Subjects

China blocks their exports. The United States looks to Greenland to extract them. Europe does not produce them, but desperately needs them: Rare Earths are today’s gold of the 21st century.

Geopolitics of Rare Earths takes the reader inside the new great game of critical raw materials, where China controls 80% of refining, the United States rushes to find new deposits, and Europe–still lacking a common strategy–tries to focus on recycling and partnerships. The book clearly answers crucial questions: Which industrial groups are leading this change? What role can Europe and Italy play? What financial instruments allow operators and investors to participate in this global challenge?

Enriched with charts, tables, and a color map on the inside covers locating rare earth reserves, the book combines geopolitics, economics, and finance, offering a valuable tool to navigate a contest that will determine wealth, energy security, and power in the coming decades.

A Very Short History of Economics brings to light the hidden economic forces behind war, innovation, and social transformation, providing a comprehensive overview of capitalism and the market system.

Starting from the development of agriculture and reaching up to the war in Ukraine, Andrew Leigh weaves together the most significant moments in history with his expert insights through compelling storytelling. Why did the invention of the plow lead to gender inequality? Why did certain diseases influence the expansion of colonialism? And what real-life events inspired the famous board game Monopoly?

A book for everyone, highly enlightening and written by expert hands: a perfect introduction to the history of the global economy.

The book illustrates the genesis, mechanisms and consequences of US geo-economic hegemony by questioning the myth of globalisation as inescapable destiny. And it tries to imagine what kind of world awaits us.

Globalisation is (was?) a geopolitical phenomenon, before and even more than an economic one. Immersed in the ’American century’, we did not realise this, taking for granted the world that arose from the ashes of the Second World War and consolidated after the collapse of the USSR. We thus ended up believing the characteristics of that historical phase to be immutable: the primacy of liberal societies, the unifying force of trade and industrial interdependencies, the unstoppability of neo-liberal capitalism, the cogency of international institutions. Now these assumptions, along with the primacy of Washington, are radically challenged outside and inside America.

A book that dismantles the canon of globalisation, analysing it from its historical beginnings to its current slow disintegration with its economic and socio-cultural fallout.

Who produces lithium for electric car batteries? Where can copper and cobalt be found? An essay on the geopolitics and current affairs to understand the strategic role of raw materials in the present and future economy, where new countries are emerging and growing in their production activities, consumption and international relations.

Considering the intense manufacturing development and a substantial population increase in various parts of the world, in future years the West and the BRICS (enlarged to 11 nations from 1 January 2024) will face even stronger competition for finding industrial metals, rare earths, food, natural fibres, as well as gas and oil.

Hence an effort to understand – supported by clear colour maps – where these treasures can be found and where the largest reserves are hidden. Looking ahead, the countries that will dominate the scene will be those that know how to wisely stock everything needed for the production and commercial cycles. A strategic challenge that sees the two superpowers, US and China, already in open confrontation for world domination.