Book Description

The Human Development Report 2004 debunks myths that regard diversity as a threat to nations and states, the source of inevitable clashes, and an obstacle to development. It asserts that struggles over economic resources and political power, not diversity, are most often at the root of conflict. The Report opens with an analysis of the vital links between human development and cultural liberty by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen. It goes on to examine issues that the dynamics of globalization have brought to the forefront of policy agendas in rich and poor countries alike: migration, predatory extremism, and the expansion of cultural diversity. Drawing on data from national and local governments around the world, it proposes evidence-based constitutional, juridical, and socioeconomic policy options to promote cultural liberty and multicultural democracy in the context of universally accepted human rights. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

I'm using this book
As a professional economist who is constantly looking for better ways to communicate the essence of economics to non economists, I couldn't be more enthusiastic about Henderson's The Joy of Freedom. Without mind numbing diagrams and equations, Henderson conveys more economic understanding than any of the standard text books I know--and I know a lot of them, having written a few myself. And it is not just economic concepts and the standard perspective on economic efficiency that he communicates so compellingly. With a personal story beautifully woven into the narrative, Henderson shows how humane and socially concerned economists can be (and generally are). Read this book and find out that economists can be passionate in wanting to make this world a better place, and have real guide posts in going about it, guide posts that elevate the ideal of freedom to the central organizing principle. The next time I teach a principles courses I'm going to do my students a tremendous favor by using David Henderson's The Joy of Freedom: An Economists Odyssey as the main text.

A personal path of discovery
David Henderson is my friend and I helped him with this book, so I suppose I'm biased. But my familiarity can help you decide whether to buy this book or not.

The Joy of Freedom is the work of an exceptional teacher who has a skill for communicating economic concepts. It is the result of his lifelong desire to understand the world, to better himself, and to help others. As the reader, we walk side by side with David as he struggles to understand complex and important issues. He tells us stories from his life, from childhood through his successful career as an economist. The result is an interesting, easy-to-read, understandable, and enjoyable book about some of the more pressing problems of our time. How many other books can make that claim?

If you care about your personal retirement assets, your ability to get good health care, the education of yourself or your children, your rights and security, the inner workings of the government, the laws of economics, discrimination, or the environment, this book has something for you. You don't have to agree with everything Dr. Henderson says. In fact, because he is such a good thinker and communicator, his path of discovery should help you on your own, whatever course it may take.

Read this book!
This is an enjoyable book. It is part autobiography and part political philosophy and, perhaps best of all, it provides well supported and practical solutions to many of our country's biggest problems -- including the environment, public schools, social security and medicare, health care, etc. I rarely read a book where I feel, as I did with this one, that I would love to meet the author and discuss these issues. A very clear and intelligent writer who doesn't pretend to know all the answers. He clearly has a great deal of experience with these issues but has none of the ego or arrogance that we so often see these days. This is an excellent book.

Like Atlas Shrugged
The Joy of Freedom is like Atlas Shrugged in that reading both books ignites a passion for liberty in me. Henderson, like Rand, is a zealous advocate of freedom. The difference between the two books and their authors, however, is that Rand tends to be combative whereas Henderson tends to deliver a pleasant message.

Henderson tells of his intellectual journey as a free-market economist and libertarian. Along the way he applies the principles of freedom and free-market economics to the vital issues of the past, present, and future. "This book", he writes, "is about freedom, about how well freedom works and how government, by crushing freedom, messes up our lives."

Henderson didn't take economics until his final year of college. His evaluation of introductory economics: "The course was a profound disappointment." The text and the lectures did not raise questions that were interesting to him about how markets work. The model of "perfect competition" turned him off, as it does many students. Fortunately, Henderson attended lectures by economist Harold Demsetz who did explain how markets work, which rekindled Henderson's interest in economics.

What sort of questions does Henderson find interesting? In 1969 he asked Hubert Humphrey: "Then how do you reconcile your belief in the Thirteenth Amendment [prohibiting slavery] with your belief in the draft?" Henderson devotes an entire chapter to property rights and emphasizes their efficacy throughout. He poses the following scenario: "You walk by a yard and see someone painting a house. Pointing a gun at him is another man who orders the first man to stop painting." Then he asks: "Who is in the right?" Henderson might alter your view of the world. Consider this way of thinking about taxes: "Imagine that a thief takes your money at gunpoint, uses your money to buy a steak, and then brings the steak to your house and gives it to you." His question is: "Would you say that he didn't steal from you?" He even dares to ask: "Should we have taxes at all?" He raises the question of why the standard of living in the U.S. rises despite the shortcomings of government schools. About schools, he also asks: "If you went to a government school, or if your children go to a government school, is 'exciting' the first adjective, or even the fifth adjective, you would use to describe the experience?" Concerning the environment, he asks: "How far could we go in the direction of using private property to solve environmental problems?"

A reader of this book can expect to encounter many thought-provoking points as well as serious contributions to policies on social security, health care, education, and the environment.

excellent....
This book doesn't receive enough credit...it's incredible.I've read a lot of free market books and if you want to give a book to someone and convince them of the power of free markets I would say this is the one.Mr. Henderson is quite a teacher and it shows.I can almost guarantee that if you are against capitalism and free markets this book would make you doubt the validity of anything otherwise....it's that good.I've read human action,capitalism by reisman...and rothbard and rand books,,,all are great but this one can convince the average joe who really doesn't care about politics and policy making in a disarming fun way.Great writing...and simple.Next I would recommend Rothbard...For A New Liberty... and economics in one lesson,by hazlitt. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Lessons for Policy Makers
In this book, Danny Rodrik offers some valuable guidance for policy-makers. They should focus on the fundamentals of economic growth - investment, macro-economic stability, human resources and good governance - and not let international economic integration dominate their thinking. The potential benefits of openness will only be realised when "complementary policies and institutions are in place domestically".

An important result from his analysis is that a strong, participatory, democracy is good for growth. This is very much in line with Barro's "Determinants of Economic Growth" (1998).The resoning is that a country with a strong democracy will be better at resolving the social conflicts emerging from external economic shocks, and therefore benefit from greater macroeconomic stability. In order to increase the effectiveness of dealing with shocks, the channels to which non-elites can make themselves heard, and participate, in policy making needs to be improved. Otherwise dissatisfaction will lead to social unrest.To play the role of honest broker, the state needs to perceived as competent and free of corruption.

Two policy areas are identified as being central to achieving long-term growth and making openness work: A domestic investment strategy; the strengthening of domestic institutions of conflict management.

Many of his findings offer support for much of current policy thinking on development. The importance of political freedom, security of person, and the need for a reasonable degree of macroeconomic stability is widely recognised. Good governance has moved firmly up the list of priorities. Also, attempts are being made to try and increase the widespread "ownership" of reforms through e.g. the Comprehensive Development Framework of the World Bank.

However, there are several important areas where Rodrik's analysis requires further consideration:

· Developing countries, in devising a domestic investment strategy, are better advised to look at ways of reducing risk and improving their credibility in the eyes of domestic and foreign investors, rather than following Rodrik's suggestion to improve investment returns through e.g. investment subsidies. (see Moran (1998) "Foreign Direct Investment and Development").

· The strong link between good governance and openness is very important and needs greater attention. Red tape and corruption are strongly correlated. Trade restrictions nearly always introduce distortions, caused by "rent seeking" activities, and create vested interest groups.

· As he suggests, all countries are able to improve their "fundamentals". But it is also true that different regions are likely to benefit from integration - in terms of both growth and poverty reduction - to very different extents.

· Rodrik suggests that Africa is not "different". He is right in so far as domestic factors - stability and security - are central to its success. But sub Saharan Africa is different . It faces great difficulties in building institutions of conflict management and has a legacy of being the most trade and capital hostile region.

· As is always the case in the "never ending question" of empirical tests of the links between trade and growth, the interpretation of the results of his work is very much open to question. He is far from decisively refuting this link.

Taking some of these factors into account suggests that Rodrik's somewhat sanguine attitude to inward-looking developm t is ill advised. Also, the potential role for international governance in helping to overcome several of and the problems facing poorer countries - low credib ity, limited regulatory resources, small markets -becomes more important. But these rules will help in so far as they encourage certainty, transparency and non-discrimination, rather than in offering flexibility. However, as Rodrik states, " these rules of the internation economy must be flexible in order to allow developing countries to develop their own "styles of capitalism"".

Insights into making 'globalization'work for poor countries
Like clothes, economic development policies are subject to the trends of fashion. This book examines the current development fad, "openness," and critiques it as a flawed economic model when applied simplistically to developing countries. The author, Dani Rodrik, professor of international political economy at Harvard, is no enemy of an open world economy, but he argues that its boosters greatly oversell its virtues and neglect its vices. He contends that too many governments and their policy advisors are fixated on openness --the unrestricted flow of goods, services, and capital across borders--as an end in itself. The dangers to this approach, he warns, are that: 1) openness alone is an unreliable mechanism to generate and sustain economic growth; 2) it tends to widen income and wealth inequalities within both developed and developing countries; and 3) it exposes countries to external shocks that can trigger domestic conflicts and political upheavals.

A developing country can gain much from openness to trade and investment, he agrees, but it must also do much in actively "making openness work"--the theme of the book. The minuses of openness may outweigh the pluses if a country fails to develop its own internal "complementary policies and institutions." What kind of policies and institutions? He cites these as among the most important: "participatory institutions, civil and political liberties, free labor unions, non-corrupt bureaucracies, high-quality independent judiciaries, and mechanisms of social insurance such as social safety nets." He offers specific evidence on how such institutions are valuable to developing countries for coping with turbulence in the world economy and for countering the widening of inequality that openness often brings. For most economists Rodrik is heretical because he debunks the "free market religion" and derides "knee-jerk globalizers," though only in passing. This is far from a diatribe against globalization. Instead, the book presents a detailed factual case for openness as "part of a development strategy," rather than a substitute for one. His forceful advice to governments and policy advisers: "Stop thinking of international economic integration as an end itself. Developing nations have to engage the world economy on their own terms, not on terms set by global markets or multilateral institutions." A valuable chapter of the book is one titled "Is Africa Is Different?" Rodrik answers No; openness can work its wonders there but (as anywhere) definitely not if applied simplistically.

Rodrik slips into jargon from time to time, but you can still benefit from reading his book even if you don't have a degree in economics.

--Robert A. Senser, editor of the Website Human Rights for Workers ... Read more

Book Description

Can Russia ever become a normal, free-market, democratic society? Why have so many reforms failed since the Soviet Union’s collapse? In this highly-original work, Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy argue that Russia’s geography, history, and monumental mistakes perpetrated by Soviet planners have locked it into a dead-end path to economic ruin.

Shattering a number of myths that have long persisted in the West and in Russia, The Siberian Curse explains why Russia’s greatest assets—its gigantic size and Siberia’s natural resources—are now the source of one of its greatest weaknesses. For seventy years, driven by ideological zeal and the imperative to colonize and industrialize its vast frontiers, communist planners forced people to live in Siberia. They did this in true totalitarian fashion by using the GULAG prison system and slave labor to build huge factories and million-person cities to support them.

Today, tens of millions of people and thousands of large-scale industrial enterprises languish in the cold and distant places communist planners put them—not where market forces or free choice would have placed them. Russian leaders still believe that an industrialized Siberia is the key to Russia’s prosperity. As a result, the country is burdened by the ever-increasing costs of subsidizing economic activity in some of the most forbidding places on the planet. Russia pays a steep price for continuing this folly—it wastes the very resources it needs to recover from the ravages of communism.

Hill and Gaddy contend that Russia’s future prosperity requires that it finally throw off the shackles of its Soviet past by shrinking Siberia’s cities. Only by facilitating the relocation of population to western Russia, closer to Europe and its markets, can Russia achieve sustainable economic growth.

Unfortunately for Russia, there is no historical precedent for shrinking cities on the scale that will be required. Downsizing Siberia will be a costly and wrenching process. But there is no alternative. Russia cannot afford to keep the cities left by communist planners out in the cold. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

It's as though the US tried to re-create Cleveland in Alaska
The authors' main theme is that the Soviets' determination to create cities in Siberia has created an albatross that will hold back Russian economic development forever. Most of the cities of Siberia have no economic justification for existence, and by any standard, should not have been created in the first place. Even where there are large mineral or oil deposits, the cost of maintaining huge cities in the Arctic outweighs any possible profit. Getting these people to move to warmer parts of Russia would be beneficial all round, but is difficult due to housing shortages in the more desirable parts of Russia. The authors argue that Russians need to abandon their notion that settlement of Siberia is the destiny of the Russian people and will make Russia an economic powerhouse.

If there is a flaw here, it is that the authors keep hammering away at their main point, creating a repetitive tone toward the end of the book. Throughout the book there are short articles from various periodicals in gray boxes, which serve to illustrate the authors' theoretical arguments.

Never Trust A Real-Estate Agent
by John Dolan:

Every year or so, another silly theory comes into vogue among Western "Russia hands," that estimable body of scientific prognosticators not one of whom managed to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union until three or four years after it had occurred.
...
Think of all those nineteenth-century editorial cartoons sneering at Seward for buying Alaska from the Russians. That too was worthless, frozen land, fit only for bears. Anybody want to sell it back at, say, 100 times the price? Didn't think so.
...
Their arguments are often the most naive sort of social-science bluff, as when they use something called "Zipf's Law" to demonstrate that Russia's cities are of the wrong sizes and in the wrong place. I'm not familiar with the work of the unluckily-named Zipf, but if anyone out there knows him, please tell him for me that if Hill and Gaddy's paraphrase is an accurate summary of his theory, he's an ass.
...
It's somewhat surprising to see an argument so totally illogical praised as "highly original" and "a welcome and important contribution" to Russian studies--until you see who's praising it.
...
Sachs is, of course, the paradigm of the incompetent, sleazy Western consultant who did so much to destroy Russia in the 90s. Pipes is a mad reactionary who has been shrilly whitewashing serfdom and vilifying the Soviets for what seems like centuries. And Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's East Bloc specialist, is a Russophobe from way, way back, a man who makes Pavel Felgenhauer look like a Rodina deputy.
...
And it's very easy to see why The Siberian Curse serves their ends. By blaming bad Soviet planners for Russia's fall, this book helps get a sleazebag like Sachs get off the hook, confirms Pipes' one endlessly repeated argument that Soviet = evil, and endorses Brzezinski's conviction that the further east you go, the more Russian and evil everything becomes.
...
Another blurb-writer, Niall Ferguson of Oxford, states with naive clarity the real reason this book is doing well: "Those still wondering why market reforms have achieved only limited success in Russia since the collapse of Communism cannot afford to overlook this timely and original book."
...
In other words: Thank you for your book/ It lets us off the hook. The West cannot be blamed for the "limited success" of the "market reforms" carried out by Sachs and accomplices. Turns out the Soviets did it after all-from beyond the grave, as it were.

For more, exile.ru

The Cost of Cold
Everyone knows that Siberia is a very cold place. This book explains how the coldness of Siberia presents one of the greatest impediments to future development of the Russian economy. Under the best of circumstances, developing strategies for dealing with a large, unbearably cold place like Siberia presents tremendous challenges. The Soviets made the situation much worse by ignoring the cost of the cold. With an ample supply of forced labor provided by the GULAG prison system and a total disregard for the profitability of industrial endeavors, the Soviets put people and resources in places that made no sense economically. It is tempting to think of Siberia as a treasure chest containing vast quantities of natural resources just waiting to be exploited. Certainly the effort required to access these resources now represents an investment that will yield great rewards in the future. Hill and Gaddy expose the fallacy of this point of view using quantitative economic methods to support their detailed arguments. The cost of supporting people and factories in extremely cold places currently outweighs any benefit to the Russian economy. This book is written in a style that is both scholarly and accessible to the average reader. Not only does the book provide insight into why the Soviet economy failed, it provides clear-cut policy recommendations for economically sound ways that Russia can deal with the Siberian challenge now and in the future. According to economic considerations, Siberia is now enormously over populated and the people currently living there should be encouraged to move to warmer places. The treasures of Siberia should be kept in cold storage until technologies are developed to extract these resources profitably, without damaging the Siberian ecology.

A Challenge For Russia
This thought provoking book proposes a challenge to the Russian people. The curse of Siberia is its severe cold and the vast distances between towns and cities. Although there are large valuable resources, the cost of developing these resources make them almost unavailable. The book is well documented and rings of truth.
While reading I could not help, but hope that somr Russian officials read it and try to sell the Russian government on its thesis. It is a readable book and a must read for those interested in Russian history and how much geography has played a major role in its development. I highly recommend it and commend the authors for their contribution to world understanding. Taylor Neely, Carson City, Nevada ... Read more

Book Description

Through a critique of the economic, technological, political, and ethical theories that are the basis for current policy, this book shows that sustainable development proposals are at least incomplete or impractical and at worst dangerously misleading.

The concept of sustainable development presents a problem for theorists and policy makers because it cannot be objectively defined and subjective understandings vary widely. For the capitalist, sustainable development is a problem of production efficiency and technological innovation; for the environmentalist, a more appropriate ethic is a necessity; and for the developing country policy maker, a more equitable distribution of power over resources is imperative.

Harrison shows how sustainable development can be constructed from policy principles derived from ongoing adaptations to changes in values, beliefs, and scientific knowledge, and applied in both developed and developing nations and communities large and small. ... Read more

Book Description

Around the world, a revolution is occurring in finance for low-income people. The microfinance revolution is delivering financial services to the economically active poor on a large scale through competing, financially self-sufficient institutions. In a few countries this has already happened; in others it is under way. The emerging microfinance industry has profound implications for social and economic development. For the first time in history, capital is well on its way to being democratized.

The Microfinance Revolution is aimed at a diverse readership--economists, bankers, policymakers, donors, and social scientists; microfinance practitioners and specialists in local finance and rural and urban development; and members of the general public interested in development. The first volume of what will be a three-volume series, this book focuses on the shift from government- and donor-subsidized credit systems to self-sufficient microfinance institutions providing voluntary savings and credit services.

Forthcoming volumes in this series include:
The Microfinance Revolution: Lessons from Indonesia, ISBN 0-8213-4953-8
The Microfinance Revolution: The Emerging Industry, ISBN 0-8213-4954-6 ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Technology, Growth and Development
This is an encyclopedic volume on the role of technology in economic growth in both advanced and poorer countries. The extraordinary scope of the volume includes new insights on the role of the microprocessor and molecular biology in economic growth. This book will be the starting point for all readers interested in the role of technology in the growth process.

Everything you ever wanted to know about technology
This great book contains everything you ever wanted to know about the interplay between technology, economic growth, development, and the environment.

The book stands strong, treating both theory as well as empirical case studies comprehensively. It's full treatment of theory and exhaustive bibliography make the book THE introductory text book for any university curriculum. Extremely valuable cases studies - that will appeal also to the practitioner - are provided for agricultural innovations, biotechnologies, semiconductors, heat and power, and the chemical industry. Finally, the book blends in nicely also chapters on technology, differences in national systems of innovations and in the international diffusion of technology, as well as sustainable development issues.

In short: a reference book, well written and here to last. Thanks Vernon! ... Read more

Book Description

This Introduction explores the origins of capitalism and questions whether it did indeed originate in Europe. It examines a distinctive stage in the development of capitalism that began in the 1980s, in order to understand where we are now and how capitalism has evolved since. The book discusses the crisis tendencies of capitalism--including the S.E. Asian banking crisis, the collapse of the Russian economy, and the 1997-1998 global financial crisis--asking whether capitalism is doomed to fail. In the end, the author ruminates on a possible alternative to capitalism, discussing socialism, communal and cooperative experiments, and alternatives proposed by environmentalists. ... Read more

Book Description

Witness seven extraordinary men doing what Americans do best: building new businesses. These entrepreneurs broke old rules and made their own, mastering the future by shaping it. They overcame seemingly impossible obstacles to achieve enormous success and, in the process, played a role in the creation of the modern world.

Masterfully combining his understanding of business and American history, Harvard Business School professor Richard S. Tedlow illuminates the professional and personal lives of these nineteenth- and twentieth-century titans, men with penetrating insight whose need to fulfill their destiny outweighed their fear of failure:

Each of these men traveled his own special road to preeminence, a road determined by the complex interactions of his character, his company, and his times. Tedlow critically explores each visionary with compassion and wit, and in so doing sheds new light on issues of urgent importance in the business world today: How do you get a business going? How do you grow it from a one-man show to an institution? How do you develop a value proposition so compelling that your customers can't do without you? How do you maintain your perspective as you rise above your peers? What is the personal price of exceptional business achievement? When is it time to step aside?

Through its exploration of the triumphs and failures of these seven men, Giants of Enterprise provides us with an unmatched understanding of the challenges of business. These riveting stories contain innumerable lessons that make this book essential reading for anyone interested in entrepreneurial greatness.

Reviews (15)

Business, history, and psychology in one fascinating package
My reading about business is usually limited to the business section of the daily paper, but when I read that Business Week Magazine has named Giants of Enterprise as one of the top ten books about business for this year, I was intrigued enough to have a look at it. Once I began reading, I didn't want to stop! Tedlow's prose is engaging and elegant; he obviously knows his subject thoroughly. As I read about these immensely complicated men, I was amazed by the audacity, creativity, and cunning they showed in their dealings with the world of business. Equally interesting are the glimpses into the personal lives of such figures as Andrew Carnegie, George Eastman, and Henry Ford. This book is about American history as well as the history of business; it has also made me realize that there is such a thing as the psychology of business, although in this field, it is probably as tricky to analyze and try to predict outcomes as it is in the field of economics. I thank Prof. Tedlow for hours of reading pleasure, and for elucidating of many aspects of business that were previously opaque to me. Finally - I thank him for enriching my vocabulary with what he rightly refers to as an "infelicitous" phrase: Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal!
Outstanding.

Giants of Enterprise
This is the best book on business innovation that I've read in 25 years. Dr. Tedlow brings to life innovative and engaging thinkers like Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Watson, Sam Walton, and Robert Noyce of Intel. Never dry, always interesting, and beautifully written. I give this book a rave review.

You won't stop reading
You will find in easy words excellent information on these 7 titans as you won't be able to find it anywhere else.

Giants of Enterprise
Witness seven extraordinary men doing what Americans do best: building new businesses. These entrepreneurs broke old rules and made their own, mastering the future by shaping it. They overcame seemingly impossible obstacles to achieve enormous success and, in the process, played a role in the creation of the modern world." "Combining his understanding of business and American history, Harvard Business School professor Richard S. Tedlow illuminates the professional and personal lives of these nineteenth- and twentieth-century titans, men with penetrating insight whose need to fulfill their destiny outweighed their fear of failure

"Giants" Indeed But Also Mortal
Tedlow provides a brilliant analysis of each of his subjects in combination with a wealth of biographical information which creates an appropriate context for his discussion of Carnegie, Eastman, Ford, Watson (Sr.), Revson, Walton, and Noyce. He organizes his material within three Parts: The Rise to Global Economic Power, The Heart of the American Century, and Our Own Times. So what we have here, in a single volume, are eight mini-biographies, critical analysis of the "giants," and an equally valuable analysis of the evolution of American business history during the last 150 years. Although not always in agreement with Tedlow, I especially appreciate sharing his own opinions. He cites a wealth of primary sources and on occasion expresses his own disagreements with others such as Joseph Frazier Wall, author of arguably the definitive biography of Andrew Carnegie. Tedlow has consummate writing skills. His narrative has Snap! Crackle! and Pop! Throughout the book, he offers hundreds of revealing anecdotes, direct quotations, relevant examples to illustrate and support key points, and -- much appreciated -- a playful sense of humor. Tedlow really is an entertaining raconteur as well as a distinguished business scholar.

This is one of the most entertaining as well as most informative business books I have read in recent years. Those who share my high regard for it are urged to check out Crainer's The Management Century, Thought Leaders edited by Kurtzman, Wren and Greenwood's Management Innovators, Leibovich's The New Imperialists, and Landrum's Profiles of Genius. ... Read more

Book Description

The World Development Report 2004 investigates how countries can accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by making services work for poor people. Success in reaching the MDGs will depend not just on faster economic growth and the flow of sources, but on our ability to translate those resources into basic services, especially in health, education, water, and sanitation. Too often, the delivery of services falls far short of what could be achieved, due to issues such as weak incentives for performance, corruption, imperfect monitoring, and administrative logjams. Some countries have addressed the problem by involving poor people in service delivery; the results have been impressive. Giving parents input into their children's education, patients a say over hospital management, and making agency budgets transparent all contribute to improving outcomes in human development.Celebrating the successful innovations--while taking a hard look at some of the failures--this Report offers guidance to policymakers, donors, and citizens on improving the delivery of basic services. It serves to deepen understanding and highlight the importance of empowering and investing in poor people. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Focus on the problem.
Regardless of your political views, opinions about globalization, or general predisposition to the World Bank, the WDR 2004 is an essential publication addressing the issues of poverty and equity in health, education, and socioeconomic terms. Not only are the issues of equity being raised on an international level but intranationally as well. The WDR 2004 takes on the issues and problems that are increasing the disparity between the haves and have-nots within a given country. Without prejudice or preference, this report discusses the failures of institutions, national and multinational, in making the necessary strides to address poverty and the plight of the poor. This report is one of the most comprehensive resources available right now for understanding and responding to the issues of provision and access for the poor to proper healthcare, education, sanitation, clean water and electricity.

Classic Doublespeak
MAKING POOR PEOPLE WORK FOR (LOUSY) SERVICES: How the World Bank Impoverishes Third World Countries would be a more accurate title. For balance, see 50 Years Is Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, by Kevin Danaher, and Masters of Illusion the World Bank and the Poverty of Nations, by Catherine Caufield. Let's not forget, some 40,000 children die every day from hunger or hunger-related diseases - all in countries that have been under the thumb of the World Bank for years. Enough is enough. This neocolonial institution must go. Only then will coffee plantations and aquaculture farms again grow food for the people who actually need it. ... Read more

Book Description

World Development Indicators, the World Bank's respected statistical publication presents the most current and accurate information on global development on both a national level and aggregated globally. This information allows readers to monitor the progress made toward meeting the goals endorsed by the United Nations and its member countries, the World Bank, and a host of partner organizations in September 2001 in their Millennium Development Goals. The print edition of World Development Indicators 2005 allows you to consult over 80 tables and over 800 indicators for 152 economies and 14 country groups, as well as basic indicators for a further 55 economies. There are key indicators for the latest year available, important regional data, and income group analysis. The report contains six thematic presentations of analytical commentary covering: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links.

The CD-ROM editions contain 43 years of time series data for more than 200 countries from 1960-2003, single-year observations, and spreadsheets on many topics. It contains more than 1,000 country tables and the text from the World Development Indicators 2005 print edition and the World Bank Atlas (36th edition). The Windows® based format permits users to search for and retrieve data in spreadsheet form, create maps and charts, and fully download them into other popular software programs for study or presentation purposes. ... Read more

Book Description

Because of the remarkable number of currency and emerging market meltdowns during the 1990s— from the Mexican peso crisis to the collapse of the Asian markets to the Russian devaluation of the ruble— the free market system faces the prospect of tighter global regulation. David DeRosa makes a compelling case that less, not more regulation is vitally needed; that public policies often have been dead wrong in concept and application; that so-called controls generate indirect and unintended harmful consequences; and that aggressive intervention is no panacea.

When confronted with a financial crisis, many leaders prefer to indict the international financial system rather than admit to policy blunders that may be of their own making. This book analyses the economic conditions that produced a number of recent financial crises. It also investigates the responses made to each crisis, to uncover whether government policies directed at these episodes of turmoil made matters better or worse.

This is a rousing case for putting far greater trust in the markets. It exposes the risks, market distortions, and huge hidden costs that can result from government bailouts and proposed reforms. David DeRosa makes an important contribution to a debate whose outcome will determine the stability and prosperity achievable in an interconnected age.

Key features:
• Questions whether financial crises are a natural product of market-driven economies or a symptom of bad government policies
• Argues that less regulation will keep international financial markets sound
• Exposes how government interference has had a negative impact on the workings of the market system
• Reveals how public policies have often been built on incorrect assumptions ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Free Capital Markets
Dr DeRosa's book was entertaining, easy to read and packed with anecdotes and information. As an investment pro, his book gave me a greater insight into the often arcane political manipulations that eventually sow the seeds for economic instability. He pulls no punches when he states that central banks and governments themselves set themselves up to be the eventual "victims" of their own bad policies and instead of doing something different, they blame the speculator.
I like his information "boxes" that help the reader with the technical details of the book. Although I have long been a fan of single currency idea's, DeRosa's book has given me reason to pause. Well referenced and well researched.
The reviews by Dr Hanke and Dr Friedman can't hurt either.

Accolades from Milton Friedman
"In Defense of Free Capital Markets is an impressive survey and analysis of the crises of the 1990s. Mr. DeRosa makes a strong case that official intervention has made matters worse, not better, and that in such instances it is far better to leave it to the invisible hand of the market than to the clumsy, visible hand of regulators."

--Milton Friedman Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution Nobel Economics Prize, 1976

Common Sense for Currency Buffs
Professor DeRosa offers up a generous helping of reality in evaluating the currency crises of the past dozen or so years. From the first world foibles of the Bank of Japan to the third world of currency pegs, the currency calamities of the late twentieth century are thoughtfully presented in a lean read.

While perhaps giving short shrift to the political constraints facing policy makers in times of crisis, Mr. DeRosa nevertheless does well describing the environments and pre-conditions which ultimately fostered our most recent international financial catastrophes.

In this, the age of fiat money, unsustainable currency policies are easy prey for the worlds biggest market. Anyone interested in a brief but informative history of recent currency debacles will truly enjoy this book.

Highly Recommended!
Yale University adjunct professor David F. DeRosa argues that markets are smarter than government ministries. Therefore, he contends, economic development should be left to the free market, since tighter regulations will only distort development. His detailed analysis of economic conditions focuses on factors leading to several crises, including the decline of the Mexican and Japanese economies in the 1990s and the Southeast Asian collapse of 1997. The subject is complicated and interesting, and the writing is often technical and sometimes complex. We at getAbstract call this book to the attention of scholars, executives and managers who have a serious interest in fiscal policy. And we do mean serious.

Free Capital Markets -- The Road to Prosperity
This work is illuminating and speaks to issues beyond the world of finance, like politics and ideaology. DeRosa lays out clear and consice arguments in defense of free floating exchange rates and against fixed exchange-rate regimes.

The author debunks the propaganda supporting fixed exchange-rate regimes with insightful analyses based on the facts of the various currency crises that occured during the 1990s. Particularly interesting is the fact that leaders around the world are either ignorant of or chose to ignore the last ten (let alone the last 100) years worth of economic history and persist in attempting to control and plan economies. This book should be required reading not only for finance professionals and central bankers, but anyone interested in how the decisions of people in appointed positions (like the head of a central bank or finance ministry)have far-reaching and often dire consequences. ... Read more

Amazon.com

"In China, I feel the explosive combination of forces aligning to create the kind of change that alters the course of history," writes David Sheff in the introduction to China Dawn, his book on the entrepreneurs who are trying to spark a social transformation and make a mint as they bring the latest information technology to the planet's most populous country. The idealistic heroes of this story are Bo Feng and Edward Tian, both friends of the author. Feng is a Marin County busboy who becomes one of China's top venture capitalists; Tian is the cofounder of AsiaInfo, the first private Chinese firm to go public in the West. Like so many others, Feng and Tian were deeply affected by the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, and they believe the Internet can set their country on an irreversible course toward freedom. At bottom, though, China Dawn is an engaging business book that chronicles the "unlikely group of revolutionaries" who hope to become the Bill Gates and Andy Groves of their country. It is difficult to know whether they will succeed, but hard not to wish them luck. --John Miller ... Read more

Reviews (21)

A riveting story, Life changing book
I ordered this book by reading some kind of review but never had time to read it in 4 months once I got it. On the back trip to China a month ago, I finished it non-stop in the flight. It is one of the best I have read about what's happening in the technology in China in a long time. I am a Chinese and working in the IT field, have the similar experiences with those people in the book. Enjoy reading.

One of the best
I ordered this book by reading some kind of review but never had time to read it in 4 months once I got it. On the back trip to China a month ago, I finished it non-stop in the flight. It is one of the best I have read about what's happening in the technology in China in a long time. I am a Chinese and working in the IT field, have the similar experiences with those people in the book. Enjoy reading.

This book is a purely a domcom story
The characters in this book are not what the book described since the author is the personal friend of the characters. This is purely free publicity for them. Search the web and you will find other comments about the auther. The latest story is the VCs have splited since they can't really get along, and the politics in the VC firm was unbearable with just a few people. Most of the portfolio companies are in bad shape. The VC's website has not been updated since 2001, wonder why. If you really want to know about IT in China, then you should learn from other sources. Most of the IT companies in China are not making money. This book only gives you a picture of the early dotcom years and we all know what happened. Don't judge the book by the cover or the content. It is only a perspective from one person.

Awesome
This book was awesome, I highly recommend it as a great introductory book into the business revolution in China, however it does not go too much in depth into the complexities of China's evolution in the past 20 years. But Sheff tells a great story and it is definitly a page turner!

Astounding
One of the best business books I have ever read. It is an inspiring story, written with insight and passion. I'm ready to pack up and head to China. ... Read more

Amazon.com

If Michael Lewis (The New New Thing, Liar's Poker) or P.J. O'Rourke (Holidays in Hell, Parliament of Whores) had spent the 1990s in Moscow, they might have produced a book like Casino Moscow--a dizzying first-person account of the wild east and its shotgun wedding with capitalism. It begins with Matthew Brzezinski as a rookie reporter getting beaten and nearly killed by a pair of Ukrainian thugs;the rest of the book is a white-knuckle tour through a place where the line separating entrepreneurs and criminals is often impossible to discern. Brzezinski worked in the Moscow bureau of the Wall Street Journal. If his name sounds familiar, that's because he's the nephew of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security advisor. He is an ideal guide: sometimes it takes a fish-out-of-water foreigner to see the things a jaded native cannot. (Comparing the author to Alexis de Tocqueville or Gunnar Myrdal is a stretch, but it's the same idea.) Brzezinski also writes with great humor and amazing panache. Describing the parking lot of a high-class bank, he writes that it "resembled a well-stocked Mercedes dealership that specialized only in armored, navy blue 600-series sedans, or shestotki, as the top-of-the-line models were affectionately known--as in 'My shestotka's just been blown up, can I borrow yours?'" Gangsters, prostitutes, and Western investors fill these pages, all of them coming to life courtesy of Brzezinski's narrative skill.

Despite the title, Casino Moscow isn't just about Moscow--some of the best sections cover other parts of Russia: "It was heartbreaking that St. Petersburg had been so mistreated. Yet even in its state of decay, I still preferred its shabby elegance to Moscow's new-money makeover. In St. Petersburg you lived for the past; Moscow lived only for the day." At the edge of Siberia, on the Pacific coast, is Vladivostok--"five time zones ahead of the Russian capital, but a decade behind." The book is a fast-paced adventure story--and a must for readers interested in Russia as well as fans of modern-day gonzo journalism. Brzezinski is a writer to watch. --John Miller ... Read more

Reviews (24)

Russia Lite
The book is entertaining, though glib and superficial. I've lived in Moscow for three years and Brzezinski's book sounds like so much standard ex-pat piffle: constant moaning about how it's not like back home, coupled with high-sounding moralizing, topped off by a mercenary drive to grab as much as possible from the place before bailing out. I have some doubts about the quality of Brzezinski's reportage, since he seems not to put himself out on much in-depth research. I thought it was particularly odd that he got most if not all of his information about Umar Djabrailov by reading Umar's own collection of press clippings while waiting for an interview. Actually, I'm dismayed to learn that the Wall Street Journal would appoint him one of its Moscow correspondents when his main financial training was watching "Bonfire of the Vanities" and reading "Liar's Poker". It casts doubt on the quality of the WSJ's reportage in general.

And I have to wonder about the quality of his analysis; how could anyone spend as much time in Russia as he did and not understand that Zhirinovsky is but a political clown propped up and used by the Kremlin to advance its own agenda? How can he summarily dismiss the U.S. policy towards Russia (too much support of Yeltsin) without discussing some of the alternatives? And how, oh how, could he not have known that Night Flight was a bordello before going in? Almost every visiting foreign businessman figures this out within 24 hours of arrival.

The book seems content with tossing out the types of cliched characters that will play well with the folks back at the Home Office but it doesn't break out of its limitations with any fresh insights. It's as though the book is setting the standard for a new, post-Cold War rhetoric ("those awful, thick-necked, thieving Russkies!"), but then maybe it's an inevitable tradition in his family (picking up where his uncle Zbigniew left off). Make no mistake, there are a lot of baddies in the upper reaches of power in Moscow, but the situation's a bit more complicated than as presented in this book. By not having distracted himself from his high-priced dinners and social circle of Bright Young Things, Brzezinski hasn't sweated enough to try to get below the surface of the current situation in Russia.

Red Whine
I've never felt compelled to throw a book away. Until this one.
A reporter for a widely respected newspaper, dropped into '90s Moscow's whirling clash of cultures, should be able to come away with quite a collection of stories. And, to be fair, Brzezinski has some humorous stuff, and some interesting tales, but they're buried among too much personal detritus. There is far too much about the author, his family ties (enough already about "Uncle Zbig!") and his resentment of all things Russian. I've never read a book with such a smug (yet whiny) protagonist.
He didn't much like Russians (and had a big chip on his shoulder throughout the book), and he had little use for the expat community. With all his complaining, I wondered throughout this book why Brzezinski agreed to go to Russia, then why he stayed there, then why he bothered to write about it.
There's a good book somewhere in the Russia of the 1990s. This isn't it.

Scared to death of Russia now?
Man, had I not been to Russia as many times already that I have...and I was getting read to leave and had read this book, I would be too scared to go!! Mr. Brzezinski's book is entertaining at best. It glances over some important parts in today's Russia. However, it is too damn moralistic and bemoans the same whining, bitching and complaining that 98% of all the expats living in Moscow complain about...it's not like home. Well, duh...

If you have been following news out of Russia, this book will add nothing new to your bank of knowledge. If you have never been to Russia and you are getting ready to go to Russia, don't let this book scare you away.

"Matthew's Misadventures in the New Eastern Europe"
"Matthew's Misadventures in the New Eastern Europe" is a more fitting title for this book. It is a rambling tale of a young reporter's experiences in Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Belorussia. It is by no means a comprehensive account of the region's transition from communism to--for the most part--crony capitalism and anarchy.
Casino Moscow does have some interesting anecdotes and men's locker room stories from this enthralling period of unprecedented change and transfer of wealth. However, the author often starts to ramble and goes off on tangents, thus the time period discussed is not always obvious. Another serious critique is that the book is quite superficial. Mr. Brzezinski does not delve too deeply into any topic and often fails to state his own conclusions as a good investigative reporter should. In addition he is not more perceptive than an average cognizant tourist. After living in Moscow for some time, he walked into nightspot, which, to his surprise, turned out to be a brothel. Mr. Brzezinski is a typical expatriate who fails to truly understand the local culture and people. He is constantly complaining either about the lack of western luxuries or the exuberant displays of wealth in the new Russia. At times I even sensed a tinge of resentment at missing out on this unprecedented "gold rush" where vast fortunes were made and lost overnight.
While trying to mix in morsels of humor, the author threw serious doubts on the credibility of the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Brzezinski, who was sent to Kiev to serve as the Journal's financial reporter, wrote that he tried to learn about financial markets from watching the movie, Wall Street, and reading Liar's Poker. The Wall Street Journal is a highly reliable and reputable source and this raises the question of whether Mr. Brzezinski was hired as a result of his descent in lieu of financial acumen.
The bottom line is: if you know next to nothing about Eastern Europe, and believe that wild bears roam the snow-laden streets of Moscow, then you will find this book very informative and entertaining. If not, I'd recommend other books on the subject such as Chrystia Freeland's Sale of the Century.

Good read, misleading title
I really liked Brzezinski's book, and I think you will too as long as you don't go into it expecting something along the lines of Chrystia Freeland's "Sale of the Century." Freeland is an incredible reporter and had gained amazing access to the machinations in the Kremlin. Brzezinski even pays tribute to Freeland's talents in his book.

Granted, there is a hard-earned interview with the 'wily' Anatoly Chubais, but short of brief episodes like that, this is really the story of Brzezinski himself and his fiancee (now wife) Roberta as they navigate along the shoals of the East's first brush with capitalism. So it's not really "WSJ reporter Brzezinski demonstrates his knowledge of Russian bond yield curves..." but rather "Hey, here's what was going on in my personal life while I was writing those stories."

And for me, that's a fresh take, and here's where his editors and marketers have sold him short: only about 25% of the book takes place in Moscow. The author also takes you to Vladivostok, Sakhalin, St. Petersburg, Chernobyl, Minsk, Crimea, and Poland - and that's not a complete list. In fact, I thought the writings from Vladivostok were the book's finest passages, closely followed by Chernobyl.

I think readers will be pleasantly surprised by the accessibility of this book. It is worth noting that Brzezinski's work is available in paperback, while Freeland's effort - despite being the definitive account of the period - is now out of print (hardback only) despite its contemporaneous publication date. ... Read more

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In this collection of all new essays, Noam Chomsky examines the dramatic shift away from a pluralist, participatory ideal of politics and towards an authoritarian profit-obsessed model. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

The Corporate Way is NOT the American Way
There is more concentrated political and economic truth in this one slim volume then in any other book that I've ever read. Nowhere is the war against the working class exposed more clearly and accurately. "Free Trade" is the nemesis of true democracy and of the common man. Such a policy only really favors the extremely rich and less than 1000 large global corporations. You won't hear about any of this in the corporate press however, for in the neoliberal democracy all debate is side tracked on trivial issues by two political parties who both basically represent the same corporate masters (kind of like a giant game of good cop/bad cop...)
Ever wonder why you and the people around you feel so powerless and alienated in a vast landscape of shopping malls? You didn't think that "just happened" did you? The decades old goal of the powers-that-be has been to atomise American communities into loose conglomerations of "consumers" incapable of organising, or even thinking of organizing.
If you want the hard FACTS about corporate rule, then read this book. You see, a corporation isn't merely an "immortal person" under law, they are immortal sociopaths- sociopaths backed and enhanced by state power over and above the interests and votes of the common man.

As always, Chomsky is way ahead of the curve.
There is more concentrated political and economic truth in this one slim volume then in any other book that I've ever read. Nowhere is the war against the working class exposed more clearly and accurately. "Free Trade" is the nemesis of true democracy and of the common man. Such a policy only really favors the extremely rich and less than 1000 large global corporations. You won't hear about any of this in the corporate press however, for in the neoliberal democracy all debate is side tracked on trivial issues by two political parties who both basically represent the same corporate masters (kind of like a giant game of good cop/bad cop...)
Ever wonder why you and the people around you feel so powerless and alienated in a vast landscape of shopping malls? You didn't think that "just happened" did you? The decades old goal of the powers-that-be has been to atomise American communities into loose conglomerations of "consumers" incapable of organising, or even thinking of organizing.
If you want the hard FACTS about corporate rule, then read this book. You see, a corporation isn't merely an "immortal person" under law, they are immortal sociopaths- sociopaths backed and enhanced by state power over and above the interests and votes of the common man.
Oh yes, if you want to know how a healthy economy SHOULD function, read _I'll Be Short, Essentials for a Decent Working Society_ by Robert Reich.

Loved the e-book version
...Read the book and you might be pleasantly surprise by what you get... unless you're an investment banker!

A poor treatment of complex global issues
In this polemic Chomsky attacks 'neo-liberalism' in international political economy. To that effect, he damns every supranational economic organisation and agreement that he can think of (the IMF, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation, NAFTA, MAI etc.), charging them with being the agents or instruments of US multinational corporations intent on pillaging the Third World, despoiling the environment, and various other sins. The book is not so much an argument as an expostulation; and it is undermined at almost every turn by extravagant rhetoric and weak reasoning.

International political economy is - like all economics - a discipline about trade-offs and the assessment of costs and benefits. There are various criticisms that can plausibly be levelled at all of the bodies or treaties that Chomsky fulminates against, but it is important in formulating them to have a mind to what these institutions or agreements are designed for. To put mildly, the targets Chomsky denounces are not the same thing and do not pursue the same ends. It serves no purpose and does violence to critical inquiry merely to denounce them all as agents of US big business and of free-market fanaticism. The IMF, for example - a prime villain in Chomsky's account - has received much criticism from the school of free market economists that Chomsky believes it represents. These economists (see, for example, Money and the Nation State, edited by Kevin Dowd & Richard Timberlake, and published by the libertarian Independent Institute in 1998) charge the IMF with creating 'moral hazard' in international lending, and wish to see the institution abolished. A different view, which I hold, is that the IMF performs a valuable service in allowing troubled economies a breathing space to sort out their difficulties, as was clearly the case with the 'tequila crisis' in Mexico in 1994-5, and in fact ought to be more active in its prescriptions than it has been - consider the case of Argentina's ruinous currency peg, which the IMF was highly sceptical of and ought to have stood out against. There is room for discussion and disagreement about how far the IMF should loosen conditionality for its loans (and I am something of a dove in this respect), but these are inevitable debates about how to make effective a necessary and valuable part of the global economy.

Similarly, the World Trade Organisation has nothing whatever to do with free-market fundamentalism or US big business: it is neither more nor less than a commercial court that tries to eliminate discrimination on grounds of nationality. It is a thoroughly progressive institution whose effectiveness is greatly in the interests of the developing world, as evidenced by its first major ruling when it upheld Venezuela's complaint against a US levy on foreign petroleum producers. The World Bank, which under its current management - much to my regret - has veered very far from the cause of globalisation, went to immense lengths to support Third World socialist projects (such as the 'ujaama' projects of President Nyerere's Tanzania), with extremely bad results for the impoverished peoples of the countries concerned.

To subsume these differing institutions, aims and approaches into a catch-all damnation of the machinations of big business is neither a profound nor a reliable guide to the modern global economy. Quite how Chomsky reaches his conclusions is of some interest, however, for it indicates quite a lot about the economic reasoning of the anti-globalisation movement. In short, Chomsky just hasn't acquainted himself with the normative arguments and positive findings of those he attacks; this is just not good enough in a book that aims to scrutinise the global economic order, for economics is a rigorously technical and empirical discipline, and not a matter of opinion. I give just two instances if the book's deficiencies in this respect, but they could be multiplied at great length.

Chomsky attacks the advocates of NAFTA, the North America Free Trade Agreement, for supposedly claiming the it would create jobs. In this, Chomsky has just not understood the point - a very fundamental one - about trade. The basic Ricardian argument for trade does not depend on its effect on aggregate employment (which is virtually unaffected by trade: what matters in the short run is the level of aggregate demand, and in the long run is the so-called NAIRU, or Non-Accelerating-Inflation Rate of Unemployment); trade raises not employment but living standards. The chronic poverty that has afflicted Third World nations like Tanzania under a policy of 'self-reliance' demonstrates the point.

My second instance of the weakness of this book's treatment of economics is Chomsky's throwaway reference to William Greider's anti-globalisation polemic One World, Ready or Not. The Greider thesis that Chomsky has latched on to is that there is excess supply in the global economy owing to workers' not receiving enough to buy the goods capitalism produces. This claim is absolutely untenable in theory and in practice: wages are not set abstractly, but are pinned to the marginal product of labour. To put it simply, an additional dollar of output must represent an additional dollar of income to someone. The only way the 'excess supply' nostrum could hold is if you claim that the additional dollar of income goes to someone with a higher marginal propensity to save - and that conclusion requires a study of the facts. This book doesn't trouble with the facts, which are that savings rates in most industrial economies have been falling for years, while in the developing countries they have been growing less quickly than investment demand.

Enough already. Chomsky is not an international economist, and his book is depressingly short on empirical research and economic logic. Indeed the book is almost a logical fallacy itself, for it exemplifies the anthropomorphic fallacy that one may attribute personality - in this case a wicked and grasping avarice - to an abstraction, namely the 'capitalist system'. At any rate, it is a poor book that does nothing to enhance its author's reputation in his chosen personal interest - far from his specialist field - of politics and economics.

A Categorical Wrecking of 'Free' Market Propaganda
Here comes another fascinating compilation of clarifications courtesy of Noam Chomsky. Focusing on the topic of Neoliberalism and the modern yarns fabricated to promote it, Chomsky tirelessly demonstrates how countries demanding trade 'liberalization' today, underwent (and still do) 150 years of protectionism. How same countries deploy artificial barriers and legitimize their tariffs via a compliant business and media elite.
The book discusses the dejected citizenry, the dangers this poses to real democracy and how governments methodically accentuate this trend.

Chomsky exhorts the reader to participate in democracy as the only way to rescue it and details how America has been derailed into a kind of oligopoly of corporations due to the population's ignorance and non-participation.

As is often the case with Chomsky, moments of unintended hilarity are not in short supply either. One example sites how what is accepted and given wisdom in America regarding Cuba, would have "forty million Mexicans will die laughing" according to one Mexican diplomat.

The book does suggest ways for people to improve themselves, yet falls short on detail and lucidity.

As a post script and for the sake of readers trapped in the pits (geographic and mental) let it be known that Noam Chomsky refuses royalty for his books. Having placed his work in trust, he hopes that, in this way, his work will be made available more cheaply to readers. ... Read more

Book Description

In the great tradition of moral argument about the nature of the economic market, Rebecca Blank and William McGurn join to debate the fundamental questions—equality and efficiency, productivity and social justice, individual achievement and personal rights in the workplace, the costs and benefits of corporate and entrepreneurial capitalism. And they do so grounded in both economic sophistication and religious commitment.

Rebecca Blank is an economist by training and describes herself as "culturally Protestant in the habits of mind and heart." She has also chaired the committee that wrote the statement on Christian faith and economic life adopted by the United Church of Christ. Addressing market failure, for her, requires that sometimes "freedom to choose" give way to other human values.

William McGurn, a journalist and a Roman Catholic, uses his expertise in economics to reflect on the teachings of the church concerning the morality of the market. For McGurn, humans reach their fullest potential when they are free from the constraints of others. He writes that "our quarrel is not so much with Adam Smith or Milton Friedman but with the Providence that so clearly designed man to be his most prosperous at his most free."

This book grapples with the new imperatives of a global economy while working in the classic tradition of political economy which always treated seriously the questions of morality, justice, productivity, and