Listen to a short interview with David L. Kirp Host: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane The rich have always valued early education, and for the past forty years, millions of poor kids have had Head Start. Now, more and more middle class parents have realized that a good preschool is the smartest investment they can make in their children's future in a competitive world. As The Sandbox Investment shows, their needs are key to the growing call for universal preschool. Writing with the verve of a magazine journalist and the authority of a scholar, David L. Kirp makes the ideal guide to this quiet movement. He crouches in classrooms where committed teachers engage lively four-year-olds, and reveals the findings of an extraordinary longitudinal study that shows the life-changing impact of preschool. He talks with cutting-edge researchers from neuroscience and genetics to economics, whose findings increasingly show how powerfully early childhood shapes the arc of children's lives. Kids-first politics is smart economics: paying for preschool now can help save us from paying for unemployment, crime, and emergency rooms later. As Kirp reports from the inside, activists and political leaders have turned this potent idea into campaigns and policies in red and blue states alike. The Sandbox Investment is the first full story of a campaign that asks Americans to endorse a vision of society that does well by doing good. For anyone who is interested in politics or the social uses of research--for anyone who's interested in the children's futures--it's a compelling read.

In the COVID 19 post-pandemic era, sustainable financial systems are increasingly getting the attention they deserve, and policymakers are now moving toward investment and financing decisions based on sustainable development. Green finance plays an important role in mobilizing financial resources and hedging against environmental risk to achieve financially sustainable systems. Moreover, green financial instruments offer viable alternatives for investors and regulators with regard to portfolio management and risk minimization. Over the last few years, financial technology (FinTech) has grown to become one of the most topical areas in the global financial services industry. The development of distributed ledger technology, big data, smart contracts, peer-to-peer lending platforms, biometrics, and new digital has sparked innovation in the financial services industry and the development of new financing and investment strategies. The combination of sustainability and FinTech can help policymakers to achieve ESG targets when making investment and financing decisions. This book showcases a collection of recent advances in green finance and FinTech and explores their impact in achieving sustainable finance, investment strategy-making, and portfolio management. Presenting theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical studies in the field of green finance and FinTech, it offers a valuable asset for academics, professionals, policymakers, regulators, and investors who want to understand in-depth the impact of green finance and FinTech on future investment and financing strategies in the post-pandemic era.

Handbook of Digital Finance and Financial Inclusion: Cryptocurrency, FinTech, InsurTech, Regulation, ChinaTech, Mobile Security, and Distributed Ledger explores recent advances in digital banking and cryptocurrency, emphasizing mobile technology and evolving uses of cryptocurrencies as financial assets. Contributors go beyond summaries of standard models to describe new banking business models that will be sustainable and likely to dictate the future of finance. The book not only emphasizes the financial opportunities made possible by digital banking, such as financial inclusion and impact investing, but also looks at engineering theories and developments that encourage innovation. Its ability to illuminate present potential and future possibilities make it a unique contribution to the literature. A companion Volume Two of The Handbook of Digital Banking and Financial Inclusion: ChinaTech, Mobile Security, Distributed Ledger, and Blockchain emphasizes technological developments that introduce the future of finance. Descriptions of recent innovations lay the foundations for explorations of feasible solutions for banks and startups to grow. The combination of studies on blockchain technologies and applications, regional financial inclusion movements, advances in Chinese finance, and security issues delivers a grand perspective on both changing industries and lifestyles. Written for students and practitioners, it helps lead the way to future possibilities. - Explains the practical consequences of both technologies and economics to readers who want to learn about subjects related to their specialties - Encompasses alternative finance, financial inclusion, impact investing, decentralized consensus ledger and applied cryptography - Provides the only advanced methodical summary of these subjects available today

· Have you heard about the Metaverse? · Do you understand its concept and what it is capable of? · Do you want to get involved now, while it is still a fairly new idea? The Metaverse can broadly be described as an online virtual environment where users can interact with the computing environment and other users. Playing VR games and chatrooms are probably the best examples of this but the Metaverse is ever expanding and is quickly moving on to other areas which will include things like cryptocurrencies, NFT’s and other investments. This book, METAVERSE: The #1 Guide to Conquer the Blockchain World and Invest in Virtual Lands, NFT (Crypto Art), Altcoins and Cryptocurrency + Best DeFi Projects, seeks to explain this new world in a simple and straightforward way, through chapters that provide information on: ✓ The overall concept of the Metaverse ✓ Understanding augmented reality ✓ Where NFT’s fit with it ✓ New business models of the Web 3.0 ✓ Real estate investing in the Metaverse ✓ Altcoins and cryptocurrencies ✓ How to make a profit in the Metaverse ✓ Using the Metaverse for networking And more… The Metaverse is new and exciting and probably a bit confusing right now. But it is also something that has great potential and is more than likely here to stay for the foreseeable future. You owe it to yourself to get ahead of the curve and make sure you know as much as you can and METAVERSE is the book that will provide that information for you! What are you waiting for? If you want to be one step ahead of the competition, click on the bottom “Buy Now” and Get your copy today!

Handbook of Blockchain, Digital Finance, and Inclusion, Volume 1: Cryptocurrency, FinTech, InsurTech, and Regulation explores recent advances in digital banking and cryptocurrency, emphasizing mobile technology and evolving uses of cryptocurrencies as financial assets. Contributors go beyond summaries of standard models to describe new banking business models that will be sustainable and will likely dictate the future of finance. The volume not only emphasizes the financial opportunities made possible by digital banking, such as financial inclusion and impact investing, but it also looks at engineering theories and developments that encourage innovation. Its ability to illuminate present potential and future possibilities make it a unique contribution to the literature. - Explores recent advances in digital banking and cryptocurrency, emphasizing mobile technology and evolving uses of cryptocurrencies as financial assets - Explains the practical consequences of both technologies and economics to readers who want to learn about subjects related to their specialties - Encompasses alternative finance, financial inclusion, impact investing, decentralized consensus ledger and applied cryptography - Provides the only advanced methodical summary of these subjects available today

An Economist Best Book of the Year A Financial Times Best Book of the Year A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year A ProMarket Best Political Economy Book of the Year One of The Week’s Ten Best Business Books of the Year A cutting-edge look at how accelerating financial change, from the end of cash to the rise of cryptocurrencies, will transform economies for better and worse. We think we’ve seen financial innovation. We bank from laptops and buy coffee with the wave of a phone. But these are minor miracles compared with the dizzying experiments now underway around the globe, as businesses and governments alike embrace the possibilities of new financial technologies. As Eswar Prasad explains, the world of finance is at the threshold of major disruption that will affect corporations, bankers, states, and indeed all of us. The transformation of money will fundamentally rewrite how ordinary people live. Above all, Prasad foresees the end of physical cash. The driving force won’t be phones or credit cards but rather central banks, spurred by the emergence of cryptocurrencies to develop their own, more stable digital currencies. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies themselves will evolve unpredictably as global corporations like Meta and Amazon join the game. The changes will be accompanied by snowballing innovations that are reshaping finance and have already begun to revolutionize how we invest, trade, insure, and manage risk. Prasad shows how these and other changes will redefine the very concept of money, unbundling its traditional functions as a unit of account, medium of exchange, and store of value. The promise lies in greater efficiency and flexibility, increased sensitivity to the needs of diverse consumers, and improved market access for the unbanked. The risk is instability, lack of accountability, and erosion of privacy. A lucid, visionary work, The Future of Money shows how to maximize the best and guard against the worst of what is to come.

We are only in the early stages of a broader revolution that will impact every aspect of the global economy, including commerce and government services. Coming financial technology innovations could improve the quality of life for all people. Over the past few decades, digital technology has transformed finance. Financial technology (fintech) has enabled more people with fewer resources, in more places around the world, to take advantage of banking, insurance, credit, investment, and other financial services. Marion Laboure and Nicolas Deffrennes argue that these changes are only the tip of the iceberg. A much broader revolution is under way that, if steered correctly, will lead to huge and beneficial social change. The authors describe the genesis of recent financial innovations and how they have helped consumers in rich and poor countries alike by reducing costs, increasing accessibility, and improving convenience and efficiency. They connect the dots between early innovations in financial services and the wider revolution unfolding today. Changes may disrupt traditional financial services, especially banking, but they may also help us address major social challenges: opening new career paths for millennials, transforming government services, and expanding the gig economy in developed markets. Fintech could lead to economic infrastructure developments in rural areas and could facilitate emerging social security and healthcare systems in developing countries. The authors make this case with a rich combination of economic theory and case studies, including microanalyses of the effects of fintech innovations on individuals, as well as macroeconomic perspectives on fintech’s impact on societies. While celebrating fintech’s achievements to date, Laboure and Deffrennes also make recommendations for overcoming the obstacles that remain. The stakes—improved quality of life for all people—could not be higher.

Financial Technology (Fintech) has revolutionized the financial world as one of the fastest-growing segments in both the technology and financial sectors. With the usage of underlying principles of Blockchain technology, Fintech is bringing the financial community together and making financial services accessible to everyone. Fintech has far-reaching implications for Islamic finance such as banking, investment, insurance (takaful) and wealth management, which are benefitting from this usage. This book provides a comprehensive review of how Fintech is shaping the Islamic finance industry through three key aspects: Digitalization, Development and Disruption. The book will provide insight on the Shariahtech (Fintech in line with Shariah principle) and its application in the Islamic finance industry. The book also gives an overview of Blockchain and Fintech evolution and how they act as the building blocks of the digital financial landscape. Readers of the book will also get a detailed discernment on the Islamic viewpoint on cryptocurrency as well as the application of the smart contract in different Islamic financial services. The book provides students, academics and researchers with a detailed description of the Blockchain and Fintech application in Islamic finance.

The FinTech sector is a nascent market in the Czech Republic, with only around one hundred regulated or unregulated FinTech firms. This report analyses the Czech FinTech ecosystem and identifies possible hurdles to innovative development.