5 comments about A Country That Works: Getting America Back on Track.

1. This book spells out in a clear and compelling fashion the challenges that American workers face in our global economy, and what can be done to stop the American dream from disintegrating any further.
   
   You may think of unions as a quaint, irrelevant relic of a bygone era, or perhaps you see them as a blight on business. After you read this book, you'll understand how Stern's progressive union, the SEIU, has the potential to be a real force for good, not just for workers, but for employers and the country as a whole.
   
   The best thing about Stern's book is that it doesn't just describe all the problems plaguing American workers, it offers innovative solutions from a union leader who is, on the one hand, willing to reach out to CEO's and conservatives, while also taking on Wal-Mart and other corporations who shortchange their own employees to boost their bottom line. Stern's even traveled to China five times to get a handle on our competition and how best to handle it.
   
   I got to hear Stern speak at a book party for A Country That Works the other night, and he spoke so passionately and persuasively that I decided I really had to get a second copy of his book to give my dad, who's always held an anti-union bias. Unfortunately, Stern did such a great job pitching his ideas that they sold the forty copies of A Country That Works his publisher had provided before I could get my hands on one. Looks like my dad will have to settle for an unsigned copy!



2. After a long period of corruption, arrogance and distain for American values and American working people, a new generation of leaders is beginning to emerge...fresh voices with solid ideas and much to say to the Amerian people. The author of this book is one of them and he is inspriring the younger generations. Read this to understand how and why! A must read! Those who favor the status quo won't like it at all..those who are more optimistic will love it.



3. Andy Stern deepens and extends previous efforts to describe and analyze the state of America's -- and, implicitly, the globe's -- socio-economic condition, and he supplies suggestions and proposals meant to remedy the more egregious symptoms of our civilization's decline. Long ago, Stern became the first major American labor leader to point publicly to the need for workers' action at the global level, and he turned heads three years ago with the somewhat heretical suggestion that US labor reconsider its monogamous relationship with the Democratic Party, a frequently unfaithful partner. For those who favor social change, A Country That Works provides a thoughtful overview and myriad leads toward a better future for all.



4. Andy Stern does a great job of addressing the elephant in the room, corporate globalization, that is sold to populations around the world as "inevitable," but is being resisted all over the world. This particular form of globalization (also known as "neoliberalism" - although, not having anything to do with progressive liberalism) has been more of an investor's rights agreement, protecting shareholders while leaving other stakeholders in society - labor, local economies, the environment, indigenous communities - in dire straights. Stern recognizes what concerned people all over the world know, that the policies of NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, et al, are not laws of gravity and are subject to reform, if not complete rejection.
   International Socialist Review
   
   Interestingly, Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado recently recommended Stern's book during an interview on a 50,000 watt station here in Denver. That's the sort of media activism on behalf of labor that all sorts of people need to be doing; to counter the years of anti-labor rhetoric all over the airwaves that are owned and sponsored by Big Business. Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media
   
   While some segments of organized labor have seen declines, SEIU is growing; thanks to the sort of popular ideas in "A Country That Works," and also due to the organizing efforts of both documented and undocumented workers. I imagine the aggressive organizing of the immigrant population is part of the reason why there has been such a harsh dehumanization campaign and an increase in ICE raids, deportations and so forth. Working class people across borders need to recognize that with capital and corporate executives operating transnationally, labor needs to do the same. No One Is Illegal: Fighting Violence and State Repression on the U.S.-Mexico Border
   
   For another good resource to teach people about the importance of labor organizing, I'd recommend the movie starring Adrien Brody that the SEIU helped to produce. Bread and Roses
   
   "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." - Abraham Lincoln, speech to Congress, 12/3/1861



5. Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) comes now with his own addition to the host of literature that describes how the re-distribution of wealth in the United States is harming workers and the nation. This is a vitally important topic: Lee Iacocca wrote about this more than 20 years ago, Michael Moore wrote about this more than 10 years ago, and recently, everyone from Jim Hightower to Arianna Huffington to Al Franken have joined in. With enough voices, perhaps people will finally force their elected policy makers to reconstruct the safeties that were in place to prevent the degradation of the middle class that we are watching accelerate right now.
   
   But will "A Country That Works" convert people from consumers back into citizens? Stern's ideas are good, practical, and positive, but they are not new. What has been lacking is an activism to force these ideas onto the agendas of both parties. To his credit, Stern does not "red-bait" the reader, but his ideas will never make it past the right-wing. Were this possible, we would not be in this fix, with economic and political uncertainty looming with growing immediacy. Stern has great ideas but he presents no plan of action; no intent to mobilize the SEIU toward national momentum.
   
   Stern includes some backstory to his life and some snippets of the labor movement, but nothing in depth. He chooses his words carefully, especially as regards John Sweeney--Stern has been a good, effective leader but this has forced him to become a politician in his own right. There is nothing wrong with this, this is the nature of things, and Stern doesn't want to rock the boat too much.
   
   So, with very little information in the form of memoir or history of labor, "A Country That Works" serves instead as a bullet-pointed list of excellent progressive ideas that were released as a $24.00 hardcover book. Many service workers might have to work three or four hours to pay for this book. It would have helped workers more if it had been published as a pamphlet.

5 comments about Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan.

1. Alex Kerr's book is excellent. I have lived in Japan for 16 years and am leaving now. I have asked many of the same questions he asks and heard many of the same responses. Many well-educated or well-traveled Japanese know that their government in out of control in the hands of anonymous bureaucrats.
   I was particularly pleased to see his discussion of education. Having been a displaced college professor and having participated in "Mombusho" (Education Ministry) panels on English education I have seen the guts of what he describes.
   His chronicle of environmental devastation at the hands of the Construction Ministry was infuriatingly accurate. Most of my personal "discoveries of natural Japan" that I experienced after just arriving in 1989 and 1990 are gone or obliterated.
   Mr. Kerr spoke with a real love of Japan, the Japanese people and culture while describing and cataloguing numerous betrayals and criminal acts by a corrupt bureaucracy on autopilot.
   It is the truth. It is emotional. It is a powerful book for those who have born witness to the decline of Japan. For those reviewing and saying that the author is racist or misguided and that Japan is the miracle country the US should try to be... I would highly reccommend living here for 10 years. After about 5 years the veil begins to lift and as your Japanese improves you begin to realize that there are many deep currents running beneath the surface.
   Read Karl Van Wolleran's "The Enigma of Japanese Power" also.
   I highly reccommend this book.
   I pray that the Japanese people will find a way out from under the sway of the unelected, unsupervised bureaucrats many of whom were my students.
   I actually taught a MITI guy who participated in the drafting of the "Japanese snow" ruling/incident briefly mentioned by Kerr. MITI, under pressure from Japanese ski equipment manufacturers, actually issued a restriction on the import of Rossignol ski equipment citing the danger to Japanese skiers of using equipment not designed for Japanese snow. My student claimed he objected to the whole thing but that his supervisor was desperately hoping to retire into the ski resort association....Needless to say when the French trade minister pointed out that it might be dangerous for French consumers to drive cars not designed for French asphalt the Japanese bureaucrats relented...immediately. Typical. Like George Bush coming to Tokyo demanding the opening of the Japanese rice market only to travel four days later to Australia to derisive crys of "open the US beef market" from Aussie beef growers.



2. This is one of the few books that take a look at Japan's dark@side. The book starts out very strong. However, it does start to weaken near the end. I felt what he wrote about the school system was a little dated and understated. Although, he did write that a whole book could be written about the problems of the schools. He is right. I have worked many years in the Japanese school system.
   
   He goes those many facets of Japan. He points out what people would over look. I have personally experienced and witnessed a lot of what he describes in this book.
   
   I read many books on Japan before I moved here. Japan seemed like a wonderland. The other books paint a picture of Japan being so much better than everywhere else. If you stay a week or two in a hotel in Tokyo you will have the wonderland feeling. I move here and the dream quickly vanished. Almost everything I read (in other books) was dated, residual or just not really true. If you read this book and another book, you will get a good balance.
   
   I gave this book 5 stars because it is one of the first of its kind. It is not perfect. He does get a little personal and opinionated, that is the good part. This is a man who was and still is passionate about Japan. It breaks his heart how Japan is eating itself alive.
   
   If you wanted a full story on Japan, you should get the book with another book on Japan (a positive book). If you are a "fan boy", you should get this book.



3. I am a long time resident in Japan (over 19 years), and have always wondered about the true workings of what goes on in the government and beurocracy here. This book completely opened my eyes to the growing problems here. The Japanese continuously talk about environmentalism while paving over every single bit of nature in urban areas or filling in ocean front. It is a true situation of tatemae and honne. With the true feelings that nature is not what nature made of it, but what "we" made of it.
   
   After reading this book I began to ask some of my Japanese friends about some of the subjects. What I found most freightening is that 100% knew about every topic I brought up, from suginoki to Dams, to Tetora, to landfills, and they all agreed that these were not only bad for the environment, but bad for the economy as well.
   
   I also started to study some other practices like amakudari. I had no idea how endemic and system wide it has become. This is actually one amazing area that every Japanese person I have talked to didn't give me the same answer.



4. In the year 2000, when America was riding high and Japan had reached a new low, this book may have had relevance. I am currently majoring in East Asian Studies, and work very hard. I have read Marius B. Jansen's Making of Modern Japan (Harvard University) among others, so I know a good book when I read it.
   
   This is not it. The criticisms here seem very foolish, rascist, and misplaced. Kerr does nothing to refute challanges to his ideas. For example, he complains that Japan overspends on construction. Could it not be said that America overspends on the military. Now, don't get me wrong I love the United States, but the fact is that each country is unique and has its own sets of strengths and weaknesses.
   
   In summary, Kerr is not a genious for simply attacking a country and culture over and over again. No nation is perfect, and this book is rooted in 'holier than thou' mentality which has perpetuated imperialism and war for centuries.
   
   PLEASE DO NOT READ! I reccomend John Dower's "Embracing Defeat" or maybe "Saving the Sun" if you want to know about corperate Japan.



5. Alex Kerr is a longtime resident of Japan, has published several books on it, is extensively steeped in its history and economics, teaches at its universities and is active in its social and cultural communities. I would not call this being a "bitter partner," as was implicated in a previous review. He wrote the book to call attention to things he thinks are hurting a country he loves very much. As a Japanese-American, myself, I commend Mr. Kerr for trying to preserve things that the Japanese themselves do not think about preserving. The facts he presents are solid and sourced, but where I think people have the most problem with Kerr is his interpretation of the facts. He makes some pretty caustic statements on the current state of malaise in Japanese politics and culture. As a long-time student of Japan and Japanese, I agree with most of what he writes, but people who don't will be very, very upset by his assertions. So, when other reviewers don't like this book, it seems like they're more upset with his views than anything else.
   
   Non-Japanese affiliated with Japan tend to come in flavors as easily discernable as ice cream. There's the anime/culture freak who has never been to Japan, but somehow "knows" all about it because he watches endless episodes of Inuyasha. Next is the bitter guy who ran off to Japan as an expat and had to come back because Japan is not as able to support unqualified "English teachers" as it was during the boom years. There's often a guy who is in Japan currently and, in spite of not knowing more than a smattering of the language, is a self-professed expert on EVERYTHING Japanese. Then, you have guys like Kerr, who have put in decades studying Japanese language, art, customs, culture, history and politics. They've lived in Japan for years, in various circles (not just as "english teachers"), met hundreds of people from all the social strata (not just white boys who meet Japanese women) and spend years observing trends. Kerr is very qualified to write on Japan and Japanese things, but his opinions might not mesh with those of the former groups because he has a different experience set to draw from by nature of his long relationship with Japan.
   
   If you fall into the other groups, Of Dogs and Demons will very likely make you mad.
   
   --"Why, (insert name of anime) never talked about amakudari! "
   --"I worked at Nova for a year and only ever met Japanese women aged 18-24, so this book can't hold a candle to MY knowledge of Japan!"
   --"I live above a sushi restaurant in Tokyo. I never see any sugi trees!"
   
   But, when you approach the assertions from the angle that Japan needs to face its problems before it can work on solving them, you see that Kerr's intentions are good, even if he can be heavy-handed and repetitious at pounding his points home. So, when you read this book, try to set aside your own preconceived notions of Japan and see where he's coming from while trusting that he DOES have good intentions.
   
   If you can do this, I think you'll find this quite an enjoyable and informative read!

1 comments about Medical Tourism in Developing Countries.

1. If you want to know Medical Tourism from an economist point of view and the implications for everyone in the health and tourism business, this is the book to get. The authors really did their work. The have a wealth of information for those who are involved in these industries. However, it is not the book to read if you are planning of becoming a medical tourist yourself. There are other books for that particular purpose.

5 comments about Dragon Rising: An Inside Look At China Today.

1. China's future impact on world affairs, economies, and raw-material/energy demand is frequently pondered, but with little detail. Becker's "Dragon Rising" brings clear detail and reality to recent accomplishments by China. In addition, the reader also learns interesting tidbits such as China lost Taiwan to Japan in 1895, Tiananmen Square was modeled after Moscow's Red Square, and Deng Xiaoping was the de facto Chinese leader who led China out of Mao's mess and into the modern world (despite being deposed twice, and sentenced to death once for non-conformist actions).
   
   Example of Chinese Urban Renovation: China spent $30 billion from '92 to '99 to rebuild Shanghai's infrastructure. This supported construction of 8,000 high-rises in 15 years (each taller than any building in the area prior to 1980), new steel and car plants, an automated stock exchange, a new airport, and a Maglev train to/from the airport (top speed 269 mph). The bad news is that Shanghai has sunk 8 feet since '21, its population density now exceeds 5,800/square mile (much greater than New York, London, or Paris), many of the new buildings are of poor quality and will require significant repairs in ten years, prices have skyrocketed to as high as $1,250/square foot, many of the buildings are vacant, and the disparity between rich and poor has never been greater.
   
   China has also build underground cities and factories in preparation for nuclear war.
   
   Transitioning the Economy: China had about 300,000 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) with jobs and food originally guaranteed for life; however, with their overheads (about one administrator for every three workers) they were slow-moving, and productivity was poor. Deng began transitioning by changing their focus from military products to civilian, and by the late 1990s, two-thirds were operating in the red.
   
   Glove Company Example: The firm began as a part-time husband/wife activity aimed at adding to their farm income. Success led to adding onto their house, buying a few Japanese machines, and hiring some workers. More success and reinvestment brought new machines made in China (some with computers), and a capacity of a million/year. Large orders were shared with others in the area.
   
   Sales activities took place not only via mobile phones, but at a local market (in this case about a mile long with five floors and 40,000 vendors) - buyers liked it because of the ease in filling a shipping container, even with small purchases from individual vendors. Dongyang focuses on socks (about 9 billion pair/year), and attracts 100,000 buyers at its sock fair.
   
   MBAs are not needed - the average number of employees is 18, and 70% of owners have at best a middle-school education. Profits are reinvested, or put into real-estate or even purchasing jet planes; China has private savings of over $1.4 trillion. Employees work 10-12 hours/day, often for less than minimum wage (many workers are illegal migrants from rural areas - China severely restricts movement to avoid peasants overwhelming cities). The government is trying to crack down on pay violations; other problems include a damaged environment, high-cost healthcare that often is of poor quality, and lack of worker safety standards.
   
   How does this all add up? A Mattel Barbie doll retails for $10 in the U.S., with $1 going for management and shippers in Hong Kong, 65 cents for raw materials, and 35 cents for other factory costs (including labor and equipment). Sophisticated parts are often made outside China and simply assembled; look for this to change soon.
   
   Why do peasants want to move to the cities? Their income has stagnated at low levels (average land farmed is 1.5 acres; title to the land still resides with the government). Regardless, this creates considerable pressure for the government to further increase trade so that they can move off the farm and the land can be consolidated for production efficiencies.
   
   Bottom Line: Becker does not hide the fact that China has a long way to go as far as human rights are concerned. However, it is also clear that the Chinese government is maneuvering carefully, trying to avoid unmeetable expectations and the problems caused by instant transition (eg. Russia, East Germany). Regardless, China's future military, political, economic, and resource impact on the world will be very significant and occur much faster than we probably would have imagined.



2. Dragon Rising is a very well written book giving the reader an excellent overview of modern China. Its clear from the very beginning (via the introduction) that the author is not a "China cheerleader" and can ask the difficult questions. I think this book balances all the China hype we see and read about it in the economic media with the reality of the the many pressing economic and social problems that are becoming more acute.
   
   This book is very interesting and easy to read and intersperses anecdotes, with history, and facts, as well as colorful photos -all without getting bogged down in minutiae. Probably the best book available for anyone interested in an overview of modern China. I would recommend it for anyone doing business with China or traveling to China, and interested in an overview of modern Chinese society. Not for academic types or someone interested in Chinese history.



3. My father will be traveling to China in May for a 3-week trip, to learn more about this fascinating country. I can think of no better book, to prepare him for his travel to Beijing, Shanghai, and the Yangtze River. So, I will be sending him this book immediately.
   
   Following up his well-researched and detailed 600-page "The Chinese" with "Dragon Rising," Becker has given the "China" shelf in the bookstore a book, which it dearly needed. Instead of reading about the Ming Dynasty or Chairman Mao, business travelers and adventure travelers needed a book, which could be easily read in a day, covering the different regions of China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Yunnan Province, etc.), an explanation of Deng's reforms which were responsible for the China economic miracle, and some hard-hitting truth-telling about the human and environmental impact of China's rush to modernism.
   
   On this point, anyone who has read Becker's "The Chinese" will not be surprised by his honest assessment of this human impact on the Chinese. In the chapter on Beijing, he recounts the developments that led to the Tiananmen Square protests; in the Shanghai chapter, he documents the misery of construction workers building this city of the future and the prostitutes who inhabit it; and in the Pearl River Delta, he puts a face to the cheap labor and goods being sent from China to the rest of the world: the young and petite factory girls recruited from the countryside who live their regulated lives in factory dormitories.
   
   Becker's reportage combines a sense of wonderment and awe about China's rise with a Dickensian sensibility. Becker is terrific at distilling confusing political developments into a language the average reader can understand. But, he is at best when his journalistic instinct kicks in: traveling the country to interview farmers, entrepreneurs, beggars, prostitutes, local party leaders, labor activists, and prostitutes. In a way, the book is a series of fascinating anecdotes strung from one chapter to another.
   
   Finally, I should mention that this is a National Geographic book, so the pictures are tremendously beautiful, even when they focus on the poverty or environmental disasters of the countryside. More of the China books would be much better, if they contained more contemporary pictures!
   
   All in all, this is a well-rounded, very readable book.



4. Dragon Rising: An Inside Look at China Today comes from a Beijing-based journalist who examines the major issues around China's transition to a global power. His experiences with a wide range of Chinese residents, from urban to rural - and his observations of the different paths the Chinese are choosing on the road to modernity - lends to a blend of powerful images and social observation key to any understanding of Chinese culture. Both general-interest libraries and high school to college-level holdings strong in intercultural understanding will want to consider this introductory review.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



5. This is a great book to read if you are planning to visit China, It is easy to read with beatiful pictures, a review about modern Chinese society, the good side and the dark side when the Dragon is rising.

5 comments about The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences.

1. I have just finished re-reading David Halberstam's The Fifties as part of an attempt to better understand that period as the foundation of many social, political and economic and cultural post-war trends that continue, or have been expanded on, today. The book under review, to its credit, puts forth an analysis that undermines one critical part of the `myth' of the Fifties. That is the proposition that `a rising tide lifts all ships'. Given the tremendous advantage the American capitalist economy had after its World War II victory combined with certain ameliorative changes in corporate and labor culture there was a seeming feeling that things would keep getting better and better. That based, of course, on an assumption that one did not challenge the capitalist basis on which this system was built. Today, after the victory of that unchallenged assumption, the chickens have come home to roost. The classic case for what amounted to class collaboration was the `partnership' between the Walter Reuther-led United Auto Workers and Detroit's Big Three automakers in the immediate post-World War II period. The result was the closest that this country has ever come to a Europeon social-democratic arrangement between business and labor. The recent purchase of one of the Big Three, Chrysler, by a private equity company that will inevitably entail another massive round of layoffs in the already devastated American auto industry was greeted without a peep by the Auto Workers Union. Times have changed, and not for the better.
   
   Thus, clearly those days of so-called `social contract' derived capitalism, whether illusionary at the time or not, are over and have been for a while. The most compelling data centers on the seemingly never-ending fact that while those who manage the capitalist empire has vastly increased their wealth and position the mass of Americans has either been spinning their wheels or going under. This book is an `up close and personal' look at those who did not make it for one reason or another but mainly because they were caught up in the vise of a dramatic changeover in corporate culture which can be paraphrased bluntly as the `survival of the fittest'. One thing that is clear from all the interviews, unfortunately, is that few working people, and this book is really about working people, have a political clue about what has happened to them and why. Or, moreover, what to do about it. The amount of self-doubt, personal guilt and bafflement expressed in the book shows more clearly than any current theoretical Marxist treatise that I have read why this runaway capitalist system is still in place. Still, if these interviews emphasize that the task to change things may be daunting it nevertheless needs to be done. While the author offers no particular remedy for this growing economic inequality he does perform a service by laying out the problem. It is our task to break the logjam. And given the dominant corporate culture and its ruthless workings the fight will not be pretty.
   



2. "The Disposable American" appropriately touches on many areas outside of, but directly related to lay-offs: sociology, culture, media, politics, public policy, and the psychological condition of those involved.
   
   Lay-offs are an important topic but the way it's presented seems too subtly poignant and explicitly tragic. Within the first couple pages of "The Disposable American" author Uchitelle sets the tone with a term for these millions of layed-off American workers: "victim." The word "victim" is used all-over the spectrum in modern-day America and frankly, it gets tiring. So, layed-off workers are victims? Quite a strong term. I wouldn't refer to them as this. (But I do believe working and middle-class blue and white-collar employees are no longer winners in today's society.) And conditions won't be changing for the better in the short and long-term future. Employees need to adapt and psychologically view themselves as contractors. Contractors, is what we were today. And it's not entirely negative. It can be positive. "You....are not your job." Your self-worth should not be associated with your job title nor tenure in today's work-world.
   
   Economic reality + social engineering. This is they way things are because it's expedient for investors and it's *planned* to be that way. 37 states have At-Will employment laws. U.S. labor laws are the worst in the industrialized world.
   
   One of the many examples in "The Disposable American" is IBM. IBM publicly stated in 1994 that workers who are efficient, loyal, and productive cannot be guaranteed job security at IBM. When thousands were layed-off from IBM they were rehired to work for....IBM....as contractors. The company concluded that workers who fear lay-offs can provide more "adequate" results (page 145). Employees that were retained (not let go) were "shell-shocked" and still afraid of losing their jobs afterward. Even though a Harvard Business School Study specifically concluded the wrong workers were layed-off and the ones retained often weren't (and still aren't today) trained to deal with the new responsibilities and additional workload (page 194).
   
   Increasing immigration is also welcomed. Immigrants are less likely statistically to complain about conditions or labor codes, and provide employers with a large pool or workers at the low end of the pay scale.
   
   Uchitelle's personal sob stories of working stiffs having to leave one mundane dead-end job for another is really nothing new. Staying in the same industry is Old School. Dinosaurs. Do Defined Benefit Pension Programs enslave employees and tie them to a company and industry? Are these workers too lazy or stupid to invest on their own for their future? 401Ks for most are a scam: limited investment choices that especially hurt older contributors and hidden fees that significantly eat into returns the longer a worker stays at the same company, and doesn't roll it over into their own IRA that often have lower expense ratios of their choosing. People don't stay in the same industry and/or with the same company for a long time, and those that do risk having to transition into new gigs unexpectedly in their twenties, 30s, 50s, and beyond.
   
   In this book there are many individual and family stories of personal circumstances. Many personal stories using a person's first name, hometown, and former "career" are elucidated. Then descriptions of the financial and emotional difficulties faced by those who get layed-off/down-sized/riffed are noted. The politically correct corporate euphemism is "Involuntarily separated." <---I like this one.
   
   The Lay-Off Routine Is Well Refined:
   
   Airplane mechanics are important. Their work assures planes fly safely. But their jobs can be contracted (outsourced) inside the U.S. When these mechanics were layed-off en masse they were invited to a hotel and given a seminar to be "counseled out." The speaker told them that credit card and mortgage companies gave "special consideration" to layed-off workers. The counselor held up a sample form letter to creditors, for all to see. The layed-off worker can request a reduction in monthly payments for these debts temporarily. They were instructed to ask for the reduction before they get "60 days behind on a debt." And they were also given the book "Who Moved My Cheese."
   
   Lay-Off expansion and political opportunism of the 1990s:
   
   In the mid-1990s lay-offs transcended from not only the blue collar industries but to the white collar and professional industries. At this time, more media attention was given not only to the lay-offs themselves but *how* people were being let go. CEOs were going public giving news conferences to publicize lay-offs in the hope that their company stock would go up. Political Translation: too many voters were losing their jobs and the Presidential, Congressional, and State elections were only months away in 1996. Pat Buchanan was very successful in tapping into voter anxiety and angst by his protectionist "save-the-jobs" policies.
   
   Factual truths from this book:
   
   1. Lay-offs and lack of job security will continue for several decades or longer.
   
   2. If a layed-off worker gets more training and education they will maintain or increase their current market value. This is statistically false.
   
   3. The savings of laying-off workers will help companies and in the long-run workers will be better off.
   
   The solutions give the layed-off the right to sue, and Uchitelle even advocates taxing people with higher incomes. Like this money will be redirected to the layed-off or pay for retraining, and such? It won't be re-directed, and it should not be. Furthermore, it won't happen and it's not fair.
   
   The index is large, and there are many book titles author Louis
   Uchitelle cited and noted throughout the book. This book is about us. And it's also about you, even if you think you are safe.



3. While the book is well written and contains a number of stories that are worth reading, the only slightly hidden socialist leanings of the author ruin it for me. The key failure that Uchitelle makes is to assume that constancy is a plausible choice.
   
   This is important - Just because it would be NICE for things to always stay the same as they were a decade ago, that doesn't make it feasible. And no amount of assumptions or nostalgia will make it come true. The world is going to change, competitors are going to make doing things the same way for a decade unfeasible, and using expensive labor to compete with cheap labor is going to get very hard to pull off.
   
   Uchitelle bemoans CEOs who use downsizing, restructuring, outsourcing, and layoffs to "Pad the bottom line" when really they're keeping their companies afloat. At the end of the first chapter, he includes a very Scrooge-like framing of the CEO of Stanley works - who brought the firm from floundering against cheaper Asian imports back to profitability - because he talks about the results he achieved in improving net income and earnings for the company (which is, by the way, his job). Uchitelle would like the reader to view this rapacious capitalist as some evil tyrant who lined his own pockets at the expense of those he fired. However, he neglects to consider the alternative scenario.
   
   Would Stanley works REALLY have kept all those fired workers employed into 2006? NO! Stanley would be bankrupt, and EVERYONE would be out of a job. The CEO Uchitelle decries has saved the jobs he could, saved millions in investor capital (Some of which came from the very workers Uchitelle claims to defend through things like 401k), brought jobs and opportunities to developing countries, rescued a brand, and in general saved a company.
   
   It's very easy to demonize corporate leaders by simply assuming they have the option to do nothing, and we'll all live happily ever after. Unfortunately, change happens, capitalism requires a helmet, and we don't live in the magical world of puppy dogs and lollipops where everyone can work the same job forever without facing outside competition. Out here in the real world, the options are (A) - Fire a few people and keep the company profitable, or (B) Fire everyone and close up shop. Do I think that these are the only two choices available every time? No. I also think layoffs are often done poorly, but this book takes a very naive world view to draw child-like conclusions that reak of "layoffs are bad because they make daddy unhappy".



4. I have not received this book. I have notified the book seller. I have not been provided with a UPS tracking number



5. Useful if grim and inconslusive look at another truly American phenomenon: layoffs.
   
   The earlier parts of the book give a background and case study in how layoffs were once more or less an unthinkable last resort to how they're just business as usual these days. Back when businessmen could attempt to care about more than just shareholder value, layoffs were seen as a disgrace. Today, they're the right thing to do, and even the laid off worker can agree with that given the very rational logic that precludes the action in today's theology known as businesss and greed.
   
   Uchitelle uses the example of the Stanley tool company from New Britain, Connecticut. Once a proud local company that hand-made trusty tape measures and tools, it's now the classic corporation of today: global, fiercely competitive, and run by bloodless MBAs who don't understand why anyone would really be surprised by layoffs. If anything, Uchitelle himself, in the tone, is surprised by the surprise.
   
   So why the book? Because, he suggests, layoffs have an impact on people that cannot be measured in Excel. An impact on the individual and collective psyche that probably can't be quantified in any meaningful way, because you can't truly measure hopelessness, despair, and the destruction of people or little parts of them in dollars and cents. All of the economic statistics in the world cannot reveal the true picture of a people and the underlying rage or pacifism that are produced by layoffs.
   
   It used to be different, Uchitelle reminds us. A CEO might walk the floor of the plant and know people. Today, they move the office far away and don't know you, and they don't care.
   
   And nobody cares.

5 comments about The Sky's the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan.

1. Gains takes you inside the history of many of the top buildings in NYC (A.K.A.- good buildings or GBs) as well as a beginning to present time chronicle of the often stuffy co-ops and the new money, free-frawl condo market. From the builders to the star brokers and super famous buyers, you get a real sense of how top end real estate shakes out in the big city.
   
   Interestingly, he visits the market at the turn of the twentieth century and the boom and bust cycles that created massive fortunes and whipped so many out. A super great conversation piece is that in 1903 there were pre construction condo flips going on at a frenzied pace, and how did that end... I will say that after the depression, which was a few cycles later, luxury apartments that sold for $50,000 were on the market for $500. I welcome every opportunity to be reminded of the cyclical nature of real estate.
   
   Talk about name dropping; how's Andy Warhol, Madonna, Babe Ruth wandering the Anasonia in his bathrobe, Ron Perelman, Denis Kozlowski, Donald Trump, Jerry Seinfeld, Donna Karan, Steve Jobs, Bruce Willis, Steve Jobs, Bruce Willis, Steve Martin, Tommy Hilfiger and Henry Kravis.
   
   Also interesting is how zip codes can often peg your social and financial status, your religion or ethnic background, or your sexual preference.
   
   The deal driven super-brokers Dolly Lenz and Michael Shivo shed some light of what it takes to be a top producer in the super competitive NYC market.
   
   Dolly Lenz the top producing broker, who raked in $3 billion in sales started buying studios when she was 25 years old with her husband and within a few years owned 31 studios.
   
   Michael Shivo on what it takes to be a successful broker-at least an average IQ and a strong will to work. "I don't do drugs, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I work 18 hours a day and I don't sleep. I think sleeping is a waste of time. All of the energy that you see is from real estate."
   
   I'm real estate investor myself that went from $0 to $25,000,000+ in holdings in less than 5 years starting with $0, only the equity in my house. I also wrote a book: A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate: A True Story About the Ups And Downs from Wall Street to Real Estate Leading Up to Phenomenal Returns. It's a step by step, play by play of how my partner and I built our real estate company in a way that anyone can immolate.
   
   Good Luck, Happy Reading.
   
   My Blog: bloglines.com/blog/KevinKingston



2. This book was great! Another fascinating look at the New York real estate market and where there is no limit on what you'll pay for a place to live. Very interesting in how those coop boards can bring potential owners to their knees. The book was well written and provided much insight into property ownership and real estate brokers.



3. This is a great read - especially if you've never really understood what the big deal about co-ops v. condos is or even just don't know the difference. The gossipy tidbits in the middle make it interesting, yet it is still fact-filled. Steven Gaines did a great job with this work!



4. My sister rented an apartment in New York City and it was a ruthless process. Never mind that she's a lawyer working on Madison Avenue for an international firm headquartered in London. You can put up with a lot in life but dealing with New York City realtors and brokers is something that you can't be prepared for no matter what you expect. Realtors and brokers like Linda Stein, Dolly Lenz, and even Leona Helmsley except for the fact that she's omitted can shed light on the brutal warfare of getting the condo or co-op apartment. Let's say that you want to live in the River House, Gloria Vanderbilt was denied at the River House on the East River that she sued them. Co-op boards are another story. They determine who lives there. 1 Sutton Place South is a good example, an elder gay couple, successful and popular, applied but would have been rejected anyway because they were either no rich enough or they didn't want their kind of company. Places on Fifth Avenue can be more difficult especially 820 Fifth Avenue where Tommy Hilfiger bought into. The East Side is considered more posh than the West Side and being a celebrity like Madonna wouldn't get you in to a premier building. The West Side is not as brutal but some celebrity buildings like San Remo, the Dakota, Beresford, the Majestic, etc. have more than enough celebrities. Celebrities like Donna Karan and Stephen Spielberg want to renovate as well which can infuriate the boards not to mention the building's other residents. While desirable as the addresses are, the book reminded me how lucky that I don't have to deal with that in my life. I don't need to live with celebrity neighbors who barely spend the time there. I love the chapter on the Ansonia which is a New York institution. If you want to buy a co-op or a condo in New York City, it's harder than you can imagine especially if it's in a premier building like One Sutton Place South. While thinking that New York City would gladly welcome Jewish residents, it's usually the one Jewish resident on the board that vetoes the application of other Jewish applicants. Being a celebrity can be a hindrance when it comes to applying at a premier building, West Side or East Side. While Fifth Avenue wants to maintain it's snobbery, wealth, and upper crustness, Central Park West is home to celebrities and people with new money. If I had to choose a neighborhood, I prefer the West Side or the Greenwich Village where the homes and residents are going through the roof. A lot of celebrities have bought in the West Village which is no longer home to the gay community as it once was. It's become more child-friendly with stores and businesses catering to families. The art world too is being chased from there as well into other areas of the city that are more affordable. The East Village is becoming hip to live there and gentrified like Harlem. I would love to live in New York City but I can't afford to live in New Jersey where I live now.
   A sad footnote because the author Steven Gaines thanked Linda Stein known as broker to the stars. Linda Stein was murdered in her fifth avenue apartment which her personal assistant confessed shortly afterwards. Despite Linda's toughness and ruthfulness, she was indeed a broker to the stars who put up with so much.



5. 
   
   I had no idea that New York's high-end apartment and coop market is a whole world unto itself. There's class / political / socio-economic division and structure (east side vs west side). There are rock star brokers, and there's more money than I could imagine anybody would be willing to spend on a couple of rooms in an apartment building. There's also a little bit of New York history mixed in with the narrative. It's an interesting book. I recommend it.

5 comments about Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics.

1. This is a most insightful book, in which the author convincingly expounds her thesis that the world uses two systems of ethics as systems for the survival of mankind: the commercial system, and the guardian system.
   
   The commercial class lives by production and exchange, primarily by means of honest, binding contracts and voluntary agreements, and where initiative, inventiveness and efficiency are prized, along with industriousness, thrift and investment.
   
   The guardian class is prevalent in governments, benevolent trusts, charity organizations, universities and schools, military and police. They shun trading and exchange, and live by taking, in the form of taxes and donations, and sometimes expropriation. They are dispensers of the good things, in the form of grants and largesse. Guardians issue commands and expect them obeyed, with courage if necessary, which they in turn are subject to themselves, for a hierarchical command structure is honored. And they use force and deception where necessary to accomplish objectives.
   
   The greatest sin, and the cause of all corruption, according to Ms. Jacobs, is when the two systems are merged in one organization. I have read several books on ethics, but this is the first that points out that there are two systems in operation in society. And it explains so much that has been a puzzle for me. For example, we are taught to tell the truth, as in the commercial system of ethics, yet a government will lie in the interests of the state, and a general will try to deceive the enemy, and both expect to be applauded for that. This can be explained only by the distinct systems of morality that guide the guardian class and commercial classes.
   
   The two systems explain the characteristics of nations too. The empire building nation is dominated by a guardian morality, and it guardian class despises the commercial morality. A good example is England, in the past, with its class system and colonial empire that puts business men and women at the bottom. You do not have to read too many Jane Austen or Anthony Trollope novels to become aware of that. To some extent this dominant guardian syndrome lingers in monarchical England to the present day, but the country is being forced into prizing a more commercial morality by an European Union led by successful, commercial-syndrome-dominated republics France and Germany.
   
   In contrast, the growing nation with plenty of territory is dominated by the commercial morality, for example the United States through most of its history, with its strong corporations and industrious commercial class. The U.S., however, is now showing signs of trending more toward a stronger espousing of the guardian morality, as its interests force it to begin some empire building abroad. But even if the commercial ethic still dominates in the United States, the guardian ethic is present and strong, and Jane Jacobs' brilliant proposition explains the never ending conflict between the two.
   
   And we can now see why communism failed. It removed the commercial ethic, and the sanctity of commercial contract. The commercial ethic, by the looks of it, has still not been reestablished in the new Russia, which explains its lack of real economic success in the modern world. I am not knowledgeable enough to dissect Japan with Jacob's thesis.
   
   Her thesis also throws a great deal of light on the thinking of novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand , whose philosophy is explained and dramatized in the novels "Atlas Shrugged" and "Fountainhead". Rand strongly espoused the commercial system of ethics, and viewed the guardian system as closest thing to evil, best eliminated to the extent possible. She did concede that guardian institutions of police, military and courts were a necessary evil, however, to be closely monitored (by the commercial class). This viewpoint probably originated with the dominant, communist, guardian ethic in the violent, disorganized and impoverished Russia that she escaped as a young woman, after the communists confiscated (a 'taking' guardian action) the family business.
   
   But if Jane Jacobs is right, then both systems are necessary. Instead of eliminating the guardian systems, as Ayn Rand seemed to advocate, we simply have to make sure that the guardian class is modest in size, no larger than necessary, and that the two systems of ethics are never allowed to mix. As a footnote, it could be argued that Michael Crichton's recent novel, about environmentalists and global warming, "State of Fear", is really about a conflict between the guardian and commercial classes.
   
   "Systems of Survival" is a must read for anyone interested in what makes the world work.



2. This is a superb, underrated book. Ignore the "sophisticated" naysayers and read it for yourself. There is, page for page, more insight here than you'll find in almost any work of academic philosophy or sociology on the same subjects. It will, of course, strike you as "simplistic" if you're offended by the book's message, its implications, or the unapologetic clarity with which the author defends her thesis. But that's not much of an objection.



3. I was attracted to the author's premise for this book, as I have recently been struggling with the conflicting moral perspectives from which colleagues can view the same issue. But I found the book too confusing, and couldn't find compelling support for the author's hypotheses.
   
   The book is framed as a Socratic dialogue among characters. Although this style seemed plausible, the characters' personalities were not developed enough for me to distinguish them and identify them with their arguments. Overall, the author's plausible premise was not supported clearly by illustration or research and I remain un-persuaded.



4. America was a country about possibilities, freedom, and justice. Today it has descended into a state of imperialism, corruption, with government acting to protect and enforce business interests abroad. This book explains, with one overarching theory, the reasons behind why it happened.
   
   Although people are aware that capitalism is probably not the most efficient system for an economy, most are led to believe that a free market is the most moral and benificial to the freedoms of the individual. Jane Jacobs points out the fatal flaw behind the system and the problems that can arise as a consequence. The genius behind this work is that it was written way before the Bush administration came into power. The author, in seeking to explain the reasons behind minor infractions of corruption, essentially, forecasted the current state of the US government today. The US government, as of right now, is basically Jacobs' theory taken to extreme levels.
   
   If you're interested in politics, economy, or international affairs. This book is a sleeper hit. Also, I wouldn't trust any review before 2003, during that time it was harder to see how her theory had any major relevance to the real world, today, however, the relevance is all too apparent.



5. A timely book for the current election, Jacobs describes the complementary, yet different systems that humans have devised for the political and commercial spheres.
   
   Using a conversational format among a set of characters, the duality is made clear, revealing the opposing rules for each. It serves as a cautionary tale for anyone who wishes to cross over from one to another: beware, what worked previously will precisely not work in the next!

2 comments about Calculus for Business, Economics, and the Social and Life Sciences, Brief Edition.

1. The title says Brief Edition, but the book still weighs in at over 750 pages. Not so brief. Calculus is calculus. However, the book is replete with examples drawn from business, economics and the social sciences. Meant to motivate readers majoring in those fields, and who have found that they need to learn calculus.
   
   The examples are good for that reason. Motivation and relevance are key to learning calculus. Especially if many readers might not have garnered any especial aptitude for maths during their earlier schooling. Lest some of you get offended, let me point out that students who are strong in maths during primary and high school often tilt towards majoring in maths, the physical sciences or engineering in university. For them, motivation in learning maths was rarely a problem. But for others, a book like this can be useful.



2. Book in VERY good condition, nothing written on the inside and no damages on the outside...EXTREMELY happy.

2 comments about Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery.

1. This systems analysis of the sex trade is as much expose, as it is an urgent call for action, or rather for a coordinated full-court press directed at the profits of an immensely profitable interconnected international business. The sex trade just happens to be one of the greatest multinational "continuing criminal enterprises" operating openly as modern day slavery, and thus is one of the most insidious "crimes against humanity" known to our modern times.
   
   The author sets out to paint an accurate picture of the origins of the sex trade, and succeeds by interviewing scores of victims in eight different countries, including the U.S.; demonstrating how it operates worldwide by defining and then diagramming the essential components of the trade; and then in the last chapter, he suggests how best to eradicate the trade: through a coordinated well-funded attack on the profits of brothel owners at all levels.
   
   The anatomy of a typical sex trade is carefully laid out by the author and begins with acquisition; that is to say with the kidnapping of a young woman. This invariably occurs through some form of deceit such as a sale by a family, abduction, seduction through romance, or recruitment by former slaves. Next, the victim is moved to an area where she can be exploited: usually to a country where laws against the sex trade and against slavery are lax, go unenforced or are non-existent. Finally the victim is exploited by being forced to engage in sex with from 20-40 men per day to pay off the debt of her capture and daily maintenance.
   
   Altogether, it is a vicious and insidious hell, in which a woman is typically "used up" in less than five years, and then discarded. Because of the shame, many of those interviewed admitted that they were rejected by their own families and told not to return home. Invariably these "lost souls" end up destitute and with serious health problems, including HIV/AIDS.
   
   The book is a bit technical, but is still quite an eye opener.
   
   Three Stars



2. As a retired academic, I mostly read history and philosophy in my spare time. Upon a friend's suggestion, I have recently read Mr. Siddharth Kara's treatise "sex-trafficking inside the business of modern slavery." It constitutes a first-hand account of a little-noticed business of human bondage and pathos. The author exposed himself to personal danger in attempting interviews with scores of victims spanning the whole range of demographics.
   
   This book deals with three aspects of this world-wide business: the exploitative traffickers, the wrenching servitude of the victims, and the economics of the trade.
   
   The author presents convincing quantitative information to provide a rationale as to why the trafficking business is quite attractive to the brute; while it is useful for lawmakers and NGOs, the narrative is shocking to the public. The sheer volume of this sort of "slavery" is astounding, and the subhuman conditions these victims are forced to live in, is repelling. Reading through some of the situations was nauseating to say the least. In today's affluent world, it is abhorring that spots of utter poverty exist but go unnoticed. More repulsive and dehumanizing is the fact that, on occasion, a father is manipulated into selling his daughter into this servitude.
   
   While contemporary society holds woman as equal to man, and given that Indian thought in particular considers woman as divine, the destitution of these exploited women renders this practice beyond the pale of repugnance. The enablers look like demons, incapable of the remotest human sensibilities; that they manage to go under radar is astounding.
   
   In his rendition, Mr. Kara strikes the right balance between narrative and numbers; there is enough of the latter to portray a clear picture to the common reader and sufficient detail to enable the statistician to derive probabilities and significance. Mr. Kara is to be commended for this brave venture driven by his idealism.
   
   Ram Gollamudi

5 comments about Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World.

1. Dear Friends,
   I have just finished an amazing and inspiring book that I'd like to make you aware of - Small Loans, Big Dreams - by my good friend, colleague, and advisor Alex Counts, President and CEO of the Grameen Foundation. For those of you who may have read his other book - Give Us Credit - you will love catching up with some of those women from Bangladesh and from Chicago he brought alive in 1996. Women like Shandha, the "mother hen" of her credit center whose son became one of the first recipients of Grameen's high education loan and has now completed his master's degree. Or Omiyale and Queenesta, two African-American woman living in Chicago who were part of a solidarity group called Les Papillons (The Butterflies). You'll love getting caught up with how their lives have been evolving as they continue to face the obstacles and bumps in the road that the poor all over the world face.
   Even if you didn't read Give Us Credit, you'll love reading about these women and their struggles now. Alex is an amazing storyteller and you quickly get caught up in their lives as they participate in microfinance programs half way around the world from each other. You see so quickly just how microfinance transforms lives, although not always in the nice, neat way we would like to see it function. Alex is nothing if not honest as he lets his subjects' stories unfold. It is fascinating to see the intertwining of the modifications the Grameen Bank and other microfinance institutions have made over time and the lives of real people as those changes affect their lives and their choices. As Alex says, ". . . their uneven but steady progress has reaffirmed my belief in microfinance, and also my desire to ensure that the model continues to improve and serve the poor better through more responsive products."
   At the same time, this book is not just about these women. Rather, it is fundamentally a book about how Professor Muhammad Yunus and the microfinance movement are changing the world. Throughout the book, Alex provides his own insights into microfinance as it has evolved from the origins of the Grameen Bank to that of a broader social and business movement. After reading the book, you will understand much better why microfinance is today at a crossroads, what the divisions are about, and why Fonkoze in Haiti keeps its focus on the core business of microfinance - reducing poverty - by refining and extending the tools (whether financial, educational or health care related) that it makes available to the poor, wherever they are on their journey out of poverty. This is a big book about small loans that will help you understand the gigantic movement they have spawned. When you get the time, do pick it up and take a peek inside . . . it won't be easy to put it back down.
   Enjoy!
   
   Anne Hastings
   Fonkoze Haiti



2. You might not think that Chicago, U.S.A. and Chittagong, Bangladesh have much in common, but in his book, Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World, Grameen Foundation Director Alex Counts shows that they do. Each region has determined women of strong spirit struggling for their family's survival. Sometimes, all it takes to set them on the path to entrepreneurship is a small bank loan and a small group of like-minded others to support them and hold them accountable.
   
   This idea is the genius of microcredit: banking for people too impoverished to provide the required collateral for a regular bank account. After achieving remarkable success in Bangladesh, where the Grameen Bank is now sustainable, founder Muhammad Yunus turned his attention to developing the system in other countries, including U.S.A. Alex Counts strings the continuing story of Mohammad Yunus's life and work together with fascinating accounts of women in Chicago and Bangladesh, along with brief histories of the two regions. Development professionals and all good-hearted people will be challenged by the stories of government cowardice in attacking poverty and individual courage in overcoming it. Above all, the book sets forth the larger vision of the common good that is so often lost in today's global society.
   
   --Anna H. Bedford
   Little Rock, AR



3. Until recently I considered foreign aid, The World Bank or big private foundations as the ways to assist the world's poor, but Alex Counts changed that. Counts describes an idea too often overlooked by those who are bound by traditional models or who want to hold tight control, but it is an idea too important to miss. An expert in the history and process of providing microfinance loans to the poorest of the world's poor, Counts describes a solution that has been proven to work because it empowers loan recipients rather than makes them dependent on others. The poor as entrepreneurs ... an exciting idea.
   
   In a book about serving the poor, stories alone can be manipulative and facts alone can be lifeless, but Counts combines the two in his engaging, clear description of the history and impact of microfinance. I came away with high respect for Dr. Yunus, the work of the Grameen Bank, and the resourcefulness and courage of the women whose stories he tells. I also finished with new hope that there really are effective ways to break the cycle of poverty for millions.



4. I've been interested in microlending since I first heard to Muhammad Yunus 20 years ago. This is a great story of a great breakthrough by an author who was actually there with Yunus when they rolled this out. If you read the earlier Give Us Credit, this is updated in the personal stories and the worldwide spread of this idea. I loved it.



5. Alex Counts is one of those rare visionaries who also has the gift of storytelling. As you read the histories of the women in this book, you'll be captivated both by Counts' empathetic connection with them and his passion for the work of Grameen. The author is straightforward about the struggles and successes of a movement which has become one of the most powerful weapons against poverty in our time. After reading it, don't be surprised if you start chasing harder after your own big dreams.