Red Ink: The Budget, Deficit, and Debt of the U.S. Government

Book Description

This descriptive, nonpartisan, and ideologically neutral approach to the U.S. federal budget provides a clear and detailed explanation of the intricacies of the budget, its history, and the institutional details that create it. Red Ink offers a complete guide to the federal government's budget, its deficit, and its debt. Clear and practical discussions of taxes, entitlements, welfare, Social Security, Medicare, agricultural subsidies, trust funds, budget enforcement, and the politics of the deficit and deficit-reduction are all included.
This is the first book to offer a complete survey from the history of the deficit to modern budget enforcement. It discusses topical issues, such as welfare and Medicare reform, and the controversies of the future, including the projected depletion of the Social Security trust funds. The actual line-item budget, including tax sources, is listed to demonstrate where federal money is spent and where it comes from. The book traces how spending and tax bills originate and follows them as they make their waythrough a maze of Congressional procedures, regulations, and protocols. In addition to students of public finance and macroeconomics, Red Ink is useful to anyone with an interest in the machinations of the federal budget.

Key Features
* Includes over 120 tables and illustrations
* Features an extensive glossary of budget terms
* Contains a practical nuts and bolts approach to the U.S. federal budget
* Provides an annotated reading list for further research
* Uses a WWW link for budget updates and new data

Book Description

* Makes capacity development -- creating the conditions for developing countries to provide for themselves -- user-friendly
* Bridges the gap between theory and practice to show how the conceptual foundations of capacity development relate to practical realities in the field
* Companion to "Capacity for Development: New Solutions to Old Problems" (2002) and "Developing Capacity through Technical Cooperation" (2003)

The third and final in a series, this book bridges the conceptual foundations of capacity development and the difficulties and practical realities in the field. It demystifies the process of capacity development to make it more "user-friendly."
It has two parts. The first shows how long-standing development dilemmas can be turned into opportunities for capacity development and societal transformation. It proposes a set of principles to guide the search for context-specific approaches as the norm, and based on these default principles the authors explore relevant issues in comprehensible stages through a capacity lens.
The second part is a compilation of experiences and lessons from around the world that showcase promising initiatives and innovative solutions. It forms a casebook of insights and good (rather than best) practices on how development stakeholders can turn development dilemmas into opportunities tailored to the needs of their societies.
The book and its companion volumes make a vital professional resource for all those working in international development, as well as researchers, academics, and students.

Ownership, Leadership and Transformation: Can We Do Better for Capacity Development?

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Ownership, Leadership and Transformation: Can We Do Better for Capacity Development?
Carlos Lopes
Manufacturer: Earthscan/James & James
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MVCPQ4

Book Description

All major crop plants have been subjected to genetic improvement, either by selection and propagation or by breeding. Bamboos have received scant attention from plant breeders despite their importance as crop plants due to their unpredictable and uncontrollable flowering habits and to a limited understanding of genetic variation amongst the existing species. The potential for new, improved bamboo hybrids is enormous. The demand for bamboo is increasing worldwide and the diversity of uses to which it is put is growing steadily. Increases in demand can be met by increasing the areas of bamboo plantations, but improvements in the quality of raw bamboo can only be met by selection and breeding.

Professor Zhang Guangchu of Guangdong Forestry Research Institute has worked on bamboo hybridization for almost thirty years and has amassed a wide range of skills and experience. She has produced hybrid bamboos that are now being grown commercially in South China. INBAR recently invited her to distil her experiences and make them available to a wider audience and this manual is the result. The manual refers primarily to the bamboos of southern China where the author is based, but the principles and techniques are applicable worldwide. This manual is one of the products of INBARs Ecological Security programme, which aims to improve the genetic diversity, conservation and management of bamboo and rattan resources, and to promote their use in environmental protection and rehabilitation. It aims to be the catalyst for scientists, technicians, foresters, farmers and individuals to undertake bamboo hybridization in their own regions, to stimulate relevant research and to promote the wider acceptance and use of hybrid bamboos.

Book Description

Life is a chancy proposition: from the movement of molecules to the age at which we die, chance plays a key role in the natural world. Traditionally, biologists have viewed the inevitable "noise" of life as an unfortunate complication. The authors of this book, however, treat random processes as a benefit. In this introduction to chance in biology, Mark Denny and Steven Gaines help readers to apply the probability theory needed to make sense of chance events--using examples from ocean waves to spiderwebs, in fields ranging from molecular mechanics to evolution.

Through the application of probability theory, Denny and Gaines make predictions about how plants and animals work in a stochastic universe. Is it possible to pack a variety of ion channels into a cell membrane and have each operate at near-peak flow? Why are our arteries rubbery? The concept of a random walk provides the necessary insight. Is there an absolute upper limit to human life span? Could the sound of a cocktail party burst your eardrums? The statistics of extremes allows us to make the appropriate calculations. How long must you wait to see the detail in a moonlit landscape? Can you hear the noise of individual molecules? The authors provide answers to these and many other questions.

After an introduction to the basic statistical methods to be used in this book, the authors emphasize the application of probability theory to biology rather than the details of the theory itself. Readers with an introductory background in calculus will be able to follow the reasoning, and sets of problems, together with their solutions, are offered to reinforce concepts. The use of real-world examples, numerous illustrations, and chapter summaries--all presented with clarity and wit--make for a highly accessible text. By relating the theory of probability to the understanding of form and function in living things, the authors seek to pique the reader's curiosity about statistics and provide a new perspective on the role of chance in biology.

Customer Reviews:

Math Applied to Biology.......2002-10-10

*Chance in Biology* is one of the best science books I have ever read (and I have read quite a few of them). This book applies probability theory (along with other topics in math and physics) to biological phenomena. A big PLUS for this book is that the authors intentionally wrote the book to be accessible to an educated but nonspecialized audience.

I really enjoyed the authors' discussion of random walks applied to 'genetic drift' (the likelihood that offsprings' genomes will be different than their parents') and a surprising application of probability theory to elastic materials found in nature.

I also enjoyed their chapter on the probability of extreme phenomena -- which is an obviously useful topic that gets short shrift in many probability and statistics books I have seen. They even use baseball statistics in that chapter!

Another interesting part of this book was the discussion and the practice problems dealing with Bayes' Theorem. The concepts discussed in this book is something that all health care officials and lawyers should familiarize themselves with.

Some caveats about the book:

(a) The reader should be familiar with the 1st year of college calculus. While it is is possible that someone with only an understanding of algebra can get a lot out of the book, the calculus would help. I should note that you do not need to know a lot of calculus and someone who is 'mathophobic' could still get a lot out of the book.

(b) This book does not deal too much with inferential statistics. This book focuses in on probability, which is the cornerstone of statistics. However, when it does touch upon inferential statistics, it does a superb job.

(c) I wish the authors spent a little bit of time going over Markov Chains (random walks is a type of Markov Chain and the book does deal with that but without talking about MC explicitly). But that is a minor complaint.

Rounding out my praise for this book is the fact that most of the chapters have practice problems and ALL of the problems have solutions to them at the back of the book. I can't even begin to tell you how great having all of the solutions for all of the problems is for self-study/comprehension. The problems provided are no 'toy problems' either ... they are actually extremely helpful in not only testing one's grasps of the materials but also in illuminating and extending the points made in the particular chapter.

Other miscellanous positive things about *Chance in Biology*:

- a sample MATLAB program to simulate random phenomenon (in the solution to one of the practice problems)

- a chapter that deals with 'noise' .... interesting for those interested in Chaos

- authors make an excellent distinction between non-deterministic random/stochastic phenomena vs. deterministic Chaos

- many more good things!!!

Bottom-line: If you are at all interested in probability, applied math, physics, chemistry, or biology, you should buy this book.

Biology illuminated by physics.......2001-11-18

Biology progressed from natural history to its great depth and breadth in part from the inclusion of truly quantitative ideas from math, physics, and chemistry. The mantle of greatest expositor of these ideas in recent times may have passed from Stephen Vogel (his excellent books are well worth reading) to Mark Denny. Here, with Steven Gaines, he takes us into extreme events, the limits of our ability to hear and to see, the elasticity of spider silk, and more. The math is demanding, but it should be; Denny and Gaines make no bones about it, but reward the reader. Denny's book, Air and Water, is equally a pleasure to read.

The Intrinsic Variability of Nature.(Review): An article from: American Scientist

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The Intrinsic Variability of Nature.(Review): An article from: American Scientist
Mark R. Patterson
Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Science | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

Recently, real and artificial barriers to international transactions have fallen sharply, causing a rise in the overall volume of international trade. East Asia has been particularly affected by the economic stresses and gains derived from deregulation. Deregulation and Interdependence in the Asia-Pacific Region explores the broadly similar experiences of certain economies in the region—China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea—in dealing with the potentially volatile process of deregulation, and examines the East Asian response to a rapidly transforming economic environment.

Economic Interdependence and Development in East Asia

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Economic Interdependence and Development in East Asia
Hans C. Blomqvist
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Development & Growth | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Exports & Imports | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

The rapid development of Asian countries has met with mixed reactions among economists. Most economists understand that a genuine development is underway; but, since the process has been a complex one, each has been able to apply favorite explanations to the situation. In Eastern Asia, regional interdependence has been important to developing countries. This work discusses the interaction between the regional economies through trade and foreign direct investment, relating interaction to economic growth and development.

Download Description

Internet Guerrilla Marketing on a Budget, written by Jay Levinson, provides a quick overview at the various online and offline strategies involved with building a successful brand on the Internet for companies in every industry. Also examined is calculating return on investment, taking an offline brand online, taking an online brand offline, where the future of Internet marketing is heading, and numerous other issues. This chapter originally appeared in the book Inside the Minds: Internet Marketing.

Average customer rating:

This really helped me promote my mail order business

Marketing Your Business
Martin Bailey
Manufacturer: Imprint Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Marketing | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Web Marketing | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1591098610
Release Date: 2003-10-27

Book Description

Marketing your business delivers a theoretical and practical approach to cost-effective promotion of your company and products.

Customer Reviews:

This really helped me promote my mail order business.......2003-11-29

I run a two-man telesales mail order business. I bought this book because it seemed to be backed by some pretty big companies (Saachi & saachi, Virgin, Macromedia, Adobe and Sage according to the back cover), but despite this it has loads of advice for the smaller retailer.

This book is two books in one - the first half teaches you the theory. For me the best chapter was dealing with the press. This shows you that it's relatively easy to get free coverage in magazines. The second half of the book has practical guides - again the chapter on writing press releases was excellent. It literally takes you step by step to writing a press release, right down to how to phrase the title and how the final document should be formatted.

There is also a CD-ROM on the back. Although most of the software that's on there you'll find on the cover disc of most magazines there were a couple of jewels. There are also some tutorial videos (although there should have been a few more in my opinion).

If you run your own business are are look at ways to produce more material in-house but are not sure how to go about it I don't think you can go far wrong with this book.

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