O comércio eletrônico fechou 2008 com faturamento de R$ 8,2 bilhões, 30% acima de 2007, de acordo com a e-bit, empresa especializada no setor. Antes da crise, a previsão era chegar a 35% de alta, o que mostra que as vendas não foram tão impactadas pela turbulência no mercado financeiro. Nesse cálculo não entram veículos, passagens aéreas e leilões.
No ano passado, 3,7 milhões de consumidores fizeram sua primeira compra pela internet, o que ajudou a incrementar as vendas on-line.

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The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash.

By Charles R. Morris.

PublicAffairs; 224 pages; $22.95 and £13.99

The first big book on the credit crunch saw the crisis coming three years ago. Freak-out-onomics for I-told-you-sos.

Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State.

By Yasheng Huang.

Cambridge University Press; 366 pages; $30 and £15.99

Convincingly overturns the usual analyses of the nature of China's economy, and brilliantly predicts, a year ahead of other commentators, its steep decline.

When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change.

By Mohamed El-Erian.

McGraw Hill; 304 pages; $27.95 and £15.99

Ignore the in-your-face cover. This is a fluent and intelligent account of the credit crisis: why it happened and how to survive it. Winner of the 2008 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs business book of the year award.

The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World.

By Amar Bhidé.

Princeton University Press; 520 pages; $35 and £19.95

A counterintuitive view of technology and globalisation that will delight those who believe that American innovation is insulated from economic ups and downs.

The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World.

By Tim Harford.

Random House; 272 pages; $25. Little, Brown; £18.95

Neither too lofty nor dumbed down, this is a fascinating study of how society is shaped by hidden pay-offs and punishments.

Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World.

By Don Tapscott.

McGraw-Hill; 384 pages; $27.95 and £15.99

A management guru explains why the net generation, who grew up playing video games and spending time on the internet, are not all messed up, as many people suspect, but have actually been improved by the experience.
Illustration by Daniel Pudles

Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything.

By Hal Sirkin, Jim Hemerling and Arindam Bhattacharya.

Business Plus; 304 pages; $26.99 and £18.99

Hal Sirkin and two colleagues explore how rich-country multinationals face increasingly effective competition from new emerging-market corporate champions, which compete not just on lower costs but also on greater ingenuity and efficiency.

The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs.

By Charles D. Ellis.

Penguin Press; 752 pages; $37.95. Allen Lane; £25

Goldman Sachs has long set the gold standard in finance, even though the current crisis nearly brought it down. With unprecedented access to insiders, Charles Ellis provides the best account yet of the rise of this investment bank and what makes it tick.

Link: http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12719711