Book Description

The negotiations for economic and monetary union in the European Union represented a massive change for Europe and for the world. This book identifies why the historical agreement at Maastricht in December 1991 was possible and how the agreement was made. It examines the motives that inspired EC political leaders, the strategies that they pursued, and the institutions of the EC which were used to achieve monetary union. ... Read more

Book Description

Detailed instructions on how to amass a fortune in real estate.

Selected as one of the 10 best real estate books for 2000 by Robert Bruss, National Syndicated Real Estate Columnist. ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Terrific!
I cannot believe that someone found this book to be worthy of only a two rating. I have bought countless Real Estate books on this site and found Schumacher's book to be the best one yet. I have only been investing for four years and currently have four properties and I have re-read this book countless times for insight, and inspiration.
Just because this book was written about properties purchaced in the 60's doesent make the information dated at all. IN fact, it proves that the lessons are timeless. The one negative review that I read stated how silly it was to think that a lesson about picking up cheap properties could possibly be applicable today. Well, they seem cheap now but in the 60's they were very expensive to Mr. Schumacher just as today's "crazy" prices are expensive to us today. Im sure 30 years from now two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will seem like nothing to us and that is one of his points. So, Im going to keep buying one house a year and if Mr. Schmacher is right and I can hold on through the early years, then I should be sipping cocktails on my water front property not doing a whole lot of work in about 20 years.
Great book!

Valuable Reading
This book manages to be insightful as well as entertaining. It's buy-and-hold emphasis is much welcome amidst the abundance of get rich quick texts out there. While most popular real estate books focus on various techniques for getting properties at a discount, this one takes the more sober approach of buying with substantial long term appreciation in mind - and explains how to accomplish this. Although occasionally a little repetetive the book is very well written and is rich in interesting concrete examples. It is aimed at persons who already have some investment experience.

Dynamic Duo
I bought "Buy & Hold" along with "Income for Life from Real Estate" and read both books. I found them to be quite compatible and also complementary. What one book covers only briefly, the other handles in more depth. Both make a compelling case for holding, rather than flipping properties.

Both the authors seem to have actually done the things they are recommending, which makes these books far more valuable than many of the books and tapes from "promoters".

Buy and Hold has my HIGHEST recommendation!
This is one of the best real estate books ever written. I have read over 200 books on the subject of real estate and this one is in my top ten. I also read the earlier 1992 version called "The Buy & Hold Real Estate Strategy" which sometimes sells for hundreds of dollars. The later 2000 version is just as good if not better and costs ... on Amazon. It would be a bargain at many times that price! Today the author, David T. Schumacher, Ph.D owns approximately 66 units worth about $15 million. While he owns his property in Hermosa Beach and Orange County, California, the principles apply to all areas of the country. He has certainly benefited by the great appreciation rates in California, and while other areas have not appreciated as much, given a long enough period appreciation will build your real estate wealth. He started buying Hermosa Beach in 1960, so he has had the luxury of 40 years or nearly as many years of appreciation on some building.

He shares the real estate stories of himself, his brother, mother and father as well as other friends and associates. This vast wealth of 40+ years of real estate experience comes through in Dr. Schumacher's books. He relates about a real estate investment that his parents made in 1939, buying a single family house with a garage and apartment for $7,000 with $500 down. And his first real estate purchase on his own in 1956 of a 4 unit building in Hollywood for $20,000 with $1,000 down. Some people might look at these deals done long ago as a negative and not relevant to today. That is just not so. The author is still an active investor and lecturer today and the principles of his book make sense now. He had worked as a real estate appraiser for many years and relays in his book how to value a property. In this book his 7 step approach includes:

1. Finding the Location
2. Buy
3. Long-term Financing
4. Hold for 20 years
5. Appreciation
6. Sell
7. Attain Your Fortune

Schumacher is strongly against short term financing and balloon notes, feeling that they are time bomb waiting to exploded for the investor. He prefers long term financing both from conventional institutions as well as owner financing. He writes in his book about making personal sacrifices to ensure the comfort of his tenants as well as at earlier times
to make up for negative cash flow. He is willing to accept a negative cash flow if the property is a sound property located in a growth area.

One of his strong principles is to figure out what the value will be in 20 years. By studying government planning, building trends, and growth patterns, he feels that you can become proficient in determining what areas will have growth in 20 years and which areas will not.

The author writes that he likes to charge maybe 10% below the market rent to attract and keep the best tenants. He states that a vacancy is better than a bad tenant. His mother would bend over backwards for her tenants and would even lower the rent to keep a tenant. He doesn't do a lot of re-financing and prefers to keep existing financing in place.
He advocates not paying off a mortgage early for example.

In his book he advocates buying rental properties with a good prospect of future growth.
And while he suggests trying to negotiate the most favorable price, that is not the biggest issue. Schumacher relates of negotiating on one property for 9 months, so he is not suggesting buying at any price. However, when you have a long term prospective of 20 years or more, the price you pay is not that large an issue. If you pay $105,000 instead of $100,000, it won't make any difference in 20 years if the property is now worth $400,000. Or in the case of Schumacher, he bought a six unit in Hermosa Beach in 1960 for $85,000 with $3,000 down, that is now worth more than $1million. Buy and never sell, or seldom sell is one technique that this book explores in detail and that you can learn to grow wealth over a long term. This is not get rich quick, but more get rich slow. In a way this book reminds me of William Nickerson's "How I turned $1,000 into $5 Million in Real Estate in my Spare Time", which just might be the first if not the best real estate book. (Nickerson's book is out of print and can cost hundreds of dollars.) I highly recommend both of these books.

A Warren Buffett-like approach to RE investing
I found this book to be very helpful in reinforcing my own philosophy for RE investment. I also found it to be very logical and down to earth, with lots of real life examples that the reader would need to apply to his/her own situation. A real easy read, with loads of simple and useful advice from someone who's been at this for quite some time. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to invest in RE. ... Read more

Book Description

As we approach the 21st century, we must rethink our centralized monetary system as part of a larger reexamination of existing political economy, according to Solomon. In questioning the passive acceptance of a federal monopoly in producing money, the author challenges prevailing notions of "progress" and "economic life." Advancing the idea of local currencies to promote a political economy based on empowerment, self-reliance, and ecological permanence, the book discusses three viable systems, all of which are possible under federal and state laws: barter, customer discounts, and local scrip not pegged to the U.S. dollar. The business and practical aspects of each of these systems is considered. This original work will be of interest to scholars, students, and policy-makers in political economy, money and banking, public finance, and public policy. ... Read more

Book Description

The mark of a civilized economy is national money; the English pound, the Australian dollar, the Indian rupee. The mark of a savage economy is untamed money in the form of cowrie shells, silver, gold and so on. The power of the state is crucially dependent on its ability to domesticate savage money and to reproduce its control over it. This is a constant struggle and especially so for an imperial state with ambitions of international statehood.
The English pound conquered cowries and silver at the end of the last century, and the American dollar almost succeeded in domesticating gold, the last vestige of savage money. However, a new era of savage money is dawning in the twilight of the American empire. 'Money' has an equivocation rather than a definition. Naming it does not nail it. It is a chameleon-like symbol which is forever changing asmercantile relations between people vary over time and place.
This volume is not simply another general theory of world system. It is a theoreticall ... Read more

Book Description

An eye-opening primer on some of the less explored aspects of globalization. We know that globalization has moved many jobs away from the industrialized countries and to the Third World, where people are paid far less. But do we know the consequences of this upheaval for the AIDS epidemic, the environment, and the costs of basic medicines? In one concise book, William K.Tabb, a professor of economics at Queens College in New York, provides an informative and incisive introduction to these complex themes, and a clear perspective on how they mesh and how vitally they matter to us all. In a chapter on banking, for example, Tabb explains how the WTO, IMF, and World Bank's efforts to regulate the world's economy have driven entire nations into insurmountable debt: the increasing mobility of money drives up inflation and forces countries into a web of dependency, where their only option is to obtain loans from multinational banks. While much has been written about the effects of globalization on corporations, Unequal Partners is a comprehensive introduction to globalization's effects on everything else. It is also an excellent primer on the issues behind the growing anticorporate movement. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A great job at summing up the core problems of globalization
Professor Tabb has done an excellent job here. This book is well researched, well argued and cautious to avoid naive oversimplifications of the issues surrounding globalization. I haven't read another book that lays out more clearly the ways in which "globalization" is effecting the environment, workers rights and democratic ideals. I strongly encourage you to read this book if you are looking for solid information on what the "globalization" debate is all about. There is certainly too much to overview in this space. However, I should respond to another reviewer's claim that Professor Tabb is not well researched in that he does not cite much from academic journals. this is true, as the scope and focus of this book lies outside of academic ideological posturing on world issues and goes to the statistical facts, actual statements and track records of global finance institutions and examines the official public line on these issues, as documented in the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. this book is in fact very well researched, and very much worth your time.

Little analysis
This is not a very helpful book to understand globalization. The author makes a lot of rhetorical comments, blames every bad thing in the world on multinational corporations or international organizations, and offers little analysis in global issues. It is also deplorable that the author mostly refers to newspapers and popular magazines rather than academic books, even though he is an economics professor. (There is no bibliography in the book, only a few endnotes for each chapter). Last but not least, the book is very poorly written. It is dull, repetitive, and full of unnecessarily long sentences.

Refutes the logic of neoliberal capitalism
The author gives some examples of the logic of capitalism. For instance, he quotes the memo written by former Clinton treasury secretary and current Harvard president, Larry Summers, when he was Chief economist at the World Bank in 1991. In that memo he explained the "impeccable" economic logic of exporting "health-impairing pollution" to "vastly underpolluted countries" such as in Africa. And then there is recounting of former Bush treasury secreatary Paul O'neil's confrontation at a shareholders meeting with one of the workers at an Alcoa plastics plant in Mexico when he was CEO of that company. O'neil told him that Alcoa's plants were so clean in Mexico that one could eat off their floors but the worker responded that his excellency was lying and produced newspaper clippings to prove it. Alcoa pays virtually no taxes in the town of the Mexican plant of that worker and the town's infrastructure (schools, hospitals, sewage, etc) is in shambles. Half of the town's 15,000 residents use backyard latrines. Alcoa, along with Ford, contributed 52,000 dollars to build a school for three hundred students, that has one teacher, a leaky roof......

He points to the workers at the Reebok plant in Thailand, workers in China's "industrial zones," Nike and Alcoa workers in Mexico. Instead of working 80 hours a week, and getting constantly cut and bruised by machines, and getting chemicals in the eyes and nausea and headaches, or getting beaten up if you don't work fast enough and getting arrested if you try to leave work, these people could fight for their dignity if they had a viable union to advance their cause.

It is only labor rights, such as the right not to be fired for launching a strike, which allow workers to try to get rights to decent pay, humane working conditions and other such essentials while they make their bosses such huge profits with their work. The author goes over some of the public relations efforts of such companies. The Clinton administration helped in such an effort with top retail companies which created a "code of conduct" with companies policing themselves but such standards have been little enforced.

The author looks at the particularly interesting case of aids drugs. 17 million people and counting have died of AIDs in Africa. However U.S. companies have patents on the leading AIDs drugs which gives them a monopoly on producing them so they can charge 10,000 dollars to poor Africans for Aids treatment. Al Gore on behalf of U.S. pharmaceuticals threatened sanctions on South Africa when that country passed laws allowing for local companies to produce Aids drugs at 90 to 95 percent cheaper than American pharmaceutical companies demand. The Clinton administration argued that compulsory liscencing laws did not apply in that case. And the Pharmaceuticals have argued that they need to charge high prices so they can continue to research Aids treatments and if they are stricted their entrepreneurial genius will strangled. Of course, the problem is that these drugs have been substantially developed through U.S. government funded research. For instance the author points out that while the company Glaxo Wellcom claims to have developed AZT, it was actually the National Cancer Institute and Duke University researchers that developed AZT to suppress the Aids virus in human cells and Glaxo Wellcom did not do any of the immunological or Virological studies or test it on patients. The author points to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research which found that of the 21 drugs "considered to have the highest therapeutic value of those introduced between 1965 and 1992" publicly funded research developed 15 of them. Most tropical diseases have been cured by U.S. military research or by private companies that do research on livestock and pets. The author notes that the U.S. government has offered 200 million to the UN's proposed 10 billion dollar program to fight Aids and has insisted that its money be used to buy from American pharmaceutical companies.

He notes that neoliberal capitalism has been a horrible failure throughout the world. The deregulation of capital flows has led to increased financial panics such as the Asian crises a few years ago. 90 percent or more of international financial transactions are for speculative purposes. He notes that eliminating tarrifs for Western goods has led to the destruction of local industries, throwing farmers off the land, and so on. He notes that Western countries, with their usual grotesque hypocrisy, put tarrifs and huge subsidies on their agricultural products against foreign competetion. He quotes a study from the World Bank which states that greater openness to trade slows income growth amongst the poorest 40 percent of poor nations. The author refers to the subidized sugar industry of Mozambique and IMF efforts to privitize it.

The author notes that polls show that a majority of Americans symphathize with the views of Anti-WTO protestors. Real wages have stagnated for a majority of Americans over the last few decades. Job insecurity has greatly increased. His quotation of statistics about Americans crying on the job, getting inadequate sleep, problems at work affecting their personal lives, and so on is interesting. He quotes Human Rights Watch which points out the great attack on Unions launched by the U.S. government, continuing since the Reagan years. 54 percent of young workers say they would like to join a union but 80 percent of workers say it is somewhat or very likely that union organizers will face retribution from companies

The author devotes a section to the environment too, probably the most difficult of the book. He points out that drilling in the Wildlife refuge in Alaska will only produce oil in ten years and after that only 42 million gallons a day. He says that 49 million gallons a day of oil would be saved if the miles per gallon of SUV's would be increased by three miles. ... Read more

Book Description

"Finally, a book that provides invaluable hands-on financial and accounting concepts for use by the thousands of frontline business owners and managers battling for survival each and every day. While ‘Wall Street’ gets the headlines, ‘Main Street’ gets the job done."
–Robert Svet, CEO, President, & Founder, The Eastridge Group of Staffing Companies

"In today’s competitive business environment, decisions must be made in a quick, reliable, and confident manner. This book provides CEOs, business owners, and managers clear, concise, and easy-to-understand business financial management concepts to make these types of value-added business decisions."
–John Atencio, President & Founder, John Atencio Jewelry

How to Manage Profit and Cash Flow provides streetwise advice and practical strategies for business managers and other professionals who need to make critical business decisions. From methods for analyzing past and future profit and cash flow information to differences between massaging the numbers and cooking the books, short, to-the-point chapters that are visually appealing will help you see through opaque accounting terminology and allow you to gain a firm grip on how to manage profit and cash flow in your business.

Through three comprehensive sections: "Birthing a Business," "Building a Business," and "Selling or Burying a Business," as well as an Accounting and Financial Glossary, How to Manage Profit and Cash Flow discusses key issues, including:

• Investing in assets
• Preventing fraud
• Handling taxes
• Raising capital
• Finding cash for growth
• Terminating a business

Book Description

In most of the currency crises of the 1990s, the largest output falls have occurred in those emerging economies with large currency mismatches, a phenomenon that occurs when assets and liabilities are denominated in different currencies such that net worth is sensitive to changes in the exchange rate. Currency mismatching makes crisis management much more difficult since it constrains the willingness of the monetary authority to reduce interest rates in a recession (for fear of initiating a large fall in the currency that would bring with it large-scale insolvencies). The mismatching also produces a "fear of floating" on the part of emerging economies, sometimes inducing them to make currency-regime choices that are not in their own long-term interest. Authors Morris Goldstein and Philip Turner summarize what is known about the origins of currency mismatching in emerging economies, discuss how best to define and measure currency mismatching, and review policy options for reducing the size of the problem. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Strongly recommended reading for policy makers
In Controlling Currency Mismatches In Emerging Markets, Morris Goldstein (Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at IIE) and Philip Turner (Head of the Secretariat Group in the Monetary and Economics Department, Bank for International Settlements) collaborate in revealing and dealing with past and present weaknesses in economic policies and institutions in contemporary and emerging markets around the globe. But more than a simply litany of flawed policies and economic ills, the authors present an effective and practical plan of action to control currency mismatches through a managed floating currency regime, an inflation targeting regime for monetary policy, regular publication of data on currency mismatches at the sectoral and economy wide levels, stepped up supervision and monitoring of currency mismatches in banks and in the loan customers, changes in official safety nets and in IMF policy conditionality, implementation of more prudent debt and reserve management policies in emerging economies, and a higher priority with respect to developing domestic bond markets, hedging instruments, and reduced barriers respecting foreign-owned banks within emerging economies. Informed and informative, Controlling Currency Mismatches In Emerging Markets is a sold work of seminal research and strongly recommended reading for policy makers with respect to international economic issues. ... Read more

Book Description

The world economy at the end of the twentieth century was afflicted with financial turbulence. Millions of people in emerging-market nations endured severe recessions, and many residents of wealthy nations also experienced losses. Some scholars describe this instability as a consequence of a progressively integrated global economy. Writing for the Washington Post, Jessica Matthews describe an "enormous, several trillion-dollar pool of money that sloshes around in what is effectively a supranational cyberspace, moving by computer in and out of off-shore banks and chasing profits in twenty-four hour markets."

Spanning the disciplines of economics, finance, political economy and international relations, this wide-ranging, analytical review is a mainstream "primer" for defining the issues and catalyzing a fruitful public debate. It is grounded in an exposition of the analytic fundamentals of financial activity, how those fundamentals apply to an integrating (but still far from perfectly integrated) world economy and financial system, and how the institutions of collective governance need to be adapted to that evolving world. In addition to its analytical overview, this book offers practical recommendations for the major financial challenges that policymakers will face during the first decades of the twenty-first century. ... Read more

Book Description

Despite the recent success of welfare reform in moving people off public assistance and into jobs, most of America's working poor are still unable to accumulate even the most minimal of assets. Even when they are getting by, they lack many of the resources—tangible and intangible—that provide middle-class Americans with a sense of security, stability, and a stake in the future. In Owning Up, Michelle Miller-Adams demonstrates how asset-building programs, used in combination with traditional income-based support, can be an effective means for helping millions of American out of poverty.

Miller-Adams expands the traditional concept of assets to encompass a range of tools, experiences, resources, and support systems that are necessary if asset building is to serve as an effective anti-poverty strategy. She identifies four types of assets that can represent sources of wealth for low-income individuals and communities: economic human social, and natural assets. Economic assets include equity, retirement savings, and other financial holdings. Human assets include education, knowledge, skills, and talents. Included among social assets are the networks of trust and reciprocity that bind communities together. Natural assets include the land, water, air and other natural resources we depend on for survival. ... Read more

Book Description

Monetary Policy and Taiwan’s Economy questions whether the Asian crisis could have been avoided through the application of recommendations highlighted by the contributors. The conclusion reached is that in an abstract world, perhaps; but in the world in which we live, no. It is argued that the proposals made could certainly contribute to improved policy, albeit effecting marginal improvements rather than ground breaking changes.

The contributors demonstrate that proficient monetary policy and banking regulation can be achieved through sound economic analysis that takes into account:

• monetary aggregates in monetary policy
• the role of exchange rate policies in the Asian crisis
• the relationship between the exchange rate, capital flows and central bank intervention
• similarities between the restructuring of banking systems in Asia and in Eastern Europe following the fall of communism.

This book will appeal to academics and researchers of macroeconomics - especially those with a particular interest in monetary theory and policy. Economic analysts, commercial banks, financial institutions and specialists in financial crisis will also find the book to be a fascinating read. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Excellent introduction and analysis on global finance
Kavaljit Singh approaches often highly technical issues of global finance managing to make them easy to undestand. The book is well written, full of explanatory text boxes and case studies, and definite reading for all people interested in finding alternatives to current trends of financial globalization - or for people who are just trying to make sense out of it. If you have wondered what hedge funds, derivatives, OTC markets etc. mean but never dared to ask, read this book. And for people who are already familiar with the basics, it provides quite interesting insights on strategies for social movements. ... Read more

Book Description

Recent theoretical developments in exchange rate economics have led to important new insights into the functioning of the foreign exchange market. The simple models of the 1970s, which could not withstand empirical evaluation, have been succeeded by more complex models that draw on theoretical work in such areas as the microstructure of financial markets and open economy macroeconomics. Additionally, new and powerful econometric techniques allow researchers to subject exchange rates to stronger empirical analysis.

This book discusses the divergent theoretical and empirical paradigms used today for setting and predicting exchange rates; the chapters reflect current debates in the field. Some chapters base their analyses on the theoretical framework of representative and fully informed rational agents; others are grounded in the hetereogeneity of agents who use different and incomplete sets of information. Still other chapters analyze empirical data to uncover the fundamental characteristics of exchange rates. Taken together, these competing analyses document the current state of exchange rate economics and point the way to a new consensus about how to predict and explain exchange rate movements. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Excellent Book
This book saved [me]so many times in my Monetary Theory Class. I would have to say that this book is a little more advanced than your typical intermediate economics book. One should have a fairly good understanding of algebra and calculus (derivatives and integrals) to understand this book as there are a lot of equations. But that is also what makes it so cool! What I found particularly interesting was the chapter on Episodes in U.S. Monetary History. Although it was not required that we read this book for our class, my professor had said that anyone considering attending graduate school should read this book because they would benefit immensely from it. He said a lot of what this book covers will set up the framework to understanding more advanced level courses in economics at the graduate level.

Excellent Explanations of Monetary Theory
I wish that this book were still in print. I am an economics student and have found it most useful in my study of monetary economics. It has clear explanations and discussions. It is much more useful and comprehendable than either Walsh, "monetary Theory and Policy" or Goodhart's "money, information, and uncertainty." While one may prefer another book for covering open economy monetary this book is fantastic for the rest of monetary.

An excellent book
This book covers the basics of monetary economics very well ... Read more

Book Description

Finance is a key dimension of globalization, given the ease with which capital flows between countries and the impact such flows can have on countries with weak national financial systems.. Yet analysts and policy-makers often remain focused on the domestic financial market until a crisis, seemingly still thinking of finance as primarily national. The result is that they behave reactively and often belatedly to the pressures from abroad.

Globalization and National Financial Systems breaks new ground by exploring the new challenges, constraints, and opportunities presented to the national financial systems of developing countries, all of which are small when viewed against the background of global finance. Banking, securities, contractual savings, as well as systemic macroeconomic aspects are all considered.

In its discussion of such dimensions as creeping dollarization, offshore deposits, foreign bank entry, international outsourcing of financial services, the role of economies of scale and international risk diversification, and the emergence of an international regulatory framework, the volume takes the reader far beyond standard treatments of financial policy.

It is an excellent resource for banking and investment professionals, economists, and all those interested in globalization and emerging economies. ... Read more

Book Description

This book unites diverse heterodox traditions in the study of endogenous money - which until now have been confined to their own academic quarters - and explores their similarities and differences from both sides of the Atlantic.

Bringing together perspectives from post-Keynesians, Circuitists and the Dijon School, the book continues the tradition of Keynes’ and Kalecki’s analysis of a monetary production economy, emphasizing the similarities between the various approaches, and expanding the analytical breadth of the theory of endogenous money. The authors aim to open new avenues for monetary research in order to fuel a renewed interest in the nature and role of money in capitalist economies, which is, the authors argue, one of the most controversial, and therefore fascinating, areas of economics.

Providing new theoretical and empirical grounds for the construction of a general, policy-oriented theory of money, this thought-provoking collection will appeal to academics, researchers and students interested in monetary economics. It will also be welcomed by monetary policymakers and central bank officials. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An impressively informative collection of essays
Modern Theories Of Money: The Nature And Role Of Money In Capitalist Economies by Louis-Philippe Rochon (Stephen B. Monroe Assistant Professor of Economics and Banking at Kalamazoo College) and Sergio Rossi (Assistant Professor of Economics at the Universities of Fribourg and Lugano, Switzerland) brings together an impressively informative collection of essays by learned authors concerning modern economic theories of money, including post-Keynesian monetary approaches, the theory of the monetary circuit, the theory of money emissions, and more. A college-level, scholarly resource, Modern Theories Of Money accessibly dissects complex economic principles and hypotheses, and is especially recommended reading for advanced students and professionals in Economic Studies. ... Read more

Book Description

Parents worry that their children will mismanage money or worse, that money will corrupt them. Yet money may be the last taboo topic for family discussion. Few families talk productively about what money means - aboutwhat money can buy and what it cannot. ... Read more

Book Description

In this age of downsizing, paycuts, and shrinking health-care contributions, employees on all rungs of the corporate ladder are increasingly baffled by company pay structures, benefits packages, and bonus plans.What might look like a nice raise on the surface often translates into a virtual pay cut when all the components are figured in.And what's more, until now, employers have had a monopoly on the knowledge of how these systems actually work, leaving employees virtually defenseless.

Now, in Are You Paid What You're Worth?, long-time corporate insider and compensation consultant Michael O'Malley exposes the inner workings of compensation systems and provides a specific formula that allows anyone--from the cubicle-dweller up to the CEO--to determine his or her own competitive worth.Packed with practical tips and strategies, and spiced with real-life examples from big-name companies, Are You Paid What You're Worth? arms you with the information, confidence, and strategies you need to:

Book Description

In 2000, homeownership in the United States stood at an all-time high of 67.4 percent, but the homeownership rate was more than 50 percent higher for non-Hispanic whites than for blacks or Hispanics. Homeownership is the most common method for wealth accumulation and is viewed as critical for access to the most desirable communities and most comprehensive public services. Homeownership and mortgage lending are linked, of course, as the vast majority of home purchases are made with the help of a mortgage loan. Barriers to obtaining a mortgage represent obstacles to attaining the American dream of owning ones own home. These barriers take on added urgency when they are related to race or ethnicity.

In this book Stephen Ross and John Yinger discuss what has been learned about mortgage-lending discrimination in recent years. They re-analyze existing loan-approval and loan-performance data and devise new tests for detecting discrimination in contemporary mortgage markets. They provide an in-depth review of the 1996 Boston Fed Study and its critics, along with new evidence that the minority-white loan-approval disparities in the Boston data represent discrimination, not variation in underwriting standards that can be justified on business grounds. Their analysis also reveals several major weaknesses in the current fair-lending enforcement system, namely, that it entirely overlooks one of the two main types of discrimination (disparate impact), misses many cases of the other main type (disparate treatment), and insulates some discriminating lenders from investigation. Ross and Yinger devise new procedures to overcome these weaknesses and show how the procedures can also be applied to discrimination in loan-pricing and credit-scoring. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Best yet but still not quite there
I work as a consultant for banking clients. Hope that does not influence this review too much.

The authors have prepared the best summary available of the economic and statistical evidence regarding potential racial discrimination in approving mortgages. This book is a replacement for approximately two file drawers of published and unpublished studies that I have collected for approximately five years.

It has its limitations though. Most of all, it is a specialized monograph for a specialist audience. Even though it is aimed at influencing the behavior of the banking industry, most managers and policymakers in that industry will find this volume tough going.

Second, the authors seem to have the opinion that the financial industry rather actively seeks to avoid lending to certain minority groups. This seems naive, in that there are lots of laws that make such policies risky and also because the industry has invested heavily in compliance managers and employee training to resolve such problems. The industry may not be perfect but it is not actively avoiding its responsibility for equitable lending policies. I don't think their perspective mars their analysis but I do think that the same outcome could have been produced with a less accusatory tone.

Third, the policy recommendations offered may not be as workable as the authors imply, since the data requirements for implementing their proposed statistical tests would actually be quite demanding and perhaps beyond the legal authority of the banking regulators.

Nonetheless, this is a very valuable book because it is the first to make an authoritative stab at consolidating the economic knowledge about a very difficult topic. If you're just trained as a generalist in this topic, the policy chapters will still be useful but you'll need to pass the book along to a colleague specializing in economic and statistical research to gain full value from both the critique and the recommendations for new statistical tests. ... Read more

Book Description

Described by Newsweek as "a political scientist doing with statistics what Fred Astaire did with hats, canes, and chairs...he makes them live and breathe," Andrew Hacker provides a comprehensive protrayal of income and wealth in American society.

Combining keen insight with a flair for bringing a human dimension to facts and figures, bestselling author Andrew Hacker shows how the changing economy affects our lives. His clear-eyed analysis illuminates the real results of women's fight for salary parity, the impact of affirmative action on the income of minorities, the effect immigration has on the job market, and more. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Long on statistics, short on insight.
Rather dry. Not very much that you couldn't figure out by yourself; not much original insight. The author uses statistics throughout to the point that it almost becomes meaningless. Anyone with the most limited experience with statistics knows that you can make them say just about anything you want.

What I had hoped for was some insight into why there is so much economic disparity in this country and what we can, or should, do about it. Instead the author gave more of a status quo, "we are here," appoach.

The last chapter was maybe the most insteresting. It focused on the economic changes in the US since WW2. It is anybody's guess what the future will bring, but it seems like it will continue as it is now until there is some big crash or other disaster.

An interesting look at how money gets distributed in the US.
Andrew Hacker's Money is a great look at who has the money in America and how they got it. He talks in great detail about how the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. I was astounded to read that in 1997 there were 137 individuals who claimed over $1 billion in income. Almost 70,000 tax returns claimed an income of at least $1 million. There are far more rich people out there than I thought and it leads me to believe that if they can do it, so can I.

Brief Response to Brian Carey's review
As a former student of Professor Hacker, I've developed much respect for the man. While that certainly biases my opinion of his books (as I do view him as the God of Political Science), I know that I will always be getting a fresh perspective as I've never known anyone who could "cut the crap" better than Professor Hacker.

One of the most important lessons I learned from him is to always read between the lines; so that we may learn to think beyond the 68% norm. While Dr. Hacker could certainly fill hundreds of more pages with his insightful comments and statistical analyses, he knows that in between the lines, there is a whole other book yet to be created by the reader. I regret not having learned that until after he had already given me my final grade.

Our Free Market Economy and the Resulting Trends
In "Money: Who has how much and why", Andrew Hackermakes a decent attempt to illustrate the changes in the American economic profile. He uncovers some interesting and surprising facts from time to time and he provides the reader with more than enough statistics for one book.

The main focus of "Money" is the economic trends of the past twenty to thirty years. Hacker points out some of the important changes that have taken place and he is careful to emphasize that while these trends are a step in the right direction, there is still much room for improvement. Examples would include the overall increase in pay for women, the movement of women into non-traditional, higher paying jobs, and the upward mobility of blacks into higher social classes.

There are several other areas where the economic trends have not been necessarily favorable. The most obvious is the growing income inequality between rich and poor. While this is usually viewed in a negative light by most people, Hacker does not say much about the possible consequences relating to the income inequality gap or what can be done to stop this trend. He merely states that these financial inequalities are a fact of life, a direct result of the capitalistic system.

With subjects as diverse as economic trends, causes, predictions, etc., this book could have easily been double, perhaps triple, in length. Hacker provides a quick overview with lots of economic statistics in a relatively short amount of space. ... Read more