The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Crash Following the Greatest Boom in History Review

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The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Crash Following the Greatest Boom in History ReviewThe specifics of Dent's thesis are more than covered in other reviews, so I'll focus on considerations that someone might want to know when trying to decide whether to buy the book or follow its advice.
First off, the book is fairly "readable." Although Dent uses charts and graphs frequently (indeed, his methodology is to study past demographic trends to ascertain long term stock market performance), he presents his conclusions in an easy-to-follow format.
Secondly, Dent does an excellent job supporting his central thesis that demographic trends can affect economic cycles. His book provides a well-thought out argument that the US, and indeed, the world economy is going to continue to decline as the result of the deflation of three bubbles, the stock market, real estate, and commodities.
Thirdly, it appears Dent has previously made several significant contrarian predictions that have proven correct, perhaps most notably the collapse of the Japanese stock market in the late 1980's and the tech bubble of the early 2000s. While Dent's predictions aren't always 100% accurate, they do appear to often hit near the mark (with the exception of his prediction that the Dow would hit 40,000, and probably a few others that I am unaware of).
One thing that I find interesting is that, using demographics, Dent not only predicts economic cycles, he explains WHY the economy behaves as it does. In this regard, I find that Dent's use of charts and past cycles is more persuasive that many other authors who simply identify patterns and make predictions based upon them (think of the Superbowl winner predictions, skirt length, or what have you).
The major downside to the book, to me, are the fairly constant adds for "free e-mail updates" - do these e-mails include solicitations to buy Dent's newsletter? I don't know, but I sometimes felt like the book was a teaser to sell more stuff to me. I also felt that Dent's free confession of mis-calling Dow 40,000 cut a couple ways - I appreciated his candor, but his post-facto rationales at points led me to wonder what might be missing from his current book. He's certainly had his share of misses, and it brings to mind the old saying that "even a broken clock is right twice a day."
Anyone considering this book might also want to review behavioral finance - the notion of "availability error" (viewing current events through superficially similar previous events) and "confirmation bias" (we observe events that confirm our hypotheses). Behavioral psychologists note that the use of so-called judgmental heuristics (shortcuts to manage large amount of information) can make assessments of market odds difficult. I can't say whether Dent's predictions suffer from any of these flaws, but readers may wish to consider books like Taleb's "The Black Swan" (one key point being humans see patterns where there are none), Paulos' "A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market" (overview of behavioral psychology) or even Dreman's "Contrarian Investment Strategies: the Next Generation" (extensive discussion of pattern-seeking) before committing their assets as suggested in Dent's book. This is not to criticize the book itself, but simply to suggest that as with anything that purports to predict the future, readers should go in with their eyes open.
I can't say that I'd follow Dent's stategies for investing, but the book at least made me think about how demographics could affect the economy. For that, I'd say its a decent read.
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Terrorism Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective Review

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Terrorism Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective ReviewFor the anti-money laundering and terrorism financing specialist, this is an excellent tool for your arsenal in combatting the financing of terrorism and aiding your institution's understanding how terrorism financing works.Terrorism Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective Overview

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Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed--and How to Stop It Review

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Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed--and How to Stop It ReviewIf fanaticism is the heart of modern terrorism, then finance is its lifeblood - British Chancellor Gordon Brown November 24, 2002
Even the most devastating terrorist attack carries a surprisingly low price ticket. The organizers of the September 11 attacks are reported to have received change from their $500,000 stake money. Killing tens and injuring hundreds - whether in a Bali nightclub, a Jerusalem bus or a car bomb in India - sometimes costs less than a good meal. Nevertheless, the infrastructures of international terrorist networks cost billions of dollars.
Funding Evil, the latest book by Dr Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the American Center of Democracy, details the organizations and their methods. Ehrenfeld shows the links and similarities between terrorists as diverse as The Hizballah, the many Palestinian terrorist groups, Tamil Tigers, Colombian narco-terrorists and radical Islamic terrorism around the world.
As US Attorney General John Ashcroft has said "Terrorists cannot terrorize without money...Those who knowingly finance terrorist organizations are just as dangerous and just as responsible as those who carry out the ultimate acts of terrorist violence." Funding Evil details how this funding of terror has taken place, exposing the state sponsorship, corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities that have allowed these organizations and their leaders to amass fortunes and feed the spreading tentacles of terror. Ehrenfeld's timely book doesn't stop there, but recommends practical steps that can be taken to curb it.
Dr Ehrenfeld is a world expert in the topic, having lectured around the world, written copiously and been invited to make submissions and statements to world policy making bodies concerned with terrorism and its funding. It is clear that world leaders are slowly taking note of Ehrenfeld's advice, with the latest actions taken against the Hamas organization being one small step along the path.
Just this month, action has been taken against the Palestinian Relief and Development fund (known as Interpal), amid charges by the US Treasury that the London based charity - which raises between 3 to 5 million dollars a year - has been used to hide the flow of money to Hamas. The funds of the charity have been frozen, and will only be released under the tight scrutiny of the UK Charities Commission. Interpal's chairman, Ibrahim Hewitt is quoted as saying "We've been told this is for our own protection, so that any money going through can't be hijacked along the way." Hopefully these actions will ensure that funds collected for charitable purposes will end up helping their intended recipients - the Palestinian people who are in the most critical need ever, having been ignored by the Arab world, and having international aid and their livelihoods diverted into a war to the death with Israel that they have been unable to win. While up until recently, Europe carefully differentiated between the `political' and `military' wings of Hamas - a distinction long denied by the Hamas itself - Ehrenfeld's message is slowly being accepted by the countries at the forefront of the fight against terror. Removing any lingering doubt about the link between the charitable, political and military arms of these terrorist organizations, the Palestinian Authority itself just froze the 39 bank accounts of nine Islamic charities, in order regain control of rogue terrorist organizations that it unleashed in October 2000.
One of Ehrenfeld's long time recommendations, which she details in her book, is for donor countries to insist on the introduction of democratic norms and behaviors by recipient regimes, in order to qualify for ongoing support. Recently, after a very public campaign in which Ehrenfeld actively participated, the US and EU applied pressure to the Palestinian Authority. As a direct result, the PA has catalogued their visible financial assets and now claims to flow all public funds through a single, centralized bank account. Certainly the above clampdown on Islamic charities is also part of this process. Today's newspapers report that the Palestinian Authority has succumbed to American pressure and ordered its schools to take down posters glorifying suicide bombers before the start of the new school year.
These steps are just a start, but they do show a pragmatic determination to directly address the sources of funds of terrorist organizations. The Palestinian model also shows that these ideas can work if applied with consistency and courage. The question is whether there is the political will to apply these standards to other rogue regimes, where the political stakes may be higher.
Funding Evil is not just essential reading for policy makers and academics, but helps us all understand the dynamics of terrorism, its collaboration with criminal organizations to undermine democratic societies, and what we should expect our leaders to do to stop it.Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed--and How to Stop It Overview

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Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice Review

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Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice ReviewAn MIT publication from 2007, this is actually knowledge from the 2000-2004 timeframe, and it is annoying narrow knowledge written from legal-economic point of view. Well-intentioned, no doubt, this is not the "inter-disciplinary" work that it claims to be, and I demonstrate restraint in not scoring it as a three. Despite references to Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom and Lawrence Lessig's The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World, these folks are largely out of touch with Web 2.0 to Web 4.0, collective intelligence, wealth of networks, and tao of democracy concepts, authors, and works. This is not a substantive contribution to evolutionary anything (cultural evolution, evolutionary activism, conscious evolution). The index STINKS and there is no consolidated bibliography.
I left it at four in part because this is a very good job on one part of the elephant (the anus or intellectual property of old part) and I really appreciated the six of the twelve contributions by Nancy Kranich, James Boyle, Peter Suber, Shubha Ghosh, Peter Levine, Charles M Schweik.
This is not a book that focuses on innovation as much as on structured processes and conventions.
My fly-leaf notes:
+ This is a political science work with some law and economics thrown in, a superficial but useful pass from an isolated perspective. It runs in the opposite direction from World Brain and Wisdom of the Crowds or Wealth of Networks scholarship and practice.
+ Severely isolated from the larger literature, both multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural, on the concepts of "commons" both physical and mental.
+ A Weberian book, a last gasp from the era of top-down imposed order. Totally from a Western point of view, noting that the commons concept relies on a mix of social norms and legal conventions rather than economic ownership of the whole ideas. Also notes that less than 2 per cent of the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI, DIALOG File 7) comes from the developing world, which I take to be OUR problem, not theirs.
+ Any book that thinks Esther Dyson is the first word on meta-tagging, to take just one example of many, instead of Doug Engelbart and his hypertext innovations from the 1970's, is totally divorced from the real world of information and communication technologies (ICT).
+ The book ignores self-publishing that is validated post publication, and still trapped in the paradigm that thinks peer reviewed publishing is some form of validation--with all that I know about climate change fraud and skeptic suppression within fraud-accessory journals, and medical journal fraud with ghost-written materials from the pharmaceuticals signed by doctors without integrity, this is the final straw in terms of losing the fifth star and almost drove it to three stars.
USEFUL STUFF:
+ Information commons is distinct from the natural commons because the first gains value with more people using the same information, while this is not true of the latter (absent cultural evolution).
+ Most new (corporate sponsored) technologies seek to capture or enclose knowledge rather than liberate it.
+ Average life on the web for an object is 100 days, with citations disappearing over time toward 50% after seven years (OSS.Net has been up since 1993 and will remain up forever as the foundation for Phi Beta Iota, the Public Intelligence Blog--all it takes is integrity).
+ Distinction drawn between libertarian commons (all can partake) and association commons (a contradiction in terms, meaning a commons shared by the group that created it). The book as a whole leans toward homogeneous small communities and is very representative of the balkanization of scholarship (see Web of Knowledge image at Phi Beta Iota, I refuse to post images here since Amazon deleted over 350 of them as a lazy way of getting rid of 12 Bush-Obama morphs).
+ Key concepts throughout include wise use, public trust doctrine, precautionary principle, cyberbalcanization, social network, folk taxonomies, peer production, and metatagging.
+ Reed-Elsevier is in trouble--losing subscriptions. The combined privatization of government publications under Ronald Reagan, and the universities turning over journals to private publishing houses, has destroyed easy at cost access to knowledge.
+ Intellectual Property Rights include concepts of access, contribution, extraction, remove, management and participation, exclusion, and alienation.
+ A number of interesting organizations mentioned that helped secure the fourth star, including Open Access News, Open Citation Project, Open Archives, Open Knowledge, Scratchdj.com, Distributed Open Digital Library (DODL), Open Content Alliance, DSpace, SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Engaged University Initiative, EarthForce, and the Software Freedom Law Center.
+ Scholars must change from passive appropriators of information to active providers of information into the commons (similarly and later on a librarian calls for librarians shifting from being stewards and archivists to being collaborators and catalysts.
+ Top contributions for my purposes were Nancy Kranich on countering enclosure; James Boyle on the Library of Congress as a prison for 20th century culture; Peter Suber on Open Access; Shubha Ghosh on building a commons; Peter Levine on collective action and civic engagement that is a PROCESS creating social capital emphasizing youth, local, and engaged scholars; and Charles Schweik on Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS). Boyle also introduced me to the concept of Mertonianism, from the sociology of science, for free open inquiry, I quote from page 123:
--- a process of free, open inquiry, without crippling secrecy norms or strong property claims, strongly reliant on the process of peer-reviewed publication and citation to drive hypotheses closer to an underlying objective reality. Reference On Social Structure and Science (Heritage of Sociology Series)
The book kept my attention, and that is a testament to its usefulness however narrow its focus. The question this book does not answer, that I note at the end of my notes: What is the difference between cultural knowledge and structured knowledge, and what information-sharing and sense-making processes do the two integrate? It is possible to do culture without knowledge, knowledge without culture? For a start on this see Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Other books I recommend within my ten-link limit (see many more at Phi Beta Iota):
Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny
The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest
Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace (Helix Books)
PS: Yes, I know one of the contributing editors got a Nobel in Economics for sharing the commons stuff--this just is not really about that, Holistic Darwinism and Non-Zero come much closer to what the Nobel pupports to be for, so I am assuming it was the earlier work that really earned the prize.Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice Overview

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The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict Review

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The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict ReviewThree trillion dollars for the war in Iraq is an incredible amount, almost beyond comprehension, and certainly far beyond the figures provided by the Bush administration. Yet this total is made both credible and comprehensible through the documentation of Joseph Stiglitz (2001 Nobel Prize-winner in economics, and Professor at Columbia) and Linda Bilmes, Harvard University expert on public policy and finance.
Compelling alternative uses for the money are numerous. For example, we could have put Social Security on sound financial footing for a fraction of that cost, and avoided the nearly 4,000 American deaths (plus $500,000/death benefits) and 100,000 estimated Iraqi deaths - plus an untold number of seriously wounded and their long-term disability and health costs. (Stiglitz found that 40% of Gulf War troops were declared disabled, and that was only a one month war; he sees Pentagon estimates of Gulf War II wounded and disabled as grossly understated, and documents that conclusion. Another key point - peak disability expenditures for WWII veterans did not occur until 1993; thus this war will affect spending decades into the future.) Alternatively, America's trillion dollar+ infrastructure needs could be met with only half that expense.
Other costs include skyrocketing re-enlistment bonuses (up to $150,000 - their alternative is personal safety or much higher-paid private security work), the extra costs of using reserve and guard troops, up to $1,222/day for private security guards to replace servicemen paid less than one-sixth that, lost billions to reconstruct Iraq and spent in non-competitive bidding, and massive equipment replacement costs.
Then there are the opportunity costs associated with spending the money overseas, with no return to the American economy, increased pressure on the dollar, and the likely increased cost of oil. Finally, what about the interest costs of financing this war with debt, and our increased reliance on foreign nations holding that debt?
Supposedly this war is being fought to promote democracy. Yet, as Stiglitz points out, it is being mostly sold and funded through hiding the costs from the public. Continuing our presence in Iraq may, with interest, raise the total to $6-7 trillion. Meanwhile, bin Laden roams free, and even more Islamicists hate us.
"The Three Trillion Dollar War" is MUST reading.The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict Overview

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The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity And What To Do About It Review

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The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity And What To Do About It ReviewBooks about the relationship between the well-being of the human condition and population growth have been controversial since Thomas Malthus. More contemporaneously, Ben Wattenberg¡¦s ¡§The Birth Dearth: What Happens When Free Nations Stop Having Babies?¡¨ drew caustic comments with its proposition that fewer babies have adverse as well as beneficial effects on society and its institutions.
I wish that people could do a better job of rising above their personal values to critically examine books like The Empty Cradle ¡V like the reviewer who criticizes the book because it ¡§promotes the idea that women staying home is the solution for falling birthrates.¡¨ The book does no such thing.
Among other valuable contributions to our thinking, The Empty Cradle reveals that 59 nations representing 44% of the world¡¦s population are headed for population contraction and that this is hastening the aging of societies worldwide, many of which have virtually no infrastructure in place to meet the needs of coming vast waves of elderly, and others whose infrastructures are woefully inadequate.
The upshot is, the health and ƒnwell being of the world economy stands to be challenged as never before by the first population contraction in modern times. We would ignore Longman¡¦s work at great peril to social, cultural and economic institutions ¡V and one might argue even the environment, for the shortage of resources to deal with the problems he describes will almost certainly seriously stress an already over stressed environment.
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The United States since 1980 (The World Since 1980) Review

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The United States since 1980 (The World Since 1980) ReviewThis book isn't what I expected. I wanted more facts and information on how the middle class has lost ground since 1980. This book is a good overview of government policy for the past twenty five years. You walk away from this book with a good overview of history. I'm going to have to dig a little deeper for the actual data that this book was based upon.
I'm a huge Dean Baker fan. Most economists are slaves to their perspectives. It's really hard to get good economic and fiscal views outside the corporate American view. Baker allows us to be free.
Baker predicts a recession this year because of the housing bubble. Lets see how accurate he is. I'm betting on Baker. Don't bank on the Wall Street guys, they seem more interested in protecting their clients than getting you truth.The United States since 1980 (The World Since 1980) Overview

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Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal Review

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Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal ReviewTristram Stuart is an energetic and talented individual who has turned an early hobby, thinking about food waste, into a life-consuming passion. Unfortunately, his data and associated conclusions are sometimes limited, but he makes up for that with honesty and common-sense. Stuart begins with a U.N. estimate that the world's agricultural land may decline in productivity by up to 25% this century, thereby making food availability a serious matter. (Worse yet is the projected growth in world population from its current 6.8 billion to 8.9 billion by 2050 - a 31% increase.) Stuart believes that about half of the world's food is wasted, though some of that is debatable - eg. feeding leftover human foods to farm animals, 'growing' biofuels. Regardless of the precise amount, as Stuart points out, the food waste is considerable, and this also wastes energy and adds to global warming.

Sources of waste exist all along the food chain. For example, farmers may grow 25% extra to ensure meeting contracts (and avoid expensive penalties) with acceptable volume and quality, large numbers of fish are thrown back (most die) because they are too small or the wrong species. Stuart goes on to point out that farmers lose additional amounts, especially in third-world nations, due to inadequate storage, lack of refrigeration, and exposure to sunlight. Food packagers and retailers create more waste through largely aesthetic standards and overstocking (especially at smaller stores) to avoid potentially lost sales - eg. minimizing the appearance of 'picked over' shelf-stock. How do aesthetic standards create waste - some packagers (eg. Birdseye), per Stuart, prohibit the resale of rejected product, or require it to be used for animal feed. "Sell-by" dates add more losses (I always pick through Twinkies to get the newest). And finally, U.S. and European consumers, especially single-individual homes, throw out even more. (Stuart also considers as waste the amount of food that too-many of us consume while overeating.)

Fortunately, remedies are as numerous as sources. Stuart notes considerable cultural differences - eg. Uighurs in western China are serious of making good use of food, while the Chinese Hans living in the same area see overfilling plates as being hospitable. In general, Stuart picks Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea as examples of cultures that waste much less food; it is tempting to suggest that North Korea probably is way ahead of even those three nations, but that would indeed be in poor taste - it is, a reminder, however, of the topic's importance. Farmers in the U.S. tend to band together and/or use futures markets more than their European counterparts to handle the risk of not filling sale contracts; other helpful tactics Stuart found included shaving down non-aesthetic carrots into 'young' carrots, micro-loans to provide spoil- and rat-proof storage, and selling vegetables rejected for appearance to caterers. (The latter is a bit funny - you're pay more at many restaurants, for cheaper vegetables, and to help avoid waste!). Stuart has also found that vending via Farmers' Markets reduces the volume of appearance out-grades. As for fishermen, changing the hooks used, the type of line (single long-line with multiple hooks, vs. many short ones), net construction and composition, and stopping the killing of sharks for their fins helps reduce needless loss of fish, and turtles, dolphins, and albatross as well.

Bottom Line: "Waste" is an easy, informative, and credible read about an important topic.Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal Overview

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Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future Review

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Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future ReviewAFTERSHOCK may well be the most important book written on the current economic crisis. I say this because it offers a critical insight that I have seen in very few other places: The fundamental cause of our problems is the relentless drive toward income concentration. The problem with concentrating income into the hands of a few people is that you take money from millions of people who would spend nearly all of it, and give it to a tiny number of people who can't and won't spend it -- but will instead save it, gamble with it, or invest it offshore. The end result is simply too few viable consumers to drive the economy.
Reich points out that income for American middle class families has been essentially stagnant or declining for over three decades. The middle class has coped with this in three basic ways: (1) Women have entered the workforce, (2) People worked longer hours, and, of course, (3) We all relied on debt (credit cards and home equity loans) rather than income to support our consumption. Those coping methods are now exhausted, and we are left in a position where average Americans simply do not have sufficient discretionary income to support a sustainable recovery. The great American consumer class -- which was the driving force behind our prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s -- has been largely decimated.
To his credit, Reich correctly identifies globalization and, especially, automation technology as primary forces behind declining middle class wages. At the same time, rather than enacting countervailing policies, the United States (beginning with Reagan) has gone in the exact opposite direction and adopted a conservative agenda that has actually accelerated the trend toward income concentration.
The one shortcoming of the book is that Reich -- not being a technologist -- fails to anticipate how advancing technology is likely to dramatically worsen the situation in the relatively near future. As someone who works in this area, I can tell you that the degree of progress we are soon likely to see in automation technologies is historically unprecedented.
To get a sense of what we may face in the future, I would strongly recommend that this book be read in conjunction with Aftershock: The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future. Both books offer an eerily similar analysis of the crisis -- both concluding that the problem is a dearth of viable consumers. Both books also propose very similar solutions: direct income supplementation. Reich proposes a negative income tax (which was supported by free-market icon Milton Friedman).
Anyone who wants to understand the current crisis and the danger we face in the future should read both "Aftershock" (for its emphasis on political and social implications) and "The Lights in the Tunnel" (for insight into how technology and globalization will continue to transform the economy -- and lead to an even more severe crisis, if we do not act ).
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Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture Review

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Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture ReviewThis book is a wonderful read because it gives you everything you need to understand modern American families - the social science statistics, legal analysis, expert insights on culture, and a nuanced treatment of the eocnomics - and combines those diverse currents into a light, even enjoyable (given the topic under dicsussion) narrative.
The authors do an excellent job of avoiding the bile of the culture wars, and instead are able to tease out what the fundamental differences are between different conceptions of the family in America. Everyone has 'family values', and want the best for their children - the split comes over how to guarantee the best, and the role that sexuality and fertility play in different conceptions of what is the best for a family.
Here's a good discussion of some of the arguments in the book from a conservative writing for the New York Times: [...]Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture Overview

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Economic Misery and Crime Waves: the second great depression and the coming crime wave, and what we can do about it Review

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Economic Misery and Crime Waves: the second great depression and the coming crime wave, and what we can do about it ReviewSeverin Sorenson's new book is titled "Economic Misery & Crime Waves". As a leading criminologist and practitioner and trainer of CPTED, the prediction of our near future appears to be coming true. Everyday, I have been reading articles and getting emails and phone calls for new projects that are testimonials to the consequences of our economic implosion. Ordinary citizens are being pushed by desperation of lack of legitimate opportunities into criminal behavior. Recently in Indianapolis, a gunman was robbing a check cashing business and explained to the clerk that he had resorted to robbery of $20 to support his 2 year old child, after the gunman was laid off and unemployed. Walmart is downsizing its security staff to save money at their stores, and as a result shoplifting and internal pilferage is quickly worsening. Reports by police of theft of copper and aluminum from utility and infrastructure facilities is growing the last two years so that it can be sold on the black market of recycling. Home and apartment roof air-conditioners are being ripped off to scrap for precious metals. People are desperate to make a quick buck any way they can to eat, or pay their mortgage. The police are being overburdened by the consequences of burglary, and trespassing as a huge increase in vacant residences and commercial buildings.
The book makes for fascinating reading, and has a down to earth and logical presentation of the relationship between economic downturn and criminal behavior. Criminal justice professionals and criminologists will find the book a real world case study in the effects and consequences of poor political policies, corporate greed, and an economic perfect storm. Police departments are laying off officers, crime prevention units are being disbanded or assimilated. Private security usage is shrinking rather than increasing. Training budgets are taken away. At a time of tight budgets, policy makers want to reduce law enforcement, public and private security and reduce social services in desperation to balance their budgets. Yet, the criminological research has shown that with sharp economic downturns, and the general populations' "Misery index" increasing, now is the time to increase spending to protect our assets and on social controls to help create legitimate opportunities for work, affordable housing and health care.
We are on the brink of a possible revolution if the economy continues to decline, and public trust continues to erode in justice, and law and order. The strategies taken in the Great Depression are a reminder of how bad things can be in the 21st Century if better decisions are not made. The book is good reading and recommended.
Randall I. Atlas Ph.D., AIA, CPPEconomic Misery and Crime Waves: the second great depression and the coming crime wave, and what we can do about it Overview

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Crisis: Cause, Containment and Cure Review

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Crisis: Cause, Containment and Cure ReviewI like this book. I have read a number of books on the financial crisis and the Great Recession and this is the best of them. It comprehensively, but succinctly, analyses the causes of the crisis, the actions that the authorities in the US and Europe have taken to contain it, and progress that has been achieved through early 2011 on measures to reduce the chances and severity of future crises. Working in the U.S. financial services industry during the S&L crisis and subsequently as a senior regulator in the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA), and with a rare command of both academic and policy analysis, the author is unusually well placed to command crisis events in both Europe and the US.
In his analysis of the causes of the crisis, the author seeks to find what went wrong and thus needs to be fixed. In doing so he avoids the pitfall of so many analysts in the US who make political points by placing the blame on either greedy bankers or ideologically driven governments that reward their supporters at the cost of their country's needs. The author `s description of crisis responses is enriched by examining the reasons for the US authorities, especially the Federal Reserve's slowness to respond in the early stage of the crisis. He blames a universal flaw in economic models that treat the financial sector as a passive transmission channel for policy stimuli rather than as an active, but flawed, player in the process.
Encompassing actions both in the US and in Europe enhances the author's analysis of progress in fixing the faults in the system. The chapters on failed bank resolution and regulatory reform encompassing the Basel Committee's introduction of revised capital standards and new liquidity requirements are particularly rewarding.
The book is well written, has a minimum of end-notes so that the reader is not forever scrambling to recover his place, but has an excellent list of references. Ending early in 2011, the book does not deal with the euro crisis, which can be perceived as the next phase of the crash that began in 2007. Perhaps the author will follow this up in a third edition of the book. Yet the book, as currently written, satisfied my hope that it will allow me to enjoy learning something new. I will give it as a gift to my friends.
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An Introduction to Global Studies (Coursesmart) Review

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An Introduction to Global Studies (Coursesmart) ReviewI use this book in my undergraduate course on Global Citizenship and it is great. The students really like it. The book is designed to help students think about their world and their actions, but it also infuses information literacy skills throughout as a way to assist students with preparing and conducting research using academically appropriate sources. It is well-written and contains lots of timely examples that serve to tie together the overarching themes. Great main text. Would recommend for undergraduate level or advanced high school. Also it is a good read for those simply interested in globalization.An Introduction to Global Studies (Coursesmart) Overview

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The Price of a Bargain: The Quest for Cheap and the Death of Globalization Review

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The Price of a Bargain: The Quest for Cheap and the Death of Globalization ReviewThe Price of a Bargain goes deep into a subject many people probably don't think anything about. Most people probably think that a bargain is always a good thing, but as Laird points out with great detail and well researched reporting, a bargain may not always be good for everyone. The rise of globalization, big box stores like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, and the interdependence of the global supply-chain have all made the world very unstable. All of these recent developments depend on cheap energy supplies to fuel the container ships that drive the globalized delivery system. They also rely on a huge supply of cheap labor. With the rise of oil prices around the world and the rising wages of Chinese workers, both of these defining assumptions are coming to an end and the implications for a consumer driven world may be catastrophic.
Laird's approach is sometimes long-winded, but he focuses on the true price of a bargain by coming at the issue from many different angles. In the end, The Price of a Bargain makes a convincing case that in today's economy, we are not actually paying the true cost of what we buy. Pollution, climate change, health issues, labor unrest - all of these costs are not being reflected in the price we pay for flat-panel TV's, plastic toys, and cheap clothing shipped to us from the other side of the world.
The Price of a Bargain is a wake-up call. I highly recommend you heed the buzzer and not just hit the snooze button as we have been doing for so long.The Price of a Bargain: The Quest for Cheap and the Death of Globalization Overview

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Ferraris for all: In defence of economic progress Review

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Ferraris for all: In defence of economic progress ReviewIf you've ever felt guilty about the accoutrements of life in the developed world - plentiful cars, abundant food, cheap energy - economics and finance journalist Daniel Ben-Ami says to stop. He contends that society's elites are afflicted with wrongheaded ideas about how to improve the world. He argues that underprivileged countries desperately need capitalist growth to improve their people's lives, and that developed nations should try to help them boom, not weigh them down with self-denial programs. Ben-Ami's thinking and writing is spotlessly clear but unbendingly hard, and every once in a while he wanders off the path of logic. Nonetheless, he makes a formidable, controversial case. getAbstract suggests his book to corporate managers working on global outreach, economists, and big thinkers who want to ensure the invisible hand is outstretched for a leg up, not a slap in the face.Ferraris for all: In defence of economic progress Overview

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Death Orders: The Vanguard of Modern Terrorism in Revolutionary Russia (Praeger Security International) Review

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Death Orders: The Vanguard of Modern Terrorism in Revolutionary Russia (Praeger Security International) ReviewNobody. I mean NOBODY touches this woman's work on terrorism!
Aside from the entire book's being extraordinarily well developed, chapter 7 details the systemic or socio-cultural hysterical intellectual response to trauma created by terrorism better than any writer to date that I've had the good fortune to read. I have been a researcher, writer and manager in the field of trauma for thirty-five years. Death Orders is an interpretive must for those considering themselves terrorism experts, or better yet leaders and other managers of consensually run populations.
Magnificent scholarly work that throws the widest intellectual loop around the thoughts, mind constructs, ideologies, factual histories, epistemologies and methodologies of the predator class! Thanks, Dr. Geifman, for giving it to us.
Jesse W. Collins IIDeath Orders: The Vanguard of Modern Terrorism in Revolutionary Russia (Praeger Security International) Overview

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Innovation for the 21st Century Review

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Innovation for the 21st Century ReviewProfessor Carrier has an alternative vision of what copyright/patent law should be. He urges that current doctrine stifles innovation; that we will get more innovation by, ironically enough, relaxing current patent/copyright protections. He describes the current doctrine very well, and he supports thoughtfully his proposals. The book will be of aid to advanced students in the field as well as academics. N.B. I am a colleague of Professor Carrier's, although I am not in the same field.Innovation for the 21st Century Overview

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Out of Reach: Place, Poverty, and the New American Welfare State Review

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Out of Reach: Place, Poverty, and the New American Welfare State ReviewThis book by this University of Chicago professor provides an insightful analysis of poverty issues in the US. It uses comprehensive data to provide new and compelling insights about how and why government agencies often fail to provide help to underprivileged communities. It finds, for example, that most agencies do not locate in high poverty neighborhoods, thereby impeding their ability to provide help. Importantly, the book provides solutions, using the United Way of Greater Toronto as an example of organization that located agencies near underprivileged communities. A must read for policy makers.Out of Reach: Place, Poverty, and the New American Welfare State Overview

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The Vega Factor: Oil Volatility and the Next Global Crisis Review

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The Vega Factor: Oil Volatility and the Next Global Crisis ReviewI was fortunate enough to get my hands on an advance copy of Dr. Kent Moors' book, The Vega Factor. Having followed him for a number of years now, through both his commentary as an oil and gas analyst and his more recent stock market analysis, I knew that he would be presenting a rather novel approach to the discussion of the oil market. Boy, does he ever. His book provides insight into the market that only a veteran of the oil market can, while simultaneously anticipating what is just around the corner. Not only does this provide the reader with a deeper understanding of how the market has worked in the past, but more importantly the work does a wonderful job of making clear precisely why the old risk models simply will not work any longer. As a follower of all commodities markets in general, and the oil and gas markets in particular, I find that Dr. Moors' book cuts through much of the mystery of why oil markets have been so volatile lately. More importantly, he predicts - very convincingly - that this new market reality is here to stay for the foreseeable future. I strongly recommend this book to anyone looking to understand how oil markets will work moving forward, as well as those currently in the industry who may be searching for additional insight from an oil market expert possessing the keen intellectual ability to stay ahead of the curve.The Vega Factor: Oil Volatility and the Next Global Crisis Overview

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The African Food System and Its Interactions with Human Health and Nutrition (United Nations University) Review

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The African Food System and Its Interactions with Human Health and Nutrition (United Nations University) Review(Disclaimer: I am one of the chapter authors*)
"The African Food System..." is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary research effort between researchers at Cornell University, United Nations University, and other eminent scholars and policymakers worldwide under the direction of Per Pinstrup-Andersen. It is the first in a series discussing the gaps in knowledge that prevent governments in Sub-Saharan Africa from accomplishing the Millennium Development Goals. The research is targeted at a broad audience and does not assume specific technical knowledge to make use of the insights from the chapters.
Topics include: economics; nutrition; politics; poverty traps; malaria; AIDS; livestock; environment; food aid; population; gender studies
The chapters are as follows:
1 - The African Food System and Human Health and Nutrition: A conceptual and Empirical Overview (Per Pinstrup-Andersen)
2 - The Nutrition Situation in Sub-Saharan Africa (Derrill D. Watson II* and Per Pinstrup-Andersen)
3 - Disease Burden of Sub-Saharan Africa and Their Interactions with Malnutrition (Onesmo K. ole-MoiYoi)
4 - Animals as a Source of Human Disease: Historical Perspective and Future Health Risks for the African Population (E. Fuller Torrey)
5 - How AIDS Epidemics Interact with African Food Systems and How to Improve the Response (Stuart Gillespie)
6 - Pest Management, Farmer Incomes and Health Risks in Sub-Saharan Africa: Pesticides, Host Plant Resistance and Other Measures (Rebecca Nelson)
7 - Nutrition and the Environment: Fundamental to Food Security in Africa (Anna Herforth)
8 - Food Safety as a Bridge between the Food System and Human Health in Sub-Saharan Africa (Dorothy Nakimbugwe and Kathryn J. Boor)
9 - Population Dynamics and Future Food Requirements in Sub-Saharan Africa (Barbara Boyle Torrey)
10 - Income and Food Transfers to Improve Human Health and Nutrition (Harold Alderman)
11 - The Impact of Poor Health and Nutrition on Labor Productivity, Poverty, and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (David Sahn)
12 - Food Systems and the Escape from Poverty and Ill-Health Traps in Sub-Saharan Africa (Christopher B. Barrett)
13 - Strengthening the Role of Women in the Food Systems of Sub-Saharan Africa to Achieve Nutrition and Health Goals (Laura K. Cramer and Speciosa K. Wandira)
14 - Bridging the Gap: Linking Agriculture and Health to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals (Joachim von Braun, Marie T. Ruel, and Stuart Gillespie)The African Food System and Its Interactions with Human Health and Nutrition (United Nations University) Overview

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