Edward Elgar Publishing

Edward Elgar is a UK based publishing company focused on economics, finance, and management.

So: why is such a company named after an orchestral composer?

I presume the reason is simply that until quite recently Elgar's face graced the 20 pound note, the most common note in circulation in the UK. There are many such notes with his visage still in use, although they are being phased out in favor of a note with the face of Adam Smith.

Anyway, I've recently received a catalog of EE's new 2009 titles and I thought I'd list a few of the more intriguing ones here. I'll add a word of explanation where it seems necessary -- some of the titles explain themselves pretty well.

Alice de Jonge, Corporate Governance and China's H-Share Market. The H-Share Market consists of mainland Chinese companies listed on the exchange in Hong Kong, with prices denominated in HK dollars rather than in the yuan. The catalog says that the book is "a story of individual firms being pragmatic in mediating the different agendas of state agencies that own or control them."

Klaus Liebscher, Josef Christl, Peter Mooslechner, and Doris Ritzberger-Grunwald, eds., Currency and Competitiveness in Europe

Richard A. Iley & Mervyn K. Lewis, Untangling the US Deficit: Evaluating Causes, Cures and Global Imbalances

Donato Masciandaro, Elod Takats, Brigette Unger, Black Finance: The Economics of Money Laundering

Philip Arestis & Malcolm Sawyer, eds., A Handbook of Alternative Monetary Economics What is "alternative monetary economics"? The basic idea of the AME theorists is that mainstream economics treats money as essentially a unit of exchange, a more efficient substitute for barter. The aternative, though, is to treat money as in essence a unit of account, a way of incurring and keeping track of debts.

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Jose Felix Sanz-Sanz, Fiscal Reform in Spain: Accomplishments and Challenges. Franco has been dead for a long time now. What happens in the budgeting and taxing institutions of a nation making a peaceful transition away from fascism?