Reviews (5)

Excessively intuitive. But any way, he`s a Nobel Price
Although I deeply respect J. Stiglitz, I prefer H. Rosen`s Public Finance. I found it more effective to learn this subject due to the deeper treatment of the models and theories.
Review of Public Sector Economics by J. Stiglitz
Excessive use of graphs and charts which are very difficult to follow. Some chapters read easily, others very difficult to understand. Would be better if it had a complementary teacher's guide. LRM

mixed feelings
accessible text for beginners, but the text is NO preparation for the end-of-chapter questions.With no available answer key and no help from a teacher, the questions are IMPOSSIBLE to answer leaving the student/reader/taker of test extremely tired and hungry and unsatisfied with econ knowledge at 2 in the morning. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business/Economics    3. Finance, Public    4. Fiscal policy    5. Politics / Current Events    6. Public Finance    7. Public Finance (General)    8. Public Policy - Economic Policy    9. United States   

Reviews (6)

Raising the Level of Debate About Global Problems
Most people never think about the unavoidable tradeoffs involved in ameliorating social problems.With opportunity costs in mind, may we must dedicate ourselves to a better world.
Global Crises, Global Solutions
I enjoyed Bjorn Lomborg's latest work as a thought provoking alternative to conventional wisdom on different aspects of globalisation. Unfortunately, much of the scientific and political community have become prisoners to theories which have dubious merit. They are followed more out of political correctness and the prevailing winds of public opinion, than research and testing.
Highly Recommended!
This report is an excellent, controversial and refreshing approach to global problems. Daily, the news media and politicians declare that another crisis is urgent. Often, loud, public resolutions accompany these pronouncements. Political blocs form to push through agendas based on those resolutions. The only thing missing from the process is a dispassionate analysis of whether the solutions make economic sense and, if so, which ones make the most economic sense. This book of compiled essays from the Copenhagen Consensus - as documented in The Economist - provides that missing element. The conference drew from United Nations documents to assemble a list of the most urgent problems facing the world and identified those that presented opportunities for solutions. Then it set the task of identifying solutions that would provide the biggest benefit for the cost, examining 38 proposals for spending $50 billion over four years. Surprisingly, some of the most economically rational projects never make headlines and never turn up in public exhortations. When was the last time you saw someone climbing onto a platform to demand mosquito nets to prevent malaria in Africa? That may not come up nearly as often as adherence to the Kyoto Protocol, which provides a far weaker cost vs. benefit scenario. According to the analysts from Copenhagen, the former seems to be a very sound use of the world's problem-solving resources, but the latter costs a lot and seems to deliver relatively few benefits. We highly recommend this intriguing, sweeping conversation. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Development - Economic Development    5. Economic development    6. Globalization    7. International - Economics    8. International cooperation    9. Public Policy - Economic Policy    10. Business & Economics / Economic Development    11. Development economics    12. Environmental economics    13. Political economy    14. Social issues   

Features

• Audiobook
• Unabridged

Reviews (61)

The Antithesis of Winner-Take-All
If you became hopelessly depressed after reading "The Winner-Take-All Society" by Frank and Cook, then "The Long Tail" will provide you with some solace. Nothing ever reaches its logical conclusion, and economic rewards will not aggregate to the top ad infinitum. The ability to make an infinite number of copies of the "best" song or movie or book contrasts with the infinite shelf space available on the internet. "The Long Tail" demonstrates why that shelf space will be a highly democratizing force. People are always looking for something new, and the traditional, monopolistic channels (or gatekeepers) are under siege, even now.

Pop-science goes marketing
The big thing these days seems to be science writers like Malcolm Gladwell coming up with best-sellers that, charitably put, are very light on facts and very long on sometimes outlandish assertion. Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, joins the parade with his silly - yes, silly - claim that businesses like music and movies are no longer driven by hits, but by the "long tail." That it is the thousands of titles that people buy or rent infrequently. Somehow, according to Anderson, the idea of web merchants making a zillion titles available and some of those titles being sold or rented once or twice will be the "transformation . . . coming to just about every industry imaginable." Uh, no it ain't. Nowhere in the book does Anderson factor in the reality that someone pays for the production of all those videos and music tracks that rent or sell infrequently. Nor does he account for the reality that not every web merchant can acheive the volume of an Amazon or eBay. In other words, Anderson has discovered the obvious: if you make 30,000 movies available for rental, let's say, through a Netflix, many of the cult titles and dogs will be rented. Anderson pounds on this "long tail" effec while glossing over the fact that the neighborhood video rental store won't carry 30,000 titles. The profits from the occasionl rental of the 30,000th item on the list won't match the cost of acquiring and keeping it in stock in a store, while it makes little difference to a Netflix.
Insights that influence Google's strategic thinking.
98 Rule: Netflix reckoned that 95 percent of its 25,000 DVDs rented at least once a quarter. Amazon using an independent academic research on its book sales suggested that 98 percent of its top 100,000 books sold at least once a quarter.Digital space cost per DVD is very cheap and represent almost no physical inventory space excepting magnetic medium storage.In the sale of one or two DVDs, the traditional retail runs out of steam because it can turn inventory fast enough to pay for physical space, but the economics of online retail keep going.Eventually, Amazon will localize and print digital media using high-speed printers producing a book in seconds from an electronic catalog, the birth of a book replication. DVDs will be replaced by wireless iPods, who are paying subscribers to iTunes, will increase the speed of distribution and volume of sales of the media they prefer. The 80/20 rules are changing.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business/Economics    3. Consumer Behavior - General    4. Development - Economic Development    5. Economic Conditions    6. Internet marketing    7. Market segmentation    8. Marketing    9. Marketing - Research    10. Technological innovations    11. Unabridged Audio - Business/Professional    12. Business & Economics / Economic History   

Reviews (1396)

This book is a must read for any True American!
Why is America's economy in a never ending downward spiral?Why do most Americans think they get back money from taxes, and never think how much they already have paid?This book is a great eye-opener to what is really going on in America's tax system and what needs to be done to fix it.This book is not just about what needs to be fixed, but also what is being done right now, that most Americans are unaware of.For example, did you know that about half of the American popular pays one hundred percent of all income taxes.And did you know that corporations do not pay corporate taxes, we do!

Easy Read
I'm generally NOT a book reader, but managed to read The FairTax book in just over one day, while on the road with the family.I'd already heard a great deal about the FairTax from listening to talk radio, but I was really hooked from just the first ten-page (or so) chapter.I find it hard to believe that anyone could learn about the history of the income tax system, and the 16th Ammendment, without beginning to boil.How could we have been so short-sighted to allow this to happen?
The Fair Tax: The Country needs this badly!
Please read this book,it will open your eyes.The Fair Tax is the way to go,the mere fact that the IRS code needs over sixty thousand pages should tell you that there is alot of legal graft and corruption built into the system.The Fair Tax would eliminate this.Do yourself a favor and buy this book,read it and then take action.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business/Economics    3. Economic Policy    4. Income tax    5. Law and legislation    6. Personal Finance - Taxation    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Popular works    9. Public Policy - Economic Policy    10. Taxation    11. Taxation - General    12. United States    13. Political Science / Government / National   

Reviews (1)

Fantastic Case Studies
The book provides great case studies about several American industries. It gives insights into how selected industries have evolved and how the major players interact. If you're interested in the topics presented in the book, you will not be disappointed. The analysis is accurate and very informative. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Economic Policy    5. Industrial Policy    6. Industries    7. Industries - General    8. Public Policy - Economic Policy    9. United States    10. Business & Economics / Economics / General    11. Economics    12. Law    13. Organizational theory & behaviour   

Reviews (37)

Good book; post-modern primitivism
Don't believe the hype about China and so-called thousand year traditions.This is a bane of modern life, and in fact is a post-modern myth.An analogy:it was found by anthropologists that certain tribes in Papua New Guinea practiced cannibalism (that spread harmful prions).Upon further research, it was found this practice was not thousands of years old as claimed, but about 100 years old.This justified eradicating this deadly 'tradition' by force (and put an end to the prion disease).See Richard Rhodes excellent book "Deadly Feasts".
Resonantes with anyone who has experienced chinese culture from the west
Clissold's book is an excellent stand-alone for those who have never been or done business in China.I imagine it reads slightly like fantasy--it's hard to reconcile the view presented with the Business Today magazine type presentations.
waiting for a revealing book on investing in china?keep waiting...
the typical self proclaimed china hand writing books catered to the western audience with typical stories everyone hears if you are in the investing biz.no added value except to "reveal" to the world what had happened to him or her.do these writers trully understand china?; same question to be posed to the thousands of current and potential investors into china.and can they offer insights that are practical, realistic and offers a true fact of what is happening daily on the ground?i seriously doubt any writer can offer this in respect to china because china is a story of limitless permutations.there is only one commonality in china, which is its damn hard to get it right, because there is no right or wrong in this environment.so how does anyone who wants to know how to operate in this environment learn?i beg to differ, but its not gonna be thru a book written by the gangs of so called "china hands" out there.these books are like the ones that came out supporting the great hype about the "new ecnomony" when the heat was scorching white.opportunistic but offers little value.i'll only buy the soft cover versions of these type of books or reading it as borrowed material. there is absolutely nothing valuable in this type of undertaking other than entertaining one on a slow afternoon. Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Business    5. Development - Economic Development    6. Foreign Investments    7. International - General    8. Investments & Securities - General    9. Biography & Autobiography / Business   

Reviews (3)

Anger does not equal analysis
This is a tract, not a thoughtful piece of scholarship. It is in the Latin American school of angry social science, but is little informed by fact.Much of what it says is correct, but is also well known.But the analysis is weak, based on incorrect or outdated data, and simply a regurgitation of stereotypes instead of a deductive grounded analysis based upon good ethnographic work. It is therefore often simply wrong.But anger sells books.....

Reunderstanding development
Arturo Escobar critics the whole concept of development in theory and practice from an extremely unusual and original perspective. He steps back and views development as something exotic and almost non-sense. Inspired onthe work of Foucault, the author examines the evolution of the discourseabout development as a form of how the West keeps exerting power andinfluence on the Third World. The ethnocentric views of development andinterventions that come with them - propagated by Western governments,multinational companies, development institutions and academia - puts ThirdWorld cultures and traditional populations as something that should besignificantly changed to achieve the so-dreamed "development." Although the results of these western-driven interventions over decadeshave usually been catastrophic for Third World's populations and cultures,Western "experts" keep coming to the Third World and elaboratingnew forms of discourses on development, now addressing objects likesustainable development, women and development and poverty erradication -all ethnocentric and based on western values.This book should be read byanyone who wants to reunderstand development in the Third World (andreflect if it is needed at all!).

Reunderstanding development
Arturo Escobar critics the whole concept of development in theory and practice from an extremely unusual and original perspective. He steps back and views development as something exotic and almost non-sense. Inspired onthe work of Foucault, the author examines the evolution of the discourseabout development as a form of how the West keeps exerting power andinfluence on the Third World. The ethnocentric views of development andinterventions that come with them - propagated by Western governments,multinational companies, development institutions and academia - puts ThirdWorld cultures and traditional populations as something that should besignificantly changed to achieve the so-dreamed "development." Although the results of these western-driven interventions over decadeshave usually been catastrophic for Third World's populations and cultures,Western "experts" keep coming to the Third World and elaboratingnew forms of discourses on development, now addressing objects likesustainable development, women and development and poverty erradication -all ethnocentric and based on western values.This book should be read byanyone who wants to reunderstand development in the Third World (andreflect if it is needed at all!). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1945-    2. Anthropology - General    3. Archaeology / Anthropology    4. Developing countries    5. Development - Economic Development    6. Economic conditions    7. Economic development    8. Economic history    9. Social Science    10. Sociology    11. Anthropology    12. Cultural studies    13. Development economics    14. Development studies    15. Postcolonial Studies    16. Social Science / Anthropology / General    17. Sociology, Social Studies   

Reviews (54)

Easterly : "This is a sad story but it can be a hopeful one."
This book asks and attempts to answer the following question: How do you raise the standard of living of the vast numbers of people living in terrible poverty in the undeveloped (the third) world?
An emotionallypowerful and insightful book
This book has been around for quite some time now but I recently read it and there are so many questions that have been raised.
Well written, colorful, informative, and important
This wonderful book was recommended to me by a dear friend who is a professor of economics at the University of Michigan.I purchased it awhile back, but only got around to reading it recently and I know I should have read it sooner.It is delightfully written and very informative.The author takes us through each of the models that have been developed for estimating aid to developing countries since World War II and the trillions of dollars that have poured into those countries with almost no positive effect.He explores possible reasons why this has happened.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Development - Economic Development    5. Economic Policy    6. Economic Theory    7. Economics - General    8. Economics - Theory    9. Business & Economics / Economics / General    10. Developing countries    11. Development economics    12. Economic theory & philosophy   

Reviews (2)

Excelent book
A powerful and clear combination of theoretical and practical analysis of the regulatory work, with useful insights and tools to be used and developed.

re-thinking the role of government
Author Malcolm Sparrow suggests something so simple about the role of government that it's revolutionary -- agencies should be in the business of finding important problems and fixing them.Read more

Subjects:  1. Administrative procedure    2. Compliance    3. Government - U.S. Government    4. Industrial Policy    5. Political Science    6. Politics / Current Events    7. Politics/International Relations    8. Public Affairs & Administration    9. Public Policy - Economic Policy    10. Trade Agreements    11. Trade regulation    12. United States    13. Laws of Other Jurisdictions & General Law    14. USA   

Reviews (28)

what happens when you grow up
Several years ago, my father forced me to read Sowell's Basic Economics. Although I began it very begrudgingly, the further I read, the more interested I became. That interest eventually turned into a mild sense of outrage - it amazed me that something so "basic" as human motivations could be boiled down to dollar signs - but I realized the truth behind it. Hardly anyone does anything simply for the good of mankind. Perhaps it's cynical, but turn on daytime TV and tell me I'm wrong. Thomas Sowell has a remarkable ability to take something as confounding as economics and explain it in terms that even I (a confirmed number-hater and English maven) could understand without having to resort to fistfuls of aspirin. Although I read the first book under duress, I gladly bought this one for myself. Dad would be so proud!

The law of unintended consequences
Dr. Sowell does a superb job of explaining the unintended consequences of well-intentioned, but incompletely thought-out public policy. as a highlight, Dr. Sowell details the downstream, negative impact of rent control laws on the very people the laws are intended to protect. Rent control laws mean less income for the owner, more people in line to rent, and less income for the owner to use in the maintainance of his property.As a result the very properties protected by rent control fall into disrepair and are then abandoned.
Fun reading
Regardless if you are studying economics, or looking for some exposure to the way such people think, this book will be a fun adventure.The chapters are detailed case studies for the how economics applies to the major issues of today.Written for a general audience, the book is perfect to round out some thoughts in economics.I have always thought that reading economics is the only way to understand it, this book is a great step in that direction. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Development - Economic Development    5. Economic Development    6. Economic policy    7. Economics    8. Economics (General)    9. Economics - General    10. Equality    11. Political aspects    12. Social aspects   

Editorial Review

According to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, America currently faces five threats that could undermine, if not eliminate, the United States if immediate steps are not taken to correct them. The threats as he sees them are Islamic terrorists and rogue dictatorships armed with nuclear or biological weapons; the removal of God from American public life; a loss of patriotism and sense of America's history; a decline in economic supremacy because of poor science and math education; and the increasing budgetary burden of Social Security and Medicare. To tackle these problems, Gingrich offers his "21st Century Contract with America," which he outlines in great detail in this bold and thought-provoking book. His updated contract, which comes a decade after the original Republican Contract with America that marked the high point of Gingrich's national power, calls for a dramatically simplified tax code that favors savings and investment; government investment in science and technology, particularly regarding space, energy, and the environment; transforming Social Security into personal savings accounts; overhauling the civil justice system to reduce the burden of lawsuits; and updating the federal government, including the privatization of some functions, so that it moves at the speed and effectiveness of the information age. And that's just the beginning. He also calls for tripling the size of America's intelligence community, reforming its election system, developing a more intelligent health care system that creates jobs and increases quality of life, and balancing the federal budget. Read more

Reviews (72)

Common Sense
Newt Gingrich presents common sense solutions to the pressing issues of our day in a clear concise and easily understood manner.This book should be required reading for all civics and history classes in high school and college.If the policies Dr. Gingrich proposes could be implemented, the US would not only become the shining city on a hill, it would also become, far and away, the world's most powerful economy throughout the next fifty years with prosperity for all Americans who chose to join the ownership society he envisions.

NEWT '08
I long ago gave up on both mainstream American political parties, and do NOT cast my vote for candidates on whether they have a "D" or an "R" behind their name (and it's usually a vote for the lesser of two evils), but I have long been fascinated by the voracious intellect and diversity of issues that the former US Representative from Georgia has addressed throughout his public career; and this book is no different. From taxes, healthcare and defense to God in the marketplace of ideas, former Speaker Gingrich not only points out a plethora of challenges facing America (both today, and in the future), but, unlike most politicians, he offers bold and thoughtful ideas for addressing these problems before its to late.
This man is a visionary and a genius
If only Washington could embrace the ideas laid out in this book.
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Subjects:  1. 2001-    2. Conservatism    3. Economic Policy    4. Government - U.S. Government    5. Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism    6. Political Science    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Politics and government    9. Politics/International Relations    10. Public Policy - Economic Policy    11. Public Policy - General    12. Public Policy - Social Policy    13. Social Policy    14. United States    15. Political Science / Political Parties   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Developing countries    5. Development - Economic Development    6. Economic Conditions    7. Economics - Theory    8. Finance    9. Globalization    10. Monetary policy    11. Public Policy - Economic Policy    12. Business & Economics / Economics / Theory    13. Economic forecasting    14. Economics    15. International relations    16. Political Science and International Relations   

Reviews (5)

One of the better critiques of complete free trade
Stiglitz is certainly a critic of the free trade ideology but his arguments are much more intellectually robust than I see from either the economic nationalists like Lou Dobbs or the anti-globalization movement (and those two are distinct among themselves).He doesn't favor developed world protectionism, and actually makes a few strong points against it. However his proposals do respond to some of the claims of the anti-globalization movement even if he doesn't accept their quasi-Marxist outlook in total.
A radical new trade model
The authors state rightly that trade policies should be designed to raise living standards and to integrate developing countries into the world trading system. Global poverty (more than 2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day) is the world's most pressing problem.
very interesting - a great global economics intro
You don't have to be an economist to realise that the World Trade Organisation is failing the poorest countries. But this book is a compelling explanation of what is going wrong, and the best case yet for change.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Commercial policy    5. Development - Economic Development    6. Economic Development    7. Economics - General    8. Free Enterprise    9. Industries And Trades (Economic Aspects)    10. International - Economics    11. International Relations - Trade & Tariffs    12. International trade    13. Business & Economics / Economics / General    14. Development economics    15. Economics | International   

Reviews (7)

Dead On
I work for a Japanese company that is mentioned in this book and the book is a dead on diagnosis of how Japanese companies are managed. For anyone familiar with the current Japanese economy (which is in a huge depression) there are some major problems with how the Japanese economy operates.There is nothing inherently genius about the solution that Porter offers, which is simply a call for a true free market system in Japan; free of tariffs, trade barriers, cartels, and collusion.However, if you work for a Japanese company I strongly suggest buying this book to understand why your company is managed the way it is.

Japan¡¯s success and failure in light of business strategy
... Reviving the competitive advantage of Japan
Michael Porter is Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and a leading authority on competition and strategic management; Hirotaka Takeuchi is Professor and Dean of the new Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University in Japan; and Mariko Sakakibara is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Exports & Imports    5. International - Economics    6. Public Policy - Economic Policy    7. Economic history    8. Japan   

Reviews (4)

of course some people wouldn't like this book
i loved this book: it questions the idea of repeatability, which means that it questions the religion of science (as practiced by amateurs)and it shows you how language has served the impulse towards duplicity.the book also has a certain tongue-in-cheek wit about it, and that makes the ideas more interesting to read. Interesting, but hard to read
I'd like to think I'm not a dummy, but this was hard to read.It looks to me like the book was translated to English by someone who might know more about Anthropology than written communication.There were times when I felt that maybe it had been run through Babblefish. It only takes a French accent...
Anglophone readers probably don't realise that Latour meant this book as a tongue-in-cheek exercise to capture the postmodern social theory market in his own country by using a postmodern style to show what an illusionpostmodernism has always been. But, as fate would have it, when someonesneezes in Paris, an Anglophone is felled with pneumonia. It's hard tobelieve that anyone with a firm grasp of the history of the last 250 yearsof Western culture would find this book anything more than a diversionworthy of maybe a couple of arguments in the pub. It's telling thathistorians of science, who are really the people who are in a position tohold Latour accountable to anything he says here, have given the book achilly reception. Classify this one under 'Pseud's Corner'. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. History    3. Philosophy    4. Science    5. Social Science    6. Social aspects    7. Sociology    8. Technology    9. Development studies    10. Science / General    11. Transport industries