Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Investable!: When Pandemic Risk Meets Speculative Finance

Investable!: When Pandemic Risk Meets Speculative Finance

Erikson, Susan

Paperback

EconomicsMedical ReferenceInternational Relations

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0262549352
ISBN13: 9780262549356
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: May 20 2025
Pages: 252
Weight: 0.90
Height: 0.70 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
A critical and sobering look at how international bankers and investors turn pandemics into investment opportunities, and what we stand to lose when we rely on innovative finance.

In a world increasingly defined by crisis, bankers and investors behind the scenes turn catastrophes like pandemics into financial securities that can be bought and sold. Offering new insights into how the excesses of capitalism shape pandemic preparedness, Investable! is an ethnography of World Bank bonds designed to solve a big-ticket global health problem by getting international investors to gamble on future crises. In this first book-length treatment of pandemic bonds, award-winning medical anthropologist Susan Erikson explains how we got here and asks who should hold the responsibility for the terrible things that happen to people, at a time when pandemics are turned into casinos.

Erikson, who traveled over 300,000 miles conducting research for the book, takes readers from the red clay roads of West Africa to the concrete sidewalks of New York City and London's financial districts, telling the stories of the people, the special interests, and the logics of pandemic bonds. Original, insightful, and extremely timely, Erikson's lively interdisciplinary exploration tells readers in powerful, vibrant prose about the pitfalls of contemporary global health finance solutions. Written for a smart general audience concerned about capitalism's effect on human health, Investable! will appeal to financiers; politicians; economists; people working in global development, health care, and international affairs; and anyone who wants to better understand how capitalism affects how we care for one another in times of crisis.

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