
Capitalism's Toxic Assumptions
Adam Smith's Seven Deadly Sins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Christopher Oxford
-
By:
-
Eve Poole
About this listen
In science no one believes the Earth is flat anymore. Economists, on the other hand, haven't budged from their original worldview. Market capitalism depends on seven big ideas: competition, the "invisible hand", utility, agency theory, pricing, shareholder value, and limited liability. These served the world well in the past, but over the years they have become cancerous and are slowly killing the system as a whole.
Eve Poole argues that if you zoom in on any of these firm foundations, they start to blur and wobble. Here she offers alternative views for a healthier system. And looking at them together, it becomes clear why we're so stuck. The capitalist system masquerades as a machine programmed by experts, with only economists and governments qualified to tinker with it. But the market is just a mass of messages about supply and demand. The rich world shapes the market in its image because it has more "votes". So if we want to change the way things are, we don't need to wait for the experts; we can start now.
In each chapter Poole shows how quiet action by consumers, investors, employees, and employers can make big changes by shifting behaviors and adjusting the way financial "votes" are cast in the market.
©2015 Eve Poole (P)2015 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
How Boards Work
- And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World
- By: Dambisa Moyo
- Narrated by: Dambisa Moyo
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Corporate boards are under great pressure. Scandals and malpractice at companies like Theranos, WeWork, Uber, and Wells Fargo have raised justified questions among regulators, shareholders, and the public about the quality of corporate governance. In How Boards Work, prizewinning economist and veteran board director Dambisa Moyo offers an insider's view of corporate boards as they are buffeted by the turbulence of our times.
-
-
WHAT AN AWESOME BOOK
- By Rurik McKaiser on 09-20-21
By: Dambisa Moyo
-
Economics
- The User's Guide
- By: Ha-Joon Chang
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang brilliantly debunked many of the predominant myths of neoclassical economics. Now, in an entertaining and accessible primer, he explains how the global economy actually works - in real-world terms. Writing with irreverent wit, a deep knowledge of history and a disregard for conventional economic pieties, Chang offers insights that will never be found in the textbooks.
-
-
You have to really concentrate on this book
- By Bryan on 02-12-25
By: Ha-Joon Chang
-
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
- By: Kate Raworth
- Narrated by: Kate Raworth
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times. Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses worldwide and still used to address critical issues in government and business alike. That's why it is time, says renegade economist Kate Raworth, to revise our economic thinking for the 21st century. In Doughnut Economics, she sets out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does. Along the way, she points out how we can break our addiction to growth; redesign money, finance, and business to be in service to people; and create economies that are regenerative and distributive by design.
-
-
Economic romanticizing, not economic thinking
- By LAM X LUU on 04-05-18
By: Kate Raworth
-
The Vanishing American Corporation
- Navigating the Hazards of a New Economy
- By: Gerald F. Davis
- Narrated by: Jeff Hoyt
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It may be hard to believe in an era of Walmart, Citizens United, and the Koch brothers, but corporations are on the decline. The number of American companies listed on the stock market dropped by half between 1996 and 2012. In recent years we've seen some of the most storied corporations go bankrupt (General Motors, Chrysler, Eastman Kodak) or disappear entirely (Bethlehem Steel, Lehman Brothers, Borders).
-
-
Davis' Book is a Millennial Must Read
- By Nicholas Zinn on 04-26-16
By: Gerald F. Davis
-
Economics for the Common Good
- By: Jean Tirole, Steven Rendell - translator
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, he suddenly found himself being stopped in the street by complete strangers and asked to comment on issues of the day, no matter how distant from his own areas of research. His transformation from academic economist to public intellectual prompted him to reflect further on the role economists and their discipline play in society. The result is Economics for the Common Good, a passionate manifesto for a world in which economics, far from being a "dismal science," is a positive force for the common good.
-
-
A Great Overview of the Challenges of Modern Econ
- By Zach Sullivan on 08-06-18
By: Jean Tirole, and others
-
Finance and the Good Society
- By: Robert J Shiller
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The reputation of the financial industry could hardly be worse than it is today in the painful aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. New York Times best-selling economist Robert Shiller is no apologist for the sins of finance - he is probably the only person to have predicted both the stock market bubble of 2000 and the real estate bubble that led up to the subprime mortgage meltdown. But in this important and timely book, Shiller argues that, rather than condemning finance, we need to reclaim it for the common good.
-
-
A good intro to finance
- By Philo on 05-16-12
By: Robert J Shiller
-
How Boards Work
- And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World
- By: Dambisa Moyo
- Narrated by: Dambisa Moyo
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Corporate boards are under great pressure. Scandals and malpractice at companies like Theranos, WeWork, Uber, and Wells Fargo have raised justified questions among regulators, shareholders, and the public about the quality of corporate governance. In How Boards Work, prizewinning economist and veteran board director Dambisa Moyo offers an insider's view of corporate boards as they are buffeted by the turbulence of our times.
-
-
WHAT AN AWESOME BOOK
- By Rurik McKaiser on 09-20-21
By: Dambisa Moyo
-
Economics
- The User's Guide
- By: Ha-Joon Chang
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang brilliantly debunked many of the predominant myths of neoclassical economics. Now, in an entertaining and accessible primer, he explains how the global economy actually works - in real-world terms. Writing with irreverent wit, a deep knowledge of history and a disregard for conventional economic pieties, Chang offers insights that will never be found in the textbooks.
-
-
You have to really concentrate on this book
- By Bryan on 02-12-25
By: Ha-Joon Chang
-
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
- By: Kate Raworth
- Narrated by: Kate Raworth
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times. Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses worldwide and still used to address critical issues in government and business alike. That's why it is time, says renegade economist Kate Raworth, to revise our economic thinking for the 21st century. In Doughnut Economics, she sets out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does. Along the way, she points out how we can break our addiction to growth; redesign money, finance, and business to be in service to people; and create economies that are regenerative and distributive by design.
-
-
Economic romanticizing, not economic thinking
- By LAM X LUU on 04-05-18
By: Kate Raworth
-
The Vanishing American Corporation
- Navigating the Hazards of a New Economy
- By: Gerald F. Davis
- Narrated by: Jeff Hoyt
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It may be hard to believe in an era of Walmart, Citizens United, and the Koch brothers, but corporations are on the decline. The number of American companies listed on the stock market dropped by half between 1996 and 2012. In recent years we've seen some of the most storied corporations go bankrupt (General Motors, Chrysler, Eastman Kodak) or disappear entirely (Bethlehem Steel, Lehman Brothers, Borders).
-
-
Davis' Book is a Millennial Must Read
- By Nicholas Zinn on 04-26-16
By: Gerald F. Davis
-
Economics for the Common Good
- By: Jean Tirole, Steven Rendell - translator
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, he suddenly found himself being stopped in the street by complete strangers and asked to comment on issues of the day, no matter how distant from his own areas of research. His transformation from academic economist to public intellectual prompted him to reflect further on the role economists and their discipline play in society. The result is Economics for the Common Good, a passionate manifesto for a world in which economics, far from being a "dismal science," is a positive force for the common good.
-
-
A Great Overview of the Challenges of Modern Econ
- By Zach Sullivan on 08-06-18
By: Jean Tirole, and others
-
Finance and the Good Society
- By: Robert J Shiller
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The reputation of the financial industry could hardly be worse than it is today in the painful aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. New York Times best-selling economist Robert Shiller is no apologist for the sins of finance - he is probably the only person to have predicted both the stock market bubble of 2000 and the real estate bubble that led up to the subprime mortgage meltdown. But in this important and timely book, Shiller argues that, rather than condemning finance, we need to reclaim it for the common good.
-
-
A good intro to finance
- By Philo on 05-16-12
By: Robert J Shiller
-
Capitalism Without Capital
- The Rise of the Intangible Economy
- By: Jonathan Haskel, Stian Westlake
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Early in the 21st century, a quiet revolution occurred. For the first time, the major developed economies began to invest more in intangible assets, like design, branding, R&D, or software, than in tangible assets, like machinery, buildings, and computers. For all sorts of businesses, from tech firms and pharma companies to coffee shops and gyms, the ability to deploy assets that one can neither see nor touch is increasingly the main source of long-term success.
-
-
Fascinating topic
- By GSS on 03-08-18
By: Jonathan Haskel, and others
-
The Portable MBA
- By: Kenneth M. Eades, Timothy M. Laseter, Ian Skurnik, and others
- Narrated by: Adam Hanin
- Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A totally revised, new edition of the best-selling guide to business school basics.
The best-selling book that invented the "MBA in a book" category, The Portable MBA, Fifth Edition, is a reliable and information-packed guide to the business school curriculum and experience. For years, professionals who need MBA-level information and insight - but don't need the hassle of business school - have turned to the Portable MBA series for the very best, most up-to-date coverage of the business basics.
-
-
Should be a PDF attachment
- By George Bonev on 12-09-12
By: Kenneth M. Eades, and others
-
Other People's Money
- The Real Business of Finance
- By: John Kay
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to the search for new investment opportunities and the stewardship of existing ones, and far too much to secondary-market dealing in existing assets. Regulation has contributed more to the problems than the solutions.
-
-
Listened twice. Everyone must read this.
- By Tristan on 01-18-16
By: John Kay
-
Radical Markets
- Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society
- By: Eric A. Posner, E. Glen Weyl
- Narrated by: James Conlan
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many blame today's economic inequality, stagnation, and political instability on the free market. The solution is to rein in the market, right? Radical Markets turns this thinking - and pretty much all conventional thinking about markets, both for and against - on its head. The book reveals bold new ways to organize markets for the good of everyone.
-
-
Terrible Reader ruins this book
- By BW on 10-30-18
By: Eric A. Posner, and others
-
A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
-
-
Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
-
Big Business
- A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero
- By: Tyler Cowen
- Narrated by: Steve Edwards
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If business is so bad, why does it remain so integral to the basic functioning of America? Economist and best-selling author Tyler Cowen says our biggest problem is that we don’t love business enough. In Big Business, Cowen puts forth an impassioned defense of corporations and their essential role in a balanced, productive, and progressive society. He dismantles common misconceptions and untangles conflicting intuitions.
-
-
Good book poorly read
- By Alan on 10-01-19
By: Tyler Cowen
-
Economics in Two Lessons
- Why Markets Work so Well, and Why They Can Fail so Badly
- By: John Quiggin
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since 1946, Henry Hazlitt's best-selling Economics in One Lesson has popularized the belief that economics can be boiled down to one simple lesson: market prices represent the true cost of everything. But one-lesson economics tells only half the story. It can explain why markets often work so well, but it can't explain why they often fail so badly - or what we should do when they stumble. In Economics in Two Lessons, John Quiggin teaches both lessons, offering a masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes - and failures - of free markets.
-
-
Socialist propaganda rather than a lesson in economics
- By David F. on 03-15-21
By: John Quiggin
-
The Sharing Economy
- The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism
- By: Arun Sundararajan
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book, Arun Sundararajan, an expert on the sharing economy, explains the transition to what he describes as "crowd-based capitalism" - a new way of organizing economic activity that may supplant the traditional corporate-centered model. As peer-to-peer commercial exchange blurs the lines between the personal and the professional, how will the economy, government regulation, what it means to have a job, and our social fabric be affected?
-
-
Relevant & engaging
- By MPet on 05-20-16
-
The Impulse Society
- America in the Age of Instant Gratification
- By: Paul Roberts
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paul Robert digs down to the economic roots of the problem, shows how it has metastisized to affect every facet of our lives and our ability to navigate the future. In clear, cogent prose that mixes illuminating analysis and vibrant reporting, Roberts not only tells the fascinating story of how the impulse society came to be, but shows how, perhaps, a healthier society may still be possible.
-
-
A Must-Listen for Millenials
- By Doug - Audible on 03-31-15
By: Paul Roberts
-
Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus
- How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity
- By: Douglas Rushkoff
- Narrated by: Douglas Rushkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed media scholar and technology author Douglas Rushkoff calls on us to abandon the monopolist, winner-takes-all values we are unwittingly embedding into the digital economy and to embrace the more distributed possibilities of these platforms. He shows how we can optimize every aspect of the economy - from central currency and debt to corporations and labor - to create sustainable prosperity for business and people alike.
-
-
Heavy on Rhetoric, Light on Facts
- By Jonathan on 04-13-16
By: Douglas Rushkoff
-
Economics Rules
- The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science
- By: Dani Rodrik
- Narrated by: James Conlan
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this sharp, masterfully argued book, Dani Rodrik, a leading critic from within, takes a close look at economics to examine when it falls short and when it works, to give a surprisingly upbeat account of the discipline. Drawing on the history of the field and his deep experience as a practitioner, Rodrik argues that economics can be a powerful tool that improves the world - but only when economists abandon universal theories and focus on getting the context right.
-
-
awesome book
- By Josh Armstrong on 04-26-16
By: Dani Rodrik
-
Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire
- By: Rebecca Henderson
- Narrated by: Rebecca Henderson, Lucinda Clare
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Free market capitalism is one of humanity's greatest inventions and the greatest source of prosperity the world has ever seen. But this success has been costly. Capitalism is on the verge of destroying the planet and destabilizing society as wealth rushes to the top. The time for action is running short. Rebecca Henderson's rigorous research in economics, psychology, and organizational behavior, as well as her many years of work with companies around the world, give us a path forward.
-
-
Review of thoughts
- By Earphone lover on 10-19-20