Book Description

Entering the shady world of what he calls "violententrepreneurship," Vadim Volkov explores the economic uses of violence andcoercion in Russia in the 1990s. Violence has played, he shows, a crucial rolein creating the institutions of a new market economy. The core of his work iscompetition among so-called violence-managing agencies-criminal groups, privatesecurity services, private protection companies, and informal protectiveagencies associated with the state-which multiplied with the liberal reforms ofthe early 1990s. This competition provides an unusual window on the dynamics ofstate formation.

Violent Entrepreneurs is remarkable for its research. Volkov conducted numerousinterviews with members of criminal groups, heads of protection companies, lawenforcement employees, and businesspeople. He bases his findings on journalisticand anecdotal evidence as well as on his own personal observation.

Volkov investigates the making of violence-prone groups in sports clubs(particularly martial arts clubs), associations for veterans of the Soviet- Afghan war, ethnic gangs, and regionally based social groups, and he traces thechanges in their activities across the decade. Some groups wore state uniformsand others did not, but all of their members spoke and acted essentially thesame and were engaged in the same activities: intimidation, protection,information gathering, dispute management, contract enforcement, and taxation.Each group controlled the same resource-organized violence. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

An excellent scholarly work
If you're looking for a True Crime book on the Russian (Eurasian) "maffiya" in the style of Jerry Capeci or George Anastasia, this is not it. This book will seem "dry" to anyone seeking sensational reporting on ROC. However, it is an invaluable resource to academics, law-enforcement, or even the average enthusiast seeking well-researched information on the development, motivations, and modus operandi of the ROC groups. Admittedly, Volkov's work may seem a little pedantic at times, especially in his analysis of the dispute settlement process. However, few researchers in the field have produced such a thorough picture or created such a clear model for understanding Eurasian OC as Volkov has.

Painful
The book is very detailed and concise, and yet written in a style that is almost painful to read. Very dry and monotonous. You can easily imagine an university professor droning the words of the book.

Well researched, a lot of information, but not something that can be casually read. Written in a very dry style...

A superb book
This is a superb book. Anyone who is interested not only of the topic as in Russia but as throughout Eastern Europe should read this amazing book. I come from Bulgaria and I know from experience that the mafia development there is very similar.
A great book. ... Read more

Book Description

The first book to give students the breadth and depth of scholarship they need to understand the politics of the world economy, THE POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS has been fully updated to reflect the sweeping changes that continue to reshape the international arena. This Sixth Edition strengthens the text's contemporary coverage of political and economic relations, economic polarization in developing nations, and the roots of economic decline in centrally planned economies. Its new emphasis on the impact of economic globalization makes this definitive text ideal for use as a core text for the International Political Economy course, or as a supplement in the International Relations course. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good Book on Political Economy
As the last reviewer, who appears to be the author, said, this is a good book for undergraduate courses on international political economy.It does a great job of explaining the basic concepts and is a very readable book.It was an assigned reading for a course I took on international political economy and it provided an excellent structure and basis for the course.

The only downsides are a few bad examples and minor factual details.It is nothing that seriously affects or hurts the book as a whole.Also, the book has a slight slant to the neo-liberal perspective on political economy.Marxism, as a serious alternative theory, is short-changed a bit in the text, although most other texts have an even larger bias in this area.Overall, it is a good text.

The Politics of International Economic Relations
This is a text book for use in undergraduate courses on international political economy.Currently, it is the top choice of many instructors because it provides a thorough but readable historical account of how the world economy has been managed since the end of World War II.The book is organized in chapters about the international monetary system, foreign direct investment, and trade in both the developed and developing countries.In addition, it contains chapters about world oil politics, theories of economic development, and economic transitions in the formerly communist countries. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Few Americans have examined carefully the nation whose economy and industry is bound up with their own, whose future will inescapably shape theirs--Japan, that is. Dutch journalist Karel van Wolferen does the job, and very well indeed, depicting a Japan alternately awed and disgusted by the world beyond its shores, governed by a puppet emperor in the service of the zaikaijin, a gerontocracy of businessmen who control the national economy, just as they have done for generations. Their hierarchy is reinforced by the fear that, as in 1945, hostile powers will not only overpower the Japanese economy but denature the Japanese people, introducing foreign concepts of democracy and even the specter of an "impure race." Although Van Wolferen balances his account by highlighting what he regards as positive Japanese traits, including thrift, respect for elders, industriousness, and self-control, The Enigma of Japanese Power remains a controversial text in the nation it assays to describe with discomforting accuracy. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Amazing. I want a sequel for the recession era!
I first read this book in Kyoto, Japan. It left me staring into space, amazed by the depth of insight Wolferen had, and shared, into Japanese society.

Being a student at the time, I had plenty of opportunity to debate Wolferen's views with a wide range of political science professors, and although most of them disagreed with his almost Machiavellian portrayal of Japanese culture, calling it oversimplified and extreme, not one of them offered support for their views half as convincing as the support Wolferen offers for his. Bottom line: even if you disagree with Wolferen, you can't dismiss him with a wave of your hand.

I want a sequel, looking at what's changed now that recession-era rust is eating away at the previously fearsome Japanese economic machine.

No better available explanation of Japan.
Enigma deserves all the praise you may read in this forum. Karl van Wolferen brings his extensive experience and keen insight to blow way the perfumed-scented, silk-screen interpretations offered up by the Reischauers, the Jansens and the Vogels. I have lived in Japan for seven years, have studied her language, her people, her history and culture and truly no explanation of Japan even approaches this work.

It is interesting that while Japanese propagandists and apologists have always attacked revisionist works on Japan (and their authors), they have largely ignored Enigma. Witness the controversy surrounding Changfs Rape of Nanking and, earlier, the total ruination visited upon Berkowitz. I suppose they have no effective counters to the arguments put forth by van Wolferen and hope that the book will just go way.

For anyone who is interested in learning about how Japan really works this book is an excellent place to start. For those who dont know the people of Japan, it could lend itself to a misinterpretation: most Japanese that I know are acutely aware of the failings in their society and are none too happy with them. However, they see little opportunity for change. As Patrick Smith has observed, theirs is a life of desire with out hope. It is the system that is the problem.

enigma
Like Ruth Benedict, van Wolferen wrote a seminal book on Japan and Japanese culture. Benedict did so without ever having lived in Japan or knowing the Japanese language, as part of US wartime planning for the eventual occupation of Japan. Wolferen had the benefit of living in Japan for 20 years as a journalist, although he is said, enigmatically, to have never learned to read or write Japanese. The fact that in spite of this wilfull ignorance he has written a book that seems to have hit upon some very cogent insights into Japanese culture and politics is a tribute to his native intelligence and perceptiveness. His book, like Benedict's, is must reading for anyone interested in understanding the Japanese, but one must wonder how much credibility Americans would give a book about American culture and politics written by a journalist who had lived in the US for 20 years without learning to speak or read English!

5 stars for insight, minus 2 stars for wilfull ignorance.

Helped start the Japan bashing wave as mainstream but
This is actually a terrible book. It ought to get negative stars. Van Wolferen is simply a hack Dutch journalist whose command of English probably isn't much better than his non-existing Japanese (even though the book's strength is supposed to be its insider information). Who pays this guy to write such propaganda? Probably interests like Dutch Phillips, which in the late 80s and 90s worried about being put out of business by Japanese electronics makers. The political economy of Japan is SO MUCH more than anything VanWolferen describes. Now, there are parts that are perfectly true of Japan. The problem is that the author and many of his positive critics seems oblivious to the fact that what he is critiquing can also be applied to neoliberal imperialist political economies like the US and EU. Duh.

Just a Great Book - "Living in Submissive Harmony" My Title
As noted by the author in the book, the Japanese do not use the word "no", they try and seek a consensus, they live in a submissive harmony, they do not like to critique their own system, and they do not take kindly to outsiders pointing out any of this. So do not expect a native from Japan to endorse the book. Having said that this is just an excellent book.

One part of the book jumps out at me and I want to share that immediately to demonstrate the Japanese education and mind set. In Japan radical protestors often dress 100 % the same, where the same helmet and clothing all the same colors, and carry the same stick cut and shaped in the same way. They yell or chant radical leftist slogans together and have identical head-bands. In the west we would not view the people as spontaneous protestors but rather a well planned group following a leader. They are like a precision police marching band and differ from the police only in uniforms. That is how we differ. We are somewhat more chaotic but value the individual and the individual's religion.

This book contains a lot of good observations and information about the social structure in Japan. I have been to Japan a number of times and was impressed with the industry of the people, their dedication to organization, the cleanliness, the bullet trains, and the scale of some of their industries such as the large steel plants in Kawasaki where I worked on a job. It is a fascinating place where in central Tokyo everyone seems to wear a suit and thing are oh so clean. That is the visitor's view.

This book runs at a much deeper level that one sees in a visit or even working in Japan. It explains many institutions in a historical perspective - such as the police and press as two examples. People that have traveled and worked in Japan know that things are more complicated than they appear to westerners. It is not a question of better or worse than say the USA. It is just different, and as we suspect with one party in power for so long, probably not a real democracy as we think of the institution. What I never understood was how the relationships between different organizations and groups in the society actually worked. For myself, it is hard at first to understand the continuous reference to cultural differences by the Japanese when doing business with foreigners. It seemed like the Japanese were old fashion protectionists or even just a nation of racists/nationalists. In any case, this book brings many of these ideas into focus and it fills a lot of holes. It is excellent reading for the amateur or professional Japan watcher.

One of the key observations by the author is that the Japanese accepted many changes in the legal system and other institutions by the Americans after 1945 ended and Japan was under occupation. For simplicity, let us just say democratic reforms to the legal system. But since 1945-50 they have quietly gone about reversing many of these changes.

The good thing is that if you commit a crime but then confess you get off with a warning. But the police manage to keep the crime rate low and the numbers of people locked up low. The criminals must love that. But if you go to trial watch out! It is not a democratic process nor fair. The prosecutors hold the real power, not the judges, and there is a conviction rate over 99.8% - hardly a fair trial.

I like the author's assertion that no one is in charge in Japan including the government. In any case, it reinforces what we already knew, that the government has no real opposition. Dissent is often suppressed - for example corporations use boot camps for new college graduates. Japan is not really a democracy - it is groups of powerful people working together in a sort of quasi-democracy fashion. There are elections but just one party. So much of the political fighting is infighting in concert with the media.

Quite remarkably the institutions and people of Japan - despite the flaws and highly independent institutions (such as the police) have somehow come up with a way to work together and be a world economic power, if perhaps not an ideal democracy. This is just an excellent book.

There is too much information for a quick read. It takes a few readings to absorb all the concepts and information. Highly recommended.

Jack in Toronto ... Read more

Amazon.com

Something strange happened to the Enron Corporation in the early 1990s: It went from a company that traded in tangible goods to one that dealt in pure abstractions, with shoddy accounting practices, astonishing compensation packages, and smoke and mirrors to obfuscate this new reality.

Company auditors, Sherron Watkins among them, warned top Enron execs from CEO Kenneth Lay on down that the company’s increasing reliance on cooked books and phony reports "will implode in a wave of accounting scandals." As anyone who played the stock market or watched Enron suits do the perp walk on the evening news a couple of years ago will remember, that’s exactly what happened. Texas Monthly editor Swarz and Watkins team up to offer this account, rich in anecdote and numbers alike, of what went wrong and who made it so. Though even-handed throughout, they serve up plenty of righteous scorn for the corporate leaders who enriched themselves as the company disintegrated, and for the name-brand politicians who abetted them.

Though Osama bin Laden’s pawns barely dented the U.S. economy, observes Alex Berenson in The Number, Lay and his lieutenants brought it to its knees. Swartz’s and Watkins’s eye-opening account will rekindle new indignation over unpunished crimes and well-rewarded hubris, and it ought to be required reading in business schools henceforth. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (23)

A whistle-blower tells the fascinating story of Enron
Imagine the life of Sherron Watkins: a posh job with one of the most successful energy companies in the world, all of the amenities that come with wining-and-dining important contacts while negotiating deals worth millions --- and a nagging suspicion that something within the company you're working for isn't quite right. There were thousands of Enron employees, all with the same upward mobility and satisfying salaries that Sherron Watkins possessed. So what set Watkins apart from them? It was the fact that she was willing to risk sacrificing it all to expose the corrupt practices that had made Enron so profitable.

In POWER FAILURE, the entire history of Enron is explored, from its inception in 1985 to its demise in 2001. Written by Mimi Swartz with assistance from whistle-blower Sherron Watkins, this book will take the reader on a journey that includes Enron's earliest successes and failures, the super-charged management conferences, the politically incorrect Enron trading floors and the Senate Hearing Room's investigation and subsequent trial.

But POWER FAILURE is much more than just an expose on a corrupt corporation. It also provides a frightening view on what the big-business atmosphere has become. The story of Enron shows how delicate the balance of politics, money and business practices is, and how thin the line between legal and illegal can be.

Swartz and Watkins effectively tell the story of Enron without a hint of tabloid exploitation. And with all the exploitations that occurred within Enron, that's nothing short of a miracle. They give an accurate, honest perspective on all of the events that took place in the history of the corporation and portray the characters of Enron without bias. That's not to say that there's no negative statements made about people throughout the book --- just that they're given in a diplomatic manner. The book is written in an informative yet entertaining manner, complete with entertaining sidebars and humorous anecdotes to keep the reader's attention. And they have included plenty of pictures to point out just who the evildoers are. This is a must read for business people, tax evaders, anyone who plans to cheat the system, or the average Joe who wants to know what really happened at Enron.

--- Reviewed by Melissa Brown

A Must Read if you have Investments
April 23, 2003
I'm just finished 'Power Failure' the inside story of Enron's failure. The book is by Mimi Swartz and Sherron Watkins of Enron fame. It is a very well written and entertaining: I was pleasantly surprised. Sherron was a key part in the rise and later fall of 'Enron'.

Sherron actually ran some of the 'Off-Balance-Sheet' for Andy Fastnow. The book brought up lots pertinent history of 'Corporate America's' use of 'Off-Balance-Sheet' stuff and other revenue recognition policies and how the accounting firms aided and abetted. The book gave rise to one important question, how was it able to happen: it's evident that there is more fraud to be discovered.

It's my opinion that this book will be included in the other now famous period pieces like: 'Where are the Customers' Yachts?' By Fred Schwed, 'The Great Crash' by John Kenneth Galbraith and
'Reminiscences of a Stock Operator' by Edwin Lefevre

What happened at Enron reminds me of a 'Tom Clancy 'book, lots of movement and bad people.

Must Read
Ken Lay was the product of a very religious background in a small Midwestern town. During work on his PhD in economics, he became enamored of the world of stocks. He parlayed InterNorth, a small energy company into Enron. He was a rich man, having made $4 million in stock value increases from the merger of Houston Gas into InterNorth, later renamed Enron. He was also the highest paid CEO in the United States. The company's strengths were also its weakness: the constant risk-taking; the high debt load to ward off potential takeovers; "impassioned embrace of deregulation;" constant reorganization; and instant adoption of the hottest new business ideas. They were soon struggling for cash.

In the meantime, Lay had created a new culture at Enron. It was his belief that all one had to do was hire the best and the brightest, provide a free environment, and things would take care of themselves. He also had trouble saying no to anyone. He hired an old friend to be the "bad guy," but it soon became apparent to all that if you made money for the company you could get whatever you wanted.

Watkins was hailed in 2001, following the collapse of Enron, as a heroine for her "whistle-blowing." Whether her actions actually constitute that appellation is open to question. Certainly she was an insider, and her account reveals a great deal more of the financial shenanigans in greater detail than the previous book I reviewed, Anatomy of Greed. She interacted constantly with Lay, Skilling and Fastow, and if she got really nervous about what she was seeing, perhaps whistle-blowing was just a way of protecting her posterior.

What started out as a new paradigm, a different way of delivering energy, soon became a case of the blind leading the blind, or a corporate version of Dumb and Dumber, as the board and Enron employees began creating numerous new ways of hiding losses, even making losses look like revenue. It was a huge, ever-increasing house of cards.

Watkins is an accountant and naturally had a strong sense of the financial improprieties the company had embarked upon, but the impending doom she warned of in her now-famous memo to Lay should have been obvious to everyone. Enron's own head of research said presciently, "Every era gets the clowns it deserves."

If they ever make a movie of this book, it will have to be a comedy. It is astonishing how stupid many of the "best and brightest" graduates of American business schools were, as they bellied up to the trough of corporate greed. Sherron made an attempt to meet with Ken Lay, but first she had to convince his personal secretary to arrange a meeting. The secretary informed Watkins that "Ken gravitates toward good news. . . ." It did not bode well for the meeting. Another insider told her to make the presentation as simple as possible and eliminate any accounting jargon. She obliged and reworked her presentation so that her two-year-old daughter could understand it. The meeting was a flop, and it was clear to her that Lay could not understand - or perhaps did not want to understand - a thing she was talking about.

Ironically, Osama Bin Laden's exploits barely dented the US economy. Lay's machinations and the subsequent stock free fall provided a vicious slambang.

Solid good read
An interesting and involving read on the rise, demise and fall of Enron. The book draws the reader into this story of of corporate greed, corruption and deception.

No Energy Here Either
Disappointing. Although Watkins got a lot of play as a "whistleblower," you may develop a different opinion if you read her actual memo. Nothing new, which is disappointing given her immunity from prosecution, and too long in coming. Technically proficient ghost writer. ... Read more

Book Description

An enclyclopedic view of doing business with China. Contains the how-to, where-to and who-with information needed to operate internationally. ... Read more

Book Description

The U.S. took in more than a million immigrants per year in the late 1990s, more than at any other time in history. For humanitarian and many other reasons, this may be good news. But as George Borjas shows in Heaven's Door, it's decidedly mixed news for the American economy--and positively bad news for the country's poorest citizens. Widely regarded as the country's leading immigration economist, Borjas presents the most comprehensive, accessible, and up-to-date account yet of the economic impact of recent immigration on America. He reveals that the benefits of immigration have been greatly exaggerated and that, if we allow immigration to continue unabated and unmodified, we are supporting an astonishing transfer of wealth from the poorest people in the country, who are disproportionately minorities, to the richest.

In the course of the book, Borjas carefully analyzes immigrants' skills, national origins, welfare use, economic mobility, and impact on the labor market, and he makes groundbreaking use of new data to trace current trends in ethnic segregation. He also evaluates the implications of the evidence for the type of immigration policy the that U.S. should pursue. Some of his findings are dramatic:

Despite estimates that range into hundreds of billions of dollars, net annual gains from immigration are only about $8 billion.

In dragging down wages, immigration currently shifts about $160 billion per year from workers to employers and users of immigrants' services.

Immigrants today are less skilled than their predecessors, more likely to re-quire public assistance, and far more likely to have children who remainin poor, segregated communities.

Borjas considers the moral arguments against restricting immigration and writes eloquently about his own past as an immigrant from Cuba. But he concludes that in the current economic climate--which is less conducive to mass immigration of unskilled labor than past eras--it would be fair and wise to return immigration to the levels of the 1970s (roughly 500,000 per year) and institute policies to favor more skilled immigrants. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A cuban who doesn't like mexicans
what else is new? This book is like most academic work these days: start with a conclusion, then find supporting arguments.

Borjas's $8-10 billion estimate does not take into account the present value of a higher expected GDP growth rate due to faster capital accumulation. Elementary college economics.

Welfare and assistance costs apply more to legal immigrants or 2nd generation immigrants (including cubans) than illegal ones. Last I heard you need a Social Security number to apply for govmnt assistance.

In any case I am a strong believer in free markets and I think the market should decide who comes here who doesn't.
Ethnicity, education etc are arbitrary criteria and they just reflect Borjas's psychology and prejudices.

What people really want is $$$ and jobs, we want here whomever is going to make everybody rich, create wealth, create jobs, pay taxes, help us kick China's arse and fight terrorists. We don't necessarily need more Harvard economic professors.

And we shouldn't care if those people come from Mexico or from Mars, I personally don't ...

Required reading for study of modern immigration debate.
A very sound piece of economic work. Regardless of what you feel about Borjas's conclusions, you must acknowledge the value of his economic analysis. To truly have an understanding of the immigration debate, you must have read Borjas's work. His contributions to the field are immeasurable. While I do not always agree with him on the place of "ethnicity" in the realm of immigration policy making, I am more educated for even considering his proposal. In sum, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in immigration issues--especially those interested in its economic impact. ... Read more

Reviews (41)

problems of economic globalization are daunting
Greider is clearly one of the very top liberal\populist economic analysts who writes for laypeople today. Greider proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that economic globalization as it is practiced today is fraught with contradictions and the potential for disaster. His book is simultaneously alarming and hopeful; the prospects for implementing his common sense reform proposals seem poor in the current conservative political atmosphere, meaning that global deregulation is sure to move even quicker now, causing new and frequent financial crises. The fundamental point in his book are sound: that an unequal income distribution, reinforced by the relocation of capital to low-wage areas, exacerbates a problem of inadequate aggregate demand, making recessions more likely. Greider is quite clear in his belief that a deflation of incomes, economies, and prices is the ultimate consequence of this fundamentally unjust new world economic order. To support his thesis, he takes the reader on a tour of a variety of places all over the globe, showing how, for example, the repression of labor rights in a place as far away as Indonesia contributes to a worsening of the wage-earning potential of first-world middle income workers. Greider is one of the few writers today who offers a genuinely humane and efficient economic vision that the world would be wise to follow. He suggests worker ownership of capital as a middle road between the inequities of capitalism and the disincentives of communism. He points out how transaction taxes on international capital flows would return stability to foreign exchange markets and, more importantly, national economies. He makes clear that the rule of finance capital, as manifest in high real interest rates, is only exacerbating the fundamental capitalist problems. (inadequate demand and excess capacity) Above all else, he makes apparent that economies, like all social institutions, are fundamentally human contrivances, and thus can be favorably altered by a populace with enough imagination to envision a more prosperous, equitable, and environmentally sustainable future. Greider is way left of almost anyone in D.C. today, but he is no communist, as is apparent from a reading of this book. All progressives should read this book, (though it is somewhat complex for those without prior exposure to economics) and use Greider's policy suggestions to pressure the political class to legislate real changes in our global economy so that we can create a more stable, equitable, sustainable, and democratic global community. As a final point, it is very heartening to see someone provide such plentiful evidence for what to me is a self-evident proposition: widely-shared prosperity requires genuine political democratization, everyone and anywhere in this tightly bound global economy.

Provocative, Insightful, Compassionate Look at the 3rd Wave
No one writes with more verve, insight, and human compassion than long-time Rolling Stone contributor and Editor William Greider. His perspective always centers on the human cost of social phenomena, and is always heartfelt, compassionate, and extremely well focused. In this book he centers in brilliantly on the ways in which the so-called "Third Wave" of global trading and commerce is poised to transform the social, economic, and political landscape of the countries in which it is being introduced. His writing skills are superb, and the ordinarily dry and stuffy stuff of economics come alive in this highly readable and quite entertaining work. In fact, reviewer Brink Lindsey of the Kirkus Review called this book "the best-written book on the global economy" he had ever read. Ditto, Mr. Lindsey, ditto.

I also agree with his observations calling the prose energized, clear, and sharp. However, I disagree with the negative criticism many other critics and reviewers have voiced concerning Mr. Greider's conclusions herein, which seem to center on the fact that he is not an apologist, fellow-traveler, or celebrant of the new global forces. Indeed, Mr. Greider's perspective is more sanguine, expressing concern of the many ways in which this fundamentally anti-democratic new commerce tends toward becoming a revolutionary & extraordinarily well-focused force literally power-hosing the new wealth generated by this commerce in the direction of the rich and well placed at the expense of almost everyone else.

Who can argue against the observation that we increasingly face an amazing conundrum when in face of the greatest sustained period of prosperity in the last forty years many people at the lower reaches of the socioeconomic spectrum are slipping farther and farther behind, that this prosperity is not acting to level the playing field, but, on the contrary is intensifying the distances and qualitative life styles of the affluent and the poor, or with the observation that consistently the indifferent, selfish and affluent conservative Republicans, ignoring the needs and problems of a majority of others, still demand a substantial tax refund for themselves at the expense of the rest of the populace? The truth speaks for itself in the sense that the governments of the world seem either uninterested or unable to regulate, limit, or meaningfully constrain the powers, policies, or dispositions of the multi-national corporations who now produce, distribute, and control the majority of the world's commercial efforts.

These corporations seem to be primarily motivated by motives much less socially responsive or oriented than they are profit-centered. Unless one actually believes in the silly, self-serving and patently ridiculous nonsense about Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' of the market place, believing that somehow an unregulated and unconstrained world economy will automatically and magically manage and self-corrrect itself through the countervailing forces of the marketplace (can I sell you some of my old lottery tickets?), one must take heed of the plethora of examples one can readily observe concerning the changes in our social, economic, and political environment that stem from the effects of this new 'global economy'.

In summary, Greider argues that the world is headed for a difficult & chaotic set of social & economic circumstances; disastrous levels of industrial plant overcapacity, unmanageable surplus goods, unemployable labor pools, frantic & often irrational stock speculation, unserviceable debts, and chronic massive unemployment. While all may seem to be wonderful to a casual observer watching along the surface, we are in fact skating bravely over the very thin ice of a totally new and revolutionary set of socioeconomic circumstances, and we should hardly be racing across this fragile and frozen expanse so quickly or so recklessly, trusting so blindly in so many anonymous corporate forces that historically have never bothered to concern themselves with the social, economic or political consequences following in the wake of their profit-oriented activities. Given the increasingly random & uncontrollable flow & use of capital, coming to terms with this emerging bulwark of the 'new world order' will be increasingly problematic. His conclusions are similar to those of neo-Luddite authors like Sales Kirkpatrick and Theodore Roszak, who have come to similar conclusions about the increasingly serious situation emerging concerning a technical, commercial, and economic world spiraling out of control. In my opinion, Greider's book is a heaven-sent call to arms; the first issued by a mainstream social critic whose argument we would all do well to consider.

His conclusions drive the narrative
"The Storm Upon Us ... everything seems new and strange ... nothing seems certain ... masses of people are tangibly deprived of their claims to self-sufficiency ... this revolution is steadily creating the predicate for its own collapse ... the prospect of an economic or political cataclysm of unknown dimension ... ." These and similar claims are found on just the first two pages of the book. To be fair, Mr. Greider also references the "great fortunes" thrown off by globalization and the fact that millions escape poverty, but right from the start you get the feeling that he is working backwards from his conclusions and choosing his rhetoric and his examples to sell his point of view. It's almost as if Mr. Greider is suggesting that, now that the West has gone through the very sort of radical transformation he describes with shock and dismay, the rest of humanity should just stay where they are at while we in the industrialized world figure out if and how they should reach for the security and the lifestyle that we take for granted. If you are looking to validate an anti-globalization bias you already hold then this may be the book for you, but I think it's fair to say that most readers would like to benefit from Mr. Greider's considerable experience and expertise without having to interpret his selective or overly cynical presentation. In a nutshell, my problem with the book is not that it argues against globalization and is wrong, but that it is as committed to persuasion as it is to education. I chose not to finish the book and will look for a more neutral resource.

A Close Look At Globalism
I've been meaning to write about One World, Ready Or Not (1997) by William Greider for some time since I finished reading it a few weeks ago, but it is a difficult book to describe in detail given it's scope and content. I first encountered Greider in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine where he writes about politics and economics and was impressed by his intelligence and rational thinking. Needless to say, he is somewhat liberal and progressive. This book is an excellent look at globalism, especially how economic systems and policies affect the world. Some of these sections are bit difficult to follow, but I found his case studies of different companies and labor movements quite fascinating, especially the section about the airplane industry and Boeing in particular. He explained how Boeing parcels out parts contracts to countries that order airplanes as a sort of kickback for countries doing business with them.

The section about the negative impact of free trade zones on the poor people who work in them is very telling. (For a more comprehensive look at the exploitation of third world workers see Naomi Klein's excellent No Logo, which is a good companion text to this). It is something that has troubled me since I saw a large group of peasant girls lining up at the gates of a textile factory in Cambodia, they looked like they were twelve, it was very Dickensian. The fact that they make around $20 a month for shoes that cost over $100, is absurd to me. I'd like to present some of the suggestions he has for reforming the global economic system, which has been spiraling out of control. All of them seem quite reasonable to me.

1. Tax capital instead of labor.

2. Reform the terms of trade to ensue more balanced flows of commerce, compelling export nations to become larger consumers of the global production.

3. Bring the bottom up-raising wages on the low end as rapidly as possible-by requiring trading nations to honor labor rights.

4. Forgive the debtor-that is, initiate a general write-off of bad debts accumulated by poorer nations.

5. Reform the objectives of central banks so they will support a pro- growth regime instead of thwarting it.

6. Refocus national economic agendas on the priority of work and wages rather than trade or multinational competitiveness, as the defining issue for domestic prosperity.

As Greider mentions, none of the propositions I have suggested is especially radical or even new in historical terms, since they all have been actively employed at one time or another. Nonetheless, I don't really expect to see any of these reforms adopted given the fact that there's no real economic motivation to do so. The problem as Greider states it, is that there is no governing body with the best interests of workers overseeing economic policies. As a result the gap between the haves and have-nots will continue to extend. All in all, a very thought provoking look at global economics.

Amateur Opinions in Print
Grieder likes playing the role of a public intellectual- one who cuts through it all to see what is really going on. One who sees all that escapes supposed experts, particularly economists. What he sees is a destructive machine that is out of control. There is no one at the wheel of global capitalism, it is wreaking havoc, and will undo itself. To prove this point he describes capitalism and 'free market theory' with disparaging adjectives. To make his case he needs do explain why these theories are wrong and provide valid evidence. He does neither.

His evidence is at best, anecdotal. At worst it is from questionable or unnamed sources. Discussion of the free market concepts he opposes is almost totally lacking. The author claims that free market economics is unscientific and derides it as 'dogma' and 'a value laden form of prophecy' (p48). But, he tells his audience little about these supposedly false ideas. In fact, he admits (p53) that he does not argue much with this 'dogma'. So he admits to evading a serious discussion of the concepts he slanders.

He speaks in terms of absurdly simplistic supply and demand type reasoning, and mentions arbitrage, but he ignores the real issues that pertain to his subject matter. His chapter on wages and work ignores the issue of labor productivity- he barely mentions it (p67+76). The economic arguments that he dismisses hinge on marginal productivity, but it is not clear that knows anything about this supposed dogma. Instead, he focuses on income distribution between capital and labor. He sees international competition in labor markets as benefiting capital- consumers seem not to benefit from this at all. Later in this book (p122), he stumbles into the notion that competition benefits consumers, but fails to realize that he has damaged his own argument.

Greider claims that the most successful Asian economies rejected Laissez Faire and free markets (p87). But, the most successful postwar Asian economies (including Japan) have some of the freest markets. They have some governmental intervention, but far less than other nations. This is not Laissez Faire in the strictest sense, but who would deny that Hong Kong has a high degree of Laissez Faire? Successful Asian nations developed after considerable (not complete) privatization and deregulation.

He writes that the general claim by economists that free trade benefits people generally and causes only temporary and narrowly focused dislocation (p73) is wrong. His condemnation of trade theory is strong, yet he fails to demonstrate an understanding of important concepts, like the principle of comparative advantage. If he wants to engage in idle conjecture that is fine. But if he is going to claim that the experts are generally wrong, he could at least demonstrate a basic understanding of what the experts actually say.

Greider is fond of labor unions. He employs a simplistic high wages=prosperity argument to argue that labor competition benefits capital only and is per see bad for workers (p59). Efforts to restrict competition do raise wages for some workers. It also renders other workers unemployable (productivity matters) Greider provides an example of this principle in action with his Thailand example of job losses following higher minimum wages (p 70). This contradicts his dismissal of economic theory. Greider also writes much about things like social cohesion, shared responsibility, and collective identity. These are catchy phases, but indicate little more than his own dissatisfaction with current trends. He claims that people are helpless in the face of global capitalism, but voluntary consumer spending drives it. There is 'someone' at the wheel of global capitalism- global consumers.

Greider also has nice things to say about Veblen and Keynes (p51-2). In Veblen's case, there is some reason to show some admiration. Veblen was an interesting, though mistaken thinker. Keynes is a different matter. Greider tries to substitute discredited Keynesian ideas regarding overproduction for sound economic theory. He explains neither theory, provides no relevant evidence, and instead assumes the superiority of the demand-side economics of Keynes. This is mere conjecture rather than argument.

Greider complains that America is the worlds 'buyer of last resort' that absorbs surplus production. We supposedly buy imported VCR's, TV's, cars, beer, and clothing not because we derive consumer satisfaction from these goods. We are desperately trying to prop up global Capitalism by spending beyond our means! This, of course, is doomed to failure because we cannot accumulate debt forever. So he accepts Keynesian theory, which promotes deficit spending, but complains about he practice of deficit spending.

Greider admires Keynes' optimism about the supposed possibility of abundance (p440). Once having solved the economic problem, we can 'become social beings on a larger scale, discarding barbarism' and so on. Instead of private property in capital, we should have universal capital ownership- in other words, socialism. Greider dodges all the economic objections concerning socialism, all the incentive and knowledge problems. Instead he whines about how Capitalism induces 'infantile responses'- the pursuit of self interest and evasion of responsibility for collateral consequences of actions. This all reveals that Greider is merely a utopian dreamer. Limited life spans and physical resources put abundance permanently out of reach. Self interest is a part of human nature. As for evading responsibility, that is what socialism does. It socializes costs. Property rights enforcement under Capitalism forces people to bear responsibility for their actions. Some try to avoid this, but that is a violation of Capitalist ethics, not a consequence of them.

Perhaps his most obvious error is in blaming industrial capitalism for the rise of Nazism (p38). Everybody knows that the treaty of Versailles and hyperinflation wrecked German economy and led to Hitler's rise to power- everybody but Greider.

Grieder derides professional opinion rather than criticizing it. Of course, there is no reason why amateurs cannot criticize professional opinion. But Greider does not do this. He offers conjecture, derision, and utopian fantasies, but no substantive analysis. This book should not be taken seriously. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

The end of the US hegemony?
Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System distills a systematic process out of the past Dutch and English hegemonies and applies it to the current American hegemony. The authors state that the end of a hegemony cycle always coincides with financial crisis. The current accounting scandals and stock market turmoil could be symptoms of the end of the American hegemony. The book goes into detail into the history and mechanics of each hegemony and describes the transition between each of them. In the conclusions, Asia and more particularly China is pointed out as the next potential hegemon.

The underlying theoretical canvas of the book makes sense. It gives a historical and scientific look on the mechanics of globalisation. The book is of course academic in nature, which doesn't always help readability, when having to navigate through references and footnotes. It is only in the conclusions that a more linear tone is taken. Next step for me, exploring some books on the future hegemon: China?

A fabulous book explaining our current global trouble
In a simple and concise way, Arrighi et al explain the rise and fall of the Dutch, English and American power in the modern world system (Since 1600 AD). In a 400 years sweep they show the evolution of geopolitics, state, finance, social classes and corporate structure in the rise and decline phases of each power.

After they described the processes which have affected the evolution from Dutch to English, English to American and the present weakening of the American power, book provides several possibilities for the future based on previous experiences. One of the conclusions is that corporations remain bound to their country of origin and that a corporate-led world will not survive the United States power, just like previous types of corporations did not survive English or Dutch demise. Another warning is the danger that the last phase of power, which is finance based and characterized by globalisation of finance always ends-up in a disaster: 1772-1773 crash in London, 1929 crash in Wall Street. Collapse of NASDAQ, trouble in Japan, California electricity could be the symptoms of this last phase of American power.

An essential book to understand the process of change and how to possibly adapt to it.

A thoughtful survey of 300 years of global power
Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System is a wonderful and comprehensive sweep of 300 years of power, politics and high finance. It is also a helpful counterpoint to some of the more gloating books filled with triumphilism or dire books of environmental doom-saying often found in when surveying the field. ... Read more

Book Description

Praise for the first edition ". . . a valuable reference for anyone interested in Japan's economy. . . provides essential background information as to how Japan's bureaucracy functions, how its trade relationships have developed, and why some policies are as firmly entrenched as they are." -- Far Eastern Economic Review

The MIT Encyclopedia of the Japanese Economy was the first English-language encyclopedia to cover all major aspects of Japan's postwar economy. The second edition has been fully revised and expanded, and includes previously unpublished data as well as coverage of recent developments in the economy. The definitional entries concisely explain major economic concepts and include translations of Japanese economic terms and cross references to the longer topical essays. The 180 topical essays cover banks, financial systems, major industries, corporate groups, management practices, labor unions, international trade and investments, government economic policies, and more. They also include comprehensive statistics, American and Japanese views on economic relations between the two countries, and suggestions for further reading. A new index contains names of major companies. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Invaluable reference source
As an international equity portfolio manager specializing in Japanese equities, this book is a very valuable reference source. The book describes many of the key institutions and their interlocking nature. Full of cross references, addresses & phone numbers (for institutions) and mini bibliographies for most major concepts, this book is a great hub for studying the Japanese economy. I look forward to the next edition. ... Read more

Book Description

Europe's Experimental Union challenges conventional writings on European intergration by situating the analysis of the EU in the context of changing patterns of political and econimic order.The authors conclude that the union is not evolving towards a federal superstate, but rather, is an arena of deep economic intergration governed by a prismatic polity characterised by innovation, experimentation, pragmatis, decentralisation and devolution.Although it may seem unsettled, this book reveals that in fact the experimental nature of the the EU enables it to respond to multiple agendas and Europe's diversity in a flexible manner. ... Read more

Book Description

"This will be a very significant contribution to gender studies, the literature on social movements, and our understanding of post-socialist societies. . . . Its clear and sensitive writing style makes it very valuable for classes and a broad audience, while its sophisticated understanding of contemporary theory on development, social movements, and discourse analysis makes it useful for more specialized readers." --Frances Rothstein, Professor of Anthropology, Towson UniversityNicaragua's Sandinista revolution (1979-1990) initiated a broad program of social transformation to improve the situation of the working class and poor, women, and other non-elite groups through agrarian reform, restructured urban employment, and wide access to health care, education, and social services. This book explores how Nicaragua's least powerful citizens have fared in the years since the Sandinista revolution, as neoliberal governments have rolled back these state-supported reforms and introduced measures to promote the development of a market-driven economy.Drawing on ethnographic research conducted throughout the 1990s, Florence Babb describes the negative consequences that have followed the return to a capitalist path, especially for women and low-income citizens. In addition, she charts the growth of women's and other social movements (neighborhood, lesbian and gay, indigenous, youth, peace, and environmental) that have taken advantage of new openings for political mobilization. Her ethnographic portraits of a low-income barrio and of women's craft cooperatives powerfully link local, cultural responses to national and global processes. ... Read more

Book Description

"Hoskins, McFadyen and Finn de-dismalise economics. Their book is clearly written, full of cogent and apposite examples and analyses persuasively what makes media and communications like, and unlike, other economic sectors. From network externality to public good, from experience goods to superstars, from dumping to quotas they lucidly guide the reader through the tangles of the new economy and why it now matters less if maids burn books. Eat your heart out Thomas Carlyle."

-Richard E. Collins, The Open University, U.K.

How does the Internet affect the supply of information-based entertainment and cultural goods? Why do telephone companies have peak and off-peak prices for long-distance calls? Why is broadcasting, but not newspaper publishing, usually regulated and sometimes subsidized? Media Economics: Applying Economics to New and Traditional Media provides a thorough foundation of the microeconomic principles and concepts needed to understand media industries and issues in the converging media environment.

Media Economics differs from ordinary media economic texts by taking a conceptual approach to economic issues. As the book progresses through economic principles, authors Colin Hoskins, Stuart McFadyen, and Adam Finn use cases and examples to demonstrate how these principles can be used to analyze media issues and problems. Media Economics emphasizes economic concepts that have distinct application within media industries, including corporate media strategies and mergers, public policy within media industries, how industry structure and changing technologies affect the conduct and performance of media industries, and why the United States dominates trade in information and entertainment.

Key Features

• Chapter opening vignettes introduce the issues analyzed in each chapter
• Concise definitions of key terms for a clear understanding of basic microeconomic and managerial economic concepts
• Examples from a variety of media industries including those in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia
• A concept-driven approach enabling a longer shelf-life as technologies, structures, and revenues change
• A recognition of the reality of convergence and consolidation in media industries rather than addressing each media outlet individually

Media Economics assumes no prior background in economics and is designed for undergraduate and graduate students studying media economics and media industries. The book is an ideal text for public policy and the media as well as media and society courses with an economic perspective taught in Media Studies, Communication, Business, Journalism, Film Studies, Political Studies, and Economics programs.

Reviews (14)

not quite accurate .. hoping for 2nd edition
I was happy to see this book come out since I only had found the
older "Places Rated Almanac" up to this point. I am looking to
relocate and so this sort of information is very useful to me.

However, I am going to return this book since I am disappointed
with the rankings and question the accuracy of the information. I
know two towns rather well, and both were mis-characterized in
the rankings.

Example 1 - Macon, GA: "Snows occurs during most winters." This
is simply not true. There was a dusting of snow 2 years ago that
lasted maybe a day and a half. Previous snow, 10 years before
then. Long time locals tell me that it's extremely rare to get
any snow here.

Example 2 - Iowa City, IA: IC received a score of 7 for Arts &
Culture, Macon a 25 - this is totally ridiculous. There are a lot
of things going on in Iowa City, Macon doesn't even come
close. To award Macon a score nearly 4 times higher than Iowa
City boggles the mind.

I know these two places well, and for me the information about
these two places puts into question the rest of the information
in the book.

I hope there will be a revised, and more accurate second edition
out.

I give it two stars since the rankings/editorial comments are
important to me. While I can't comment on the
accuracy of the statistics, the rankings/editorials were one of
the main reasons for my getting this book. Raw statistics can
be used to look up specific information, but the other material

can guide your search.

Fair and Balanced Resource for Evaluating Cities
A previous reviewer complained of a liberal slant to Cities Ranked & Rated. Faithfully playing the part of the "I haven't read it, but I'm gonna condemn this communist filth anyhow" conservative, the reviewer's complaints were based on reading a USA Today article and not the book itself. I bought a copy (of the book) and I'm just not seeing a lot of politics here. I am, however, seeing a lot of really useful information based on objective, statistical information (including the unfairly derided quality of life statistics compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau and other agencies). I looked at the authors bios and found a link to www.bestplaces.net, which includes an interactive questionaire that helps you pick your ideal city. It appears to be based on the same data sets as the book. I would recommend anyone who suspects political bias on the part of the authors to go to this site and find out where their personal preferences would actually take them. I was surprised by what it told me.

Great resource
Ignore the previous two reviews, not sure what these guys were up to or why. They went to deep dark corners to unearth "errors". Some may be true but some of their assertions, like no published cost of living data by city, are just plain wrong. I know -- I am a professional market researcher.

For 17 bucks, this book makes a handy reference for my profession and is a top resource if I ever decide to move. Authors have done a good job assembling otherwise hard-to-get information in a nice package.

Mistakes and suspect data ruin this tome
Sorry, I have to dissent from positive ratings this book has been receiving. It has many errors, missourced or old data, and more than a few flatulent statements. Let's mention a few.

Early in the book the authors place Pine Bluff in Arizona (though later they move it to its correct location in Arkansas). A table (p.60) detailing population growth since 1990 shows Phoenix gaining over 2 million people, Atlanta gaining nearly 3 million, and Orlando gaining over 1 million. These may be typos, but they are astronomically incorrect.

The book depends too much on the 2000 Census of Population. Aside from using stale four-year old figures, one might say the book strays from rating the quality of cities to rating the quality of people living in them. Just an observation.

Moving on, consider this outrageous statement (p. 112): The number of Starbucks in a city "is indicative of the overall quality of retail establishments." Say again?

Starbucks is a service establishment, not a retailer. A Starbucks indicates the presence of a 25 to 50 demographic that buys a $3.00 latte grande. It says little about the quality of retailers in the city.

Here's another statement: One of Louisville, Kentucky's black marks is "low public-school utilization," (p. 462) based entirely on how many children were in private schools in 2000.

Shall we permit the authors to withdraw that remark? First, San Francisco, New Orleans, and even Dubuque are shown in the book to have greater proportions of children in private schools -- yet these cities don't receive similar criticism. Second, so what? For families on the move, shouldn't there be alternatives to public schools if they're wanted?

Amazingly, Boulder, Colorado (with employers like the University of Colorado, Hewlett-Packard, and the National Bureau of Standards) received the worst ranking for ECONOMY & JOBS, while locations like Billings, Montana, and Elkhart, Indiana, received top rankings based on employment figures nearly a year old (August 2003).

Lastly, I can tell you, CATEGORICALLY, that the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not produce cost-of-living figures for each city, in spite of the book's claims that BLS is the source for these data. Are the figures in the book a fabrication or is this simply an incorrect source?

Perhaps a second edition is planned. Let's hope so.

Bursting with contradictions and factual errors
I hate to rip into an author's hard work, but I've spent an hour with this book and it cries out for the harshest criticism. It is so much flawed by errors that buyers deserve a refund.

The authors write, "the University of Mississippi adds college-town features" to the state capital in Jackson. Alas, the university is in Oxford, 150 miles north. They write of State College, Pennsylvania: "at 75,000, the [Penn State University] student body outnumbers the town's non-student population," unaware that 35,000 are somewhere else in the state at 20 branch campuses.

"Interestingly," they observe, "higher education facilities are present in all but 3 of the 331 metropolitan areas: San Angelo, Texas; Racine, Wisconsin; and Punta Gorda, Florida." What are Angelo State University in San Angelo and Edison Community College in Punta Gorda? Mirages?

The authors show Yuma, Arizona, resembling Albania or Lesotho because of an August 2003 unemployment rate of 34 percent. The figure reflects farm workers applying for unemployment benefits after the harvest and has little to do with the year-round economy. Apparently, the warnings from Bureau of Labor Statistics to stick with 'seasonally adjusted' unemployment statistics were lost of the authors.

What about the book's internal contradictions?

"Oil and gas are the main industries," they write of Lafayette, Louisiana (but later, 'Healthcare and Social Assistance' is listed as Lafayette's "largest employing industry"). Gainesville, Florida, "doesn't have serious problems with hurricanes," (but later, Gainesville is awarded one the country's worst "hurricane risk" scores). Hartford, Connecticut "has the greatest percentage of Hispanic residents north of Florida and east of the Mississippi," (but later, Jersey City and New York are shown to have much higher figures). Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is a beach resort with "over 100 golf courses," (but later, Myrtle Beach's "golf-course rating" is pegged as one the country's worst). Santa Fe's "arts and culture" is its strong suit (later on, the New Mexico capital is ranked in the bottom third in the ARTS & CULTURE category).

Finally, a place's category rankings don't agree when they are summarized in the book's Appendix. For example, New Orleans's CLIMATE rank of 97 falls to 100 in the Appendix. Boulder, Colorado's ECONOMY & JOBS rank of 328 sinks to 331 in the Appendix. There are hundreds of similar discrepancies.

I have grave doubts that the information and data in this book will stand up to any more scrutiny. My copy is on its way back to amazon.com. ... Read more

Book Description

"This is precisely the book that I have been waiting for. It is completely up to date, it deals with the most important questions, and the authors explain complex economic issues in simple and helpful ways, without loss of rigour or generality." -- David Hojman, Journal of Latin American Studies

"An important book. . . . Few other single-volume surveys of the region have so skillfully brought to our attention the complex tapestry of modern Latin American political economy." -- Antonia Jorge and Paul Moncarz, Journal of Developing Areas

Latin America's Economy provides a clear, comprehensive, and accessible overview of major economic issues facing Latin America today, including balance of payments problems, inflation, stabilization, poverty, inequality, and land reform. Each chapter centers on an economic problem, presenting major economic theories about the causes and possible solutions to the problem. The authors provide numerous cross-country examples to demonstrate how individual countries are affected by economic trends or policies. Chapters also include helpful summaries and ideas on what the future may hold. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good history, but outdated
This book serves as a good history of Latin America's economic history until the late 1980s.Of course, given its publication in 1995, not much more could be expected.However, if you are looking for a good understanding of Latin America's main eocnomies, it is not sufficient, since the changes that most countries have faced in the 1990s and early 2000s are dramatic.For example, there is very little in this book dealing with privatization (the wave that hit the region in the early 1990s), or even the control of inflation and the (limited) opening of markets to international trade.

Given all that has happened since its publication, it is good history, but does not reflect the current reality.

Latin America's Economy
This book is probably one of the most widely used for classes on Latin American Economic Development. It is well-structured and combines a revision of the main historic events that had impacted the economic development of Latin America with alternative theoretical explanations.It gives special priority to topics such as inflation, debt crisis and poverty and inequality that are crucial for the understanding of the Latin American economic evolution.Moreover, the text does not forget about the role played by the interaction between politics and economics.In this sense, the chapter on populism is remarkable.However, many of the statistical tables are outdated and in my modest opinion, a future revision of the book should include a chapter on the neoliberal reforms and their consequences. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

A looming identity crisis for socialist utopians
Stephen Moore, leader of the Club For Growth, and the recently deceased Julian Simon, made famous by his bet with Robert Ehrlich and also from his solution for airline overbooking, have contributed once again to the dragon-slaying of the social justice mythology. Their rigorous compilation of data on the continued ability of free market economies to create an ever rising surplus for all people is unsurpassed. I read Simon's "State of Humanity" a couple of years ago and it was equally as informative. Alm & Cox's "Myths of the Rich and Poor" also correlates with the data presented in this book.

An interesting phenomena occurs when you present this book to die-hard socialists. They continue to disclaim its validity by eg. citing the disparity between CEO compensation and the bottom 25% of the population. In fact they present you with statistics of their own which seemingly refute the data in this book. When you probe and ask them how their statistics were compiled they become evasive and fuzzy, but they continue to rely on them to underpin their position. They engage in the fallacy of inductive logic which consists of reasoning from the particular to the general i.e. if they used the Canadian health care system for a cough and they were satisfied with the results of their medical care then ipso facto such a system is good. In addition it's better than the U.S. system because it's cheaper, etc. They ignore all the other inputs and outputs that any cursory economic study would investigate. It's almost like they would suffer an emotional crisis if they had to accept relity i.e. like the conclusions in this book. Why this is so would be worthy of continued discussion, but the need to denigrate solid evidence seems neccessary in order to retain their sense of self.

Emotional trauma, provided by irrefutable evidence contrary to a belief system, seems to erode one's certainty in adhering to a false construct; but results are uneven and take long periods of time to penetrate society. Statistics, such as we have here, are younger than our century, and have only been subject to accurate number crunching coincident with the rise of the main frame computer (in the 60's). The authors should continue to educate the people. A constitutional republic such as ours works best with the input of an educated citizenry. Kudos to Moore and Simon, may he rest in peace.

This book is the antidote to so much pessimism
Every four years we're told how civilization has fallen into ill-rebuke. The chattering classes continue to repeat the Marxist slogan that the poor have fallen behind while the idle rich have gotten richer by stealing from the poor. But this rare optimistic book knocks those arguments cold. As a civilization, Americans are healthier, smarter, wealthier, happier, than at any time in America or the world at any point in civilization. There is not such a thing as the so-called "good old days.&quo