneurship Startup Tactics: 15 Tactics to Turn Your Business Plan into a Business
by Paul CheekA hands-on, practical roadmap to get from great idea to successful company In Disciplined Entrepreneurship: Startup Tactics, renowned entrepreneur and Executive Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship Paul Cheek delivers an actionable field guide to transforming your one great idea into a functional, funded, and staffed startup. Building on the ideas presented in the bestselling Disciplined Entrepreneurship, the author delivers a startlingly complete and comprehensive set of solutions you can implement immediately to advance your company to its next stage of growth. This is not a theoretical book. You’ll find ground-level, down-and-dirty entrepreneurial tactics—like how to conduct advanced primary market research, market and sell to your first customers, and take a scrappy approach to building your first products—that keep your firm growing. These tactics maximize your impact with limited resources. You’ll also discover: Effective marketing tactics specific to early startups that go beyond cookie-cutter digital MarTech solutions Tactics for designing and testing your product concepts yourself before investing limited resources in developing a fully functional product Methods for equity distribution that minimize conflict and maximize investor return An invaluable resource for founders and entrepreneurs, Disciplined Entrepreneurship: Startup Tactics will also benefit any professional working at an early-stage startup or launching new products looking for concrete solutions to the most common and difficult problems faced by young companies and the people who work in them.
Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook
by Bill AuletThe essential companion to the book that revolutionized entrepreneurship Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook provides a practical manual for working the 24-step framework presented in Disciplined Entrepreneurship. Unlocking key lessons and breaking down the steps, this book helps you delve deeper into the framework to get your business up and running with a greater chance for success. You'll find the tools you need to sharpen your instinct, engage your creativity, work through hardship, and give the people what they want—even if they don't yet know that they want it. Real-world examples illustrate the framework in action, and case studies highlight critical points that can make or break you when your goal is on the line. Exercises and assessments help you nail down your strengths, while pointing out areas that could benefit from reinforcement—because when it comes to your business, "good enough" isn't good enough—better is always better. Disciplined Entrepreneurship transformed the way that professionals think about starting a company, and this book helps you dig into the proven framework to make your business dreams a reality. Delve deeper into the 24 steps to success Innovate, persevere, and create the product people want Internalize lessons learned from real-world entrepreneurs Test your understanding with exercises and case studies The book also includes new material on topics the author has found to be extremely useful in getting the most value out of the framework including Primary Market Research, Windows of Opportunity and Triggers. The book also introduces the Disciplined Entrepreneurship Canvas to track your progress on this journey. Starting a company is a serious undertaking, with plenty of risk and sacrifice to go around—so why not minimize the risk and make the outcome worth the sacrifice? Author Bill Aulet's 24-step framework is proven to build a successful business; the key is in how well you implement it. Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook helps you master the skills, tools, and mindset you need to get on your path to success.
Disciplined Growth Strategies
by Peter S. CohanAccelerate your company's growth in a disciplined fashion. This book provides leaders of large and small companies a proven comprehensive framework to think systematically about growth options and to yield practical strategies that produce faster growth.Drawing insights from case studies of successful and unsuccessful companies, strategy teacher and venture capitalist Peter Cohan models his systematic approach to brainstorming, evaluating, and implementing growth strategies across five dimensions: Customers, Geography, Products, Capabilities, Culture. He examines each of these five growth dimensions in turn, selecting and organizing his cases to compare the growth strategies deployed successfully and unsuccessfully by large and small companies along the given dimension. In each of his five dimensional chapters, the author derives from his case analyses the key principles and processes for creating and achieving faster growth.Professor Cohan draws on a network of hundreds of founders, CEOs, and investors developed through his decades of consulting, authorship of 11 books, and over five years as a Forbes columnist. He shows through many compelling stories how leaders craft effective growth strategies.Business leaders will learn the following lessons from this book:Achieving rapid but sustainable growth is a business leader’s most important responsibility – and leaders must approach this challenge with a mixture of vision, intellectual humility, and a willingness to experiment and learn from failure.The growth challenges facing companies that are currently growing quickly differ from the ones that stagnating or shrinking companies must overcome.Companies can achieve growth along one or more of the dimensions simultaneously – and they often expand geographically to customers in the same segments.Useful insights can emerge from comparing case studies of successful and unsuccessful companies pursuing similar growth strategies.Companies should select a growth strategy based on three factors: the attractiveness of the growth opportunity, the company’s capabilities to provide superior value to customers in the selected market, and the expected return on investment in the growth vector.Companies should select a growth strategy that best fits their capabilities and culture and they must enhance both to adapt to new growth opportunities.Who This Book Is ForThe people in companies who are responsible for growth: chief executive officers, chief marketing officers, chief product officers, heads of business development, product managers, sales people, and human resources managers
Disclosure and Concealment in Consumer Insurance Contracts
by Julie-Ann TarrThis book provides an in-depth examination of the theoretical,legal, social and economic foundations to disclosure and concealment of information in relation to the formation of consumer insurance contracts. A comparative treatment of this issue is undertaken with particular attention given to the judicial and legislative approaches adopted in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand. It will be relevant to those researching and studying insurance law, all legal practitioners involved with the formation of consumer insurance contracts and non-legal practitioners working within the field of insurance.
Disclosure in Banking: The Role of Financial Reporting in Bank Behaviors and Investor Decision-Making (SIDREA Series in Accounting and Business Administration)
by Sara LongoDisclosure represents an evergreen topic in banking since it allows breaking down the opacity of the so-called “black box” banks. The recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse in March 2023 have reignited discussions about the role played by banking disclosure and its link to transparency, financial stability, and competition. Given these premises, this book comprehensively explains how banking disclosure has evolved in the last decades, shaping banks’ behaviors and mainly investors' decision-making. The book provides an in-depth review of the field, highlighting theories and empirical studies about banking disclosure grounded on regulatory mandates and voluntary initiatives mitigating agency conflicts and addressing information asymmetries. Then, this book discusses banks' need to enhance their disclosure practices to comply with stress tests and contribute to sustainable development, particularly in light of climate change risk. To this end, an empirical investigation uncovers banks scrutinized by regulators and supervisors are more inclined to engage in green lending and prioritize borrowers’ ESG disclosures, thus promoting a more sustainable economy. Lastly, this book presents the state of the art about the link between banking disclosure and sustainability, suggesting potential avenues for future research.
Disconnected: Call Center Workers Fight for Good Jobs in the Digital Age (Working Class in American History)
by Debbie J. GoldmanCall center employees once blended skill and emotional intelligence to solve customer problems while the workplace itself encouraged camaraderie and job satisfaction. Ten years after telecom industry deregulation, management had isolated the largely female workforce in cubicles, imposed quotas to sell products, and installed surveillance systems that tracked every call and keystroke. Debbie J. Goldman explores how call center employees and their union fought for good, humane jobs in the face of degraded working conditions and lowered wages. As the workforce coalesced to resist the changes, it demanded the Communications Workers of America (CWA) fight for safe and secure good-paying jobs. But trends in technology, capitalism, and corporate governance--combined with the decline of unions--narrowed the negotiating options for workers. Goldman describes how the actions of workers, management, and policymakers shaped the social impact of the new digital technologies and gave new form to the telecommunications industry in a time of momentous change. Perceptive and nuanced, Disconnected tells an overlooked story of service workers in a time of change.
Discontinuities in Ecosystems and Other Complex Systems
by C. S. Holling Craig R. AllenA Major Contribution to Theoretical Ecology
Discontinuities in Ecosystems and Other Complex Systems (Complexity in Ecological Systems)
by C. S. Holling Craig R. Allen Eds.Following the publication of C. S. Holling's seminal work on the relationship between animal body mass patterns and scale-specific landscape structure, ecologists began to explore the theoretical and applied consequences of discontinuities in ecosystems and other complex systems. Are ecosystems and their components continuously distributed and do they adhere to scaling laws, or are they discontinuous and more complex than early models would have us believe? The resulting propositions over the structure of complex systems sparked an ongoing debate regarding the mechanisms generating discontinuities and the statistical methods used for their detection.This volume takes the view that ecosystems and other complex systems are inherently discontinuous and that such fields as ecology, economics, and urban studies greatly benefit from this paradigm shift. Contributors present evidence of the ubiquity of discontinuous distributions in ecological and social systems and how their analysis provides insight into complex phenomena. The book is divided into three sections. The first focuses on background material and contrasting views concerning the discontinuous organization of complex systems. The second discusses discontinuous patterns detected in a number of different systems and methods for detecting them, and the third touches on the potential significance of discontinuities in complex systems. Science is still dominated by a focus on power laws, but the contributors to this volume are convinced power laws often mask the interesting dynamics of systems and that those dynamics are best revealed by investigating deviations from assumed power law distributions.In 2008, a grand conference on resilience was held in Stockholm, hosting 600 participants from around the world. There are now three big centers established with resilience, the most recent one being the Stockholm Resilience Center, with others in Australia (an international coral reef center), Arizona State University's new sustainability center focusing on anthropology, and Canada's emerging social sciences and resilience center. Activity continues to flourish in Alaska, South Africa, and the Untied Kingdom, and a new center is forming in Uruguay.
Discordia: Six Nights in Crisis Athens
by Molly Crabapple Laurie PennyDISCORDIA is a story of courage and collapse in a country and a culture struggling to map out its future. A short ebook combining a 24,000-word essay with 36 detailed drawings, DISCORDIA is a feminist-art-gonzo-journalism project conceived at Occupy Wall Street and created in the summer of debt and doubt after the euphoric street protests of 2011-2012.In July 2012, artist Molly Crabapple and journalist Laurie Penny travelled to Greece. There, they drew and interviewed anarchists, autonomists, striking workers and ordinary people caught up in the Euro crisis. DISCORDIA is the result. In an impassioned climate where ‘objective’ journalism is impossible, Penny and Crabapple offer a snapshot of a nation in the grip of a very modern crisis where young and old see little reason to go on, the left is scattered and the far right is assuming greater power and influence. Along the way they drink far too much coffee, become hypnotised by street art, and somehow manage not to get arrested or mugged.DISCORDIA is an experiment in form, using the illustrated ebook format to its fullest extent to tell a story unique to the wordlength and digital platform involved. Crabapple's intricate, Victorian-inspired ink drawings lend a timeless quality to what is a conscious foray into a new kind of journalism - inspired by the New Journalism of the 1970s, in particular the art-journalism collaborations of Hunter Thompson and Ralph Steadman, but reworking that tradition for a 21st century world where young women must still fight at every turn to be taken seriously.DISCORDIA weaves together the personal and political, picking out those elements of the Greek crisis that are recognisable across the West to a generation struggling to articulate its purpose in a world of spiralling unemployment, democratic collapse and civil unrest. The solutions to the failure of modern neoliberal statecraft are very different to the 'tune in, turn on, drop out' ethos of the sixties: these days the drugs are worse and rock 'n' roll can't save us. The future is a question in search of an answer.Available only digitally, with a foreword by economic journalist and writer Paul Mason, this beautifully illustrated ebook is part-polemic, part-travelogue and part-paean to the birthplace of civilization brought to its knees. Part of the Brain Shot series, the pre-eminent source of short form digital non-fiction.'This is the Next Big Thing in journalism: digital, visual, intelligent, heartfelt, post-political, female, alarming, and engaging. It's both an honest chronicle of one corner of the collapse of a civilization, and an inspiring demonstration of the kinds of thinking, craft, and collaboration that might yet get us through.' Douglas Rushkoff, author of LIFE INC.
Discount Business Strategy
by Poulfelt Flemming Andersen Michael MoesgaardWhat people are saying about Discount Business Strategy: "Michael Andersen and Flemming Poulfelt provide a provocative discussion of the rapidly growing role of discounters across numerous industries: how they operate; how they create uniqueness; and how they can destroy value for incumbents. Understanding the specific moves and tools that the authors analyze will be valuable for attackers and incumbents alike. " -Adrian J. Slywotzky, Director, Mercer Management Consulting USA "This book is very timely, dealing with today's most critical strategic issue: how to provide more value to the consumer through aggressive discounting. Those players in manufacturing and distribution who master this will be the winners; many established firms will fall by the wayside. A similar set of issues are facing many nations today - Europe vs. Asia!" -Peter Lorange, President, IMD, Switzerland "Andersen and Poulfelt have researched one of the most important themes in today's business world - how fundamentally new business models have wiped out establishments not with new products or technologies, but by creating new rules for conventional industries. Read this book and learn how to recognize the disruption of your industry before it is too late!" -Sigurd Liljenfeldt, Senior Partner, Monitor Group, France "This book asks if a firm can have its cake and eat it too - that is, maintain high quality at low prices. My favourite example and shopping place is big box Costco. Ikea is another. A must read for a broad audience concerned about corporate survival!" -Professor Larry E. Greiner, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, USA The aspiration to adopt the right strategy still prevails over the business world. But is there a single 'best' strategy for a company? Can an organization create sustainable competitive advantage from an 'off-the-peg' strategy? And are most companies likely to craft a strategy that genuinely creates uncontested market space and makes the competition irrelevant? The answer to all these questions is probably 'No'. And the rising tide of companies like Dell, CostCo, Skype and Linux means that asking them at all may soon be futile. While strategists have foundered in old paradigms, a new breed of competitors has emerged. Value destroyers. Old-style thinking understood value destruction when it was confined to an industry and driven by a new product or technology. But what are the implications when the destruction stems from a new way of thinking - from a strategy that simultaneously creates value? The implications are enormous. Every company in every industry is potentially at risk. This risk - or opportunity - is precisely the reason for this book and its focus on exploring why and how some companies have bridged the gap between differentiator and cost leader strategies to emerge as winners in hypercompetitive markets, and what this entails in terms of value destruction and creation. Discounting organizations are here to stay - are you?
Discount Hell
by Freeman HallThese Discount Rats want more than salesTo Discount Rats, the world should be free . . . and retail slaves are to blame when it isn't.These crazy customers show up with purses full of coupons and intend to leave with enough swag to impress a thief. They'll negotiate, scream, complain, and threaten - so long as the sale is in sight!These 33 hilarious-and-true stories of penny-pinchers and stingy shoppers are straight from the bloggers of RetailHellUnderground - and boy do they have some history with these misers! From the Meal Voucher Rat who needs an amusement park escort to find the right restaurant to the Credit Rat who gets a black mark in the customer database, these denied bargain hunters will have you in stitches!
Discount and Hawkins Exercise: Confidential Instructions for Landlord
by Michael A. WheelerExercise
Discount and Hawkins Exercise: Confidential Instructions for Tenant
by Michael A. WheelerThis simulation involves a negotiation between a real estate developer and a prospective anchor tenant in a proposed shopping center. Students are assigned roles, given confidential information, and asked to try to break the impasse over the "use, assignment, and subletting" clause. Debriefing the results in class should illustrate the possibility of generating joint gains through interest-based negotiation—and the obstacles to such a process. Technical knowledge of real estate issues is not assumed.
Discounted Cash Flows (DCF) Valuation Methods and Their Application in Private Equity
by Victoria IvashinaIndustry and Background Note
Discounted Labour
by Carmela Patrias Ruth A. FragerThe years between 1870 and 1939 were a crucial period in the growth of industrial capitalism in Canada, as well as a time when many women joined the paid workforce. Yet despite the increase in employment, women faced a difficult struggle in gaining fair remuneration for their work and in gaining access to better jobs. Discounted Labour analyses the historical roots of women's persistent inequality in the paid labour force. Ruth A. Frager and Carmela K. Patrias analyse how and why women became confined to low-wage jobs, why their work was deemed less valuable than men's work, why many women lacked training, job experience, and union membership, and under what circumstances women resisted their subordination.Distinctive earning discrepancies and employment patterns have always characterized women's place in the workforce whether they have been in low-status, unskilled jobs, or in higher positions. For this reason, Frager and Patrias focus not only on women wage-earners but on women as salaried workers as well. They also analyze the divisions among women, examining how class and ethnic or racial differences have intersected with those of gender. Discounted Labour is an essential new work for anyone interested in the historical struggle for gender equality in Canada.
Discounting and Intergenerational Equity
by Paul R. Portney John P. WeyantThe full effects of decisions made today about many environmental policies -including climate change and nuclear waste- will not be felt for many years. For issues with long-term ramifications, analysts often employ discount rates to compare present and future costs and benefits. This is reasonable, and discounting has become a procedure that raises few objections. But are the methods appropriate for measuring costs and benefits for decisions that will have impacts 20 to 30 years from now the right ones to employ for a future that lies 200 to 300 years in the future? This landmark book argues that methods reasonable for measuring gains and losses for a generation into the future may not be appropriate when applied to a longer span of time. Paul Portney and John Weyant have assembled some of the world's foremost economists to reconsider the purpose, ethical implications, and application of discounting in light of recent research and current policy concerns. These experts note reasons why conventional calculations involved in discounting are undermined when considering costs and benefits in the distant future, including uncertainty about the values and preferences of future generations, and uncertainties about available technologies. Rather than simply disassemble current methodologies, the contributors examine innovations that will make discounting a more compelling tool for policy choices that influence the distant future. They discuss the combination of a high shout-term with a low long-term diescount rate, explore discounting according to more than one set of anticipated preferences for the future, and outline alternatives involving simultaneous consideration of valuation, discounting and political acceptability.
Discounting for Time and Risk in Energy Policy: Discounting For Time And Risk In Energy Policy (RFF Energy Policy Set)
by Partha Dasgupta Joseph E. Stiglitz Kenneth J. Arrow Robert C. Lind Gordon R. Corey Amartya K. Sen Thomas Stauffer J.A. StockfischThis is a collection of theoretical papers, including contributions by Partha Dasgupta and three Nobel prize-winning economists: Kenneth Arrow, Amartya Sen, and Joseph Stiglitz. Originally published in 1982.
Discounting the Future: The Ascendancy of a Political Technology
by Liliana DoganovaA pioneering exploration of the defining traits and contradictions of our relationship to the future through the lens of discountingForest fires, droughts, and rising sea levels beg a nagging question: have we lost our capacity to act on the future? Liliana Doganova&’s book sheds new light on this anxious query. It argues that our relationship to the future has been trapped in the gears of a device called discounting. While its incidence remains little known, discounting has long been entrenched in market and policy practices, shaping the ways firms and governments look to the future and make decisions accordingly. Thus, a sociological account of discounting formulas has become urgent.Discounting means valuing things through the flows of costs and benefits that they are likely to generate in the future, with these future flows being literally dis-counted as they are translated in the present. How have we come to think of the future, and of valuation, in such terms? Building on original empirical research in the historical sociology of discounting, Doganova takes us to some of the sites and moments in which discounting took shape and gained momentum: valuation of European forests in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; economic theories devised in the early 1900s; debates over business strategies in the postwar era; investor-state disputes over the nationalization of natural resources; and drug development in the biopharmaceutical industry today. Weaving these threads together, the book pleads for an understanding of discounting as a political technology, and of the future as a contested domain.