Book of the Week: “What we owe: truths, myths, and lies about public debt” by Carlo Cottarelli

The euro crisis, Japan’s sluggish economy, and partisan disagreements in the United States about the role of government all have at least one thing in common: worries about high levels of public debt.

“Nearly everyone agrees that public debt in many advanced economies is too high to be sustainable and must be addressed. There is little agreement, however, about when and how that addressing should be done – or even, in many cases, just how serious the debt problem is.

As the former director of the International Monetary Fund’s Fiscal Affairs Department, Carlo Cottarelli has helped countries across the globe confront their public finance woes. He also had direct experience in advising his own country, Italy, about its chronic fiscal ailments. In this straightforward, plain-language book, Cottarelli explains how and why excessive public debt can harm economic growth and can lead to crises such as those experienced recently in Italy and several other European countries.”

Publisher: Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, 2017
Call Number: 336.3 HEIA 120154

Film of the Week: “The handmaid’s tale: season 1” by Bruce Miller

Based on Margaret Atwood’s award-winning, best-selling novel, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly the United States.”

“Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism in its militarized “return to traditional values.” As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred is a Handmaid in the Commander’s household, belonging to the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate the world. In this terrifying society, Offred must navigate between Commanders, their cruel Wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids – where anyone could be a spy for Gilead – with one goal: to survive and find the daughter who was taken from her.”

Publisher: MGM Television Entertainment, 2018
Call Number: 7.0 HAN 1/1

Access restrictions

For the duration of final exams, access to the Library is restricted to students enrolled at the Graduate Institute and other higher education institutions. Please present your student card to our staff at the loan desk before entering.

Book of the Week: “Strange justice: the selling of Clarence Thomas” by Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson

There was in fact much to doubt about the character of Clarence Thomas and his denial of Anita Hill’s accusations during the riveting and fractious Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

“Drawing on hundreds of interviews and scores of documents never seen before, Mayer and Abramson demonstrate that the political machinations that assured Thomas’s ascension to the Court went far beyond what was revealed to the public: Several witnesses were prepared but not allowed to testify in support of Anita Hill’s specific allegations about Thomas’s pronounced interest in sexually explicit materials; Republican Judiciary Committee members manipulated the FBI and misled the American public into believing that Hill was fabricating testimony during the televised hearings; Clarence Thomas mythologized certain elements of his upbringing and career to draw attention away.”

Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1994
Call Number: 340(73) HEIA 44623


Jill Abramson will be present at the Institute, on Tuesday, 29 May,  for the conference Women’s Voices in the Media: Changing the World

Photo credit: Eric Bridiers, United States Mission Geneva, CC By-ND 2.0 (Jill Abramson & Todd Pierce at IHEID on 29.05.2018)