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The "commanding heights," according to Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Yergin and international business advisor Joseph Stanislaw, are those dominant enterprises and industries that form the high economic ground in nations around the globe. In their analysis of the new world economy, The Commanding Heights: The Battle Between Government and the Marketplace That Is Remaking the Modern World, they examine "the individuals, the ideas, the conflicts, and the turning points" that are responsible. And by considering events such as the ongoing Asian monetary crisis, they suggest what the ultimate interconnection of financial markets might mean in the future.
Book Description
The Commanding Heights is about the most powerful political and economic force in the world today -- the epic struggle between government and the marketplace that has, over the last twenty years, turned the world upside down and dramatically transformed our lives. Now, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize joins with a leading expert on the new marketplace to explain the revolution in ideas that is reshaping the modern world. Written with the same sweeping narrative power that made The Prize an enormous success, The Commanding Heights provides the historical perspective, the global vision, and the insight to help us understand the tumult of the past half century.
Trillions of dollars in assets and fundamental political power are changing hands as free markets wrest control from government of the "commanding heights" -- the dominant businesses and industries of the world economy. Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw demonstrate that words like "privatization" and "deregulation" are inadequate to describe the enormous upheaval that is unfolding before our eyes. Along with the creation of vast new wealth, the map of the global economy is being redrawn. Indeed, the very structure of society is changing. New markets and new opportunities have brought great new risks as well. How has all this come about? Who are the major figures behind it? How does it affect our lives?
The collapse of the Soviet Union, the awesome rise of China, the awakening of India, economic revival in Latin America, the march toward the European Union -- all are a part of this political and economic revolution. Fiscal realities and financial markets are relentlessly propelling deregulation; achieving a new balance between government and marketplace will be the major political challenge in the coming years. Looking back, the authors describe how the old balance was overturned, and by whom. Looking forward, they explore these questions: Will the new balance prevail? Or does the free market contain the seeds of its own destruction? Will there be a backlash against any excesses of the free market? And finally, The Commanding Heights illuminates the five tests by which the success or failure of all these changes can be measured, and defines the key issues as we enter the twenty-first century.
The Commanding Heights captures this revolution in ideas in riveting accounts of the history and the politics of the postwar years and compelling tales of the astute politicians, brilliant thinkers, and tenacious businessmen who brought these changes about. Margaret Thatcher, Donald Reagan, Deng Xiaoping, and Bill Clinton share the stage with the "Minister of Thought" Keith Joseph, the broommaker's son Domingo Cavallo, and Friedrich von Hayek, the Austrian economist who was determined to win the twenty-year "battle of ideas." It is a complex and wide-ranging story, and the authors tell it brilliantly, with a deep understanding of human character, making critically important ideas lucid and accessible. Written with unique access to many of the key players, The Commanding Heights, like no other book, brings us an understanding of the last half of the twentieth century -- and sheds a powerful light on what lies ahead in the twenty-first century.
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The Commanding Heights is about the most powerful political and economic force in the world today -- the epic struggle between government and the marketplace that has, over the last twenty years, turned the world upside down and dramatically transformed our lives. Now, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize joins with a leading expert on the new marketplace to explain the revolution in ideas that is reshaping the modern world. Written with the same sweeping narrative power that made The Prize an enormous success, The Commanding Heights provides the historical perspective, the global vision, and the insight to help us understand the tumult of the past half century. Trillions of dollars in assets and fundamental political power are changing hands as free markets wrest control from government of the "commanding heights" -- the dominant businesses and industries of the world economy. Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw demonstrate that words like "privatization" and "deregulation" are inadequate to describe the enormous upheaval that is unfolding before our eyes. Along with the creation of vast new wealth, the map of the global economy is being redrawn. Indeed, the very structure of society is changing. New markets and new opportunities have brought great new risks as well. How has all this come about? Who are the major figures behind it? How does it affect our lives? The collapse of the Soviet Union, the awesome rise of China, the awakening of India, economic revival in Latin America, the march toward the European Union -- all are a part of this political and economic revolution. Fiscal realities and financial markets are relentlessly propelling deregulation; achieving a new balance between government and marketplace will be the major political challenge in the coming years. Looking back, the authors describe how the old balance was overturned, and by whom. Looking forward, they explore these questions: Will the new balance prevail?
Customer Reviews:
Capitalism won. Socialism lost........2007-08-13
That's the central message of this book. But to know why it happened, how it happened, and the geographic extent of this outcome, you need to read this fascinating book.
Now if we can just get our own federal government to realize this . . .
Also read what could be a good companion book: The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
Good Primer But Authors Show Shallow Understanding.......2007-06-19
This book offers a good historical review of the struggle between free market and government controlled, socialist economies, the ideas behind the struggle, the main characters and the intellectuals who shaped the struggle.
Nevertheless, the book makes it look like market controlled economies have achieved the ultimate triumph when the case is far from that. The so called 'capitalist' economies of today are more controlled by government that they ever were and they have been rather re-regulated than deregulated.
The book would make a good reading for those interested in history but I wouldn't subscribe too much to its premise that Capitalism has triumphed.
Not critical enough; offers one perspective and does not back it up.......2006-11-18
This book was rather fun to read but I am not convinced that the authors have as deep an understanding of the phenomena they are writing about as they would like the readers to believe. The book reads like a narrative, full of assertions that are not backed by rigorous analysis of hard evidence. The authors do not critically explore causal relationships, nor do they talk about research that has done so. They present only one particular perspective on the unfolding of events, and they do not defend this perspective against potential criticism.
My experience with economics has always reinforced the idea that causality can be difficult to establish, and can often operate in unexpected ways. An economist must proceed skeptically, being careful to explore alternative explanations and being prepared to defend assertions with theory and data. The authors do not seem to share this view, taking instead a more naive approach.
Maybe I was expecting too much; after all this book is meant to be accessible to non-economists. However, making a book more accessible does not necessitate a lack of rigour or the absence of critical thought; the authors could have removed some of the redundancy in the book (their writing is far from concise!) and replaced it with explorations of alternative perspectives. The book would be greatly enriched by adding more discussion of research that supports (or opposes) their views.
Very Good Review of 20th century political economy.......2006-11-07
This is as painless an education on world 20th century political economy as possible. It is very interesting, providing a lot of good intellectual background to the major events and excellent descriptions of the events themselves. The book places excessive emphasis on Hayek, who was an important figure representing a strong "pro-market" voice in economics, but probably less important than Friedman and no more important than several others. The "conflict" bewteen Hayek and Keynes is somewhat overstated. However, this is an excellent book and the corresponding DVD is also very good.
an excellent report of the world economy.......2006-02-13
Public sector economy or market economy, this is the epic quest of the twentieth century. In a time of unemployment and global markets, everyone is looking for an answer to get growth and employment high. Daniel Yergin examines the twentieth century under the aspects of political and economic point of views.
He begins with the New Deal; in witch Roosevelt tried to regulate the liberal free market. The Anti-Trust- Rules were the first step in a modern regulated market. A neoliberal market constitution was introduced by the German economists. Walter Eucken, Mueller-Armack and Roepke were the person who introduced the „Ordoliberalismus"(Freiburg school of economists) into the economic policy. Yergin and Stanislaw discussed the transformation of the socialist states from a socialist market condition into a free market, after the Soviet Union broke down. These new economies of the Warsaw Pact states troubled with the release into the capitalist world. They showed how these transformation works, especially in Poland. Against this transformation they show how the Old Europe had problems with the expansion of the market into the east. In Western Europe the unemployment rate rose to an unknown high and the social problems of the welfare system rose too.
Yergin and Stanislaw explained the economic policy of Margaret Thatcher and the third way of Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder.
Beyond this political point of views Yergin and Stanislaw explains the theoretical background of the modern economics. The Chicago school by Milton Friedman, Alfred Kahn economic of regulation and Keynesianism is discussed.
The future lies in the Asian markets and the growing Indian market. They explain the population problems of these countries and how the World Bank gets further with it.
I think it is an excellent book for the economist. It shows how the theoretical background is applied. There are good examples to explain it to the reader who are not familiar with the economic thinking.
Book Description
Groundbreaking essays on the new global economy from an "expert observer" (Forecast). Saskia Sassen is an internationally recognized expert on globalization whose writings have appeared in journals and magazines worldwide. Now available in paperback, Globalization and Its Discontents is a collection of Sassen's essays dealing with topics such as the "global city," gender and migration (reconceived as the globalization of labor), information technology, and the new dynamics of inequality. Sassen brings together cultural and literary studies, feminist theory, political economics, sociology, and political science, showing how vast the chasm between metropolitan business centers and low-income inner cities has become. Incisive and original, she takes on common political, cultural, and economic misconceptions of globalization and offers a thoughtful, provocative new look at our increasingly global society.
Customer Reviews:
brilliant ideas, mediocre writing.......2005-11-08
This is probably as good an introduction to Sassen's work as any, as she covers most of her major ideas with relative brevity. The title is rather misleading (as is the case of Stiglitz's (later published) work of the same name)--she focuses on the dynamics and effects of globalization and does not discuss organized resistance by social movements to it. Sassen sees three macro-level phenomena at work--the hypermobility of capital, the "unbundling" of state sovereignty, and the rise of global cities. It is the last of these ideas for which she is probably best known. She does not really get into an analysis of the hypermobility of capital here, but many other authors have covered that matter. Her analyses of the unbundling of state sovereignty and the rise of global cities are far more original. Against the background of these macro-phenomena, Sassen also analyzes the rise of the service economy, immigration patterns, and the changing roles of women.
I'm not sure how to fairly summarize Sassen's ideas in a brief review. To hit the high points, she argues that as systems of international law grow, the traditional sovereignty of the state is transformed, with its pieces of it being unbundles and some elements being transferred to international organizations, such as the UN and WTO. There are actually two distinct international law regimes--the human rights regime and the more powerful neoliberal regime, enforced by the likes of the WTO and IMF. This neoliberal regime has enabled the rise of the global economy.
Contrary to all the hype about globalization, the internet, and a "dematerialized" economy though, Sassen argues that the politics of place remain as important ever. This brings her to her analysis of global cities. If we are to have the high speed communications created by the internet, we need a physical infrastructure for it, fiber-optic cables and all that--a seemingly obvious point, but one often overlooked. This infrastructure is not evenly distributed either internationally or nationally. It is in fact concentrated in global cities, most of which are, not coincidentally, in the first world. The three chief global cities are, in fact, New York, London, and Tokyo. These global cities are at the heart of the new service sector that is so important to the global economy. As corporations' operations are more globally decentralized, power--control of these operations--has become more centralized in the global cities, which have the telecommunications infrastructure to do all the necessary coordinating of information.
Much of this coordination is in fact outsourced to specialized corporations providing services to the other corporations, in such fields as accounting, insurance and--the truly dominant force in gloablization--finances. These corporations are staffed by a new professional class, which has moved to the city, abondonning the suburbs, demanding upscale services. The downside of this is the shrinking of the traditional middle-class and the old economy based on mass production, mass consumption, and mass prosprity. Instead what is growing is a poor working class of workers providing personal (as opposed to corporate) services (such as house-cleaning, child care, janitorial services, or retail), often to the professionals who work doing corporate services. Thus there is a growing economic divide in the global cities. A disproportionate number of the people working in the poorly paid personal service sector are women and immigrants.
Sassen notes that, not only is globalization responsible for the rise of the poorly paid service sector, but immigration as well. Contrary to popular myths that the best way to stop immigration is to encourage foreign investment in immigrant-sending countries and create jobs there, Sassen actually argues that this creates more immigration, not less. Current patterns of foreign investment tend to exacerbate poverty, not cure it. And by working for foreign companies, workers gain some familiarity with the cultures of the US, Europe and increasingly Japan. This familiarity makes it easier for them to then immigrate to the first world in search of work. And there are a lot of other ideas I'm leaving out.
So, if I think this book is so brilliant, why am I only giving it four stars? Poor writing. As a previous reviewer noted, all the essays in this book were previously published elsewhere. I don't think this makes this book worthless (and therefore worthy of only one star)--it is convenient to have them gathered all in one place--but it does make the book somewhat disjointed and repetitive. But original works by Sassen, such as /Global City/, have the same problem. The fact is, despite her intellectual brilliance, she is a poor writer. Mind you, she is not like some writers, such as Hegel or Baudrillard, who seem to revel in their own incomprehensibility. She can be understood, but her writing is often something of a slog. She needs a good editor or some writing lessons.
Despite that, this book is definitely worth reading if you want to explore in-depth some important, unorthodox ideas about globalization.
Warning: Contents Older than Globalization.......2002-09-29
What purports to be a book on globalization is actually only peripherally about globalization writ large. Sassen is interested in more specific aspects of globalization: its impact on migration (the huge theme of this book), its place-specificity, and its resultant dispersal of powers that used to belong solely to the nation-state. Her points are good, but you don't need this book to get them, since she's made them all elsewhere and ages ago; in brief, the occasional new insights are not worth it.
Sassen's biggest contribution to the theorization of globalization is her attention to the global city, which she posits as a site of the physical infrastructure that enables the more diffuse projections of the world market. In these cities (like New York, L.A., Tokyo, London, Rio, etc.), high-wage, white-collar workers brush against the low-wage, largely immigrant diasporae that keep the global city running; immigrants form blocs that see a certain degree of enfranchisement and force adjustments in transnational immigration law; and globalization marches on. It's interesting stuff, but it's not new. Sassen's own book on "The Global City" scoops these chapters. And that's pretty much true of the rest of the book.
The two chapters on gender and globalization are much more valuable (and more recent) here, as she starts in on what she calls "the unbundling of sovereignty," the appropriation of political punch from nation-states and the relocation of it into the hands of NGOs and the global market. Unfortunately, while she opens up a great area of inquiry, she doesn't take it very far at all, "since the effort here was not to gain closure but to open up an analytic field." As they stand, these chapters are frustratingly suggestive but ultimately not very thorough or useful. Hopefully she'll revisit the theme later.
The stylistic question is a thorny one; several reviewers have already blasted Sassen for the way she writes. She's certainly not the easiest read, and her incessant neologisms are annoying. ("Operationalizing"? Can we not say, "making operational"?) You can fault her for that. But you can't fault her for writing like a sociologist, and that is largely how she writes. It's dry, there are charts and facts and figures, but the prose is economical and fairly clear (fake words aside!).
By and large, though, this isn't a must-read. If you're really interested, check out her books, "The Global City" and "The Mobility of Labor and Capital." They treat the same subjects, but in more useful detail.
Muddled and Confused.......2002-02-21
This book suffers from the kind of obfuscated language that a growing number of scholars seem to be able to get away with. Don't get me wrong: there are some interesting ideas in here. But their rewards do not outweigh the costs of sifting through the jargon-laden prose. The author should take a basic writing course.
Globalization and Its Disappointments.......2000-11-16
I had much hope for this book. I was expecting a work which would shift debates about globalization in a new direction. What we get, on the other hand, is poorly written, badly argued, and repetitive work that offers very little in the way of substantive theory or analysis.
The book is a collection of essays that Sassen has published elsewhere between 1984 and 1997. Except for the introduction, there is no new material here. Furthermore, in many cases the content of one article is reproduced in another article in the book. Rather than reinforcing important arguments, it seems clear that Sassen is trying to get as much mileage possible out of her work. It doesn't work.
The book contains hundreds of endnotes (in many cases they contain the most important information) which should have been incorporated into the text. Furthermore, she offers no conclusion to her analysis and the last chapter itself is quite unsatisfactory.
In short, this book is poorly written, tedious, and unoriginal.
Actually 4 and a Half.......2000-06-13
An excellent overview of the changing conditions of the Global Cities and a fresh look after her excellent book "Global Cities". Especially liked the essays about the concentration of power and wealth in cities like New York, London or Tokyo amid the exploitation of cheap immigrant labor.
Essential fro everybody who's trying to understand the processes that have lead so many to oppose globablization trends the GATT and NAFTA agreements and others that keep changing the worl we live in
Book Description
The Macro Polity provides the first comprehensive model of American politics at the system level. Focusing on the interactions between citizen evaluations and preferences, government activity and policy, and how the combined acts of citizens and governments influence one another over time, it integrates understandings of matters such as economic outcomes, presidential approval, partisanship, elections, and government policy-making into a single model. The book's macro and longitudinal focus makes it possible to directly connect the behaviors of electorate and government.
Customer Reviews:
An important and innovative work.......2007-02-10
This is one of the most interesting and important books on public opinion published in recent years. It is a direct descendant of V. O. Key's wonderful little book, "The Responsible Electorate."
Erikson et al. explore the dynamics related to the "macro polity." Many works on political behavior and public opinion fo0cus on individuals, using survey research results. This book aggregates the survey results to the level of the citizenry at large, and traces changes (and their effects) in the public mind over time. The authors follow the public mind from the Eisenhower through the Clinton years. On the one hand, this is only a limited slice of American history. On the other hand, this is the period (starting with Eisenhower) when we have the most useful survey data.
This is an academic work, and readers need to understand that. To critique this as too academic is to misunderstand the focus and purpose of this work. Nonetheless, even nonacademics can learn a great deal from this work if they persevere.
Studies of individual citizens'' attitudes and behavior are not flattering. Individuals are rather ill-informed, don't have a great deal of accurate knowledge of politics, and express attitudes and opinions that they may not really have. But a study of the "macro polity" yields another picture--of a collective wisdom that is far more astute than the individual level data might suggest. That's a key point of this book (as well as others like Page's and Shapiro's "The Rational Public").
On page xxi, the authors state this explicitly: "It is true that individual Americans have a weak grasp on the essentials of economics and economic policy, and it is also true that Americans, in the aggregate, are highly sensitive to real economic performance." In short, ". . .electorates are not myopic. . . ."
One of the most important aspects of this work is its demonstration that public policy decisions by government actually seem to be affected by changes in aggregate public political views. By examining the relationship between policy decisions by various government entities (Congress, President, Supreme Court, for example), the authors conclude that (page 314)"Public opinion influences public policy."
In an interesting experiment, the authors simulate what would have happened to the public mind, to party control of government, and so on if Jimmy Carter had won re-election in 1980. Chapter 10 is a provocative chapter, exploring "What might have been."
All in all, this is one of the more important and well done volumes focusing on public opinion--and its impact on politics (and the effects of politics on public opinion) in recent years. For academics, a great read. For nonacademics, this may be a tougher read, but it would be well worthwhile to persevere.
Strong Premise Sunk By Tedious Presentation.......2004-02-21
This is a book that deserves to be influential in the field of political science, for both good and bad reasons. The theories presented here deal with macro-level or system-wide trends in American political behavior. If the authors can be believed, there was little previous work done in this area. Instead, political science focused on the behavior of individuals and then tried to aggregate the resulting data into system-wide theories. The evidence indicates that the behavior of the public is not always "the sum of the parts" and there are specific phenomena at play that influence the larger electorate, at the system level. The authors have conducted an impressive amount of research, which probably took years, including macro-level data about voting patterns, partisanship, ideological trends, presidential approval, and public opinion. Their conclusions about the existence of macro-level phenomena are generally believable and supported by the evidence, and their work will probably prove to be groundbreaking in the field.
On the other hand, this book embodies everything that is wrong with the academic side of political science these days. At least the authors will be accepted by their peers who value method more than insight. Here it becomes more important to impress one's peers by piling on endlessly repetitive evidence and trotting out unnecessarily complex statistical equations, all to prop up points that were already made convincingly in prose form. Each chapter in this book makes strong and believable points, but then degenerates into the worst of academic tedium, indicating that the authors chose (or were forced) to please ivory-tower editors and academic committees, rather than people in the outside world who could truly make use of their findings. Hence, we have a book with strong and often illuminating conclusions, sunk by the worst in academic writing and presentation. Next time these authors (and their publishers) choose to release their findings for consumption by the public, they should realize that this audience expects insight, not long-winded theorizing and statistics. [~doomsdayer520~]
Book Description
More than 100,000 copies sold in its first 2 editions; Over 93,000 students enrolled; Translated into 12 languages; Corresponds to standard college economics courses; Use with most macroeconomics texts; Includes a new chapter on economic growth.
Customer Reviews:
Macroeconomics (3rd Edition).......2004-03-03
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to have some understanding of macroeconomics. This book can be used as a supplemental text or for independent study or as review/reference material. The author, for the most part, presents clear and understandable concepts in a concise manner.
As far as prerequisites are concerned, some basic knowledge of economics and money and banking will make reading this book easier and more understandable. Although calculus is not required, some knowledge of basic or college algebra is helpful.
Since this book covers intermediate macroeconomics primarily intended for those at the undergraduate, upper division level, college students, especially, should find this book useful as a supplement to their textbooks. It may help to clarify problems that students may encounter in their course work. In the words of the author: "The book can be used by undergraduates or graduate business students as a supplement to current standard texts or by instructors as an independent text supplemented by empirical and/or policy readings. The book may also be useful to graduate economics students as a review of the analytical core of macroeconomic theory."
However, the benefits derived from this book need not be limited only to college students. Those wishing to use this book for independent self-study can, with some extra effort, gain valuable information since the author does a fairly good job of presenting in a clear manner the fundamental concepts of macroeconomics.
At the beginning of each chapter, the author gives a chapter summary and outline. The chapter summaries briefly present the concepts that will be further explained in the main text. The outlines are a repetition of the same sections that are listed in the table of contents. Furthermore, in order to reinforce the concepts presented in the main text, the author not only provides the usual solved problems but also includes multiple choice and true or false questions which give the student a wide range of practice.
However, there are some weaknesses of this book which readers should be aware. First, due to the brevity of some of the concepts presented, it may be advantageous to refer to other economics books in order to get more in-depth information, and thereby, a better understanding. This is particularly true for those using this book for independent self-study. Second, some terms and concepts are defined and presented for the first time in the "Solved Problems" section at the end of the chapter rather than in the main text. Third, this book does not contain a glossary.
Book Description
The distinctive feature of this book is that it provides a unified framework for the analysis of short- and medium-run macroeconomics. This gives students a model that they can use themselves to understand a wide range of real-world macroeconomic behaviour and policy issues. The authors introduce a new graphical model (IS/PC/MR) based on the 3-equation New Keynesian model used in modern macroeconomics. The three equations are BL the IS curve BL the Phillips curve and BL an interest rate-based monetary policy rule. The use of a common framework throughout for closed and open economies helps readers develop the economic intuition with which to address a diversity of macroeconomic problems. Applied chapters show how the models can be used to analyse performance in OECD economies over the past twenty-five years. The chapters on growth present an in-depth coverage of the Solow-Swan, endogenous and Schumpeterian models that allow the reader to understand how these approaches can be used to answer the big questions of growth: why some countries are rich and others, poor; why some catch up and others do not. Since the book is based on the mainstream 3-equation model used at the research frontier, the book gives students the economics background necessary for accessing advanced macroeconomics. It is also designed to appeal to graduate students, non-specialists in macroeconomics, professional economists and those from related disciplines who want a guide to the complexities of modern macroeconomics and to understand contemporary policy debates. Online Resource Centre For lecturers: password-protected solutions and diagrams from the text. For students: exercises and checklist questions.
Customer Reviews:
Simply the best.......2006-05-14
I own some of the best intermmediate macro texts: Blanchard's, Burda-Wyplosz's, Dornbusch-Fischer's, Sach-Larrain's, Williamson's, etc...and this is by far the best among them. As the other reviewer stated, one of its strength lies in its clarity but also in its versatility: it allows different types of readers to enjoy the working out. Although you should be someone who knows some maths and economic theory at a beginner level in order to take full advantage of the book, it's also suitable to advanced students as there are some upper-level chapters like microfoundations, interdependence, political economy...Also, as Tom (the other reviewer)already asserted, it innovates the short-run framework since it replaces the LM curve with a monetary policy rule that reflects well the consensus in the profession on the uselessness of the LM along the undergraduates teaching. These days, economists advocate inflation targeting as a sane monetary practice that all countries should adopt. The theoretical foundations of it can be found in this text. It could be said that this book includes the intermmediate version of the monetary policy bible, Interest and Prices by Woodford or the widely cited paper "The Science of Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Perspective" by Gal?, Clarida and Getler(although Carlin-Soskice is of course more than that: endogenous and exogenous growth,open economy in the short run, inflation-unemployment in the open economy, unemployment, consumption and investment, money and finance, etc...). Plus, this great book utilizes the imperfect competition model as to how markets work. Thus, the markets are not supposed to clear as in the majority of the other books, getting closer to the way the real life is. For example, the equilibrium in the labor markets takes place when wage-setters set a real wage that equal that price-setters set for firms. Around this, the main model gets explained. Just to finish up, it uses a nice real-based approach that also fits the interests of those more policy-oriented.
I definitely recommend it!!!!
Book Description
The central goal of this text is to address all of the fundamental macroeconomic theories and policy issues in the discipline within a compact and highly accessible text. It features a strong focus on instilling a learner's conceptual understanding of the discipline through a wealth of pedagogically sound features designed to teach and reinforce the material. This is the only intermediate macroeconomics text that fully integrates global economics from the very beginning. Additionally, it is also the first and only text on the market to offer a fully-integrated program of accompanying online resources and multimedia tools that enhance a reader's study of macroeconomic theory.
Book Description
The Asian crisis has sparked a thoroughgoing reappraisal of current international financial norms, the policy prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund, and the adequacy of the existing financial architecture. To draw proper policy conclusions from the crisis, however, it is necessary to understand its domestic politics. In this study, political scientist Stephan Haggard focuses on the most seriously affected countries-Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand-while also drawing lessons from those economies, such as Taiwan, that escaped the most severe distress.
Haggard focuses on the political economy of the crisis, emphasizing the longer-run problems of moral hazard and corruption, the politics of crisis management and the political consequences of severe economic downturn. Looking forward, he focuses on two critical policy issues: changes in social safety nets in the crisis countries and efforts at corporate and financial restructuring.
Download Description
The Asian crisis has sparked a thoroughgoing reappraisal of current international financial norms, the policy prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund, and the adequacy of the existing financial architecture. To draw proper policy conclusions from the crisis, however, it is necessary to understand its domestic politics. In this study, political scientist Stephan Haggard focuses on the most seriously affected countries-Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand-while also drawing lessons from those economies, such as Taiwan, that escaped the most severe distress. Haggard focuses on the political economy of the crisis, emphasizing the longer-run problems of moral hazard and corruption, the politics of crisis management and the political consequences of severe economic downturn. Looking forward, he focuses on two critical policy issues: changes in social safety nets in the crisis countries and efforts at corporate and financial restructuring.
Customer Reviews:
Journalistic title from famous scholar.......2001-04-11
Haggard has a good name in East Asia field. but this title disappointed me. it's not that scholarstic but journalistic. what are enumerated on his book is not new or insightful at all to asian specialist. if you have read articles on Asia from FT or Wall Street Journal, The Economist, You should know what I mean. at best this book is no more than enlarged The Economist.
Great Resource.......2001-02-13
This is an excellent resource for both political economics and Asian studies students. Following currency devaluation through the creation of the crisis and its development across the intertwined economies of Southeast Asia. Making rational decisions about Asian markets requires in-depth knowledge of the first fall to avoid the repercussive aftershocks which will continue to follow.
Average customer rating:
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Advances in Household Economics, Consumer Behaviour And Economic Policy
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- Provides a correct overview of Keynes's preventive policies
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Keynes's General Theory, the Rate of Interest and 'Keynesian' Economics
Geoff Tily
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ASIN: 1403996288
Release Date: 2007-03-20 |
Book Description
This book argues that Keynesian economists have betrayed Keynes's theory and policy conclusions. Keynesian economics has not merely led to an easily dismissed justification for 'Keynesian' policies, but the world has been grossly misled about just what those policies are. Keynesians have focused attention exclusively on policies for dealing with effects of economic failure as they arise, whereas in contrast, Keynes was concerned with the cause and then the prevention of economic failure. While these effects can be addressed with fiscal policy, the cause and prevention was a matter for monetary policy. Keynes's legacy is that of national and international policy measures that permit the necessary control over the financial system.
Customer Reviews:
Provides a correct overview of Keynes's preventive policies.......2006-06-29
Tily has written a very good book examining the policies laid down by Keynes to help prevent the occurrences of recessions and depressions in the first place.Keynes relies on his generalized quantity theory of money as laid out in chapter 21 of the General Theory,although this is overlooked by Tily.Keynes's generalized general theory is expressed by the condition w/p=mpl/e,where e=Mdp/pdM as defined by Keynes on p.305 of the GT.If e=1,then w/p=mpl and you have a full employment equilibrium in the aggregate labor market,where w is the money wage ,p is the expected price level,and mpl is the marginal product of labor derived from an aggregated neoclassical production function(see p.283 and p.285 of the GT).If e
<1,then you have a set of multiple unemployment equilibriums.Keynes's monetary policy prescription is to require that the interest rate be fixed at a low rate.This prescription goes back to the policies of the Thomistic scholastic philosophers and Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations(see WN,1776,pp.338-340).In fact,Smith's and Keynes's policy prescriptions are identical(GT,p.352).They require that the unsatisfied fringe of borrowers must consist of currency speculators,leveraged buyout artists,and stock market speculators(projectors) using margin account loans to leverage their stock holdings.Credit would have to be skewed away from these individuals by policy actions of the central bank.Keynes's policy is thus one of permanent easy money where all bank loans are made to individuals who intend to use it to attain or rent productive capital goods,build houses, construct factories,etc.Tily does not emphasize sufficiently Keynes's warning that the forces of banking and finance will oppose such a policy,making it practically impossible to implement.The policy is correct in theory,but is not practical to actually implement.This is where the promulgation of Bismarck's social welfare state or a negative income tax system comes into play.The deleterious impacts of a speculator-casino " crony capitalism " can be mitigated by such policies.
Average customer rating:
- "No such thing as society"
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Work, Consumerism and the New Poor (Issues in Society)
Zygmunt Bauman
Manufacturer: Open University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 033521598X |
Book Description
From one of today's most eminent thinkers--a piercing examination of poverty in the modern age
If "being poor" once derived its meaning from the condition of being unemployed, today it draws its meaning primarily from the plight of a flawed consumer. This distinction truly makes a difference in the way poverty is experienced and in the chances to redeem its misery.
This absorbing book traces this change, and makes an inventory of its social consequences. It also considers ways of fighting back advancing poverty and mitigating its hardships, and tackles the problems of poverty in its present form.
The new edition features:
- Up-to-date coverage of the progress made by key thinkers in the field
- A discussion of recent work on redundancy, disposability, and exclusion
- Explorations of new theories of workable solutions to poverty
Students of sociology, politics, and social policy will find this to be an invaluable text on the changing significance and implications of an enduring social problem.
Customer Reviews:
"No such thing as society".......2006-03-24
Zygmunt Bauman's argument, put very simply, boils down to the fact that in the present consumerist society, the plight of the dispossessed is to be helpless spectators of other people's party, and to be made to experience the humiliating gap between themselves and the successful: the big spenders.
Not so long ago the Protestant "work ethic" was the basis of capitalist societies. It's within the living memory of many older people in the UK.
In the 1950s real unemployment in the UK was below the half million mark, and it was an accepted objective of government to keep it that way. As UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan famously put it: "You've never had it so good." He was right. Before 1939 unemployment, along with the weather, was regarded as beyond the reach of governments.
The post-war consensus changed all that, and full employment lasted into the early 1970s.
The unemployed were a small minority. The long-term unemployed were an even smaller minority.
Then came Margaret Thatcher, globalisation, and massive unemployment. Previously safe employment in industry was destroyed. The idea of "jobs for life" was finished.
Welcome to the new insecurity. The power of unions to protect employees was broken, and it was `open season' on the welfare state and the public sector.
In parallel, changes from broadly redistributive taxes on income to regressive taxes like VAT - and a growing range of stealth taxes - fuelled the widening gap between rich and poor.
The rich now come from the money markets and banking, and they are joined by a new elite from the media, entertainment and sport.
Globalisation - you could call it `Murdochisation' - injected huge sums into the once-upon-a-time "working man's" sport of soccer, and it did not stop there. Overnight the new mega-rich flaunted their affluence, and became objects of both veneration and envy.
Work appears to be but a small part of the lives of the new elite: conspicuous consumption appears to be all. The "work ethic" suddenly looks dowdy and old fashioned, rather like the sad pit villages left by Thatcher's defeat of the miners, or those Stalinist tower blocks from the sixties. They are archeological remnants from only yesterday.
Bauman describes the tensions at the heart of the consumer paradise:
"Boredom is one complaint the consumer world has no room for and the consumer culture has set out to eradicate it ... To alleviate boredom one needs money - a great deal of money - if one wishes to stave off the spectre of boredom once and for all, to reach the state of happiness."
But, as Bauman perceptively tells us, happiness is not a state of mind, it is a fleeting experience. But globalisation has taken care of that. Planned obsolescence ensures that just as last month's object of desire fails to bring about a state of happiness, this month's upgrade - with life-changing new features - is there waiting to bought online, or at the new cathedral: your local shopping mall.
The new connoisseurs, says Bauman, attain " their right to universal admiration."
And where is this new society at its most successful? You've guessed it: post-Thatcher Britain.
" ... the country widely acclaimed as the most astonishing `economic success' of the western world, has been found also to be the site of poverty most abject among the affluent countries of the globe. ... Nearly a quarter of old people in Britain live in poverty, which is five times more than `economically troubled' Italy and three times more than in `falling behind' Ireland. A fifth of British children live poverty - twice as many as in Taiwan or Italy and six times as many as Finland. ... The wealthiest fifth are among the richest in Europe ... And so the `subjective sense of insufficiency' (of the dispossessed) ... is aggravated by a double pressure of decreasing living standards ... reinforced rather than mitigated by economic growth in it present, deregulated, laissez-faire form."
The problem, now, as Bauman makes clear, is that this society no longer needs a "reserve army of labour" - that has been exported - now, when there is a "downturn" in the economy, politicians call for a `consumer-led' recovery.
In this, the poor can play no part.
"And so, for the first time in recorded history the poor are now purely and simply a worry and a nuisance. ... In a world populated by consumers there is no room for a welfare state ... what used to be a sensible investment now looks like ... an unjustifiable waste of taxpayers' money."
So we reach the point where, as the author rightly points out, " poverty is, first and foremost, perhaps solely, the question of law and order."
We are (in the UK), as he implies, only a few steps away from the Germany of the 1930s. It is a sobering realisation.
The hedonist party effectively stops us from asking more fundamental questions, such as: why does society no longer put itself in question at all? If, as the author suggests, our arrangements are arbitrary, why can we no longer even consider changing them?
History shows that winners release their grip on power only with the greatest reluctance. As would be the case with a solution he offers for consideration: Claus Offe's idea of decoupling income from work.
In what sounds something like Milton Friedman's Negative Income Tax, the idea's main problem is that it would come up against huge opposition from those funding it: the people who might have to cut down on their consumption.
As Margaret Thatcher put it: "There's no such thing as society".
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