Fragile Futures

Dr. Vito Tanzi has been Professor and Economic Chair at American University, Director for 20 years of the Fiscal Affairs Department at the IMF, and Undersecretary for Economy and Finance in the Italian Government. He is Honorary President of the International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF) in Munich, Germany.

• Part I. Uncertain Future Events and Reactions to Them: 1. Introduction; 2. Risky versus uncertain events; 3. Taxonomy of disasters; 4. Democracy, capitalism and random events; Part II. A Survey of Past Pandemics and Other Disasters: 5. Uncertain future events and policies; 6. Pandemics, famines and climate change; 7. Major natural disasters; 8. Atomic disasters; 9. Industrial disasters; 10. Economic principles for disasters; Part III. Climate Change and Global Warming: 11. When the Earth became man's private property; 12. Early concerns about the environment; 13. From environmental concerns to climate change; Part IV. Back to Some Theoretical Issues: 14. Human needs and economic theory; 15. Concluding thoughts.

'This is the most thorough and intelligent review of the western world's economic development, corresponding intellectual debates, and lines of thoughts in economics and public policy from the end of World War I to the present that I have seen.' Hans-Werner Sinn, University of Munich