Product Description
This powerful and empowering text offers a way forward out of global human suffering, presenting a realistic roadmap for practical, workable solutions to mass poverty. Now fully updated, including entirely new chapters, The Global New Deal investigates key areas central to the achievement of economic and social human rights: international political economy, U.N. policies and programs, environmental sustainability, racial bias, gender equality, military spending, and the U.S. approach to poverty alleviation. Felice then introduces what he calls the _global new deal,_ a set of international policy proposals designed to protect the vulnerable and end needless suffering. These structural reforms provide a viable means by which to safeguard social and economic human rights for all. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A book of hope.
This book shows that the problmes in the world can be resovled. It shows one way this could happen.

My favorite professor's book
This was written by my mentor in International Relations at Eckerd College, Professor Bill Felice.For everyone at Eckerd who has been lucky enough to have one of Felice's classes, you already know that he and this book are both great.Anyone with an interest in international relations, human rights, etc. should read this book.I also recommend his book Taking Suffering Seriously.They are hard to find at regular bookstores, but I'm excited to see that Amazon sells them both. ... Read more

Product Description
The second book from The Russia Balance Sheet Project, a collaboration of two of the world's preeminent research institutions--the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Center for Strategic and International Studies--examines Russia after the financial crisis of 2007-2009. In the aftermath of the crisis, what is Russia's current economic status and role in the world order? How has the crisis changed a push for an innovation-driven economy fueled by advanced technology growth? Furthermore, how have recent allegations of political corruption affected domestic politics as well as the world's perception of Russia? To answer these questions, the book assesses Russia's international policy challenges and also provides an all-encompassing review of domestic issues. The authors consider foreign policy, Russia and it neighbors, climate change, Russia's role in the world, domestic politics, and corruption. As Russia grapples with the realities of the post-crisis world, this lucid volume offers the keen insights of today's foremost experts on Russia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fine and very highly recommended pick for anyone who likes to think about world economics
Abandoning communism, Russia has taken to capitalism and revitalizing its economy with much gusto. "Russia after the Global Economic Crisis" delves into the rise and development of Russia as an economic power, and how it's contending against America once more after the current economic crisis around the world settles. Russia has its problems, but its future as an economic powerhouse is assured. "Russia after the Global Economic Crisis" is a fine and very highly recommended pick for anyone who likes to think about world economics.
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Product Description
Managerial Economics in a Global Economy, Sixth Edition, synthesizes economic theory, decision science, and various aspects of business administration studies, examining how they interact as a firm attempts to reach optimal profitability and efficiency in the face of constraints. It features 129 real-world case studies and six longer, detailed studies--more than any other text on the market. In addition, author Dominick Salvatore fully integrates material on the international ramifications of managerial decisions into the entire text, instead of segregating it in a separate chapter or in a few case studies.

The book is divided into five parts. Part One examines the nature and scope of managerial economics, presents the theory of the firm, and reviews optimization techniques. Part Two analyzes demand. Part Three presents the theory and measurement of the firm's production and costs. Part Four brings together demand analysis with production and cost analysis to show how price and output are determined under various forms of market organization. Part Five examines regulation and antitrust, the role of government in the economy, risk analysis, long-term investment decisions, and capital budgeting.

Managerial Economics in a Global Economy, Sixth Edition, is ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in managerial economics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Bad, Bad Book
If Jack Kerouac and James Joyce collaborated to write a calculus book and then gave it to Dostoevsky to translate into an Economics book in Russian...this review is starting to make less sense than this book.

Why would a school pick this as a textbook?
I don't get it.I spent oodles of money on the book and shipping.

It was such a dissapointment.The concepts are not tied to the formulas, when there ARE formulas.Everything is in paragraph format, making it very diffificult to follow the logic and understand defitions of terms.

This book could do with a good editing.I'm sure there is some useful information in there, but it's so hard to get to the point of any topic.

I end up just stealing buzz words from chapters and going online to find other articles that provide more useful information.

If it wasn't required reading, I would never have bought it.

One of the worst textbooks ever!
In over 20 years of schooling, this is the worst textbook I have ever used. There are almost no examples in the book involving the formulas required to solve problems. It is very boring. The formatting is poor. There is no color, no margin separation that help distinguish formulas, text, etc. HORRIBLE!

Managerial Economics in a Global Economy
A good read, though not that great.

Managerial Economics in a Global Economy

Confusing & Complicated
It's probably a little silly to review a textbook which people are only going to buy because their professors require it. But on the off chance that you are just looking to learn managerial economics on your own, find another book!

There must be a better way to explain economic math- and equation-related concepts. Reading the paragraphs that attempt to explain the graphs is like learning a foreign language in that language. Terms are not well-defined. Equations are presented and described but not applied to problems well. The writing style of the whole book is convoluted. Just because a text is for a graduate class, doesn't mean it can't be concise and simple.
... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Yet another conspiracy book that history soon demolishes
This book was recommended to me, but I found the theme all too conspiratorial for my liking and factually wrong in many instances (or at very least, facts taken selectively to shore up a shaky theory).

As others have noted, the idea that the US and its allies used low oil prices to drive the Soviets into oblivion is convenient theory, but doesn't pass the smell or facts test.You'd have to "forget" the OPEC embargoes in the '70s (when the Cold War was in full force) and how oil prices rose ~10 fold in the decade - just how was that helping drive the Soviets into oblivion?Methinks the Soviets collapsed on their own accord - they rotted from within.

A few facts.Oil averaged $3.39 bbl in 1970.When the Soviet Union collapsed in ~1990, it averaged $23 bbl, but that was down from $37.50 bbl it averaged in 1980.So yes, oil did have some wild gyrations, but in the ~20 years before the USSR collapsed, the Soviets enjoyed vastly higher earnings.At the same time, Soviet oil production was rising.As a result, they enjoyed the dual benefits of strongly rising prices AND production.Yet the author concludes that "low prices" were the cause of the Soviet implosion?Methinks history/facts clearly show otherwise.

While the author points to Reagan and steadily falling oil prices during his 2 terms (from a inflation wracked/OPEC embargo/Jimmy Carter high in 1980 of $37.50 bbl), he blithely ascribes the decline in oil prices to a conspiracy of the US and its allies.I find that idea preposterous.

The author ignores the role that inflation had on USD fx rates and how that would have driven prices higher (and lower) as inflation rose/declined, absent any other reasons.

However, there is a more obvious/glaring reason why prices fell in the '80s - vast over capacity within OPEC and lack of production discipline.This intellectual "oversight" effectively crushes the author's conspiracy theories.

How did prices fall from $37.50 to $23 in the '80s?It was simple - supply and demand. OPEC failed to heed basic economics (should have got a few copies of Adam Smith's Rise of Nations) - they failed to realize that if oil spiked from $3.39 to $37.50 bbl in just 10 years that there would be huge shifts in usage/efficiencies by the consumers as a result.OPEC simply got greedy - they saw the huge rise in earnings due to rising prices.As a result, they all added capacity to drive revenues even higher - or so they (wrongly) hoped.OPEC spent hundreds of billions building new capacity.But when the bills and interest payments came due, coupled with less than anticipated demand (exacerbated by a deep recession in the early '80s and concurrent 20% inflation and rising energy efficiencies in the West), OPEC was forced to sell ever-more oil into a buyers market.There was no conspiracy to drive oil prices lower to gain some sort of economic advantage over the Soviets - it was just simple supply and demand at work.

Prices only rebounded after the Saudis got serious about enforcing OPEC production disciple. The Saudis did so by opening up their taps and drove prices down to $10 bbl. That caused so much economic pain in OPEC that they (finally) took production quotas seriously, balancing an over supplied market. As a result of OPEC's new-found production discipline, coupled with the unexpected demand from BRICs (and consequential reduction of excess capacity), we saw oil rise 10 fold this decade...

For all the conspiracy theories this author offers us, the simplest explanations (i.e, supply and demand) seem much more rational explanations for oil prices.But hey, if you tend to believe conspiracy theories, facts rarely get in the way...

Very interesting, indeed; true? Another matter
Another way to phrase it is, this book's ideas might look great from a distance, but look up close and it's a different story.

Why? The dots Norman uses to connect his story? They can be connected in other ways. And, he ignores or tries to explain away dots that aren't convenient to his position.

First, with more than half the world's proven reserves in the hands of foreign national countries, it's not so easy for the USofA to manipulate oil markets as he claims.

Second, the claim that the invasion of Iraq was about not just oil, but China's attempts to get its claws on Iraqi oil after the likely lifting of U.N. sanctions? Just one problem with that. The French and Russians both had contracts for far more oil exploration in Iraq in 2002 than did China. And, according to Norman's quasi-conspiratorial theme, both of those countries were "on our side" in trying to manipulate oil prices against China.

Third, Norman's casual, even cavalier dismissal of Peak Oil is made without much in the way of evidence to back up such dismissal.

Fourth, the one big piece of empirically examinable support he offers is ... abiotic oil. That's a **definite** minority belief. But, given his quasi-conspiratorial angle, not a surprising belief for him to hold.

Fifth, why is the market, especially for light sweet crude, so "inflexible," in his words, unless we ARE getting closer to Peak Oil?

Finally, he minimizes the role of speculators even while covering in detail how lax Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight, combined with general economic bubble conditions, have given them such control.

Interesting book
This book is an easy read.It is well documented with footnotes; I liked that.Wars can be fought in a variety ways.In fact this might be considered as the modern way to fight a war, avoiding all the terrible destruction, and inconvenient death, and rebuilding.I do want to repeat the book is documented, and I think is important.The author invites you verify his thought process, or to make your connections.

Von Claus is military commentator and philosopher.(Hopefully I spelled his name right.)He stated once war is just an extention of politics by alturnative means.At some point we will have name for economic welfare; but if you think about it maybe not, history full of examples of economic conditionsdriving events.This book spells out the logical next step of war and politics, which is using economics to drive foriegn policy, and by active manipilation of economic factors to achieve a goal.

I enjoyed book.I am debating about keeping it my collection.

The Oil Cardby James R. Norman
This book will enlighten anyone who reads it about the real workings of Government and the oil business and how they are intertwined in National and World affairs.It explains the forces behind how oil prices are set and how they have become disconnected with actual physical supply. This book is a must read. Very intriguing!

About the Oil Card: Global Economic Warfare in the 21st Century
I looked through the book and I found it will be very interesting reading! I like these kind of subjects and enjoy them very much! Thank you for sending it and it arrived in good condition! ... Read more

Product Description
Praise for Profiting From the World's Economic Crisis

"Someone is going to make money in the next decade. Perhaps Bud will help you find your way."
—Jim Rogers, cofounder, Quantum Fund; author, A Gift to My Children

"Where everyone today has an opinion on everything, much of it gleaned from a blog, Bud Conrad's constant mantra is 'What does the data say?' And then he rolls up his sleeves and works almost around the clock for as many days as it takes to get to a defensible answer. In other words, there are those who talk, and those who do. Bud does. In Profiting from the World's Economic Crisis, Bud tells you what the data shows about the risks and opportunities just ahead. You'll want to pay attention."
—David Galland, Managing Editor, The Casey Report

"Bud Conrad's book is a brutally honest journey into the future. Honest because Bud builds on facts, not popular opinion; brutal as he¿illustrates the logical consequences as global dynamics play out. You can't afford not to read this book."
—Axel Merk, President and Chief Investment Officer, Merk Mutual Funds; author, Sustainable Wealth

"This book could not be better timed, as the government and Wall Street do their best to convince the public that the financial storm has passed. Bud Conrad begs to differ and using his unique ability to take complex data and distill it into straightforward charts, he not only explains how the hurricane developed, but why it's far from over. He then goes on to show investors not just how to survive the storm's resurgence, but how to prosper."
—Steve Henningsen, Chief Financial Strategist, The Wealth Conservancy

"Right now you may be asking yourself 'What's going to happen to the economy, why is it happening, and what can I do to profit from it?' As far as I'm concerned, Bud has the correct answers to these questions. Among other things, this book will become 'the' reference book for data and charts that economists and investors will go to for years to come. I urge you to read this book—now—and act on its advice."
—DOUG CASEY, Chairman, Casey Research, bestselling author, Crisis Investing ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

The Real World Economic Outlook
The world's economic crisis has been difficult for the world's financial systems. Bud Conrad, Chief economist for Casey Research, in 262 charts explains how we got to where we are and provides a basis for predicting where investments should be directed.

Right now, one may be asking oneself what is going to happen to the economy, why is it happening, and what can we do to profit from it. Among other things, this book will become the reference book that economists and investors along with general readers consult for years to come.

A prediction is made of a gloomy and rough road ahead for investors if they ignore the economic imbalances that have built up over the past decade. Analysis is made of the numerous obstacles Americans face, such as ever-increasing U.S. government and trade deficit, impending rise in healthcare costs, rising oil prices and the weakening of the dollar. The author also examines why some of the government acts, such as bailing out banks and curbing interest rates, made the situation touchier because too much government debt would keep the economy weak.


reviewed by Claude Ury

most believable assessment of today's economy
First of all, let me dispense with the negative:

What an awful title for the book!It makes it sound like a guide on how to exploit the human suffering of the economic crisis in order to stay afloat oneself.

-----

What the book actually IS, is a detailed analytical assessment of today's US economy and where it is likely to head in the coming years.Which, of course, is not only useful for us to try to better understand the world around us, but for those of us who are investors to make prudent decisions about where to put our savings.


I have read a number of recent books on the economy.There appears to be a lot of consensus among the intelligent writers on contemporary economics- for example, 1). We are in a deep crisis of overleverage brought on by an accumulation of excessive debt that has gone on for 2-3 decades. 2). The inevitable consequence of this is a massive deleveraging.

One area where experts do differ is whether deflation or inflation will dominate in the coming years.The crux of this disagreement lies in whether one believes that the Federal Reserve has the ability (and the willingness) to turn deflation to inflation through massive money-printing.Conrad clearly falls into the latter camp, and he does so, in my view, very persuasively.(Another area of dispute between the deflationists and inflationists is the extent to which the government will continue to engage in (inflationary) deficit spending.)

At any rate, Conrad's view is that all this is leading us to a currency crisis for the US dollar in coming years.This is a hypothesis that many other contemporary economic commentators have proposed.

While there is a lot of other good writing out there on this subject, I believe Conrad's book gives the most complete, fact-supported, and persuasive assessment of today's economy.


Five stars.


Just one piece of advice:If you believe the Voodoo nonsense of economists like Paul Krugman, this book is not for you.

Wonky
The writer calls chapter 5 wonky. Most of the book is but chapter 13, demise of the dollar, was backed up with smashing data. Skip the rest.

Great Book!
I just finished it and I loved this book. The economic concepts are explained in simple terms. And it uses plenty of charts to show the interplay between different economic indicators and financial markets. A big eye-opener!

Must Read
Bud,
Your book "Profiting from the World's economic Crisis" was absolutely outstanding!
So much so that I am paying my 18 year old son $1000 to read the book, give a 10 minute review of each chapter and write 5 - 10 page reports on selected questions.
He presented the first chapter to me last night, understood the concept and equally as important he enjoyed what he was learning.
This is better spent money and a better education then sending him to University next year!

From my part, having followed Doug and all the members of Casey Research for a long time, you have put together all the bits and pieces in a well presented order, enriched and clarified a lot of the material.It will be my reference text for years to come.
This is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the big picture of theeconomic world around us.

Thank you!
Reg
... Read more

Product Description
This book is the eagerly awaited successor to Robert Gilpin's 1987 The Political Economy of International Relations, the classic statement of the field of international political economy that continues to command the attention of students, researchers, and policymakers. The world economy and political system have changed dramatically since the 1987 book was published. The end of the Cold War has unleashed new economic and political forces, and new regionalisms have emerged. Computing power is increasingly an impetus to the world economy, and technological developments have changed and are changing almost every aspect of contemporary economic affairs. Gilpin's Global Political Economy considers each of these developments. Reflecting a lifetime of scholarship, it offers a masterful survey of the approaches that have been used to understand international economic relations and the problems faced in the new economy.

Gilpin focuses on the powerful economic, political, and technological forces that have transformed the world. He gives particular attention to economic globalization, its real and alleged implications for economic affairs, and the degree to which its nature, extent, and significance have been exaggerated and misunderstood. Moreover, he demonstrates that national policies and domestic economies remain the most critical determinants of economic affairs. The book also stresses the importance of economic regionalism, multinational corporations, and financial upheavals.

Gilpin integrates economic and political analysis in his discussion of "global political economy." He employs the conventional theory of international trade, insights from the theory of industrial organization, and endogenous growth theory. In addition, ideas from political science, history, and other disciplines are employed to enrich understanding of the new international economic order. This wide-ranging book is destined to become a landmark in the field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

The standard work on the subject - smug & conventional

Robert Gilpin is Professor of Public and International Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University. In this standard work, he presents theories of economics and politics, regional integration, multinational corporations, financial instability, economic development, international trade, the financial and monetary systems, investment, the nation-state, and the governance of the global economy.

As he writes, "This is still a world where national politics and domestic economics are the principal determinants of economic affairs." He notes, "the extent and significance of economic globalisation have been greatly exaggerated. ... international finance is the one area to which the term `globalisation' is most appropriately applied."

He cites monetarist Milton Friedman's belief that it does not matter that mainstream economics' key assumption - perfectly rational individuals with perfect information operating in perfectly working markets - doesn't reflect the real world. Gilpin acknowledges `the conservative bias pervading the discipline'.

But he does not stay realistic for long. He espouses neoclassical economics, part of the US ruling class world-view. He avows a `commitment ... to economic liberalism': he is for free trade, for free (flexible) labour markets and against what he calls `overly generous welfare programs'.

He notes the World Bank's absurd `convergence theory', which claims that investment in poor countries is more profitable, so investment will flow there, so they will grow quicker and catch up with the rich countries. Worked well, hasn't it?

He also claims that mainstream economic policies work well, writing, "What better example than the Federal Reserve's very successful management of the American economy in the mid-to-late 1990s!" This looks rather silly now.

Gilpin's book is the summit of what he rightly calls `the American discipline of international political economy', which reflects the views and serves the interests America's US ruling class. It does not reflect reality.

Global Political Economy
Mr. Gilpin's Global Political Economy is right on reflecting factors which impact global commerce.The text puts in perspective economic concepts that are the driving force behind changes that are making a differnce.A must read text for understanding global management.The straight forward style makes it is easy to digest.

informative and exhaustive
Globalization, as a word, is not very specific. The world may be globalizing, but what specifically does that mean? Furthermore, there is no shortage of competing ideas about the role and effects of globalization on the world economy. Getting to the truth of the matter requires going back to the basics of economics and politics, which is what the author attempts to do. He gives a primer on neoclassical economic theory, new economic theories, the global financial markets, international trade, multi-national corporations, and the ideal role of the state in economic development. Gilpin is by no means a socialist. He believes in the importance of free trade and in the optimizing qualities of the market, but he also acknowledges that the state has an important role to play in economic matters, and that this role is often downplayed in classical economics. I highly recommend this book. I read it for a class, but I really enjoyed it. In terms of quality, it was head and shoulders above the other books we read for the class. I would highly recommend this to any of my friends as a great overview of how politics and economics interact on a global level.

A Valuable Introduction to International Political Economy
Robert Gilpin's Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order delivers what it promises by giving readers an understanding of economic relations among nations.Essentially, it is an introduction to the discipline of political economy, a survey of economic developments since World War II, and an analysis of the theories that compete to explain these developments.As an introduction to the field, it is both accessible and comprehensive, but extensive footnotes and a select bibliography provide resources for advanced students.

Gilpin begins with a rather pessimistic assessment of his colleagues: economists, he says, have a suite of highly developed analytical methods and theoretical models that are seldom applicable.Political scientists, on the other hand, rely essentially on intuition that is seldom informed by theory.Political economy, of course, is an attempt to move past these limitations.Political economists tend to study powerful economic actors who can influence prices.Realists, like Gilpin, focus especially on state actors while recognizing the increasing influence of global investors, multinational corporations, and NGOs.Political economists would take particular note that economies are embedded in social and political systems where the purposes of economic activity are decided.One society may use its wealth to build a fairly egalitarian welfare state; another might use it to develop military might, and a third might concentrate wealth in the hands of a small elite.

One of the striking features of the international economy is that "free trade has historically been the exception and protection the rule," even though the benefits of free trade have persuasive theoretical and empirical support.Trade liberalization increases domestic competition, thus increasing efficiency and consumer choice.It increases both domestic and global wealth through the gains from specialization, and it encourages the diffusion of new technology throughout the world.Gilpin cites several reasons why, in the light of these benefits, protectionist ideologies usually hold sway.First, while the principle of comparative advantage tells us that both parties to an exchange will benefit, one party may benefit more than the other, and nations can and do worry about relative benefits.Second, economists support the use of protection for infant industries that can later become competitive.Unfortunately, there is no way other than trial and error to identify these future winners, and temporary protection often becomes permanent.Third, trade benefits do not accrue to all members of a society equally.Fourth, trade creates interdependencies between nations, while nations try to preserve their autonomy and freedom of action.

Gilpin examines the problem of uneven development and, in particular, asks what role the state might play in accelerating development.After an extended discussion of the debate over the "development state," Gilpin concludes that states have an important role to play.Development requires a transformation of society, and states can facilitate that transformation by investing in the health and education of their citizens, socializing them, and providing public goods like physical infrastructure and economic institutions.There is also evidence that government investment in research and development has positive effects for domestic industry.

Gilpin also describes the "machinery" of the international monetary and finance system in detail.All but the most expert of readers will find some new information here.

I have to say that I enjoyed this book tremendously.Gilpin has an exciting story to tell, and he writes clearly, with a degree of elegance of expression and restraint.

complex but more depth wold be desirable
Gilpin'book is a quite complex survey on the functioning of the global economy. However, taking such a broad issue in the limitid scope of the book allows him not to analyze the topic in the broader detail. What I find interesting is that the author asserts the world economy is dominated by the United States and they are maintaining their dominance by certain privileges: dominance of US dollar in the international monetary system, creating the international financial architecture with controling its institutions and making the rules of the international trading system. He employs for this setting the international regime, whose main attribute is the presence of the hegemon in the background of the system. He realistically analyzes the position of nation-state in contemporary world economy. He originally finds the new roles for the nation-state as growth promoter of high-tech industries, constructer of the international trade and financial regime. He puts evidence of the continuing differences between three models of capitaism: that of Germany, USA and Japan. In the analysis of the relationship between MNCs and the nation-states he asserts the depence of the former on latter and not conversely as frequently claimed. In every chapter he provides the range of opinions on each particular segment of GPE and combines it with his own view, trying to pick up the best from each of the political economy branches. However, in the chapters about international trading, financial and monatary system I miss a more deep and sophisticated perspective about future development. ... Read more

Product Description
Managerial Economics in a Global, 5e uses the theory of the firm as the unifying theme to examine the managerial decision process. Reflecting the internationalization of tastes, production, and distribution in today’s globalizing world, the book integrates a fully global view into managerial economics. It introduces many exciting new topics and managerial tools into the study of managerial economics — topics not fully addressed in other texts — such as firm architecture, strategic behavior, business ethics, electronic commerce, risk management, international economies of scale, the virtual corporation, re-engineering, benchmarking, the learning organization, and the digital factory. In addition, the book illustrates how managerial decisions are actually made, with more relevant and interesting real-world case applications and integrative case studies than any other text on the market. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Perfect condition like it said
It was just like i wanted it to be, used and cheap but like new ... Read more

Product Description
Think outside the borders.

Global economics affects every aspect of our lives. Free trade agreements, tariffs, terrorism, trade deficits, international debt, global warming, OPEC, outsourcing, and sweat shops are just some of the forces driving our world, food supply, jobs, and future. The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Global Economics provides the key to understanding the various facts, figures, policies, and practices that offer insight into this dynamic subject.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Kinda sucks.
It says it's for 'idiots', and it IS.I mean REAL idiots.The first few chapters were especially brutal.Talking about the supply and demand of fruit and things like that over and over again. You'll do a lot of skipping pages and chapters with this one.

An outstanding overview of the world economy
What a neat guide to international economics!The authors have done a fine job in making what is often a complex and confusing subject very understandable, but without sacrificing the level of detail in explaining the underlying economic theories and institutions. This would be a good choice for a student returning to school for MBA program to get up to speed on the workings of the global economy. It would also come in handy for a manager orprofessional who needed a deeper understanding of global economics as part of his or her job. ... Read more

Product Description
This book throws new light on the complex processes that are reshaping the contemporary world. All too often debates about globalization - and about whether it implies the end of the nation-state - have descended into polemics and confusion. Global Transformations overcomes these difficulties. Based on many years of original research, it maps the shape and scope of globalization and provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject, presenting its material in a clear and accessible way. This is the most systematic account available of the process of globalization. It will be illuminating not only to academics and students, but also to policy-makers, managers, and all those interested in the profound transformations affecting societies today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A guidepost in a changing world
This book was first published in 1999 and although it can look a little outdated given the many tumultuous World developments in the following few years, Global transformations still remains a comprehensive treatment of a vast subject with ever changing borders. The authors strike the right balance between theory and evidence, history and geography. However, their main contribution is the areas they cover (i.e. global politics, military globalization, global trade and markets, global finance, multinational corporations and global production networks, globalization and migration, cultural globalization, environmental globalization). The authors state at the beginning that they will concentrate on 6 states (France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, UK and USA), however, they are not able to fulfill this self-imposed constraint. This book does not cover globalization as perceived in the developing word.

They don't explicitly propose either a specific theory or their own view, but they muse with their topic and look at it through different lenses. It is not a readerly text, but an open text that invites interpretations and critical thinking. However, this does not mean that the authors were pursuing a full-fledged post-modern approach, even if here and there the authors give rise to such suspicion.

The authors analyze globalization as a process, therefore it is difficult to predict where it will lead us. It is a historical process that cannot be characterized by an evolutionary logic. However, globalization is not a wholly novel phenomenon, but its intensity has increased. The authors come to prefigure that the current phase of globalization is not going to erode state power or cause "the end of politics" like the end of the Cold War didn't mean "the end of history". Globalization has not altered the absolute autonomy of states, but interactions among states have changed and become more complex. A question still remains: How can globalization be "civilized" and democratized?

The book is highly recommended to all who consider globalization as a defining principle of our time.

Uncover Globalisation
David Held continues a tradition of uncovering the whole side of social processes. Now it is time to uncover the great cliche of our times: globalisation (considered here as a process)!! Reviews and categorizes current thinking on the issue plus explores the multi-dimensionality of the processes of globalisation in a comparative way with the past globalisations (i.e. military-industrial, trade, finance, production, people on the move, culture).

valuable text, dull read
One of the most fact-packed, intelligent studies of globalization, but this is noone's beach reading.I recommend reading the intro and thereafter using it as a reference.

For a more literary, bizarre, and stimulating take on the contemporary global condition, check out Hardt and Negri's Empire.

boring, wordy, and dense...definite thumbs down
If your goal is to learn the effect globalization has on the state, society, and politics in general this book provides alot of information but it presented in a way that will put you to sleep.

Instead of reading the chapters I would recommend going straight to the tables and grids provided because the author does not do a good job of getting to the point. I also found that the grids and tables were a good source of what each chapter actually summed up.

I would, however, have to credit the authors for doing a thorough job of covering the various aspects of globalization- from patterns of global finance to global trade and markets to military globalization. Best chapter is the one that deals with migration-otherwise don't bother with this book- you would probably be better of with another book that covers globalization.

Thumbs down
this book is a load of crap. hope that helped. ... Read more

Product Description

SELECTED AS A 2008 BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST

"ONE OF THE SMARTEST INVESTORS ON THE PLANET."--MONEY MAGAZINE

“This book is an essential read for those whowish to understand the modern world of investing.”
—Alan Greenspan

Winner of the 2008 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award

When Markets Collide is a timely alert to the fundamental changes taking place in today's global economic and financial systems--and a call to action for investors who may fall victim to misinterpreting important signals. While some have tended to view asset class mispricings as mere“noise,” this compelling book shows why they areimportant signals of opportunities and risks that will shape the market for years to come. One of today's most respected names in finance, Mohamed El-Erian puts recent events in their proper context, giving you the tools that can help you interpret the markets, benefit from global economic change, and navigate the risks.

Customer Reviews (58)

A Bit Haughty
Almost any serious investor knows the name Mohamed El-Erian. The coverage on CNBC of him and his firm, PIMCO, is ubiquitous.So when Mr. El-Erian has something to say, people will tend to listen.Such was the case in 2008 when he published "When Markets Collide".That the book was hailed by The Financial Times as the best business book of the year only proves the point. When I read it, however, I was disappointed.

I have 2 main criticisms.First, the book was far longer than it needed to be.I agree with Mr. El-Erian's central thesis: that the global markets failure adjust to the rise of new players creates imbalances that will effect investors for years to come.After everything that has happened since 2008, that can hardly be in dispute.The fact that Mr. El-Erian was making this point when few were confirms his brilliance.At the same time, the point could have been made far more succinctly--and enjoyable.

Which leads me to my second gripe: it was far to high on jargon.I prefer "plain language".Its not that I do not understand "eco-geek" phraseology; its only that I find it a bore.Mr. El-Erian is the worst offender of that rule I've yet encountered.

When Markets Collide, Chapter 1: Aberrations, Conundrums, and Puzzle
What a rip off! More than half the price for the whole book for one chapter and everything about the description is for the whole book. The "Chaper 1" in the title can be easily overlooked. Instead of a bargain on a once popular book what is offered is an overpriced, brief excerpt.

New Realities - New Strategies
When Markets Collide, by Mohamed El-Erian, offers significant insight into the changing dynamics of the global economies and the responses of policy makers and leaders of countries to the new financial landscape.

Information shared in this book is comparable to the visions of the future addressed by Thomas Friedman in "The World is Flat" and by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book, "The Black Swan."

Disruptive innovation, structural transformation and new technological capabilities are mentioned frequently in this book.Discussing these factors helps to raise investor awareness on the speed of change and the lack of capacity and capability of current structures and business practices to respond.

Disruptions not previously experienced prior to the recent financial meltdown
* Decline in trust among counterparties
* Sudden stops in market liquidity
* Policy makers simultaneously thrown into crisis management mode

Dynamic Changes
* Emerging countries transition from debtor to creditor nation status
* US and European countries burdened by extraordinary debt
* China as the largest underwriter of US debt

Challenges
* Emergence of global financial disruptions occurring simultaneously
* Ability of emerging economies to successfully manage the new found wealth and avoid the pitfalls of excessive spending and free credit
* Potential inability of policy makers (FED, IMF, etc.) to influence monetary and fiscal policies

Aside from alerting his readers to the changes noted above, Mr. El-Erian's goal is to help others "recognize and understand turning points in the markets" to "have a way to identify and think about signals within the noise" of change.

Good return on investment now for success in the future.

Raises The Right Questions
This is good background reading for reconsidering what your portfolio should look like and how you should manage it. Many of the points are becoming the "new consensus". The answers may not be perfect, but the highly experienced author raises many of the right questions

Great work
very insightful, this man has great vision and wisdom that he shares with thr rest of us. ... Read more

Product Description
In all major regions of the world, the economic recession is deep-seated, resulting in mass unemployment, the collapse of state social programs and the impoverishment of millions of people. The meltdown of financial markets was the result of institutionalized fraud and financial manipulation. The economic crisis is accompanied by a worldwide process of militarization, a war without borders led by the U.S. and its NATO allies. This book takes the reader through the corridors of the Federal Reserve, into the plush corporate boardrooms on Wall Street where far-reaching financial transactions are routinely undertaken. Each of the authors in this timely collection digs beneath the gilded surface to reveal a complex web of deceit and media distortion which serves to conceal the workings of the global economic system and its devastating impacts on people`s lives. ... Read more

Product Description

Land has long been overlooked in economics. That is now changing. A substantial part of the solution to the climate crisis may lie in growing crops for fuel and using trees for storing carbon. This book investigates the potential of these options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, estimates the costs to the economy, and analyses the trade-offs with growing food. The first part presents new databases that are necessary to underpin policy-relevant research in the field of climate change while describing and critically assessing the underlying data, the methodologies used, and the first applications.

Together, the new data and the extended models allow for a thorough and comprehensive analysis of a land use and climate policy. This book outlines key empirical and analytical issues associated with modelling land use and land use change in the context of global climate change policy. It places special emphasis on the economy-wide competition for land and other resources, especially;

• The implications of changes in land use for the cost of climate change mitigation,
• Land use change as a result of mitigation, and
• Feedback from changes in the global climate to land use.

By offering synthesis and evaluation of a variety of different approaches to this challenging field of research, this book will serve as a key reference for future work in the economic analysis of land use and climate change policy.

Product Description
A commanding survey of the world economy from 1950 to the present, from the author of the acclaimed The Boom and the Bubble.

For years, the discipline of economics has been moving steadily away from the real world towards formalized axioms and mathematical models with only a precarious bearing on actuality. Commentators seek to fill the gap as best they can, but in the absence of real background scholarship, journalism is vulnerable to the myopias of fashion and immediacy. The deeper enigmas of post-war development remain in either case largely untouched.

Bringing together the strengths of both the economist and the historian, Robert Brenner rises to this challenge. In this work, a revised and newly introduced edition of his acclaimed New Left Review special report, he charts the turbulent post-war history of the global system and unearths the mechanisms of over-production and over-competition which lie behind its long-term crisis since the early 1970s, thereby demonstrating the thoroughly systematic factors behind wage repression, high unemployment and unequal development, and raising disturbing and far-reaching questions about its future trajectory. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A brave attempt
Whatever happened to the Golden Age?While the latest credit crunch is grabbing everyone's attention, even the heady days of the late 90s (or the early 00s for Antipodeans like myself) barely returned productivity, wages and employment growth to the average rates of the "Les Trente Glorieuses" following World War II.

Brenner demolishes the usual suspects: union militancy, the welfare state, the abandonment of Keynesianism, catch-up from the Great Depression and WWII, and a spontaneous slowing down in technological growth.These do a terrible job of explaining the size and timing of the slowdown both within and across countries.

His alternative explanation, though, is almost equally unconvincing.Starting from the surprisingly little-known observation that private sector profit rates have actually fallen substantially, particularly in manufacturing, he argues that the cause of the slowdown is chronic overinvestment and excess capacity in manufacturing, caused by first Europe and then Asia catching up with the US within the unplanned, anarchic capitalist system.

While the focus on profit rates is original and interesting, it completely begs the question of what a more rational (socialist?) order would or could have done to avoid the slowdown, or how the period in question could plausibly be described as one of inadequate adjustment.The last few decades have seen massive amounts of 'creative destruction', the introduction of new technologies, and the opening of huge new markets.It could even be seen as a sign of greater efficiency that manufacturing and non manufacturing profit rates have drawn closer together.

At least he has tried.Hopefully. others will be inspired to follow.

New Capitalism, the engine of progress?
From the Afterword: "Above all, financial speculation has produced a real estate mania that is unprecendently global and that has driven up the value of housing in historic fashion.The total value of residential property in developed economies rose by more than $30 trillion dollars over the past five years, to over $70 trillion, an increase equivalent to 100 percent of those countries' combined GDPs.Not only does this dwarf any previous boom in housing prices, its 25 percent bigger than the global stock-market bubble of the 1990s, which entailed an increase in equity values of 'only' 80 percent of the countries combined GDP in five years. 'In other words,' says The Economist, 'it looks like the biggest bubble in history.'"

If you want to understand the deep roots of this crisis in worldwide capitalist manufacturing over-capacity, read the book.

Deep, yet illuminating
First of all, a book on economics that gets thumbs up from both The Nation & The Wall Street Journal should get a wide readership.In the field of economics, where neoclassical and neoliberal dogmatism is dominant to the point of being stifling, it is important to open the windows to let fresh air in.

The book's main thrust is to provide an alternative hypothesis to explain the postwar economic boom, and the long downturn (relative to the boom) starting in the 1970s.In the orthodox neoclassical/neoliberal account, the long downturn is explained as the result of organized labor successfully fighting for high wages, which squeeze profits, which in turn reduces investment, which slows growth.(This is an explanation that works well in economic models consistent with neoliberal ideology, but not so well in explaining empirical realities.)In Prof. Brenner's account, the downturn is due rather to an inherent feature of capitalism: a tendency to overproduction.Capitalism has indeed unleashed unparalleled productive forces, but the lack of planning inherent in currently existing capitalism has resulted in overproduction and economic stagnation (in the face of, I should mention - this is not part of Prof. Brenner's account - millions of deaths worldwide from starvation and easily preventable diseases).

To summarize one further stage of the book's main argument, what hasoccurred in global capitalism is this: one nation's businesses make large capital investments in the most advanced technology to date; later, businesses in a different nation seeking to catch up make investments in more advanced, more productive technology, allowing its factories to produce more at lower cost, forcing the first nation's businesses to reduce prices and give up on profit in order to hold on to market share.In this manner, factories in the first nation do not generate the return on capital expected by their investors, and profits are squeezed due to competition with technologically advanced newcomers, reducing investment and growth.(The same pattern occurs within nations as well.)It is this underlying pattern, in Prof. Brenner's account, that has caused the long downturn.Since WWII, we have seen this pattern play out with the US taking the lead, Germany and Japan catching up, then Korea and the East Asian tigers catching up, and now we are watching China, Brazil, and maybe India and Russia catch up.But catching up will be increasingly hard to do without a large increase in aggregate demand, since with the entry of late developers - China especially - overproduction is increasing apace.

This has been a short, rough summary of Prof. Brenner's argument.His argument is advanced through a very detailed trudge through mountains of statistics - there is very little reliance on the opinions of economic commentators and academics.This may intimidate the general reader, but do not worry - you may have to devote more attention to this book than a book popularizing the neoclassical school of economics' fairy tale mathematical models and methodologically-unsound theorizing, but this book is illuminating and rewarding.I highly recommend it.

... Read more

Product Description
"The New Economic Diplomacy" explains how states conduct their external economic relations in the 21st century: how they make decisions domestically; how they negotiate internationally; and how these processes interact. It documents the transformation of economic diplomacy in the 1990s and early 2000s in response to the end of the Cold War, the advance of globalisation and the growing influence of non-state actors like private business and civil society. Fully updated, the second edition reflects the impact of the campaign against terrorism, the war in Iraq and the rise of major developing countries like China and India.Based on the authors' own work in the field of international political economy, it is suitable for students interested in the decision making processes in foreign economic policy including those studying International Relations, Government, Politics and Economics but will also appeal to politicians, bureaucrats, business people, NGO activists, journalists and the informed public. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Bayne and Woolcock's New Economic Diplomacy
I expected this book to be good when I saw who the editors were and I was not disappointed.Although Bayne and Woolcock have different interests and writing styles, these differences work to create a stronger volume than either could have created on his own.Bayne's strong point is policy analysis and prescription.Chapters 4 and on the Practice of Economic Diplomacy and Current Challenges to Economic Diplomacy, for example, benefited greatly from Sir Nicholas's extensive experience in international diplomacy. Woolcock's strength is his broad familiarity with the academic literature. This is particularly well demonstrated in Chapter 2, which provides an excellent theoretical introduction to economic diplomacy.

The individual substantive chapters are all quite informative.Chapter 6, by Stephen Woolcock, provides a fine discussion of the evolution of the world trading system from the ITO to the WTO.Chapter 7, by Nicholas Bayne, discusses the origins of the system of international economic summits.Chapter 8, by Colin Budd, talks about the G8 summits up to Okinawa 2000.It might be good to add a paragraph on the 2001 summit for the final draft. Chapter 9, by Phil Evans, poses the question of how democratic trade policy making is or should be.It rightly addresses the under-representation of Third World interests in recent multilateral trade agreements and the potential for over-representation of the interests of nongovernmental organizations (increasingly referred to - possibly erroneously -- as "civil society organizations" these days). Chapter 10, by Nicholas Bayne, focuses on bilateralism in U.S. economic diplomacy. Chapter 11, by Matthew Goodman, is on US-Japanese economic relations.This chapter downplays the more recent tensions in the US-Japanese relationship by stating on p. 12 that it has become "more balanced with the passage of time."This strikes me as a little bit optimistic.Goodman himself cites the counterexample of the Japanese support of an Asian Monetary Fund during the Asia Crisis of 1997-8.The impact on the relationship of the domestic economic problems of Japan since 1990 in connection with the "bubble economy" deserves a bit more attention in Goodman's chapter. Chapter 12, by Stephen Woolcock, deals with European economic diplomacy. In this chapter, I missed seeing a discussion of specific issues like agriculture and audio-visual industries as they affected the EU position in the Uruguay Round, of the readjustment of EU relations with the ACP countries as a result of decisions of the WTO panels, and of the EU-US conflict over steel in recent months (Woolcock is an expert in this area).Chapter 13, by Patrick Rabe, deals with EU international environmental policy.Written by a practitioner, this chapter does what it has to do, but if it had been written by an academic, I would have looked for something on de facto environmental policies represented in EU standards regarding green production methods (ISO 14000 and EU equivalents) and the new sanitary and phyto-sanitary concerns that are likely to become part of the Doha Round.Chapter 14, by Nicholas Bayne, is a bit oddly placed in the volume, since it contains much information that a newcomer to this subject might want prior to reading the other chapters.The content of the chapter is fine.Chapter 15, by Ivan Mbirimi, lays out a few of the issues that were important to developing countries in recent multilateral trade negotiations.Chapter 16, by Nigel Wicks, rightly addresses the problem of legitimation of the world trading system in this essay and concludes with a proposal for a World Economic Council with representatives from a variety of international economic negotiating forums.Chapter 17, by Richard Carden, tackles the implications of the "Battle in Seattle" and the more recent ministerial meeting in Doha for the world trading system as a whole. It ends appropriately on an optimistic note. The concluding chapter, co-written by Baynes and Woolcock provides a short but excellent summary of the preceding chapters and makes a number of new points that are very well thought.

In sum, this is an excellent work, with many short but readable chapters on a variety of important topics that nevertheless provides a coherent overview of the subject of economic diplomacy.This book will be useful not just for academics and practitioners but also for students in colleges and universities. ... Read more

Product Description

A brilliantly original assessment of what caused the global crash—and a practical plan for investing accordingly

Customer Reviews (9)

A Different Take On The Boom, Bust Cycles
I struggle with real mathematical applications to economic history but this was accessible.Basically, he argues that economic history has been a series of price shocks and explains how they trickle into eachother.The message I was looking for was what that means for investors and he seems to be implying that this could be one awkard patch we are entering now.The book kept me thinking.

Refreshing
Supercycles is a refreshing view of modern economics that draws richly from the author's knowledge of history and experience.Motianey questions the "science" of economics because it generally lacks verification.There are so many variables in most economic models that it is impossible to identify causality with any accuracy.As a result almost any conclusion can be explained using very different theories.Supercycles describes longer trends that suggest that violent moves in the global economy are seeded in longer term fundamental problems rather than a dotcom bubble or a subprime bubble.The bubbles are symptoms of the problem rather than the cause.

I think the book is written in a very readable format that is refreshing in its style and analysis.The book challenges the reader without the boring verbiage of typical economics texts or the fluff I would associate with the pop-economic books that have recently been written.It is thoughtful and well written.It is a unique analysis that explains much of the recent financial turbulence and unfortunately much of the turbulence that is expected to come.

Much to say but nothing said
My mother always said say something nice so here goes - the author has a very impressive vocabulary and the cover art is really nice. A better title might really be SuperVocabulary. This book should be a MUST read for government economists as it uses pages and pages of ink and I am not sure anything has yet been said. Truth be told I am not completely finished and I swear I will try and get through it but I am not sure I can. I keep reading and reading and reading for a crumb of something indicating that a supercycle exists and more importantly that I can identify it and use the existence of it in some meaningful way but sadly that is just not the case. Here is a summary of the first 50 pages, a SuperCycle may exist and if it does it points to the fact that going forward we will either have inflation, deflation or something in-between. That's it. This should have been a short article, not a book. Now the book goes to SuperRecycle. Save your $$$$.

Great Insights - This book is disruptive.
I'm halfway through this excellent book. If you've been trying to make sense of global macro phenomena, look no further.

This one book has made about ten books on my bookshelf irrelevant.

It's nice to see authors like Arun out there, especially in the field of finance, where it is hard to distinguish writers and identify their depth.

As for the poster giving him 1 star, they obviously hadn't read the book.

5 Stars

Written by a Keynesian fool
This author worked at Citi group for more than 20 years and his theory of cycles is largely inaccurate.Nuff said. ... Read more

Product Description
Economists have long relied on cross-country regression analysis to identify the determinants of continued growth, but with only limited success. This book demonstrates the value of a different approach.

The editors isolate three attributes that appear to be associated with long-term growth. First, whatever the form of the decision-making authority, all are ultimately subject to an element of political constraint: the population at large must eventually experience the benefits of growth if the authority is to remain in power. Broad-based growth is therefore required for growth to be sustained. Second, given the complexity and dynamism of the world, and our imperfect understanding of how it works, ideological rigidity will inevitably prove disastrous, whereas pragmatism and responsiveness to changing conditions and to ineffective policy initiatives are more likely to prolong growth. Third, unconventional substitutes can fill critical gaps while more formal institutions are being developed, thus hastening the growth process in the short run.

Drawing on the knowledge and understanding of local circumstances of researchers from the case-study countries, this book will appeal to post-graduate students studying development; particularly poverty, trade, investment and migration. Development practitioners concerned with the impact of developed-country policies on poverty in the developing world will also find this a captivating read. ... Read more

Product Description
Text discusses the idea that there has been a fundamental redrawing of the global economic map. Analyzes the processes of shaping and reshaping this global map, and identifies their major impacts on the economic well-being of people and places occupying different positions within the global economic system. Softcover, hardcover available. DLC: Industries--History--20th century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The book's got good graphs
Check out the graphs, they're worth browsing through and possibly citing in a research report, but the book is not very readable.Use this book as a resource, but I wouldn't recommend reading it for pleasure.It is bland, and I found myself often checking to see how many more pages there were left in the chapter until I could go to bed... and the pages with pictures and graphs made me happy because I knew that I could speed through those and get finished faster.I read this in graduate school while taking a course on international trade.The professor was practically a communist and he swore by the book (not that it has any bearing on my rating.

Covering economic, political, and technological forces
Now in a revised and expanded fourth edition, Global Shift: Reshaping The Global Economic Map In The 21st Century by Peter Dicken (Professor of Economic Geography, University of Manchester, United Kingdom) is a solid 640-page text on the phenomena of globalization in the modern age. Covering economic, political, and technological forces that affect local communities in uneven ways, Global Shift provides detailed case studies of crucial global industries, more than 200 updated figures and tables, and well serves to broaden and illustrate the critical points toward understanding the world's economic future. This is an ideal text for classroom instruction and recommended to the attention of non-specialist general readers with an interest in understanding the complexities of global economics. ... Read more

Product Description
"With unerring coherence and unequaled breadth of knowledge, Rick Wolff offers a rich and much needed corrective to the views of mainstream economists and pundits. It would be difficult to come away from this... with anything but an acute appreciation of what is needed to get us out of this mess."
--Stanley Aronowitz, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Urban Education, City University of New York

Capitalism Hits the Fan chronicles one economist's growing alarm and insights as he watched, from 2005 onwards, the economic crisis build, burst, and then dominate world events. The argument here differs sharply from most other explanations offered by politicians, media commentators, and other academics. Step by step, Professor Wolff shows that deep economic structures--the relationship of wages to profits, of workers to boards of directors, and of debts to income--account for the crisis. The great change in the US economy since the 1970s, as employers stopped the historic rise in US workers' real wages, set in motion the events that eventually broke the world economy. The crisis resulted from the post-1970s profit explosion, the debt-driven finance-industry expansion, and the sequential stock market and real estate booms and busts. Bailout interventions by the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury have thrown too little money too late at a problem that requires more than money to solve.

As this book shows, we must now ask basic questions about capitalism as a system that has now convulsed the world economy into two great depressions in 75 years (and countless lesser crises, recession, and cycles in between). The book's essays engage the long-overdue public discussion about basic structural changes and systemic alternatives needed not only to fix today's broken economy but to prevent future crises. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Prescience is Impressive
Professor Richard Wolff is a Marxian Economist working in academia.These two aspects of his being allow for an objective analysis of the current and former economic situations.He sits outside of the necessity of justifying or cheer-leading capitalism in any of its orthodox forms.He can thus see both neo-classical and Keynesian economics objectively.It is a very powerful stance for analysis or criticism but not necessarily the best aspect for proscribing change for the system itself.He has no bias to try to save capitalism for itself, but wants to find a new structure `post-capitalism'.I admire this stance .

In this collection, essays from the run-up and the immediate fall-out of the most recent capitalistic are anthologized.The strength of this organizing principal is that you can see over time the development and concerns that grow and allow you to place it in time.For example, the Professor is able to give the structure and shape of the bursting of the bubble and its fall out as early as October 15, 2005, two years and eleven months before the biggest crisis point in the living memory of Capitalism.As an outsider Wolff is not looking at the economy as a way to leverage profit, so such a call is easy to make.The predictive power of the model is impressive.The only more impressive call would have to put a time-line on the bursting.If he could do that, he could have made money on the run-up and selling everything short.In all honesty, the prescience is impressive.Many were aware of the bubble, if only retroactively.(I know now: when people who know nothing of a subject think they will be millionaires by leveraging whatever prevailing trend, it is time to sell.)

The biggest weakness here is structural and hard to avoid.By having an anthology of essays that are made to stand alone and effective when they do, some of the underlying reasoning behind the author's positions are overstated.Real wages have been stagnant for 35 years; Americans have funded their increased consumption during that time with borrowing.I know this now.I know it in spades.Each three page essay is a structured argument, and at points I wished there was more depth in the evidence which is not available for the formal structure.

The other criticism is on the prescriptive end.In many places Wolff argues for true worker control of the companies.He has a particular animus against corporate boards and feels they should be replaced by the workers themselves.Capitalism, in its private or state structures, has not ever accomplished this.We can see in Germany where in the larger corporations the workers have a seat at the table, but Wolff wants the whole table for the workers.While I am not unsympathetic to such a reorganization, the pathway to this end seems unclear and left out of the argument.Again, it seems that it is much easier to find the flaws in the status quo than to posit the status no.To Wolff's credit he does admit that this new organizing principle would have its own contradictions.I appreciate such honesty.

Capitalism needs a bit of maintenance now and again
Capitalism needs a bit of maintenance now and again. "Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About it" discusses the recent financial crises which have turned into depression. Richard D. Wolff offers his own thoughts and ideas on how to combat these recent troubles with original and well thought out solutions. With scholarly thought and research, those pondering a way out of the crisis, "Capitalism Hits the Fan" is a worthy read for those who often put thought into the country's economic problems.

Lacks continuity and focus
Dr. Wolff argues that capitalism, at least as practiced in the US during the last forty or fifty years, has resulted in stagnation of real incomes in the working class and erosion of the middle class.As a speaker, Wolff is an articulate and forceful proponent of the necessity of recasting capitalism.But this book - a collection of essays - lacks continuity and focus.I bought the book hoping for a better understanding of Dr. Wolff's proposals for reshaping the economic order but was left wanting.One only hopes that another book, written to purpose rather than a collection of loosely related articles, is in the offing.

An Important Perspective
In this collection of startlingly prescient short essays from 2005 to 2009, Richard D, Wolff presents an analysis of the current economic disaster all too rarely encountered.In each of the book's three chronologically arranged sections - roots, economics, and politics of the economic crisis - he amply demonstrates how, through the decades, capitalism has oscillated from stability to meltdown to recovery and back.Increasingly, Wolff points out, it has been the workers who have borne the great burden of corrective or "recovery."For this, he levels strong criticism at both the right (Republicans) and the "mainstream" left (Democrats, Krugman, Stiglitz, et. al.).Using clearly reasoned arguments and detailed evidence, he concludes that unless capitalism undergoes profoundly radical structural change, we are doomed to endlessly repeat the cycle that produces these crises.
At times, Wolff, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, evinces a sour grapes attitude about what he sees as the difficulty of his like-minded colleagues to land plum academic positions.This, he believes, is a major reason the economic debate gets mired in oscillation mode.One look at Obama's staff of economic advisors strongly suggest he has a point.
The only quibble I have with this significant book is that there is a certain repetitiveness to the essays.However, given the import and freshness of its ideas, perhaps repetition is a good thing here.

The Truth.
The current global financial crisis is not due to new problems nor was it unexpected. As "Capitalism Hits the Fan" illustrates it's simply the most recent downturn of the disaster prone free-market system. As far back as 2005 University of Massachusetts economist Richard Wolff, was sensing this coming downfall of the markets. Instead of taking the liberal approach (blaming government deregulation and a handful of corrupt corporations) or the conservative approach (blaming over-regulation) he targets what mainstream politicians don't dare to target:capitalism itself.

Capitalism has seen two major downfalls in the past 75 years and has been heavily peppered with slightly less painful contractions in that same time period. Many students of economics would simply brush this off as the inevitable consequences of the business cycle that accompanies the capitalist system. Such an explanation might suffice if it wasn't for the all out attack on workers that can't be attributed to the cycle. Dr. Wolff explains what many right and left-wing economist have been screaming for years but, without truly considering the consequences. Americans are working longer hours (the most in the industrialized world) more productively (with a 75%+ increase of productivity in the past 30 years) for ever falling wages.

The most noted effect of such a trend is the pendulum swing between FDR style "New Deal" policies and Regan-Bush style financial deregulation. When one style of capitalism fails, the voters flood to the other style in hopes of rejuvenated prosperity. However, as Wolff explains, regardless of where the pendulum swings both styles of capitalism are met with disastrous consequences for American citizens. Wolff also demonstrates how social democratic policies leave the wealthy with the incentive and the tools to dismantle social programs and sidestep government regulations thus enthroning "laissez-faire" once again.

The author then gives us a history of American industry in terms of wages. For 150 years wages rose with productivity. In the late 70's that trend came to a halt as worker's real-wages flat lined (as union membership declined and free-trade kicked into hyper speed). Industry then substituted lost wages with a wide range of loans to compensate. The loans were not taken due to a lack of "personal accountability" as many claim, but out of a desire to sustain pre-70's consumption. Wolff uses statistics to show the skyrocketing in the cost of living (like college expenses) in this time period, thus necessitating borrowed capital. Capital that of course must be paid with interest, effectively costing Americans twice: once for lost wages and again for interest payments. The results have been mass wealth redistribution from the bottom to the top. Wolff offers all the statistics to show the steady loss of ground for the working and middles classes. Comparing data from 1967 and 2001 brings startling facts to light."According to the US Census Bureau.....the share of total income flowing to the bottom 60% of households fell from 32 to 27 percent.....the top 5 percent rose from under 18% to over 22%" Pg 11. The soaking of the rich resulted in speculation and bubbles the likes of which we've never seen. So begins the global economic meltdown (Of course I'm over-simplifying for the sake of the review).

Wolff's primary solution is worker self-management(Others include red-green alliances and coordination among coops). Workers would become their own board of directors. Not the private capitalist or state technocrats as in the Soviet or state capitalist models. Since the workers would probably not cut their own wages by the trillions, export their own jobs overseas, or invest trillions in risky financial investments, this option has always seemed the best to me.

If you're a diligent reader you will finish the book in about a week; It's a very fast read. The book is a collection of two or three page essays covering a wide array of topics but with great coherence. The only downfall is redundancy. Since the book is a collection of essays written since 2005, many of the same phrases (the word "oscillation" is used in virtually every essay) and arguments are repeated. Nonetheless this work is the most vital to truly comprehending the current economic downfall. I highly recommend it!

... Read more

Product Description
Marthinsen's MANAGING IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY: DEMYSTIFYING INTERNATIONAL MACROECONOMICS is written specifically for MBA students and addresses important issues confronting business managers. This exciting new first edition presents macroeconomics in the context of real world decision-making, It helps students grasp practical "big picture" concepts, nurtures an understanding of what causes macroeconomic variables to change, and relates these changes to issues confronting managers. Marthinsen integrates the three major macroeconomic sectors (i.e., the real goods market, real loanable funds market, and foreign exchange market) in a user-friendly way with a minimum of math and only supply and demand analysis. Liberating readers from dry, overly complex macroeconomic models, Marthinsen uses theory only as a means to an end for practical understanding. Clear and concise, the book focuses on concrete business examples to show how economic shocks, such as monetary and fiscal policies or shifts in international capital flows, affect management decisions. The book was written for MBAs who were not necessarily economics majors, making it appealing to students with a variety of undergraduate backgrounds. Marthinsen keeps readers visually engaged with strategic use of figures, tables, charts, and illustrative exhibits. MANAGING IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY offers a strategic focus, emphasizes the interaction among markets, and equips MBAs with a macroeconomic perspective that will last (and be used) for years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Great Macro text!
This was a great book, expertly written with students in mind. The explanations are very clear and straight-forward. Highly recommended!

not as good as Mankiw's book
Using this for a Macro course in an MBA program now and don't find it very helpful or demystifying as the title suggests.Not as practical and hands on as Mankiw's book and peppered with these "memos" that are just distracting.

Definitely better resources out there for getting your head around macro.

Good book for MBA students
This books is very helpful for MBA students in understanding Macroeconomics concepts. I would recommend students to read this book.

Very good book
As someone with technical background I really appreciate how this book translates macro economics into plain English. Very engaging and interesting read!

Book condition same as described but took two weeks to arrive
Not sure why it took such a long time for the book to arrive when shipping within the US. ... Read more