Book Description

Low inflation, high employment, a stock market that has reached unprecedented heights. The economy doesn't get any better than this. Clearly, for the seventy-six million baby boomers hitting their prime earning years, the "good old days" are right now, and there's no end in sight. Or is there?

In this powerful, prescient book, economists and financial wizards William Sterling and Stephen Waite take an indepth look at how America's baby boomers have transformed the nation's--and the world's--economy and how that transformation must inevitably--and radically--alter its course as the boomers age. Grounded in common sense, infused with the startling clarity, Boomernomics is a book you can't afford to ignore.

Yes, the good times are bound to go on rolling for at least another decade. The demographics fueling the current boom, coupled with the huge benefits of technology and globalization, will take us into the twenty-first century on a building wave of prosperity--and Sterling and Waite show us how best to capitalize on that. But when the wave crashes, it may crash hard and fast.

But the economic "big chill" won't freeze you if you're prepared for it. As Sterling and Waite show, there are strategies we can use, both as private individuals and collectively as a nation, to prosper during the "age wave." Privatizing social security, applying market principles to the health care system, rethinking the concept of retirement, tapping creatively into the potential gold mine on the Internet, using demographics to pinpoint growth industries: these are among the prescriptive suggestions that the authors use to successfully manage their thirty-billion-dollar money market fund--and that will now work for you.

The baby boom is the single most significant social and economic phenomenon of the twentieth century--but its full impact will only be felt in the decades ahead. This landmark book gives you the vision and the knowledge you need to stay ahead of the all-important demographics curve.
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Reviews (9)

This is required reading for those who read about the future
As an accountant and business teacher, I have long wondered about governement's indebted funds--Social Security Debt (at least 15 trillion in debt which is basically equivalent to the total value of American public stocks), Medicare Debt and other debts. This futurist book is one of the few that has been able to understand this. This futurist book is one of the few that even discusses this.

What most people don't know is that the budget uses crooked accounting and count the social security and medicare and medicaid cash-in flows as revenue in the budget, but they don't expense the debt. The result of this is having a budget surplus, despite going futher into debt. Right now, we are at least 25 trillion in debt and it will likely get worse. However, when baby-boomers retire, the cash-in flows in these funds will be huge out-flows.

So, even if the 5.7 trillion "budget" debt is taken care of by 2013 like Clinton says it will be, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid funds will go bankrupt at around that time too if we want to continue to use government for what it was more traditional used for like roads, schools, and police. There is simply not enough money to go around. Either we pay for social security and Medicare and Medicaid or we pay for roads, defense and welfare or we pay for the empty funds. If uncorrected, it will be the end of a free-market society and America will cause a global economic meltdown. I don't know, you decide what life will be like when the AARP, the most powerful interest group finds out that the social security and medicare and medicaid funds are bankrupt and cannot even come close to supporting themselves.

This is the conclusion I have reached and if you disagree and have the data to back it up, I would love to hear from you at tingoglia@hotmail.com because I get too depressed even thinking about it. Or, heck, if you agree, you can e-mail me too. I HIGHLY RECCOMMEND THAT YOU READ THIS BOOK. Vote Republican or Libertarian.

C'mon folks, it's not revolutionary!
It's a good solid read that went REALLY fast -- too fast perhaps. The book is rather fluffy, when you get down to it. I could have learned as much from 5 pages of charts and tables and statistics and about 40 pages of essays on the data.

Instead, this is written for the mass market, and mass-market are too easy. I like a more difficult read that makes me think. As far as financial books go, the trends are important, but not mind blowing either.

Still, I rate it three stars. Even that's a little generous, i feel.

The first four reviews, by the way, were submitted by the author's friends and family, very obviously.

I suggest a little consumer backlash here -- demand a real review, or rate the article "NOT USEFUL." :)

An Excellent Guide to the Possible Future
As a member of the financial industry, I'm always looking for hints as to which sectors of the market will do well in the future. This book is exactly what I was looking for. Using demographic trends, the authors have come up with some scenarios which will definitely change my outlook on the future.

A BRILLIANT WORK
WAITE IS A GENIUS WHOS IDEAS ARE OUT OF THIS WORL

Buy it.
This book is awesome. Buy it. That's all there is I have to say about it. ... Read more

Book Description

Inflation targeting -- when central bank policies set specific inflation rate objectives -- is widely used by both developed and developing countries around the world (although not by the United States or the European Central Bank). This collection of original essays looks at how Brazil's policy of inflation targeting, coupled with a floating exchange rate, survived a series of severe economic shocks and examines the policy lessons that can be drawn from Brazil's experience.

After a successful start in early 1999, Brazil's policy regime had to manage mounting difficulties, including a sudden reversal of capital flows and its effects on the exchange rate and public debt, the contagion of Argentina's severe economic problems, a domestic energy crisis, and the political uncertainty of the 2002 presidential campaign. The contributors, prominent Brazilian and international economists, draw important lessons from Brazil's experience, including the necessity of accompanying monetary policy with fiscal improvement, the trade-offs involved in dollar-linked debt, the importance of fiscal institutions in an emerging market economy, and the importance of keeping inflation under control. ... Read more

Book Description

B> This is a survey of every aspect of the period in which the Britain was transformed into the world's first industrial power. It was an era of revolutionary change unparalleled in Britain, yet one in which transformation was achieved without political revolution.The combination of revolution and transition is a major theme of the book, which ranges across the embryonic empire, the Church, education, health, finance and rural and urban life, and gives particular attention to the Great Reform Act of 1832.Examining Britain's rise to superpower status, this third edition of The Forging of the Modern State includes an entirely new introductory chapter, and is illustrated for the first time.For those interested in British history. ... Read more

Book Description

The US economy faced the prospect of a serious recession even prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The afflictions that had deepened under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush—wage stagnation, rising inequality, and wildly inflated stock markets—sharpened further. The highly unstable conditions that Clinton handed to Bush were hardly noticed amid the near-universal praise for the economic stewardship of Clinton and his supposed policy maestro, Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan.

This book shows how these variants of neoliberal economics—which lavish favors on multinationals and capitalists while allowing living standards for ordinary people to fall—operate in the US and less developed countries, and explores policies for economic growth with increased equality. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Contours of Descent: US Economic Fractures and the Landscape
Academic economists are a curmudgeonly bunch who, typically dissatisfied, need to cast blame and aspersion. One trick is to identify those causing the problems while avoiding in turn criticisms of political or other biases. Pollin (Univ. of Massachusetts-Amherst) accomplishes that trick admirably in this book by pointing out what he sees as the failings of the Clinton and Bush presidencies. In both cases, the failings are identified fundamentally as support of corporate over popular interests. The recession bridging the two administrations was caused by the flawed policies followed by President Clinton. The policies being pursued by President Bush are predicted to lead to even greater crises. Pollin contends that avoiding these problems requires a commitment to full employment policies and the "living wage." A less restrictive attitude toward inflation coupled with new financial market regulations, including a Tobin Tax on financial transactions, would facilitate the realization of these goals. The arguments are focused and well presented, although Appendix 3 explaining regression results could have been more detailed. All in all, a well argued case for taking the "neo" out of neoliberal. This volume will not convince everyone, but it should cause some heated discussions. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Public and academic library collections.

Powerful
Read "Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity" by Robert Pollin, the co-author of "Living Wage." Pollin is a brilliant economist interested in using economics for the good of our society. He's also ruthlessly honest, and you won't catch him bragging, a' la Dick Gephardt, about the glorious Clinton days. Pollin's critique of Clinton's economic program is harsh and that of W. Bush's devestating. The lessons are clear, and Pollin closes with useful recommendations.

Unsustainable Neoliberal Agenda
"Contours of Descent" is a prescient reevaluation of the U.S. and global economies during the Clinton years. For some, the rise of the stock market, low unemployment and inflation, and budget surpluses, when taken together, are proof positive that the Clinton years were as good as it gets for the economy. But not so fast says the author.

Clinton ran a "putting people first" campaign, but at some point a "center-right, Washington Consensus" direction was pursued. It was a neoliberal agenda that emphasized smaller government, free trade, and deregulation of financial markets. Inflation, fueled by wage demands, was kept in check through the threat of outsourcing jobs. Welfare rolls were drastically reduced by forcing welfare recipients to work at sub-poverty level wages. The Clinton administration and Alan Greenspan made no attempt to curb the speculative excesses of the financial markets. Stocks rose to unsustainable price to earning ratios. The economy was driven by both increased consumer debt and private investment. The obsession with larger and larger budget surpluses precluded making needed investments in infrastructure and education and training.

Part of the Washington Consensus is the participation of globally-oriented financial and trade bodies, such as the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO, who impose neoliberal policies when possible. The opening for these international bodies is when debt-ridden countries find themselves in untenable positions. But relief from these bodies is not unconditional. The countries are forced to privatize, eliminate subsidies for domestic purposes, cut government spending, and remove all restrictions on foreign investment. In addition, the countries are invariably pressured to pursue a strategy of producing for export to acquire the cash to pay off debts. Keeping wages low by disciplining workers is part of the strategy of exporting and attracting foreign manufacturers. The author shows that these neoliberal policies have had harsh effects in many countries, such as Mexico and Argentina.

Of course, the stock market bubble collapsed. The Federal Reserve had failed to exercise its power to limit speculation and now was unable to spur a recovery with huge cuts in the Federal Funds interest rate. The excessive investment during the Clinton boom had created excess capacity. The author continues with the Bush administration, which is even more committed to pursuing a neoliberal program. The massive tax cuts that are being pursued by Bush have added to the huge increase in inequality that occurred in the Clinton years. The resulting huge deficits preclude any increase in domestic spending but do allow the pursuit of a military agenda that seems geared to benefit multinational corporations. Again, it is hoped that inflation will be checked by worker insecurities.

It seems rather obvious that neoliberalism is unsustainable in the long-run. In an interesting take, the author presents neoliberalism as presenting problems that Marx, Keynes, and Polanyi delineated. He calls for the re-regulation of financial markets, limits on free trade, and more domestic investment, including full employment. But it is a glaring shortcoming of the book that no attempt is made to describe how such a redirection could or will come about. Can it happen only politically or must a major collapse on the scale of the Great Depression first occur?

For those who need convincing that the Clinton years were not as good as they seemed, this may be the book for you.

Towards a more equitable, stable and prosperous world
Robert Pollin's "Contours of Descent" is a lucid and coherent dissection of neoliberal economic policies as practiced in the U.S. and around the world. The author very effectively cuts through the political doublespeak of recent U.S. administrations to show that neoliberalism has served as the guiding principle for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Following a careful and methodical critique of the Clinton/Bush record, Mr. Pollin advances an alternative set of policy proscriptions that might lead us towards a more equitable, stable and prosperous world.

Mr. Pollin is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The humanity and practicality that infuses this book is no doubt a reflection of Mr. Pollin's real world experiences, which includes work on developing living wage proposals in various U.S. cities, serving as a consultant to the United Nations Development Program in Bolivia, and as Economic Spokesperson to the 1992 Presidential campaign of Governor Jerry Brown.

Neoliberalism is defined by the "Washington consensus" of decreased government spending, free trade and deregulated markets. Mr. Pollin critiques the system for its three major defects: The "Marx problem" pertaining to the relative bargaining relationship between employers and workers; the "Keynes problem" of the tendency of financial markets to engage in speculation; and the "Polanyi problem" of the corrupting effect of corporate power.

The author builds a convincing case that all three problems have been exacerbated by neoliberalist policies, resulting in a host of deleterious effects. These include widening gaps between the rich and poor (Marx), speculative bubbles in the financial markets (Keynes), accounting scandals (Polanyi), and others. Moreover, the author provides research to show that the cumulative effect of these policies has been to slow world economic growth, thereby undoing years of progress and preventing many developing nations from significantly raising living standards for their citizens.

Mr. Pollin critiques the Clinton administration and Robert Rubin in particular for championing financial market deregulation as the linchpin for its "Eisenhower Republican" economic strategy. The author is presuasive in detailing how the stock market boom of the 1990s provided fuel for the economic boom; unfortunately, its demise quickly erased most of the gains attributed to the Clinton economy, such as a real decrease in the number of persons living in poverty. In fact, the author suggests that the single-minded pursuit of a balanced budget allowed Clinton to squander a historic opportunity to use surplus government dollars to invest in education, healthcare and the environment --programs that the author believes are critical to creating a more durable kind of prosperity for the American people.

Mr. Pollin launches a no less scathing critique of the Bush administration's policies, which the author believes have been designed to be little more than a "bonanza to the rich" at the expense of workers. The author explains that crisis has been used by Bush to justify giveaways to corporations and the wealthy; meanwhile, aggressively anti-labor and anti-environmental policies have further squeezed living standards for most. Furthermore, by highlighting the inconsistencies in Bush's budget proposals, Mr. Pollin suggests that the administration is intent on creating a fiscal crisis in order to force a dismantling of the populist social safety net.

One section that I found particularly interesting was Mr. Pollin's discussion of stimulating the economy by means of defense spending and the Iraq war. His analysis of the situation however suggests that the occupation of Iraq will further slow the U.S. economy as a whole but will benefit specific corporations engaged in the production and distribution of oil, thereby calling into question the real motives for the war.

Mr. Pollin dedicates a chapter examining the "landscape of global austerity" that has resulted from Washington's imposition of neoliberal policies onto the developing world. The analysis focuses on case studies in India, Argentina and elsewhere to highlight the human costs of the neoliberal experiment in specific countries. For example, the author shows how Asian sweatshop bosses have repressed their workers in order to gain competitive advantage for their export-oriented economies. The author argues that "policies to eliminate sweatshops and guarantee workers decent...minimum wages" are needed to narrow inequality, restore impoverished communities and develop new markets.

The final chapter explores the author's alternative economic policies more fully. The recommendations include full-employment policies, living wages and labor rights to solve the Marx problem, and financial system regulation, taxation, and increased banking reserve requirements to solve the Keynes problem. The issue is one of morality as well. Recalling Adam Smith, the author suggests that continuing with the failed neoliberal experiment of privileging the interests of capital over the rights of people amounts to "corruption of moral sentiments on a global scale" and should rightly yield to an economics dedicated to equity and social justice.

I strongly recommend this powerful, insightful and humane book to everyone.

What the Democrats won't admit about Clinton-omics....
From "Clintontime" by Alexander Cockburn at www.counterpunch.com:

We find the liberal populists Michael Moore, Al Franken, Paul Krugman and Molly Ivins all pouring sarcastic rebukes on Bush2 and, categorically or by implication, suggesting that in favoring the very rich and looting the economy in their interests Bush stands in despicable contrast to his immediate predecessor in the Oval Office.

So just get a Democrat, any Democrat, back in the White House and the skies will begin to clear again.

But suppose a less forgiving scrutiny of the Clinton years discloses that these years did nothing to alter the rules of the neoliberal game that began in the Reagan/Thatcher era with the push to boost after-tax corporate profits, shift bargaining power to business, erode social protections for workers, make the rich richer, the middle tier at best stand still and the poor get poorer.

We have just such an unsparing scrutiny of Clintonomics in the form of Robert Pollin's Contours of Descent.

Pollin is unambiguous. "It was under Clinton" he points out, "that the distribution of wealth in the US became more skewed than it had at any time in the previous forty years. Inside the US under Clinton the ratio of wages for the average worker to the pay of the average CEO rose from 113 to 1 in 1991 to 1 to 449 when he quit. In the world, exclusive of China, between 1980 and 1988 and considering the difference between the richest and poorest 10 per cent of humanity, inequality grew by 19 per cent; by 77 per cent, if you take the richest and poorest 1 per cent.

The basic picture? "Under the full eight years of Clinton's presidency, even with the bubble ratcheting up both business investment and consumption by the rich average real wages remained at a level 10 per cent below that of the Nixon-Ford peak period, even though productivity in the economy was 50 per cent higher under Clinton than under Nixon and Ford. The poverty rate through Clinton's term was only slightly better than the dismal performance attained during the Reagan-Bush years." We had a bubble boom, pushed along by consumer-spending by the rich.

The REAL legacy of the Clinton era is that the bargaining power of capital to cow workers, to make them toil harder for less real money, increased inexorably. Speculative rampages were given a green light.

At the end of Clinton's eight years, when the bubble tide had ebbed, what did workers have by way of a permanent legacy? Clinton, Pollin bleakly concludes, "accomplished almost nothing in the way of labor laws or the broader policy environment to improve the bargaining situation for workers Moreover, conditions under Clinton worsened among those officially counted as poor."

Nowhere is Pollin more persuasive than in analysing the causes of the fiscal turnaround from deficit to surplus, an achievement that had Al Gore in 2000 pledging to pay down the entire federal debt of $5.8 trillion. Was this turnaround the consequence of economic growth (producing higher tax revenues), along with the moderate rise in marginal tax rates on the rich in 1993. If indeed these were the causes of fiscal virtue, we might take a benign view of Clinston's fiscal policies. On the other hand, if surplus was achieved by dint of hacking away at social expenditures and at social safety nets, plus gains in capital gains revenues stemming from the stock market bubble, then progressives, even Democratic candidates, might not so eagerly extol the Clinton model.

In a piece of original and trenchant analysis Pollin shows that almost two thirds of Clinton's fiscal turnaround can be accounted for by slashes in government spending relative to GDP (54 per cent) and on capital gains revenues (10 per cent). Pollin then asks the question. Suppose there really had been a peace dividend after the end of the cold war was won. We could have had a few less weapons systems, 100,000 new teachers, 560,000 more scholarships, 1,400 new high schools and still had a budget surplus of $220 billion.

Wall Street applauded the surpluses and the ordinary folk paid the costs of all those slashes in the budget: fewer teachers, a dirtier environment.

Pollin suggests answers that steer past easy rhetorical flourishes about trade protections. If we are to move towards a world in which families don't have to line up outside churches to stay alive and teenagers don't have to work for 20 cents a day in Third World sweatshops, we have to have policies here that promote full employment and income security.

Such policies would have to include a strengthening of workers' legal rights to organize and to form unions; and also to fight on a level playing field in the conduct of strikes. To get a measure of fairness and stability in the financial system financial institutions would have to honor asset-based reserve requirements, of which one example would be the margin requirements Greenspan failed to impose in September, 1996. This same policy instrument could be used to channel credit to socially beneficial projects such as low income housing.

Despite the best efforts of our doctrinal leaders, the moral sentiments of the people are not entirely corrupted. Consumers, for example, are prepared to pay a premium of they can be assured they are buying products not made in sweatshops. And third-world countries need not survive only under the sweatshop conditions ("tremendous good news") praised by Krugman and his colleague at the Times, Nicholas Kristof. They have to be permitted to return to the somewhat protected conditions encouraged in the development policies of an earlier era, without agencies of the US government decreeing that their reformers and their union organizers be murdered by death squads.

Posted by DAVID HAVELkA ... Read more

Book Description

In the coming decades, East Asian economies must face the challenges of an increasingly globalized marketplace. This book explores the changing parameters of competition in East Asia, and argues that success ultimately will depend on the ability of the regions firms to harness the potential of global production networks and to build their own innovative capability. Presenting the latest findings on global production networks and the evolution of technological capabilities, it provides researchers, students, and policymakers with in-depth information and analysis on key issues related to growth and development in East Asia. ... Read more

Book Description

Located in the heart of the Andes, Potosí was arguably the most important urban center in the Western Hemisphere during the colonial era. It was internationally famous for its abundant silver mines and regionally infamous for its labor draft. Set in this context of opulence and oppression associated with the silver trade, Trading Roles emphasizes daily life in the city’s streets, markets, and taverns. As Jane E. Mangan shows, food and drink transactions emerged as the most common site of interaction for Potosinos of different ethnic and class backgrounds. Within two decades of Potosí’s founding in the 1540s, the majority of the city’s inhabitants no longer produced food or alcohol for themselves; they purchased these items. Mangan presents a vibrant social history of colonial Potosí through an investigation of everyday commerce during the city’s economic heyday, between the discovery of silver in 1545 and the waning of production in the late seventeenth century.

Drawing on wills and dowries, judicial cases, town council records, and royal decrees, Mangan brings alive the bustle of trade in Potosí. She examines quotidian economic transactions in light of social custom, ethnicity, and gender, illuminating negotiations over vendor locations, kinship ties that sustained urban trade through the course of silver booms and busts, and credit practices that developed to mitigate the pressures of the market economy. Mangan argues that trade exchanges functioned as sites to negotiate identities within this colonial multiethnic society. Throughout the study, she demonstrates how women and indigenous peoples played essential roles in Potosí’s economy through the commercial transactions she describes so vividly.

Latin America Otherwise:A Series Edited by Walter D. Mignolo, Irene Silverblatt, and Sonia Saldívar-Hull ... Read more

Book Description

In this elegantly constructed redefinition of the economic history of early modern Britain, Keith Wrightson combines the research of economic historians with the insights of social and cultural history. He describes the basic institutions and relationships of economic life, traces the processes of change, and vividly demonstrates the effects of these changes on men, women, and children at all social levels. Winner of the John Ben Snow Foundation Prize 2001 Competition ... Read more

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Reviews (2)

A Wealth of Information
John Ross provides an amazingly well researched and extensive recent history of chiapas. An encyclopedia to the Post Uprising History of Chiapas.

Ross lets the truth shine through
I met John a few years when he'd just publish "The Annexation of Mexico." To me, this was essential to understand this crazy, amiable gringo who was so interested in Mexico and loved it so much. Now I know. Hats off for John!! Since the Zapatista uprising many lines have been written on Chiapas. Essays, criticisms, pseudo-investigative reports, and many more were produced by Mexican, US, French writers. I dare say that, at least, compared to all non-Mexican recounts of the uprising timeline, Ross' is the best. Plenty of information, witty storytelling, tongue-in- cheek analysis of the corrupt political arena and its US counterpart (accomplices that is). Ross shuts up all potential (cynical) critics of his pro- Zapatista point of view by putting the uprising on a Mexican History perspective. If you want to know more about Chiapas, beyond the mainstream media blackout, this IS the book. You will understand why the antiglobalization protests perhaps have their roots in that Jan. 1, 1994. ... Read more

Book Description

In this elegant synthesis of economic history, two scholars argue that it is the political pluralism and the flexibility of the West's institutions--not corporate organization and mass production technology--that explain its unparalleled wealth. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The origins of capitalism revealed!
"How the West Grew Rich" is a thorough treatise on the rise of capitilism in the nation-states of the west, from feudal society towards modern times. Rosenthal and Birdzell discuss in the appearances of the requirements for capitilism, such as acknowledgment of property rights and consistent and predictable law. Also discussed are the political, social, or economic changes that caused feudal society to crumble and a variety of free markets to gradually take root and then blossom in Europe.

This book was thorough and informative, though a bit repetitive and somewhat dry. It makes a wonderful companion to Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel", filling in where the later left off. ... Read more

Book Description

In the great boom of the 1990's, top management's compensation soared, but the wages of most Americans barely grew at all. This wages stagnation has baffled experts, but in The New Ruthless Economy, Simon Head points to information technology as the prime cause of this growing wage disparity.Many economists, technologists and business consultants have predicted that IT would liberate the work force, bringing self-managed work teams and decentralized decision making. Head argues that the opposite has happened. Reengineering, a prime example of how business processes have been computerized, has instead simplified the work of middle and lower level employees, fenced them in with elaborate rules, and set up digital monitoring to make sure that the rules are obeyed. This is true even in such high-skill professions as medicine, where decision-making software in the hands of HMO's decides the length of a patient's stay in hospital and determines the treatments patients will or will not receive.In lower-skill jobs, such as in the call center industry, workers are subject to the indignity of scripting software that lays out the exact conversation, line by line, which agents must follow when speaking with customers. Head argues that these computer systems devalue a worker's experience and skill, and subject employees to a degree of supervision which is excessive and demeaning. The harsh and often unstable work regime of reengineering also undermines the security of employees and so weakens their bargaining power in the workplace.Drawing upon ten years of research visiting work places across America, ranging from medical offices to machine tool plants, Head offers dramatic insight into the impact of information technology on the quality of working life in the United States. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Big Brother Is Watching
The New Ruthless Economy by Simon Head is a somber, thought provoking examination of how the American workforce has been dehumanized over the past decade. The widespread use of Information Technology in business was predicted to decentralize decision-making and empower employees through greater team efficiency.The reality of IT is an aggressive return to Taylorism and assembly-line routine and controls that migrated from manufacturing to service industries.

During the 1990?s, wages of top management went through the roof but the average American worker realized little, if any, increase at all.The New Ruthless Economy explores contributing factors to the inequality of wages, loss of job security and weakened bargaining power in the American workforce.

Simon Head drew his conclusions based upon ten years of research across industry lines and geographic boundaries.He discovered that in the name of efficiency, businesses have established highly structured rules, computerized their processes and then implemented technology to ensure these rules were strictly adhered to al? George Orwell.

The author provides concrete examples ranging from software implemented by HMOs that determine a patient?s length of care and treatment to the computer scripting used in call centers for wide-range solicitation. Use of these systems once again separates decision-making from the worker.It devalues an employee?s education, training and experience while subjecting them to excessively close supervision and monitoring.

Head also points to the ?lean production? and ?ERP? (enterprise resource planning) practices that prompted wholesale layoffs in the early to mid 1990?s.Not only did these systems reduce the skill levels of employees but they also significantly increased the level of worker scrutinization. Head explores the relationship between Information Technology and Scientific Management and concludes his book with a discussion of ?the economics of unfairness? where both the National Labor Review Board and employee privacy rights take major hits at the waterline.The New Ruthless Economy takes a look backward and forward where the view for American labor is equally disappointing.

Wake-up call
Head picks three areas to primarily study in his New Ruthless Economy: autos, health care and call centers, but the first part of the book is devoted to an excellent review of the basic tenets of scientific management as originally envisaged by the engineer Frederick Taylor, and his lesser-known counterpart in office management, William Leffingwell. Armed with this knowledge, the reader can easily trace developments in the last fifty years or so.

As Head points out, the overall effect of the extension of these principles, especially combined with the vast electronic monitoring provided by recent advances in IT, is the overall dumbing-down of the worker, regardless of inherent or potential skills. The study of Toyota auto plants in Japan and other countries is particularly distressing, and one can easily see that it is only the influence of unions that has slowed down the treadmill. The situation with regard to call centers is appalling: truly the workers there are exploited ruthlessly. One wonders if in the offshoring of American jobs in the service sector, eventually the same massive turnover numbers will appear in developing countries.

Head, in my opinion, saves the best till last?managed care organizations. Here, as one reads both figures rarely published, research findings, and case studies, it becomes all too obvious that MCOs are an absolute disaster. Why are health care costs going up? It?s all here in simple terms. Just this section of the book is worth reading alone if one is worried about health care in America.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Resource Management) and a host of other business areas literally reorganized by giant software programs (SAP R/3, for example), are also discussed, and viewed as boondoggles that rarely achieve any desired goals.

The overall trends discussed in this well-written book should frighten both management and employees, and it is unfortunate that the latter so often buy into the consultants? ill-advised mantras.

Fresh perspective on the perils of the new economy
This provocative book exposes the dark side of IT productivity gains, in which workers in service sectors such as medicine are being transformed into cogs on an assembly line. Ironically, just when industrial assembly line workers have been empowered to take responsibility for the overall quality of the products, the workers in areas where judgment once reigned supreme find themselves extruded through routines-- what to do, what to say-- that make central planning seem creative.The initial productivity gains are apt to disappear, Head suggests, just as they did in old assembly lines, as numb minds produce bad products. ... Read more

Book Description

Still the definitive book on the subject, this volume has been thoroughly revised to cover rapidly changing aspects of the economics of aging. It provides an in-depth examination of the nation's evolving private and public policies on retirement, pension, and health, including, for instance, the dramatic changes in employer-sponsored pensions. New attention is given to the retirement of baby boomers and the financial situation of older women. Other topics added to this edition include the proposed new way of measuring poverty, new economic implications of demographic aging, the concept of `productive aging', an update on reverse annuity mortgages, hybrid pension plans and pension privatization, and current information on Social Security. This highly readable book is essential for everyone concerned with gerontology. ... Read more

Book Description

With the insights provided in this Culture Shock! Guide, you'll learn to see beyond the stereotypes and misinformation that often precede business travel to foreign land. Whether you plan to stay for a week or for a year, you'll benefit from such topics as understanding the rules of driving and monetary systems, building business relationships and the particular intricacies of setting up an office. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Needs a proof read
Firstly, it's not Biljani - it's Bijlani. I bought this book hoping to get some quick background before flying to India on a business trip. I am disappointed. Yes, it has information that will help, but it has GLARING mistakes & typos.
Two examples:
1) In the map of India, the names of the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are interchanged. Believe me - it's like labeling California as Texas and Texas as California.
2) The description of Indian flag is incorrect. Indian flag does NOT have the sanskrit words "Truth alone triumphs".

This book does help. It would help a lot more if it went through a proof reading.

Succeed in Business India
This book does an excellent job of covering the practical nuts and bolts of doing business in India--including government policy, historical context, some of the changes in business climate that are happening, opportunities for investment, setting up a joint venture, taxation and labor issues, and a few pages of basic facts and travel tips, etc. A lot of business people going to India want somethig that gives them the "bullet points," and the author does that job well in a book that can be read in a few hours.

There is, however, a whole area of consideration that has been ommitted, and I believe it is a glaring ommission. I am a cross-cultural trainer who specializes in training people who are doing business in India to be more culturally competent. I believe, as anthropologist Edward T. Hall said, "The single greatest barrier to business success is the one erected by culture." This book almost completely skips over critical intercultural issues that significantly impact business relationships between Westerners and Indians.

One in five U.S. expatriates sent overseas will fail in their assignments due to inadequate cultural preparation. There are countless stories of lost business, unsuccessful marketing campaigns, failed partnerships, damaged corporate reputations, and embarrassing faux pas--extremely costly mistakes that could have been averted with a little prudent cultural preparation. Usually, the greater the cultural differences, the greater the chances of failure and the greater the need for cross-cultural training. Yet, only 28 percent of U.S. CEOs think they need cultural knowledge when doing business overseas!

I imagine that the author has left out any material on intercultural communication because the same publishers have published a good book (Culture Shock! India) that starts to address some of those issues. However, it seems like a glaring ommission to me in a book that is supposed to prepare people to "Succeed in Business" in India.

Nevertheless, this book, in conjunction with good, quality cross-cultural training (I have yet to find a book that does the job adequately of training businesspeople to understand the cultural logic of India)does do an excellent job of what it sets out to do. Since it does a good job within the context of what it is trying to do (even though I think it should have tried to do more), I give it four stars out of five. ... Read more

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Reviews (2)

what is history
I am intrigued by this collection of essays in "Capitalism and the Historians" published in 1954. Professor F. A. Hayek of the University of Chicago USA is the editor with contributions from Louis Hacker, W. H. Hutt and Bertrand de Jouvenel. The topic of discussion is specifically, the "legend of the deterioration of th eposition of the working classes in consequence to the rise of 'capitalism'", and generally, "the widespread aversion to 'capitalism'". On a larger scale, these essays examine what is "history", as apart from "political legend". Professor Ashton attacks a general pessismism and lack of economic sense in the commonly accepted views of the economic developments of the nineteenth century. He opposes the views of Sombart and Schumpeter which write history "as though it its function were simply to exhibit the gradualness of inevitability." Rather, Ashton maintains "that it is from the spontaneous actions and choices of ordinary people that progress springs." Louis M Hacker addresses the same themes as Ashton and discusses the present attitude of American historians toward capitalism. Hacker summarises, "When, therefore, historians learn to treat their materials more sensitively and make corrections on the counts indicated, the popularly accepted notions about profits as exploitation will undergo drastic revision." Bertrand de Jouvenel examines the treatment of capitalism by continental intellectuals. He explains that the modern intelligentsia occupies a similar position as the clerics of Medieval Times although their authority is undermined because they lack the responsibility of the clerics who were themselves part of the community. "The study of the past," writes de Jouvenel, "always bears the imprint of the present views." In the second part of this book, Ashton examines what happened to the standard of life of the British working classes in the late decades of the eighteenth and the early decades of the nineteenth. W H Hutt also examines the British factory system of this period. The report of the "Sadler's Commitee" in 1832 is analyzed. Although this examination and defence of "capitalism" made for extremely interesting reading, I was more impressed with the methods these historians used to extract their view of events and thereby, redefine common misconceptions of an historical period. If you are interested in the early development of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, or in history as a dynamic organism, this book will be interesting to you.

Capitalism not as a "dirty word."
Hayek's books are always not easy ones. This book, not unlike other ones, is hard to understand.

If you think the word "capitalism" is a dirty word. Buy this book or Milton Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom." You will learn much about capitalism and its meanings.

This is a great investigation of the history of business. It teaches you to think differently. You'll become a better historian. ... Read more

Book Description

Capitalism Russian-Style provides a progress report on one of the most important economic experiments going on in the world today: the building of capitalism in Russia. It describes Russian achievements in building private banks, companies, stock exchanges, new laws and law courts. It analyzes the role of the mafia, the new financial empires, entrepreneurs, business tycoons, and the shrinking Russian state. Thane Gustafson tells how the Soviet system was dismantled and the new market society was born, and examines the prospects for a Russian economic miracle in the twenty-first century. ... Read more

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A Good Read!
Thane Gustafson presents an overview of Russia's experiment with capitalism to date. In this well-documented, well-reasoned report, he describes the breakdown in the Soviet economy. This collapse was already in the works when Gorbachev's efforts to reform the system brought it tumbling down. Gustafson weaves his account together like a journalist, as he discusses the heady rush of capitalism, entrepreneurism, political corruption and crime that moved into Russia's economic vacuum like a modern gold rush. He carefully traces recent developments in Russia's attempt to recover from its 1998 financial disaster.

As the book describes, no one knows what will happen in Russia. Gustafson emphasizes that Russia cannot return to its command economy. The book offers cautious optimism for future business with Russia. However, the admitted uncertainty of Russia's future may frustrate readers who seek definitive answers. We at getAbstract.com recommend this book to readers interested in social and political developments and to academics as well as to executives of companies with economic interests in Russia, or those who may want to do future business there, although - for now - it may be a particularly risky venue. ... Read more

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Dislocating Cultures takes aim at the related notions of nation, identity, and tradition to show how Western and Third World scholars have misrepresented Third World cultures and feminist agendas.Drawing attention to the political forces that have spawned, shaped, and perpetuated these misrepresentations since colonial times,Uma Narayan inspects the underlying problems which "culture" poses for the respect of difference and cross-cultural understanding.

Questioning the problematic roles assigned to Third World subjects within multiculturalism, Narayan examines ways in which the flow of information across national contexts affects our understanding of issues.Dislocating Cultures contributes a philosophical perspective on areas of ongoing interest such as nationalism, post-colonial studies, and the cultural politics of debates over tradition and "westernization" in Third World contexts. ... Read more

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India-specific analysis is excellent
Anyone researching the role of women in India won't want to miss this -- the author speaks insightfully about her feminism being a result of her personal experiences in India, while her mother and others accuse her ofbeing "brainwashed" by Westerners.Narayan makes a strong casefor "organic" Third World feminism.

An award-winning book!
This book was awarded the American Political Science Association'sVictoria Schuck Award for the best book on women and politics for 1997. ... Read more

Book Description

Since Ron Sider published his best-selling Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger over twenty years ago, the poor in the United States have become poorer while the rich have become richer. Government policies initiated by both liberals and conservatives have failed to alleviate poverty. Is there anything concerned Christians can do?

Ron Sider raises up a voice of hope, calling believers to care as much about the poor as Jesus did. He offers a new, holistic approach in which people of religious faith can work with government, media, and business to fashion a vision for changing both unjust social structures and the root causes of bad moral choices.

Using poignant stories to engage the heart and well-documented facts to convince the mind, Sider presents an accessible yet comprehensive agenda of ways to reduce poverty in the United States. Christians with a heart for social justice will find invaluable information and concrete suggestions to help end poverty in the worlds richest nation.

Firmly rooted in the extensive research published in the companion volume, Toward a Just and Caring Society, this distillation provides a readable and stimulating resource suitable for use in undergraduate courses. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Christians should read this
I agree with the review by Jean-Luc for the most part, but I also wanted to add a few of my own thoughts.

As Sider says early in the book, he's not a policy wonk, so that is his weakest point. Trust him on that one. As a more policy oriented person, I agree that some of those things would be great, if implemented, but that's the hard part of all policy - getting it passed and implemented. Some of his suggestions are not politically feasible (yet).

Some of his other policy ideas are, IMHO, just questionable. Not just politically difficult, but I'm not convinced that all the ideas are that great.

His Biblical framework is wonderful. I enjoyed reading his perspective on that, as he exegetes quite well. I also was biased to begin with, in that I had already done some thinking on my own about this issue, and was finding myself just saying "Wow, that's kinda what I was thinking."

yeah. so good book. read it. don't take the policy stuff to seriously. but take the Biblical stuff seriously. He does a good job there. and the principles of the more holistic view of things, too. Those are good.

"Beyond Charity - A Critique of Sider's 'Just Generosity'"
At the end of the introduction to his new book "JustGenerosity", Sider sets forth the agenda of this book. He writes: "This book seeks to define the problem, sketch a biblical framework, outline a comprehensive holistic vision and then develop ...................." (p. 23) Accordingly, I will structure my critique and reflection of his book in reference to this phrase.

Definition of the Problem: Who the poor are is well described by Sider, including age groups, family-types, education-level of poor and the relation between poverty and race. He sketches well the major factors that cause poverty. I fully agree with him, that structural reasons, as well as behavioral ones, as well as sudden catastrophes all contribute to widespread poverty. Even though structural reasons play a major influence in facilitating wrong moral choices, the latter should yet be ascertained as a cause for poverty. All negation of this point of view tends to take away responsibility from poor people and thus disqualifies them as whole persons. I also appreciated Sider's good assessment that it is basically the wealthy who contribute to political campaigns, which as a result brings people into positions who represent the interests of those few wealthy, rather than the masses'.

Biblical Framework: I fully agree with Sider's analysis and presentation of the biblical material and believe it is compelling in its call to do justice. Love without justice is simply unbiblical, because the Bible is clear that those who follow God are called to live justly and love mercy.

Comprehensive holistic vision: Sider is consistent with the biblical material and with sociology when he brings the role of civic society into the discussion. It confirms the "biblical anthropology" that humans are not mere autonomous individuals, but are interrelated beings. In the same way it acknowledges a holistic view of people, who are neither solely directed by bureaucratic decisions, nor by individual moral choices. Hence, civic society plays a detrimental role in solving the pressing problems, because it is in civic society that people learn the values that make this very society function in a healthy way. Inner moral and spiritual renewal cannot be mandated but is nevertheless crucial if family renewal, for instance, is to come about. Sider displays a balanced view with regards to the role of government and civic institutions and their interaction as well as contribution to each other, which I deem to be the only way in which long-term solutions can be reached. However, Sider presents too few concrete examples of realistic ways, in which civic societies (like inner city churches) can be strengthened, who in turn would raise local leadership and thus strengthen the political power of the poor from within.

Social Analysis: His explanation for the low work-effort of poor people, for instance, as well as his interpretation of how the inability of low-skilled men to earn enough to support a family, feeds into the disintegration of the family as an institution, are convincing. Moreover, he makes clear how family unfriendly government policy (tax-exemptions, etc...) encourages single-parent families. Sider's analysis with respect to the educational system is also compelling. He argues that a good educational system is absolutely necessary in the fight against poverty. In fact, high school dropouts produce high costs in the long run, which, in any case are carried by the taxpayer. Additionally he builds a strong case for the necessity of healthy two-parent families. Most of his bias toward this form of family-life derives, as he says, from Judeo-Christian roots, as well as the statistics who demonstrate, that children from two-parent families are less likely to experience poverty.

Concrete Agenda: In most of the chapters 4-8 Sider develops quite concrete and seemingly good proposals, which could help alleviate poverty. Even though I won't go into details at this point, this is the bulk of the book that needs to be discussed in student circles, among policymakers, in civic societies etc... Yet, throughout Sider's social analysis and enlisting of concrete ideas for implementation, one great question remains: How can partnerships between governmental and faith based programs be established? How could more clergy-government coalitions come to life? How are inner city churches helped to seek the holistic wellbeing of their neighbors, if they themselves lack personnel resources and struggle hard to survive? Sider offers little concrete steps in this respect. He gives some examples, but these seem to be the exception.

Sider makes clear that the political as well as the theological climate has changed, which makes it more favorable for Christians today to getting involved to fighting poverty. And this they must, if they call themselves followers of Jesus Christ. Overall I believe the book has the potential to reach a great number of people, because it presents, deals well with and offers, to some degree at least, practicable solutions to a highly problematic theme of our time. Will it accomplish what Sider has in mind, namely reaching millions of Christians, who in response, will get practically involved in addressing the issues at hand? We hope. We pray. ... Read more