Author: Holly Sklar
Publisher: South End Press
Genre: Economics
Release: Jan 1995 My Rating: 0
Summary: Important, a compendium of shocking statistics and stories about the sorry state of the state. Most depressing, but most enlightening. Occasionally bogs down in statistics, and perhaps too many tables,though it's always nice to have these for reference. Much to be learned here. I plan to reread this one again soon. Alan Nicoll
Publisher: South End Press
Genre: Economics
Release: Jan 1995 My Rating: 0
Summary: Important, a compendium of shocking statistics and stories about the sorry state of the state. Most depressing, but most enlightening. Occasionally bogs down in statistics, and perhaps too many tables,though it's always nice to have these for reference. Much to be learned here. I plan to reread this one again soon. Alan Nicoll
Author: Robert Kuttner
Publisher: Knopf
Genre: Economics
Release: Jan 1997 My Rating: 0
Summary: "Everything For Sale" is an erudite reprieve from the deluge of books written in praise of free markets. Robert Kuttner fires back with a book that documents relevant, real-world examples of market failure and makes the case for intelligent intervention to attain more desirable outcomes. His exhaustive litany of successful (some, even cherished) government interventions in the market--from National Public Radio to the Internet--creates a persuasive case for a mixed program of political and market-based approaches in the shaping of public policy. When Kuttner pushes his argument for a culture with less commercial emphasis, his preferences exhibit an anti-market bias. But overall, his argument is clear and compelling, exposing blind adherence to market outcomes as largely arbitrary, ideological, and often, an affront to democracy. Academic economists who ignore the political desires of the people in order to protect the purity of their mathematical models draw Kuttner's fire in particular. He writes about ideas and economic details with great verve and ability. Kuttner's book is certain to be a touchstone of debate, if not reform, among public policy makers.
Publisher: Knopf
Genre: Economics
Release: Jan 1997 My Rating: 0
Summary: "Everything For Sale" is an erudite reprieve from the deluge of books written in praise of free markets. Robert Kuttner fires back with a book that documents relevant, real-world examples of market failure and makes the case for intelligent intervention to attain more desirable outcomes. His exhaustive litany of successful (some, even cherished) government interventions in the market--from National Public Radio to the Internet--creates a persuasive case for a mixed program of political and market-based approaches in the shaping of public policy. When Kuttner pushes his argument for a culture with less commercial emphasis, his preferences exhibit an anti-market bias. But overall, his argument is clear and compelling, exposing blind adherence to market outcomes as largely arbitrary, ideological, and often, an affront to democracy. Academic economists who ignore the political desires of the people in order to protect the purity of their mathematical models draw Kuttner's fire in particular. He writes about ideas and economic details with great verve and ability. Kuttner's book is certain to be a touchstone of debate, if not reform, among public policy makers.
Author: Kevin Danaher
Publisher: Open Media
Genre: Economics
Release: Jan 2001 My Rating: 4
Summary: The author, cofounder of Global Exchange, the San Francisco-based international human rights organization, argues that “free trade” is further widening the gap between rich and poor in all countries rather than improving the quality of life, labor, and the environment.
Publisher: Open Media
Genre: Economics
Release: Jan 2001 My Rating: 4
Summary: The author, cofounder of Global Exchange, the San Francisco-based international human rights organization, argues that “free trade” is further widening the gap between rich and poor in all countries rather than improving the quality of life, labor, and the environment.
Author: Adam Smith, Robert Heilbronner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Genre: Economics
Release: Jan 1987 My Rating: 5
Summary: To understand capitalism, read the Wealth of Nations. But, to really understand it, as well as the other ideas of Adam Smith, read his essential works. This book allows the reader to fully grasp the concepts of capitalism and get a clear picture of how and why it works. Thankfully, Heilbronner did not dilute the works of Smith, he just condensed them for the modern day reader. With this book you can cut through the jargon and see the real points that Smith was trying to get across.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Genre: Economics
Release: Jan 1987 My Rating: 5
Summary: To understand capitalism, read the Wealth of Nations. But, to really understand it, as well as the other ideas of Adam Smith, read his essential works. This book allows the reader to fully grasp the concepts of capitalism and get a clear picture of how and why it works. Thankfully, Heilbronner did not dilute the works of Smith, he just condensed them for the modern day reader. With this book you can cut through the jargon and see the real points that Smith was trying to get across.
Author: Thomas Frank
Publisher: Anchor
Genre: Economics
Release: Sep 2001 My Rating: 5
Summary: After nearly a decade of bull markets, Americans have come to equate free markets with democracy. Never one for mincing words, social critic Thomas Frank, editor of "The Baffler" and author of "The Conquest of Cool", challenges this myth. With his acerbic wit and contempt for sophistry, he declares the New Economy a fraud. Frank scours business literature, management theory, and marketing and advertising to expose the elaborate fantasies that have inoculated business against opposition. This public relations campaign joins an almost mystical belief in markets, a contempt for government in any form, and an "ecstatic" confusion of markets with democracy. Frank traces the roots of this movement from the 1920s, and sees its culmination in market populism as a fusion of the rebellious '60s with the greedy '80s. The overarching irony is the swapping of roles--suddenly Wall Street is no longer full of stodgy moneygrubbers, but cool entrepreneurs "leaping on their trampolines, typing out a few last lines on the laptop before paragliding, riding their bicycles to work, listening to Steppenwolf while they traded." Meanwhile, "Americans traded their long tradition of electoral democracy for the democracy of the supermarket, where all brands are created equal and endowed by their creators with all sorts of extremeness and diversity." Frank's close reading of the salesmen of market populism nails such financial gurus as George Gilder, Joseph Nocera, Kevin Kelly, and Thomas Friedman. Their writings, he contends, have served to make "the world safe for billionaires" by winning the cultural and political battle--legitimizing the corporate culture and its demands for privatization, deregulation, and non-interference. Frank's incisive prose verges on brilliant at times, though his yen for repetition can be exasperating. In either case, his boisterous reminder that markets are fundamentally not democracies is worth repeating as the level of wealth polarization in America reaches heights not seen since the 1920s. "--Lesley Reed"
Publisher: Anchor
Genre: Economics
Release: Sep 2001 My Rating: 5
Summary: After nearly a decade of bull markets, Americans have come to equate free markets with democracy. Never one for mincing words, social critic Thomas Frank, editor of "The Baffler" and author of "The Conquest of Cool", challenges this myth. With his acerbic wit and contempt for sophistry, he declares the New Economy a fraud. Frank scours business literature, management theory, and marketing and advertising to expose the elaborate fantasies that have inoculated business against opposition. This public relations campaign joins an almost mystical belief in markets, a contempt for government in any form, and an "ecstatic" confusion of markets with democracy. Frank traces the roots of this movement from the 1920s, and sees its culmination in market populism as a fusion of the rebellious '60s with the greedy '80s. The overarching irony is the swapping of roles--suddenly Wall Street is no longer full of stodgy moneygrubbers, but cool entrepreneurs "leaping on their trampolines, typing out a few last lines on the laptop before paragliding, riding their bicycles to work, listening to Steppenwolf while they traded." Meanwhile, "Americans traded their long tradition of electoral democracy for the democracy of the supermarket, where all brands are created equal and endowed by their creators with all sorts of extremeness and diversity." Frank's close reading of the salesmen of market populism nails such financial gurus as George Gilder, Joseph Nocera, Kevin Kelly, and Thomas Friedman. Their writings, he contends, have served to make "the world safe for billionaires" by winning the cultural and political battle--legitimizing the corporate culture and its demands for privatization, deregulation, and non-interference. Frank's incisive prose verges on brilliant at times, though his yen for repetition can be exasperating. In either case, his boisterous reminder that markets are fundamentally not democracies is worth repeating as the level of wealth polarization in America reaches heights not seen since the 1920s. "--Lesley Reed"