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World Economic Primacy: 1500-1990
Charles P. Kindleberger Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0195099028 |
Book Description
Charles Kindleberger's World Economic Primacy: 1500-1990 is a work of rare ambition and scope from one of our most respected economic historians. Extending over broad ranges of both history and geography, the work considers what it is that enables countries to achieve, at some period in their history, economic superiority over other countries, and what it is that makes them decline. Kindleberger begins with the Italian city-states in the fourteenth century, and traces the changing evolution of world economic primacy as it moves to Portugal and Spain, to the Low countries, to Great Britain, and to the United States, addressing the question of alleged U.S. decline. Additional chapters treat France as a perennial challenger, Germany which has twice aggressively sought superiority, and Japan, which may or may not become a candidate for the role of "number one." Kindleberger suggests that the economic vitality of a given country goes through a trajectory that can usefully (thought not precisely) be compared to a human life cycle. Like human beings, the growth of a state can be cut off by accident or catastrophe short of old age; unlike human beings, however, economies can have a second birth. In World Economic Primacy, Kindleberger takes into account the influence of complex historical, social, and cultural factors that determine economic leadership. A brilliant overview of the position of nations in the world economy, World Economic Primacy conveys profound insights into the causes of the rise and decline of the world's economic powers, past and present.Customer Reviews:
Tour-de-force........2002-12-09
This book is a short but eminent course in economic history, from which we can learn a lot for our actual economic policies (e.g. the causes for decline).
The external causes are wars, and new discoveries (gold) and inventions in other countries.
The internal causes are risk aversion, increased consumption, decreased savings, reduced gains in productivity, decline in innovation, resistance to taxation, mounting debt, rent-seeking, speculative bubbles, gambling, corruption, increasing governmental and corporate bureaucracy, unwillingness to adapt to change. (p. 215-7)
A must for every economist and also for the layman.
From a brilliant economic historian..........1998-10-18
Seldom do the social sciences permit such an overarching treatise on what has been the greatest and, at the same time, most tragic four centuries in (in)human history.
Mr. Kindleberger captures the essence of the "age of acquisitors" in an unprecedented manner. Hats off to Professor Kindleberger.
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World Economic Primacy: 1500-1990
Charles P. Kindleberger Manufacturer: Oxford University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000OKMXNS |
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Special Privilege: How the Monetary Elite Benefit at Your Expense
Vincent R. Locascio Manufacturer: Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Ed ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items: ASIN: 0971038031 |
Book Description
The thesis of Special Privilege is that the government grants special privileges to the elite members of the financial sector of the economy that violate fundamental principles of both democracy and free enterprise. Because these special privileges pervert the free market, they must inevitably lead to a crash. Like a needle in the arm to a drug addict, special privileges can make things look temporarily better and, yet, guarantee an even worse future collapse. The book explores several potential bona fide reforms---each of which involves the removal, one way or another, of six categories of special privilege.Jack Gargan, former Chairman of the Reform Party, retired financial planner, and, himself, an author of 5 financial books says of Special Privilege:"In a scholarly but easily readable style, Vincent LoCascio strips away all the technical mumbo-jumbo of the bankers' jargon and lays bare the awful truth about the American monetary system. When the inevitable and cataclysmic crack of the U.S. economy occurs, people will single out this book saying, 'Oh, if only we could have used this to awaken the American public to the devastating role the banking system would play in the destruction of our nation.' Sadly, for the very reason the author spells out, I am afraid we are doomed to experience the coming disaster like lemmings racing to the sea-cliffs, rather than to initiate the relatively simple solutions."
Customer Reviews:
This book is excellent but...........2005-08-25
Heads, Money Center Bankers Win; Tails, Taxpayers Lose!.......2001-12-26
If you already think you know all you need to know about banking, think again. Mr. LoCascio has new observations about old problems that will cause you to stop and think. And hopefully to act!
During the worst of the Savings and Loan bailout, the Lesser Developed Country debacles, and commercial real estate collapses of the past 20 years, articles in the financial press repeatedly pointed out that many bankers were playing fast and loose with taxpayer money to take a chance to make it big for themselves, at little personal risk. Today, little is said about this problem. Special Privilege reopens the debate by pointing out that those old problems may be small potatoes compared to what could be ahead for us without fundamental reform in the banking system. Like a lake rapidly filling with gasoline, the potential explosion just keeps growing. Although no one can predict the spark, Mr. LoCascio describes a major stock market collapse as a potential cause.
With a title like Special Privilege, you might think this is a liberal view of economics that doesn't reflect the underlying needs of capitalism. Actually, the book attacks the current banking system as being harmful to free markets, holding back capitalism, and undermining our democratic traditions by letting a select group benefit at the expense of everyone else.
Special Privilege is the clearest book I have read on the inherent structural weaknesses in the U.S. banking system. These weaknesses are becoming greater as they are pushed to new extremes by decreasingly imprudent bank lending practices, at a time when the banking system is in a very weakened state due to excessive lending to poor credit risks, a national recession, and inappropriate regulation.
In the book, you get a good sense of how banking worked (and didn't work) before the current system was established, and how many safety underpinnings have been removed. Like a hereditary group of nobility, money center bankers have been turned loose to compete recklessly for deposits, make bad loans for high fees and interests rates, and degrade the value of the currency safe in the knowledge that the Federal Reserve, the IMF, and the Federal Government will "solve" any problems that crop up. In this system, insolvent lenders are propped up with new loans and banks earn outsized fees for accommodating this.
Mr. LoCascio does a good job of describing the special privileges that bankers have available to them, and the harm that is inevitably created as a result. He uses a series of fictional dialogues involving two bankers to help put you inside of the temptation that faces bankers in such a system.
The only thing I thought that the book was missing was an explanation of how the U.S. banking system sets up the whole world for increased frequency and degree of volatility in values of currencies, stocks, real estate, and other assets affected by the free flow of capital. While we are still recovering from the dot-com bust, the seeds are being sown for the next collapse as we all watched Enron's and Argentina's financial structures collapse.
If these costs came home to bear in the form of higher rates on bank loans or losses by bank investors, that would be the normal working of capitalism. The challenge here is that our banking system has much of the crony capitalism in it that we have condemned in other countries (like Japan) . . . and the costs of failure are ultimately passed along to taxpayers through new Federal borrowing.
While Mr. LoCascio's suggestions for change certainly warrant consideration, I suspect that reform will more likely succeed if financial incentives are created to go to a sounder system while the current incentives are gradually removed.
If you are already pretty familiar with past issues about the banking system, you will probably find this book a little on the repetitive side. Feel free to skip ahead to chapter IX where all of the key points are repeated. If you want more on a particular issues, you can then read just the chapter that deals with that area.
Monetary perfidy exposed.......2001-11-14
In this volume financial planner and consultant Vince LoCascio, following to some degree in Murray Rothbard's footsteps, aims to blow the lid off the "special privilege" of the banking elite. Inspired by Rothbard's _The Mystery of Banking_ and _The Case Against the Fed_, LoCascio seeks to provide the reader with an accessible, easily understood introduction to the sort of jiggery-pokery that currently goes on with our "money."
His effort seems to me to be quite successful, though I may not be the best judge of how a reader completely new to the topic would respond to the book. The exposition is set out in clear and intelligible prose and laced with illustrative dialogues. And his proposals for reform are presented cautiously and with due regard for alternative proposals (LoCascio's own is to freeze the money supply at its current level).
The "special privilege" of the title is sixfold. Under current U.S. law, banks have six "special privileges" that grant them sweeping and pretty scary powers: the power to create money out of thin air (both by the Fed's initial creation of unbacked currency and through individual banks' pyramiding new money on top of it through the "fractional reserve" system); special protection of their assets (any bank whatsoever can be "rescued" whenever the Fed chooses to do so); liability protection (FDIC deposit guarantees that encourage banks to engage in rash speculation); bailout schemes (at taxpayer expense, of course); funny accounting (e.g. booking outstanding loans at their original value instead of at their current value); and secrecy (banks don't have to report certain information even to their stockholders, let alone to the public). Each of these topics gets a chapter-long workout, and LoCascio does a good job of making them clear.
Moreover, his discussion of how things got this way is based in large measure on Milton Friedman's/Anna Jacobson Schwartz's _Monetary History of the United States_, a fine work highly regarded even by non-monetarists (even some Austrians like it). I would have liked to see a reference to Ludwig von Mises in here somewhere, even if just a nod to his _Theory of Money and Credit_, but at any rate LoCascio has selected good sources.
Another feature worth noting is LoCascio's insistence that banks' special privileges are a _moral_ problem -- that lending out multiples of demand deposits is a kind of fraud. (This feature has its good and bad points; on the one hand, it's nice to see the ethical question raised, but on the other hand I'm not sure LoCascio adequately explains _why_ it's wrong.)
On the whole LoCascio's presentation is thorough and even gripping, and he has a knack for grabbing the reader with the most telling points up front: for example, that the purchasing power of the dollar in 1937 was just about what it had been in 1802, whereas today's dollar is by comparison worth about eight cents. This fact appears on page eight and sets the reader asking exactly the question loCascio wants to answer: how in the world did this _happen_?
LoCascio's hope is to help prevent a financial disaster by informing the ordinary citizen about these "special privileges" and their ill economic effects. One way of helping him to succeed in that aim is to read this book.
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The 2005 Pfeiffer Annual , (with CD-Rom): Consulting (J-B Pfeiffer Annual Vol2)
Manufacturer: Pfeiffer ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0787969338 |
Book Description
The 2005 Pfeiffer Annual: Consulting is a ready-made toolkit of ideas, methods, techniques, and models that assist and support your work as an organizational consultant. The materials provide a highly accessible means of interacting with a variety of systems and processes as diverse as collaborative work systems and executive coaching to strategic planning and organization development. The book is divided into four sections: Experiential Learning Activities (ELAs); Editor’s Choice, Inventories, Questionnaires, and Surveys; and Articles and Discussion Resources. ELAs are the mainstay of the Annual and cover a broad range of consulting topics. The activities are presented as complete and ready-to-use designs for working with groups; facilitator instructions and all necessary handouts and participant materials are included.
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The 2005 Pfeiffer Annual , CD : Consulting (J-B Pfeiffer Annual Looseleaf Vol1)
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons ProductGroup: Book Binding: CD-ROM ASIN: 0787969311 |
Book Description
The 2005 Pfeiffer Annual: Consulting is a ready-made toolkit of ideas, methods, techniques, and models that assist and support your work as an organizational consultant. The materials provide a highly accessible means of interacting with a variety of systems and processes as diverse as collaborative work systems and executive coaching to strategic planning and organization development. The book is divided into four sections: Experiential Learning Activities (ELAs); Editor’s Choice, Inventories, Questionnaires, and Surveys; and Articles and Discussion Resources. ELAs are the mainstay of the Annual and cover a broad range of consulting topics. The activities are presented as complete and ready-to-use designs for working with groups; facilitator instructions and all necessary handouts and participant materials are included.
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The 2005 Pfeiffer Annual, CD : Training (J-B Pfeiffer Annual Looseleaf Vol1)
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons ProductGroup: Book Binding: CD-ROM ASIN: 078796932X |
Book Description
Shifting work patterns, constant organizational change, and a continually increasing demand for new knowledge, challenges even the most experienced training professional. Under these conditions, proven, ready-to-use resources are immensely useful. None more so than The 2005 Pfeiffer Annual: Training, which provides instant access to a wealth of knowledge about training and development, and proven tools that can be put to use with a minimum of preparation. The book is divided into four sections: Experiential Learning Activities (ELAs); Editor’s Choice, Inventories, Questionnaires, and Surveys; and Articles and Discussion Resources. All the material can be freely reproduced for training purposes. ELAs are the mainstay of the Annual and cover a broad range of training topics. The activities are presented as complete and ready-to-use training designs; facilitator instructions and all necessary handouts and participant materials are included.
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How to Create a Business on Low Income: That Runs With or Without You (Strategies for Success (Ideabank))
Sandra Stoodley Manufacturer: Ideabank ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1894260015 |
Book Description
An essential book for entrepreneurs, "How to Create a Business on Low Income" offers a how-to recipe for success, revealing how to package one's thoughts and build a solid business with little investment income.
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The Heim Group Audio Library (She Said, He Said/Productive Conflict Skills/Empowering Your Team/Effective Communication Skills For Couples/Selling Across the Gender Divide)
Pat Heim ProductGroup: Book Binding: Audio Cassette ASIN: B000OHEZV4 |
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Productive Conflict Skills
Manufacturer: The Heim Group ProductGroup: Book Binding: Audio Cassette ASIN: 1891531034 |
Book Description
How do you deal with the person who barges in and blows up? What do you do with the co-worker who constantly creates problems for you but won't talk about what's wrong? Conflict is a reality of organizational life. but often we just react rather than responding stategically. This 50 minute tape covers fifteen strategies to make difficult discussions more productive. You'll find solutions to common problems such as what to do when attacked, how to find out what the conflict is really about and ways to prevent defensiveness.Customer Reviews:
Outstanding summary of conflict management techniques.......2000-06-08
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3 Days to a Pharmaceutical Sales Job Interview, 2004-2005 Edition
Lisa Lane Manufacturer: Drug Careers, Inc. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0971778523 |
Book Description
3 Days to a Pharmaceutical Sales Job Interview is loaded with everything that you need to know to break into pharmaceutical sales. It is the best selling pharmaceutical sales book on the market and is the ONLY "how to" book endorsed by the American Pharmaceutical Sales Association. With the highest standards, the APSA advisory board consists of members who work or have worked for most of the high profile pharmaceutical companies.Readers of this step by step program will learn how to land interviews, impress managers, stand out from the crowd of applicants and start a career in pharmaceutical sales! Excerpts of the material have been printed in over 30 newspapers including The Miami Herald, The Chicago Tribune, The LA Times, The Baltimore Sun, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine.
3 Days to a Pharmaceutical Sales Job Interview is an amazingly effective step by step program which has been used by thousands to help them land pharmaceutical sales jobs worldwide. With the author's insight, applicants learn how to shorten their job search, locate unadvertised job openings, get direct access to managers home addresses and email addresses, and learn how to effectively market themselves and their resumes for the attention that they deserve.....It's a sure shot way to get your foot in the door! (Book purchase also includes free one on one job coaching! Simply email the author with any questions about pharmaceutical sales or your job hunt. She will usually respond to any questions within 24 hours)
3 Days to a Pharmaceutical Sales Job Interview has helped thousands of applicants land interviews with top pharmaceutical companies. This step by step guide, written by a 15 year veteran pharmaceutical consultant is loaded with "knock their socks off" tips to help job seekers stand out from the crowd and land interviews for pharmaceutical sales jobs.
Expert advice covers all areas of the pharmaceutical sales job hunt starting with a copyrighted step by step guide to landing interviews. (A guide in itself)
The guide book also addresses the basics of the job hunt including: frequently asked questions about the pharmaceutical sales job hunt, how to write a successful pharmaceutical sales resume, tips for writing e-resumes, resume samples, cover letter do's and don'ts, sample cover letters, phone interviews...what to expect, preparation for face to face interviews, questions to ask your interviewer, interview questions and answers, the brag book, career organizer worksheets, resume tracker, and resource pages. This comprehensive guidebook/workbook covers all the bases of the pharmaceutical sales job hunt. A must have for any job seeker in this competitive job market!
Customer Reviews:
Very useful book for the interview of phamaceutical company.......2007-08-24
Basic interview text.......2007-04-06
3 Days Review.......2007-01-16
I guess OK.......2006-08-11
Deficient in important information.......2006-06-14
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Spend Well, Live Rich: How to Get What You Want with the Money You Have
Michelle Singletary Manufacturer: Ballantine Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0375759042 Release Date: 2004-12-28 |
Book Description
The best financial planner Michelle Singletary ever knew was Big Mama, her grandmother. Big Mama raised Michelle and her four brothers and sisters on a salary that never reached more than $13,000 a year. Yet at her death, Big Mama owned her own home, had paid off a car loan, and had a beautiful collection of Sunday-go-to-meeting church hats and a savings account that supplemented her Social Security check and small pension. Most important, she had taught Michelle “7 Money Mantras for a Richer Life.” Those mantras serve as the inspiration for this straight-talking book of practical personal financial advice that really works.Customer Reviews:
If I knew then.............2007-01-15
You Probably Already Know Everything in This Book..........2006-07-21
See review for 7 Money Mantras.......2006-05-06
Awful.......2006-03-17
Duped............2006-03-11
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The Haier Way: The Making of a Chinese Business Leader and a Global Brand
Jeannie Jinsheng, Ph.D. Yi , and Shawn Xian Ye Manufacturer: Homa & Sekey Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items: ASIN: 1931907013 |
Book Description
Haier is the largest consumer appliance maker in China, regarded as the "GE of China."But back in 1984, it was a small factory on the verge of bankruptcy because no one wanted its poor quality products. Today Haier is a multibillion dollar conglomerate with over 30,000 employees worldwide. In the U.S., Haier brand appliances are sold in Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot, Office Depot, Target and many others. With production bases in America, Europe, Asia and Middle East, and with sales outlets in over 160 countries, Haier has become an international powerhouse that is well on its way to building a global brand.
The Haier Way traces the appliance giant's path to success, from its early bleak years when the company director had to beg from the neighboring village head for loans to pay bonuses to his employees, to the glamorous achievement when Haier ranked the fifth among the global white appliance makers in 2002. The book also examines the three strategies Haier has adopted to survive and thrive in the face of cutthroat competitions: brand name building, diversification, and globalization.
Drawing on their interviews with the company's executives and employees, the authors offer a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the company and tell incredible stories about ordinary Haier employees who went extra miles to help boost the company's image.
Much emphasis is given to Zhang Ruimin, Chairman and CEO of the Haier Group, for his pivotal role in the company's success. A legendary figure who ordered the smashing of 76 faulty refrigerators with a sledgehammer, he rules with a management style that is a blend of Jack Welch of GE and Confucius of China. The book uncovers how his vision, ambition, and determination have led Haier to create a Chinese business miracle and made himself one of the world's thirty most respected business leaders.
The first English publication ever on an individual Chinese company, The Haier Way is an insightful and stimulating reading for those who are interested in Chinese business and economy.
Customer Reviews:
A great business book for readers in any country........2003-05-20
To achieve these results, Haier has successfully employed a mixture of leading edge manufacturing and management schools any Western company would be proud of and combined them with a set of "Confucian" and other deeply rooted values unique to Chinese culture.
The story of Haier is well presented and easy as well as compelling to read. It should be required reading for any student of management. Unlike many difficult books to follow dealing with improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma, the authors of The Haier Way do an outstanding job discussing all of the factors including the "invisible" cultural evolution that have allowed this company to become a leading world brand with over US $8 billion in revenues. This is all the more remarkable given the capital market limitations faced by Chinese companies.
As an appliance industry executive that was sent to China to help teach the Chinese how to manufacture high-quality goods, I have now learned a great deal from Haier and the Chinese authors of this book.
Charles L. Green
A great business book for readers in any country........2003-05-20
To achieve these results, Haier has successfully employed a mixture of leading edge manufacturing and management schools any Western company would be proud of and combined them with a set of "Confucian" and other deeply rooted values unique to Chinese culture.
The story of Haier is well presented and easy as well as compelling to read. It should be required reading for any student of management. Unlike many difficult books to follow dealing with improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma, the authors of The Haier Way do an outstanding job discussing all of the factors including the "invisible" cultural evolution that have allowed this company to become a leading world brand with over US $8 billion in revenues. This is all the more remarkable given the capital market limitations faced by Chinese companies.
As an appliance industry executive who was sent to China to help teach the Chinese how to manufacture high-quality goods, I have now learned a great deal from Haier and the Chinese authors of this book.
Charles L. Green
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