Catalogue 2012 - GB Gerakbudaya

16
Economics
New New
Postcolonial Economies
Edited by Jane Pollard, Cherly McEwan & Alex Hughes
Postcolonial approaches to understanding
economies are of increasing significance
as questions about the nature of
globalisation, transnational flows of capital
and workers, and the making and remaking
of territorial borders assume centre stage
in debates about contemporary economics.
Yet, despite the growing academic and
political urgency in understanding how ‘other’ cultures
encounter ‘the West’, economics has been slow to engage
with the ideas and challenges posed by postcolonial
critiques. In turn, postcolonial approaches have been
criticised for their simplistic treatment of the economic
and for not engaging with existing economic analyses
of poverty and wealth creation. Utilising examples
drawn from India to Latin America, and bringing
together scholars from a range of disciplines, including
Geography, Economics, Development Studies, History and
Women’s Studies, Postcolonial Economies breaks new
ground in providing a space for nascent debates about
postcolonialism and its treatment of the economic.
Publisher: Zed Books
2011: 239 pp
ISBN: 9781848134041: RM95.00 / S$41.30
New
The Financial Crisis and Asian
Developing Countries
Edited by Yilmaz Akyuz
The world was plunged into the most
severe economic and financial crisis of
post-war times in 2008-09, and even the
most dynamic growth region, Asia, was
not spared from its effects. This book
examines how the developing economies
of Asia were hit by the turmoil, the
measures they look in response and the
policy lessons to be drawn from this experience. From
its epicentre in the major advanced economies, the
shockwaves of the crisis were transmitted to Asia via trade
and finance. To deal with these damaging effects, most of
the regional economies adopted expansionary fiscal and
monetary policies, which have largely proved effective in
stabilizing conditions and promoting recovery. Whether
this recovery will be sustainable, however, will depend on
how the developing countries of Asia address the structural
fragilities the crisis has exposed in their economies.
Publisher: TWN
2011: 344 pp
ISBN: 9789675412523: RM40.00 / S$28.00
Tel: +603 - 7957 8342/8343 Fax: +603 - 7954 9202 E-mail: sird@streamyx.com
Website: www.gerakbudaya.com & bookshop.gbgerakbudaya.com
Catalogue 2012
The U.S.–Singapore Free Trade
Agreement
An American Perspective on Power, Trade,
and Security in the Asia Pacific
Eul-Soo Pang
Free trade has become the mantra of
development strategy for many countries
in the world, especially those in the Asia
Pacific. This book delves into the American
side of the story. It is about how Singapore
and the United States came to sign the
agreement in 2003 (taking effect from
1 January 2004). The United States –
Singapore Free Trade Agreement
(USSFTA) is the first FTA that America signed with an
Asian country and the second such agreement with a fully
developed country, after Canada. The city-state has used
a free trade agreement as a national survival and growth
strategy, first forging such FTA ties with its major trading
partners and then expanding its strategic link to such
extra-regional great powers as the United States, Japan,
Australia, China, India, and the European Union. Both
Singapore and the United States saw in FTAs something
more than just merchandise trade.
Publisher: ISEAS
2011: 305 pp
ISBN: 9789814311991: RM98.00 / S$68.60
New
Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank
Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers
Eric Toussaint and Damien Millet
Many countries in the South possess vast
natural and human resources, yet since
the debt crisis in 1982 they have been
bled dry. Repaying an ever-increasing
debt makes it impossible to meet even
the most basic human needs. The debt
has become a subtle instrument of
domination, casting the net of a new form
of colonization. The latest initiative,
announced with much fanfare at the Gleneagles G8
meeting in 2005, does not alter the situation. A radically
different approach must be considered: the cancellation - no
more and no less - of an immoral and often odious debt.
The present book shows that cancellation of the debt is a necessary
but not a sufficient condition, that it must go hand-in-hand with other
measures such as the recovery of ill-acquired goods, fair distribution of
wealth on a global level, and alternative financing approaches.
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
2010: 364 pp
ISBN: 9781583672228: RM65.00 / S$28.30