Dan Davies

An entertaining, deeply informative explanation of how high-level financial crimes work, written by an industry insider who’s an expert in the field. The way most white-collar crime works is by manipulating institutional psychology. That means creating something that looks as much as possible like a normal set of transactions. The drama comes later, when it all unwinds. Financial crime seems horribly complicated, but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what’s theirs. In Lying for Money, veteran regulatory economist and market analyst Dan Davies tells the story of fraud through a genealogy of financial malfeasance, including: the Great Salad Oil swindle, the Pigeon King International fraud, the fictional British colony of Poyais in South America, the Boston Ladies’ Deposit Company, the Portuguese Banknote Affair, Theranos, and the Bre-X scam. Davies brings new insights into these schemes and shows how all frauds, current and historical, belong to one of four categories (“long firm,” counterfeiting, control fraud, and market crimes) and operate on the same basic principles. The only elements that change are the victims, the scammers, and the terminology. Davies has years of experience picking the bones out of some of the most famous frauds of the modern age. Now he reveals the big picture that emerges from their labyrinths of deceit and explains how fraud has shaped the entire development of the modern world economy.

How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World

Lying for Money

'A corporation, or a government department isn't a conscious being, but it is an artificial intelligence. It has the capability to take decisions which are completely distinct from the intentions of any of the people who compose it. And under stressful conditions, it can go stark raving mad.'

When we avoid taking a decision, what happens to it? In The Unaccountability Machine, Dan Davies examines why markets, institutions and even governments systematically generate outcomes that everyone involved claims not to want. He casts new light on the writing of Stafford Beer, a legendary economist who argued in the 1950s that we should regard organisations as artificial intelligences, capable of taking decisions that are distinct from the intentions of their members.

Management cybernetics was Beer's science of applying self-regulation in organisational settings, but it was largely ignored - with the result being the political and economic crises that that we see today. With his signature blend of cynicism and journalistic rigour, Davies looks at what's gone wrong, and what might have been, had the world listened to Stafford Beer when it had the chance. 

Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost its Mind

The Unaccountability Machine

Winner of the 2015 Gordon Burn Prize and the 2015 CWA Non-Fiction Dagger Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the James Tait Black Prize Dan Davies has spent more than a decade on a quest to find the real Jimmy Savile, and interviewed him extensively over a period of seven years before his death. In the course of his quest, he spent days and nights at a time quizzing Savile at his homes in Leeds and Scarborough, lunched with him at venues ranging from humble transport cafes to the Athenaeum club in London and, most memorably, joined him for a short cruise aboard the QE2. Dan thought his quest had come to an end in October 2011 when Savile's golden coffin was lowered into a grave dug at a 45-degree angle in a Scarborough cemetery. He was wrong. In the last two and a half years, Dan has been interviewing scores of people, many of them unobtainable while Jimmy was alive. What he has discovered was that his instincts were right all along and behind the mask lay a hideous truth. Jimmy Savile was not only complex, damaged and controlling, but cynical, calculating and predatory. He revelled in his status as a Pied Piper of youth and used his power to abuse the vulnerable and underage, all the while covering his tracks by moving into the innermost circles of the establishment.

The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile

In Plain Sight

LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND SCHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 'A great book ... a wonderful way of talking about our current world' Rory Stewart 'Mischievous and fiercely intelligent' Ed Smith, New Statesman 'One of the most insightful books I've read in a long time' Sam Freedman 'The kind of book from which you look up to find the world suddenly more comprehensible' Guardian 'One of the most useful books of 2024' Economist When we avoid taking a decision, what happens to it? In The Unaccountability Machine, Dan Davies examines why markets, institutions and even governments systematically generate outcomes that everyone involved claims not to want. He casts new light on the writing of Stafford Beer, a legendary economist who argued in the 1950s that we should regard organisations as artificial intelligences, capable of taking decisions that are distinct from the intentions of their members. Management cybernetics was Beer's science of applying self-regulation in organisational settings, but it was largely ignored - with the result being the political and economic crises that that we see today. With his signature blend of cynicism and journalistic rigour, Davies looks at what's gone wrong, and what might have been, had the world listened to Stafford Beer when it had the chance.

William Butler-Adams

Engineering for Change

Brompton

Longlisted for the 2024 Financial Times Book of the Year. How life and the economy became a black box—a collection of systems no one understands, producing outcomes no one likes. Passengers get bumped from flights. Phone menus disconnect. Automated financial trades produce market collapse. Of all the challenges in modern life, some of the most vexing come from our relationships with automation: a large system does us wrong, and there’s nothing we can do about it. The problem, economist Dan Davies shows, is accountability sinks: systems in which decisions are delegated to a complex rule book or set of standard procedures, making it impossible to identify the source of mistakes when they happen. In our increasingly unhuman world—lives dominated by algorithms, artificial intelligence, and large organizations—these accountability sinks produce more than just aggravation. They make life and economy unknowable—a black box for no reason. In The Unaccountability Machine, Davies lays bare how markets, institutions, and even governments systematically generate outcomes that no one—not even those involved in making them—seems to want. Since the earliest days of the computer age, theorists have foreseen the dangers of complex systems without personal accountability. In response, British business scholar Stafford Beer developed an accountability-first approach to management called “cybernetics,” which might have taken off had his biggest client (the Chilean government) not fallen to a bloody coup in 1973. With his signature blend of economic and journalistic rigor, Davies examines what’s gone wrong since Beer, including what might have been had the world embraced cybernetics when it had the chance. The Unaccountability Machine is a revelatory and resonant account of how modern life became predisposed to dysfunction.

Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—and How the World Lost Its Mind

Alan Howe

This book gives teachers, student teachers and other Early Years practitioners a clear understanding of how science and design and technology contributes to children's learning. It will help teachers make more focused, diagnostic observations of young children's play by identifying the scientific and design concepts, skills and attitudes being developed. It gives clear guidance for planning experiences and interventions that will help move the children forward in their learning within specific areas of the foundation stage curriculum, while giving a critical insight into the implications of this approach for teaching and learning and assessment in Key Stage 1 and beyond. It includes a focus on young children's learning, covering what we know from research about how young children learn and the centrality of their early scientific and designing/making experiences to this learning. The authors also present case studies of successful Early Years practice in science and design and technology; examples of practical planning for learning, written by Early Years practitioners; an analysis of the contribution of Science and Design and Technology towards meeting the Early Learning Goals; and advice for adults working in different Early Years settings. Founded on both research and first hand experience, this practical and accessible book demonstrates how scientific and designing/making activities are natural to young children, and have the potential for contributing to all aspects of their learning.

Teaching Science, Design and Technology in the Early Years

Deb McGregor

How can you unlock your own creativity to help children learn science creatively? How do you bring the world of ‘real science’ into the classroom? Where does science fit in a creative curriculum? Teaching Science Creatively explores how creative teaching can harness primary-aged children’s sense of wonder about the world around them. It offers innovative starting points to enhance your teaching and highlights curiosity, observation, exploration and enquiry as central components of children’s creative learning in science. Illustrated throughout with examples from the classroom and beyond, this book explores the core elements of creative practice supporting both teacher and children to develop their knowledge and skills. Key themes include: The importance of science in a creative primary curriculum The role of play in early scientific learning Developing children’s own interests and ideas into creative enquiry How theories of learning can help you understand children’s creative development Teaching science topics in innovative and creative ways - games, drama, role play, puppets, mini-safaris and welly walks! Using new technologies to enhance your science teaching in the classroom and outdoors Stimulating and accessible, with contemporary and cutting-edge practice at the forefront, Teaching Science Creatively introduces new ideas to support and motivate new and experienced primary teachers. It is an essential purchase for any professional who wishes to incorporate creative approaches to teaching science in their classroom.

Teaching Science Creatively

Christopher Collier

Kendra McMahon

The book provides clear descriptions, definitions and explanations of difficult scientific concepts, carefully chosen to reflect the needs of those involved in primary science education.

The Primary Science and Technology Encyclopedia

Sarah Earle

This third edition of the bestselling textbook Science 5–11 has been fully updated to provide a synthesis of research and best practice in teaching and learning that focuses on successful ways to engage and motivate young scientists. Responding to the new curriculum, particularly ‘Working Scientifically’, this edition now includes: New sections on whole-school assessment, mentoring, transitions and a topics-based approach. Reference to the ‘big ideas’ of biology, chemistry and physics with chapters clearly related to this new subject structure. Updated tables of progression in each topic area and reference to cross-curricular contexts. New self-assessment questions for teachers, the option for higher-level thinking and further reading. An updated chapter on subject leadership with an increasing emphasis on monitoring progress. Bringing together research undertaken from a range of activities in the field, this book forms a comprehensive and clear guide, outlining the subject knowledge that a teacher needs, the curriculum requirements and the best ways to go about teaching. A practical guide ideal for students, trainees, mentors and other practising teachers, the book provides information on appropriate science topics for Key Stage 1 and 2.

A Guide for Teachers

Science 5-11

Rebecca Digby

Teaching Science and Technology in the Early Years (3-7) celebrates young children’s amazing capabilities as scientists, designers and technologists. Research-based yet practical and accessible, it demonstrates how scientific, designing and making activities are natural to young children, and have the potential for contributing to all aspects of their learning. By identifying the scientific and design-related concepts, skills and activities being developed, the book enables the reader to make more focused diagnostic observations of young children and plan for how they can help move them forward in their learning. This second edition has been thoroughly updated and features: Six new chapters providing practical advice and examples for enhancing scientific and technological learning through thematic approaches a new chapter focusing on the outdoor learning environment and how this can support science and technology new case studies of successful early years practice, alongside examples of practical planning for learning, and advice on documenting children’s learning stories, guidance on the role of talk, narrative, documentation and planning in relation to early years science and technology Based on the latest research and the first hand experience, this practical and accessible book is essential reading for early years and primary students on undergraduate and Masters level courses.

Dan Davies

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